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D. T. Woods, P. Anninos, P.C. Fragile (Lawrence Livermore National Lab)
Recent results from linear perturbation theory suggest that first order quark-hadron cosmological phase transitions ocurring as deflagrations may be ``borderline'' unstable, and those ocurring as detonations may result in unstable modes behind the interface boundary. However, since nonlinear effects can play important roles in the development of perturbations, unstable behavior cannot be asserted entirely by linear analysis, and the uncertainty of these recent studies is compounded further by nonlinearities in the hydrodynamics and self-interaction fields. In this paper we investigate the growth of perturbations and the interfacial stability of quark-hadron phase transitions in the early universe by solving numerically the fully nonlinear relativistic hydrodynamics equations coupled to a scalar field equation with a quartic self-interaction potential regulating the transitions. We consider single, perturbed, phase transitions propagating either by detonation or deflagration, as well as multiple phase front interactions in multi-dimensions.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.