A fundamental, profound review of the key issues relating to the early universe and the physical processes that occurred in it. The interplay between cosmic microwave background radiation, large scale structure, and the dark matter problem are stressed, with a central focus on the crucial issue of the phase transitions in the early universe and their observable consequences: baryon symmetry, baryogenesis and cosmological fluctuations. There is an interplay between cosmology, statistical physics and particle physics in studying these problems, both at the theoretical and the experimental / observational levels. Special contributions are devoted to primordial and astrophysical black holes and to high energy cosmic rays and neutrino astrophysics. There is also a special section devoted to the International Space Station and its scientific utilization.

A fundamental, profound review of the key issues relating to the early universe and the physical processes that occurred in it. The interplay between cosmic microwave background radiation, large scale structure, and the dark matter problem are stressed, with a central focus on the crucial issue of the phase transitions in the early universe and their observable consequences: baryon symmetry, baryogenesis and cosmological fluctuations. There is an interplay between cosmology, statistical physics and particle physics in studying these problems, both at the theoretical and the experimental / observational levels. Special contributions are devoted to primordial and astrophysical black holes and to high energy cosmic rays and neutrino astrophysics. There is also a special section devoted to the International Space Station and its scientific utilization.

Proceedings of a NATO ARW held in Sintra, Portugal, March 23-25, 1994

This book is written from the viewpoint that a deep connection exists between cosmology and particle physics. It presents the results and ideas on both the homogeneous and isotropic Universe at the hot stage of its evolution and in later stages. The main chapters describe in a systematic and pedagogical way established facts and concepts on the early and the present Universe. The comprehensive treatment, hence, serves as a modern introduction to this rapidly developing field of science. To help in reading the chapters without having to constantly consult other texts, essential materials from General Relativity and the theory of elementary particles are collected in the appendices. Various hypotheses dealing with unsolved problems of cosmology, and often alternative to each other, are discussed at a more advanced level. These concern dark matter, dark energy, matter-antimatter asymmetry, etc.Particle physics and cosmology underwent rapid development between the first and the second editions of this book. In the second edition, many chapters and sections have been revised, and numerical values of particle physics and cosmological parameters have been updated.

This current updated and expanded text reflects the large number of scientific advances, both theoretically and experimentally, within the discipline of cosmoparticle physics in the last 10 years. Some of the topics that have been added, updated include but are not limited to; HND or CMD+HND scenarios being implemented into sterile neutrino scenarios, the ramifications of extending the forms of dark matter with respect to our view of neutrinos, the origin of baryon matter and the need for non-baryonic matter in current theories, problems the existence of dark matters raises with respect to cosmoparticle physics and the relationship with (meta) stable (super) weakly interacting particles predicted by the extension of the standard model, restrictions on baryon and lepton photons, as well as problems associated with cosmological expansion just to name a few. These and many other topics are readdressed in light of recent both experimental and theoretical developments. Other areas of that will be of interest to the reader include the puzzles presented by direct and indirect effects of dark matter (e.g, results of experiments such as DAMA/NaI, DAMA/LIBRA and PAMELA) may lead to nontrivial new solutions for the problem of its nature, like the existence of new stable families of quarks and leptons and composite dark matter scenario. The present work will be of interest to any researcher interested in this fascinating field dealing with fundamental interactions of the micro- and macroworld.