Visible Branes with Negative Tension in Heterotic M-Theory

It is shown that there exist large classes of BPS vacua in heterotic M-theory which have negative tension on the visible orbifold plane, positive tension on the hidden plane and positive tension, physical five-branes in the bulk space. Explicit examples of such vacua are presented. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the ratio, beta/|alpha|, of the bulk five-brane tension to the visible plane tension can, for several large classes of such vacua, be made arbitrarily small. Hence, it is straightforward to find vacua with the properties required in the examples of the Ekpyrotic theory of cosmology - a visible brane with negative tension and beta/|alpha| small. This contradicts recent claims in the literature.Comment: 30 page

Langevin Analysis of Eternal Inflation

It has been widely claimed that inflation is generically eternal to the future, even in models where the inflaton potential monotonically increases away from its minimum. The idea is that quantum fluctuations allow the field to jump uphill, thereby continually revitalizing the inflationary process in some regions. In this paper we investigate a simple model of this process, pertaining to inflation with a quartic potential, in which analytic progress may be made. We calculate several quantities of interest, such as the expected number of inflationary efolds, first without and then with various selection effects. With no additional weighting, the stochastic noise has little impact on the total number of inflationary efoldings even if the inflaton starts with a Planckian energy density. A "rolling" volume factor, i.e. weighting in proportion to the volume at that time, also leads to a monotonically decreasing Hubble constant and hence no eternal inflation. We show how stronger selection effects including a constraint on the initial and final states and weighting with the final volume factor can lead to a picture similar to that usually associated with eternal inflation.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Coupled quintessence and curvature-assisted acceleration

Spatially homogeneous models with a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the space-time curvature or to the ordinary matter content are analysed with respect to late-time asymptotic behaviour, in particular to accelerated expansion and isotropization. It is found that a direct coupling to the curvature leads to asymptotic de Sitter expansion in arbitrary exponential potentials, thus yielding a positive cosmological constant although none is apparent in the potential. This holds true regardless of the steepness of the potential or the smallness of the coupling constant. For matter-coupled scalar fields, the asymptotics are obtained for a large class of positive potentials, generalizing the well-known cosmic no-hair theorems for minimal coupling. In this case it is observed that the direct coupling to matter does not impact the late-time dynamics essentially.Comment: 17 pages, no figures. v2: typos correcte

Optical Absorption Characteristics of Silicon Nanowires for Photovoltaic Applications

Solar cells have generated a lot of interest as a potential source of clean renewable energy for the future. However a big bottleneck in wide scale deployment of these energy sources remain the low efficiency of these conversion devices. Recently the use of nanostructures and the strategy of quantum confinement have been as a general approach towards better charge carrier generation and capture. In this article we have presented calculations on the optical characteristics of nanowires made out of Silicon. Our calculations show these nanowires form excellent optoelectronic materials and may yield efficient photovoltaic devices

Dark-Energy Dynamics Required to Solve the Cosmic Coincidence

Dynamic dark energy (DDE) models are often designed to solve the cosmic coincidence (why, just now, is the dark energy density $\rho_{de}$, the same order of magnitude as the matter density $\rho_m$?) by guaranteeing $\rho_{de} \sim \rho_m$ for significant fractions of the age of the universe. This typically entails ad-hoc tracking or oscillatory behaviour in the model. However, such behaviour is neither sufficient nor necessary to solve the coincidence problem. What must be shown is that a significant fraction of observers see $\rho_{de} \sim \rho_m$. Precisely when, and for how long, must a DDE model have $\rho_{de} \sim \rho_{m}$ in order to solve the coincidence? We explore the coincidence problem in dynamic dark energy models using the temporal distribution of terrestrial-planet-bound observers. We find that any dark energy model fitting current observational constraints on $\rho_{de}$ and the equation of state parameters $w_0$ and $w_a$, does have $\rho_{de} \sim \rho_m$ for a large fraction of observers in the universe. This demotivates DDE models specifically designed to solve the coincidence using long or repeated periods of $\rho_{de} \sim \rho_m$.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Can black holes be torn up by phantom dark energy in cyclic cosmology?

Infinitely cyclic cosmology is often frustrated by the black hole problem. It has been speculated that this obstacle in cyclic cosmology can be removed by taking into account a peculiar cyclic model derived from loop quantum cosmology or the braneworld scenario, in which phantom dark energy plays a crucial role. In this peculiar cyclic model, the mechanism of solving the black hole problem is through tearing up black holes by phantom. However, using the theory of fluid accretion onto black holes, we show in this paper that there exists another possibility: that black holes cannot be torn up by phantom in this cyclic model. We discussed this possibility and showed that the masses of black holes might first decrease and then increase, through phantom accretion onto black holes in the expanding stage of the cyclic universe.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; discussions adde

A Tale of Two Tilings

What do you get when you cross a crystal with a quasicrystal? The surprising answer stretches from Fibonacci to Kepler, who nearly 400 years ago showed how the ancient tiles of Archimedes form periodic patterns.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Sequestration of vacuum energy and the end of the universe

Recently, we proposed a mechanism for sequestering the standard model vacuum energy that predicts that the Universe will collapse. Here we present a simple mechanism for bringing about this collapse, employing a scalar field whose potential is linear and becomes negative, providing the negative energy density required to end the expansion. The slope of the potential is chosen to allow for the expansion to last until the current Hubble time, about 10 10 years, to accommodate our Universe. Crucially, this choice is technically natural due to a shift symmetry. Moreover, vacuum energy sequestering selects radiatively stable initial conditions for the collapse, which guarantee that immediately before the turnaround the Universe is dominated by the linear potential which drives an epoch of accelerated expansion for at least an e fold. Thus, a single, technically natural choice for the slope ensures that the collapse is imminent and is preceded by the current stage of cosmic acceleration, giving a new answer to the “why now?” problem

Primordial Black Hole Formation from Inflaton

Measurements of the distances to SNe Ia have produced strong evidence that the Universe is really accelarating, implying the existence of a nearly uniform component of dark energy with the simplest explanation as a cosmological constant. In this paper a small changing cosmological term is proposed, which is a function of a slow-rolling scalar field, by which the de Sitter primordial black holes' properties, for both charged and uncharged cases, are carefully examined and the relationship between the black hole formation and the energy transfer of the inflaton within this cosmological term is eluciatedComment: 6 pages, Late

Robustness of slow contraction to cosmic initial conditions

We present numerical relativity simulations of cosmological scenarios in which the universe is smoothed and flattened by undergoing a phase of slow contraction and test their sensitivity to a wide range of initial conditions. Our numerical scheme enables the variation of all freely specifiable physical quantities that characterize the initial spatial hypersurface, such as the initial shear and spatial curvature contributions as well as the initial field and velocity distributions of the scalar that drives the cosmological evolution. In particular, we include initial conditions that are far outside the perturbative regime of the well-known attractor scaling solution. We complement our numerical results by analytically performing a complete dynamical systems analysis and show that the two approaches yield consistent results.Comment: 41 pages, 18 figures; accepted for publication in JCA