https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05842-4
Regular Article
Gravitational echoes of Majorana neutrons and baryon number breaking
1
Center for Theoretical Physics, College of Physics Science and Technology, Sichuan University, 610065, Chengdu, China
2
Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati INFN, Frascati, Rome, Italy
Received:
1
November
2024
Accepted:
14
November
2024
Published online:
5
December
2024
We discuss how a gravitational waves stochastic background (GWSB) from early cosmology can be generated through the spontaneous breaking of a global baryon number symmetry in a seesaw mechanism for a Majorana neutron. A new baryon-charged complex scalar field, potentially associated with a baryonic Majoron or Baryo-Majoron, can undergo a strong first-order phase transition (FOPT) induced by thermal corrections from a new heavy fermion field, which plays the role of a right-handed (RH) neutron. The implications for gravitational wave phenomenology and the search for neutron–antineutron transitions are explored. We also present considerations on the possible interplay of QCD phase transitions, fuzzy six-quark condensates, and QCD axions as an alternative mechanism for 
oscillations and FOPTs. In this latter scenario, the B-Majoron would be considered a composite pseudo-particle rather than a fundamental new field.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
