Related papers: Thermal phase transitions in cosmology
We discuss the status of thermal model descriptions of particle ratios in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energy. An alternative to the ``Cleymans-Redlich'' interpretation of the freeze-out trajectory is given in…
The construction and analysis of 3d effective theories for the description of the thermodynamics of the cosmological electroweak phase transition are reviewed. For the Standard Model and for the MSSM with stops somewhat heavier than the…
A unified description of i) classical phase transitions and their remnants in finite systems and ii) quantum phase transitions is presented. The ensuing discussion relies on the interplay between, on the one hand, the thermodynamic concepts…
A concise introduction is given to the standard model, including the structure of the QCD and electroweak Lagrangians, spontaneous symmetry breaking, experimental tests, and problems.
We determine the nature of the QCD transition using lattice calculations for physical quark masses. Susceptibilities are extrapolated to vanishing lattice spacing for three physical volumes, the smallest and largest of which differ by a…
First-order phase transitions exist in many models beyond the Standard Model and can generate detectable stochastic gravitational waves for a strong one. Using the cosmological observables in big bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave…
We present a general introduction to the non-zero temperature dynamic and transport properties of low-dimensional systems near a quantum phase transition. Basic results are reviewed in the context of experiments on the spin-ladder…
I make a brief review about the QCD phases and the equation of state inferred from the neutron star data. Along the temperature axis at low baryon density, the QCD phase transition is a smooth crossover, and it is a natural extension of our…
The Standard Model and its extensions predict multiple phase transitions in the early universe. In addition to the electroweak phase transition, one or several of these could occur at energies close to the weak scale. Such phase transitions…
We give a brief overview on the successes and theoretical problems of the Standard Model and discuss the basics of low-scale supersymmetry. We also address some of recent proposals for physics beyond the Standard Model and the connection to…
The standard model of particle physics is analyzed for the case of a Higgs potential not favoring spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking to gain insight into the physics of the standard model. Electroweak breaking still takes place, and…
In this paper we discuss the QCD phase-transitions in the nontopological soliton model of quark confinement and explore possible astrophysical consequences. Our key idea is to look at quark stars (which are believed to exist since the quark…
The most important recent results in the theory of phase transitions and quantum effects in quantum anharmonic crystals are presented and discussed. In particular, necessary and sufficient conditions for a phase transition to occur at some…
I discuss recent developments in lattice QCD thermodynamics on the nature of the transition at finite temperature and density, equation of state, screening of static charges and meson spectral functions at high temperatures.
We introduce the topic of dynamical breaking of the electroweak symmetry and its link to unparticle physics and cosmology. The knowledge of the phase diagram of strongly coupled theories plays a fundamental role when trying to construct…
If cosmic strings are present at the electroweak phase transition, they can act as seeds on which bubbles of true vacuum nucleate. We explore the nature of such a phase transition, in particular the wall velocity and thickness of the…
We discuss the consequences of possible sign changes of the $Q$-function which measures the energy transference between dark energy and dark matter. We investigate this scenario from a holographic perspective to modeling the dark energy by…
We study the possibility of relaxing the cosmological bound on the Higgs mass coming from the requirement of non-erasure of the baryon asymmetry by sphalerons. After reviewing the Standard Model case we obtain this bound in two extensions…
I discuss some central issues in particle physics which are potentially relevant to cosmology. I first briefly review the present (glorious) experimental status of the Standard Model, emphasizing that it provides a firm foundation both for…
This Chapter introduces QCD at finite temperature and density. We first present the formulation of the thermal theory in the Euclidean path integral formalism. We then describe how the strong dynamics at high temperature can be inspected…