Physical processes related to cosmological first-order phase transitions are
discussed and reviewed in this introductory part of dissertation. I first
describe cosmological phase transitions on a general level, concentrating on
bubble nucleation, phase change, and related phenomena. I point out that
especially the onset of a cosmological phase transition shows a universal
behavior. Then I discuss the electroweak and quark-hadron phase transitions
from a more phenomenological point of view, and present a partially
quantitative description of the different events that is believed to have taken
place during these two cosmological transitions.Comment: introductory part of Ph.D. dissertation, 53 LaTeX pages + 10 figures
not included. (Figs are available via airmail, or as a 430 kB PostScript file
via anonymous ftp at fltxc.helsinki.fi (128.214.3.11), directory /pub, file
phdfigs.ps .) HU-TFT-IR-93-
