Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 7, 2025

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Implications for First-Order Cosmological Phase Transitions from the Third LIGO-Virgo Observing Run
Alba Romero1, Katarina Martinovic2, Thomas A Callister3
1Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract:
We place constraints on the normalized energy density in gravitational waves from first-order strong phase transitions using data from Advanced LIGO and Virgo's first, second, and third observing runs. First, adopting a broken power law model, we place 95% confidence level upper limits simultaneously on the gravitational-wave energy density at 25 Hz from unresolved compact binary mergers, Ω_{CBC}<6.1×10^{-9}, and strong first-order phase transitions, Ω_{BPL}<4.4×10^{-9}. The inclusion of the former is necessary since we expect this astrophysical signal to be the foreground of any detected spectrum. We then consider two more complex phenomenological models, limiting at 25 Hz the gravitational-wave background due to bubble collisions to Ω_{pt}<5.0×10^{-9} and the background due to sound waves to Ω_{pt}<5.8×10^{-9} at 95% confidence level for phase transitions occurring at temperatures above 10^{8} GeV.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Transitions
Phase Diagram
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...
Phase Diagrams
First Order Systems
When a first-order system is subjected to a unit-step input, its response is characterized by its transfer function. By applying the Laplace transform of the unit-step input to the transfer function, expanding the...
Second Order systems II

