Related papers: Phase Transitions in the Universe
We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…
Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the…
The idea of possible time or space variations of the `fundamental' constants of nature, although not new, is only now beginning to be actively considered by large numbers of researchers in the particle physics, cosmology and astrophysics…
This paper contains a detailed discussion on new cosmic solutions describing the early and late evolution of a universe that is filled with a kind of dark energy that may or may not satisfy the energy conditions. The main distinctive…
The early universe provides an opportunity for quantum gravity to connect to observation by explaining the large-scale structure of the Universe. In the group field theory (GFT) approach, a macroscopic universe is described as a GFT…
The understanding of the primordial mechanism that seeded the cosmic structures we observe today in the sky is one of the major goals in cosmology. The leading paradigm for such a mechanism is provided by the inflationary scenario, a period…
A better understanding of the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe is arguably the most pressing question in cosmology. The most compelling and promising theoretical paradigm, Inflation + Cold Dark Matter, holds that the…
This contribution gives a brief overview of the theoretical ideas underlying our current understanding of the early Universe. Confronting the predictions of the early Universe models with cosmological observations, in particular of the…
Nuclear matter at finite temperature and barion density exhibits several phase transitions that could happen at the early stages of the Universe evolution and could be realized in heavy-ion or hadron-hadron collisions. Microscopic…
Cosmology as an exact physical science is of new date, but it has long roots in the past. This essay is concerned with four important themes in the history of cosmological thought which, if taken together, offer a fairly comprehensive…
We propose a mechanism to have a smooth transition from a pre-Big Bang phase to a standard cosmological phase. Such transition is driven by gravitational production of heavy massive string states that backreact on the geometry to stop the…
An introduction to modern theories for the origin of structure in the Universe is given. After a brief review of the growth of cosmological perturbations in an expanding Universe and a summary of some important observational results, the…
Critical transitions, or large changes in the state of a system after a small change in the system's external conditions or parameters, commonly occur in a wide variety of disciplines, from the biological and social sciences to physics.…
Cosmology now provides unambiguous, quantitative evidence for new particle physics. I discuss the implications of cosmology for supersymmetry and vice versa. Topics include: motivations for supersymmetry; supersymmetry breaking; dark…
For two decades the hot big-bang model as been referred to as the standard cosmology -- and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known that there are fundamental questions that are not answered by the standard cosmology and…
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…
High energy physics aims to understand the fundamental laws of particles and their interactions at both the largest and smallest scales of the universe. This typically means probing very high energies or large distances or using…
This study targets quantum phases which are characterized by topological properties and no associated with the symmetry breaking. We concern ourselves primarily with the transitions among these quantum phases. This type of quantum phase…
Primordial chemistry began, at the recombination epoch, when the adiabatic expansion caused the temperature of the radiation to fall below 4000K. The chemistry of the early Universe involves the elements hydrogen, its isotope deuterium,…
Modern cosmology poses deep and unavoidable questions for fundamental physics. In this plenary talk, delivered in slightly different forms at the {\it Particles and Nuclei International Conference} (PANIC05) in Santa Fe, in October 2005,…