First-order phase transition and fate of false vacuum remnants

Understand

False vacuum remnants in first-order phase transitions in the early Universe can form compact objects which may constitute dark matter.

• Such remnants form because particles develop large mass gaps between the two phases and become trapped in the old phase.
• We focus on remnants generated in a class of models with trapped dark sector particles, trace their development, and determine their ultimate fate.
• Depending on model and phase transition parameters, the evolutionary endpoint of these remnants can be primordial black holes, Fermi-balls, Q-balls, or thermal balls, and they all have the potential to constitute some portion or the whole of dark matter within a broad mass range.