A model of the universe with decaying vacuum energy

The consequences of taking the total active gravitational mass of the universe phasewise constant together with a decaying vacuum energy in the background of Robertson-Walker space-time are investigated. The model so determined admits a contracted Ricci-collineation along the fluid flow vectorν ⁱ. It is geometrically closed but ever-expanding and does not possess the initial singularity, horizon, entropy, monopole or cosmological constant problems of the standard big bang cosmology. Estimates of the present matter; radiation and vacuum energy densities, the age of the universe and the present values of the deceleration parameter and the scale factor are also obtained.     

Gravitational collapse in quantum mechanics with relativistic kinetic energy

It is proved that the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian $\text{H = Σ}{}_{\mathrm{i=1}}{}^{\mathrm{N}}\text{(p}{}^2\text{+ m}{}^2\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{? κ Σ}{}_{\mathrm{i>j}}\text{|x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{? x}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{|}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$ for bosons (resp, fermions) is bounded from below if N ≤ c_bκ^?1 (resp. $\text{N ≤ c}{}_{\mathrm{f}}\text{κ}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$). H is unbounded from below if N ≥ c_b^lκ^?1 (resp. $\text{N ≥ c}{}_{\mathrm{f}}{}^{\mathrm{l}}\text{κ}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$). The constants c_b and c_b^l (resp. c_f and c_f^l) differ by about a factor 2 (resp. 4).     

Observational constraints on decaying vacuum dark energy model

The decaying vacuum model (DV), treating dark energy as a varying vacuum, has been studied well recently. The vacuum energy decays linearly with the Hubble parameter in the late-times, ρ _Λ (t)∝H(t), and produces the additional matter component. We constrain the parameters of the DV model using the recent data-sets from supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, baryon acoustic oscillations, CMB, the Hubble rate and X-rays in galaxy clusters. It is found that the best fit of the matter density contrast Ω _m in the DV model is much lager than that in ΛCDM model. We give the confidence contours in the Ω _m –h plane up to 3σ confidence level. Besides, the normalized likelihoods of Ω _m and h are presented, respectively.     

Friedmann cosmology with decaying vacuum density

Among the several proposals to solve the incompatibility between the observed small value of the cosmological constant and the huge value obtained by quantum field theories, we can find the idea of a decaying vacuum energy density, leading from high values at early times of universe evolution to the small value observed nowadays. In this paper we consider a variation law for the vacuum density recently proposed by Schützhold on the basis of quantum field estimations in the curved, expanding background, characterized by a vacuum density proportional to the Hubble parameter. We show that, in the context of an isotropic and homogeneous, spatially flat model, the corresponding solutions retain the well established features of the standard cosmology, and, in addition, are in accordance with the observed cosmological parameters. Our scenario presents an initial phase dominated by radiation, followed by a dust era long enough to permit structure formation, and by an epoch dominated by the cosmological term, which tends asymptotically to a de Sitter universe. Taking the matter density equals to half of the vacuum energy density, as suggested by observation, we obtain a universe age given by Ht = 1.1, and a decelerating parameter equals to −1/2.     

Gravitational collapse with a cosmological constant

We give a simple example of a spacetime in which one region undergoes gravitational collapse while another undergoes inflation. The spacetime is a spherical ball of dust in a region with a cosmological constant. The implications of this example for the cosmic no hair conjecture are discussed.     

Gravitational wave formation from the collapse of dark energy field configurations

Dark energy is the dominant component of the energy density in the Universe. In a previous paper, we have shown that the collapse of dark energy fields leads to the formation of supermassive black holes with masses comparable to the masses of black holes at the centers of galaxies. Thus, it becomes a pressing issue to investigate the other physical consequences of the collapse of dark energy fields. Given that the primary interactions of dark energy fields with the rest of the Universe are gravitational, it is particularly interesting to investigate the gravitational wave signals emitted during the collapse of dark energy fields. This is the focus of the current work described in this paper. We describe and use the 3+1 BSSN formalism to follow the evolution of the dark energy fields coupled with gravity and to extract the gravitational wave signals. Finally, we describe the results of our numerical computations and the gravitational wave signals produced by the collapse of dark energy fields.     

Gravitational collapse with standard and dark energy in the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity

A perfect fluid with self-similarity of the second kind is studied within the framework of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity(TEGR).A spacetime which is not asymptotically flat is derived.The energy conditions of this spacetime are studied.It is shown that after some time the strong energy condition is not enough to satisfy showing a transition from standard matter to dark energy.The singularities of this solution are discussed.     

Gravitational collapse of dark energy field configurations and supermassive black hole formation

Dark energy is the dominant component of the total energy density of our Universe. The primary interaction of dark energy with the rest of the Universe is gravitational. It is therefore important to understand the gravitational dynamics of dark energy. Since dark energy is a low-energy phenomenon from the perspective of particle physics and field theory, a fundamental approach based on fields in curved space should be sufficient to understand the current dynamics of dark energy. Here, we take a field theory approach to dark energy. We discuss the evolution equations for a generic dark energy field in curved space-time and then discuss the gravitational collapse for dark energy field configurations. We describe the 3 + 1 BSSN formalism to study the gravitational collapse of fields for any general potential for the fields and apply this formalism to models of dark energy motivated by particle physics considerations. We solve the resulting equations for the time evolution of field configurations and the dynamics of space-time. Our results show that gravitational collapse of dark energy field configurations occurs and must be considered in any complete picture of our Universe. We also demonstrate the black hole formation as a result of the gravitational collapse of the dark energy field configurations. The black holes produced by the collapse of dark energy fields are in the supermassive black hole category with the masses of these black holes being comparable to the masses of black holes at the centers of galaxies.     

Gravitational collapse and naked singularities

Gravitational collapse is one of the most striking phenomena in gravitational physics. The cosmic censorship conjecture has provided strong motivation for research in this field. In the absence of a general proof for censorship, many examples have been proposed, in which naked singularity is the outcome of gravitational collapse. Recent developments have revealed that there are examples of naked singularity formation in the collapse of physically reasonable matter fields, although the stability of these examples is still uncertain. We propose the concept of ‘effective naked singularities’, which will be quite helpful because general relativity has limitation in its application at the high-energy end. The appearance of naked singularities is not detestable but can open a window for the new physics of strongly curved space-times.     

Gravitational collapse of colloidal gels

We present a unified framework for understanding the compaction of colloidal gels under their own weight. The dynamics of the collapse are determined by the value of the gravitational stress sigma(g), as compared to the yield stress sigma(Y) of the network. For sigma(g)sigma(Y), the network eventually yields, leading to rapid settling. In both cases, the rate of collapse is backflow limited, while its overall magnitude is determined by a balance between gravitational stress and network elastic stress.     

Gravitational collapse with tachyon field and barotropic fluid

A particular class of space-time, with a tachyon field, $\phi $ , and a barotropic fluid constituting the matter content, is considered herein as a model for gravitational collapse. For simplicity, the tachyon potential is assumed to be of inverse square form i.e., $V(\phi )\sim \phi ^{-2}$ . Our purpose, by making use of the specific kinematical features of the tachyon, which are rather different from a standard scalar field, is to establish the several types of asymptotic behavior that our matter content induces. Employing a dynamical system analysis, complemented by a thorough numerical study, we find classical solutions corresponding to a naked singularity or a black hole formation. In particular, there is a subset where the fluid and tachyon participate in an interesting tracking behaviour, depending sensitively on the initial conditions for the energy densities of the tachyon field and barotropic fluid. Two other classes of solutions are present, corresponding respectively, to either a tachyon or a barotropic fluid regime. Which of these emerges as dominant, will depend on the choice of the barotropic parameter, $\gamma $ . Furthermore, these collapsing scenarios both have as final state the formation of a black hole.     

Gravitational collapse and higher-order gravitational lagrangians

A general form of higher-order contributions (in R_ij) to the Einstein field equations is displayed. The additional terms may either stabilize or destabilize self-gravitating objects in gravitational collapse depending on the sign of the coefficient introducing the quadratic term. If the quadratic term is stabilizing, intertial mass can be converted to radiation with an efficiency approaching 100%, and arbitrarily large masses can be stabilized. On the other hand, the resultant field equations are pathological in that they admit gravitons with negative mass-squared (i.e., tachyons). A nonsingular class of vacuum solutions exist in general for the quadratic case (“grey dimples”).     

Gravitational collapse in higher-dimensional charged-Vaidya space-time

We analyze here the gravitational collapse of higher-dimensional charged-Vaidya spacetime. We show that singularities arising in a charged null fluid in higher dimension are always naked violating at least strong cosmic censorship hypothesis (CCH), though not necessarily weak CCH. We show that earlier conclusions on the occurrence of naked singularities in four-dimensional case can be extended essentially in the same manner in 5D case also     

Gravitational collapse of charged scalar fields

In order to study the gravitational collapse of charged matter we analyze the simple model of an self-gravitating massless scalar field coupled to the electromagnetic field in spherical symmetry. The evolution equations for the Maxwell–Klein–Gordon sector are derived in the \(3+1\) formalism, and coupled to gravity by means of the stress–energy tensor of these fields. To solve consistently the full system we employ a generalized Baumgarte–Shapiro–Shibata–Nakamura formulation of General Relativity that is adapted to spherical symmetry. We consider two sets of initial data that represent a time symmetric spherical thick shell of charged scalar field, and differ by the fact that one set has zero global electrical charge while the other has non-zero global charge. For compact enough initial shells we find that the configuration doesn’t disperse and approaches a final state corresponding to a sub-extremal Reissner–Nördstrom black hole with \(|Q| . By increasing the fundamental charge of the scalar field \(q\) we find that the final black hole tends to become more and more neutral. Our results support the cosmic censorship conjecture for the case of charged matter.     

Gravitational theories with de Sitter constant vacuum solution

We consider a large class of geometric Lagrangian forms defined in the manifold of the reference frames. The theories described by those Lagrangians are such that, in an empty region, the manifold can be identified with one of the de Sitter groups. The Lagrangian forms are classified according to their symmetry properties with respect to transformation groups acting on the linear space of the infinitesimal transformations of the frames. Requiring invariance with respect to aSO(3) group and a reasonable physical behavior under space reflections, we obtain only three different theories. Then we show that every Lagrangian form of the kind we are considering, is equivalent to anSO(3)-invariant one.