Bubble wall correlations in cosmological phase transitions

Abstract

We study statistical relationships between bubble walls in cosmological first-order phase transitions. We consider the conditional and joint probabilities for different points on the walls to remain uncollided at given times. We use these results to discuss space and time correlations of bubble walls and their relevance for the consequences of the transition. In our statistical treatment, the kinematics of bubble nucleation and growth is characterized by the nucleation rate and the wall velocity as functions of time. We obtain general expressions in terms of these two quantities, and we consider several specific examples and applications.