Editorial note to "The beginning of the world from the point of view of quantum theory"

This is an editorial note to accompany reprinting as a Golden Oldie in the Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation of the famous note by Georges Lemaitre on the quantum birth of the universe, published in Nature in 1931. We explain why this short (457 words) article can be considered to be the true "Charter" of the modern Big Bang theory.Comment: This is an editorial comment to accompany reprinting of a classical paper in the Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation. 16 pages, 2 figure

Velocity dominated singularities in the cheese slice universe

We investigate the properties of spacetimes resulting from matching together exact solutions using the Darmois matching conditions. In particular we focus on the asymptotically velocity term dominated property (AVTD). We propose a criterion that can be used to test if a spacetime constructed from a matching can be considered AVTD. Using the Cheese Slice universe as an example, we show that a spacetime constructed from a such a matching can inherit the AVTD property from the original spacetimes. Furthermore the singularity resulting from this particular matching is an AVTD singularity.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the International Journal of Modern Physics

Can a charged dust ball be sent through the Reissner--Nordstr\"{o}m wormhole?

In a previous paper we formulated a set of necessary conditions for the spherically symmetric weakly charged dust to avoid Big Bang/Big Crunch, shell crossing and permanent central singularities. However, we did not discuss the properties of the energy density, some of which are surprising and seem not to have been known up to now. A singularity of infinite energy density does exist -- it is a point singularity situated on the world line of the center of symmetry. The condition that no mass shell collapses to $R = 0$ if it had $R > 0$ initially thus turns out to be still insufficient for avoiding a singularity. Moreover, at the singularity the energy density $\epsilon$ is direction-dependent: $\epsilon \to - \infty$ when we approach the singular point along a $t =$ const hypersurface and $\epsilon \to + \infty$ when we approach that point along the center of symmetry. The appearance of negative-energy-density regions turns out to be inevitable. We discuss various aspects of this property of our configuration. We also show that a permanently pulsating configuration, with the period of pulsation independent of mass, is possible only if there exists a permanent central singularity.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures; several corrections after referee's comments, 4 figures modifie

Cavity polariton optomechanics: Polariton path to fully resonant dispersive coupling in optomechanical resonators

Resonant photoelastic coupling in semiconductor nanostructures opens new perspectives for strongly enhanced light-sound interaction in optomechanical resonators. One potential problem, however, is the reduction of the cavity Q-factor induced by dissipation when the resonance is approached. We show in this letter that cavity-polariton mediation in the light-matter process overcomes this limitation allowing for a strongly enhanced photon-phonon coupling without significant lifetime reduction in the strongly-coupled regime. Huge optomechanical coupling factors in the PetaHz/nm range are envisaged, three orders of magnitude larger than the backaction produced by the mechanical displacement of the cavity mirrors.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Is nonrelativistic gravity possible?

We study nonrelativistic gravity using the Hamiltonian formalism. For the dynamics of general relativity (relativistic gravity) the formalism is well known and called the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. We show that if the lapse function is constrained correctly, then nonrelativistic gravity is described by a consistent Hamiltonian system. Surprisingly, nonrelativistic gravity can have solutions identical to relativistic gravity ones. In particular, (anti-)de Sitter black holes of Einstein gravity and IR limit of Horava gravity are locally identical.Comment: 4 pages, v2, typos corrected, published in Physical Review

Reflection and Transmission at the Apparent Horizon during Gravitational Collapse

We examine the wave-functionals describing the collapse of a self-gravitating dust ball in an exact quantization of the gravity-dust system. We show that ingoing (collapsing) dust shell modes outside the apparent horizon must necessarily be accompanied by outgoing modes inside the apparent horizon, whose amplitude is suppressed by the square root of the Boltzmann factor at the Hawking temperature. Likewise, ingoing modes in the interior must be accompanied by outgoing modes in the exterior, again with an amplitude suppressed by the same factor. A suitable superposition of the two solutions is necessary to conserve the dust probability flux across the apparent horizon, thus each region contains both ingoing and outgoing dust modes. If one restricts oneself to considering only the modes outside the apparent horizon then one should think of the apparent horizon as a partial reflector, the probability for a shell to reflect being given by the Boltzmann factor at the Hawking temperature determined by the mass contained within it. However, if one considers the entire wave function, the outgoing wave in the exterior is seen to be the transmission through the horizon of the interior outgoing wave that accompanies the collapsing shells. This transmission could allow information from the interior to be transferred to the exterior.Comment: 19 pages, no figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Symmetry analysis and exact solutions of modified Brans-Dicke cosmological equations

We perform a symmetry analysis of modified Brans-Dicke cosmological equations and present exact solutions. We discuss how the solutions may help to build models of cosmology where, for the early universe, the expansion is linear and the equation of state just changes the expansion velocity but not the linearity. For the late universe the expansion is exponential and the effect of the equation of state on the rate of expansion is just to change the constant Hubble parameter.Comment: LaTeX2e source file, 14 pages, 7 reference

Topological Quintessence

A global monopole (or other topological defect) formed during a recent phase transition with core size comparable to the present Hubble scale, could induce the observed accelerating expansion of the universe. In such a model, topological considerations trap the scalar field close to a local maximum of its potential in a cosmologically large region of space. We perform detailed numerical simulations of such an inhomogeneous dark energy system (topological quintessence) minimally coupled to gravity, in a flat background of initially homogeneous matter. We find that when the energy density of the field in the monopole core starts dominating the background density, the spacetime in the core starts to accelerate its expansion in accordance to a \Lambda CDM model with an effective inhomogeneous spherical dark energy density parameter \Omega_\Lambda(r). The matter density profile is found to respond to the global monopole profile via an anti-correlation (matter underdensity in the monopole core). Away from the monopole core, the spacetime is effectively Einstein-deSitter (\Omega_\Lambda(r_{out}) -> 0) while at the center \Omega_\Lambda(r ~ 0) is maximum. We fit the numerically obtained expansion rate at the monopole core to the Union2 data and show that the quality of fit is almost identical to that of \Lambda CDM. Finally, we discuss potential observational signatures of this class of inhomogeneous dark energy models.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. D (to appear). Added observational bounds on parameters. 10 pages (two column revtex), 6 figures. The Mathematica files used to produce the figures of this study may be downloaded from http://leandros.physics.uoi.gr/topquin

Macroscopic Discontinuous Shear Thickening vs Local Shear Jamming in Cornstarch

We study the emergence of discontinuous shear-thickening (DST) in cornstarch, by combining macroscopic rheometry with local Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measurements. We bring evidence that macroscopic DST is observed only when the flow separates into a low-density flowing and a high-density jammed region. In the shear-thickened steady state, the local rheology in the flowing region, is not DST but, strikingly, is often shear-thinning. Our data thus show that the stress jump measured during DST, in cornstach, does not capture a secondary, high-viscosity branch of the local steady rheology, but results from the existence of a shear jamming limit at volume fractions quite significantly below random close packing.Comment: To be published in PR