1,208 research outputs found
Optimising Spectroscopic and Photometric Galaxy Surveys: Efficient Target Selection and Survey Strategy
The next generation of spectroscopic surveys will have a wealth of
photometric data available for use in target selection. Selecting the best
targets is likely to be one of the most important hurdles in making these
spectroscopic campaigns as successful as possible. Our ability to measure dark
energy depends strongly on the types of targets that we are able to select with
a given photometric data set. We show in this paper that we will be able to
successfully select the targets needed for the next generation of spectroscopic
surveys. We also investigate the details of this selection, including
optimisation of instrument design and survey strategy in order to measure dark
energy. We use color-color selection as well as neural networks to select the
best possible emission line galaxies and luminous red galaxies for a
cosmological survey. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we forecast the
efficiency of each target selection scenario. We show how the dark energy
figures of merit change in each target selection regime as a function of target
type, survey time, survey density and other survey parameters. We outline the
optimal target selection scenarios and survey strategy choices which will be
available to the next generation of spectroscopic surveys.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, accepted to MNRAS in dec 201
Multiple imaging by gravitational waves
Gravitational waves act like lenses for the light propagating through them.
This phenomenon is described using the vector formalism employed for ordinary
gravitational lenses, which was proved to be applicable also to a
non-stationary spacetime, with the appropriate modifications. In order to have
multiple imaging, an approximate condition analogous to that for ordinary
gravitational lenses must be satisfied. Certain astrophysical sources of
gravitational waves satisfy this condition, while the gravitational wave
background, on average, does not. Multiple imaging by gravitational waves is,
in principle, possible, but the probability of observing such a phenomenon is
extremely low.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, no figures, to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Charged Vacuum Bubble Stability
A type of scenario is considered where electrically charged vacuum bubbles,
formed from degenerate or nearly degenerate vacuua separated by a thin domain
wall, are cosmologically produced due to the breaking of a discrete symmetry,
with the bubble charge arising from fermions residing within the domain wall.
Stability issues associated with wall tension, fermion gas, and Coulombic
effects for such configurations are examined. The stability of a bubble depends
upon parameters such as the symmetry breaking scale and the fermion coupling. A
dominance of either the Fermi gas or the Coulomb contribution may be realized
under certain conditions, depending upon parameter values.Comment: 16 pages,revtex; accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
The continued epidemic threat of SARS-CoV-2 and implications for the future of global public health
A new coronavirus (CoV) called SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China in
December 2019 as the etiological agent of a viral pneumonia called COVID-19. The
global spread of SARS-CoV-2 has been so extensive that the WHO declared COVID-19
a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Below, we discuss the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and
provide the historical context, which strongly suggests emerging CoVs provide an
immediate threat to global public health and will continue to do so in the future
Inflationary Cosmology: Theory and Phenomenology
This article gives a brief overview of some of the theory behind the
inflationary cosmology, and discusses prospects for constraining inflation
using observations. Particular care is given to the question of falsifiability
of inflation or of subsets of inflationary models.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX file (using iopart) with 4 figures included via EPSF.
Article based on a talk presented at ``The Early Universe and Cosmological
Observations: a Critical Review'', Cape Town, July 200
Particle Creation If a Cosmic String Snaps
We calculate the Bogolubov coefficients for a metric which describes the
snapping of a cosmic string. If we insist on a matching condition for all times
{\it and} a particle interpretation, we find no particle creation.Comment: 10 pages, MRC.PH.17/9
Accelerated expansion of the universe driven by tachyonic matter
It is an accepted practice in cosmology to invoke a scalar field with
potential when observed evolution of the universe cannot be
reconciled with theoretical prejudices. Since one function-degree-of-freedom in
the expansion factor can be traded off for the function , it is
{\it always} possible to find a scalar field potential which will reproduce a
given evolution. I provide a recipe for determining from in
two cases:(i) Normal scalar field with Lagrangian used in quintessence/dark energy
models. (ii) A tachyonic field with Lagrangian , motivated by recent string theoretic
results. In the latter case, it is possible to have accelerated expansion of
the universe during the late phase in certain cases. This suggests a string
theory based interpretation of the current phase of the universe with tachyonic
condensate acting as effective cosmological constant.Comment: 4 pages; uses revtex
New Constraints from High Redshift Supernovae and Lensing Statistics upon Scalar Field Cosmologies
We explore the implications of gravitationally lensed QSOs and high-redshift
SNe Ia observations for spatially flat cosmological models in which a
classically evolving scalar field currently dominates the energy density of the
Universe. We consider two representative scalar field potentials that give rise
to effective decaying (``quintessence'') models:
pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons () and an inverse
power-law potential (). We show that a
large region of parameter space is consistent with current data if . On the other hand, a higher lower bound for the matter density
parameter suggested by large-scale galaxy flows, ,
considerably reduces the allowed parameter space, forcing the scalar field
behavior to approach that of a cosmological constant.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Long-lived oscillons from asymmetric bubbles
The possibility that extremely long-lived, time-dependent, and localized
field configurations (``oscillons'') arise during the collapse of asymmetrical
bubbles in 2+1 dimensional phi^4 models is investigated. It is found that
oscillons can develop from a large spectrum of elliptically deformed bubbles.
Moreover, we provide numerical evidence that such oscillons are: a) circularly
symmetric; and b) linearly stable against small arbitrary radial and angular
perturbations. The latter is based on a dynamical approach designed to
investigate the stability of nonintegrable time-dependent configurations that
is capable of probing slowly-growing instabilities not seen through the usual
``spectral'' method.Comment: RevTeX 4, 9 pages, 11 figures. Revised version with a new approach to
stability. Accepted to Phys. Rev.
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