1,923 research outputs found
The effect of structure formation on the expansion of the universe
Observations of the expansion rate of the universe at late times disagree by
a factor of 1.5-2 with the prediction of homogeneous and isotropic models based
on ordinary matter and gravity. We discuss how the departure from linearly
perturbed homogeneity and isotropy due to structure formation could explain
this discrepancy. We evaluate the expansion rate in a dust universe which
contains non-linear structures with a statistically homogeneous and isotropic
distribution. The expansion rate is found to increase relative to the exactly
homogeneous and isotropic case by a factor of 1.1-1.3 at some tens of billion
of years. The timescale follows from the cold dark matter transfer function and
the amplitude of primordial perturbations without additional free parameters.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Awarded Honorable Mention in the 2008 Gravity
Research Foundation essay competition. More extended treatment of the topics
can be found in arXiv:0801.2692v
Cosmological acceleration from structure formation
We discuss the Buchert equations, which describe the average expansion of an
inhomogeneous dust universe. In the limit of small perturbations, they reduce
to the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker equations. However, when the universe is very
inhomogeneous, the behaviour can be qualitatively different from the FRW case.
In particular, the average expansion rate can accelerate even though the local
expansion rate decelerates everywhere. We clarify the physical meaning of this
paradoxical feature with a simple toy model, and demonstrate how acceleration
is intimately connected with gravitational collapse. This provides a link to
structure formation, which in turn has a preferred time around the era when
acceleration has been observed to start.Comment: 6 pages, awarded honorable mention in the 2006 Gravity Research
Foundation essay competitio
Can superhorizon perturbations drive the acceleration of the Universe?
It has recently been suggested that the acceleration of the Universe can be
explained as the backreaction effect of superhorizon perturbations using second
order perturbation theory. If this mechanism is correct, it should also apply
to a hypothetical, gedanken universe in which the subhorizon perturbations are
absent. In such a gedanken universe it is possible to compute the deceleration
parameter measured by comoving observers using local covariant Taylor
expansions rather than using second order perturbation theory. The result
indicates that second order corrections to are present, but shows that if
is negative then its magnitude is constrained to be less than or of the
order of the square of the peculiar velocity on Hubble scales today. We argue
that since this quantity is constrained by observations to be small compared to
unity, superhorizon perturbations cannot be responsible for the acceleration of
the Universe.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, no figures; final published versio
Transverse Spectra of Hadrons in Central Collisions at RHIC and LHC from pQCD+Saturation+Hydrodynamics and from pQCD+Energy Losses
We study the transverse spectra of hadrons in nearly central collisions
at RHIC and LHC in a broad transverse momentum range Low- spectra are
calculated by using boost-invariant hydrodynamics with initial energy and
net-baryon densities from the EKRT pQCD+saturation model. High- spectra
are obtained from pQCD jet calculation including the energy loss of the parton
in the matter prior to its fragmentation to final hadrons.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings for Quark Matter 200
Exchange and correlation energy functionals for two-dimensional open-shell systems
We consider density functionals for exchange and correlation energies in
two-dimensional systems. The functionals are constructed by making use of exact
constraints for the angular averages of the corresponding exchange and
correlation holes, respectively, and assuming proportionality between their
characteristic sizes. The electron current and spin are explicitly taken into
account, so that the resulting functionals are suitable to deal with systems
exhibiting orbital currents and/or spin polarization. Our numerical results
show that in finite systems the proposed functionals outperform the standard
two-dimensional local spin-density approximation, still performing well also in
the important limit of the homogeneous two-dimensional electron gas
Local correlation functional for electrons in two dimensions
We derive a local approximation for the correlation energy in two-dimensional
electronic systems. In the derivation we follow the scheme originally developed
by Colle and Salvetti for three dimensions, and consider a Gaussian
approximation for the pair density. Then, we introduce an ad-hoc modification
which better accounts for both the long-range correlation, and the
kinetic-energy contribution to the correlation energy. The resulting functional
is local, and depends parametrically on the number of electrons in the system.
We apply this functional to the homogeneous electron gas and to a set of
two-dimensional quantum dots covering a wide range of electron densities and
thus various amounts of correlation. In all test cases we find an excellent
agreement between our results and the exact correlation energies. Our
correlation functional has a form that is simple and straightforward to
implement, but broadly outperforms the commonly used local-density
approximation
On the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions
We study the properties of the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy
in two dimensions. First we review the derivation of the bound and show how it
can be written in a simple density-functional form. This form allows an
explicit determination of the prefactor of the bound and testing its tightness.
Next we focus on finite two-dimensional systems and examine how their distance
from the bound depends on the system geometry. The results for the high-density
limit suggest that a finite system that comes as close as possible to the
ultimate bound on the exchange-correlation energy has circular geometry and a
weak confining potential with a negative curvature
Late time failure of Friedmann equation
It is widely believed that the assumption of homogeneity is a good zero{\it
th} order approximation for the expansion of our Universe. We analyze the
correction due to subhorizon inhomogeneous gravitational fields. While at early
times this contribution (which may act as a negative pressure component) is
perturbatively subdominant, we show that the perturbative series is likely to
diverge at redshift of order 1, due to the growth of perturbations. So, the
homogeneous Friedmann equation can not be trusted at late times. We suggest
that the puzzling observations of a present acceleration of the Universe, may
just be due to the unjustified use of the Friedmann equation and not to the
presence of a Dark Energy component. This would completely solve the
coincidence problem.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Replaced version contains new sections with
discussions and an explicit computation. Some parts rewritten and references
added.Submitted to PR
Exchange-correlation orbital functionals in current-density-functional theory: Application to a quantum dot in magnetic fields
The description of interacting many-electron systems in external magnetic
fields is considered in the framework of the optimized effective potential
method extended to current-spin-density functional theory. As a case study, a
two-dimensional quantum dot in external magnetic fields is investigated.
Excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo results is obtained when
self-interaction corrected correlation energies from the standard local
spin-density approximation are added to exact-exchange results. Full
self-consistency within the complete current-spin-density-functional framework
is found to be of minor importance.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Geometric and impurity effects on quantum rings in magnetic fields
We investigate the effects of impurities and changing ring geometry on the
energetics of quantum rings under different magnetic field strengths. We show
that as the magnetic field and/or the electron number are/is increased, both
the quasiperiodic Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and various magnetic phases become
insensitive to whether the ring is circular or square in shape. This is in
qualitative agreement with experiments. However, we also find that the
Aharonov-Bohm oscillation can be greatly phase-shifted by only a few impurities
and can be completely obliterated by a high level of impurity density. In the
many-electron calculations we use a recently developed fourth-order imaginary
time projection algorithm that can exactly compute the density matrix of a
free-electron in a uniform magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, to appear in PR
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