Recent discoveries in astronomy and relativistic astrophysics as well as experiments on particle and nuclear physics have blurred the traditional boundaries of physics. It is believed that at the birth of the Universe, a whirlwind of matter and antimatter, of quarks and exotic leptons, briefly appeared and merged into a sea of energy. The new phenomena and new states of matter in the Universe revealed the deep connection between quarks and the Cosmos. Motivated by these themes, this book discusses different topics: gravitational waves, dark matter, dark energy, exotic contents of compact stars, high-energy and gamma-ray astrophysics, heavy ion collisions and the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in the early Universe. The book presents some of the latest researches on these fascinating themes and is useful for experts and students in the field.

Supercritical fields, extreme neutron-rich isotopes, and short living giant atoms / W. Greiner -- The chirality of life : from phase transitions to astrobiology / M. Gleiser and S. I. Walker -- Constraints on the nuclear EoS from neutron star observables / D. Blaschke, T. Klähn and F. Weber -- Proto-neutron and neutron stars / V. Dexheimer, S. Schramm and H. Stoecker -- Quark-gluon plasma in neutron stars / R. B. Jacobsen ... [et al.] -- Using Skyrme models to describe asymmetric nuclear matter / M. Dutra ... [et al.] -- URCA process in an effective model for neutron stars / A. Mesquita ... [et al.] -- Stellar matter constrained to nuclear physics experiments / D. P. Menezes -- An investigation of the coupling constants in quantum hadrodynamics effective models / L. N. Burigo ... [et al.] -- Cold nuclear matter described by nonlinear relativistic point-coupling models in [symbol] = p approach / O. Lourenco, A. Delfino and M. Malheiro -- Dynamical collapse of neutron stars : crust ejection and gravitational wave emission / G. F. Marranghello, J. C. N. Araujo and O. D. Miranda -- Neutron stars in an effective model with adjustable coefficients / A. Mesquita ... [et al.] -- Mass ejection in protoneutron star induced by neutrino emission / L. G. Almeida ... [et al.] -- On the confined-deconfined phase transition in nuclear matter / L. N. Burigo ... [et al.] -- CFL-quark star in the density-dependent quark mass model / J. C. T. Oliveira, H. Rodrigues and S. B. Duarte -- Color superconductivity with 2 and 3 flavors in the chromodielectric model / M. Vidalis and M. Malheiro -- On the chemical potential of dark energy / S. H. Pereira -- Wavelet analysis of stellar rotation and other periodicities : from the sun to CoRoT / D. B. de Freitas ... [et al.] -- Analogue of superradiance effect in acoustic black hole in the presence of disclination / F. A. Gomes and G. A. Marques -- Prevalence of energy conditions in Friedmann cosmology and Hubble diagram of gamma-ray bursts / H. J. Mosquera ... [et al.] -- Growth of primordial fluctuations in a vacuum energy decay model / N. Pires and H. T. C. M. de Souza -- On the quintessence scalar field potential / J. A. E. Carrillo, J. M. Silva and J. A. S. Lima -- Inducing a modified Brans-Dicke theory of gravity from five-dimensional vacuum / J. E. M. Aguilar, C. Romero and A. Barros -- Interacting strangelets and their presence among cosmic ray primaries / L. Paulucci and J. E. Horvath -- Revisiting the confrontation of the energy conditions bounds with supernovae data / M. P. Lima, S. D. P. Vitenti and M. J. Reboucas -- Dark energy equation of state and cosmic topology / S. D. P. Vitenti, M. P. Lima and M. J. Reboucas -- Evolution of primordial density perturbations in [symbol](t) cosmologies / N. Pires -- Simplified chaplygin gas : deriving H[symbol] from ages of OHROs and BAOs / R. C. Santos and J. F. Jesus -- The role of magnetic braking effects on the rotation of subgiant and giant stars / S. C. Maciel, D. B. de Freitas and J. R. de Medeiros -- Some topological effects in Safko-Witten spacetime / V. B. Bezerra -- Concluding remarks to the IWARA 2007 / J. E. Horvath

Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.

This book explains the fascinating world of quarks and leptons and the forces that govern their behavior. Told from an experimental physicist's perspective, it forgoes mathematical complexity, using instead particularly accessible figures and apt analogies. In addition to the story of quarks and leptons, which are regarded as well-accepted fact, the author (who is a leading researcher at one of the world's highest energy particle physics laboratories) also discusses mysteries at both the experimental and theoretical frontiers, before tying it all together with the exciting field of cosmology and indeed the birth of the universe itself.

The principal goals of the study were to articulate the scientific rationale and objectives of the field and then to take a long-term strategic view of U.S. nuclear science in the global context for setting future directions for the field. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter provides a long-term assessment of an outlook for nuclear physics. The first phase of the report articulates the scientific rationale and objectives of the field, while the second phase provides a global context for the field and its long-term priorities and proposes a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond. In the second phase of the study, also developing a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond, the committee carefully considered the balance between universities and government facilities in terms of research and workforce development and the role of international collaborations in leveraging future investments. Nuclear physics today is a diverse field, encompassing research that spans dimensions from a tiny fraction of the volume of the individual particles (neutrons and protons) in the atomic nucleus to the enormous scales of astrophysical objects in the cosmos. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter explains the research objectives, which include the desire not only to better understand the nature of matter interacting at the nuclear level, but also to describe the state of the universe that existed at the big bang. This report explains how the universe can now be studied in the most advanced colliding-beam accelerators, where strong forces are the dominant interactions, as well as the nature of neutrinos.