Criterion for ultra-fast bubble walls: the impact of hydrodynamic obstruction

Abstract

The Bödeker-Moore thermal friction [1] is usually used to determine whether or not a bubble wall can run away. However, the friction on the wall is not necessarily a monotonous function of the wall velocity and could have a maximum before it reaches the Bödeker-Moore limit. In this paper, we compare the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction, a frictional force that exists in local thermal equilibrium, and the Bödeker-Moore thermal friction. We study the former in a fully analytical way, clarifying its physical origin and providing a simple expression for its corresponding critical phase transition strength above which the driving force cannot be balanced out by the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction. We find that for large parameter space, the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction is larger than the Bödeker-Moore thermal friction, indicating that the conventional criterion for the runaway behavior of the bubble wall may have to be modified. We also explain how to apply efficiently the modified criterion to particle physics models and discuss possible limitations of the analysis carried out in this paper.