Constraints on Cold Dark Matter Accelerating Cosmologies and Cluster Formation

We discuss the properties of homogeneous and isotropic flat cosmologies in which the present accelerating stage is powered only by the gravitationally induced creation of cold dark matter (CCDM) particles ($\Omega_{m}=1$). For some matter creation rates proposed in the literature, we show that the main cosmological functions such as the scale factor of the universe, the Hubble expansion rate, the growth factor and the cluster formation rate are analytically defined. The best CCDM scenario has only one free parameter and our joint analysis involving BAO + CMB + SNe Ia data yields ${\tilde{\Omega}}_{m}= 0.28\pm 0.01$ ($1\sigma$) where $\tilde{{\Omega}}_{m}$ is the observed matter density parameter. In particular, this implies that the model has no dark energy but the part of the matter that is effectively clustering is in good agreement with the latest determinations from large scale structure. The growth of perturbation and the formation of galaxy clusters in such scenarios are also investigated. Despite the fact that both scenarios may share the same Hubble expansion, we find that matter creation cosmologies predict stronger small scale dynamics which implies a faster growth rate of perturbations with respect to the usual $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Such results point to the possibility of a crucial observational test confronting CCDM with $\Lambda$CDM scenarios trough a more detailed analysis involving CMB, weak lensing, as well as the large scale structure.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication by Physical Rev.

Particle creation due to tachyonic instability in relativistic stars

Dense enough compact objects were recently shown to lead to an exponentially fast increase of the vacuum energy density for some free scalar fields properly coupled to the spacetime curvature as a consequence of a tachyonic-like instability. Once the effect is triggered, the star energy density would be overwhelmed by the vacuum energy density in a few milliseconds. This demands that eventually geometry and field evolve to a new configuration to bring the vacuum back to a stationary regime. Here, we show that the vacuum fluctuations built up during the unstable epoch lead to particle creation in the final stationary state when the tachyonic instability ceases. The amount of created particles depends mostly on the duration of the unstable epoch and final stationary configuration, which are open issues at this point. We emphasize that the particle creation coming from the tachyonic instability will occur even in the adiabatic limit, where the spacetime geometry changes arbitrarily slowly, and therefore is quite distinct from the usual particle creation due to the change in the background geometry.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, discussion improved: paragraph added at the end of Sec. V B (published version

Gravity-induced vacuum dominance

It has been widely believed that, except in very extreme situations, the influence of gravity on quantum fields should amount to just small, sub-dominant contributions. This view seemed to be endorsed by the seminal results obtained over the last decades in the context of renormalization of quantum fields in curved spacetimes. Here, however, we argue that this belief is false by showing that there exist well-behaved spacetime evolutions where the vacuum energy density of free quantum fields is forced, by the very same background spacetime, to become dominant over any classical energy-density component. This semiclassical gravity effect finds its roots in the infrared behavior of fields on curved spacetimes. By estimating the time scale for the vacuum energy density to become dominant, and therefore for backreaction on the background spacetime to become important, we argue that this vacuum dominance may bear unexpected astrophysical and cosmological implications.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett