Related papers: New Difficulties for the Past Hypothesis
[Abridged] Some cosmological theories propose that the observable universe is a small part of a much larger universe in which parameters describing the low-energy laws of physics vary from region to region. How can we reasonably assess a…
The accelerating expansion of the universe presents an exciting, fundamental challenge to the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. I highlight some of the outstanding challenges in both developing theoretical models and…
A complete set of Feynman rules is derived, which permits a perturbative description of the nonequilibrium dynamics of a symmetry-breaking phase transition in $\lambda\phi^4$ theory in an expanding universe. In contrast to a naive expansion…
We describe the fundamental difference between the nature of problems in traditional physics and that of many problems arising today in systems biology and other complex settings. The difference hinges on the much larger number of a priori…
This paper considers a new and deeply challenging face of the problem of time in the context of cosmology drawing on the work of Thiemann (2006, 2007). Thiemann argues for a radical response to the cosmic problem of time that requires us to…
A glorious achievement of twentieth century Physics is the identification of the building blocks of nature. A related triumph a deep understanding of the forces of interaction. In particular, it has been possible to understand the four…
We identify new, rather serious, physical and axiomatic inconsistencies of the current formulation of string theories due to the lack of invariant units necessary for measurements, lack of preservation in time of Hermiticity-observability,…
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…
The need for revolution in modern physics is a well known and often broached subject, however, the precision and success of current models narrows the possible changes to such a great degree that there appears to be no major change…
In contemporary physics space and time are intertwined entities so that kinematical and dynamical quantities are expressed in the four-dimensional space-time. This formulation seems to contradict our every-day experience and perception…
We argue that massive quantum fields source low-frequency long-wavelength metric fluctuations through the quantum fluctuations of their stress-energy, given reasonable assumptions about the analytic structure of its correlators. This can be…
The commonly assumed cosmological history of our universe is that at early-times and high-temperatures the universe went through an ElectroWeak Phase Transition (EWPT). Assuming an EWPT, and depending on its strength, there are many…
Did the universe have a beginning or does it exist forever, i.e. is it eternal at least in relation to the past? This fundamental question was a main topic in ancient philosophy of nature and the Middle Ages. Philosophically it was more or…
Cosmological data suggest that we live in an interesting period in the history of the universe when \rho_\Lambda \sim \rho_M \sim \rho_R. The occurence of any epoch with such a "triple coincidence" is puzzling, while the question of why we…
The advent of modern technology, permitting the measurement of thousands of characteristics simultaneously, has given rise to floods of data characterized by many large or even huge datasets. This new paradigm presents extraordinary…
The ideas related to the arrow of time are discussed briefly. I then focus on the prevalent physical mechanism in the evolution of the universe and developments in particle physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and show that it explicitly…
High-precision measurements of violations of fundamental symmetries in atoms are a very effective means of testing the standard model of elementary particles and searching for new physics beyond it. Such studies complement measurements at…
The Einstein's equivalence principle and experiments, in which bodies and observers are in different G potentials, have been used to prove that the chain of hypothesis coming from assuming the absolute invariability of the bodies, after a…
Despite the fact that the fundamental physical laws are symmetric in time, most observed processes do not show this symmetry. Especially the phenomenon of decay seems to involve a kind of irreversibility that makes the definition of a…
This work investigates alternative theories of gravity, the solutions to their field equations and the constraints that can be imposed upon them from observation and experiment. Specifically, we consider the cosmologies and spherically…