Lunar science from lunar laser ranging

Seventeen years of lunar ranging data have been analyzed to determine lunar second-degree moment differences, third-degree gravitational harmonics, Love number, rotational dissipation and retroreflector coordinates

Dark Energy as a Born-Infeld Gauge Interaction Violating the Equivalence Principle

We investigate the possibility that dark energy does not couple to gravitation in the same way than ordinary matter, yielding a violation of the weak and strong equivalence principles on cosmological scales. We build a transient mechanism in which gravitation is pushed away from general relativity by a Born-Infeld gauge interaction acting as an "Abnormally Weighting" (dark) Energy. This mechanism accounts for the Hubble diagram of far-away supernovae by cosmic acceleration and time variation of the gravitational constant while accounting naturally for the present tests on general relativity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, sequel of Phys. Rev. D 73 023520 (2006), to appear in Physical Review Letter

Baryogenesis after Hyperextended Inflation

We study a baryogenesis mechanism operating in the context of hyperextended inflation and making use of a coupling between the scalar field and a standard model global current, such as B or B-L. The method is efficient at temperatures at which these currents are not conserved due to some higher dimensional operator. The particle physics and cosmological phenomenology are discussed. We consider constraints stemming from nucleosynthesis and solar system experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, uses RevTe

A Note on Frame Dragging

The measurement of spin effects in general relativity has recently taken centre stage with the successfully launched Gravity Probe B experiment coming toward an end, coupled with recently reported measurements using laser ranging. Many accounts of these experiments have been in terms of frame-dragging. We point out that this terminology has given rise to much confusion and that a better description is in terms of spin-orbit and spin-spin effects. In particular, we point out that the de Sitter precession (which has been mesured to a high accuracy) is also a frame-dragging effect and provides an accurate benchmark measurement of spin-orbit effects which GPB needs to emulate

Gravitational Acceleration of Spinning Bodies From Lunar Laser Ranging Measurements

The Sun's relativistic gravitational gradient accelerations of Earth and Moon, dependent on the motions of the latter bodies, act upon the system's internal angular momentum. This spin-orbit force (which plays a part in determining the gravity wave signal templates for astrophysical sources) slightly accelerates the Earth-Moon system as a whole, but it more robustly perturbs that system's internal dynamics with a 5 cm, synodically oscillating range contribution which is presently measured to 4 mm precision by more than three decades of lunar laser ranging.Comment: 10 pages, PCTex32.v3.

Quintessence Models and the Cosmological Evolution of alpha

The cosmological evolution of a quintessence-like scalar field, phi, coupled to matter and gauge fields leads to effective modifications of the coupling constants and particle masses over time. We analyze a class of models where the scalar field potential V(phi) and the couplings to matter B(phi) admit common extremum in phi, as in the Damour-Polyakov ansatz. We find that even for the simplest choices of potentials and B(phi), the observational constraints on delta alpha/alpha coming from quasar absorption spectra, the Oklo phenomenon and Big Bang nucleosynthesis provide complementary constraints on the parameters of the model. We show the evolutionary history of these models in some detail and describe the effects of a varying mass for dark matter.Comment: 26 pages, 20 eps figure

Magnetism of PdNi alloys near the critical concentration for ferromagnetism

We report results of a muon spin rotation and relaxation ($\mu$SR) study of dilute Pd$_{1-x}$Ni$_x$ alloys, with emphasis on Ni concentrations $x =$ 0.0243 and 0.025. These are close to the critical value $x_\mathrm{cr}$ for the onset of ferromagnetic long-range order (LRO), which is a candidate for a quantum critical point. The 2.43 and 2.5 at.% Ni alloys exhibit similar $\mu$SR properties. Both samples are fully magnetic, with average muon local fields $\langle B^\mathrm{loc}\rangle =$ 2.0 and 3.8 mT and Curie temperatures $T_C =$ 1.0 and 2.03 K for 2.43 and 2.5 at.% Ni, respectively, at $T = 0$. The temperature dependence of $\langle B^\mathrm{loc}\rangle$ suggests ordering of Ni spin clusters rather than isolated spins. Just above $T_C$ a two-phase region is found with separate volume fractions of quasistatic short-range order (SRO) and paramagnetism. The SRO fraction decreases to zero with increasing temperature a few kelvin above $T_C$. This mixture of SRO and paramagnetism is consistent with the notion of an inhomogeneous alloy with Ni clustering. The measured values of $T_C$ extrapolate to $x_\mathrm{cr}$ = 0.0236 $\pm$ 0.0027. The dynamic muon spin relaxation in the vicinity of $T_C$ differs for the two samples: a relaxation-rate maximum at $T_C$ is observed for $x$ = 0.0243, reminiscent of critical slowing down, whereas for $x =$ 0.025 no dynamic relaxation is observed within the $\mu$SR time window. The data suggest a mean-field-like transition in this alloy.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Free Boundary Poisson Bracket Algebra in Ashtekar's Formalism

We consider the algebra of spatial diffeomorphisms and gauge transformations in the canonical formalism of General Relativity in the Ashtekar and ADM variables. Modifying the Poisson bracket by including surface terms in accordance with our previous proposal allows us to consider all local functionals as differentiable. We show that closure of the algebra under consideration can be achieved by choosing surface terms in the expressions for the generators prior to imposing any boundary conditions. An essential point is that the Poisson structure in the Ashtekar formalism differs from the canonical one by boundary terms.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, amsfonts.sty, amssymb.st

Progress in Lunar Laser Ranging Tests of Relativistic Gravity

Analyses of laser ranges to the Moon provide increasingly stringent limits on any violation of the Equivalence Principle (EP); they also enable several very accurate tests of relativistic gravity. We report the results of our recent analysis of Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data giving an EP test of \Delta (M_G/M_I)_{EP} =(-1.0 +/- 1.4) x 10^{-13}. This result yields a Strong Equivalence Principle (SEP) test of \Delta (M_G/M_I)_{SEP} =(-2.0 +/- 2.0) x 10^{-13}. Also, the corresponding SEP violation parameter \eta is (4.4 +/- 4.5) x 10^{-4}, where \eta=4\beta-\gamma-3 and both \beta and \gamma are parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) parameters. Using the recent Cassini result for the parameter \gamma, PPN parameter \beta is determined to be \beta-1=(1.2 +/- 1.1) x 10^{-4}. The geodetic precession test, expressed as a relative deviation from general relativity, is K_{gp}=-0.0019 +/- 0.0064. The search for a time variation in the gravitational constant results in \dot G/G=(4 +/- 9) x 10^{-13} yr^{-1}, consequently there is no evidence for local (~1AU) scale expansion of the solar system.Comment: 4 pages, revtex4, minor changes made for publicatio

On the water-bag model of dispersionless KP hierarchy

We investigate the bi-Hamiltonian structure of the waterbag model of dKP for two component case. One can establish the third-order and first-order Hamiltonian operator associated with the waterbag model. Also, the dispersive corrections are discussed.Comment: 19 page