Limiting majoron self-interactions from gravitational wave experiments**Supported by the Shanghai Municipality, through the grant No. KBH1512299, and by Fudan University, through the grant No. JJH1512105

Abstract

We show how majoron models may be tested/limited in gravitational wave experiments. In particular, the majoron self-interaction potential may induce a first order phase transition, producing gravitational waves from bubble collisions. We dub such a new scenario the violent majoron model, because it would be associated with a violent phase transition in the early Universe. Sphaleron constraints can be avoided if the global is broken at scales lower than the electroweak scale, provided that the B-L spontaneously breaking scale is lower than 10 TeV in order to satisfy the cosmological mass density bound. The possibility of a sub-electroweak phase transition is practically unconstrained by cosmological bounds and it may be detected within the sensitivity of the next generation of gravitational wave experiments: eLISA, DECIGO and BBO. We also comment on its possible detection in the next generation of electron-positron colliders, where majoron production can be observed from the Higgs portals in missing transverse energy channels.