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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Electroweak Phase Transition and the Early Universe, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop, was held March 23-25, 1994 at the Hotel Tivoli in Sintra, Portugal. The meeting was co-sponsored by three other Lisbon-based institutions: the Fundaçao Gulbenkian, JNICT and GTAE. The workshop brought together a large number of theoretical physicists who are actively researching topics relevant to the understanding of the standard model of electroweak interactions in the early universe.

(Extracted from the preface, written by the editors).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-Contents.

-3-D Physics and the Electroweak Phase Transition: Perturbation Theory and Lattice Monte Carlo Analysis.
-Dynamical Evolution of the Electroweak Phase Transition.
-Gauge Invariant Effective Potential and 4-D Lattice Simulations of the Electroweak Phase Transition.
-On the Strength of First Order Phase Transitions.
-An Overview of the ß-Expansion and the Electroweak Phase Transition.
-The Electroweak Phase Transition in Extended Models.
-Some Non-Perturbative Aspects of the Electroweak Phase Transition.
-Electroweak Baryogenesis: Problems and Prospects.
-A Note on Spontaneous Baryogenesis.
-Tau Leptons and Top Quarks in a 'non-local' Baryogenesis at the Electroweak Phase Transition.
-Preventing Baryon Washout with a Z'.
-Baryogenesis from a Primordial Lepton Asymmetry.
-Electroweak Phase Changes in Two Higgs Models.
-On Primordial Magnetic Fields.
-Another Look at the Electroweak Vortex Solution.
-Electroweak Baryogenesis with Topological Defects.
-Electroweak Strings, Sphalerons and Magnetic Fields.
-Electroweak Strings Produce Baryons.
-Electromagnetic Strings and Topology.
-Sphalerons and Strings.
-Existence and Stability of Spinning Embedded Vortices.
-Effective Potential for the Wilson Line in the Standard Model.
-Fluctuations at Phase Transitions.
-High Temperature Field Theory Beyond Perturbation Theory.
-High Temperature Phase Transitions with the Effective Average Action.
-Exact Renormalization Group Equations for Gauge Theories.
-Environmentally Friendly Renormalization in Finite-Temperature Field Theory.
-Sphaleron-like Transition at High Temperatures.
-Fluctuation Corrections to the Transition Rate of the Electroweak Sphaleron.
-Hot Abelian Higgs Model: Real-Time Properties.
-Non-Equilibrium Evolution of Disoriented Chiral Condensates.
-Non-Equlibrium Quantum Field Evolution in FRW Cosmologies.
-A Report on Quantum Spinodal Decomposition.
-NonPerturbative Evaluation of the Sphaleron Transition Rate.
-Bubble Nucleation in Theories with Symmetry Breaking by Radiative Corrections.
-One-Loop Corrections to the Bubble Nucleation Rate at Finite Temperature.
-Hydrodynamics of Bubble Growth.
-Quantum Scattering and Classical Solutions.
-Spherical Shells of Classical Gauge Field and Their Topological Charge as a Perturbative Expansion.
-In Search of Classical Trajectories.
-Possible Instability of the Effective Potential in a Scalar Model due to Extra Dimensions.
-Gravitinos in the Early Universe.
-On the Problem of the Magnetic Mass.
-Next-to-Leading Order Debye-Screening in Spontaneously Broken Gauge Theories.
-Hierarchy of Effective Models.
-Derivative Corrections in a Scalar Theory.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

Plenum Publishing, through its division Plenum Press from New York, offers us a compilation of the papers presented in the aforementioned Workshop. These papers are well in the forefront of current research in astrophyshics, aimed at professionals, as well as advanced students, who want to know about current research trends and the theoretical results obtained so far. All the themes intending to study in depth the description of the first instants of life in our universe are fascinating in and of themselves, partly because of the amount of work still to be done in this respect. The articles we will find in this book give us a clear idea of how uncertain some of the aspects of the standard model are, as well as the differences in opinion on the part of the scientists who have cooperated in this work. All of them support their statements armed with the necessary mathematical paraphernalia and precise technical references, which contributes to making this volume a product to be used as a basic textbook in the next years.