Dark matter interacts with variable vacuum energy

We investigate a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) scenario with two interacting components, dark matter and variable vacuum energy (VVE) densities, plus two decoupled components, one is a baryon term while the other behaves as a radiation component. We consider a linear interaction in the derivative dark component density. We apply the $\chi^2$ method to the observational Hubble data for constraining the cosmological parameters and analyze the amount of dark energy in the radiation era for the model. It turns out that our model fulfills the severe bound of $\Omega_{x}(z\simeq 1100)<0.009$ at $2\sigma$ level, so is consistent with the recent analysis that includes cosmic microwave background anisotropy measurements from Planck survey, the future constraints achievable by Euclid and CMBPol experiments, reported for the behavior of the dark energy at early times, and fulfills the stringent bound $\Omega_{x}(z\simeq 10^{10})<0.04$ at $2\sigma$ level in the big-bang nucleosynthesis epoch. We also examine the cosmic age problem at high redshift associated with the old quasar APM 08279+5255 and estimate the age of the universe today.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1310.5335 by other author

Extended tachyon field using form invariance symmetry

In this work we illustrate how form-invariance transformations (FIT) can be used to construct phantom and complementary tachyon cosmologies from standard tachyon field universes. We show how these transformations act on the Hubble expansion rate, the energy density, and pressure of the tachyon field. The FIT generate new cosmologies from a known "seed" one, in particular from the ordinary tachyon field we obtain two types of tachyon species, denominated phantom and complementary tachyon. We see that the FIT allow us to pass from a non-stable cosmology to a stable one and vice-versa, as appeared in the literature. Finally, as an example, we apply the transformations to a cosmological fluid with an inverse square potential, $V \propto \phi^{-2}$, and generate the extended tachyon field.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figure

Multiple binding sites for transcriptional repressors can produce regular bursting and enhance noise suppression

Cells may control fluctuations in protein levels by means of negative autoregulation, where transcription factors bind DNA sites to repress their own production. Theoretical studies have assumed a single binding site for the repressor, while in most species it is found that multiple binding sites are arranged in clusters. We study a stochastic description of negative autoregulation with multiple binding sites for the repressor. We find that increasing the number of binding sites induces regular bursting of gene products. By tuning the threshold for repression, we show that multiple binding sites can also suppress fluctuations. Our results highlight possible roles for the presence of multiple binding sites of negative autoregulators

Power spectra in extended tachyon cosmologies

In the present work the power spectrum of a particular class of tachyon fields is compared with the one corresponding to a cosmological constant model. This is done for different barotropic indexes $\gamma_0$ and the background space time is assumed to be of the spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker type. The differential equation describing the perturbations is solved numerically and the power spectrum at the scale factor value $a=1$ is plotted for each case. The result is that the power spectrum of the standard tachyon field differs in many magnitude orders from the $\Lambda$CDM. However, the one with $\gamma_0=1.91$, which corresponds to a complementary tachyon field, coincides fairly well with the concordance model. Therefore, we conclude that the perturbed solutions constitute an effective method to distinguish between the different $\gamma_0$ values for the tachionization $\Lambda$CDM model and the fiducial model. The Statefinder parameters $\{r, s\}$, measuring the deviations of the analysed model from the concordance model, are also explicitly calculated. Our result suggest that, depending on the value of $\gamma_0$, these models can explain the observed expansion history or the perturbation power spectrum of the universe, but they may have problems in describing both features simultaneously.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Emergent Universe as an interaction in the dark sector

A cosmological scenario where dark matter interacts with a variable vacuum energy for a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space-time is proposed and analysed to show that with a linear equation of state and a particular interaction in the dark sector it is possible to get a model of an Emergent Universe. In addition, the viability of two particular models is studied by taking into account recent observations. The updated observational Hubble data and the JLA supernovae data are used in order to constraint the cosmological parameters of the models and estimate the amount of dark energy in the radiation era. It is shown that the two models fulfil the severe bounds of $\Omega_{x}(z\simeq 1100)<0.009$ at the $2\sigma$ level of Planck.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Interacting dark sector with variable vacuum energy

We examine a cosmological scenario where dark matter is coupled to a variable vacuum energy while baryons and photons are two decoupled components for a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime. We apply the $\chi^{2}$ method to the updated observational Hubble data for constraining the cosmological parameters and analyze the amount of dark energy in the radiation era. We show that our model fulfills the severe bound of $\Omega_{x}(z\simeq 1100)<0.009$ at the $2\sigma$ level, so it is consistent with the recent analysis that includes cosmic microwave background anisotropy measurements from the Planck survey, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, and the South Pole Telescope along with the future constraints achievable by the Euclid and CMBPol experiments, and fulfills the stringent bound $\Omega_{x}(z\simeq 10^{10})<0.04$ at the $2\sigma$ level in the big-bang nucleosynthesis epoch.Comment: 5 pages,3 figures, 2 tables. (http://prd.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v88/i8/e087301

Nonlinearity arising from noncooperative transcription factor binding enhances negative feedback and promotes genetic oscillations

We study the effects of multiple binding sites in the promoter of a genetic oscillator. We evaluate the regulatory function of a promoter with multiple binding sites in the absence of cooperative binding, and consider different hypotheses for how the number of bound repressors affects transcription rate. Effective Hill exponents of the resulting regulatory functions reveal an increase in the nonlinearity of the feedback with the number of binding sites. We identify optimal configurations that maximize the nonlinearity of the feedback. We use a generic model of a biochemical oscillator to show that this increased nonlinearity is reflected in enhanced oscillations, with larger amplitudes over wider oscillatory ranges. Although the study is motivated by genetic oscillations in the zebrafish segmentation clock, our findings may reveal a general principle for gene regulation.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure