Related papers: Topology and the Cosmic Microwave Background
We observe the past and present of the universe, but can we predict the far future? Observations suggest that in thousands of billions of years from now most matter and radiation will be absorbed by the cosmological horizon. As it absorbs…
The entropies of the known entities in the universe add to a total which is some twenty orders of magnitude below the holographic limit. Based on an assumption that the entropies should saturate the limit, we suggest that there exists dark…
This short review is addressed to cosmologists. General relativity predicts that space-time comes to an end and physics comes to a halt at the big-bang. Recent developments in loop quantum cosmology have shown that these predictions cannot…
The theoretical basis for the prediction of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background is very well developed. Very low amplitude density and temperature perturbations produce small gravitational effects, leading to an anisotropy that…
Super-high energy corpuscular and gamma rays as well as cosmic high--power density sources are hard to explain in a galaxy model framework. Attempts to include some of those phenomena in the Standard Cosmological Model also encounter…
Physics is facing contingency. Not only in facts but also in laws (the frontier becoming extremely narrow). Cosmic natural selection is a tantalizing idea to explain the apparently highly improbable structure of our Universe. In this brief…
In accordance with current models of the accelerating Universe as a spacetime with a positive cosmological constant, new results about a cosmological upper bound for the area of stable marginally outer trapped surfaces are found taking into…
The field equations of general relativity are shown to derive from the existence of a limit force or of a limit power in nature. The limits have the value of c^4/4G and c^5/4G. The proof makes use of a result by Jacobson. All known…
It is argued that the surface radius of a compact source can not be less than its gravitational radius due to the strong gravitational time dilation effects. The such "topological" difference between the Newtonian and relativistic gravity…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universe is reconsidered and formally simplified by introducing new covariant and gauge-invariant variables with physical interpretations on…
Production of high-energy gravitational objects is a common feature of gravitational theories. The primordial universe is a natural setting for the creation of black holes and other nonperturbative gravitational entities. Cosmic black holes…
What is the shape of the Universe? Is it finite or infinite ? Is space multi-connected to create ghost images of faraway cosmic sources? After a "dark age" period, the field of cosmic topology has now become one of the major concerns in…
The common attribute of all Big Bang cosmologies is that they are based on the assumption that the universe is expanding. However examination of the evidence for this expansion clearly favours a static universe. The major topics considered…
After a brief review of current scenarios for the resolution and/or avoidance of the Big Bang, an alternative hypothesis is put forward implying an infinite increase in complexity towards the initial singularity. This may result in an…
Based on the conjecture that rather than the second law of thermodynamics inevitably be breached as matter approaches a big crunch or a black hole singularity, the order of events should reverse, a model of the universe that resolves a…
We provide an informal discussion of pattern formation in a finite universe. The global size and shape of the universe is revealed in the pattern of hot and cold spots in the cosmic microwave background. Topological pattern formation can be…
Cosmologists have long wondered whether the Universe will eventually re-collapse and end with a Big Crunch, or expand forever, becoming increasingly cold and empty. Recent evidence for a flat Universe, possibly with a cosmological constant…
The solution of Einstein's field equations in Cosmological General Relativity (CGR), where the Galaxy is at the center of a finite yet bounded spherically symmetrical isotropic gravitational field, is identical with the unbounded solution.…
We explain why the isotropic metric is quite appropriate to put the physical meaning of spacial variables in the theory of general relativity. Using the isotropic metric, we conclude that i)g_{00} does not become positive even inside the…
It is advisable to avoid and, even better, demystify such grandiose terms as "infinity" or "singularity" in the description of the cosmos. Its proliferation does not positively contribute to the understanding of key concepts that are…