Speaker
Description
The Sound Shell Model provides a computationally efficient way of calculating the gravitational wave spectra of first-order cosmological phase transitions, reproducing the results of lattice simulations for intermediate strength transitions. The Sound Shell Model has been encapsulated in the Python-based simulation framework PTtools, which enables easy generation of the gravitational wave spectra. Using PTtools one can simulate hundreds of spectra in a matter of minutes on a laptop. This enables charting the full parameter space.
The vast majority of existing simulations have been based on the bag model equation of state, which assumes the ultrarelativistic sound speed $c_s = \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$. As the latest addition, PTtools has been extended to include support for arbitrary equations of state and therefore for a temperature- and phase-dependent sound speed $c_s(T,\phi)$, extending the simulations beyond the ultrarelativistic assumption of the bag model.
In addition to PTtools, we have developed the web-based plotting utility
PTPlot, which makes generating the gravitational wave spectra possible through a web browser. Integrating PTtools with PTPlot enables easy access to the full Sound Shell Model for the research community.
