Astrophysics
GLAST, a detector for cosmic gamma rays in the range from 20 MeV to 300 GeV, will be launched in space in 2005. Breakthroughs are expected in particular in the study of particle acceleration mechanisms in space and of gamma ray bursts, and…
We investigate the possibility that electromagnetic fluctuations are amplified in expanding universe by parametric resonance, during the oscillatory regime of a scalar field to which they are coupled. We consider scalar electrodynamics and…
Analysed in the framework of homogeneous FLRW models, the magnitude-redshift data from high redshift supernovae yield, as a primary result, a strictly positive cosmological constant. Another reading of the currently published measurements…
The late infall of cold dark matter onto an isolated galaxy such as our own produces flows with definite velocity vectors at any physical point in the galactic halo. It also produces caustics which are places where the dark matter density…
The properties of nearby galaxy clusters limit the range of cosmological parameters consistent with our universe. We describe the limits which arise from studies of the intracluster medium (ICM) mass fraction fICM and consideration of the…
I review a number of particle-physics models that lead to the creation of magnetic fields in the early universe and address the complex problem of evolving such primordial magnetic fields into the fields observed today. Implications for…
In a model recently proposed by Albrecht and Skordis it was suggested that the observed accelerated expansion of the universe could be caused by a scalar field which is trapped in a local minimum of an exponential potential modified by a…
There appear to be three challenges that any theory of dark matter must face: (i) why is $\Omega_{DM}$ of the same order as $\Omega_{Baryons}$ ? (ii) what are the near solar mass objects ($\sim 0.5 M_{\odot}$) observed by the MACHO…
Cosmic ray antiprotons have been detected for over 20 years and are now measured reliably. Standard particle and astrophysics predict a conventional spectrum and abundance of secondary antiprotons consistent with all current measurements.…
In this talk, I review a number of particle-physics models that lead to the creation of magnetic fields in the early universe and address the complex problem of evolving such primordial magnetic fields into the fields observed today.…
We describe the observable features of the recently proposed Extended Quintessence scenarios on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy spectra. In this class of models a scalar field $\phi$, assumed to provide most of the cosmic…
For a universe presently dominated by static or dynamic vacuum energy, cosmological constant (LCDM) or quintessence (QCDM), we calculate the asymptotic collapsed mass fraction as function of the present ratio of vacuum energy to clustered…
It is emphasized that the existence of a very light axion is consistent with the strong CP invariance and cosmological and astrophysical constraints. The attempt to embed the very light axion in superstring models is discussed.
We study the out of equilibrium dynamics of inflationary phase transitions and compute the resulting spectrum of metric perturbations relevant to observation. We show that simple single field models of inflation may produce an adiabatic…
We investigate the dynamical instability of the one-armed spiral m=1 mode in differentially rotating stars by means of 3+1 hydrodynamical simulations in Newtonian gravitation. We find that both a soft equation of state and a high degree of…
We present the status of our study into the feasibility of estimating the parameters of inflation from planned satellite observations of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).We describe a perturbative procedure for…
The current cosmological constraints on a dark matter axion are reviewed. We describe the basic mechanisms by which axions are created in the early universe, both in the standard thermal scenario in which axion strings form and in…
Recent research has severely constrained the standard ``defect'' models of cosmic structure formation. Here I discuss the nature of the problems with defect models, and place this discussion in the context of the big picture of cosmic…
We consider the evolution of cosmological perturbations at the QCD transition, in particular the sudden reheating from a supercooled universe to the transition temperature. Sudden reheating happens at a specific temperature, hence density,…
An overview of some new results in open inflation over the past year, including the calculation of gravity wave contributions to the Cosmic Microwave Background. Proceedings for COSMO-97, held in Ambleside, U.K., hence very short due to…