A Critique of Supernova Data Analysis in Cosmology

Observational astronomy has shown significant growth over the last decade and has made important contributions to cosmology. A major paradigm shift in cosmology was brought about by observations of Type Ia supernovae. The notion that the universe is accelerating has led to several theoretical challenges. Unfortunately, although high quality supernovae data-sets are being produced, their statistical analysis leaves much to be desired. Instead of using the data to directly test the model, several studies seem to concentrate on assuming the model to be correct and limiting themselves to estimating model parameters and internal errors. As shown here, the important purpose of testing a cosmological theory is thereby vitiated.Comment: v2: Revised, comments and references added; Published version [vailable at http://www.raa-journal.org/raa/index.php/raa/article/view/539

A Radical Departure from the ''steady State'' Concept in Cosmology

Radical departure from steady state theory in cosmolog

On the formation of elliptical galaxies

Formation of elliptical galaxie

On searches for gravitational waves from mini creation event by laser interferometric detectors

As an alternative view to the standard big bang cosmology the quasi-steady state cosmology(QSSC) argues that the universe was not created in a single great explosion; it neither had a beginning nor will it ever come to an end. The creation of new matter in the universe is a regular feature occurring through finite explosive events. Each creation event is called a mini-bang or, a mini creation event(MCE). Gravitational waves are expected to be generated due to any anisotropy present in this process of creation. Mini creation event ejecting matter in two oppositely directed jets is thus a source of gravitational waves which can in principle be detected by laser interferometric detectors. In the present work we consider the gravitational waveforms propagated by linear jets and then estimate the response of laser interferometric detectors like LIGO and LISA

Mach's principle

The underlying idea in Mach's principle is that the origin of inertia or mass of a particle is a dynamical quantity determined by the environment, in particular the rest of the matter in the universe. In this article, we discuss the role of this idea in the Brans{Dicke theory of gravitation and the Hoyle Narlikar cosmology

Biscalar and bivector Green's functions in de Sitter space time

Biscalar and bivector Green's functions of wave equations are calculated explicitly in de Sitter space time. The calculation is performed by considering the electromagnetic field generated by the spontaneous creation of an electric charge

The lighter side of gravity: How Swami Gurutwananda received enlightenment?

This article does not have an abstract

Cosmology: past, present and future

This is a broad-brush review of the development of cosmology during the twentieth century. The 'past' deals with the first nine decades of the century while the 'present' deals with the last decade. Although technological achievements have helped the astronomer in better viewing the universe, a 'final' understanding still eludes the search for the correct cosmological model. The article ends with a list of unsolved questions which the 'future' may eventually answer