Does the Fine Structure Constant Really Vary in Time?

We discuss how laboratory experiments can be used to place constraints on possible variations of the fine structure constant alpha in the observationally relevant redshift interval z ~= 0 - 5, within a rather general theoretical framework. We find a worst case upper limit for Delta alpha / alpha of 8 x 10^-6 for z <= 5 and Delta alpha / alpha of 0.9 x 10^-6 for z <= 1.6. The derived limits are at variance with the recent findings by Webb et al. (1998), who claim an observed variation of Delta alpha/alpha = -2.6 +- 0.4 x 10^-5 at 1<z<1.6.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, ApJL in pres

Evidence Against the Sciama Model of Radiative Decay of Massive Neutrinos

We report on spectral observations of the night sky in the band around 900 angstroms where the emission line in the Sciama model of radiatively decaying massive neutrinos would be present. The data were obtained with a high resolution, high sensitivity spectrometer flown on the Spanish MINISAT satellite. The observed emission is far less intense than that expected in the Sciama model.Comment: 9 pages, accepted to Ap

On the Machian Origin of Inertia

We examine Sciama's inertia theory: we generalise it, by combining rotation and expansion in one unique model, we find the angular speed of the Universe, and we stress that the theory is zero-total-energy valued. We compare with other theories of the same null energy background. We determine the numerical value of a constant which appears in the Machian inertial force expression devised by Graneau and Graneau[2], by introducing the above angular speed. We point out that this last theory is not restricted to Newtonian physics as those authors stated but is, in fact, compatible with other cosmological and gravitational theories. An argument by Berry[7] is shown in order to "derive" Brans-Dicke relation in the present context.Comment: 10 pages including front one. New version was accepted to publication by Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Variation of the speed of light with temperature of the expanding universe

From an extended relativistic dynamics for a particle moving in a cosmic background field with temperature T, we aim to obtain the speed of light with an explicit dependence on the background temperature of the universe. Although finding the speed of light in the early universe much larger than its current value, our approach does not violate the postulate of special relativity. Moreover, it is shown that the high value of the speed of light in the early universe was drastically decreased before the beginning of the inflationary period. So we are led to conclude that the theory of varying speed of light should be questioned as a possible solution of the horizon problem.Comment: 3 pages and 1 figure; Phys. Rev. D86, 027703 (2012

Seeking the Ultraviolet Ionizing Background at z~3 with the Keck Telescope

We describe the initial results of a deep long-slit emission line search for redshifted (2.7<z<4.1) Lyman-alpha. These observations are used to constrain the fluorescent Ly-alpha emission from the population of clouds whose absorption produces the higher-column-density component of the Ly-alpha forest in quasar spectra. We use the results to set an upper limit on the ultraviolet ionizing background. Our spectroscopic data obtained with the Keck II telescope at lambda/(Delta lambda FWHM)~2000 reveals no candidate Ly-alpha emission over the wavelength range of 4500-6200 Ang along a 3 arcmin slit in a 5400 s integration. Our 3 sigma upper bound on the mean intensity of the ionizing background at the Lyman limit is J(nu 0) < 2E-21 erg/s/cm**2/Hz/sr for 2.7<z<3.1 (where we are most sensitive), assuming Lyman limit systems have typical radii of 70 kpc (q_0=0.5, H_0=50 km/s/Mpc). This constraint is more than an order of magnitude more stringent than any previously published direct limit. However, it is still a factor of three above the ultraviolet background level expected due to the integrated light of known quasars at z~3. This pilot study confirms the conclusion of Gould \& Weinberg (1996) that integrations of several hours on a 10-m class telescope should be capable of measuring J(nu 0) at high redshift.Comment: 22 pages, 2 postscipt figures. Latex requires aaspp4.sty and epsf.sty (included). Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (Nov 1998

A General Relativistic Rotating Evolutionary Universe - Part II

As a sequel to (Berman, 2008a), we show that the rotation of the Universe can be dealt by generalised Gaussian metrics, defined in this paper. Robertson-Walker's metric has been employed with proper-time, in its standard applications; the generalised Gaussian metric imply in the use of a non-constant temporal metric coefficient modifying Robertson-Walker's standard form. Experimental predictions are madeComment: 7 pages including front cover. Publishe

BRST-antifield-treatment of metric-affine gravity

The metric-affine gauge theory of gravity provides a broad framework in which gauge theories of gravity can be formulated. In this article we fit metric-affine gravity into the covariant BRST--antifield formalism in order to obtain gauge fixed quantum actions. As an example the gauge fixing of a general two-dimensional model of metric-affine gravity is worked out explicitly. The result is shown to contain the gauge fixed action of the bosonic string in conformal gauge as a special case.Comment: 19 pages LATEX, to appear in Phys. Rev.

de Sitter group and Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian

Axial vector torsion in the Einstein-Cartan space $U_{4}$ is considered here. By picking a particular term from the SO(4,1) Pontryagin density and then modifying it in a SO(3,1) invariant way, we get a Lagrangian density with Lagrange multipliers. Then considering torsion and torsion-less connection as independent fields, it has been found that $\kappa$ and $\lambda$ of Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian, appear as integration constants in such a way that $\kappa$ has been found to be linked with the topological Nieh-Yan density of $U_{4}$ space.Comment: 14 page

Some Heuristic Semiclassical Derivations of the Planck Length, the Hawking Effect and the Unruh Effect

The formulae for Planck length, Hawking temperature and Unruh-Davies temperature are derived by using only laws of classical physics together with the Heisenberg principle. Besides, it is shown how the Hawking relation can be deduced from the Unruh relation by means of the principle of equivalence; the deep link between Hawking effect and Unruh effect is in this way clarified.Comment: LaTex file, 6 pages, no figure

Sonoluminescence: Bogolubov coefficients for the QED vacuum of a time-dependent dielectric bubble

We extend Schwinger's ideas regarding sonoluminescence by explicitly calculating the Bogolubov coefficients relating the QED vacuum states associated with changes in a dielectric bubble. Sudden (non-adiabatic) changes in the refractive index lead to an efficient production of real photons with a broadband spectrum, and a high-frequency cutoff that arises from the asymptotic behaviour of the dielectric constant.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures (.eps file) included with graphics.sty. Major revisions: physical scenario clarified, additional numerical estimate