Related papers: The Supercooled Universe
Axion-like dark matter whose symmetry breaking occurs after the end of inflation predicts enhanced primordial density fluctuations at small scales. This leads to dense axion minihalos (or miniclusters) forming early in the history of the…
We investigate the thermalization process of the Universe after inflation to determine the evolution of the effective temperature. The time scale of thermalization is found to be so long that it delays the evolution of the effective…
Cosmological moduli generically come to dominate the energy density of the early universe, and thereby trigger an early matter dominated era. Such non-standard cosmological histories are expected to have profound effects on the evolution…
We show that current cosmic acceleration can be explained by an almost massless scalar field experiencing quantum fluctuations during primordial inflation. Provided its mass does not exceed the Hubble parameter today, this field has been…
Beyond Standard Model extensions of QCD could result in quark and gluon confinement occurring well above a temperature of $\sim$GeV. These models can also alter the order of the QCD phase transition. The enhanced production of primordial…
We propose a unified framework that reconciles the stunning success of MOND on galactic scales with the triumph of the LambdaCDM model on cosmological scales. This is achieved through the physics of superfluidity. Dark matter consists of…
QCD axions are a well-motivated candidate for cold dark matter. Cold axions are produced in the early universe by vacuum realignment, axion string decay and axion domain wall decay. We show that cold axions thermalize via their…
We present a new mechanism to deplete the energy density of the QCD axion, making decay constants as high as $f_a \simeq 10^{17}\,\rm{GeV}$ viable for generic initial conditions. In our setup, the axion couples to a massless dark photon…
Theories with radiative symmetry breaking (RSB) lead to first-order phase transitions and the production of gravitational waves as well as primordial black holes if the supercooling period lasted long enough. Here we explain how to…
Visible matter in the current Universe is a consequence of the phase transition of the strong force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). This phase transition has occurred at the Universe temperature around $T_c\simeq 165\,$MeV while it was…
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…
Axion-CMB scenario is an interesting possibility to explain the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by primordial fluctuations of the QCD axion \cite{Iso:2020pzv}. In this scenario, fluctuations of radiations are…
We consider, in general terms, the early thermal evolution of an isolated neutron star, i.e., during the first $10^5$ years after the supernova explosion when the cooling is driven by neutrino emission from the core. It is shown that, if…
For large baryochemical potential, strongly interacting matter might undergo a first order phase transition at temperatures T ~ 100-200 MeV. Within standard cosmology, however, the chemical potential is assumed to be very small leading to a…
We develop a quantum theory of inflaton and its decay product of various gauge boson pairs to investigate the preheating towards thermalized universe. The inflaton decay into gauge-boson pairs is shown to be inevitably accompanied by…
The Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP problem provides a motivated framework rich in cosmological consequence. Thermal axion production is unavoidable if there is a thermal bath at early times. Scattering and decay processes of bath…
A strongly-coupled sector can feature a supercooled confinement transition in the early universe. We point out that, when fundamental quanta of the strong sector are swept into expanding bubbles of the confined phase, the distance between…
The sequence of phase transitions during the hot history of the universe is followed within a phenomenological framework. Particular emphasis is put on the QCD confinement transition, which is at reach under earth laboratory conditions. A…
For the minimal QCD axion model it is generally believed that overproduction of dark matter constrains the axion mass to be above a certain threshold, or at least that the initial misalignment angle must be tuned if the mass is below that…
We study thermalization of the early Universe when the inflaton can decay into the Standard Model (SM) quarks and gluons, using QCD arguments. We describe the possible formation of the thermal plasma of soft gluons and quarks well before…