Related papers: An asymptotic decrease of (m_p/m_e) with cosmologi…
A mechanism to control the cosmological constant through a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity is proposed. By utilizing non-minimal phantom or quintessence, the cosmological constant, which may be large originally, can be…
The theory of cosmological fluctuations assumes that the pre-inflationary state of the universe was the quantum vacuum of a scalar field(s) coupled to gravity. The observed cosmic microwave background fluctuations are then interpreted as…
After a discussion on several limiting cases where General Relativity turns into less sophisticated theories, we find that in the correct thermodynamical and cosmological weak field limit of Einstein's field equations the entropy of the…
It was recently proposed that the effects usually attributed to particle dark matter on galaxy scales are due to the displacement of dark energy by baryonic matter, a paradigm known as emergent gravity. This formalism leads to predictions…
Physicists have speculated about the properties of the quantum vacuum for at least 85 years; however, only recently have they understood the quantum vacuum sufficiently well to begin making testable predictions. Specifically, using…
One of the strongest arguments against the cosmological constant as an explanation of the current epoch of accelerated cosmic expansion is the existence of an earlier, dynamical acceleration, i.e. inflation. We examine the likelihood that…
In cosmology based on general relativity, the universe is modeled as a fluid. The transition from the Einstein field equation to its large-scale (cosmological) version is thus analogous to the transition, for a system consisting of a large…
We discuss from the condensed-matter point of view the recent idea that the Poisson fluctuations of cosmological constant about zero could be a source of the observed dark energy. We argue that the thermodynamic fluctuations of Lambda are…
Random noise arises in many physical problems in which the observer is not tracking the full system. A case in point is inflationary cosmology, the current paradigm for describing the very early universe, where one is often interested only…
In order to solve the fine-tuning problem of the cosmological constant, we propose a simple model with the vacuum energy non-minimally coupled to the inflaton field. In this model, the vacuum energy decays to the inflaton during…
On the occasion of a century from the proposal of General relativity by Einstein, I attempt to tackle some open issues in modern cosmology, via a toy but non-trivial model. Specifically, I would like to link together: (i) the smallness of…
The work shows that the associated Einstein like gravity for the Klein-Gordon field shows the spontaneous emergence of the cosmological pressure tensor density (CPTD) that in the classical limit leads to the cosmological constant (CC). Even…
The statistical uncertainty in measuring the primordial density perturbations on a given comoving scale is dictated by the number of independent regions of that scale that are accessible to an observer. This number varies with cosmic time…
Starting from pure multidimensional gravity with curvature-nonlinear terms but no matter fields in the initial action, we obtain a cosmological model with two effective scalar fields related to the size of two extra factor spaces. The model…
We review the cosmological evidence for a low matter density universe and a cosmological constant or dynamical vacuum energy and address the cosmolog$ coincidence problem: why is the matter density about one-half the vacuum energy {\em…
Light scalar fields very naturally appear in modern cosmological models, affecting such parameters of Standard Model as electromagnetic fine structure constant $\alpha$, dimensionless ratios of electron or quark mass to the QCD scale,…
The `missing baryons' of the near universe are believed to be principally in a partially ionized state. Although passing electromagnetic waves are dispersed by the plasma, the effect has hitherto not been utilized as a means of detection…
Astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant has undergone a small time variation during the cosmological evolution are discussed within the framework of the standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions and of…
Quantum gravitational effects become significant at a cut-off species scale that can be much lower than the Planck scale whenever we get a parametrically large number of fields becoming light. This is expected to occur at any perturbative…
In this thesis, we focus on the study of the variation of the electron mass $m_e$, and the fine structure constant $\alpha$, at different cosmic times. We analyze the details of the recombination physics, including helium recombination, in…