Related papers: Cosmological QCD Phase Transition and Dark Matter
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) might have formed in the early Universe as a consequence of the collapse of density fluctuations with an amplitude above a critical value $\delta_{c}$: the formation threshold. Although for a…
Motivated by inflation, the theory of big-bang nucleosynthesis and the quest for a deeper understanding of the fundamental forces and particles, a very successful paradigm for the development of structure in the Universe has evolved. It…
We critically reexamine two possible Dark Matter candidate within the Standard Model. First, we consider the $uuddss$ exa-quark. Its QCD binding energy could be large enough to make it (quasi) stable. We show that the cosmological Dark…
We calculate the mean nucleation distance, $d_{nuc}$, in a first order cosmological quark-hadron phase transition. For homogeneous nucleation we find that self-consistent inclusion of curvature energy reduces $d_{nuc}$ to $\lesssim 2$cm.…
Quantifying the imprints of freeze-in dark matter (DM) on cosmological structures requires knowledge of its phase-space distribution. We investigate how variations in the cosmological history before nucleosynthesis, the "weather" of that…
Supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of Q-balls, some of which can be entirely stable. Both stable and unstable Q-balls can play an important role in cosmology. In particular, Affleck-Dine baryogenesis can…
The gauge/gravity duality, combined with information from lattice QCD, nuclear theory, and perturbative QCD, can be used to constrain the equation of state of hot and dense QCD. I discuss an approach based on the holographic V-QCD model,…
The finite temperature QCD transition for physical quark masses is a crossover. For smaller quark masses a first-order phase transition is expected. Using Symanzik improved gauge and stout improved fermion action for 2+1 flavour staggered…
We consider the Higgs potential in generalizations of the Standard Model. The possibility of the potential to develop two almost degenerate minima is explored. This would imply that QCD matter at two distinct sets of quark masses is…
It has been known for some time that compact stars containing quark matter can masquerade as neutron stars in the range of measured mass and radius, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions on the phases of matter present inside the…
We examine the phase diagram of hadronic matter when the number of colours $N_c$, as well as temperature and density, are varied. We show that in this regime a new percolation phase transition is possible, and examine the implications of…
The three phase transitions - the GUT, the electro-weak and the quark-hadron, which the universe is assumed to have undergone produce very important physical effects if they are assumed to be of first order. It is also important that enough…
Strongly first-order phase transitions, i.e., those with a large order parameter, are characterized by a considerable supercooling and high velocities of phase transition fronts. A very strong phase transition may have important…
In this paper we present a novel mechanism for producing the observed Dark Matter(DM) relic abundance during the First Order Phase Transition (FOPT) in the early universe. We show that the bubble expansion with ultra-relativistic velocities…
Two aspects of the QCD phase diagrams are studied in the limit of a large number of colors: at zero temperature and nonzero density the (non)existence of nuclear matter, and at zero density and nonzero temperature the chiral phase…
In nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies matter is formed with initial energy density significantly exceeding the critical energy density for the transition from hadronic to partonic matter. We will review the…
We study the phase transition from quark-gluon plasma to hadrons in the early universe in the context of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. According to the standard model of cosmology, a phase transition associated with chiral symmetry…
The history of dark universe physics can be traced from processes in the very early universe to the modern dominance of dark matter and energy. Here, we review the possible nontrivial role of strong interactions in cosmological effects of…
As the density of matter increases, atomic nuclei disintegrate into nucleons and, eventually, the nucleons themselves disintegrate into quarks. The phase transitions (PT's) between these phases can vary from steep first order to smooth…
The appearance of quark matter in the centers of compact stars has a number of astrophysical implications. In this contribution I discuss the structure and stability of compact stars, gravitational radiation from non-axisymmetric…