Such a study is important in the area where the particle physics/ nuclear physics/ astrophysics/ cosmology are overlapped. I believe that this field will be the most excited area in the nearest future. In particular, I am interested in the axion physics, physics of neutron stars, inflation models, the dark matter problem, baryogenesis, etc.
The development of the early Universe is a remarkable laboratory for the study of most nontrivial properties of particle physics. What is more remarkable is the fact that these phenomena at the QCD scale can be, in principle, experimentally tested in heavy ion collisions at RHIC, Brookhaven, where such unusual environment, mentioned above, can be achieved.
I also do research at the interface between particle theory and condensed matter theory. Specifically, the conceptual similarity between particle physics and condensed matter systems allows us to use condensed matter as a laboratory for the simulation and investigation of the most intricate properties of the quantum ground state. In particular, the well-studied vortices when a symmetry is not restored in the vortex core (cosmic superconducting strings) apparently have been observed in high T superconductors where the core of the superconducting vortex is in the aniferromagnetic state.
``Vortices and type-I superconductivity in neutron stars,'' K.B.W.Buckley, M.A.Metlitski and A.R.Zhitnitsky,, Phys. Rev. C 69, 055803 (2004).
``Neutron Stars as Type I Superconductors,'' K.B.W.Buckley, M.A.Metlitski and A.R.Zhitnitsky,, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92,151102 (2004).
``Vortex Rings in two Component Bose-Einstein Condensates,'' M.A.Metlitski and Ariel Zhitnitsky, JHEP 0406, 017 (2004).
``'Nonbaryonic' dark matter as baryonic color superdonductor,'' Ariel Zhitnitsky, JCAP 0310, 010 (2003).
``Vortons in the SO(5) model of high temperature superconductivity,'' K.B.W.Buckley and A.R.Zhitnitsky,, Phys. Rev. B 67,174522 (2003)