On the Origin of the Clustered QSO Metal Absorption Lines

Observations show that there is significant clustering of QSO metal absorption lines within the range of velocity dispersion between 200km/sec and 600 km/sec. With a reasonable supernova rate, it is shown that high velocity gases driven by SNe and/or strong stellar winds could explain the clustered absorptions, provided that QSO metal-line absorbers are galactic halos or dwarf galaxies. Rich clusters of galaxies, on the other hand, cannot yield the observed clustering of QSO metal absorption lines.Comment: Revtex 15 pages, 2 ps figures available at ftp://astro.queensu.ca/pub/shi/, or at http://astro.queensu.ca/~shi/, or by request. Submitted to Ap. J

Higher dimensional Loop Quantum Cosmology

Loop quantum cosmology(LQC) is the symmetric model of loop quantum gravity. In this paper, we generalize the structure of loop quantum cosmology to the theories with arbitrary spacetime dimensions. The isotropic and homogenous cosmological model in n+1 dimensions is quantized by the loop quantization method. Interestingly, we find that the underlying quantum theories are divided into two qualitatively different sectors according to spacetime dimensions. The effective Hamiltonian and modified dynamical equations of n+1 dimensional LQC are obtained. Moreover, our results indicate that the classical big bang singularity is resolved in arbitrary spacetime dimensions by a quantum bounce. We also briefly discuss the similarities and differences between the n+1 dimensional model and the 3+1 dimensional one. Our model serves as a first example of higher dimensional loop quantum cosmology and offers possibility to investigate quantum gravity effects in higher dimensional cosmology.Comment: 14 pages. Minor revision and references added, presentation improve

Testing Cold Dark Matter Models Using Hubble Flow Variations

COBE-normalized flat (matter plus cosmological constant) and open Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models are tested by comparing their expected Hubble flow variations and the observed variations in a Type Ia supernova sample and a Tully Fisher cluster sample. The test provides a probe of the CDM power spectrum on scales of $0.02h$ Mpc^{-1}\la k\la 0.2h Mpc$^{-1}$, free of the bias factor $b$. The results favor a low matter content universe, or a flat matter-dominated universe with a very low Hubble constant and/or a very small spectral index $n_{ps}$, with the best fits having $\Omega_0\sim 0.3$ to 0.4. The test is found to be more discriminative to the open CDM models than to the flat CDM models. For example, the test results are found to be compatible with those from the X-ray cluster abundance measurements at smaller length scales, and consistent with the galaxy and cluster correlation analysis of Peacock and Dodds (1994) at similar length scales, if our universe is flat; but the results are marginally incompatible with the X-ray cluster abundance measurements if our universe is open. The open CDM results are consistent with that of Peacock and Dodds only if the matter density of the universe is less than about 60% of the critical density. The shortcoming of the test is discussed, so are ways to minimize it.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRA