近日，芬兰赫尔辛基大学Yago Bea团队研究了失稳引力波。这一研究成果发表在2025年11月17日出版的《高能物理杂志》上。

研究组揭示了一种宇宙学一级热相变中引力波产生的新机制。这类相变通常被认为是通过亚稳相中稳定相泡的成核过程实现的。然而，若成核速率被充分抑制，宇宙可能沿亚稳分支一直过冷直至进入失稳区域。

在此情况下，相变通过不稳定模式的指数增长以及后续相域的形成、合并与弛豫过程进行。研究组运用全息原理追踪了强耦合四维规范理论中这一过程的实时演化，并计算出相应的引力波能谱。此外还探讨了在失稳动力学过程之前可能存在热暴胀阶段的可能性。

附：英文原文

Title: Spinodal Gravitational Waves

Author: Bea, Yago, Casalderrey-Solana, Jorge, Giannakopoulos, Thanasis, Jansen, Aron, Krippendorf, Sven, Mateos, David, Sanchez-Garitaonandia, Mikel, Zilho, Miguel

Issue&Volume: 2025-11-17

Abstract: We uncover a new gravitational-wave production mechanism in cosmological, first-order, thermal phase transitions. These are usually assumed to proceed via the nucleation of bubbles of the stable phase inside the metastable phase. However, if the nucleation rate is sufficiently suppressed, then the Universe may supercool all the way down the metastable branch and enter the spinodal region. In this case the transition proceeds via the exponential growth of unstable modes and the subsequent formation, merging and relaxation of phase domains. We use holography to follow the real-time evolution of this process in a strongly coupled, four-dimensional gauge theory and compute the resulting gravitational-wave spectrum. We discuss the possibility that the spinodal dynamics may be preceded by a period of thermal inflation.

DOI: 10.1007/JHEP11(2025)093

Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP11(2025)093