Speaker
Juergen Schaffner-Bielich
(Heidelberg University)
Description
The QCD phase diagram might exhibit a first order phase transition for
large baryochemical potentials. We explore the cosmological
implications of such a QCD phase transition in the early universe. We
propose that the large baryon-asymmetry is diluted by a little
inflation where the universe is trapped in a false vacuum state of
QCD. The little inflation period will change the freeze-out criteria
for WIMP dark matter so that their annihilation and production cross
section would be reduced by orders of magnitude. In addition the
power spectrum of cold dark matter can be affected up to mass scales
of globular clusters. The effects of the QCD phase transition on the
relic gravitational wave spectrum is controlled by the trace anomaly
of QCD where we apply recent data from lattice gauge calculations. The
QCD transition imprints a strong step into the spectrum of
gravitational waves depending on the strength of the QCD phase
transition which could be detected with the gravitational wave
detectors LISA, BBO and by pulsar timing. The little QCD inflation
scenario could be probed with the low-energy run at BNL's RHIC,
at the heavy-ion program at GSI's FAIR, and also at CERN's LHC as it
changes the freeze-out criteria for WIMP dark matter.
References:
Boeckel and Schaffner-Bielich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 (2010) 041301
Schettler, Boeckel, Schaffner-Bielich, Phys. Rev. D83 (2011) 064030
Author
Juergen Schaffner-Bielich
(Heidelberg University)
Co-authors
Simon Schettler
(Heidelberg University)
Tillmann Boeckel
(Heidelberg University)