Cosmic Strings at the Electroweak Phase Transition

Abstract

If cosmic strings are present at the electroweak phase transition, they can act as seeds on which bubbles of true vacuum nucleate. We explore the nature of such a phase transition, in particular the wall velocity and thickness of the bubbles. {}From the viewpoint of electroweak baryogenesis, adiabatic conditions exist in the expanding bubble walls, and such models of baryogenesis can be successfully applied. In the present mechanism, the nature of the electroweak phase transition is insensitive to the other details of the model, thus reducing the uncertainties in the estimate of net baryon asymmetry.