Symmetry breaking, phase transition and gravity

Abstract

We discuss some recent work in which the non-minimal coupling of gravity with a self-interacting scalar field in the presence of matter can lead to a phase transition when the sign of gravitational interaction changes. It is found that gravity becomes repulsive above a critical temperature which may lie in the range 10²⁴ to 10³²K which obtains in the very early universe (10^-35 to 10^-43 sec) of the standard model. The results are intimately connected with big bang and possible removal of singularity.