Field Theoretical Methods in Cosmology

Abstract

To optimally utilize all the exciting cosmological data coming in we need to sharpen also the theoretical tools available to cosmologists. One such indispensible tool to understand hot big bang cosmology is finite temperature field theory. We review and summarise the efforts made by us to use finite temperature field theory to address issues of current interest to cosmologists. An introduction to both the real time and the imaginary time formalisms is provided. The imaginary time formalism is illustrated by applying it to understand the interesting possibilty of Late Time Phase Transitions. Recent observations of the space distribution of quasars indicate a very notable peak in space density at a redshift of $2$ to $3$. It is pointed out that this may be the result of a phase transition which has a critical temperature of roughly a few meV (in the cosmological units, $~\hbar = c =k = 1$), which is natural in the context of massive neutrinos. In fact, the neutrino masses required for quasar production and those required to solve the solar neutrino problem by the MSW mechanism are consistent with each other. As a bonus, the cosmological constant implied by this model may also help resolve the discrepancy between the recently measured value of the Hubble Constant and the age of the universe. We illustrate the real time formalism by studying one of the most important time-dependent and non-equilibrium phenomena associated with phase transitions. The non-equilibrium dynamics of the first stage of the reheating process, that is dissipation via particle production is studied in scalar field theories. We show that a complete understanding of the mechanism of dissipation via particle production requires a non-perturbative resummation. We then study