742 research outputs found
Determining cosmological parameters from X-ray measurements of strong lensing clusters
We discuss a new method which is potentially capable of constraining
cosmological parameters using observations of giant luminous arcs in rich X-ray
clusters of galaxies. The mass profile and the mass normalization of the lenses
are determined from X-ray measurements. The method also allows to probe the
amount and equation of state of the dark energy in the universe. The analysis
of a preliminary sample of 6 luminous, relatively relaxed clusters of galaxies
strongly favours an accelerating expansion of the universe. Under the
assumption that the dark energy is in the form of a cosmological constant, the
data provide an estimate of with a statistical error of
. Including the constraint of a flat universe and an equation of state
for the dark energy , we obtain and
. Relaxing the prior on , we find that the null
energy condition is satisfied at the 3- confidence level.Comment: 9 pages; 5 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA
Distinguishing among Scalar Field Models of Dark Energy
We show that various scalar field models of dark energy predict degenerate
luminosity distance history of the Universe and thus cannot be distinguished by
supernovae measurements alone. In particular, models with a vanishing
cosmological constant (the value of the potential at its minimum) are
degenerate with models with a positive or negative cosmological constant whose
magnitude can be as large as the critical density. Adding information from CMB
anisotropy measurements does reduce the degeneracy somewhat but not
significantly. Our results indicate that a theoretical prior on the preferred
form of the potential and the field's initial conditions may allow to
quantitatively estimate model parameters from data. Without such a theoretical
prior only limited qualitative information on the form and parameters of the
potential can be extracted even from very accurate data.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Distances in inhomogeneous quintessence cosmology
We investigate the properties of cosmological distances in locally
inhomogeneous universes with pressureless matter and dark energy
(quintessence), with constant equation of state. We give exact solutions for
angular diameter distances in theempty beam approximation. In this hypothesis,
the distance-redshift equation is derived fron the multiple lens-plane theory.
The case of a flat universe is considered with particular attention. We show
how this general scheme makes distances degenerate with respect to w_X and the
smoothness parameters, alpha, accounting for the homogeneously distributed
fraction of energy of the i-components. We analyse how this degeneracy
influences the critical redshift where the angular diameter distance takes its
maximum, and put in evidence future prospects for measuring the smoothness
parameter of the pressureless matter, alpha_M.Comment: 24 pages, 9 ps figure
Inclusive production in a QCD and N=4 SYM motivated model for soft interactions
The results presented in this paper differ from our previous unsuccessful
attempt to predict the rapidity distribution at . The original
version of our model (GLMM) only summed a particular class of Pomeron diagrams
(enhanced diagrams). We believe that this was the reason for our failure to
describe the inclusive LHC data. We have developed a new approach
(GLM) that also includes the summation of the semi-enhanced diagrams.This
contribution is essential for a successful description of the inclusive
distributions, which is presented here.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Testing the black disk limit in collisions at very high energy
We use geometric scaling invariant quantities to measure the approach, or
not, of the imaginary and real parts of the elastic scattering amplitude, to
the black disk limit, in collisions at very high energy.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Opportunities for future supernova studies of cosmic acceleration
We investigate the potential of a future supernova dataset, as might be
obtained by the proposed SNAP satellite, to discriminate among different ``dark
energy'' theories that describe an accelerating Universe. We find that many
such models can be distinguished with a fit to the effective
pressure-to-density ratio, , of this energy. More models can be
distinguished when the effective slope, , of a changing is also fit,
but only if our knowledge of the current mass density, , is improved.
We investigate the use of ``fitting functions'' to interpret luminosity
distance data from supernova searches, and argue in favor of a particular
preferred method, which we use in our analysis.Comment: Four pages including figures. Final published version. No significant
changes from v
Constraining slow-roll inflation with WMAP and 2dF
We constrain slow-roll inflationary models using the recent WMAP data
combined with data from the VSA, CBI, ACBAR and 2dF experiments. We find the
slow-roll parameters to be and . For inflation models
we find that at the 2 and levels,
indicating that the model is under very strong pressure from
observations. We define a convergence criterion to judge the necessity of
introducing further power spectrum parameters such as the spectral index and
running of the spectral index. This criterion is typically violated by models
with large negative running that fit the data, indicating that the running
cannot be reliably measured with present data.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX4 file with six figures incorporate
Constraining dark energy with Sunyaev-Zel'dovich cluster surveys
We discuss the prospects of constraining the properties of a dark energy
component, with particular reference to a time varying equation of state, using
future cluster surveys selected by their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compute
the number of clusters expected for a given set of cosmological parameters and
propogate the errors expected from a variety of surveys. In the short term they
will constrain dark energy in conjunction with future observations of type Ia
supernovae, but may in time do so in their own right.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, version accepted for publication in PR
A New 5 Flavour NLO Analysis and Parametrizations of Parton Distributions of the Real Photon
New, radiatively generated, NLO quark (u,d,s,c,b) and gluon densities in a
real, unpolarized photon are presented. We perform three global fits, based on
the NLO DGLAP evolution equations for Q^2>1 GeV^2, to all the available
structure function F_2^gamma(x,Q^2) data. As in our previous LO analysis we
utilize two theoretical approaches. Two models, denoted as FFNS_{CJK}1 & 2 NLO,
adopt the so-called Fixed Flavour-Number Scheme for calculation of the
heavy-quark contributions to F_2^gamma(x,Q^2), the CJK NLO model applies the
ACOT(chi) scheme. We examine the results of our fits by a comparison with the
LEP data for the Q^2 dependence of the F_2^gamma, averaged over various
x-regions, and the F_2,c^gamma. Grid parametrizations of the parton densities
for all fits are provided.Comment: 49 pages, 27 postscript figures; FORTRAN programs available at
http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pjank/param.htm
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