Inflation with a constant ratio of scalar and tensor perturbation amplitudes

The single scalar field inflationary models that lead to scalar and tensor perturbation spectra with amplitudes varying in direct proportion to one another are reconstructed by solving the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem to next-to-leading order in the slow-roll approximation. The potentials asymptote at high energies to an exponential form, corresponding to power law inflation, but diverge from this model at low energies, indicating that power law inflation is a repellor in this case. This feature implies that a fine-tuning of initial conditions is required if such models are to reproduce the observations. The required initial conditions might be set through the eternal inflation mechanism. If this is the case, it will imply that the spectral indices must be nearly constant, making the underlying model observationally indistinguishable from power law inflation.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Major changes to the Introduction following referee's comments. One figure added. Some other minor changes. No conclusion was modifie

Minimum mass-radius ratio for charged gravitational objects

We rigorously prove that for compact charged general relativistic objects there is a lower bound for the mass-radius ratio. This result follows from the same Buchdahl type inequality for charged objects, which has been extensively used for the proof of the existence of an upper bound for the mass-radius ratio. The effect of the vacuum energy (a cosmological constant) on the minimum mass is also taken into account. Several bounds on the total charge, mass and the vacuum energy for compact charged objects are obtained from the study of the Ricci scalar invariants. The total energy (including the gravitational one) and the stability of the objects with minimum mass-radius ratio is also considered, leading to a representation of the mass and radius of the charged objects with minimum mass-radius ratio in terms of the charge and vacuum energy only.Comment: 19 pages, accepted by GRG, references corrected and adde

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

The Dynamics of Brane-World Cosmological Models

Brane-world cosmology is motivated by recent developments in string/M-theory and offers a new perspective on the hierarchy problem. In the brane-world scenario, our Universe is a four-dimensional subspace or {\em brane} embedded in a higher-dimensional {\em bulk} spacetime. Ordinary matter fields are confined to the brane while the gravitational field can also propagate in the bulk, leading to modifications of Einstein's theory of general relativity at high energies. In particular, the Randall-Sundrum-type models are self-consistent and simple and allow for an investigation of the essential non-linear gravitational dynamics. The governing field equations induced on the brane differ from the general relativistic equations in that there are nonlocal effects from the free gravitational field in the bulk, transmitted via the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor, and the local quadratic energy-momentum corrections, which are significant in the high-energy regime close to the initial singularity. In this review we discuss the asymptotic dynamical evolution of spatially homogeneous brane-world cosmological models containing both a perfect fluid and a scalar field close to the initial singularity. Using dynamical systems techniques it is found that, for models with a physically relevant equation of state, an isotropic singularity is a past-attractor in all orthogonal spatially homogeneous models (including Bianchi type IX models). In addition, we describe the dynamics in a class of inhomogeneous brane-world models, and show that these models also have an isotropic initial singularity. These results provide support for the conjecture that typically the initial cosmological singularity is isotropic in brane-world cosmology.Comment: Einstein Centennial Review Article: to appear in CJ

Sensitive intracavity photoacoustic measurements with a CO2 waveguide laser

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