Related papers: Pattern Universes
The large scale distribution of galaxies in the universe displays a complex pattern of clusters, super-clusters, filaments and voids with sizes limited only by the boundaries of the available samples. A quantitative statistical…
Time-asymmetric behavior as embodied in the second law of thermodynamics is observed in {\it individual macroscopic} systems. It can be understood as arising naturally from time-symmetric microscopic laws when account is taken of a) the…
Singularities in macroscopic systems at discontinuous phase transitions are replaced in finite systems by sharp but continuous changes. Both the energy differences between metastable and stable phases and the energy barriers separating…
A model for the Universe is proposed where it is considered as a mixture of scalar and matter fields. The particle production is due to an irreversible transfer of energy from the gravitational field to the matter field and represented by a…
Symmetry-breaking phase transitions are ubiquitous in condensed matter systems and in quantum field theories. There is also good reason to believe that they feature in the very early history of the Universe. At many such transitions…
Recollapsing homogeneous and isotropic models present one of the key ingredients for cyclic scenarios. This is considered here within a quantum cosmological framework in presence of a free scalar field with, in turn, a negative cosmological…
Cosmological phase transitions are thought to have taken place at the early Universe imprinting their properties on the observable Universe. There is strong evidence that, through the dynamics of a scalar field that lead a second order…
Planetary atmospheres, and models of them, are discussed from the viewpoint of condensed matter physics. Atmospheres are a form of condensed matter, and many interesting phenomena of condensed matter systems are realized by them. The…
In order to account for the observable Universe, any comprehensive theory or model of cosmology must draw from many disciplines of physics, including gauge theories of strong and weak interactions, the hydrodynamics and microphysics of…
We explore a model of the early universe in which the inflationary epoch is preceded by a cosmic bounce, and argue that this scenario provides a common origin to several of the anomalous features that have been observed at large angular…
The two dark sectors of the universe - dark matter and dark energy - may interact with each other. Background and linear density perturbation evolution equations are developed for a generic coupling. We then establish the general conditions…
Our universe is a 3-dimensional elastic substrate which once has condensed and now is expanding within some higher dimensional space. The elastic substrate is built from tiny invisible constituents, called tetrons, with bond length about…
It is now well-recognized that the Universe may behave like a condensed matter system in which several phase transitions have taken place. Superconductors and the superfluid phases of 3He are condensed matter systems with useful…
We clarify the way in which cosmological perturbations of quantum origin, produced during inflation, assume classical properties. Two features play an important role in this process: First, the dynamics of fluctuations which are presently…
The properties of universes are explored that are entirely in the interior of black holes in another universe, a `mother universe'. It is argued that these models offer a paradigm that may shed a new light on old cosmological problems. The…
Vacuum energy is a simple model for dark energy driving an accelerated expansion of the universe. If the vacuum energy is inhomogeneous in spacetime then it must be interacting. We present the general equations for a spacetime-dependent…
We entertain the possibility that the phenomena typically attributed to dark matter may have a fundamentally emergent nature, rather than arising from new particle degrees of freedom. To illustrate this idea, we consider a field-theoretic…
Classical linear wave superposition produces the appearance of interference. This observation can be interpreted in two equivalent ways: one can assume that interference is an illusion because input components remain unperturbed, or that…
We discuss phenomenology of quantum vacuum. Phenomenology of macroscopic systems has three sources: thermodynamics, topology and symmetry. Thermodynamics of the self-sustained vacuum allows us to treat the problems related to the vacuum…
The current description of fundamental interactions is based on two theories with the status of standard models. The electromagnetic and nuclear interactions are described at a quantum level by the Standard Model of particle physics, using…