Cosmic Numbers: A Physical Classification for Cosmological Models

We introduce the notion of the cosmic numbers of a cosmological model, and discuss how they can be used to naturally classify models according to their ability to solve some of the problems of the standard cosmological model.Comment: 3 pages, no figures. v2: Two references added, cosmetic changes. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D (Brief reports

Domain wall network evolution in (N+1)-dimensional FRW universes

We develop a velocity-dependent one-scale model for the evolution of domain wall networks in flat expanding or collapsing homogeneous and isotropic universes with an arbitrary number of spatial dimensions, finding the corresponding scaling laws in frictionless and friction dominated regimes. We also determine the allowed range of values of the curvature parameter and the expansion exponent for which a linear scaling solution is possible in the frictionless regime.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Anthropic versus cosmological solutions to the coincidence problem

In this paper we investigate possible solutions to the coincidence problem in flat phantom dark energy models with a constant dark energy equation of state and quintessence models with a linear scalar field potential. These models are representative of a broader class of cosmological scenarios in which the universe has a finite lifetime. We show that, in the absence of anthropic constraints, including a prior probability for the models inversely proportional to the total lifetime of the universe excludes models very close to the $\Lambda {\rm CDM}$ model. This relates a cosmological solution to the coincidence problem with a dynamical dark energy component having an equation of state parameter not too close to -1 at the present time. We further show, that anthropic constraints, if they are sufficiently stringent, may solve the coincidence problem without the need for dynamical dark energy.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

String Imprints from a Pre-inflationary Era

We derive the equations governing the dynamics of cosmic strings in a flat anisotropic universe of Bianchi type I and study the evolution of simple cosmic string loop solutions. We show that the anisotropy of the background can have a characteristic effect in the loop motion. We discuss some cosmological consequences of these findings and, by extrapolating our results to cosmic string networks, we comment on their ability to survive an inflationary epoch, and hence be a possible fossil remnant (still visible today) of an anisotropic phase in the very early universe.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

A Supernova Brane Scan

We consider a `brane-world scenario' recently introduced by Dvali, Gabadadze and Porrati, and subsequently proposed as an alternative to a cosmological constant in explaining the current acceleration of the universe. We show that, contrary to these claims, this proposal is already strongly disfavoured by the available Type Ia Supernovae, Cosmic Microwave Background and cluster data.Comment: Further cosmetic changes; to appear in The Astrophysical Journal, v56

Cosmic string loops and large-scale structure

We investigate the contribution made by small loops from a cosmic string network as seeds for large-scale structure formation. We show that cosmic string loops are highly correlated with the long-string network on large scales and therefore contribute significantly to the power spectrum of density perturbations if the average loop lifetime is comparable to or above one Hubble time. This effect further improves the large-scale bias problem previously identified in earlier studies of cosmic string models.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Matter power spectrum for the generalized Chaplygin gas model: The relativistic case

The generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model is the prototype of a unified model of dark energy (DE) and dark matter (DM). It is characterized by equation-of-state (EoS) parameters $A$ and $\alpha$. We use a statistical analysis of the 2dFGRS data to constrain these parameters. In particular, we find that very small (close to zero) and very large values ($\alpha\gg 1$) of the equation-of-state parameter $\alpha$ are preferred. To test the validity of this type of unification of the dark sector we admit the existence of a separate DM component in addition to the Chaplygin gas and calculate the probability distribution for the fractional contributions of both components to the total energy density. This analysis favors a model for which the Universe is nearly entirely made up of the separate DM component with an almost negligible Chaplygin gas part. This confirms the results of a previous Newtonian analysis.Comment: Latex file, 8 pages, 15 figures in eps forma