Related papers: Laboratory tests on dark energy
Quantum fluctuations can induce a friction on a neutral but polarizable particle and cause it to radiate energy even if the particle is moving in free space filled with blackbody radiation, and is not in contact with or close to any surface…
One of the great endeavors of the past decade has been the evaluation of different observational techniques for measuring dark energy properties and of theoretical techniques for constraining models of cosmic acceleration given cosmological…
Astronomical observations from small galaxies to the largest scales in the universe can be consistently explained by the simple idea of dark matter. The nature of dark matter is however still unknown. Empirically it cannot be any of the…
The intrinsic nonlinearity of Josephson junctions converts Gaussian current noise in the input into non-Gaussian voltage noise in the output. For a resistively shunted Josephson junction with white input noise we determine numerically…
I consider some of the issues we face in trying to understand dark energy. Huge fluctuations in the unknown dark energy equation of state can be hidden in distance data, so I argue that model-independent tests which signal if the…
It is assumed that the quantum vacuum may be studied as consisting of two contributions, with positive and negative energy respectively, which interact but slightly and may be displaced from each other. Then it is proposed that dark matter…
An experimental investigation of the critical current noise in underdamped niobium based Josephson junctions by a technique based on the switching current measurements is reported. By sweeping the junction with a current ramp we measure the…
The vacuum is filled with complex scalar fields, such as the Higgs field. These fields serve as order parameters for superfluidity (quantum phase coherence over macroscopic distances), making the entire universe a superfluid. We review a…
The origin of the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe is a major problem of modern cosmology and theoretical physics. Simple estimations of the contribution of vacuum to the density energy of the universe in quantum field…
At low redshift, it is possible to combine spectroscopic information of galaxies with their luminosity or angular diameter distance to directly measure the projection of peculiar velocities (PV) along the line-of-sight. A PV survey probing…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly from the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and indirectly, from measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. Dark energy contributes about 2/3 of the…
Astrophysical observations are pointing out huge amounts of dark matter and dark energy needed to explain the observed large scale structures and cosmic accelerating expansion. Up to now, no experimental evidence has been found, at…
We investigate the superfluid dynamics of a Josephson junction beyond the mean-field description, incorporating the role of thermal fluctuations as well as quantum fluctuations. Using a formalism that accounts for the fluctuations in a…
The interaction of a particle with vacuum fluctuations--which theoretically exist even in the complete absence of matter--can lead to observable irreversible decoherence if it were possible to switch on and off the particle charge suddenly.…
The dark-matter candidates of particle physics invariably possess electromagnetic interactions, if only via quantum fluctuations. Taken en masse, dark matter can thus engender an index of refraction which deviates from its vacuum value. Its…
Experimental evidence suggests that we live in a spatially flat, accelerating universe composed of roughly one-third of matter (baryonic + dark) and two-thirds of a negative-pressure dark component, generically called dark energy. The…
Cosmologists are just beginning to probe the properties of the cosmic vacuum and its role in reversing the attractive pull of gravity to cause an acceleration in the expansion of the cosmos. The cause of this acceleration is given the…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe points to a small positive vacuum energy density and negative vacuum pressure. A strong candidate is the cosmological constant in Einstein's equations of General Relativity. The vacuum dark energy…
Quantum field theory allows for the suppression of vacuum fluctuations, leading to sub-vacuum phenomena. One of these is the appearance of local negative energy density. Selected aspects of negative energy will be reviewed, including the…
In this non-specialist review I look at how weak lensing can provide information on the dark sector of the Universe. The review concentrates on what can be learned about Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Dark Gravity, and why. On Dark Matter,…