Related papers: Possible Anthropic Support for a Decaying Universe…
We discuss a cosmology in which cold dark-matter particles decay into relativistic particles. We argue that such decays could lead naturally to a bulk viscosity in the cosmic fluid. For decay lifetimes comparable to the present hubble age,…
The age of the Universe at a given redshift is a fundamental relationship in cosmology. For many years, the uncertainties in it were dauntingly large, close to a factor of 2. In this age of precision cosmology, they are now at the percent…
Selection effects in cosmology are often invoked to "explain" why some of the fundamental constant of Nature, and in particular the cosmological constant, take on the value they do in our Universe. We briefly review this probabilistic…
We present a model of an inhomogeneous universe that leads to accelerated expansion after taking spatial averaging. The model universe is the Tolman-Bondi solution of the Einstein equation and contains both a region with positive spatial…
We use the phase plane analysis technique of Madsen and Ellis to consider a universe with a true cosmological constant as well as a cosmological "constant" that is decaying. Time symmetric dynamics for the inflationary era allows eternally…
We consider the dynamics of a causal bulk viscous cosmological fluid filled constantly decelerating Bianchi type I space-time. The matter component of the Universe is assumed to satisfy a linear barotropic equation of state and the state…
The absence of guidance from fundamental physics about the mechanism behind cosmic acceleration has given rise to a number of alternative cosmological scenarios. These are based either on modifications of general relativistic gravitation…
The predictions of homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models with ordinary matter and gravity are off by a factor of two in the late universe. One possible explanation is the known breakdown of homogeneity and isotropy due to the…
We investigate the cosmological behavior in a universe governed by time asymmetric extensions of general relativity, which is a novel modified gravity based on the addition of new, time-asymmetric, terms on the Hamiltonian framework, in a…
It has been proposed that the geometry of an extra dimension could automatically adjust itself to compensate for an arbitrary energy density on the 3-D brane which we are presumed to inhabit, such that a static solution to Einstein's…
We simulate the future evolution of the observed inhomogeneities in the local universe assuming that the global expansion rate is dominated by a cosmological constant. We find that within two Hubble times (~ 30 billion years) from the…
We propose a scale-dependent cosmology in which the Robertson--Walker metric and the Einstein equation are modified in such a way that $\Omega_0$, $H_0$ and the age of the Universe all become scale-dependent. Its implications on the…
This contribution inquires into Clausius' proposal that "the entropy of the world tends to a maximum.'" The question is raised whether the entropy of "the world" actually does have a maximum; and if the answer is "Yes!," what such states of…
The discovery ten years ago that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating put in place the last major building block of the present cosmological model, in which the Universe is composed of 4% baryons, 20% dark matter, and 76% dark…
Recent improvements in astronomical observations lead to the conclusion that the Hubble constant lies between 60 and 80 Mpc km$^{-1}$ sec$^{-1}$ and the age of the universe between 11 and 14 Gigayears. Taken together with recent…
A central theme in cosmology is the perplexing fact that the Universe is undergoing an accelerating expansion. The latter, one of the most important and challenging current problems in cosmology, represents a new imbalance in the governing…
We study cosmological solutions for the very early universe beginning at the Planck scale for a universe containing radiation, curvature and, as a simplification of a possible scalar field potential, a cosmological constant term. The…
If expanding and contracting regions coexist in the universe, the speed of the cosmic volume expansion can be accelerated. We construct simple inhomogeneous dust-filled universe models in which the speed of the cosmic volume expansion is…
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…
I briefly review the arguments why the braneworld models with infinite-volume extra dimensions could solve the cosmological constant problem, evading Weinberg's no-go theorem. Then I discuss in detail the established properties of these…