Related papers: Quantum Vacuum Structure and Cosmology
Cosmologists are just beginning to probe the properties of the cosmic vacuum and its role in reversing the attractive pull of gravity to cause an acceleration in the expansion of the cosmos. The cause of this acceleration is given the…
We discuss the problems of dark matter, quantum gravity, and vacuum energy within the context of a theory for which Lorentz invariance is not postulated, but instead emerges as a natural consequence in the physical regimes where it has been…
In this concise, albeit subjective review of structure formation, I shall introduce the cosmological standard model and its theoretical and observational underpinnings. I will focus on recent results and current issues in theoretical…
Physicists have speculated about the properties of the quantum vacuum for at least 85 years; however, only recently have they understood the quantum vacuum sufficiently well to begin making testable predictions. Specifically, using…
We report on recent results on particle mixing and oscillations in quantum field theory. We discuss the role played in cosmology by the vacuum condensate induced by the neutrino mixing phenomenon. We show that it can contribute to the dark…
We discuss several proposals for astrophysical and cosmological tests of quantum theory. The tests are motivated by deterministic hidden-variables theories, and in particular by the view that quantum physics is merely an effective theory of…
Recent results indicate the presence of a cosmological constant (or related dark energy) in the universe. It has been conjectured recently that the interaction parameters of physical theories may be dependant on the size parameter of the…
After introducing the basic ingredients of Loop Quantum Cosmology, I will briefly discuss some of its phenomenological aspects. Those can give some useful insight about the full Loop Quantum Gravity theory and provide an answer to some…
We discuss the main myths related to the vacuum energy and cosmological constant, such as: ``unbearable lightness of space-time''; the dominating contribution of zero point energy of quantum fields to the vacuum energy; non-zero vacuum…
I consider the relation of explanations for the observed data to testability in the following contexts: observational and experimental detection of dark matter; observational and experimental detection of dark energy or a cosmological…
These lectures have been given to particle physicists, mostly experimentalists and very briefly and at a pedestrian level review the problems of dark matter. The content of the lectures is the following: 1. Introduction. 2. Cosmological…
The cosmological constant problem represents an evident tension between our present description of gravity and particle physics. Many solutions have been proposed, but experimental tests are always difficult or impossible to perform and…
The nature of Dark Energy is still very much a mystery, and the combination of a variety of experimental tests, sensitive to different potential Dark Energy properties, will help elucidate its origins. This white paper briefly surveys the…
Some conjectures and open problems in convex geometry are presented, and their physical origin, meaning, and importance, for quantum theory and generic statistical theories, are briefly discussed.
We review the current status of cosmological parameters, dark energy and large-scale structure, from a theoretical and observational perspective. We first present the basic cosmological parameters and discuss how they are measured with…
We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a set of…
Rising to Mach, the problem of establishing the unity of the physical essence of the Universe on all space-time scales of its evolution is, apparently, one of the main problems in contemporary epistemology. The issues are primarily related…
Invited contribution to the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics (2nd edition), providing an overview over some main ideas and results in quantum cosmology. Key points: Canonical quantisation of homogeneous, isotropic cosmology; discussion…
We consider that the universe is trapped in an excited vacuum state and the resulting excitation energy provides the observed dark energy. We explore the conditions under which this situation can arise from physics already known.…
Old and new puzzles of cosmology are reexamined from the point of view of quantum theory of the universe developed here. It is shown that in proposed approach the difficulties of the standard cosmology do not arise. The theory predicts the…