GROWTH OF BUBBLES IN COSMOLOGICAL PHASE-TRANSITIONS

We study how bubbles grow after the initial nucleation event in generic first-order cosmological phase transitions characterized by the values of the latent heat L, interface tension sigma, and correlation length xi, and driven by a scalar order parameter phi. Equations coupling phi(t, x) and the fluid variables v(t,x),T(t,x) and depending on a dissipative constant rare derived and solved numerically in the (1 + 1)-dimensional case starting from a slightly deformed critical bubble configuration phi(0,x). The parameters L, sigma, xi corresponding to QCD and electroweak phase transitions are chosen and the whole history of the bubble with the formation of combustion and shock fronts is computed as a function of GAMMA. Both deflagrations and detonations can appear depending on the values of the parameters. Reheating due to collisions of bubbles is also computed.