Related papers: Expanding Space: the Root of all Evil?
Cosmological observations are beginning to reach a level of precision that allow us to test some of the most fundamental assumptions in our working model of the Universe. One such an assumption is that gravity is governed by the General…
Self-consistent treatment of cosmological structure formation and expansion within the context of classical general relativity may lead to "extra" expansion above that expected in a structureless universe. We argue that in comparison to an…
It is advisable to avoid and, even better, demystify such grandiose terms as "infinity" or "singularity" in the description of the cosmos. Its proliferation does not positively contribute to the understanding of key concepts that are…
Increasingly encompassing models have been suggested for our world. Theories range from generally accepted to increasingly speculative to apparently bogus. The progression of theories from ego- to geo- to helio-centric models to universe…
In spacetime physics, we frequently need to consider a set of all spaces (`universes') as a whole. In particular, the concept of `closeness' between spaces is essential. However, there has been no established mathematical theory so far…
Recent developments in cosmology suggest that much of the universe is in a state of explosive, accelerated expansion, called inflation. We live in a "bubble" where inflation has ended, and other bubbles with diverse properties are…
Evolution of a universe with homogeneous extra dimensions is studied with the benefit of a well-chosen parameter space that provides a systematic, useful, and convenient way for analysis. In this model we find a natural evolution pattern…
Valid ideas that physical reality is vastly larger than human perception of it, and that the perceived part may not be representative of the whole, exist on many levels and have a long history. After a brief general inventory of those ideas…
It has recently been proposed that the Universe might be accelerating as a consequence of extra dimensions with time varying size. We show that although these scenarios can lead to acceleration, they run into serious difficulty when taking…
Assuming a cellular structure for the space-time, we propose a model in which the expansion of the universe is understood as a decrumpling process, much like the one we know from polymeric surfaces. The dimension of space is then a…
First, this paper broaches the definition of science and the epistemic yield of tenets and approaches: phenomenological (descriptive only), well-founded (solid first principles, conducive to deep understanding), provisional (falsifiable if…
It has become common understanding that the recession of galaxies and the corresponding redshift of light received from them can only be explained by an expansion of the space between them and us. In this paper, for the presently favored…
We study a fundamental issue in cosmology: Whether we can rely on a cosmological model to understand the real history of the Universe. This fundamental, still unresolved issue is often called the ``model-fitting problem (or averaging…
As evidenced by a great number of works, it is common practice to assume that the Universe is flat. However, the majority of studies which make use of observational data to constrain the curvature density parameter are premised on the…
The paper shows how a generalization of the elasticity theory to four dimensions and to space-time allows for a consistent description of the homogeneous and isotropic universe, including the accelerated expansion. The analogy is manifested…
Recent astronomical observations indicate that the universe is accelerating. We argue that generic quintessence models that accommodate the present day acceleration tend to accelerate eternally. As a consequence the resulting spacetimes…
The expansion of the closed two-component universe has been considered. The potential barrier of the expansion has been investigated and its overcoming condition has been obtained. The restrictions on the Friedmann integrals, cosmological…
We develop a cosmological theory in which the evolution of the universe is controlled by the cosmological constant and dominated by the associated vacuum energy. The universe starts as a classical de Sitter space with an infinite effective…
How is the universe organized on large scales? How did this structure evolve from the unknown initial conditions to the present time? The answers to these questions will shed light on the cosmology we live in, the amount, composition and…
Recent observations of high-redshift supernovae seem to suggest that the global geometry of the Universe may be affected by a `cosmological constant', which acts to accelerate the expansion rate with time. But these data by themselves still…