1,463 research outputs found
Matter Bounce in Horava-Lifshitz Cosmology
Horava-Lifshitz gravity, a recent proposal for a UV-complete renormalizable
gravity theory, may lead to a bouncing cosmology. In this note we argue that
Horava-Lifshitz cosmology may yield a concrete realization of the matter bounce
scenario, and thus give rise to an alternative to inflation for producing a
scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological perturbations. In this scenario,
quantum vacuum fluctuations exit the Hubble radius in the pre-bounce phase and
the spectrum is transformed into a scale-invariant one on super-Hubble scales
before the bounce because the long wavelength modes undergo squeezing of their
wave-functions for a longer period of time than shorter wavelength modes. The
scale-invariance of the spectrum of curvature fluctuations is preserved during
and after the bounce. A distinctive prediction of this scenario is the
amplitude and shape of the bispectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, a couple of minor wording change
Study of the Growth of Entropy Modes in MSSM Flat Directions Decay: Constraints on the Parameter Space
We study how the resonant decay of moduli fields arising in the Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) could affect large scale curvature
perturbations in the early universe. It has been known for some time that the
presence of entropy perturbations in a multi-component system can act as seeds
for the curvature perturbations on all scales. These entropy perturbations
could be amplified exponentially if one of the moduli decays via stochastic
resonance, affecting the curvature power spectrum in the process. By imposing
the COBE normalization on this power spectrum, one could put constraints on the
masses and couplings of the underlying particle physics model without having to
rely on collider experiments. We discuss in detail the case of the MSSM but
this method could be applied to other theories beyond the Standard Model.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, revtex4, comments added in section II, 1 reference
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A Radiation Bounce from the Lee-Wick Construction?
It was recently realized that matter modeled by the scalar field sector of
the Lee-Wick Standard Model yields, in the context of a homogeneous and
isotropic cosmological background, a bouncing cosmology. However, bouncing
cosmologies induced by pressure-less matter are in general unstable to the
addition of relativistic matter (i.e. radiation). Here we study the possibility
of obtaining a bouncing cosmology if we add not only radiation, but also its
Lee-Wick partner, to the matter sector. We find that, in general, no bounce
occurs. The only way to obtain a bounce is to choose initial conditions with
very special phases of the radiation field and its Lee-Wick partner.Comment: 11 page
Looking Beyond Inflationary Cosmology
In spite of the phenomenological successes of the inflationary universe
scenario, the current realizations of inflation making use of scalar fields
lead to serious conceptual problems which are reviewed in this lecture. String
theory may provide an avenue towards addressing these problems. One particular
approach to combining string theory and cosmology is String Gas Cosmology. The
basic principles of this approach are summarized.Comment: invited talk at "Theory Canada 1" (Univ. of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada, June 2 - 4, 2005) (references updated
Native chick laminin-4 containing the beta 2 chain (s-laminin) promotes motor axon growth.
After denervation of muscle, motor axons reinnervate original synaptic sites. A recombinant fragment of the synapse specific laminin beta 2 chain (s-laminin) was reported to inhibit motor axon growth. Consequently, a specific sequence (leucine-arginine-glutamate, LRE) of the laminin beta 2 chain was proposed to act as a stop signal and to mediate specific reinnervation at the neuromuscular junction (Porter, B.E., J. Weis, and J.R. Sanes. 1995. Neuron. 14:549-559). We demonstrate here that native chick laminin-4, which contains the beta 2 chain and is present in the synaptic basement membrane, does not inhibit but rather promotes motor axon growth. In native heterotrimeric laminin, the LRE sequence of the beta 2 chain is found in a triple coiled-coil region that is formed by all three subunits. We show here that the effect of LRE depends on the structural context. Whereas a recombinant randomly coiled LRE peptide indeed inhibited outgrowth by chick motoneurons, a small recombinant triple coiled-coil protein containing this sequence did not
Dynamical Relaxation of the Cosmological Constant and Matter Creation in the Universe
In this Letter we discuss the issues of the graceful exit from inflation and
of matter creation in the context of a recent scenario \cite{RHBrev} in which
the back-reaction of long wavelength cosmological perturbations induces a
negative contribution to the cosmological constant and leads to a dynamical
relaxation of the bare cosmological constant. The initially large cosmological
constant gives rise to primordial inflation, during which cosmological
perturbations are stretched beyond the Hubble radius. The cumulative effect of
the long wavelength fluctuations back-reacts on the background geometry in a
form which corresponds to the addition of a negative effective cosmological
constant to the energy-momentum tensor. In the absence of an effective scalar
field driving inflation, whose decay can reheat the Universe, the challenge is
to find a mechanism which produces matter at the end of the relaxation process.
In this Letter, we point out that the decay of a condensate representing the
order parameter for a ``flat'' direction in the field theory moduli space can
naturally provide a matter generation mechanism. The order parameter is
displaced from its vacuum value by thermal or quantum fluctuations, it is
frozen until the Hubble constant drops to a sufficiently low value, and then
begins to oscillate about its ground state. During the period of oscillation it
can decay into Standard Model particles similar to how the inflaton decays in
scalar-field-driven models of inflation.Comment: 6 page
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