“暗宇宙”之谜

 夜幕降临,星光灿烂,银河、星斗与皎洁的月光交辉相映,编织出美丽的夜空,这就是我们从小获得的知识:恒星、星云、星系……构成的浩瀚宇宙。然而,这只是个错觉,我们的宇宙实际上是“暗无天日”的,这就是2003年过去一年最新的科学成就:宇宙是黑暗的,或者说是个“暗宇宙”(请参阅封二精美彩图)。什么是暗宇宙?那是指组成宇宙的绝大多数物质和能量是不可见的,发光的物质和辐射只占宇宙物质的极小部分,这种不可见的物质和能量称为暗物质和暗能量。根据最新的测量,暗能量和暗物质合计占宇宙质量密度的96%,而我们熟知的恒星、星系等发光物质或重子物质仅仅只占4%。     

弱引力透镜成为精确的巡天科学

正对暗能量巡天(DES)第一年数据的分析显示:利用弱引力透镜效应限制宇宙学参数的精度可与微波背景辐射观测相媲美。基于广义相对论,科学家经过几十年的努力成功地建立了宇宙学模型,即宇宙学常数Λ非零的冷暗物质(ΛCDM)模型。该模型解释了宇宙演化的方方面面,从原初均匀的等离子体到我们如今看到的行星、恒星和星系这一不均匀宇宙。不幸的是,ΛCDM模型与粒子物理标准模型有冲突,后者无法解释ΛCDM宇宙中的两个重要成分:约     

暗物质粒子探测

正天文观测发现,星系周围的物质和星系团中的星系运动速度很快。仅靠发光物质提供的引力无法束缚如此大速度的天体。于是科学家假设存在一种不发光但是能提供引力的物质,也就是暗物质。但是我们不知道暗物质粒子的质量,也不知道它是否参与其他类型的相互作用。所以各国科学家设计了多种类型的实验来寻找暗物质。暗物质实验可以分为直接探测、间接探测和对撞机探测这三种类型。对暗物质的研究,是当今天文学和物理学的研究热点。我国科学家也进     

中国科学有发现电荷-宇称-时间反演对称性破缺迹象

 一个由中国科学院高能物理所和中国科学院国家天文台科研人员组成的研究小组,通过一种用宇宙微波背景辐射偏振检验CPT对称性的新方法,取得了重要成果：发现电荷-宇称-时间反演(CPT)对称性破缺迹象。据介绍,现代宇宙学的研究表明,宇宙中存在着一种神秘的暗能量。如果这种暗能量随宇宙的膨胀而演化,并与电磁场有某种相互作用(陈省身·西蒙斯相互作用),就有可能破坏CPT定理成立的条件,这会使光子的偏振方向传播中发生改变。宇宙微波背景辐射光子是我们能看到的来自宇宙最遥远的光子,研究小组设计出了一种用宇宙微波背景辐射偏振检验CPT对称性的新方法,使检测灵敏度大大提高。在用这种方法分析了美国WMAP卫星和Boom     

科学家们在星系团的尺度上证实了红移效应

 检验引力现象很简单：通过二楼的窗子走出去(禁止付诸实践),看看会发生什么！但是要想检验爱因斯坦的引力理论--广义相对论,难度就要大得多。该理论的内容是：一个物体的引力会使其周围的空间和时间扭曲。尽管研究人员在太阳系的尺度上证明了广义相对论,但是在整个宇宙的尺度上验证该理论是更具挑战性的。
哥本哈根大学尼尔斯·玻尔研究所的拉德克·沃杰塔克(Radek Wojtak)带领一组研究人员着手检验广义相对论的一个经典预测：光在逃离引力场的时候会损失能量,引力场越强,光损失的能量就越多。结果,从一个星系团中心散发出来的光子应该比星系团边缘的光子损失的能量更多,因为星系团中心区的引力最强。星系团是包含了成千上万个星系的大型天体系统。因此在波长上,来自星系团中心的光比来自边缘的光更长,移向光谱的红端。这个效应被称为引力红移现象。
沃杰塔克及同事知道,测量单个星系内的引力红移会很困难,因为星系内引力红移效应非常小,而且需要将这种红移效应跟个体星系的轨道速度以及宇宙膨胀造成的红移效应分离开来。研究人员从斯隆数字巡天计划中搜集了8000 个星系团的数据,他们通过平均这些数据处理了这个问题。“这样做是希望通过研究星系团中星系之间的红移分布特点来发现引力红移效应,而不是分别查看各个星系的红移效应,”沃杰塔克解释说。
果然,研究人员发现正像广义相对论预测的那样,星系团中的光发生了红移,而且与到星系团中心的距离成比例。“我们可以测量出星系之间红移效应的微小差别,可以看得出来自星系团中心区星系的光不得不爬出那里的引力场,而来自边缘星系中的光可以较为轻松地散发出来,”沃杰塔克说。2011 年9 月28 日,这些发现发布在《自然》(Nature)杂志在线版上。
除了证实广义相对论之外,这些研究结果也有力地说明了拉姆达冷暗物质宇宙模型。这个已经流行于世的宇宙学模型表明宇宙的大部分是由不可见物质构成的,这种物质与构成恒星和行星的普通物质不发生相互作用。这项检验结果也支持暗能量的存在,暗能量是似乎正在使宇宙膨胀的一种神秘力量。     

“暗流体”简介

关于暗流体(Dark fluid)的提出,还要从两个星系团内明、暗物质的分布谈起:子弹星系团在中心发光物质的两侧分布着引力很强的暗物质,而Abell520星系团所显示的景象则是一个被热气体环绕着的暗物质核心,但其周围却不见普通星系的踪迹.     

打压替代引力

正众所周知,爱因斯坦广义相对论描述万有引力,但一些试图替代相对论的引力理论也声称其合理性。不过,依据中子星并合时发出的引力波和电磁波观测,理论家们最近严格约束了这些替代引力。广义相对论(简称GR)非常成功地描述万有引力,覆盖行星、恒星、黑洞、星系等若干层次。GR预言宇宙的膨胀,但也有个短板:如何解释宇宙的加速膨胀。鉴于所有辐射、可见物质和暗物质等都施加向内"拽"的力,宇宙理应减速     

广义相对论经改进可以拟合星系旋转曲线

引力虽然是我们最早认识到的力，爱因斯坦的引力理论在太阳系之外的弱场环境里是否适用，仍然没能被天文观测肯定．困扰天文学家大半个世纪的星系旋转曲线和暗物质问题就是众所周知的一个例子．2004年，以色列物理学家Bek-enstein提出一种新的TeVeS理论，把Milgrom1983年的MOND经验公式融合到修改或延伸后的广义相对论．最近，英国StAndrews大学的赵红胜博士和比利时布鲁塞尔ULB大学的BenoitFamaey发现用一个简单的TeVeS引力的修正公式，可以不用暗物质但很好地拟合绝大多数星系的旋转曲线．     

暗物质的困境

 远在30年代,天文学家惠兹克已注意到,在星系团中,星系的绕行速度是如此之快,按理,它们无法稳定地呆在星系团中.他推测存在某种看不到的物质,提供了引力“胶质”.70年代,又发现银河系边缘的恒星运动速度,要比理论家预言的快得多,这也暗示着有大量的暗物质弥漫于星际空间.以后,对旋涡星系旋转情况所作的射电和光学观测表明,它们被暗物质晕所包围.分析了很多星系对和星系群的运动之后,人们确信,星系所含物质的总量,要比其可见的大得多.故天文学家断言,宇宙并不仅仅含有组成我们身体、地球和星星的那类通常物质.所谓通常物质,是指由重子(质子、中子等)组成的物质.而其他粒子,诸如电子,它们数量虽多,但对宇宙质量的贡献是很小的.     

银河系中心发现暗物质

构成宇宙的大部分物质是暗物质,而我们只能感受到它的引力,却看不到。20世纪70年代,天文学家鲁宾(Vera Rubin)提出螺旋星系边缘远离中心区域的恒星运动得比其应有的速度更快,从而发现了暗物质。这意味着星系周围的"光晕"中存在着某种不可见的质量。但是物理学家们不能确定是所有暗物质都在边缘,还     

Accelerating Universe with spacetime torsion but without dark matter and dark energy

It is shown that cosmological equations for homogeneous isotropic models deduced in the framework of the Poincaré gauge theory of gravity by certain restrictions on indefinite parameters of gravitational Lagrangian take at asymptotics the same form as cosmological equations of general relativity theory for ΛCDM-model. Terms related to dark matter and dark energy in cosmological equations of standard theory for ΛCDM-model are connected in considered theory with the change of gravitational interaction provoked by spacetime torsion.     

Weak equivalence principle from a spontaneously broken gauge theory of gravity

Further consequences of a finite topological field theory for gravity based on the SL(5,R) gauge group are reported. After symmetry breaking, it induces four-dimensional Einstein spaces with a cosmological constant related to the tiny scale of the symmetry breaking. It is shown that not only a ‘background’ metric emerges from a Higgs-like mechanism, but also consistently the geodesic equation central to Einstein?s equivalence principle. In next order of the symmetry breaking scale, the induced torsion could even provoke a tiny Lorentz violation.     

General relativity as a conformally invariant scalar gauge field theory

The global symmetry implied by the fact that one can multiply all masses with a common constant is made into a local, gauge symmetry. The matter action then becomes Conformally invariant and it seems natural to choose for the corresponding scalar gauge field the action for a conformally invariant (massless) scalar field. The resulting conformally invariant theory turns out to be equivalent to general relativity. Since this means that the usual Einstein-Hilbert action is not, in fact, a true gauge action for the space-time geometry, the full theory ought to be supplied with such a term. Gauge-theoretic arguments and conformal invariance requirements dictate its form.     

Scalar Gravity and Higgs Mechanism

The role that the auxiliary scalar field φ plays in Brans–Dicke cosmology is discussed. If a constant vacuum energy is assumed to be the origin of dark energy, then the corresponding density parameter would be a quantity varying with φ; and almost all of the fundamental components of our universe can be unified into the dynamical equation for φ. As a generalization of Brans–Dicke theory, we propose a new gravity theory with a complex scalar field ϕ which is coupled to the cosmological curvature scalar. Through such a coupling, the Higgs mechanism is naturally incorporated into the evolution of the universe, and a running density of the field vacuum energy is obtained which may release the particle standard model from the rigorous cosmological constant problem in some sense. Our model predicts a running mass scale of the fundamental particles in which the gauge symmetry breaks spontaneously. The running speed of the mass scale in our case could survive all existing experiments.     

Scalar-tensor cosmologies with a potential in the general relativity limit: Time evolution

We consider Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker flat cosmological models in the framework of general Jordan frame scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary coupling function and potential. For the era when the cosmological energy density of the scalar potential dominates over the energy density of ordinary matter, we use a nonlinear approximation of the decoupled scalar field equation for the regime close to the so-called limit of general relativity where the local weak field constraints are satisfied. We give the solutions in cosmological time with a particular attention to the classes of models asymptotically approaching general relativity. The latter can be subsumed under two types: (i) exponential convergence, and (ii) damped oscillations around general relativity. As an illustration we present an example of oscillating dark energy.     

Unimodular bimode gravity and the coherent scalar-graviton field as galaxy dark matter

An explicit violation of the general gauge invariance/relativity is adopted as the origin of dark matter and dark energy in the context of gravitation. The violation of the local scale invariance alone, with the residual unimodular one, is considered. Besides the four-volume preserving deformation mode—the transverse-tensor graviton—the metric comprises a compression mode—the scalar graviton, or the systolon. A unimodular invariant and general covariant metric theory of the bimode/scalar-tensor gravity is consistently worked out. To reduce the primordial ambiguity of the theory a dynamical global symmetry is imposed, with its subsequent spontaneous breaking revealed. The static spherically symmetric case in empty space, except possibly for the origin, is studied. A three-parameter solution describing a new static space structure—the dark lacuna—is constructed. It enjoys the property of gravitational confinement, with the logarithmic potential of gravitational attraction at the periphery, and results in asymptotically flat rotation curves. Comprising a super-massive dark fracture (a scalar-modified black hole) at the origin surrounded by a cored dark halo, the dark lacunas are proposed as a prototype model of galaxies, implying an ultimate account for the distributed non-gravitational matter and putative asphericity or rotation.     

Scalar torsion and a new symmetry of general relativity

We reformulate the general theory of relativity in the language of Riemann–Cartan geometry. We start from the assumption that the space-time can be described as a non-Riemannian manifold, which, in addition to the metric field, is endowed with torsion. In this new framework, the gravitational field is represented not only by the metric, but also by the torsion, which is completely determined by a geometric scalar field. We show that in this formulation general relativity has a new kind of invariance, whose invariance group consists of a set of conformal and gauge transformations, called Cartan transformations. These involve both the metric tensor and the torsion vector field, and are similar to the well known Weyl gauge transformations. By making use of the concept of Cartan gauges, we show that, under Cartan transformations, the new formalism leads to different pictures of the same gravitational phenomena. We illustrate this fact by looking at the one of the classical tests of general relativity theory, namely the gravitational spectral shift. Finally, we extend the concept of space-time symmetry to Riemann–Cartan space-times with scalar torsion and obtain the conservation laws for auto-parallel motions in a static spherically symmetric vacuum space-time in a Cartan gauge, whose orbits are identical to Schwarzschild orbits in general relativity.     

Cosmology from a gauge induced gravity

The main goal of the present work is to analyze the cosmological scenario of the induced gravity theory developed in previous works. Such a theory consists on a Yang–Mills theory in a four-dimensional Euclidian spacetime with \({ SO}(m,n)\) such that \(m+n=5\) and \(m\in \{0,1,2\}\) as its gauge group. This theory undergoes a dynamical gauge symmetry breaking via an Inönü–Wigner contraction in its infrared sector. As a consequence, the \({ SO}(m,n)\) algebra is deformed into a Lorentz algebra with the emergency of the local Lorentz symmetries and the gauge fields being identified with a vierbein and a spin connection. As a result, gravity is described as an effective Einstein–Cartan-like theory with ultraviolet correction terms and a propagating torsion field. We show that the cosmological model associated with this effective theory has three different regimes. In particular, the high curvature regime presents a de Sitter phase which tends towards a \(\Lambda \)CDM model. We argue that \({ SO}(m,n)\) induced gravities are promising effective theories to describe the early phase of the universe.     

Cosmological application on five-dimensional teleparallel theory equivalent to general relativity

A theory of(4+1)-dimensional gravity has been developed on the basis of which equivalent to the theory of general relativity by teleparallel.The fundamental gravitational field variables are the 5-dimensional(5D) vector fields(pentad),defined globally on a manifold M,and gravity is attributed to the torsion.The Lagrangian density is quadratic in the torsion tensor.We then apply the field equations to two different homogenous and isotropic geometric structures which give the same line element,i.e.,FRW in five dimensions.The cosmological parameters are calculated and some cosmological problems are discussed.     

Slightly Bimetric Gravitation

The inclusion of a flat metric tensor in gravitation permits the formulation of a gravitational stress-energy tensor and the formal derivation of general relativity from a linear theory in flat spacetime. Building on the works of Kraichnan and Deser, we present such a derivation using universal coupling and gauge invariance.Next we slightly weaken the assumptions of universal coupling and gauge invariance, obtaining a larger "slightly bimetric" class of theories, in which the Euler-Lagrange equations depend only on a curved metric, matter fields, and the determinant of the flat metric. The theories are equivalent to generally covariant theories with an arbitrary cosmological constant and an arbitrarily coupled scalar field, which can serve as an inflaton or dark matter.The question of the consistency of the null cone structures of the two metrics is addressed.