Dark-energy dependent test of general relativity at cosmological scales

The $\Lambda$CDM framework offers a remarkably good description of our universe with a very small number of free parameters, which can be determined with high accuracy from currently available data. However, this does not mean that the associated physical quantities, such as the curvature of the universe, have been directly measured. Similarly, general relativity is assumed, but not tested. Testing the relevance of general relativity for cosmology at the background level includes a verification of the relation between its energy contents and the curvature of space. Using an extended Newtonian formulation, we propose an approach where this relation can be tested. Using the recent measurements on cosmic microwave background, baryonic acoustic oscillations and the supernova Hubble diagram, we show that the prediction of general relativity is well verified in the framework of standard $\Lambda$CDM assumptions, i.e. an energy content only composed of matter and dark energy, in the form of a cosmological constant or equivalently a vacuum contribution. However, the actual equation of state of dark fluids cannot be directly obtained from cosmological observations. We found that relaxing the equation of state of dark energy opens a large region of possibilities, revealing a new type of degeneracy between the curvature and the total energy content of the universe.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

On the inevitability of reionization: implications for cosmic microwave background fluctuations

Early photoionization of the intergalactic medium is discussed in a nearly model-independent way, in order to investigate whether early structures corresponding to rare Gaussian peaks in a CDM model can photoionize the intergalactic medium sufficiently early to appreciably smooth out the microwave background fluctuations. We conclude that this is indeed possible for a broad range of CDM normalizations and is almost inevitable for unbiased CDM, provided that the bulk of these early structures are quite small, no more massive than about 10^8 solar masses. Typical parameter values predict that reionization occurs around z=50, thereby suppressing fluctuations on degree scales while leaving the larger angular scales probed by COBE reasonably unaffected. However, for non-standard CDM, incorporating mixed dark matter, vacuum density or a tilted primordial power spectrum, early reionization plays no significant role.Comment: 32 pages, incl 10 figures. Stone-age postscript replaced by LATeX. Latest version at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~max/reion.html (faster from the US), from http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~max/reion.html (faster from Europe) or from [email protected]

Can Dark Energy emerge from quantum effects in compact extra dimension ?

The origin of the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe is a major problem of modern cosmology and theoretical physics. Simple estimations of the contribution of vacuum to the density energy of the universe in quantum field theory are known to lead to catastrophic large values compared to observations. Such a contribution is therefore generally not regarded as a viable source for the acceleration of the expansion. In this letter we propose that the vacuum contribution actually provides a small positive value to the density energy of the universe. The underlying mechanism is a manifestation of the quantum nature of the gravitational field, through a Casimir-like effect from an additional compact dimension of space. A key ingredient is to assume that only modes with wavelength shorter than the Hubble length contribute to the vacuum. Such a contribution gives a positive energy density, has a Lorentz invariant equation of state in the usual 4D spacetime and hence can be interpreted as a cosmological constant. Its value agrees with observations for a radius of a 5th extra dimension given by $35\,\mu$m. This implies a modification of the gravitational inverse square law around this scale, close but below existing limits from experiments testing gravity at short range.Comment: To be published in A\&

Cosmological Interpretation from High Redshift Clusters Observed Within the XMM-Newton Ω\Omega-Project

During the last ten years astrophysical cosmology has brought three remarkable results of deep impact for fundamental physics: the existence of non-baryonic dark matter, the (nearly) flatness of space, the domination of the density of the universe by some gravitationally repulsive fluid. This last result is probably the most revolutionizing one: the scientific review Sciences has considered twice results on this question as Breakthrough of the Year (for 1998 and 2003). However, direct evidence of dark energy are still rather weak, and the strength of the standard scenario relies more on the "concordance" argument rather than on the robustness of direct evidences. Furthermore, a scenario can be build in an Einstein-de Sitter universe, which reproduces as well as the concordance model the following various data relevant to cosmology: WMAP results, large scale structure of the universe, local abundance of massive clusters, weak lensing measurements, most Hubble constant measurements not based on stellar indicators. Furthermore, recent data on distant x-ray clusters obtained from XMM and Chandra indicates that the observed abundances of clusters at high redshift taken at face value favors an Einstein de Sitter model and are hard to reconcile with the concordance model. It seems wise therefore to consider that the actual existence of the dark energy is still an open question.Comment: Proceedings of DARK 2004, the Fifth International Heidelberg Conference, October 3-9, 2004, Texas A&M Universit

Shaping Economic Practices in China’s post-Command Economy Period: the interaction of politics, economics and institutional constraints

Although much has been published on China\u27s economic transition, less research has focused on how Chinese culture and the Communist political system have interacted to shape the new Chinese economy. In this paper, we argue that China\u27s post-command economy period reflects not only the \u27new\u27 infusion of neo-liberal ideology into the country, but also the consistent filtering of economic practices through a historical and complex institutional arrangement of cultural and political norms. The tensions between neo-classical free market principles and the overarching authority of the Communist state explain the variety of institutional constraints on actual economic practices in China. While the economic reforms initiated a change in the traditional patriarchal society, leading women to further integrate themselves into the labour market, in many cases this has become localised in the informal sectors of the economy. We shed light on this phenomenon by discussing how longstanding paternalist norms have been translated into institutional constraints on economic activity

Dark sectors of the Universe: A Euclid survey approach

In this paper we study the consequences of relaxing the hypothesis of the pressureless nature of the dark matter component when determining constraints on dark energy. To this aim we consider simple generalized dark matter models with constant equation of state parameter. We find that present-day low-redshift probes (type-Ia supernovae and baryonic acoustic oscillations) lead to a complete degeneracy between the dark energy and the dark matter sectors. However, adding the cosmic microwave background (CMB) high-redshift probe restores constraints similar to those on the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. We then examine the anticipated constraints from the galaxy clustering probe of the future Euclid survey on the same class of models, using a Fisher forecast estimation. We show that the Euclid survey allows us to break the degeneracy between the dark sectors, although the constraints on dark energy are much weaker than with standard dark matter. The use of CMB in combination allows us to restore the high precision on the dark energy sector constraints.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure