Application of the 5-Dimensional Projective Unified Field Theory to Cosmology and Astrophysics

Projective Unified Field Theory of the author leads to a cosmology without big bang. Since details have been published in a series of papers, the aim of this article is to inform about the theoretical and numerical results with respect to cosmology and astrophysics: age of the universe, Hubble factor, deceleration parameter, equation of motion of a testparticle, motion of a body around a gravitative central body, Einstein effects, time dependence of the "effective gravitational constant" etc. Further, this theory predicts heat production by the cosmological expansion in a moving body. Numerical results are presented for orbiting stars, planets, moons, satellites and terrestrial bodies.     

Computational complexity of the landscape: Part I

We study the computational complexity of the physical problem of finding vacua of string theory which agree with data, such as the cosmological constant, and show that such problems are typically NP hard. In particular, we prove that in the Bousso-Polchinski model, the problem is NP complete. We discuss the issues this raises and the possibility that, even if we were to find compelling evidence that some vacuum of string theory describes our universe, we might never be able to find that vacuum explicitly. In a companion paper, we apply this point of view to the question of how early cosmology might select a vacuum.     

Interpretations of Quantum Theory in the Light of Modern Cosmology

The difficult issues related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and, in particular, the “measurement problem” are revisited using as motivation the process of generation of structure from quantum fluctuations in inflationary cosmology. The unessential mathematical complexity of the particular problem is bypassed, facilitating the discussion of the conceptual issues, by considering, within the paradigm set up by the cosmological problem, another problem where symmetry serves as a focal point: a simplified version of Mott’s problem.     

Shape space methods for quantum cosmological triangleland

With toy modelling of conceptual aspects of quantum cosmology and the problem of time in quantum gravity in mind, I study the classical and quantum dynamics of the pure-shape (i.e. scale-free) triangle formed by 3 particles in 2-d. I do so by importing techniques to the triangle model from the corresponding 4 particles in 1-d model, using the fact that both have 2-spheres for shape spaces, though the latter has a trivial realization whilst the former has a more involved Hopf (or Dragt) type realization. I furthermore interpret the ensuing Dragt-type coordinates as shape quantities: a measure of anisoscelesness, the ellipticity of the base and apex’s moments of inertia, and a quantity proportional to the area of the triangle. I promote these quantities at the quantum level to operators whose expectation and spread are then useful in understanding the quantum states of the system. Additionally, I tessellate the 2-sphere by its physical interpretation as the shape space of triangles, and then use this as a back-cloth from which to read off the interpretation of dynamical trajectories, potentials and wavefunctions. I include applications to timeless approaches to the problem of time and to the role of uniform states in quantum cosmological modelling.     

A kinematical approach to conformal cosmology

We present an alternative cosmology based on conformal gravity, as originally introduced by H. Weyl and recently revisited by P. Mannheim and D. Kazanas. Unlike past similar attempts our approach is a purely kinematical application of the conformal symmetry to the Universe, through a critical reanalysis of fundamental astrophysical observations, such as the cosmological redshift and others. As a result of this novel approach we obtain a closed-form expression for the cosmic scale factor R(t) and a revised interpretation of the space–time coordinates usually employed in cosmology. New fundamental cosmological parameters are introduced and evaluated. This emerging new cosmology does not seem to possess any of the controversial features of the current standard model, such as the presence of dark matter, dark energy or of a cosmological constant, the existence of the horizon problem or of an inflationary phase. Comparing our results with current conformal cosmologies in the literature, we note that our kinematic cosmology is equivalent to conformal gravity with a cosmological constant at late (or early) cosmological times. The cosmic scale factor and the evolution of the Universe are described in terms of several dimensionless quantitites, among which a new cosmological variable δ emerges as a natural cosmic time. The mathematical connections between all these quantities are described in details and a relationship is established with the original kinematic cosmology by L. Infeld and A. Schild. The mathematical foundations of our kinematical conformal cosmology will need to be checked against current astrophysical experimental data, before this new model can become a viable alternative to the standard theory.     

伽玛射线暴与爱因斯坦相对论

伽玛射线暴(简称伽玛暴)是当今天体物理领域最热门的研究领域之一。继过去几年内长时标伽玛暴(持续时标长于2秒)研究取得的不断突破,2005年以来短时标伽玛暴(短于2秒)之谜也开始被解开,短暴的双中子星并合模型第一次得到观测支持。最近还发现一个红移高达6.3的伽玛暴,这标志着伽玛暴开始成为研究高红移宇宙学的探针。本文旨在对伽玛暴研究的历史和现状作一个回顾和评述,并就爱因斯坦所创立的相对论和宇宙学具体在伽玛暴研究中的应用作一些讨论。     

What kind of science is cosmology?

In recent years, by theory and observation cosmology has advanced substantially. Parameters of the concordance or ΛCDM cosmological model are given with unprecedented precision (“precision cosmology”). On the other hand, 95% of the matter content of the universe are of an unknown nature. This awkward situation motivates the present attempt to find cosmology's place among the (exact) natural sciences. Due to its epistemic and methodical particularities, e.g., as a mathematized historical science, cosmology occupies a very special place. After going through some of the highlights of cosmological modeling, the conclusion is reached that knowledge provided by cosmological modeling cannot be as explicative and secure as knowledge gained by laboratory physics.     

Anisotropic Homogeneous Cosmologies in the Post-Newtonian Approximation

In this paper we explore how far the post-Newtonian theory, [9] goes in overcoming the difficulties associated with anisotropic homogeneous cosmologies in the Newtonian approximation. It will be shown that, unlike in the Newtonian case, the cosmological equations of the post-Newtonian approximation are much more in the spirit of general relativity with regard to the nine Bianchi types and issues of singularities.The situations of vanishing rotation and vanishing shear are treated separately. The homogeneous Bianchi I model is considered as an example of a rotation-free cosmology with anisotropy. It is found in the Newtonian approximation that there are arbitrary functions that need to be given for all time if the initial value problem is to be well-posed, while in the post-Newtonian case there is no such need. For the general case of a perfect fluid only the post-Newtonian theory can satisfactorily describe the effects of pressure. This is in accordance with findings in [7] where the post-Newtonian approximation was applied to homogeneous cosmologies.For a shear-free anisotropic homogeneous cosmology the Newtonian theory of Heckmann and Schücking, [2] is explored. Comparisons with its relativistic and post-Newtonian counterparts are made. In the Newtonian theory solutions exist to which there are no analogues in general relativity. The post-Newtonian approximation may provide a way out.     

Testing the fidelity of Gaussian processes for cosmography

The dependence of implications from observations on cosmological models is an intractable problem not only in cosmology, but also in astrophysics. Gaussian processes(GPs), a powerful nonlinear interpolating tool without assuming a model or parametrization, have been widely used to directly reconstruct functions from observational data(e.g., expansion rate and distance measurements) for cosmography. However, the fidelity of this reconstructing method has never been checked. In this study, we test the fidelity of GPs for cosmography by mocking observational data sets comprising different number of events with various uncertainty levels. These factors are of great importance for the fidelity of reconstruction. That is, for the expansion rate measurements, GPs are valid for reconstructing the functions of the Hubble parameter versus redshift when the number of observed events is as many as 256 and the uncertainty of the data is ～3%. Moreover, the distance-redshift relation reconstructed from the observations of the upcoming Dark Energy Survey type la supernovae is credible.     

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.     

Physically self-consistent basis for modern cosmology

Cosmoparticle physics appeared as a natural result of internal development of cosmology seeking physical grounds for inflation, baryosynthesis, and nonbaryonic dark matter and of particle physics going outside the Standard Model of particle interactions. Its aim is to study the foundations of particle physics and cosmology and their fundamental relationship in the combination of respective indirect cosmological, astrophysical, and physical effects. The ideas on new particles and fields predicted by particle theory and on their cosmological impact are discussed, as well as the methods of cosmoparticle physics to probe these ideas, are considered with special analysis of physical mechanisms for inflation, baryosynthesis, and nonbaryonic dark matter. These mechanisms are shown to reflect the main principle of modern cosmology, putting, instead of formal parameters of cosmological models, physical processes governing the evolution of the big-bang universe. Their realization on the basis of particle theory induces additional model-dependent predictions, accessible to various methods of nonaccelerator particle physics. Probes for such predictions, with the use of astrophysical data, are the aim of cosmoarcheology studying astrophysical effects of new physics. The possibility of finding quantitatively definite relationships between cosmological and laboratory effects on the basis of cosmoparticle approach, as well as of obtaining a unique solution to the problem of physical candidates for inflation, mechanisms of baryogenesis, and multicomponent dark matter, is exemplified in terms of gauge model with broken family symmetry, underlying horizontal unification and possessing quantitatively definite physical grounds for inflation, baryosynthesis, and effectively multicomponent dark-matter scenarios.     

The Ideas Behind the Different Approaches to Quantum Cosmology

In this review work I present an overview aboutthe main ideas behind the different approaches toquantum cosmology and their physical meaning. Inparticular I use the Bianchi type IX cosmological modelin order to exemplify the concepts.     

Elusive neutrinos

A brief review of neutrino physics is presented. A.I. Alikhanov was a pioneer in searches for the neutrino mass. After the death of Alikhanov, his disciples at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP, Moscow) have continued seeking elusive-neutrino effects. At the present time, the problem of the neutrino mass is one of the key points in elementary-particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.     

Dark matter: Theory

The particle physics interpretation of the dark matter problem, which is intimately of cosmological and astrophysical nature, is going to be posed under deep scrutiny in the next years. From the particle physics side, accelerators like the LHC will deeply test theoretical ideas of new physics beyond the Standard Model, where particle candidates of dark matter are predicted to exist. From the astrophysical side, many probes are already providing a great deal of independent information on the foreseen signals which can be produced by the galactic or extra-galactic dark matter. In all this, cosmology plays a central role in determining the relevance and the basic properties of the particle dark matter candidate. The ultimate hope is the emergence of dark matter signals and the rise of a coherent picture of new physics from and at the crossing of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. A very ambitious and farreaching project, which will bring to a deeper level our understanding of the fundamental laws which rule the Universe.     

Fitting Simpson's neutrino into the standard model

I show how to accomodate the 17 keV state recently reported by Simpson as one of the neutrinos of the standard model. Experimental constraints can only be satisfied if the μ and τ neutrino combine to a very good approximation to form a Dirac neutrino of 17 keV leaving a light ν_e. Neutrino oscillations will provide the most stringent test of the model. The cosmological bounds are also satisfied in a natural way in models with Goldstone bosons. Explicit examples are given in the framework of majoron-type models. Constraints on the lepton symmetry breaking scale which follow from astrophysics, cosmology and laboratory experiments are discussed.     

On Dynamics of Brans–Dicke Theory of Gravitation

We study longstanding problem of cosmological clock in the context of Brans–Dicke theory of gravitation. We present the Hamiltonian formulation of the theory for a class of spatially homogeneous cosmological models. Then, we show that formulation of the Brans–Dicke theory in the Einstein frame allows how an identification of an appropriate cosmological time variable, as a function of the scalar field in the theory, can be emerged in quantum cosmology. The classical and quantum results are applied to the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker cosmological models.     

Cosmological constant—the weight of the vacuum

Recent cosmological observations suggest the existence of a positive cosmological constant Λ with the magnitude Λ(G/c³)≈10⁻¹²³. This review discusses several aspects of the cosmological constant both from the cosmological (Sections 1–6) and field theoretical (Sections 7–11) perspectives. After a brief introduction to the key issues related to cosmological constant and a historical overview, a summary of the kinematics and dynamics of the standard Friedmann model of the universe is provided. The observational evidence for cosmological constant, especially from the supernova results, and the constraints from the age of the universe, structure formation, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) anisotropies and a few others are described in detail, followed by a discussion of the theoretical models (quintessence, tachyonic scalar field, …) from different perspectives. The latter part of the review (Sections 7–11) concentrates on more conceptual and fundamental aspects of the cosmological constant like some alternative interpretations of the cosmological constant, relaxation mechanisms to reduce the cosmological constant to the currently observed value, the geometrical structure of the de Sitter spacetime, thermodynamics of the de Sitter universe and the role of string theory in the cosmological constant problem.     

Galactic searches for dark matter

For nearly a century, more mass has been measured in galaxies than is contained in the luminous stars and gas. Through continual advances in observations and theory, it has become clear that the dark matter in galaxies is not comprised of known astronomical objects or baryonic matter, and that identification of it is certain to reveal a profound connection between astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. The best explanation for dark matter is that it is in the form of a yet undiscovered particle of nature, with experiments now gaining sensitivity to the most well-motivated particle dark matter candidates. In this article, I review measurements of dark matter in the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies and the status of Galactic searches for particle dark matter using a combination of terrestrial and space-based astroparticle detectors, and large scale astronomical surveys. I review the limits on the dark matter annihilation and scattering cross sections that can be extracted from both astroparticle experiments and astronomical observations, and explore the theoretical implications of these limits. I discuss methods to measure the properties of particle dark matter using future experiments, and conclude by highlighting the exciting potential for dark matter searches during the next decade, and beyond.     

Newtonian and Post-Newtonian Approximations of the k= 0 Friedmann–Robertson–Walker Cosmology

In a previous paper [9], we derived a post-Newtonian approximation to cosmology which, in contrast to former Newtonian and post-Newtonian cosmological theories, has a well-posed initial value problem. In this paper, this new post-Newtonian theory is compared with the fully general relativistic theory, in the context of the k= 0 Friedmann–Robertson–Walker cosmology. It is found that the post-Newtonian theory reproduces the results of its general relativistic counterpart, whilst the Newtonian theory does not.     

On the Raychaudhuri equation

The Raychaudhuri equation is central to the understanding of gravitational attraction in astrophysics and cosmology, and in particular underlies the famous singularity theorems of general relativity theory. This paper reviews the derivation of the equation, and its significance in cosmology.