From Hubble diagrams to scale factors

We present a lower bound on the radius of the universe today $a_0$ and a monotonicity constraint on the Hubble diagram. Our theoretical input is Einstein's kinematics and maximally symmetric universes. Present supernova data yield $a_0 > 1.2\cdot 10^{26}$ m. A first attempt to quantify the monotonicity constraint is described. We do not see any indication of non-monotonicity.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Maximal symmetry at the speed of light

We propose a relativistic version of the cosmological principle and confront it to the Hubble diagram of supernovae and other probes.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Einstein-Cartan, Bianchi I and the Hubble Diagram

We try to solve the dark matter problem in the fit between theory and the Hubble diagram of supernovae by allowing for torsion via Einstein-Cartan's gravity and for anisotropy via the axial Bianchi I metric. Otherwise we are conservative and admit only the cosmological constant and dust. The failure of our model is quantified by the relative amount of dust in our best fit: Omega_{m0}= 27 % +/- 5 % at 1 sigma level.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Negative Energies and a Constantly Accelerating Flat Universe

It has been shown that in the context of General Relativity (GR) enriched with a new set of discrete symmetry reversal conjugate metrics, negative energy states can be rehabilitated while avoiding the well-known instability issues. We review here some cosmological implications of the model and confront them with the supernovae and CMB data. The predicted flat universe constantly accelerated expansion phase is found to be in rather good agreement with the most recent cosmological data

Search for exotic Higgs outside the MSSM

Recent preliminary results of searches for Higgs bosons outside the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) are summarised. These results are based on data from the four LEP experiments: ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, at a centre-of-mass energies up to 189 GeV. Some new results from the two Tevatron experiments: CDF and D0, are also presented. Finally, the potential mass reach for exotic Higgs at future accelerators are discussed

Torsion, an alternative to the cosmological constant?

We confront Einstein-Cartan's theory with the Hubble diagram and obtain a negative answer to the question in the title. Contrary findings in the literature seem to stem from an error in the field equations.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Version 2 corrects a factor 3 in Cartan's equations to become

Modelling the relative velocities of isolated pairs of galaxies

We study the comoving relative velocities, v12, of model isolated galaxy pairs at z=0.5. For this purpose, we use the predictions from the GALFORM semi-analytical model of galaxy formation and evolution based on a Lambda cold dark matter cosmology consistent with the results from WMAP7. In real space, we find that isolated pairs of galaxies are predicted to form an angle t with the line-of-sight that is uniformily distributed as expected if the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic. We also find that isolated pairs of galaxies separated by a comoving distance between 1 and 3 Mpc/h are predicted to have =0. For galaxies in this regime, the distribution of the angle t is predicted to change minimally from real to redshift space, with a change smaller than 5% in . However, the distances defining the comoving regime strongly depends on the applied isolation criteria.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, SF2A 2013 Proceedin

Catastrophic Photo-z Errors and the Dark Energy Parameter Estimates with Cosmic Shear

We study the impact of catastrophic errors occurring in the photometric redshifts of galaxies on cosmological parameter estimates with cosmic shear tomography. We consider a fiducial survey with 9-filter set and perform photo-z measurement simulations. It is found that a fraction of 1% galaxies at z_{spec}~0.4 is misidentified to be at z_{phot}~3.5. We then employ both chi^2 fitting method and the extension of Fisher matrix formalism to evaluate the bias on the equation of state parameters of dark energy, w_0 and w_a, induced by those catastrophic outliers. By comparing the results from both methods, we verify that the estimation of w_0 and w_a from the fiducial 5-bin tomographic analyses can be significantly biased. To minimize the impact of this bias, two strategies can be followed: (A) the cosmic shear analysis is restricted to 0.5<z<2.5 where catastrophic redshift errors are expected to be insignificant; (B) a spectroscopic survey is conducted for galaxies with 3<z_{phot}<4. We find that the number of spectroscopic redshifts needed scales as N_{spec} \propto f_{cata}\times A where f_{cata}=1% is the fraction of catastrophic redshift errors (assuming a 9-filter photometric survey) and A is the survey area. For A=1000 {deg}^2, we find that N_{spec}>320 and 860 respectively in order to reduce the joint bias in (w_0,w_a) to be smaller than 2\sigma and 1\sigma. This spectroscopic survey (option B) will improve the Figure of Merit of option A by a factor \times 1.5 thus making such a survey strongly desirable.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. Revised version, as accepted for publication in Ap