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Bayesian analysis of the complex singlet model with phase transition gravitational waves

Qingyuan Liang1,2, Ligong Bian3,*, Huai-Ke Guo1,2,†, and Yongcheng Wu4,5,‡

  • *Contact author: lgbycl@cqu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: guohuaike@ucas.ac.cn
  • ‡Contact author: ycwu@njnu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 083004 – Published 2 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/j5l2-hddr

Abstract

We explore the prospects of probing the complex singlet extension of the Standard Model (CxSM) with gravitational waves from the electroweak phase transition. The study establishes a connection of the scalar potential parameters, the thermodynamic properties of the phase transition, with the directly measured stochastic gravitational-wave background in the presence of astrophysical background and foreground. Considering the space-based gravitational-wave detector Taiji, we construct a frequency-domain likelihood that incorporates instrumental and astrophysical noises, and we perform both Fisher-matrix forecasts and Bayesian nested sampling analysis. The comparison of these two approaches demonstrates consistent parameter recovery and highlights the sensitivity of Taiji to millihertz gravitational-wave signals. We further propagate the inferred constraints on the gravitational-wave spectrum back to the underlying CxSM parameters, obtaining meaningful limits on the Higgs self-couplings. The results emphasize the complementarity between gravitational-wave observations and collider measurements, showing that future missions such as Taiji can serve as a powerful probe of electroweak-scale new physics and the dynamical origin of the Higgs sector.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 083004– Published 2 April, 2026
  • Received 8 December 2025
  • Accepted 20 February 2026
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