36,588 research outputs found
Local thermal equilibrium and ideal gas Stephani universes
The Stephani universes that can be interpreted as an ideal gas evolving in
local thermal equilibrium are determined. Five classes of thermodynamic schemes
are admissible, which give rise to five classes of regular models and three
classes of singular models. No Stephani universes exist representing an exact
solution to a classical ideal gas (one for which the internal energy is
proportional to the temperature). But some Stephani universes may approximate a
classical ideal gas at first order in the temperature: all of them are
obtained. Finally, some features about the physical behavior of the models are
pointed out.Comment: 20 page
Cosmological D-instantons and Cyclic Universes
For models of gravity coupled to hyperbolic sigma models, such as the
metric-scalar sector of IIB supergravity, we show how smooth trajectories in
the `augmented target space' connect FLRW cosmologies to non-extremal
D-instantons through a cosmological singularity. In particular, we find closed
cyclic universes that undergo an endless sequence of big-bang to big-crunch
cycles separated by instanton `phases'. We also find `big-bounce' universes in
which a collapsing closed universe bounces off its cosmological singularity to
become an open expanding universe.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. v2: minor change
Chaos, Fractals and Inflation
In order to draw out the essential behavior of the universe, investigations
of early universe cosmology often reduce the complex system to a simple
integrable system. Inflationary models are of this kind as they focus on simple
scalar field scenarios with correspondingly simple dynamics. However, we can be
assured that the universe is crowded with many interacting fields of which the
inflaton is but one. As we describe, the nonlinear nature of these interactions
can result in a complex, chaotic evolution of the universe. Here we illustrate
how chaotic effects can arise even in basic models such as homogeneous,
isotropic universes with two scalar fields. We find inflating universes which
act as attractors in the space of initial conditions. These universes display
chaotic transients in their early evolution. The chaotic character is reflected
by the fractal border to the basin of attraction. The broader implications are
likely to be felt in the process of reheating as well as in the nature of the
cosmic background radiation.Comment: 16 pages, RevTeX. See published version for fig
Eternal Inflation With Non-Inflationary Pocket Universes
Eternal inflation produces pocket universes with all physically allowed vacua
and histories. Some of these pocket universes might contain a phase of
slow-roll inflation, some might undergo cycles of cosmological evolution and
some might look like the galilean genesis or other "emergent" universe
scenarios. Which one of these types of universe we are most likely to inhabit
depends on the measure we choose in order to regulate the infinities inherent
in eternal inflation. We show that the currently leading measure proposals,
namely the global light-cone cut-off and its local counterpart, the causal
diamond measure, as well as closely related proposals, all predict that we
should live in a pocket universe that starts out with a small Hubble rate, thus
favoring emergent and cyclic models. Pocket universes which undergo cycles are
further preferred, because they produce habitable conditions repeatedly inside
each pocket.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, v2: replaced with PRD versio
Anthropic Distribution for Cosmological Constant and Primordial Density Perturbations
The anthropic principle has been proposed as an explanation for the observed
value of the cosmological constant. Here we revisit this proposal by allowing
for variation between universes in the amplitude of the scale-invariant
primordial cosmological density perturbations. We derive a priori probability
distributions for this amplitude from toy inflationary models in which the
parameter of the inflaton potential is smoothly distributed over possible
universes. We find that for such probability distributions, the likelihood that
we live in a typical, anthropically-allowed universe is generally quite small.Comment: 12 pages, 2 tables. v3: Replaced to match published version (minor
corrections of form
Scale-invariance in expanding and contracting universes from two-field models
We study cosmological perturbations produced by the most general
two-derivative actions involving two scalar fields, coupled to Einstein
gravity, with an arbitrary field space metric, that admit scaling solutions.
For contracting universes, we show that scale-invariant adiabatic perturbations
can be produced continuously as modes leave the horizon for any equation of
state parameter . The corresponding background solutions are unstable,
which we argue is a universal feature of contracting models that yield
scale-invariant spectra. For expanding universes, we find that nearly
scale-invariant adiabatic perturbation spectra can only be produced for , and that the corresponding scaling solutions are attractors. The
presence of a nontrivial metric on field space is a crucial ingredient in our
results.Comment: 23 pages, oversight in perturbations calculation corrected,
conclusions for expanding models modifie
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