Geometric Drive of the Universe's Expansion

What if physics is just the way we perceive geometry? That is, what if geometry and physics will one day become one and the same discipline? I believe that will mean we will at last really understand physics, without postulates other than those defining the particular space where the physics play is performed. In this paper I use 5-dimensional spacetime as a point of departure and make a very peculiar assignment between coordinates and physical distances and time. I assume there is an hyperspherical symmetry which is made apparent by assigning the hypersphere radius to proper time and distances on the hypersphere to usual 3-dimensional distances. Time, or Compton time to distinguish from cosmic time is the 0th coordinate and I am able to project everything into 4-dimensions by imposing a null displacement condition. Surprisingly nothing else is needed to explain Hubble's expansion law without any appeal to dark matter; an empty Universe will expand naturally at a flat rate in this way. I then discuss the perturbative effects of a small mass density in the expansion rate in a qualitative way; quantitative results call for the solution of equations that sometimes have not even been clearly formulated and so are deferred to later work. A brief outlook of the consequences an hyperspherical symmetry has for galaxy dynamics allows the derivation of constant rotation velocity curves, again without appealing to dark matter. An appendix explains how electromagnetism is made consistent with this geometric approach and justifies the fact that photons must travel on hypersphere circles, to be normal to proper time.Comment: Presented at the 1st Crisis in Cosmology Confrence, CCC-

Plus-minus construction leads to perfect invisibility

Recent theoretical advances applied to metamaterials have opened new avenues to design a coating that hides objects from electromagnetic radiation and even the sight. Here, we propose a new design of cloaking devices that creates perfect invisibility in isotropic media. A combination of positive and negative refractive indices, called plus-minus construction, is essential to achieve perfect invisibility (i.e., no time delay and total absence of reflection). Contrary to the common understanding that between two isotropic materials having different refractive indices the electromagnetic reflection is unavoidable, our method shows that surprisingly the reflection phenomena can be completely eliminated. The invented method, different from the classical impedance matching, may also find electromagnetic applications outside of cloaking devices, wherever distortions are present arising from reflections.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure

A New Design of Ultra-Flattened Near-zero Dispersion PCF Using Selectively Liquid Infiltration

The paper report new results of chromatic dispersion in Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs) through appropriate designing of index-guiding triangular-lattice structure devised, with a selective infiltration of only the first air-hole ring with index-matching liquid. Our proposed structure can be implemented for both ultra-low and ultra-flattened dispersion over a wide wavelength range. The dependence of dispersion parameter of the PCF on infiltrating liquid indices, hole-to-hole distance and air-hole diameter are investigated in details. The result establishes the design to yield a dispersion of 0+-0.15ps/ (nm.km) in the communication wavelength band. We propose designs pertaining to infiltrating practical liquid for near-zero ultra-flat dispersion of D=0+-0.48ps/ (nm.km) achievable over a bandwidth of 276-492nm in the wavelength range of 1.26 {\mu}m to 1.80{\mu}m realization.Comment: 6 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

Transformation Optics and the Geometry of Light

Metamaterials are beginning to transform optics and microwave technology thanks to their versatile properties that, in many cases, can be tailored according to practical needs and desires. Although metamaterials are surely not the answer to all engineering problems, they have inspired a series of significant technological developments and also some imaginative research, because they invite researchers and inventors to dream. Imagine there were no practical limits on the electromagnetic properties of materials. What is possible? And what is not? If there are no practical limits, what are the fundamental limits? Such questions inspire taking a fresh look at the foundations of optics and at connections between optics and other areas of physics. In this article we discuss such a connection, the relationship between optics and general relativity, or, expressed more precisely, between geometrical ideas normally applied in general relativity and the propagation of light, or electromagnetic waves in general, in materials. We also discuss how this connection is applied: in invisibility devices, perfect lenses, the optical Aharonov-Bohm effect of vortices and in analogues of the event horizon.Comment: 72 pages, 18 figures, preprint with low-resolution images. Introduction to transformation optics, to appear in Progress in Optics (edited by Emil Wolf

Blue and violet graviton spectra from a dynamical refractive index

We show that the spectral energy distribution of relic gravitons mildly increases for frequencies smaller than the $\mu$Hz and then flattens out whenever the refractive index of the tensor modes is dynamical during a quasi-de Sitter stage of expansion. For a conventional thermal history the high-frequency plateau ranges between the mHz and the audio band but it is supplemented by a spike in the GHz region if a stiff post-inflationary phase precedes the standard radiation-dominated epoch. Even though the slope is blue at intermediate frequencies, it may become violet in the MHz window. For a variety of post-inflationary histories, including the conventional one, a dynamical index of refraction leads to a potentially detectable spectral energy density in the kHz and in the mHz regions while all the relevant phenomenological constraints are concurrently satisfied.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure