Related papers: The Cosmological QCD Phase Transition Revisited
Current heavy-ion collision experiments might lead to the discovery of a first-order chiral symmetry breaking phase-transition line, ending in a second-order critical point. Nevertheless, the extraction of information about the equilibrium…
In loop quantum cosmology, the universe avoids a big bang singularity and undergoes an early and short super-inflation phase. During super-inflation, non-perturbative quantum corrections to the dynamics drive an inflaton field up its…
Supersymmetry predicts multiple flat directions, some of which carry a net baryon or lepton number. Condensates in such directions form during inflation and later fragment into Q-balls, which can become the building blocks of primordial…
There is increasing evidence suggesting a discrepancy between the cosmic dipole observed in the number count of distant galaxies and the one derived from the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this study, we investigate the possibility…
We review the role of primordial black holes (PBHs) for illuminating the dark ages of the cosmological evolution and as dark matter candidates. We elucidate the role of phase transitions for primordial black hole formation in the early…
We propose that the cold dark matter (CDM) is composed entirely of quark matter, arising from a cosmic quark-hadron transition. We denote this phase as "quasibaryonic", distinct from the usual baryons. We show that compact gravitational…
Quantum geometry predicts that a universe evolves through an inflationary phase at small volume before exiting gracefully into a standard Friedmann phase. This does not require the introduction of additional matter fields with ad hoc…
Baryon number inhomogeneities may be generated during the epoch when the baryon asymmetry of the universe is produced, e.g. at the electroweak phase transition. The regions with excess baryon number will have a lower temperature than the…
Motivated by cosmological first-order phase transitions we examine the nucleation and evolution of vacuum bubbles in non-vacuum environments. Non-standard backgrounds can be relevant in the context of rapid tunneling processes on the…
Cosmic inflation provides a window to the highest energy densities accessible in nature, far beyond those achievable in any realistic terrestrial experiment. Theoretical insights into the inflationary era and its observational probes may…
We examine the possibility that Universe expansion be made of some $\Lambda CDM$ expansions repeating periodically, separated by some inflation and radiation dominated phases. This so-called $\Lambda CDM$ periodic cosmology is motivated by…
Strongly interacting matter exhibits new phases under extreme conditions. Matter was exposed to such extremes not only in the Early Universe, but also today in the cores of neutron stars, as well as in laboratory experiments at a much…
We discuss a new scenario for early cosmology, when inflationary de Sitter phase dynamically emergent. This genuine quantum effect occurs as a result of dynamics of the topologically nontrivial sectors in a (conjectured) strongly coupled…
We propose a novel mechanism for the production of gravitational waves in the early Universe that originates from the relaxation processes induced by the QCD phase transition. While the energy density of the quark-gluon mean-field is…
We discuss the possibility of forming primordial black holes during a first-order phase transition in the early Universe. As is well known, such a phase transition proceeds through the formation of true-vacuum bubbles in a Universe that is…
It is known for some time that the cosmological bound on the invisible axion scale can be avoided by an early phase of strong QCD. While most approaches rely on theories where the strong coupling constant is determined through the…
One of the targets of future Cosmic Microwave Background and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements is to improve the current accuracy in the neutrino sector and reach a much better sensitivity on extra dark radiation in the Early…
In heavy ion collision experiments as well as in neutron stars, both baryon and isospin chemical potentials are different from zero. In particular, the regime of small isospin chemical potential is phenomenologically important. Using a…
At high baryon number density, it has been proposed that a new phase of QCD matter controls the physics. This matter is confining but can have densities much larger than $\Lambda^3_{QCD}$ QCD. Its existence is argued from large Nc…
This paper consider an universe dominated by baryonic matter, radiation and a nonminimally coupled massive scalar field under the action of a symmetry breaking potential. Inflation occurs naturally with appropriated slow-roll values. The…