Probing Physics Beyond the Standard Model with Cosmological Phase Transition and Gravitational Waves

Abstract: Primordial gravitational waves from a first order cosmological phase transition has become a new window for probing physics beyond the standard model and can complement current direct searches at the energy and intensity frontier. Especially important is the possibility of a first order electroweak phase transition, which plays a central role in generating the observed baryon asymmetry in the universe in electroweak baryogenesis. In this talk I will review recent developments of the theoretical modelling and numerical simulations of the gravitational wave production during a first order cosmological phase transition, and experimental searches of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. I will further show with examples that there generically exists a complementarity between collider and gravitational wave measurements in probing physics beyond the standard model.