2,464 research outputs found
Radion Assisted Gauge Inflation
We propose an extension to the recently proposed extranatural or gauge
inflation scenario in which the radius modulus field around which the Wilson
loop is wrapped assists inflation as it shrinks. We discuss how this might lead
to more generic initial conditions for inflation.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Early Ceramics in Anatolia: Implications for the Production and Use of the Earliest Pottery. The Evidence from Boncuklu Höyük
Fragments of possible fired clay found at Boncuklu Höyük, central Turkey, appear to derive from rudimentary vessels, despite the later ninth- and early eighth-millennium cal. bc and thus ‘Aceramic’ dates for the site. This paper will examine the evidence for such fired clay vessels at Boncuklu and consider their implications as examples of some of the earliest pottery in Anatolia. The discussion will examine contextual evidence for the role of these fragments and consider their relative rarity at the site and the implications for the marked widespread adoption of pottery in southwest Asia c. 7000–6700 cal. bc
Vanishing Dimensions and Planar Events at the LHC
We propose that the effective dimensionality of the space we live in depends
on the length scale we are probing. As the length scale increases, new
dimensions open up. At short scales the space is lower dimensional; at the
intermediate scales the space is three-dimensional; and at large scales, the
space is effectively higher dimensional. This setup allows for some fundamental
problems in cosmology, gravity, and particle physics to be attacked from a new
perspective. The proposed framework, among the other things, offers a new
approach to the cosmological constant problem and results in striking collider
phenomenology and may explain elongated jets observed in cosmic-ray data.Comment: v1: 5 pages revtex, 1 eps figure; v2: includes extensive discussion
on violation of Lorentz invariance, featured in a Nature editorial [Nature
466 (2010) 426] http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100720/full/466426a.html; v3:
discussion expanded, matching journal versio
Temporal variation of coupling constants and nucleosynthesis
We investigate the triple-alpha process and the Oklo phenomenon to obtain
constraints on possible cosmological time variations of fundamental constants.
Specifically we study cosmological temporal constraints for the fine structure
constant and nucleon and meson masses.Comment: 4 pages. Proceedings of the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics
Conference, Debrecen, Hungary, September 30 - October 3, 2002. To be
published in Nuc. Phys.
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