1,073 research outputs found
Cosmography of f(R) gravity
It is nowadays accepted that the universe is undergoing a phase of
accelerated expansion as tested by the Hubble diagram of Type Ia Supernovae
(SNeIa) and several LSS observations. Future SNeIa surveys and other probes
will make it possible to better characterize the dynamical state of the
universe renewing the interest in cosmography which allows a model independent
analysis of the distance - redshift relation. On the other hand, fourth order
theories of gravity, also referred to as gravity, have attracted a lot
of interest since they could be able to explain the accelerated expansion
without any dark energy. We show here how it is possible to relate the
cosmographic parameters (namely the deceleration , the jerk , the
snap and the lerk parameters) to the present day values of
and its derivatives (with ) thus offering
a new tool to constrain such higher order models. Our analysis thus offers the
possibility to relate the model independent results coming from cosmography to
the theoretically motivated assumptions of cosmology.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Reconciling dark energy models with f(R) theories
Higher order theories of gravity have recently attracted a lot of interest as
alternative candidates to explain the observed cosmic acceleration without the
need of introducing any scalar field. A critical ingredient is the choice of
the function f(R) of the Ricci scalar curvature entering the gravity Lagrangian
and determining the dynamics of the universe. We describe an efficient
procedure to reconstruct f(R) from the Hubble parameter depending on the
redshift z. Using the metric formulation of f(R) theories, we derive a third
order linear differential equation for f(R(z)) which can be numerically solved
after setting the boundary conditions on the basis of physical considerations.
Since H(z) can be reconstructed from the astrophysical data, the method we
present makes it possible to determine, in principle, what is the f(R) theory
which best reproduces the observed cosmological dynamics. Moreover, the method
allows to reconcile dark energy models with f(R) theories finding out what is
the expression of f(R) which leads to the same H(z) of the given quintessence
model. As interesting examples, we consider "quiessence" (dark energy with
constant equation of state) and the Chaplygin gas.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review
Constraints on the slope of the dark halo mass function by microlensing observables
We investigate the dark halo lens mass function (MF) for a wide class of
spheroidal non singular isothermal models comparing observed and observable
microlensing quantities for MACHO observations towards LMC and taking into
account the detection efficiency. We evaluate the microlensing observable
quantities, i.e. observable optical depth, number of events and mean duration,
for models with homogenous power - law MF changing the upper and lower mass
limits and the flattening of the dark halo. By applying the simple technique of
the inverse problem method we are then able to get some interesting constraints
on the slope of the MF and on the dark halo mass fraction f made out
by MACHOs consistently with previous results.Comment: 10 LaTex pages, 2 postscript figures, accepted on 21/5/2001 for
pubblication on A&A; title changed, completely revised version : a new
definition of observable optical depth is used and all the MACHO results from
5.7 years of observations are used to constrain the slope of the dark halo
mass functio
Cosmography in f(T)-gravity
Being based on the only assumption that the universe is homogenous and
isotropic on large scales, cosmography is an ideal tool to investigate the
cosmic expansion history in a almost model-independent way. Fitting the data on
the luminosity distance and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations allows to determine
the confidence ranges for the cosmographic parameters hence giving some
quantitative constraints that a whatever theory has to fulfill. As an
application, we consider here the case of teleparallel gravity (TEGR) also
referred to as f(T)-gravity. To this end, we first work out analytical
expressions to express the present day values of f(T)-derivatives as a function
of the cosmographic parameters which hold under quite general and physically
motivated conditions. We then use the constraints coming from cosmography to
find out the confidence ranges for f(T)-derivatives up to the fifth order and
show how these can be used to check the viability of given TEGR models without
the need to explicitly solve the second order dynamic equations.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Potential impact of remote sensing data on sea-state analysis and prediction
The severe North Atlantic storm which damaged the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was studied to assess the impact of remotely sensed marine surface wind data obtained by SEASAT-A, on sea state specifications and forecasts. Alternate representations of the surface wind field in the QE2 storm were produced from the SEASAT enhanced data base, and from operational analyses based upon conventional data. The wind fields were used to drive a high resolution spectral ocean surface wave prediction model. Results show that sea state analyses would have been vastly improved during the period of storm formation and explosive development had remote sensing wind data been available in real time. A modest improvement in operational 12 to 24 hour wave forecasts would have followed automatically from the improved initial state specification made possible by the remote sensing data in both numerical and sea state prediction models. Significantly improved 24 to 48 hour wave forecasts require in addition to remote sensing data, refinement in the numerical and physical aspects of weather prediction models
Discovery of a tight correlation for gamma ray burst afterglows with `canonical' light curves
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) observed up to redshifts are fascinating objects
to study due to their still unexplained relativistic outburst mechanisms and a
possible use to test cosmological models. Our analysis of 77 GRB afterglows
with known redshifts revealed a physical subsample of long GRBs with canonical
{\it plateau breaking to power-law} light curves with a significant {\it
luminosity - break time } correlation in the GRB rest frame.
This subsample forms approximately the {\it upper envelope} of the studied
distribution. We have also found a similar relation for a small sample of GRB
afterglows that belong to the intermediate class (IC) between the short and the
long ones. It proves that within the full sample of afterglows there exist
physical subclasses revealed here by tight correlations of their afterglow
properties. The afterglows with regular (`canonical') light curves obey not
only a mentioned tight physical scaling, but -- for a given -- the more
regular progenitor explosions lead to preferentially brighter afterglows.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures accepted to ApJ
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