Thermodynamics of hidden sector gaugino condensation in the expanding universe

This work examines the confining-deconfining phase transition in a hidden Yang Mills sector with scale Λ ∼ 1014 GeV appropriate to dilaton stabilization and SUSY-breaking via formation of a gaugino condensate. If the transition is assumed to take place through homogeneous nucleation, then under reasonable assumptions it is found that a critical bubble, formed at a temperature which provides enough supercooling, is not large enough to accomodate an adequate number (≳ 100) of quanta of the confined phase (“hidden hadrons”) to allow a consistent thermodynamic description. Thus, a first order transition in the hidden sector may not be possible in the expanding universe.