Related papers: From Little Bangs to the Big Bang
We discuss the production of primordial black holes in an early matter dominated era, which typically takes place in string inspired early universe cosmological models. In particular, we consider a pre-big bang scenario (extending previous…
The "dark age" of the Universe is generally pointed out as the period between the recombination epoch and the horizon of current observations (z=5-6). The arrow of time in the cosmic history describes the progression from simplicity to…
The transition between the nearly smooth initial state of the Universe and its clumpy state today occurred during the epoch when the first stars and low-luminosity quasars formed. For Cold Dark Matter cosmologies, the radiation produced by…
It is believed that there may have been a large number of black holes formed in the very early universe. These would have quantised masses. A charged ``elementary black hole'' (with the minimum possible mass) can capture electrons, protons…
The old dream of integrating into one the study of micro and macrocosmos is now a reality. Cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics intersect in a scenario (but still not a theory) of cosmic structure formation and evolution called…
We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, as…
We investigate a cosmological scenario in which the dark matter particles can be created during the evolution of the Universe. By regarding the Universe as an open thermodynamic system and using non-equilibrium thermodynamics, we examine…
More than 90% of matter in the Universe could be composed of heavy particles, which were non-relativistic, or 'cold', when they froze-out from the primordial soup. I will review current searches for these hypothetical particles, both via…
One of the most striking examples for the production of particles out of the quantum vacuum due to external conditions is cosmological particle creation, which is caused by the expansion or contraction of the Universe. Already in 1939,…
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) provide complementary probes of the early evolution of the Universe and of its particle content. Neutrinos play important roles in both cases, influencing the…
Our knowledge of the equation of state of the quark gluon plasma has been continuously growing due to the experimental results from heavy ion collisions, due to recent astrophysical measurements and also due to the advances in lattice QCD…
The question of first-cause has troubled philosophers and cosmologists alike. Now that it is apparent that our universe began in a Big Bang explosion, the question of what happened before the Big Bang arises. Inflation seems like a very…
In the inflationary scenario all the matter constituting the universe was created from the process of reheating after inflation. Recent development of the theory of reheating is briefly reviewed. The list of topics includes elementary…
We investigate the idea that the universe before the Big Bang is the $CPT$ reflection of the universe after the bang, both classically and quantum mechanically, so that the universe does {\it not} spontaneously violate $CPT$. We show how…
The evidence is that the mass of the universe is dominated by an exotic nonbaryonic form of matter largely draped around the galaxies. It approximates an initially low pressure gas of particles that interact only with gravity, but we know…
The cosmological abundance of nucleons determined from considerations of Big Bang nucleosynthesis allegedly provides compelling evidence for non-nucleonic dark matter. Recent developments in measurements of primordial light element…
I review recent progress in developing a complete dynamical model for the evolution of the Little Bang fireballs created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and using the model to extract the transport properties and initial density…
This review will be concerned with our knowledge of extended matter under the governance of strong interaction, in short: QCD matter. Strictly speaking, the hadrons are representing the first layer of extended QCD architecture. In fact we…
After cosmic inflation, the universe is cold and almost empty. Thus, the inflation field should decay to the particles for BBN through the so-called reheating process. Later, the matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter are produced. In…
The properties of nearby galaxies that can be observed in great detail suggest that a better theory rather than cold dark matter (CDM) would describe in a better way a mechanism by which matter is more rapidly gathered into large-scale…