Related papers: Imaginative Cosmology
We solve Einstein's equation with Robertson-Walker metric as an initial-value problem, using as the source of gravity a Halpern-Huang real scalar field, which was derived from renormalization-group analysis, with a potential that exhibits…
We review the status of bouncing cosmologies as alternatives to cosmological inflation for providing a description of the very early universe, and a source for the cosmological perturbations which are observed today. We focus on the…
We formulate an approach to quantum gravity, called the ring paradigm. Gravity is mediated superluminally, and the graviton is described as a phonon on the grid of matter in the Universe. This theory has very interesting applications to…
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations, using a hybrid approximation scheme which upgrades the weak-field limit of Einstein's field equations to account for post-Newtonian scalar and vector metric perturbations and for…
In spite of the phenomenological successes of the inflationary universe scenario, the current realizations of inflation making use of scalar fields lead to serious conceptual problems which are reviewed in this lecture. String theory may…
String-inspired cosmologies, whereby a non-singular curvature bounce is induced by a general-covariant, $T$-duality-invariant, non-local dilaton potential, are used to study numerically how inhomogeneities evolve and to compare the outcome…
We consider a higher dimensional gravity theory with a negative kinetic energy scalar field and a cosmological constant. We find that the theory admits an exact cosmological solution for the scale factor of our universe. It has the feature…
Time-symmetric cosmological theories, in which the initial and final states are arranged to have similar features or are independently fixed, have been quite extensively discussed in the literature. However, a more general and perhaps more…
We consider a $D$-dimensional cosmological model with a dilaton field and two $(D-d-1)$-form field strengths which have nonvanishing fluxes in extra dimensions. Exact solutions for the model with a certain set of couplings are obtained by…
We consider f(R) modified gravity theories for describing varying speed of light in a spatially flat FRW model, and find some exact solutions. Also we examine the dynamics of this model by dynamical system method assuming a LambdaCDM…
We propose an approach to explaining why naive large quantum fluctuations are not the right estimate for the cosmological constant. We argue that the universe is in a superposition of many vacua, in such a way that the resulting…
We study the implications of a combined analysis of cosmic standard candles and standard rulers on the viability of cosmological models beyond the cosmological concordance model. To this end, we employ well-established data in the form of…
We examine the cosmological implications of space-time non-commutativity, discovering yet another realization of the varying speed of light model. Our starting point is the well-known fact that non-commutativity leads to deformed dispersion…
A cosmological scenario is proposed, which simultaneously solves the mass hierarchy and the small dark energy problem. In the present scenario an effective gravity mass scale (inverse of the Newton's constant) increases during the…
The universe we observe is homogeneous on super-horizon scales, leading to the ``cosmic homogeneity problem''. Inflation alleviates this problem but cannot solve it within the realm of conservative extrapolations of classical physics. A…
At present, there is practically no doubt that general relativity is closely related to gravity. Moreover, after the work of Jacobson, Padmanabhan and others, it became clear that a thermodynamic interpretation of Einstein's relativistic…
The cosmological constant problem is one of the long-standing issues of modern physics. While we can measure the value of the cosmological constant with great accuracy, we are not able to calculate it in a coherent theoretical framework. On…
These notes present a brief introduction to `naturalness' problems in cosmology, and to the Cosmological Constant Problem in particular. The main focus is the `old' cosmological constant problem, though the more recent variants are also…
Despite its great successes in accounting for the current observations, the so called `standard' model of cosmology faces a number of fundamental unresolved questions. Paramount among these are those relating to the nature of the origin of…
We consider different aspects of the problem of cosmological singularity such as the BKL oscillatory approach to the singularity, the new features of the cosmological dynamics in the neighbourhood of the singularity in multidimensional and…