Effect of pre-existing baryon inhomogeneities on the dynamics of quark-hadron transition

Abstract

Baryon number inhomogeneities may be generated during the epoch when the baryon asymmetry of the universe is produced, e.g. at the electroweak phase transition. These lumps will have a lower temperature than the background. Also the value of Tc will be different in these regions. Since a first-order quark-hadron (Q-H) transition is susceptible to small changes in temperature, we investigate the effect of the presence of such baryonic lumps on the dynamics of the Q-H transition. We find that the phase transition is delayed in these lumps for significant overdensities. Consequently, we argue that baryon concentration in these regions grows by the end of the transition. We mention some models which may give rise to such high baryon overdensities before the Q-H transition.