Small scale entropy and adiabatic density perturbations — Antimatter in the Universe

Fluctuations of all scales are equally interesting from the point of view of the characteristics of the singular state and not only those which led to the formation of astronomical objects such as clusters of galaxies, separate galaxies, globular clusters and quasars. In this article estimates are given of the homogeneity of the overall density of hot plasma and the relation between the quantity of baryons and antibaryons at early stages of evolution of the Universe. These estimates are made for small scales, considerably smaller than the scale of the astronomical objects enumerated above. Considerations about the energy balance of hot plasma and distortions of the spectrum of relic radiation due to dissipation of density fluctuations of matter are used for these estimates. The corrected upper limit to early energy injection is given. In our preceding paper (Sunyaev and Zeldovich, 1970) this upper limit was underestimated. Difficulties with a model of the Universe which is symmetric in baryon charge are noted.     

Physical uniformity of the Universe

The question of the spatial homogeneity of the Universe is re-examined from the viewpoint of the hypothesis on the physical unity of the universe. It is shown that the demand for the universal validity of the theory of relativity implies that the average value of the Newtonian world potential is constant everywhere in the universe which is spatially homogeneous on a large scale. It turns out that Mach's principle is compatible with the special theory of relativity if the average value of the normalized world potential is exactly equal to–c ². This fact may be interpreted as a consequence of the fundamental idea of the general relativity that cosmic matter determines the space-time metric in agreement with Mach's principle.     

Physical constants and evolution of the Universe

A cosmological model is discussed which is based on interpretation of the red shift by decrease of the light speed with time everywhere in the Universe beginning with a certain moment of time in the past. The model is described by a metric in which the light speed depends on time and the radius of the curvature of three-dimensional space remains constant (c-metric). It is shown that this metric leads to the same observed facts and formulas of different characteristics that the metric of standard cosmology does but with essentially different physical interpretation. Such a property is the consequence of conformity of spaces being defined by both metrics. The agreement with the fundamental physics laws is achieved by introducing the evolution of a number of other fundamental constants synchronously with the variation of the light speed. The model considered connected the evolution of the Universe with evolution of physical constants and permits explaining some unclear cosmological phenomena — for example, a high isotropy of the relict background and superluminal speed in quasars.     

Matter-space-time properties of the Universe

In the expansive nondecelerative homogeneous and isotropic relativistic Universe there take place: the permanent constant maximum possible creation of matter, the relativistic increase of mass of expanding objects, the relativistic dilatation of time of expanding objects, the relativistic contraction of radial length of expanding objects, and the relativistic dilatation of angular dimensions of expanding remote objects.Editor's Note: The delay in publishing this paper was due to an unfortunate oversight connected with the late Professor Kopal's death.     

A local void and the accelerating Universe

RCW 114 is a filamentary nebula of about 250 arcmin diameter. Based on its large diameter-to-filament-width ratio, the expansion velocity, distance and size of the shell, it has been suggested that RCW 114 is a supernova remnant in its momentum-conserving phase. Confirmation of this identification is important, as the large angular size and extensive optical emission of this object will allow for detailed study to improve our knowledge of supernova remnants and their interaction with the interstellar medium.
We have used the FLAIR instrument on the UK Schmidt Telescope to obtain optical spectra of several filaments in RCW 114. These confirm that the emission is being produced by the interaction of the shock wave of a supernova remnant with the surrounding interstellar medium. We also obtained narrow-band H α +[N  ii ] and [S  ii ] images to examine the spatial variation in ionization structure.     

Planets in the early Universe

Several planets have recently been discovered around stars that are old and metal-poor, implying that these planets are also old, formed in the early Universe together with their hosts. The canonical theory suggests that the conditions for their formation could not have existed at such early epochs. In this paper we argue that the required conditions, such as sufficiently high dust-to-gas ratio, could in fact have existed in the early Universe immediately following the first episode of metal production in Pop. III stars, both in metal-enhanced and metal-deficient environments. Metal-rich regions may have existed in multiple isolated pockets of enriched and weakly-mixed gas close to the massive Pop. III stars. Observations of quasars at redshifts z～5, and gamma-ray bursts at z～6, show a very wide spread of metals in absorption from [X/H]??3 to ??0.5. This suggests that physical conditions in the metal-abundant clumps could have been similar to where protoplanets form today. However, planets could have formed even in low-metallicity environments, where formation of stars is expected to proceed due to lower opacity at higher densities. In such cases, the circumstellar accretion disks are expected to rotate faster than their high-metallicity analogues. This in turn can result in the enhancement of dust particles at the disk periphery, where they can coagulate and start forming planetesimals. In conditions with the low initial specific angular momentum of the cloud, radiation from the central protostar can act as a trigger to drive small-scale instabilities with typical masses in the Earth to Jupiter mass range. Discoveries of planets around old metal-poor stars (e.g. HIP 11952, [Fe/H]～?1.95, ～13 Gyr) show that planets did indeed form in the early Universe and this may require modification of our understanding of the physical processes that produce them. This work is an attempt to provide one such heuristic scenario for the physical basis for their existence.     

Life and habitable zones in the Universe

Currently we are aware of only one biosphere in the entire Universe, our own. Various ongoing observational programmes are, however, attempting to locate more. These searches for extraterrestrial life are among the most challenging and interesting tasks of modern science. The Universe is immense, and even the distances to the nearest stars are beyond our present capabilities to traverse, so that search strategies must be thought through carefully in terms of how, where and what to search for. Life is undoubtedly more likely in some environments than others, and environmental criteria must be fulfilled for life to arise, survive, evolve and thrive. As search resources are limited we should concentrate our search on habitable zones that are suitable for the kind of life we can most easily recognise, in other words, searches should be guided by our own biosphere.     

Energy conditions and inhomogeneities in the Universe

The so-called dominant energy condition and the strong energy condition (of singularity theorems) cannot be violated by the negative effective ‘pressure’ arising from the inhomogeneous distribution of matter in the Universe.     

Dark Energy in the Universe

I 24 Studying the Nature of Dark Energy with Galaxy Clusters I 50 Constraining Dark Energy via Baryon Acoustic Oscillations I 65 Constraining Dark Energy with Redshift Surveys I 103 Dark Energy: Necessity, Models and Expectations I 177 Searching for galaxy clusters through weak lensing, X‐rays and the SZ observations I 181 SNIa and Dark Energy     

Is the Universe flat?

The evidence for unseen mass (which is briefly reviewed) suggests that the cosmological density parameter Ω is at least 0.1–0.2. An Einstein-de-Sitter ‘flat’ universe with Ω = 1 — which is appealing for theoretical reasons — can only be reconciled with the data if the galaxies are more ‘clumped’ than the overall mass distribution, and are poor tracers of the unseen mass even on scales of several Mpc. Possible forms for the unseen mass are discussed; and feedback processes are outlined whereby galaxy formation can be suppressed in underdense regions.     

Non-GUT baryogenesis and large-scale structure of the Universe

We discuss a mechanism for producing baryon density perturbations during the inflationary stage, and study the evolution of the baryon charge density distribution in the framework of the low-temperature baryogenesis scenario. This mechanism may be important for large-scale structure formation in the Universe and, in particular, may be essential for understanding the existence of a characteristic scale of 130  h ⁻¹ Mpc (comoving size) in the distribution of the visible matter.
A detailed analysis shows that both the observed very large scale of the visible matter distribution in the Universe and the observed baryon asymmetry value could naturally appear as a result of the evolution of a complex scalar field condensate, formed at the inflationary stage.
Moreover, according to our model, the visible part of the Universe at present may consist of baryonic and antibaryonic regions, sufficiently separated, so that annihilation radiation is not observed.     

Deuterium, lithium and the density of the Universe

The main outcome of the primordial nucleosynthesis is the ability to account for the abundances of D, ³He, ⁴He and ⁷Li with the proper choice of the nuclear density parameter ω_B. The relative advantages/disadvantages of D and ⁷Li as the proper `baryometer' are discussed. In favour of D, the main arguments are the relative simplicity of the formation/destruction schema, but this is challenged by the large uncertainties on the choice of its actual `primordial' abundance and on the galactic evolution scheme. In favour of ⁷Li there are the confirmation of the so called `Spite plateau' and the observation of ⁶Li at the surface of at least one (may be two) Population II stars, but the paucity of such stars such as the possibility of scenarios in which the ⁷Li abundance could be affected even in these stars cannot be overlooked. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Role of Extragalactic Antimatter in Cosmic Ray Observations Near Earth

Quest for antimatter in cosmic rays has revealed no compelling evidence of primary, extragalactic antiparticles up to the present time. Recent positron and antiproton observations have been found to be consistent with a pure galactic origin up to energies of 50 GeV and 20 GeV respectively. In this paper it is discussed which role might be played by Ultra High Energy (UHE) extragalactic particles and antiparticles in cosmic-ray observations near Earth. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Momentum and Angular Momentum in the Expanding Universe

A new approach has been used to evaluate the momentum and angular momentum of the isotropic and homogeneous cosmological models. It is shown that the results obtained for momentum exactly coincide with those already available in the literature. However, the angular momentum expression coincides only for the closed Friedmann model.     

Parameters of the early Universe and primordial black holes

We consider the possibility of low-mass primordial black holes being formed in terms of the inflationary theory of the early Universe. We found a condition on the reheating temperature under which the relic remnants of primordial black holes had been formed by now. These relic remnants may account for a part of the dark matter in our Universe.     

The average density of the Universe and the Regge law

We calculate the principal inertia moments of a three-dimensional mass distribution rotating with angular velocity in a self-gravitating homogeneous field with axial symmetry. We show that the angular momentumJ may, under certain conditions, be of the Regge-like type. These results are used to evaluate the mass and average density of the Universe.     

Parastatistics and the equation of state for the early Universe

The equation of state for an ideal mixture of relativistic quantum gases obeying any (para-)statistics is given. Recursion formulae are obtained for the distribution function and correlations are analysed. The equation of state can be applied to the early Universe, allowing the quarks to be treated either as coloured fermions or (unequivalently) as parafermions of order 3. In the latter case, they exhibit a tendency of aggregate into triads by a mere statistical effect.     

Measuring α in the Early Universe

We update the bounds on a time-varying fine structure constant α at the time of BBN (z∼10¹⁰) and CMB (z∼10³) and present the current CMB constraints on α, through a combined analysis of the BOOMERanG, MAXIMA and DASI datasets. We also present a discussion of the constraints on α coming from large-scale structure observations, focusing in particular on the power spectrum from the 2dF survey. Finally we provide a analysis of the degeneracies between α and the other cosmological parameters and discuss ways to break these with both existing and/or forthcoming data. Our results are consistent with no variation in α from the epoch of recombination to the present day, and restrict any such variation to be less than about 4%.We show that the forthcoming MAP and Planck experiments will be able to break most of the currently existing degeneracies between α and other parameters, and measure α to better than percent accuracy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.