The SEWM2002 workshop, like the ones before, brought together theoretical physicists working on thermal field theory and, more generally, on (resummation) techniques for deriving effective actions based on QCD and the electroweak standard model of elementary particle physics, but describing nonstandard situations. The focus was on the temperature/chemical potential phase diagram of QCD, considered both analytically and with lattice gauge theory, equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermo field theory, and on heavy ion physics. Other related topics were “small x physics” in QCD, electroweak baryogenesis, inflation, and dark energy in the early universe.

This volume presents an authoritative review of the physics of strongly and electroweakly interacting elementary particle matter in extreme conditions that prevailed in the very early Universe, and which are being recreated in high energy physics laboratories today. Exciting, high-quality experimental results from RHIC collider at Brookhaven, collected since summer 2000, suggest that strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma has indeed been produced. The study of these phenomena will form an important part of theoretical particle and nuclear physics for years to come.Based on the discussions of more than a hundred experts at the Strong and Electroweak Matter 2004 Meeting, this volume contains an up-to-date overview of present ideas on QCD matter: quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions, phase structure, kinetics, thermalization and transport properties. Also discussed are topics related to the cosmology of the early Universe, dark matter, inflation and creation of particle-antiparticle asymmetries. Both analytic and numerical lattice Monte Carlo methods are emphasized.

The SEWM2002 workshop, like the ones before, brought together theoretical physicists working on thermal field theory and, more generally, on (resummation) techniques for deriving effective actions based on QCD and the electroweak standard model of elementary particle physics, but describing nonstandard situations. The focus was on the temperature/chemical potential phase diagram of QCD, considered both analytically and with lattice gauge theory, equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermo field theory, and on heavy ion physics. Other related topics were OC small x physicsOCO in QCD, electroweak baryogenesis, inflation, and dark energy in the early universe."

Describes the dark matter problem in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology for graduate students and researchers.

The phase structure of particle physics shows up in matter at extremely high densities and/or temperatures as they were reached in the early universe, shortly after the big bang, or in heavy-ion collisions, as they are performed nowadays in laboratory experiments. In contrast to phase transitions of condensed matter physics, the underlying fundamental theories are better known than their macroscopic manifestations in phase transitions. These theories are quantum chromodynamics for the strong interaction part and the electroweak part of the Standard Model for the electroweak interaction. It is their non-Abelian gauge structure that makes it a big challenge to predict the type of phase conversion between phases of different symmetries and different particle contents. The book is about a variety of analytical and numerical tools that are needed to study the phase structure of particle physics. To these belong convergent and asymptotic expansions in strong and weak couplings, dimensional reduction, renormalization group studies, gap equations, Monte Carlo simulations with and without fermions, finite-size and finite-mass scaling analyses, and the approach of effective actions as supplement to first-principle calculations.

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.