Colliding branes and formation of spacetime singularities

We construct a class of analytic solutions with two free parameters to the five-dimensional Einstein field equations, which represents the collision of two timelike 3-branes. We study the local and global properties of the spacetime, and find that spacelike singularities generically develop after the collision, due to the mutual focus of the two branes. Non-singular spacetime can be constructed only in the case where both of the two branes violate the energy conditions.     

Route to Lambda in conformally coupled phantom cosmology

In this Letter we investigate acceleration in the flat cosmological model with a conformally coupled phantom field and we show that acceleration is its generic feature. We reduce the dynamics of the model to a 3-dimensional dynamical system and analyze it on a invariant 2-dimensional submanifold. Then the concordance FRW model with the cosmological constant Λ   is a global attractor situated on a 2-dimensional invariant space. We also study the behaviour near this attractor, which can be approximated by the dynamics of the linearized part of the system. We demonstrate that trajectories of the conformally coupled phantom scalar field with a simple quadratic potential crosses the cosmological constant barrier infinitely many times in the phase space. The universal behaviour of the scalar field and its potential is also calculated. We conclude that the phantom scalar field conformally coupled to gravity gives a natural dynamical mechanism of concentration of the equation of state coefficient around the magical value weff=−1$w_{\mathrm{eff}}=-1$. We demonstrate route to Lambda through the infinite times crossing the weff=−1$w_{\mathrm{eff}}=-1$ phantom divide.     

Quintom cosmologies admitting either tracking or phantom attractors

In this Letter we investigate the evolution of a class of cosmologies fueled by quintom dark energy and dark matter. Quintom dark energy is a hybrid of quintessence and phantom which involves the participation of two real scalar fields playing the roles of those two types of dark energy. In that framework we examine, from a dynamical systems perspective, the possibility that those fields are coupled among them by considering an exponential potential with an interesting functional dependence similar but not identical to others studied before. The model we consider represents a counterexample to the typical behavior of quintom models with exponential potentials because it admits either tracking attractors (w=0$w=0$), or phantom attractors (w<−1$w<-1$).     

Dynamical Stability and Attractor of the Variable Generalized Chaplygin Gas Model

For the variable generalized Chaplygin gas （VGCG） as a dynamical system, its stability is analyzed and the related dynamical attractors are investigated. By analysis it is shown that there are two critical points corresponding to the matter-dominated phase and the VGCG dark energy-dominated phase, respectively. Moreover, when the parameters n, a and γ take some fixed values, the phase with ωVGCG = --0.92 is a dynamical attractor and the equation of state of VGCG reaches it from either ωVGCG 〉 --1 or ωVGCG 〈 --1, independent of the initial values of the dynamical system. This shows a satisfactory cosmological model： the early matter-dominated era, followed by the dark energy-dominated era. Meanwhile, the evolutions of density parameters Ωγ and ΩVGCG are quite different from each other. For different initial values of x and y, Ωγ decreases and ωVGCG increases as the time grows, they will eventually approach Ωγ = 0 and ωVGCG ---- 1. Furthermore, since different values of n or a may lead to different equation-of-state parameters ωVGCG, we also discuss the constraints on the parameters n and by the observation data.     

Evolution of Holographic Dark Energy in Interacting Modified Chaplygin Gas Model

We investigate the modified Chaplygin gas （MCG） with interaction between holographic dark energy proposed by Li and dark matter. In this model, evolution of the universe is described in detail, which is from deceleration to acceleration. Specifically, the evolutions of related cosmological quantities such as density parameter, the equation of state of holographic dark energy, deceleration parameter and transition redshift are discussed. Moreover, we also give their present values which are consistent with the lately observations. Furthermore, the results given by us show such a model can accommodate a transition of the dark energy from a normal state wx 〉 -1 to ωx 〈 -1 phantom regimes.     

Evolution of Variable Generalized Chaplygin Gas

We consider the variable Generalized Chaplygin gas （VGCG） proposal for unification of dark matter and dark energy with p = pdc and ρ= pdm ＋ ρdc. The equation of state of the VGCG is given by p = -A0a^-n/ρ^α, where a is the scale factor. Some cosmological quantities such as the fractional contributions of different components of the universe Ωi （i respectively denotes baryons, dark matter and dark energy） to the critical density, the deceleration parameter q are all obtained. The transition from deceleration to acceleration is described in this model. In addition, we find the behaviour of variable Generalized Chaplgin gas is similar to dust-like matter at early times and will be quiessence or phantom at late stage.     

Effect of Annealing on Ferroelectric Properties of Nanometre BaTiO3 Ceramics Prepared by High Pressure Sintering Method

Dense nanocrystalline BaTiO3 ceramics with a grain size of 5Onto are prepared under 6 GPa at 1273K using a high pressure sintering method. The sintered bulk is uniform and the relative density is above 97%. We anneal the ceramic samples in oxygen with various temperatures and for the annealing, several broadened peaks can be observed at different times without apparent grain growth. After about 378K（ by dielectric measurements. However, these peaks are very different from those of coarser-grained ceramics. It is indicated that both the elimination of oxygen vacancies and the release of residual stresses caused by high pressure greatly improve the overall ferroelectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics. The observation of nearly linear polarization hysteresis loop after anneal provides the solid evidence of ferroelectricity in these nano-sized BaTiO3 ceramics. It is believed that the absence of 90° domains and the existence of poor-permittivity nonferroelectric grain boundaries contribute to the slim loop.     

Passing to an effective 4D phantom cosmology from 5D vacuum theory of gravity

Starting from a five-dimensional (5D) vacuum theory of gravity where the extra coordinate is considered as non-compact, we investigate the possibility of inducing four-dimensional (4D) phantom scenarios by applying form-invariance symmetry transformations. In particular we obtain phantom scenarios for two cosmological frameworks. In the first framework we deal with an induced 4D de Sitter expansion and in the second one a 4D induced model where the expansion of the universe is dominated by a decreasing cosmological parameter Λ(t)$\Lambda (t)$ is discussed.     

Dynamical Evolution of Modified Chaplygin Gas

Based our previous work [Mod. Phys. Lett. A 22 （2007） 783, Gen. Relat. Gray. 39 （2007） 653], some properties of modified Chaplygin gas （MCG） as a dark energy model continue to be studied mainly in two aspects： one is the change rates of the energy density and energy transfer, and the other is the evolution of the growth index. It is pointed that the density of dark energy undergoes the change from decrease to increase no matter whether the interaction between dark energy and dark matter exists or not, but the corresponding transformation points are different from each other.Eurthermore, it is stressed that the MCG model even supports the existence of interaction between dark energy and dark matter, and the energy of transfer flows from dark energy to dark matter. The evolution of the interaction term with an ansatz 3Hc^2ρ is discussed with the MCG model. Moreover, the evolution of the growth index f in the MCG model without interaction is illustrated, from which we find that the evolutionary trajectory of f overlaps with that of the ACDM model when a 〉 0.7 and its theoretical value f ≈ 0.566 given by us at z = 0.15 is consistent with the observations.     

The non-adiabatic pressure in general scalar field systems

We discuss the non-adiabatic or entropy perturbation, which controls the evolution of the curvature perturbation in the uniform density gauge, for a scalar field system minimally coupled to gravity with non-canonical action. We highlight the differences between the sound and the phase speed in these systems, and show that the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation vanishes in the single field case, resulting in the conservation of the curvature perturbation on large scales.     

Antigravitational Instability of Cosmic Substrate in the Newtonian Cosmology

A new version of the forming Universe large-scale structures is proposed, based on the refuse of analyses of only the gravitational instability of the cosmological substrate, Vacuum, i.e. the dominant nonbaryonic matter in the Universe, creates the antigravitational instability of the baryonic cosmic substrate itself and causes the formation of galaxies.     

Statefinder Diagnostic for Born--Infeld Type Dark Energy Model

Using a new method cafled the statefinder diagnostics which can make one dark energy model differ from the others, we investigate the dynamics of Born-Infeld （B-I） type dark energy model. The evolution trajectory of B-I type dark energy with Mexican hat potential model with respect to e-folding time N is shown in the r（s） diagram. When the parameter of noncanonical kinetic energy term η→0 or kinetic energy φ^2 →0, the B-I type dark energy （K-essence） model reduces to the quintessence model or the ACDM model corresponding to the statefinder pair （r, s） = {1, 0} respectively. As a result, the evolution trajectory of our model in the r（s） diagram in Mexican hat potential is quite different from those of other dark energy models. The current values of parameters Ωφ and wφ in this model meet the latest observations WMAP5 well.     

Chaotic inflation,radiative corrections and precision cosmology

We employ chaotic (?²${?}^2$ and ?⁴${?}^4$) inflation to illustrate the important role radiative corrections can play during the inflationary phase. Yukawa interactions of ?  , in particular, lead to corrections of the form −κ?⁴ln(?/μ)$-\kappa {?}^4\ln (?/\mu )$, where κ>0$\kappa >0$ and μ   is a renormalization scale. For instance, ?⁴${?}^4$ chaotic inflation with radiative corrections looks compatible with the most recent WMAP (5 year) analysis, in sharp contrast to the tree level case. We obtain the 95% confidence limits 2.4×¹⁰⁻¹⁴?κ?5.7×¹⁰⁻¹⁴$2.4\times {10}^{\mathrm{-14}}?\kappa ?5.7\times {10}^{\mathrm{-14}}$, 0.931?ns?0.958$0.931?n_s?0.958$ and 0.038?r?0.205$0.038?r?0.205$, where ns$n_s$ and r   respectively denote the scalar spectral index and scalar to tensor ratio. The limits for ?²${?}^2$ inflation are κ?7.7×¹⁰⁻¹⁵$\kappa ?7.7\times {10}^{\mathrm{-15}}$, 0.929?ns?0.966$0.929?n_s?0.966$ and 0.023?r?0.135$0.023?r?0.135$. The next round of precision experiments should provide a more stringent test of realistic chaotic ?²${?}^2$ and ?⁴${?}^4$ inflation.     

Phantom Friedmann cosmologies and higher-order characteristics of expansion

We discuss a more general class of phantom (p < −?) cosmologies with various forms of both phantom (w < −1), and standard (w > −1) matter. We show that many types of evolution which include both Big-Bang and Big-Rip singularities are admitted and give explicit examples. Among some interesting models, there exist non-singular oscillating (or “bounce”) cosmologies, which appear due to a competition between positive and negative pressure of variety of matter content. From the point of view of the current observations the most interesting cosmologies are the ones which start with a Big-Bang and terminate at a Big-Rip. A related consequence of having a possibility of two types of singularities is that there exists an unstable static universe approached by the two asymptotic models—one of them reaches Big-Bang, and another reaches Big-Rip. We also give explicit relations between density parameters Ω and the dynamical characteristics for these generalized phantom models, including higher-order observational characteristics such as jerk and “kerk.” Finally, we discuss the observational quantities such as luminosity distance, angular diameter, and source counts, both in series expansion and explicitly, for phantom models. Our series expansion formulas for the luminosity distance and the apparent magnitude go as far as to the fourth-order in redshift z term, which includes explicitly not only the jerk, but also the “kerk” (or “snap”) which may serve as an indicator of the curvature of the universe.     

The cosmology of the nonsymmetric theory of gravitation

We show that during cosmological inflation the nonsymmetric metric tensor theory of gravitation develops a spectrum which is potentially observable by cosmic microwave background observations, and may be the most sensitive probe of the scale of cosmic inflation.