238 research outputs found
Instabilities and the null energy condition
We show that violation of the null energy condition implies instability in a
broad class of models, including classical gauge theories with scalar and
fermionic matter as well as any perfect fluid. When applied to the dark energy,
our results imply that is unlikely to be less than -1.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, revtex, presentation improved, minor change
A local response to a wider situation: the archaeology of the clan stronghold of Dùn Èistean, Isle of Lewis
Non-Commutative Inflation
We show how a radiation dominated universe subject to space-time quantization
may give rise to inflation as the radiation temperature exceeds the Planck
temperature. We consider dispersion relations with a maximal momentum (i.e. a
mimimum Compton wavelength, or quantum of space), noting that some of these
lead to a trans-Planckian branch where energy increases with decreasing
momenta. This feature translates into negative radiation pressure and, in
well-defined circumstances, into an inflationary equation of state. We thus
realize the inflationary scenario without the aid of an inflaton field. As the
radiation cools down below the Planck temperature, inflation gracefully exits
into a standard Big Bang universe, dispensing with a period of reheating.
Thermal fluctuations in the radiation bath will in this case generate curvature
fluctuations on cosmological scales whose amplitude and spectrum can be tuned
to agree with observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Gradient instability for w < -1
We show that in single scalar field models of the dark energy with equations
of state satisfying , the effective Lagrangian for
fluctuations about the homogeneous background has a wrong sign spatial kinetic
term. In most cases, spatial gradients are ruled out by microwave background
observations. The sign of is not connected to the sign of the time
derivative kinetic term in the effective Lagrangian.Comment: revtex4, 8 pages, 1 figure. v2: corrected typo in Eq. 16, added
references and a paragraph on quintessence models; v3: reordering of
references. To appear in Phys. Lett.
Gauge-Invariant Initial Conditions and Early Time Perturbations in Quintessence Universes
We present a systematic treatment of the initial conditions and evolution of
cosmological perturbations in a universe containing photons, baryons,
neutrinos, cold dark matter, and a scalar quintessence field. By formulating
the evolution in terms of a differential equation involving a matrix acting on
a vector comprised of the perturbation variables, we can use the familiar
language of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. As the largest eigenvalue of the
evolution matrix is fourfold degenerate, it follows that there are four
dominant modes with non-diverging gravitational potential at early times,
corresponding to adiabatic, cold dark matter isocurvature, baryon isocurvature
and neutrino isocurvature perturbations. We conclude that quintessence does not
lead to an additional independent mode.Comment: Replaced with published version, 12 pages, 2 figure
Termination of the Phase of Quintessence by Gravitational Back-Reaction
We study the effects of gravitational back-reaction in models of
Quintessence. The effective energy-momentum tensor with which cosmological
fluctuations back-react on the background metric will in some cases lead to a
termination of the phase of acceleration. The fluctuations we make use of are
the perturbations in our present Universe. Their amplitude is normalized by
recent measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, their
slope is taken to be either scale-invariant, or characterized by a slightly
blue tilt. In the latter case, we find that the back-reaction effect of
fluctuations whose present wavelength is smaller than the Hubble radius but
which are stretched beyond the Hubble radius by the accelerated expansion
during the era of Quintessence domination can become large. Since the
back-reaction effects of these modes oppose the acceleration, back-reaction
will lead to a truncation of the period of Quintessence domination. This result
impacts on the recent discussions of the potential incompatibility between
string theory and Quintessence.Comment: 7 pages a few clarifying comments adde
Limits on the gravity wave contribution to microwave anisotropies
We present limits on the fraction of large angle microwave anisotropies which
could come from tensor perturbations. We use the COBE results as well as
smaller scale CMB observations, measurements of galaxy correlations, abundances
of galaxy clusters, and Lyman alpha absorption cloud statistics. Our aim is to
provide conservative limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio for standard
inflationary models. For power-law inflation, for example, we find T/S<0.52 at
95% confidence, with a similar constraint for phi^p potentials. However, for
models with tensor amplitude unrelated to the scalar spectral index it is still
currently possible to have T/S>1.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D.
Calculations extended to blue spectral index, Fig. 6 added, discussion of
results expande
Euclidean wormholes with Phantom field and Phantom field accompanied by perfect fluid
We study the classical Euclidean wormhole solutions for the gravitational
systems with minimally coupled pure Phantom field and minimally coupled Phantom
field accompanied by perfect fluid. It is shown that such solutions do exist
and then the general forms of the Phantom field potential are obtained for
which there are classical Euclidean wormhole solutions.Comment: 15 pages, major revision with perfect flui
Potential-density pairs for axisymmetric galaxies: the influence of scalar fields
We present a formulation for potential-density pairs to describe axisymmetric
galaxies in the Newtonian limit of scalar-tensor theories of gravity. The
scalar field is described by a modified Helmholtz equation with a source that
is coupled to the standard Poisson equation of Newtonian gravity. The net
gravitational force is given by two contributions: the standard Newtonian
potential plus a term stemming from massive scalar fields. General solutions
have been found for axisymmetric systems and the multipole expansion of the
Yukawa potential is given. In particular, we have computed potential-density
pairs of galactic disks for an exponential profile and their rotation curves.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, corrected version to the one that will appear in
Gen. Relativ. Gravit., where a small typo in eq. (13) is presen
Cosmological Consequences of String-forming Open Inflation Models
We present a study of open inflation cosmological scenarios in which cosmic
strings form betwen the two inflationary epochs. It is shown that in these
models strings are stretched outside the horizon due to the inflationary
expansion but must necessarily re-enter the horizon before the epoch of equal
matter and radiation densities. We determine the power spectrum of cold dark
matter perturbations in these hybrid models, finding good agreement with
observations for values of and comparable
contributions from the active and passive sources to the CMB. Finally, we
briefly discuss other cosmological consequences of these models.Comment: 11 LaTeX pages with 3 eps figure
- …