Particles, Strings and Cosmology

Book excerpt: PASCOS is an interdisciplinary symposium on the interface of of Particle physics, String theory and Cosmology. Over the past two decades these three disciplines have increasingly become closer. Historically there was always a strong overlap between particle physics and cosmology. This connection has become even stronger with the realization that some of the fundamental issues in cosmology such as the presence of dark matter and dark energy may possibly find a resolution only via new theories of particle physics. At the same time string theory has begun to play an increasingly important role in particle physics as a possible framework for building unified models of particle interaction including gravity. In recent years we have seen an increasing overlap between cosmology and string theory and currently the area of string cosmology is one of the most active fields of research. PASCOS 2005 aimed to provide coherent discussions of recent developments on the interface of the three disciplines and also on their interconnections. In particular, superstring aspects in low energy particle theory (SUSY) and cosmological applications (moduli stabilization) are extensively covered in this volume. Topics include dark matter and dark energy, baryogenesis, flavor and CP violation, neutrino physics, supersymmetry and extra dimensions, flux compactification, string model building, as well as brane cosmology.