Related papers: A Natural Introduction to Fine-Tuning
Despite the success of modern physics in formulating mathematical theories that can predict the outcome of experiments, we have made remarkably little progress towards answering the most fundamental question of: why is there a universe at…
The cosmological constant problem can be understood as the failure of the decoupling principle behind effective field theory, so that some quantities in the low-energy theory are extremely sensitive to the high-energy properties. While this…
The idea of a multiverse -- an ensemble of universes or universe domains -- has received increasing attention in cosmology, both as the outcome of the originating process that generated our own universe, and as an explanation for why our…
The concepts of symmetry and its breakdown are investigated in two different terms according to whether the resulting asymmetry is universal or only obtained for a special configuration: we shall illustrate this by considering in the first…
We research the natural causality of the Universe. We find that the equation of causality provides very good results on physics. That is our first endeavour and success in describing a quantitative expression of the law of causality. Hence,…
We study the corrections to the fine-structure constant from the generalized uncertainty principle in the spacetime of a domain wall. We also calculate the corrections to the standard formula to the energy of the electron in the hydrogen…
Modern fundamental physics poses new questions for philosophy, which, as it seems to us, have not yet received appropriate attention from philosophers of science. This paper formulates a number of such questions in order to present them to…
We all are fascinated by the phenomena of intelligent behavior, as generated both by our own brains and by the brains of other animals. As physicists we would like to understand if there are some general principles that govern the structure…
This article is an attempt for a new vision of the basics of Physics, and of Relativity, in particular. A new generalized principle of inertia is proposed, as an universal principle, based on universality of the conservation laws, not…
The Anthropic Principle has been with us since the 1970s. This Principle is advanced to account for the "fine tuning" of the 25 constants of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Were these constants very different, life could not exist.…
The asymmetry between matter and antimatter is key to the existence and nature of our Universe. A measure of the matter - antimatter asymmetry of the Universe is provided by the present value of the universal ratio of baryons (baryons minus…
Determination of the fine structure constant alpha and search for its possible variation are considered. We focus on a role of the fine structure constant in modern physics and discuss precision tests of quantum electrodynamics. Different…
The self-tuning brane scenario is an attempt to solve the cosmological constant problem in the context of extra dimensions. Rather than making the vacuum energy small, this approach proceeds by removing the gravitational effect of vacuum…
In models where the constants of Nature can take more than one set of values, the cosmological wave function $\psi$ describes an ensemble of universes with different values of the constants. The probability distribution for the constants…
It is a well-known empirical phenomenon that natural axiomatic theories are pre-well-ordered by consistency strength. Without a precise mathematical definition of "natural," it is unclear how to study this phenomenon mathematically. We will…
Herein we consider various concepts of entropy as measures of the complexity of phenomena and in so doing encounter a fundamental problem in physics that affects how we understand the nature of reality. In essence the difficulty has to do…
Cosmology is an attracting subject for students but usually difficult to deal with if general relativity is not known. In this article, we first recall the Newtonian derivation of the Friedmann equations which govern the dynamics of our…
Astrophysics and cosmology can be used to test the standard model of particle physics under conditions and over distance and time scales not accessible to laboratory experiments. Most of the astrophysical observations are in good agreement…
In some cosmological theories with varying constants there are anthropic reasons why the expansion of the universe must not be too {\it close} to flatness or the cosmological constant too close to zero. Using exact theories which…
The observed value of the cosmological constant poses large theoretical problems. We find that topology of the Universe provides a natural source for it. Restricting dynamically an Einstein-Cartan gravity to General Relativity in our…