Related papers: The background field method applied to cosmologica…

We discuss the difficulties that background independent theories based on quantum geometry encounter in deriving general relativity as the low energy limit. We follow a geometrogenesis scenario of a phase transition from a pre-geometric…

Heterogeneous nucleation is central to many familiar first-order phase transitions such as the freezing of water and the solidification of metals, and it can also play a crucial role in cosmology. We examine nucleation seeded by preexisting…

Existence and properties of the electroweak phase transition in the early universe depend strongly on the mass of the Higgs scalar M_H. There is presumably no true symmetry restoration at high temperature. Nevertheless, a first order phase…

We propose that the solution to the cosmological vacuum energy puzzle may come from the infrared sector of the effective theory of gravity, where the impact of the trace anomaly is of upmost relevance. We proceed by introducing two…

We consider a cosmological setup with the inflaton field in the presence of a redshift dependent Lorentz-violating time-like background to address the inflationary regime and other phases of the Universe. We also show that the regime of…

We consider a perfectly homogeneous, isotropic and spatially flat universe which undergoes a sudden phase transition producing topological defects. We assume that these defects form a coherent network which scales like the background…

These lecture notes provide a relatively self-contained introduction to field theoretic methods employed in the study of classical and quantum phase transitions.

Current cosmological data seem to show that dark energy is evolving in time and that it possibly crossed the phantom divide in the past. So far the only theories that lead to such a behavior involve a non-trivial coupling between dark…

A brief review of the modern state of quantum cosmology is presented as a theory of quantum initial conditions for inflationary scenario. The no-boundary and tunneling states of the Universe are discussed as a possible source of probability…

Treating the gravitational field as a dynamical field, we study the spontaneous symmetry breaking induced by a scalar field under its self-interaction and non-minimal interaction with gravity in four dimensional space-time. In particular,…

The effective field theory approach to high temperature field theory can be used to study the phase transition in theories with spontaneously broken symmetry. I construct a sequence of two effective three--dimensional field theories which…

In recent years, quantum phase transitions have attracted the interest of both theorists and experimentalists in condensed matter physics. These transitions, which are accessed at zero temperature by variation of a non-thermal control…

A mathematical model of the Universe evolution, based on asymmetric doublet of classical and phantom dcalar Higgs fields with a kinetic connection between the components, has been constructed and studied. A detailed qualitative analysis was…

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…

Despite their tremendous successes, modern-day cosmology and particle physics harbor a variety of unresolved mysteries. Two of the biggest are the origin of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and the existence and nature of dark matter.…

Symmetry-breaking quantum phase transitions play a key role in several condensed matter, cosmology and nuclear physics theoretical models. Its observation in real systems is often hampered by finite temperatures and limited control of the…

Time-symmetric cosmological theories, in which the initial and final states are arranged to have similar features or are independently fixed, have been quite extensively discussed in the literature. However, a more general and perhaps more…

We investigate the transition from second to first order systems. This transforms configuration space into phase space and hence introduces noncommutativity in the former. Quantum mechanically, the transition may be described in terms of…

We study the thermal phase transitions of a generic real scalar field, without a $Z_2$-symmetry, referred to variously as an inert, sterile or singlet scalar, or $\phi^3+\phi^4$ theory. Such a scalar field arises in a wide range of models,…

We provide a description of phase transitions at finite temperature in strongly coupled field theories using holography. For this purpose, we introduce a general class of gravity duals to superconducting theories that exhibit various types…