Large nucleation distances from impurities in the cosmological quark-hadron transition

1996/02/15 by Michael B. Christiansen, Jes Madsen · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Big Bang nucleosynthesis #Condensed matter physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Curvature #Hadron #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Impurity #Nuclear physics #Nuclear reaction #Nucleation #Nucleosynthesis #Order (exchange) #Particle physics #Phase transition #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Quark #Thermodynamics #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.53.5446

published as Phys.Rev. D53 (1996) 5446-5454 · 18 pages, 5 ps figures. To appear in Physical Review D, 15 May 1996

arxiv created 1996/02/15 · openalex publication_date 1996/05/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We calculate the mean nucleation distance d_nuc in a first order cosmological quark-hadron phase transition. For homogeneous nucleation we find that self-consistent inclusion of curvature energy reduces d_nuc to \ensuremath\lesssim2 cm. However, impurities can lead to heterogeneous nucleation with d_nuc of several meters, a value high enough to change the outcome of big bang nucleosynthesis.

Citations

• The free energy of spherical bubbles in lattice SU(3) gauge theory
• Kinetische Behandlung der Keimbildung in übersättigten Dämpfen
• Phase Transitions and Magnetic Monopole Production in the Very Early Universe
• Cosmic separation of phases

Cited by

• Effect of an extrinsic curvature on a quark–hadron phase transition
• AdS/CFT aspects of the cosmological QCD phase transition
• QCD Phase Transition in the Inhomogeneous Universe
• The first second of the Universe