Phase conversion in a weakly first-order quark-hadron transition

Understand

We investigate the process of phase conversion in a thermally-driven {\it weakly} first-order quark-hadron transition.

• This scenario is physically appealing even if the nature of this transition in equilibrium proves to be a smooth crossover for vanishing baryonic chemical potential.
• We construct an effective potential by combining the equation of state obtained within Lattice QCD for the partonic sector with that of a gas of resonances in the hadronic phase, and present numerical results on bubble profiles, nucleation rates and time evolution, including the effects from reheating on the dynamics for different expansion scenarios.
• Our findings confirm the standard picture of a cosmological first-order transition, in which the process of phase conversion is entirely dominated by nucleation, also in the case of a weakly first-order transition.