97,460 research outputs found
The Accelerated Universe and the Moon
Cosmologically motivated theories that explain small acceleration rate of the
Universe via modification of gravity at very large, horizon or super-horizon
distances, can be tested by precision gravitational measurements at much
shorter scales, such as the Earth-Moon distance. Contrary to the naive
expectation the predicted corrections to the Einsteinian metric near
gravitating sources are so significant that fall within sensitivity of the
proposed Lunar Ranging experiments. The key reason for such corrections is the
van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity present in linearized versions of all
such theories, and its subsequent absence at the non-linear level ala
Vainshtein
Quantum cosmology and the accelerated Universe
The quantized Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model minimally
coupled to a free massless scalar field is studied and interpreted in the
Bohm-de Broglie framework. We analyze the quantum bohmian trajectories
corresponding to a certain class of gaussian packets, solutions of the
Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We show that these bohmian trajectories undergo an
accelerated expansion in the middle of its evolution due to the presence of
quantum cosmological effects in this period. It is shown that the
luminosity-redshift relation in the quantum cosmological model can be made
close to the corresponding relation coming from the classical model suplemented
by a cosmological constant, for . In this way we have the posibility of
interpreting the present observations of high redshift supernovae as the
consequence of a quantum cosmological effect.Comment: Talk given at X Marcell Grossmann Meeting, Rio de Janeiro, 2003.
Added references and some minor typos correction
Focusing of geodesic congruences in an accelerated expanding Universe
We study the accelerated expansion of the Universe through its consequences
on a congruence of geodesics. We make use of the Raychaudhuri equation which
describes the evolution of the expansion rate for a congruence of timelike or
null geodesics. In particular, we focus on the space-time geometry contribution
to this equation. By straightforward calculation from the metric of a
Robertson-Walker cosmological model, it follows that in an accelerated
expanding Universe the space-time contribution to the Raychaudhuri equation is
positive for the fundamental congruence, favoring a non-focusing of the
congruence of geodesics. However, the accelerated expansion of the present
Universe does not imply a tendency of the fundamental congruence to diverge. It
is shown that this is in fact the case for certain congruences of timelike
geodesics without vorticity. Therefore, the focusing of geodesics remains
feasible in an accelerated expanding Universe. Furthermore, a negative
contribution to the Raychaudhuri equation from space-time geometry which is
usually interpreted as the manifestation of the attractive character of gravity
is restored in an accelerated expanding Robertson-Walker space-time at high
speeds.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Final version changed to match published version
in JCAP. References updated. Conclusions unchange
Cosmological Evolution Across Phantom Crossing and the Nature of the Horizon
In standard cosmology, with the evolution of the universe, the matter density
and thermodynamic pressure gradually decreases. Also in course of evolution,
the matter in the universe obeys (or violates) some restrictions or energy
conditions. If the matter distribution obeys strong energy condition (SEC), the
universe is in a decelerating phase while violation of SEC indicates an
accelerated expansion of the universe. In the period of accelerated expansion
the matter may be either of quintessence nature or of phantom nature depending
on the fulfilment of the weak energy condition (WEC) or violation of it. As
recent observational evidences demand that the universe is going through an
accelerated expansion so mater should be either quintessence or phantom in
nature. In the present work we study the evolution of the universe through the
phantom barrier (i.e. the dividing line between the quintessence and phantom
era) and examine how apparent and event horizon change across the barrier.
Finally, we investigate the possibility of occurrence of any singularity in
phantom era.Comment: 7 pages and 4 figure
Tachyon fields with effects of quantum matter in an Anti-de Sitter Universe
We consider an Anti-de Sitter universe filled by quantum conformal matter
with the contribution from the usual tachyon and a perfect fluid. The model
represents the combination of a trace-anomaly annihilated and a tachyon driven
Anti-de Sitter universe. The influence exerted by the quantum effects and by
the tachyon on the AdS space is studied. The radius corresponding to this
universe is calculated and the effect of the tachyon potential is discussed, in
particular, concerning to the possibility to get an accelerated scale factor
for the proposed model (implying an accelerated expansion of the AdS type of
universe). Fulfillment of the cosmological energy conditions in the model is
also investigatedComment: 14 Latex pages, no figure
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