Shape of the acoustic gravitational wave power spectrum from a first order phase transition

The authors present the largest numerical simulations to date of first order phase transitions in the early universe, in order to explore the shape of acoustically generated gravitational waves and forecast the prospects for detection with LISA. The latter, a space-based gravitational wave observatory due to launch in about a decade, is an ideal instrument to observe gravitational wave signals from phase transitions in the electroweak era, corresponding to roughly 10 pico-seconds after the big bang.