A New Origin of the Big Bang from Dark-Sector-Induced Vacuum Decay and Its Gravitational-Wave Signal

Abstract

We propose a novel scenario for the onset of the thermal Big Bang. In this framework, the inflaton transfers its energy exclusively into a dark sector, leaving the Standard Model (SM) sector temporarily trapped in a false vacuum. As the Hubble expansion rate rapidly decreases, the SM phase transition eventually completes, and the standard thermal Big Bang era commences upon the thermalization of the highly energetic bubble walls. We demonstrate that the large Lorentz boost of these bubble walls, combined with their Hubble-scale macroscopic size, generates distinctive gravitational-wave signatures from the SM vacuum decay. This stochastic gravitational-wave background provides a powerful new probe of the early Universe's expansion history, with a present-day energy density fraction that can reach $Ω_{\text{GW}} \sim 3\times10^{-8}$.