Zel’dovich Λ and Weinberg’s relation: an explanation for the cosmological coincidences

In 1937 Dirac proposed the large number hypothesis (LNH). The idea was to explain that these numbers were large because the Universe is old. A time variation of certain “constants” was assumed. So far, no experimental evidence has significantly supported this time variation. Here we present a simplified cosmological model. We propose a new cosmological system of units, including a cosmological Planck’s constant that “absorbs” the well known large number 10¹²⁰. With this new Planck’s constant no large numbers appear at the cosmological level. They appear at lower levels, e.g. at the quantum world. We note here that Zel’dovich formula, for the cosmological constant Λ, is equivalent to the Weinberg’s relation. The immediate conclusion is that the speed of light c must be proportional to the Hubble parameter H, and therefore decrease with time. We find that the gravitational radius of the Universe and its size are one and the same constant (Mach’s principle). The usual cosmological Ω’s parameters for mass, lambda and curvature turn out to be all constants of order one. The anthropic principle is not necessary in this theory. It is shown that a factor of 10⁶¹ converts in this theory a Planck fluctuation (a quantum black hole) into a cosmological quantum black hole: the Universe today. General relativity and quantum mechanics give the same local solution of an expanding Universe with the law a(t)≈const?t. This constant is just the speed of light today. Then the Hubble parameter is exactly H=a(t)′/a(t)=1/t.     

Gravity from the uncertainty principle

It is shown here that Newton’s gravity law can be derived from the uncertainty principle. The idea is that as the distance between two bodies in mutual orbit decreases, their uncertainty of position decreases, so their momentum and hence the force on them must increase to satisfy the uncertainty principle. When this result is summed over all the possible interactions between the Planck masses in the two bodies, Newton’s gravity law is obtained. This model predicts that masses less than the Planck mass will be unaffected by gravity and so it may be tested by looking for an abrupt decrease in the density of space dust, for masses above the Planck mass.     

Enigmatic aspects of the early universe: possibility of a ‘pre-big bang phase’!

In this paper it is suggested that inclusion of mutual gravitational interactions among the particles in the early dense universe can lead to a ‘pre-big bang’ scenario, with particle masses greater than the Planck mass implying an accelerating phase of the universe, which then goes into the radiation phase when the masses fall below the Planck mass. The existence of towers of states of such massive particles (i.e. multiples of Planck mass) as implied in various unified theories, provides rapid acceleration in the early universe, similar to the usual inflation scenario, but here the expansion rate goes over ‘smoothly’ to the radiation dominated universe when temperature becomes lower than the Planck temperature.     

Quantum wormhole with conformal scalar field

In this paper I use the Hartle-Hawking method to discuss quantum wormhole with conformal scalar field. I derive the corresponding Wheeler-De Witt equation, calculate the wormhole wave function, which is found to be the product of two harmonic solutions. Analysis of the wave function reveals that the probability density of the wormhole appearing at a = 0 is zero, that the most probable radius of the wormhole base state is the Planck length and that the wormhole is mostly likely to be in a state of small Φ value.     

New constraints on space–time Planck scale fluctuations from established high energy astronomy observations

The space–time metric is widely believed to be subject to stochastic fluctuations induced by quantum gravity at the Planck scale. This work is based on two different phenomenological approaches being currently made to this topic, and theoretical models which describe this phenomenon are not dealt with here. By using the idea developed in one of these two approaches in the framework of the other one, it is shown that the constraints on the nature of Planck scale space–time fluctuations already set by the observation of electrons and gamma-rays with energies above 15 TeV are much stronger than have been shown so far. It is concluded that for the kind of Planck scale fluctuations implied by several models, including the most naive one, to be consistent with the observations, the transformation laws between different reference frames must be modified in order to let the Planck scale be observer independent.     

Evolution of multimass globular clusters in the Galactic tidal field with the effects of velocity anisotropy

We study the evolution of globular clusters with mass spectra under the influence of the steady Galactic tidal field, including the effects of velocity anisotropy. Similarly to single-mass models, velocity anisotropy develops as the cluster evolves, but the degree of anisotropy is much smaller than in isolated clusters. Except for very early epochs of the cluster evolution, the velocity distributions of nearly all mass components become tangentially anisotropic at the outer parts. We examine how the mass function (MF) changes in time. Specifically, we find that the power-law index of the MF decreases monotonically with the total mass of the cluster, in agreement with previous findings based on isotropic models or N -body studies. This is also consistent with the behaviour of the observed slopes of MFs for a limited number of clusters. We attempt to compare our results with multimass King models, although it is almost impossible to fit the entire density profiles for all mass components. When the MF is fixed, the central densities of individual components show significant differences between Fokker–Planck and King models. We obtain 'best-fitting' multimass King models, for which the central density of individual components as well as the total density distribution agrees with the Fokker–Planck models by adjusting the MF. The MFs obtained in this way closely resemble the MF within the half-mass radius of the Fokker–Planck result. Also, we find that the local MFs predicted by Fokker–Planck calculations vary more rapidly with radius than best-fitting multimass King models. The projected velocity profiles for anisotropic models show significant flattening toward the tidal radius compared with the isotropic model. This is caused by the fact that the tangential velocity dispersion becomes dominant at the outer parts. Such a behaviour of velocity profile appears to be consistent with the observed profiles of the collapsed cluster M15.     

Possible experimental verification of Bellert’s cosmological red shift law using the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

The author presents a loose proposal of an experiment of measurements of the spectrum of the local black body thermal radiation of the quantum vacuum. The experiment may verify the Bellert’s and other theories about the nature of the cosmological red shift of electromagnetic waves and give a new interpretation of measurements of Cosmic Blackbody Radiation delivered by the satellite missions COBE and WMAP. Differently to the Big Bang theory, it is assumed that the quantum vacuum continuously generates thermal noise with the spectrum given by Planck’s law.     

Corrections to the Cardy-Verlinde formula at the Planck scale

The possible corrections to the thermodynamic quantities of higher dimensional Schwa-rzschild black hole have been investigated by considering the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) and the modified dispersion relation (MDR) separately. The quantum gravitational corrections to the Hawking temperature, energy and entropy of the black hole have been calculated based on both the GUP and the MDR analysis. The explicit form of the corrections are worked out up to the sixth power of the Planck length. The impacts of GUP and MDR have been used separately to obtain the quantum gravitational corrections to the Cardy-Verlinde (C-V) formula. It has been shown that the usual C-V entropy formula receives some new corrections. Also the renormalized form of the C-V formula has been introduced by redefining Virasoro operator and central charge within both the GUP and the MDR. Through comparison of the corrections obtained from GUP and MDR approaches it has been found that the results of these two alternative approaches should be identical if one uses the suitable expansion coefficients.     

Maximum acceleration and magnetic field in the early universe

The maximum acceleration at the Planck epoch is shown to be related to the maximum magnetic field and curvature as well as temperature in that era. Spin-torsion effects at that epoch also lead to same value.     

New evidence for strong nonthermal effects in Tycho’s supernova remnant

For the case of Tycho’s supernova remnant (SNR) we present the relation between the blast wave and contact discontinuity radii calculated within the nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in SNRs. It is demonstrated that these radii are confirmed by recently published Chandra measurements which show that the observed contact discontinuity radius is so close to the shock radius that it can only be explained by efficient CR acceleration which in turn makes the medium more compressible. Together with the recently determined new value E _sn=1.2×10⁵¹ erg of the SN explosion energy this also confirms our previous conclusion that a TeV γ-ray flux of (2–5)×10⁻¹³ erg/(cm² s) is to be expected from Tycho’s SNR. Chandra measurements and the HEGRA upper limit of the TeV γ-ray flux together limit the source distance d to 3.3≤d≤4 kpc.     

GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer

The GAUGE (GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer) mission proposes to use a drag-free spacecraft platform onto which a number of experiments are attached. They are designed to address a number of key issues at the interface between gravity and unification with the other forces of nature. The equivalence principle is to be probed with both a high-precision test using classical macroscopic test bodies, and, to lower precision, using microscopic test bodies via cold-atom interferometry. These two equivalence principle tests will explore string-dilaton theories and the effect of space–time fluctuations respectively. The macroscopic test bodies will also be used for intermediate-range inverse-square law and an axion-like spin-coupling search. The microscopic test bodies offer the prospect of extending the range of tests to also include short-range inverse-square law and spin-coupling measurements as well as looking for evidence of quantum decoherence due to space–time fluctuations at the Planck scale.     

The relativistic quasilinear theory of particle acceleration by hydromagnetic turbulence

The quasilinear theory of acceleration of relativistic particles by hydromagnetic turbulence is treated in the adiabatic limit of small gyration radius. The theory is based on the relativistic Vlasov equation; however, a given pitch-angle scattering rate by microturbulence is postulated and is added to this equation. The resulting acceleration is found to be given by a diffusion coefficient in total momentum, which is proportional to the spectrum of turbulence with a rate coefficient . is a frequency that represents the efficiency of each wave component of the turbulence in producing acceleration. It is given as an integral over the solution of a differential equation in pitch angle. is evaluated in various limiting cases and is shown to lead to familiar forms of acceleration, such as Fermi acceleration and magnetic pumping. Thus, a comprehensive theory of these forms of heating is achieved.     

Nernst theorem and Hawking radiation from a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole

The thermal character of inner horizon in a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole is studied via Hamilton-Jacobi method. There is “Hawking absorption” as a quantum effect near the inner horizon, and a negative temperature of the inner horizon was attained by choosing an observer outside the black hole. Using a redefined entropy of the black hole, we give a new expression of Bekenstein-Smarr formula. The redefined entropy satisfies Nernst Theorem, so it can be regarded as Planck absolute entropy of the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole.     

The number of information bits related to the minimum quantum and gravitational masses in a vacuum dominated universe

Wesson obtained a limit on quantum and gravitational mass in the universe by combining the cosmological constant Λ, Planck’s constant ?, the speed of light c, and also the gravitational constant G. The corresponding masses are 2.0×10^?62 kg and 2.3×10⁵⁴ kg respectively, and in general can be obtained with the help of a generic dimensional analysis, or from an analysis where the cosmological constant appears in a four dimensional space-time and as a result of a higher dimensional reduction. In this paper our goal is to establish a relation for both quantum and gravitational mass as function of the information number bit N. For this reason, we first derive an expression for the cosmological constant as a function of information bit, since both masses depend on it, and then various resulting relations are explored, in relation to information number of bits N. Fractional information bits imply no information extraction is possible. We see, that the order of magnitude of the various parameters as well as their ratios involve the large number 10¹²², that is produced naturally from the fundamental parameters of modern cosmology. Finally, we propose that in a complete quantum gravity theory the idea of information the might have to be included, with the quantum bits of information (q-bits) as one of its fundamental parameters, resulting thus to a more complete understanding of the universe, its laws, and its evolution.     

The Pioneer anomaly and a Machian universe

We discuss astronomical and astrophysical evidence, which we relate to the principle of zero-total energy of the Universe, that imply several relations among the mass M, the radius R and the angular momentum L of a “large” sphere representing a Machian Universe. By calculating the angular speed, we find a peculiar centripetal acceleration for the Universe. This is an ubiquituous property that relates one observer to any observable. It turns out that this is exactly the anomalous acceleration observed on the Pioneers spaceships. We have thus shown that this anomaly is to be considered a property of the Machian Universe. We discuss several possible arguments against our proposal.     

Was the Planck era of the universe a ‘cold’ or a ‘hot’ stage of the Big Bang?

Two models are presented of the Planck era in the Big Bang.The first of them starts from the state of an essentially cold and non-expanding universe (assumed to be closed). It is shown that the conditions in the Planck era rendered the total annihilation of the matter with the Planck density absolutely necessary. The annihilation was, further, a necessary condition for the expansion of the post-Planck universe, which, by itself, also was a necessity. The hot stage of the Big Bang in the post-Planck era was, in fact, a necessary consequence resulting from the scheme.The second model is motivated by the weak points of the first one. It is concluded that, owing to the extreme physical conditions, the cosmic medium within the Planck era could only consist of ultrahighly energetic photons.Finally, it is proposed that the second model is to be preferred.     

The Influence of Ion-Acoustic Turbulence on the Electron Acceleration in the Reconnecting Current Sheet

Through solving the single electron equation of motion and the Fokker-Planck equation including the terms of electric field strength and ion-acoustic turbulence, we study the influence of the ion-acoustic wave on the electron acceleration in turbulent reconnecting current sheets. It is shown that the ion-acoustic turbulence which causes plasma heating rather than particle acceleration should be considered. With typical parameter values, the acceleration time scale is around the order of 10^-6 s, the accelerated electrons may have approximately a power-law distribution in the energy range 20 ～100 keV and the spectral index is about 3～10, which is basically consistent with the observed hard X-ray spectra in solar flares.     

Do we live in the universe successively dominated by matter and antimatter?

We wonder if a cyclic universe may be dominated alternatively by matter and antimatter. Such a scenario demands a mechanism for transformation of matter to antimatter (or antimatter to matter) during the final stage of a big crunch. By giving an example, we have shown that in principle such a mechanism is possible. Our mechanism is based on a hypothetical repulsion between matter and antimatter, existing at least deep inside the horizon of a black hole. When universe is reduced to a supermassive black hole of a small size, a very strong field of the conjectured force might create (through a Schwinger type mechanism) particle-antiparticle pairs from the quantum vacuum. The amount of antimatter created from the vacuum is equal to the decrease of mass of the black hole and violently repelled from it. When the size of the black hole is sufficiently small, the creation of antimatter may become so fast, that matter of our Universe might be transformed to antimatter in a fraction of second. Such a fast conversion of matter into antimatter may look as a Big Bang. Our mechanism prevents a singularity; a new cycle might start with an initial size more than 30 orders of magnitude greater than the Planck length, suggesting that there is no need for inflationary scenario in Cosmology. In addition, there is no need to invoke CP violation for explanation of matter-antimatter asymmetry. Simply, our present day Universe is dominated by matter, because the previous universe was dominated by antimatter.     

Solution of radiative transfer equation with spherical-symmetry in partially scattering medium

We have solved the equation of radiative transfer in spherical symmetry with scattering and absorbing medium. We have set the albedo for single scattering to be equal to 0.5. We have set the Planck function constant throughout the medium in one case and in another case the Planck function has been set to vary asr ^–2. The geometrical extension of the spherical shell has been taken as large as one stellar radius. Two kinds of variations of the optical depth are employed (1) that remains constant with radius and (2) that varies asr ^–2. In all these cases the internal source vectors and specific intensities change depending upon the type of physics we have employed in each case.