Cosmological phase transitions are thought to have taken place at the early Universe imprinting their properties on the observable Universe. There is strong evidence that, through the dynamics of a scalar field that lead a second order phase transition, inflation shaped the Universe accounting for the most conspicuous features of the observed Universe. It is argued that inflation has also striking implications for the vacuum energy. Considerations for subsequent second order phase transitions are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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膨胀、相变和宇宙常数

宇宙学相变被认为发生在早期宇宙中，将它们的特性印在可观测宇宙上。有强有力的证据表明，通过导致二阶相变的标量场的动力学，膨胀塑造了宇宙，解释了观察到的宇宙最显着的特征。有人认为，通货膨胀对真空能量也有显着的影响。还讨论了后续二阶相变的注意事项。