Effective actions and bubble nucleation from holography

We discuss the computation of the quantum effective action of strongly interacting field theories using holographic duality and its use to determine quasiequilibrium parameters of first-order phase transitions relevant for gravitational wave production. A particularly simple holographic model is introduced, containing only the metric and a free massive scalar field. Despite the simplicity, the model contains a rich phase diagram, including first-order phase transitions at nonzero temperature, due to various multitrace deformations. We obtain the leading terms in the effective action from homogeneous black brane solutions in the gravity dual and linearized perturbations around them. We then employ the effective action to construct bubble and domain wall solutions in the field theory side and study their properties. In particular, we show how the scaling of the effective action with the effective number of degrees of freedom of the quantum field theory determines the corresponding scaling of gravitational wave parameters.

Automated summary

In this paper, we discuss the computation of the quantum effective action for strongly interacting field theories using holographic duality, and its application in determining the quasiequilibrium parameters of first-order phase transitions relevant for gravitational wave production. We introduce a simple holographic model that includes only the metric and a free massive scalar field. Despite its simplicity, the model exhibits a rich phase diagram with first-order phase transitions at nonzero temperature due to various multitrace deformations. By studying homogeneous black brane solutions and linearized perturbations, we obtain the leading terms in the effective action. We then use the effective action to construct bubble and domain wall solutions in the field theory and investigate their properties, particularly how the scaling of the effective action with the effective number of degrees of freedom determines the scaling of gravitational wave parameters.