Related papers: Unavoidable shear from quantum fluctuations in con…
For a certain type of modified dispersion relations, the vacuum quantum state for very short wavelength cosmological perturbations is scale-invariant and it has been suggested that this may be the source of the scale-invariance observed in…
Within two specific string cosmology scenarios --differing in the way the pre- and post-big bang phases are joined-- we compute the size and spectral slope of various types of cosmologically amplified quantum fluctuations that arise in…
Theoretical considerations motivate us to consider vacuum energy to be able to decay and to assume that the spatial geometry of the universe is closed. Combining both aspects leads to the possibility that the universe, or certain regions…
In this paper, we calculate the spectrum of scalar field fluctuations in a bouncing, asymptotically flat Universe, and investigate the dependence of the result on changes in the physics on length scales shorter than the Planck length which…
Sheared wet foam, which stores elastic energy in bubble deformations, relaxes stress through bubble rearrangements. The intermittency of bubble rearrangements in foam leads to effectively stochastic drops in stress that are followed by…
Quantum scattering is used ubiquitously in both experimental and theoretical physics across a wide range of disciplines, from high-energy physics to mesoscopic physics. In this work, we uncover universal relations for the energy…
Using a \emph{gedanken} experiment providing presumably a minimal inaccuracy the uncertainty contributions to the space-time measurement are precisely evaluated for clock and mirror respectively. The resulting expression of minimal…
The yielding transition of amorphous materials is studied with a two-dimensional Hamiltonian model that allows both shear and volume deformations. The model is investigated as a function of the relative value of the bulk modulus $B$ with…
We consider the backreaction problem of a quantized minimally coupled massless scalar field in cosmology. The adiabatically regularized stress-energy tensor in a general Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background is approximately evaluated by…
In axion quintessence, the cosmological era with an energy contrast in dark energy 0.1 < Omega_DE < 0.9 may represent a significant fraction of the universe's lifetime if the minimum of the axion potential is negative (unstable axion…
We explore the influence of density fluctuations on isotropic and anisotropic configurations, extending the concept of cracking for general relativistic fluid spheres. This concept, conceived to describe the behaviour of anisotropic matter…
The quantum gravitational scale of inflation is calculated by finding a sharp probability peak in the distribution function of chaotic inflationary cosmologies driven by a scalar field with large negative constant $\xi$ of nonminimal…
Quantum-mechanical initial conditions for the fluctuations of the geometry can be assigned in excess of a given physical wavelength. The two-point functions of the scalar and tensor modes of the geometry will then inherit corrections…
Shear flow is known to induce huge density fluctuations in otherwise clear and uniform polymer solutions. This effect is rooted in the elasticity of the entangled polymer network, and can span distances over a thousand chains wide. It has…
This paper is concerned with two questions in the decoherent histories approach to quantum mechanics: the emergence of approximate classical predictability, and the fluctuations about it necessitated by the uncertainty principle. We…
We consider the gravitational Euler-Poisson system with a linear equation of state on an expanding cosmological model of the Universe. The expansion of the spatial sections introduces an additional dissipating effect in the Euler equation.…
Popular wisdom suggests that measuring the tensor to scalar ratio $r$ on CMB scales is a "proof of inflation" since one generic prediction is a scale-invariant tensor spectrum while alternatives predict $r$ that is many orders of magnitude…
We revisit the issue on signatures of pre-inflationary background anisotropy by considering the quantization of a massless and minimally coupled scalar field in an axially symmetric Kasner background, mimicking cosmological perturbations.…
We show that a contracting universe which bounces due to quantum cosmological effects and connects to the hot big-bang expansion phase, can produce an almost scale invariant spectrum of perturbations provided the perturbations are produced…
The universe can be made flat and smooth by undergoing a phase of ultra-slow (ekpyrotic) contraction, a condition achievable with a single, canonical scalar field and conventional general relativity. It has been argued, though, that…