Related papers: One fewer solution to the cosmological lithium pro…
The uncertainties which still plague our understanding of the evolution of the light nuclides D, 3He and 4He in the Galaxy are described. Measurements of the local abundance of deuterium range over a factor of 3. The observed dispersion can…
A relationship between the Coulomb inclusive break-up probability and the radiative capture reaction rate for weakly-bound three-body systems is established. This direct link provides a robust procedure to estimate the reaction rate for…
The Standard Model of cosmology, $\Lambda$CDM, while enormously successful, is currently unable to account for several cosmological anomalies the most prominent of which are in the measurements of the Hubble parameter and $S_8$.…
In this article the cosmological constant problems, as well as the astronomical evidence for a cosmologically significant homogeneous exotic energy density with negative pressure (quintessence), are reviewed for a broad audience of…
Some form of missing energy may account for the difference between the observed cosmic matter density and the critical density. Two leading candidates are a cosmological constant and quintessence (a time-varying, inhomogenous component with…
During its hot, dense, early evolution the Universe was a primordial nuclear reactor, synthesizing the light nuclides D, 3He, 4He and 7Li in the first thousand seconds. The presently observed abundances of these relic nuclides provide a…
Various contributions to the cosmological constant are discussed and confronted with its recent measurement. We briefly review different scenarious -- and their difficulties -- for a solution of the cosmological constant problem.
The standard theory of electromagnetic cascades onto a photon background predicts a quasi-universal shape for the resulting non-thermal photon spectrum. This has been applied to very disparate fields, including non-thermal big bang…
Cosmic structure formation leads to large-scale shocked baryonic flows which are expected to produce a cosmological population of structure-formation cosmic rays (SFCRs). Interactions between SFCRs and ambient baryons will produce lithium…
The universe we observe is homogeneous on super-horizon scales, leading to the ``cosmic homogeneity problem''. Inflation alleviates this problem but cannot solve it within the realm of conservative extrapolations of classical physics. A…
The persistent discrepancy between observations of 7Li with putative primordial origin and its abundance prediction in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) has become a challenge for the standard cosmological and astrophysical picture. We point…
We assume a one-to-one correspondence between comoving coordinates and the cosmic rest frame in a spherically symmetric inhomogeneous universe. This strongly restricts the solutions of Einstein's equations: (i) The pressure must be zero.…
We suggest that the solution to the cosmological vacuum energy puzzle does not require any new field beyond the standard model, but rather can be explained as a result of the interaction of the infrared sector of the effective theory of…
An error in the gauge fixed quantization of section 3 is corrected. The result is a much simpler treatment of the clock field, leading to a simplification of the gauge fixed quantum theory and the treatment of the semiclassical limit.
We update the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) calculations on the basis of the recent NACRE compilation of reaction rates. We estimate the uncertainties related to the nuclear reaction rates on the abundances of D, 3He, 4He, 6Li, 7Li, 9Be,…
Although the cosmological constant has primarily cosmological consequences, its smallness poses one of the basic problems in particle physics. Various attempts have been made to explain this mystery, but no satisfactory solution has been…
The cosmological constant problem is the principal obstacle in the attempt to interpret dark energy as the quantum vacuum energy. We suggest that the obstacle can be removed, i.e. that the cosmological constant problem can be resolved by…
We analyze the effect of the magnetic field on the proton and neutron density distributions of the nuclei 2H, 3H, 3He, which are calculated ab initio, and the 6Li nucleus in the alpha-cluster model. It is found that the asymptotic…
A cosmological constant fits all current dark energy data, but requires two extreme fine tunings, both of which are currently explained by anthropic arguments. Here we discuss anti-anthropic solutions to one of these problems: the cosmic…
The 3He({\alpha},{\gamma})7Be reaction affects not only the production of 7Li in Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but also the fluxes of 7Be and 8B neutrinos from the Sun. This double role is exploited here to constrain the former by the latter. A…