The relic abundance of heavy stable particles charged under a confining gauge group can be depleted by a second stage of annihilations near the deconfinement temperature. This proceeds via the formation of quarkonia-like states, in which the heavy pair subsequently annihilates. The size of the quarkonium formation cross section was the subject of some debate. We estimate this cross section in a simple toy model. The dominant process can be viewed as a rearrangement of the heavy and light quarks, leading to a geometric cross section of hadronic size. In contrast, processes in which only the heavy constituents are involved lead to mass-suppressed cross sections. These results apply to any scenario with bound states of sizes much larger than their inverse mass, such as U(1) models with charged particles of different masses, and can be used to construct ultra-heavy dark-matter models with masses above the naïve unitarity bound. They are also relevant for the cosmology of any stable colored relic.
These proceedings are dedicated to Miklos Gyulassy's 70$^{\rm th}$ birthday. In his long and distinguished career he has made seminal contributions to many areas of heavy ion theory, including early papers on quarkonium phenomenology in fixed-target heavy ion experiments. Theoretical and experimental studies of the $J/ψ$ and $Υ$ states have evolved considerably in the past decades, and I describe a recent generalization of non-relativistic Quantum Chromodynamics to include interactions in a generic nuclear medium. NRQCD with Glauber gluons aims to provide a universal microscopic description of…
In the early stages of heavy-ion collisions, the hot QCD matter expands more longitudinally than transversely. This imbalance causes the system to become rapidly colder in the longitudinal direction and a local momentum anisotropy appears. In this paper, we study the heavy-quarkonium spectrum in the presence of a small plasma anisotropy. We work in the framework of pNRQCD at finite temperature. We inspect arrangements of non-relativistic and thermal scales complementary to those considered in the literature. In particular, we consider temperatures larger and Debye masses smaller than the bindi…
Electroweak vacuum transition processes (sphalerons) in the early Universe provide a possible explanation of the baryon asymmetry. Anomaly theory suggests that these electroweak baryon number non-conserving processes are accompanied by the formation of a ``topological condensate'' which may remain in the Universe that we observe today.
In the early universe, evaporating black holes heat up the surrounding plasma and create a temperature profile around the black hole that can be more important than the black hole itself. As an example, we demonstrate how the hot plasma surrounding evaporating black holes can efficiently produce monopoles via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. In the case where black holes reheat the universe, reheat temperatures above $\sim 500$ GeV can already lead to monopoles overclosing the universe.
In the Big Bang scenario, the early Universe is characterized by the {\it particle era}, i.e. a Universe made of particles. This period connects both scales of fundamental physics: infinitesimally small and infinitely large. So, particle physics and in particular experimental programs at accelerators can bring valuable inputs for the understanding of the early Universe and its evolution. These proceedings discuss the impact of the Quantum ChromoDynamics phase transition experienced by the {\it particle era} in the expanding Universe, which is connected to the study of the Quark-Gluon Plasma pr…
I study the post-inflation oscillation and decay of light coherent scalar field condensates that may develop during an inflationary phase of the universe. In particular, the light scalars studied are a composition of the scalar particles of a supersymmetric theory which correspond to the flat directions of the theory's scalar potential. Some toy models that possess supersymmetric flat directions are presented and numerical solutions for the evolution of the scalar fields are obtained. Both analytic and numeric results suggest that such condensates, if they existed in the early universe, can de…
Neutrino asymmetry generation from active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early Universe has different important cosmological effects. We discuss its basic features and present recent results on the borders of the generation for mixing angles $\sin^2 2θ_0\leq 10^{-7}$.
The standard theoretical estimation of the thermal dark matter abundance may be significantly altered if properties of dark matter particles in the early universe and at the present cosmological epoch differ. This may happen if, e.g., a cosmological phase existed in the early universe during which dark matter particles were temporarily unstable and their abundance was reduced through their decays. We argue that a large class of microscopic theories which are rejected due to the dark matter overproduction, may actually be viable theories if certain macroscopic conditions were satisfied in the e…
The Saha equation follows from thermal equilibrium of matter and radiation. We discuss this problem of equilibrium in the early universe, when matter consists mostly of electrons, protons and hydrogen atoms. Taking H-atoms in their ground state only and applying the real time formulation of thermal field theory, we calculate the difference of ionization and recombination rates, which controls the equilibration of H-atoms. This rate is compared with the expansion rate of the universe at different temperatures.
Lepton asymmetry generated in the early universe by neutrino oscillations into sterile partners is calculated. Kinetic equations are analytically reduced to a simple form that permits an easy numerical treatment. Asymptotic values of the asymmetry are at the level of 0.2-0.3 and are reasonably close to those obtained by other groups, though the approach to asymptotics in some cases is noticeably slower. No chaoticity is observed.
We review the current issues of nonequilibrium phase transitions, in particular, in the early universe. Phase transitions cannot maintain thermal equilibrium and become nonequilibrium when the thermal relaxation time scale is greater than the dynamical time scale. Nonequilibrium phase transitions would have happened in certain evolution stages of the early universe because the rapid expansion quenched matter fields. We apply the recently introduced Liouville-von Neumann method, another canonical method, to nonequilibrium phase transitions in the Minkowski spacetime and find the scaling behavio…
Formation time of heavy quarkonia in a homogeneous magnetic field is analyzed by using a phenomenological ansatz of the vector current correlator. Because the existence of a magnetic field mixes vector quarkonia ($J/ψ$, $ψ^\prime$) and their pseudoscalar partners ($η_c$, $η_c^\prime$), the properties of the quarkonia can be modified through such a spin mixing. This means that the formation time of quarkonia is also changed by the magnetic field. We show the formation time of vector quarkonia is delayed by an idealized constant magnetic field, where the formation time of the excited state becom…
We calculate numerically the electrical conductivity $σ$, heat conductivity $κ$ and shear viscosity $η$ of the hot plasma present in the early universe for the temperature interval $1\MeV\lsim T\lsim 10\GeV$. We use the Boltzmann collision equation to compute all the scattering matrix elements and regulate them by the thermal masses of the $t$- and $u$-channel particles. No leading order approximation is needed because of the numerical integration routines used.
The primordial nucleosinthesys of the element can be influenced by the transitions of phase that take place after the Big Bang, such as the QCD transition. In order to study the effect of this phase transition, in this work we compute the time evolution of thermodynamical quantities of the early universe, focusing on temperature and energy density fluctuations, by solving the relevant equations of motion using as input the lattice QCD equation of state to describe the strongly interacting matter in the early universe plasma. We also study the effect of a primordial strong magnetic field by mea…
We examine the process of formation of the gaugino condensation within a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio type approach. We construct an effective Lagrangian description for the gaugino condensation which include a Weyl compensator superfield whose vacuum expectation value is related to the gaugino condensation.
Primordial magnetic fields present between the eras of neutrino decoupling and of positron-electron annihilation can lead to the emission of neutrino-anti neutrino pairs or axions by electrons in excited Landau levels, thereby changing the electron energy spectrum. The rate is calculated and shown to not affect significantly the standard Big Bang picture.
In a recent publication, we suggested a mechanism for obtaining dynamical CP violation in the early Universe based on the out-of-equilibrium evolution of complex scalar fields. In this paper, we suggest several ways of transferring the CP asymmetry from the scalar sector to the leptonic sector. In particular, we point out how a ``transient MNS(P) matrix'' can generate an asymmetry between fermions and anti-fermions directly.
We report that the hypothesis that the upper bound on the axion decay constant can be moved up beyond $10^{12}$ GeV in models with a stronger QCD in the early universe is not realized. This proof is possible by studying the superpotential in the dual model and obtaining the form of the axion potential respecting the original global symmetries.
The interactions of the neutrini and antineutrini amongst themselves, as well as the interactions of these particles with the electrons and the positrons, are of interest in simulations of the early Universe and in studies of the processes involving compact stars. The objective in this paper is to create a reliable source of information regarding the differential and total cross sections of these interactions; expressions for these observables will be obtained using standard methodology. A number of relevant discrepancies in the literature will be addressed.
We consider the effective mass-squared in the early Universe, of a scalar field which has only Planck-suppressed couplings with light fields and whose true mass is less than the Hubble parameter $H$. A detailed investigation shows that the effective mass-squared generically is of order $\pm H^2$ during inflation and matter-domination, but much smaller during radiation domination. We consider the special circumstances under which the mass-squared may be much bigger or much smaller than the generic value.
The 511 keV gamma emission from the galactic core may originate from a high concentration ($\sim 10^{22}$) of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the core each of whose Hawking radiation includes $\sim 10^{21}$ positrons per second. The PBHs we consider are taken as near the lightest with longevity greater than the age of the universe (mass $\sim 10^{12}$ kg; Schwarzschild radius $\sim 1$ fm). These PBHs contribute only a small fraction of cold dark matter, $Ω_{PBH} \sim 10^{-8}$. This speculative hypothesis, if confirmed implies the simultaneous discovery of Hawking radiation and an early univer…
I review the construction of the Exact Parity or Mirror Matter Model and explain how it solves the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. The oscillation driven relic neutrino asymmetry amplification phenomenon is then used to demonstrate the consistency of the model with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.
After a review of CMBR correlations and recent observations, a study of possible CMBR observations of the QCD early universe phase transition is discussed. A model for the QCD bubble walls gives the surface tension found in lattice calculations, and a 1+1 dimensional treatment in this model for bubble collisions shows an interior gluonic wall, a disk with the thickness of a nucleon and horizon size radius. This could lead to a similar magnetic wall, which would produce B-B type CMBR polarization correlations distinct from very early universe models. The study of magnetic fields produced in bub…
With the start-up of the LHC, we can hope to find evidences for new physics beyond the Standard Model, and particle candidates for dark matter. Determining the parameters of the full underlying theory will be a long process requiring the combination of LHC and ILC data, flavor physics constraints, and cosmological observations. However, the Very Early Universe properties, from which the relic particles originate, are poorly known, and the relic density calculation can be easily falsified by hidden processes. We consider supersymmetry and show that determining the underlying particle physics pa…
Finite-temperature and -density radiative corrections to the neutrino effective potential in the otherwise CP-symmetric early Universe are considered in the real-time approach of Thermal Field Theory. A consistent perturbation theory endowed with the hard thermal loop resummation techniques developed by Braaten and Pisarski is applied. Special attention is focused on the question whether such corrections can generate any nonzero contribution to the CP-symmetric part of the neutrino potential, if the contact approximation for the W-propagator is used.
We perform a complete next-to-leading order calculation of the non-Abelian electric field correlator in a SU($N_c$) plasma, which encodes properties of the plasma relevant for heavy particle bound state formation and dissociation, and is different from the correlator for the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. The calculation is carried out in the real-time formalism of thermal field theory and includes both vacuum and finite temperature contributions. By working in the $R_ξ$ gauge, we explicitly show the results are gauge independent, infrared and collinear safe. The renormalization group equa…
We discuss the cosmological consequences of QCD phase transition(s) on the early universe. We argue that our recent knowledge about the transport properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) should throw additional lights on the actual time evolution of our universe. Understanding the nature of QCD phase transition(s), which can be studied in lattice gauge theory and verified in heavy ion experiments, provides an explanation for cosmological phenomenon stem from early universe.
We study the effects of various phenomena which may have happened in the early universe on the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves. The phenomena include phase transitions, entropy productions from non-relativistic matter, the production of dark radiation, and decoupling of dark matter/radiation from thermal bath. These events can create several characteristic signatures in the inflationary gravitational wave spectrum, which may be direct probes of the history of the early universe and the nature of high-energy physics.
In this paper we study the real-time evolution of heavy quarkonium in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) on the basis of the open quantum systems approach. In particular, we shed light on how quantum dissipation affects the dynamics of the relative motion of the quarkonium state over time. To this end we present a novel non-equilibrium master equation for the relative motion of quarkonium in a medium, starting from Lindblad operators derived systematically from quantum field theory. In order to implement the corresponding dynamics, we deploy the well established quantum state diffusion method. In tu…
We expose briefly the role of entropy in the early universe and in particular the importance of searching for new mechanisms of entropy production. We describe a mechanism that shows how entropy is produced during early annihilations and under which conditions the production is not negligible. A MeV tau neutrino provides an interesting application.
We propose a method to probe the equation of state of the early universe and its evolution, using the stochastic gravitational wave background from inflation. A small deviation from purely radiation dominated universe ($w= 1/3$) would be clearly imprinted on the gravitational wave spectrum $Ω_{GW}(f)$ due to the nearly scale invariant nature of inflationary generated waves.
The early Universe was characterized by the presence of heavy particles that decoupled at different temperatures leading to different phases of the Universe. This had a consequences on the time evolution of the thermodynamic and the cosmological parameters characterizing each phase of the early Universe. In this study, we derive the analytic expressions of the equations governing the time evolution of these parameters in the early eras of the Universe namely, the radiation era, the quark-gluon plasma era, the hadron era and the mixed era. The parameters under concern include the energy density…
An introductory account is given of the modern understanding of the physics of the early Universe. Particular emphasis is placed on the paradigm of cosmological inflation, which postulates a period of accelerated expansion during the Universe's earliest stages. Inflation provides a possible origin for structure in the Universe, such as microwave background anisotropies, galaxies and galaxy clusters; these observed structures can therefore be used to test models of inflation. A brief account is given of other early Universe topics, namely baryogenesis, topological defects, dark matter candidate…
The evolution of a superthermal relic component of matter is studied on the basis of non-equilibrium model of Universe and the Fokker-Planck type kinetic equation offered by one of the authors.
We discuss properties and evolution of quark-gluon plasma in the early Universe and compare to laboratory heavy ion experiments. We describe how matter and antimatter emerged from a primordial soup of quarks and gluons. We focus our discussion on similarities and differences between the early Universe and the laboratory experiments.
In this talk I will describe the role of supersymmetric flat directions in the early Universe cosmology. Particularly I will discuss how supergravity effects lift the flat direction potential and leads to interesting cosmological consequences.
Dark matter represents currently an outstanding problem in both cosmology and particle physics. In this review we discuss the possible explanations for dark matter and the experimental observables which can eventually lead to the discovery of dark matter and its nature, and demonstrate the close interplay between the cosmological properties of the early Universe and the observables used to constrain dark matter models in the context of new physics beyond the Standard Model.
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 calculations. The new findings about this state may have consequences on the time evolution of the early Universe, which can estimated by solving the Friedmann equations. The solutions of these equations give the time evolution of the energy density and also of the temperature in the beginning of the Universe. In this work we compute the time evolution of the…
We investigate the mixing of heavy gauge singlet neutrinos in a mirror matter model employing the seesaw mechanism. The parameter constraints that must be satisfied to prevent the overproduction of mirror matter in the early universe are deduced. We find that no fine tuning in the heavy neutral fermion sector is required for this mirror matter model to satisfy cosmological constraints. Baryogenesis scenarios are briefly discussed in the context of the mirror model.
In this work an update of the cosmological role and place of the chiral tensor particles in the Universe history is provided. We discuss an extended model with chiral tensor particles. The influence of these particles on the early Universe evolution is studied. Namely, the increase of the Universe expansion rate caused by the additional particles in this extended model is calculated, their characteristic interactions with the particles of the hot Universe plasma are studied and the corresponding times of their creation, scattering, annihilation and decay are estimated for accepted values of th…
Bose-Einstein condensation in the early universe is considered. The magnetic properties of a condensate of charged vector bosons are studied, showing that a ferromagnetic state is formed. As a consequence, the primeval plasma may be spontaneously magnetized inside macroscopically large domains and primordial magnetic fields can be generated.
Very recently, it has been shown by the author that the Standard Model Higgs cannot be a physical particle. Here, on most general grounds it is established that as per the Standard Model there is no electric charge above the electro-weak phase transition temperature. Hence there was no electric charge present in the early universe. The Superstring Theories are flawed in as much as they are incompatible with this requirement. Hence the Superstring Theories are inconsistent with this basic structure and requirement of the Standard Model.
We examine in the context of supersymmetric models whether the usual cosmological upper bound on the axion decay constant can be relaxed by assuming a period of stronger QCD in the early universe. By evaluating the axion potential in the early universe and also taking into account the dilaton potential energy, it is argued that a stronger QCD is not useful for raising up the bound.
We compute the mass function of bound states of Asymmetric Dark Matter--nuggets--synthesized in the early Universe. We apply our results for the nugget density and binding energy computed from a nuclear model to obtain analytic estimates of the typical nugget size exiting synthesis. We numerically solve the Boltzmann equation for synthesis including two-to-two fusion reactions, estimating the impact of bottlenecks on the mass function exiting synthesis. These results provide the basis for studying the late Universe cosmology of nuggets in a future companion paper.
Two introductory lectures on inflation and dark matter presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Techniques and Concepts of High-Energy Physics.
It has recently been pointed out that Gaia is capable of detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background in the sensitivity band between the frequency of pulsar timing arrays and LISA. We argue that Gaia and THEIA has great potential for early universe cosmology, since such a frequency range is ideal for probing phase transitions in asymmetric dark matter, SIMP and the cosmological QCD transition. Furthermore, there is the potential for detecting primordial black holes in the solar mass range produced during such an early universe transition and distinguish them from those expected from t…
I review the "Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture" (TCC) and its implications for cosmology, in particular for the inflationary universe scenario. Whereas the inflationary scenario is tightly constrained by the TCC, alternative early universe scenarios are not restricted.
