Do the Age of the Universe and the Hubble Constant Depend on What Scale One Observes Them?

The apparent cosmological conflict between the age of the Universe, predicted in the standard Friedman cosmology by using the recent measurement of the larger Hubble constant from a direct calibration of the distance to the Virgo galaxy cluster, and the ages of the oldest stars and globular clusters is resolved by invoking the scale dependence of cosmological quantities, including the age of the Universe. The distance dependence or the running of cosmological quantities is motivated by the asymptotically-free higher- derivative quantum gravity. The running can also be derived by ``properly" modifying the Friedman equations. This property can also provide partial explanation of the apparent disagreement between the two recent measurements of the Hubble constant using NGC 4571 at 15 Mpc and NGC 5253 at 4 Mpc.Comment: Revtex file, 9 pages (no figures

Quantum Kinetic Theory III: Quantum kinetic master equation for strongly condensed trapped systems

We extend quantum kinetic theory to deal with a strongly Bose-condensed atomic vapor in a trap. The method assumes that the majority of the vapor is not condensed, and acts as a bath of heat and atoms for the condensate. The condensate is described by the particle number conserving Bogoliubov method developed by one of the authors. We derive equations which describe the fluctuations of particle number and phase, and the growth of the Bose-Einstein condensate. The equilibrium state of the condensate is a mixture of states with different numbers of particles and quasiparticles. It is not a quantum superposition of states with different numbers of particles---nevertheless, the stationary state exhibits the property of off-diagonal long range order, to the extent that this concept makes sense in a tightly trapped condensate.Comment: 3 figures submitted to Physical Review

The Rolling Tachyon as a Matrix Model

We express all correlation functions in timelike boundary Liouville theory as unitary matrix integrals and develop efficient techniques to evaluate these integrals. We compute large classes of correlation functions explicitly, including an infinite number of terms in the boundary state of the rolling tachyon. The matrix integrals arising here also determine the correlation functions of gauge invariant operators in two dimensional Yang-Mills theory, suggesting an equivalence between the rolling tachyon and QCD_2.Comment: 22pages. 3 figures. v2: added reference, fixed minor typo

A particle-number-conserving Bogoliubov method which demonstrates the validity of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a highly condensed Bose gas

The Bogoliubov method for the excitation spectrum of a Bose-condensed gas is generalized to apply to a gas with an exact large number $N$ of particles. This generalization yields a description of the Schr\"odinger picture field operators as the product of an annihilation operator $A$ for the total number of particles and the sum of a ``condensate wavefunction'' $\xi(x)$ and a phonon field operator $\chi(x)$ in the form $\psi(x) \approx A\{\xi(x) + \chi(x)/\sqrt{N}\}$ when the field operator acts on the N particle subspace. It is then possible to expand the Hamiltonian in decreasing powers of $\sqrt{N}$, an thus obtain solutions for eigenvalues and eigenstates as an asymptotic expansion of the same kind. It is also possible to compute all matrix elements of field operators between states of different N.Comment: RevTeX, 11 page

Exciting, Cooling And Vortex Trapping In A Bose-Condensed Gas

A straight forward numerical technique, based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, is used to generate a self-consistent description of thermally-excited states of a dilute boson gas. The process of evaporative cooling is then modelled by following the time evolution of the system using the same equation. It is shown that the subsequent rethermalisation of the thermally-excited state produces a cooler coherent condensate. Other results presented show that trapping vortex states with the ground state may be possible in a two-dimensional experimental environment.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. It's worth the wait! To be published in Physical Review A, 1st February 199

Geodesic motions in extraordinary string geometry

The geodesic properties of the extraordinary vacuum string solution in (4+1) dimensions are analyzed by using Hamilton-Jacobi method. The geodesic motions show distinct properties from those of the static one. Especially, any freely falling particle can not arrive at the horizon or singularity. There exist stable null circular orbits and bouncing timelike and null geodesics. To get into the horizon {or singularity}, a particle need to follow a non-geodesic trajectory. We also analyze the orbit precession to show that the precession angle has distinct features for each geometry such as naked singularity, black string, and wormhole.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

Nonlinear Spinor Fields and its role in Cosmology

Different characteristic of matter influencing the evolution of the Universe has been simulated by means of a nonlinear spinor field. Exploiting the spinor description of perfect fluid and dark energy evolution of the Universe given by an anisotropic Bianchi type-VI, VI$_0$, V, III, I or isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) one has been studied. It is shown that due to some restrictions on metric functions, initial anisotropy in the models Bianchi type-VI, VI$_0$, V and III does not die away, while the anisotropic Bianchi type-I models evolves into the isotropic one.Comment: 22 pages, 12 Figure

Variational self-consistent theory for trapped Bose gases at finite temperature

We apply the time-dependent variational principle of Balian-V\'en\'eroni to a system of self-interacting trapped bosons at finite temperature. The method leads to a set of coupled non-linear time dependent equations for the condensate density, the thermal cloud and the anomalous density. We solve numerically these equations in the static case for a harmonic trap. We analyze the various densities as functions of the radial distance and the temperature. We find an overall good qualitative agreement with recent experiments as well as with the results of many theoretical groups. We also discuss the behavior of the anomalous density at low temperatures owing to its importance to account for many-body effects.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure