Cosmic background temperature and the coupling constants of fundamental interactions

The underlying links between the coupling constants of the fundamental interactions and cosmological parameters explored earlier is shown to give rise to a definite value for the cosmic background temperature.     

A cosmological prediction from the coupling constants of fundamental interactions

The notion of gravitational charge is used to suggest a link in the Machian sense between fundamental interactions and cosmology. The observed values of the coupling constants of these interactions then give a definite value for the total mass of the Universe.     

Spatial variations of fundamental constants

We show how observational limits on possible time variations of fundamental constants of nature are influenced by spatial variations in the density and gravitational potential. Bekenstein's generalization of Maxwell's equations, incorporating variations of the fine structure 'constant', is used as a simple example. These features are expected to be present in a wide class of theories with varying 'constants' and will affect attempts to coordinate cosmological and geophysical bounds on allowed time variations.     

String tension and fundamental constants in the early Universe

An energy-dependent string tension could be connected to the fundamental physical and coupling constants. The role of Weyl gravity for sub-Planckian as well as macroscopic domains is explored and the existence of a hierarchy of scales is considered.     

The necessity of high precision measurements in fundamental constants

The possibility of the variation of the gravitational constant with space coordinates is considered.Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 363–366, April–June, 1994.     

Do the fundamental constants vary in the course of cosmological evolution?

The possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio μ = m _p/m _e was estimated by measuring the H₂ wavelengths in the spectra of distant quasars. We analyze high-resolution (FWHM≈7 km s^?1) spectra of the two damped Lyman-α systems at redshifts z _abs=2.3377 and 3.0249 observed in the spectra of the quasars Q 1232+082 and Q 0347?382, respectively. Our analysis yielded the most conservative estimate for the possible variation of μ in the past ～ 10 Gyr, Δμ/μ = (5.7 ± 3.8) × 10^?5. Since the significance of this result does not exceed 1.5σ, further observations are needed to increase the statistical significance. This is the most stringent limit on the possible cosmological variation of μ to date.     

Astronomical measurements and constraints on the variability of fundamental constants

We review the present status of how astronomical observations allow to constrain the evolution of fundamental constants of nature. The main observational constraints on the variation of the gravitational constant, on the fine structure constant and on the proton-to-electron mass ratio are reviewed. We also elaborate on some theoretical schemes which naturally lead to such variations.     

Scalar-tensor cosmology for traceless matter field in the large coupling function limit

Scalar tensor (ST) theories of gravitation contain an attractor mechanism towards general relativity. The mechanism is supposed to start back at time of inflation. Consequently the characteristic coupling function of the ST theories could attain a very large value during the radiation epoch. Here ST cosmology in the radiation dominated universe is studied under such situation. A general solution of the scale factor in the radiation dominated flat universe is obtained that is characterized by an additional degree of freedom. An implication of this extra parameter is discussed.      

Effects of possible deviations of fundamental physical constants on primordial nucleosynthesis

We study the effects of possible deviations of fundamental physical constants on the yields of light nuclides, ²D, ³He, ⁴He, ⁷Li, and others during primordial nucleosynthesis. The deviations of fundamental constants from their current values are considered in the low-energy approximation of string theories; the latter predict the existence of a scalar field, which, apart from the tensor gravitational field, determines the space geometry. A two-parameter (η, δ) model is constructed for primordial nucleosynthesis: η = n _B /n _γ is the baryon-to-photon density ratio, and Ω is the relative deviation of fundamental physical constants at the epoch of primordial nucleosynthesis from their current values. A dependence of η on the deviation of coupling constants Ω has been derived on condition that the primordial helium abundance is Y _p = f(η, δ) = const, where const corresponds to experimental values. We thus showed that the relative baryonic density (and hence Ω_B could vary over a much wider range than allowed by the standard nucleosynthesis model. Considering this result, we discuss the recently found mismatch between Ω_B obtained from an analysis of CMBR anisotropy and from the standard primordial nucleosynthesis model.     

On the Jeans-mass in cosmology

The matter of the Universe after recombination is considered as an expanding gas. the Jeans-mass obtained for this gas may essentially be larger than it is usually expected. This means that the discrepancy between the theoretical Jeans-mass and the observed masses of the galaxies may be mitigated.     

On the least action principle in cosmology

Given the present distribution of mass tracing objects in an expanding universe, we develop and test a fast method for recovering their past orbits using the least action principle. In this method, termed FAM for fast action minimization, the orbits are expanded in a set of orthogonal time basis functions satisfying the appropriate boundary conditions at the initial and final times. The conjugate gradient method is applied to locate the extremum of the action in the space of the expansion coefficients of the orbits. The treecode gravity solver routine is used for computing the gravitational field appearing in the action and the potential field appearing in the gradient of the action. The time integration of the Lagrangian is done using Gaussian quadratures. FAM allows us to increase the number of galaxies over previous numerical action principle implementations by more than one order of magnitude. For example, orbits for the 15 000 IRAS PSC z galaxies can be recovered in 12 000 CPU seconds on a 400-MHz DEC-Alpha machine. FAM can recover the present peculiar velocities of particles and the initial fluctuations field. It successfully recovers the flow field down to cluster scales, where deviations of the flow from the Zel'dovich solution are significant. We also show how to recover orbits from the present distribution of objects in redshift space by direct minimization of a modified action, without iterating the solution between real and redshift spaces.     

The main sequence stars and the photon-neutrino coupling theory of weak interactions

The tetrad field equations of general relativity discussed in previous articles are applied to Robertson-Walker cosmological models. A generalized Friedmann equation is derived and some of its consequences are discussed.     

Dynamics of the self-interacting chameleon cosmology

In this article we study the properties of the flat FRW chameleon cosmology in which the cosmic expansion of the Universe is affected by the chameleon field and dark energy. In particular, we perform a detailed examination of the model in the light of numerical analysis. The results illustrate that the interacting chameleon filed plays an important role in late time universe acceleration and phantom crossing.     

Solving the graceful exit problem in superstring cosmology

We briefly review the status of the “graceful exit” problem in superstring cosmology and present a possible resolution. It is shown that there exists a solution to this problem in two-dimensional dilaton gravity provided quantum corrections are incorporated. This is similar to the recently proposed solution of Rey. However, unlike in his case, in our one-loop corrected model the graceful exit problem is solved for any finite number of massless scalar matter fields present in the theory.     

Dynamics of dimensions in factor-space cosmology

For multi-dimensional cosmological models we investigate the dynamics of both, scales and dimensions. The classical equation of motions and the corresponding Wheeler-de Witt equation are set up generally and the qualitative behaviour of the system is discussed for some specific model with 2 factor spaces: A space M₁ with dynamical dimension, and a compact internal space M₂ of constant dimension. With a natural choice of some contraint, there exist a solution where M₁ expands as usual space while M₂ is shrinking down to unobservable scales.     

On the treatment of entropy mixing in numerical cosmology

For simulations of fluid dynamics in astrophysics, physical viscosity and diffusion are typically neglected. However, in this high Reynolds number regime, real fluids become highly turbulent and turbulent processes mediate substantial transport of momentum and heat that is diffusive in nature. In the absence of models for these processes, code-dependent numerical effects dominate how diffusion operates and may lead to physically incorrect simulation results. We highlight the qualitative difference in these numerical effects for smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and grid-based Eulerian codes using two test problems: a buoyant gas bubble and gas in a galaxy cluster. Grid codes suffer from numerical diffusion in the absence of explicit terms, and small-scale diffusion of heat is completely absent in the Lagrangian SPH method. We find that SPH with heat diffusion added at a level similar to that expected from turbulence diffusion generates more physically appealing results. These results suggest, but do not confirm, that a flat entropy core is to be expected for gas in an idealized galaxy cluster (i.e. one without physics beyond that of a non-radiating gas). A goal of this work is thus to draw attention to the as yet unfulfilled need for models of turbulent diffusive processes in compressible gases in astrophysics.     

Some critiques of the big bang cosmology

Still more shocking than the metaphysical assumption of some initial singularity, is the constant insistence upon the so-called cosmological principle of “homogeneity” and “isotropy” of the Universe. Observations do contradict this principle. And to me, the inhomogeneous, fractal at least on a certain scale range, of the distribution of matter is in itself an important cosmological fact, hitherto almost neglected. Moreover difficultties as to the applicability of the second principle of thermodynamics, observations of abnormal redshifts, etc., are casting large doubts not only upon the standard cosmological models, but even on the interpretation of the observed redshift as due solely to a universal expansion.