3,324 research outputs found
Non-Gaussianity in Island Cosmology
In this paper we fully calculate the non-Gaussianity of primordial curvature
perturbation of island universe by using the second order perturbation
equation. We find that for the spectral index , which is
favored by current observations, the non-Gaussianity level seen in
island will generally lie between 30 60, which may be tested by the
coming observations. In the landscape, the island universe is one of
anthropically acceptable cosmological histories. Thus the results obtained in
some sense means the coming observations, especially the measurement of
non-Gaussianity, will be significant to make clear how our position in the
landscape is populated.Comment: 5 pages, 1 eps figure, some discussions added, published versio
Gravitational Wave Background from Phantom Superinflation
Recently, the early superinflation driven by phantom field has been proposed
and studied. The detection of primordial gravitational wave is an important
means to know the state of very early universe. In this brief report we discuss
in detail the gravitational wave background excited during the phantom
superinflation.Comment: 3 pages, 2 eps figures, to be published in PRD, revised with
published version, refs. adde
Constraints on Oscillating Quintom from Supernova, Microwave Background and Galaxy Clustering
We consider in this paper a simple oscillating Quintom model of dark energy
which has two free parameters and an equation of state oscillating and crossing
-1. For low redshifts the equation of state of this model resembles itself
similar to the linearly parameterized dark energy, however differ substantially
at large redshifts. We fit our model to the observational data separately from
the new high redshift supernova observations from the HST/GOODS program and
previous supernova, CMB and galaxy clustering. Our results show that because of
the oscillating feature of our model the constraints from observations at large
redshifts such as CMB become less stringent.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures Revtex
Loop quantum gravity effects on inflation and the CMB
In loop quantum cosmology, the universe avoids a big bang singularity and
undergoes an early and short super-inflation phase. During super-inflation,
non-perturbative quantum corrections to the dynamics drive an inflaton field up
its potential hill, thus setting the initial conditions for standard inflation.
We show that this effect can raise the inflaton high enough to achieve
sufficient e-foldings in the standard inflation era. We analyze the
cosmological perturbations generated when slow-roll is violated after
super-inflation, and show that loop quantum effects can in principle leave an
indirect signature on the largest scales in the CMB, with some loss of power
and running of the spectral index.Comment: revtex4, 5 pages, 3 figures, significant improvements in explanation
of quantization and perturbation issues; version to appear Classical and
Quantum Gravit
Cosmic Duality in Quintom Universe
In this paper we study the duality in two-field Quintom models of Dark Energy. We find that an expanding universe dominated by Quintom-A field is dual to a contracting universe with Quintom-B field
Density dependence across multiple life stages in a temperate old-growth forest of northeast China
Recent studies on species coexistence suggest that density dependence is an important mechanism regulating plant populations. However, there have been few studies of density dependence conducted for more than one life-history stage or that control for habitat heterogeneity, which may influence spatial patterns of survival and mask density dependence. We explored the prevalence of density dependence across multiple life stages, and the effects of controlling for habitat heterogeneity, in a temperate forest in northeast China. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to test for density-dependent mortality of seedlings and spatial point pattern analysis to detect density dependence for sapling-to-juvenile transitions. Conspecific neighbors had a negative effect on survival of plants in both life stages. At the seedling stage, we found a negative effect of conspecific seedling neighbors on survival when analyzing all species combined. However, in species-level analyses, only 2 of 11 focal species were negatively impacted by conspecific neighbors, indicating wide variation among species in the strength of density dependence. Controlling for habitat heterogeneity did not alter our findings of density dependence at the seedling stage. For the sapling-to-juvenile transition stage, 11 of 15 focal species showed patterns of local scale (<10 m) conspecific thinning, consistent with negative density dependence. The results varied depending on whether we controlled for habitat heterogeneity, indicating that a failure to account for habitat heterogeneity can obscure patterns of density dependence. We conclude that density dependence may promote tree species coexistence by acting across multiple life-history stages in this temperate forest. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00442-012-2481-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
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