Related papers: A biotic cosmos demystified?
The early universe provides a unique laboratory for probing the frontiers of particle physics in general and neutrino physics in particular. The primordial abundances of the relic nuclei produced during the first few minutes of the…
Thousands of planets beyond our solar system have been discovered to date, dozens of which are rocky in composition and are orbiting within the circumstellar habitable zone of their host star. The next frontier in life detection beyond our…
In this paper we consider the cosmological implications of dark energy models with a coupled system of a dynamical scalar field (the quintessence) and the neutrinos. By detailed numerical calculations we study the various possibilities on…
In growing neutrino models, the neutrino mass increases in time and stops the dynamical evolution of a dark energy scalar field, thus explaining the 'why now' problem. A new attractive force, mediated by the 'cosmon' scalar field, makes non…
Habitability is a measure of an environment's potential to support life, and a habitable exoplanet supports liquid water on its surface. However, a planet's success in maintaining liquid water on its surface is the end result of a complex…
A remarkable result of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations is that the universe was significantly reionized at large redshifts. The standard explanation is that massive stars formed early and reionized the universe…
We consider the universe as a huge $\nu_R$-sphere formed with degenerate relic neutrinos and suggest that its constant energy density play a role of an effective cosmological constant. We construct the sphere as a bubble of true vacuum in a…
Cosmological observations strongly suggest the presence of dark energy which comprises the majority of the current energy density of the universe. The equation of state relating the pressure and energy density of this dark energy, p = w…
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) measurements claim that the dark energy equation of state $w \ne -1$. This observation can be explained by the axion Dark Energy (aDE) model of an ultralight…
If the parameters defining the physics of our universe departed from their present values, the observed rich structure and complexity would not be supported. This article considers whether similar fine-tuning of parameters applies to…
We discuss recent evidence for an accelerating Universe from measurements of type Ia supernovae at high redshift, and describe tests of various systematic effects such as extinction and evolution that could be biasing the cosmological…
The relative abundances of exotic environments provides us with (uninformed) bounds on the habitability of those environments relative to our own, on the basis that our presence here is not too atypical. For instance, since red stars…
A quintessence scalar field or cosmon interacting with neutrinos can have important effects on cosmological structure formation. Within growing neutrino models the coupling becomes effective only in recent times, when neutrinos become…
We consider a modification to the standard cosmological history consisting of introducing a new species $\phi$ whose energy density red-shifts with the scale factor $a$ like $\rho_\phi \propto a^{-(4+n)}$. For $n>0$, such a red-shift is…
The anthropic principle implies that life can emerge and be sustained only in a narrow range of values of fundamental constants. Here we show that anthropic arguments can set powerful constraints on {\em transient} variations of the…
In order to facilitate the identification of possible new physics signatures in neutrino telescopes, such as neutrinos from the annihilation of neutralinos or decaying relics, it is essential to gain full control over the astrophysical…
Cold super-Earths which retain their primordial, H-He dominated atmosphere could have surfaces that are warm enough to host liquid water. This would be due to the collision induced absorption (CIA) of infra-red light by hydrogen, which…
The measurement of chemical abundances in planetary nebulae in nearby galaxies is now relatively straightforward. The challenge is to use these chemical abundances to infer the chemical evolution of their host galaxies. At this point, our…
I examine some recent findings in cosmology and their potential implications for the emergence of life in the universe. In particular, I discuss the requirements for carbon-based life, anthropic considerations with respect to the nature of…
One primary reason for the formulation of the term Earth-like planet and the search for such planets in the galaxy is because life has arisen in such a world. Thus, this search seems justifiable as it is known here what one is looking for.…