Editing Phase transition (section)

===Relevance in cosmology===
Symmetry-breaking phase transitions play an important role in [[physical cosmology|cosmology]]. As the universe expanded and cooled, the vacuum underwent a series of symmetry-breaking phase transitions. For example, the electroweak transition broke the SU(2)×U(1) symmetry of the [[electroweak force|electroweak field]] into the U(1) symmetry of the present-day [[electromagnetic field]]. This transition is important to explain the asymmetry between the amount of matter and antimatter in the present-day universe, according to  [[electroweak baryogenesis]] theory.

Progressive phase transitions in an expanding universe are implicated in the development of order in the universe, as is illustrated by the work of [[Eric Chaisson]]<ref>{{cite book|last = Chaisson|first = Eric J.|title =Cosmic Evolution|url = https://archive.org/details/cosmicevolutionr00chai|url-access = registration|publisher= Harvard University Press|date = 2001|isbn = 978-0-674-00342-2}}</ref> and [[David Layzer]].<ref>David Layzer, ''Cosmogenesis, The Development of Order in the Universe'', Oxford Univ. Press, 1991</ref>

See also [[relational order theories]] and [[order and disorder]].