22 research outputs found
Higher spin fields and the problem of cosmological constant
The cosmological evolution of free massless vector or tensor (but not gauge)
fields minimally coupled to gravity is analyzed. It is shown that there are
some unstable solutions for these fields in De Sitter background. The back
reaction of the energy-momentum tensor of such solutions to the original
cosmological constant exactly cancels the latter and the expansion regime
changes from the exponential to the power law one. In contrast to the
adjustment mechanism realized by a scalar field the gravitational coupling
constant in this model is time-independent and the resulting cosmology may
resemble the realistic one.Comment: 15 pages, Latex twic
Spherically symmetric vacuum solutions of modified gravity theory in higher dimensions
In this paper we investigate spherically symmetric vacuum solutions of
gravity in a higher dimensional spacetime. With this objective we construct a
system of non-linear differential equations, whose solutions depend on the
explicit form assumed for the function . We explicit
show that for specific classes of this function exact solutions from the field
equations are obtained; also we find approximated results for the metric tensor
for more general cases admitting close to the unity.Comment: 14 pages, no figure. New version accepted for publication in EPJ
Dark energy from conformal symmetry breaking
The breakdown of conformal symmetry in a conformally invariant scalar-tensor
gravitational model is revisited in the cosmological context. Although the old
scenario of conformal symmetry breaking in cosmology containing scalar field
has already been used in many earlier works, it seems that no special attention
has been paid for the investigation on the possible connection between the
breakdown of conformal symmetry and the existence of dark energy. In this
paper, it is shown that the old scenario of conformal symmetry breaking in
cosmology, if properly interpreted, not only has a potential ability to
describe the origin of dark energy as a symmetry breaking effect, but also may
resolve the coincidence problem.Comment: 11 pages, minor revision, published online in EPJ
Non-vacuum Solutions of Bianchi Type VI_0 Universe in f(R) Gravity
In this paper, we solve the field equations in metric f(R) gravity for
Bianchi type VI_0 spacetime and discuss evolution of the expanding universe. We
find two types of non-vacuum solutions by taking isotropic and anisotropic
fluids as the source of matter and dark energy. The physical behavior of these
solutions is analyzed and compared in the future evolution with the help of
some physical and geometrical parameters. It is concluded that in the presence
of isotropic fluid, the model has singularity at and represents
continuously expanding shearing universe currently entering into phantom phase.
In anisotropic fluid, the model has no initial singularity and exhibits the
uniform accelerating expansion. However, the spacetime does not achieve
isotropy as in both of these solutions.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophys. Space Sc
Observational Constraints on Chaplygin Quartessence: Background Results
We derive the constraints set by several experiments on the quartessence
Chaplygin model (QCM). In this scenario, a single fluid component drives the
Universe from a nonrelativistic matter-dominated phase to an accelerated
expansion phase behaving, first, like dark matter and in a more recent epoch
like dark energy. We consider current data from SNIa experiments, statistics of
gravitational lensing, FR IIb radio galaxies, and x-ray gas mass fraction in
galaxy clusters. We investigate the constraints from this data set on flat
Chaplygin quartessence cosmologies. The observables considered here are
dependent essentially on the background geometry, and not on the specific form
of the QCM fluctuations. We obtain the confidence region on the two parameters
of the model from a combined analysis of all the above tests. We find that the
best-fit occurs close to the CDM limit (). The standard
Chaplygin quartessence () is also allowed by the data, but only at
the level.Comment: Replaced to match the published version, references update
Kaluza-Klein Type Robertson Walker Cosmological Model With Dynamical Cosmological Term
In this paper we have analyzed the Kaluza-Klein type Robertson Walker (RW)
cosmological models by considering three different forms of variable :
, and
. It is found that, the connecting free parameters of the
models with cosmic matter and vacuum energy density parameters are equivalent,
in the context of higher dimensional space time. The expression for the look
back time, luminosity distance and angular diameter distance are also derived.
This work has thus generalized to higher dimensions the well-known results in
four dimensional space time. It is found that there may be significant
difference in principle at least, from the analogous situation in four
dimensional space time.Comment: 16 pages, no figur
Biomarkers for the Discrimination of Acute Kawasaki Disease From Infections in Childhood
Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a vasculitis of early childhood mimicking several infectious diseases. Differentiation between KD and infectious diseases is essential as KD's most important complication—the development of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA)—can be largely avoided by timely treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG). Currently, KD diagnosis is only based on clinical criteria. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether routine C-reactive protein (CRP) and additional inflammatory parameters myeloid-related protein 8/14 (MRP8/14 or S100A8/9) and human neutrophil-derived elastase (HNE) could distinguish KD from infectious diseases. Methods and Results: The cross-sectional study included KD patients and children with proven infections as well as febrile controls. Patients were recruited between July 2006 and December 2018 in Europe and USA. MRP8/14, CRP, and HNE were assessed for their discriminatory ability by multiple logistic regression analysis with backward selection and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. In the discovery cohort, the combination of MRP8/14+CRP discriminated KD patients (n = 48) from patients with infection (n = 105), with area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.88. The HNE values did not improve discrimination. The first validation cohort confirmed the predictive value of MRP8/14+CRP to discriminate acute KD patients (n = 26) from those with infections (n = 150), with an AUC of 0.78. The second validation cohort of acute KD patients (n = 25) and febrile controls (n = 50) showed an AUC of 0.72, which improved to 0.84 when HNE was included. Conclusion: When used in combination, the plasma markers MRP8/14, CRP, and HNE may assist in the discrimination of KD from both proven and suspected infection. © Copyright © 2020 Zandstra, van de Geer, Tanck, van Stijn-Bringas Dimitriades, Aarts, Dietz, van Bruggen, Schweintzger, Zenz, Emonts, Zavadska, Pokorn, Usuf, Moll, Schlapbach, Carrol, Paulus, Tsolia, Fink, Yeung, Shimizu, Tremoulet, Galassini, Wright, Martinón-Torres, Herberg, Burns, Levin, Kuijpers, EUCLIDS Consortium, PERFORM Consortium and UK Kawasaki Disease Genetics Study Network