Book Description

A first order phase transition between the quark-gluon plasma and the hadron gas can have important consequences for cosmology. These consequences result from the generation of isothermal baryon number density fluctuations as the universe passes through the phase transition. Calculations based upon simple models for the statistical mechanics of the two phases indicate that these fluctuations have large amplitude. The fluctuations persist after completion of the phase transition, being slowly damped by diffusion of baryon number. Upon decoupling of neutrons and protons at temperature T (approximately) 1 MeV, the neutrons begin to diffuse rapidly out of the dense regions and substantial segregation of the neutrons and protons results. Light element nucleosynthesis then occurs at T (approximately) 0.1 MeV. It is possible to reconcile the observed abundances of the light elements with model universes in which all of the matter is composed of baryons, the cosmological constant is zero, and the geometry is flat. 12 refs., 2 figs.