Paper (*cross-listing*): hep-ph/0602002

Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 10:01:24 GMT (357kb)

Title: Phase transitions in the early and the present Universe

Authors: D. Boyanovsky, H. J. de Vega and D. J. Schwarz

Comments: 41 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci
\\
The evolution of the Universe is the ultimate laboratory to study fundamental
physics across energy scales that span about 25 orders of magnitude: from the
grand unification scale through particle and nuclear physics scales down to the
scale of atomic physics. The standard models of cosmology and particle physics
provide the basic understanding of the early and present Universe and predict a
series of phase transitions that occurred in succession during the expansion
and cooling history of the Universe. We survey these phase transitions,
highlighting the equilibrium and non-equilibrium effects as well as their
observational and cosmological consequences. We discuss the current theoretical
and experimental programs to study phase transitions in QCD and nuclear matter
in accelerators along with the new results on novel states of matter as well as
on multi- fragmentation in nuclear matter. A critical assessment of
similarities and differences between the conditions in the early universe and
those in ultra- relativistic heavy ion collisions is presented. Cosmological
observations and accelerator experiments are converging towards an
unprecedented understanding of the early and present Universe.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0602002 , 357kb)