How fast does the WallGo? A package for computing wall velocities in first-order phase transitions

A bstract WallGo is an open-source software designed to compute the bubble wall velocity in first-order cosmological phase transitions. Additionally, it evaluates the energy budget available for generating gravitational waves. The main part of WallGo, built in Python, determines the wall velocity by solving the scalar-field(s) equation of motion, the Boltzmann equations and energy-momentum conservation for the fluid velocity and temperature. WallGo also includes two auxiliary modules: WallGoMatrix, which computes matrix elements for out-of-equilibrium particles, and WallGoCollision, which performs higher-dimensional integrals for Boltzmann collision terms. Users can implement custom models by defining an effective potential and specifying a list of out-of-equilibrium particles and their interactions. As the first public software to compute the wall velocity including out-of-equilibrium contributions, WallGo improves the precision of the computation compared to common assumptions in earlier computations. It utilises a spectral method for the deviation from equilibrium and collision terms that provides exponential convergence in basis polynomials, and supports multiple out-of-equilibrium particles, allowing for Boltzmann mixing terms. WallGo is tailored for non-runaway wall scenarios where leading-order coupling effects dominate friction. While this work introduces the software and the underlying theory, a more detailed documentation can be found in https://wallgo.readthedocs.io .

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of High Energy Physics
Published
2025-04-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep04(2025)101
Citations
22
Primary Topic
High-Energy Particle Collisions Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
41.14

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article

How fast does the WallGo? A package for computing wall velocities in first-order phase transitions

J. Hirvonen, Philipp Schicho, Lauri Niemi, Benoit Laurent et al.
22 citations
Journal of High Energy Physics
High-Energy Particle Collisions Research
41.14
article

How fast does the WallGo? A package for computing wall velocities in first-order phase transitions

J. Hirvonen, Philipp Schicho, Lauri Niemi, Benoit Laurent, Jorinde van de Vis, Oliver Gould, Andreas Ekstedt
article en
22 citations

Abstract

A bstract WallGo is an open-source software designed to compute the bubble wall velocity in first-order cosmological phase transitions. Additionally, it evaluates the energy budget available for generating gravitational waves. The main part of WallGo, built in Python, determines the wall velocity by solving the scalar-field(s) equation of motion, the Boltzmann equations and energy-momentum conservation for the fluid velocity and temperature. WallGo also includes two auxiliary modules: WallGoMatrix, which computes matrix elements for out-of-equilibrium particles, and WallGoCollision, which performs higher-dimensional integrals for Boltzmann collision terms. Users can implement custom models by defining an effective potential and specifying a list of out-of-equilibrium particles and their interactions. As the first public software to compute the wall velocity including out-of-equilibrium contributions, WallGo improves the precision of the computation compared to common assumptions in earlier computations. It utilises a spectral method for the deviation from equilibrium and collision terms that provides exponential convergence in basis polynomials, and supports multiple out-of-equilibrium particles, allowing for Boltzmann mixing terms. WallGo is tailored for non-runaway wall scenarios where leading-order coupling effects dominate friction. While this work introduces the software and the underlying theory, a more detailed documentation can be found in https://wallgo.readthedocs.io .

Journal of High Energy PhysicsVol. 2025(4)
University of Geneva (CH), Uppsala University (SE), University of Helsinki (FI), University of Nottingham (GB), McGill University (CA), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH)
National Science Foundation, Strong, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Vetenskapsrådet, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
High-Energy Particle Collisions Research
41.14
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