Dynamical evolution of the Universe in the quark-hadron phase transition and nugget formation

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a first-order phase transition in the early Universe when it was 10--50 \ensuremath{\mu}s old with quarks and gluons condensing into hadrons. We look at the evolution of the Universe in small as well as large supercooling scenarios, specifically exploring the formation of quark nuggets, their possible survival and identification with the recently observed dark objects in our galactic halo which may account for the dark matter component in the Universe.