Related papers: The No-defect Conjecture: Cosmological Implication…
If the universe is finite and smaller than the distance to the surface of last scatter, then the signature of the topology of the universe is writ large on the microwave background sky. We show that the microwave background will be…
We investigate the global structure of inflationary universe both by analytical methods and by computer simulations of stochastic processes in the early Universe. We show that the global structure of the universe depends crucially on the…
The topology of the universe is discussed in relation to the singularity problem. We explore the possibility that the initial state of the universe might have had a structure with 3-Klein bottle topology, which would lead to a model of a…
In this review we discuss several aspects of Cosmic Voids. Voids are a major component of the large scale distribution of matter and galaxies in the Universe. They are of instrumental importance for understanding the emergence of the Cosmic…
If the Universe underwent a cosmic phase transition, it may have left behind a network of cosmic strings. When these strings arise from the breaking of a gauge symmetry, their decay produces a significant stochastic background of…
We investigate cosmological constraints on primordial isocurvature and tensor perturbations, using recent observations of the cosmic microwave background and the large scale structure. We find that present observations are consistent with…
In this review, I outline the use of galaxy correlations to constrain cosmological parameters. As with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the density of dark and baryonic matter imprints important scales on the fluctuations of matter…
In supersymmetric theories, cosmic strings produced in the early Universe often have a width of TeV scale, while the tension is much larger. In a scaling regime, an infinite cosmic string releases significant fraction of its energy in the…
We consider cosmological models based on the spectral action formulation of (modified) gravity. We analyze the coupled effects, in this model, of the presence of nontrivial cosmic topology and of fractality in the large scale structure of…
We introduce the notion of topological fragility and briefly discuss some examples from the literature. An important example of this type of fragility is the way globally anisotropic Bianchi V generalisations of the FLRW $k=-1$ model result…
We investigate which of the exotic Doppler peak features found for textures and cosmic strings are generic novelties pertaining to defects. We find that the ``out of phase'' texture signature is an accident. Generic defects, when they…
We use numerical simulations of the time evolution of global textures to investigate the relationship between ordering dynamics and energy density in an expanding universe. Events in which individual textures become fully wound are rare.…
If the universe is multiply-connected and sufficiently small, then the last scattering surface wraps around the universe and intersects itself. Each circle of intersection appears as two distinct circles on the microwave sky. The present…
The recognition that the cosmological constant may be non-zero forces us to re-evaluate standard notions about the connection between geometry and the fate of our Universe. An open Universe can recollapse, and a closed Universe can expand…
We investigate the spectrum of stochastic gravitational wave background generated by hybrid topological defects: domain walls bounded by strings and monopoles connected by strings. Such defects typically decay early in the history of the…
[Abridged] In a Universe with a detectable nontrivial spatial topology the last scattering surface contains pairs of matching circles with the same distribution of temperature fluctuations - the so-called circles-in-the-sky. Searches for…
The Universe is not isotropic or spatially homogeneous on local scales. The averaging of local inhomogeneities in general relativity can lead to significant dynamical effects on the evolution of the Universe, and even if the effects are at…
I review the basis and limitations of plausible inference in cosmology, in particular the limitation that it can only provide fundamentally true inferences when the hypotheses under consideration form a set that is exhaustive. They never…
I present a briefly summary of the current status of inflationary models versus topological defects scenarios, as the mechanisms which could have induced the initial density perturbations, which left an imprint on the cosmic microwave…
In this paper we work out a multiverse scenario whose physical characteristics enable us to advance the following the conjecture that whereas the physics of particles and fields is confined to live in the realm of the whole multiverse…