Related papers: Tuning, Ergodicity, Equilibrium and Cosmology
In a spatially infinite and eternal universe approaching ultimately a de Sitter (or quasi-de Sitter) regime, structure can form by thermal fluctuations as such a space is thermal. The models of Dark Energy invoking holographic principle fit…
This is an essay sketching the line of thinking which has led the present author to propose the constituent or atomic model of gravitation more than a decade ago. It turns out that viewing the problem of gravitation as a quantum many body…
Observational cosmology provides us with a large number of high precision data which are used to derive models trying to reproduce ``on the mean'' our observable patch of the Universe. Most of these attempts are achieved in the framework of…
This paper analyzes the ergodic hypothesis in the context of Boltzmann's late work in statistical mechanics, where Boltzmann lays the foundations for what is today known as the typicality account. I argue that, based on the concepts of…
The physics of the expansion of the universe is still a poorly studied subject of the standard cosmological model. This because the concept of expanding space can not be tested in the laboratory and because ``expansion'' means continuous…
We construct spherically symmetric solutions to the Einstein-Euler equations, which contains a positive cosmological constant, say, the Einstein-Euler-de Sitter equations. We assume a realistic barotropic equation of state. Equilibria of…
The self-tuning solutions of the cosmological constant is reviewed, with the emphasis on the recent attempts in extra dimensional gravity with a brane boundary.
This thesis concerns the compatibility of inhomogeneous cosmologies with our present understanding of the universe. It is a problem of some interest to find the class of all relativistic cosmological models which are capable of providing a…
The well-known brane world model of cosmology is an alternative to the standard model of cosmology, called {\Lambda}CDM (Lambda Cold Dark Matter) model. However, the quadratical energy density of the brane universe requires an undesirable…
Starting from a completely general standpoint, we find the most general brane-Universe solutions for a three-brane in a five dimensional spacetime. The brane can border regions of spacetime with or without a cosmological constant. Making no…
Equilibrium is a central concept of statistical mechanics. In previous work we introduced the notions of a Boltzmannian alpha-epsilon-equilibrium and a Boltzmannian gamma-varepsilon-equilibrium (Werndl and Frigg 2015a, 2015b). This was done…
In Boltzmannian statistical mechanics macro-states supervene on micro-states. This leads to a partitioning of the state space of a system into regions of macroscopically indistinguishable micro-states. The largest of these regions is…
The linear Einstein-Boltzmann equations describe the evolution of perturbations in the universe and its numerical solutions play a central role in cosmology. We revisit this system of differential equations and present a detailed…
Modern observations based on general relativity indicate that the spatial geometry of the expanding, large-scale Universe is very nearly Euclidean. This basic empirical fact is at the core of the so-called "flatness problem", which is…
We investigate the coupled system of gravity and a scalar with exponential potential. The energy momentum tensor of the scalar field induces a time-dependent cosmological ``constant''. This adjusts itself dynamically to become in the…
I give a review of the conceptual issues that arise in theories of quantum cosmology. I start by emphasising some features of ordinary quantum theory that also play a crucial role in understanding quantum cosmology. I then give motivations…
We refer to the classic definition of a singularity in Einstein's general relativity (based on geodesic incompletness) as well as to some other criteria to evaluate the nature of singularities in cosmology. We review what different…
We investigate cosmological consequences arising from the interaction between a homogeneous and isotropic brane-universe and the bulk. A Friedmann equation is derived which incorporates both the brane and bulk matter contributions, which…
"Boltzmann brains" are human brains that arise as thermal or quantum fluctuations and last at least long enough to think a few thoughts. In many scenarios involving universes of infinite size or duration, Boltzmann brains are infinitely…
In this thesis we investigate cosmological models more general than the isotropic and homogeneous Friedmann-Lemaitre models. We focus on cosmologies with one spatial degree of freedom, whose matter content consists of a perfect fluid and…