Related papers: Loop Quantum Cosmology and the Fine Structure Cons…
Fundamental constants are a cornerstone of our physical laws. Any constant varying in space and/or time would reflect the existence of an almost massless field that couples to matter. This will induce a violation of the universality of free…
We investigate a string-inspired dark energy scenario featuring a scalar field with a coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant. Such coupling can trigger the onset of late dark energy domination after a scaling matter era. The universe may…
Dynamical scalar fields in an effective four-dimensional field theory are naturally expected to couple to the rest of the theory's degrees of freedom, unless some new symmetry is postulated to suppress these couplings. In particular, a…
Using the improved quantization technique to the mini-superspace approximation of loop quantum gravity, we study the evolution of black holes supported by a cosmological constant. The addition of a cosmological constant allows for classical…
We consider an effective field theory description of gravity coupled to a scalar field with volume-preserving diffeomorphism and Weyl invariances. The smallness of the cosmological constant is achieved when the potential of the scalar is…
Cosmological consequences of a string-motivated dark energy scenario featuring a scalar field coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant are investigated. We study the evolution of the universe in such a model, identifying its key properties.…
The fine-structure constant, $\alpha$, controls the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. There are extensions of the standard model in which $\alpha$ is dynamical on cosmological length and time-scales. The physics of the cosmic…
We study the cosmology of bimetric theory with a composite matter coupling. We find two possible branches of background evolution. We investigate the question of stability of cosmological perturbations. For the tensor and vector…
We study spatial variations of the fine-structure constant in the presence of static straight cosmic strings in the weak-field approximation in Einstein gravity. We work in the context of a generic Bekenstein-type model and consider a gauge…
A possible explanation is offered for the longstanding mystery surrounding the meaning of the fine structure constant. The reasoning is based on a discrete self-similar cosmological paradigm that has shown promise in explaining the general…
A relativistic theory of modified gravity has been recently proposed by Bekenstein. The tensor field in Einstein's theory of gravity is replaced by a scalar, a vector, and a tensor field which interact in such a way to give Modified…
Electromagnetic and gravitational central-field problems are studied with relativistic quantum mechanics on curved space-time backgrounds. Corrections to the transition current are identified. Analogies of the gravitational and…
In quantum field theory the parameters of the vacuum action are subject to renormalization group running. In particular, the ``cosmological constant'' is not a constant in a quantum field theory context, still less should be zero. In this…
The evolution of scalar perturbations is studied for 2-component (non-relativistic matter and dark energy) cosmological models at the linear and non-linear stages. The dark energy is assumed to be the scalar field with either classical or…
To explain the recently reported large-scale spatial variations of the fine structure constant $\alpha$, we apply some models of curvature-nonlinear multidimensional gravity. Under the reasonable assumption of slow changes of all quantities…
We calculate bounds on the variation of the fine structure constant at the time of primordial nucleosynthesis and at the time of neutral hydrogen formation. We use these bounds and other bounds from the late universe to test Bekenstein…
We construct and study Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) when the Barbero-Immirzi parameter takes the complex value $\gamma=\pm i$. We refer to this new quantum cosmology as complex Loop Quantum Cosmology. We proceed in making an analytic…
We relate possible cosmological variations in the mass ratio mu \equiv m_p/m_e and the fine structure constant alpha to long-range composition-dependent forces mediated by a scalar field. The differential acceleration eta in Eotvos-type…
We derive strong observational limits on any possible large-scale spatial variation in the values of physical 'constants' whose space-time evolution is driven by a scalar field. The limits are imposed by the isotropy of the microwave…
I present a streamlined review of how the separate universe approach to cosmological perturbation theory can be used to study the dynamics of long-wavelength scalar perturbations in loop quantum cosmology, and then use it to calculate how…