Events

Date: 17 March 2026   Time: 14:30 - 15:30

Location: MB503

NB: Pre seminar for non experts starts at 2pm, main talk 2.30pm

Title: Inhomogeneous static black branes as critical bubbles in phase transitions

Abstract: First-order phase transitions in the early Universe or in neutron stars can leave observable gravitational wave imprints. But predicting these signals requires precise understanding of bubble dynamics and, in particular, the nucleation of critical bubbles of the stable phase within a metastable plasma. Using holography, I present a fully microscopic description of these bubbles in a strongly coupled four-dimensional gauge theory at finite temperature. In the gravitational dual, the bubbles appear as static, inhomogeneous and unstable black-brane solutions featuring a localized horizon deformation. I will outline the construction of these solutions and show how they allow the nucleation rate to be extracted across an entire metastable branch. Time permitting, I will also compare this rate—and other microscopic properties—with those obtained from an effective field-theory description.