N.S.B. Cosmic Center

Introduction: Statistical thermodynamics. Thermal field theory. Phase transitions and collective phenomena. Astrophysics and cosmology. Thermal vacua.

Thermal Physics and Quantum Statistics: Thermodynamical principles. Quantum statistics. Ideal gases. Instructive notes. References.

Thermal Quantum Fields: The Bloch equation. Iterative solution. Thermal wick contractions. Thermal Green's functions. Correlation functions and analyticity. Boundary condition. Periodicity and Fourier series. Fourier transforms and spectral functions. References.

Thermal Field Theory: Thermal propagators for relativistic fields. Partiction function and effective action. Renormalization and gauge invariance. Real-time processes. Appendix. References.

Phase Transitions and Symmetry Breaking : The effective potential at finite temperature. Electroweak and GUT phases. Quark-hadron transition. References.

Stellar Matter: Star formation. Main sequence stars. The equations of stellar structure. Degenerate stars. Gravitational collapse. References.

The Early Universe: Spacetime scales. Structure, matter and radiation. Theory of expansion. The equation of state. Adiabatic expansion. Nucleosynthesis. Standard problems. Inflation. Higher-D cosmology. Useful numbers. References.

Thermal Gravidynamics: Schwarzschild thermodynamics. De Sitter thermodynamics. References.

Further Developments