A Strong Constraint on Ever-Present Lambda

We show that the causal set approach to creating an ever-present cosmological 'constant' in the expanding universe is strongly constrained by the isotropy of the microwave background. Fluctuations generated by stochastic lambda generation which are consistent with COBE and WMAP observations are far too small to dominate the expansion dynamics at z<1000 and so cannot explain the observed late-time acceleration of the universe. We also discuss other observational constraints from the power spectrum of galaxy clustering and show that the theoretical possibility of ever-present lambda arises only in 3+1 dimensional space-times.Comment: 5 pages, minor additions, published versio

Simple Types of Anisotropic Inflation

We display some simple cosmological solutions of gravity theories with quadratic Ricci curvature terms added to the Einstein-Hilbert lagrangian which exhibit anisotropic inflation. The Hubble expansion rates are constant and unequal in three orthogonal directions. We describe the evolution of the simplest of these homogeneous and anisotropic cosmological models from its natural initial state and evaluate the deviations they will create from statistical isotropy in the fluctuations produced during a period of anisotropic inflation. The anisotropic inflation is not a late-time attractor in these models but the rate of approach to a final isotropic de Sitter state is slow and is conducive to the creation of observable anisotropic statistical effects in the microwave background. The statistical anisotropy would not be scale invariant and the level of statistical anisotropy will grow with scale.Comment: 8pages, 3 figs v2:refs added, typos fixe

Stable Isotropic Cosmological Singularities in Quadratic Gravity

We show that, in quadratic lagrangian theories of gravity, isotropic cosmological singularities are stable to the presence of small scalar, vector and tensor inhomogeneities. Unlike in general relativity, a particular exact isotropic solution is shown to be the stable attractor on approach to the initial cosmological singularity. This solution is also known to act as an attractor in Bianchi universes of types I, II and IX, and the results of this paper reinforce the hypothesis that small inhomogeneous and anisotropic perturbations of this attractor form part of the general cosmological solution to the field equations of quadratic gravity. Implications for the existence of a 'gravitational entropy' are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

Cosmological Co-evolution of Yang-Mills Fields and Perfect Fluids

We study the co-evolution of Yang-Mills fields and perfect fluids in Bianchi type I universes. We investigate numerically the evolution of the universe and the Yang-Mills fields during the radiation and dust eras of a universe that is almost isotropic. The Yang-Mills field undergoes small amplitude chaotic oscillations, which are also displayed by the expansion scale factors of the universe. The results of the numerical simulations are interpreted analytically and compared with past studies of the cosmological evolution of magnetic fields in radiation and dust universes. We find that, whereas magnetic universes are strongly constrained by the microwave background anisotropy, Yang-Mills universes are principally constrained by primordial nucleosynthesis and the bound is comparatively weak, and Omega_YM < 0.105 Omega_rad.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Cosmological Bounds on Spatial Variations of Physical Constants

We derive strong observational limits on any possible large-scale spatial variation in the values of physical 'constants' whose space-time evolution is driven by a scalar field. The limits are imposed by the isotropy of the microwave background on large angular scales in theories which describe space and time variations in the fine structure constant, the electron-proton mass ratio, and the Newtonian gravitational constant, G. Large-scale spatial fluctuations in the fine structure constant are bounded by 2x10^-9 and 1.2x10^-8 in the BSBM and VSL theories respectively, fluctuations in the electron-proton mass ratio by 9x10^-5 in the BM theory and fluctuations in G by 3.6x10^-10 in Brans-Dicke theory. These derived bounds are significantly stronger than any obtainable by direct observations of astrophysical objects at the present time.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, typos corrected, refs added. Published versio

Cosmologies with Energy Exchange

We provide a simple mathematical description of the exchange of energy between two fluids in an expanding Friedmann universe with zero spatial curvature. The evolution can be reduced to a single non-linear differential equation which we solve in physically relevant cases and provide an analysis of all the possible evolutions. Particular power-law solutions exist for the expansion scale factor and are attractors at late times under particular conditions. We show how a number of problems studied in the literature, such as cosmological vacuum energy decay, particle annihilation, and the evolution of a population of evaporating black holes, correspond to simple particular cases of our model. In all cases we can determine the effects of the energy transfer on the expansion scale factor. We also consider the situation in the presence of anti-decaying fluids and so called phantom fluids which violate the dominant energy conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

A New Solution of The Cosmological Constant Problems

We extend the usual gravitational action principle by promoting the bare cosmological constant (CC) from a parameter to a field which can take many possible values. Variation leads to a new integral constraint equation which determines the classical value of the effective CC that dominates the wave function of the universe. In a realistic cosmological model, the expected value of the effective CC, is calculated from measurable quantities to be O(t_U), as observed, where t_U is the present age of the universe in Planck units,. Any application of our model produces a falsifiable prediction for $\Lambda$ in terms of other measurable quantities. This leads to a specific falsifiable prediction for the observed spatial curvature parameter of Omega_k0=-0.0055. Our testable proposal requires no fine tunings or extra dark-energy fields but does suggest a new view of time and cosmological evolution.Comment: 5 pages; v3: version accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

Anisotropically Inflating Universes

We show that in theories of gravity that add quadratic curvature invariants to the Einstein-Hilbert action there exist expanding vacuum cosmologies with positive cosmological constant which do not approach the de Sitter universe. Exact solutions are found which inflate anisotropically. This behaviour is driven by the Ricci curvature invariant and has no counterpart in the general relativistic limit. These examples show that the cosmic no-hair theorem does not hold in these higher-order extensions of general relativity and raises new questions about the ubiquity of inflation in the very early universe and the thermodynamics of gravitational fields.Comment: 5 pages, further discussion and references adde

Bouncing Universes with Varying Constants

We investigate the behaviour of exact closed bouncing Friedmann universes in theories with varying constants. We show that the simplest BSBM varying-alpha theory leads to a bouncing universe. The value of alpha increases monotonically, remaining approximately constant during most of each cycle, but increasing significantly around each bounce. When dissipation is introduced we show that in each new cycle the universe expands for longer and to a larger size. We find a similar effect for closed bouncing universes in Brans-Dicke theory, where $G$ also varies monotonically in time from cycle to cycle. Similar behaviour occurs also in varying speed of light theories

Stellar footprints of a variable G

Theories with varying gravitational constant $G$ have been studied since long time ago. Among them, the most promising candidates as alternatives of the standard General Relativity are known as scalar-tensor theories. They provide consistent descriptions of the observed universe and arise as the low energy limit of several pictures of unified interactions. Therefore, an increasing interest on the astrophysical consequences of such theories has been sparked over the last few years. In this essay we comment on two methodological approaches to study evolution of astrophysical objects within a varying-$G$ theory, and the particular results we have obtained for boson and white dwarf stars.Comment: This essay received Honorable Mention in the 1999 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundatio