Related papers: Structure formation in a string-inspired modificat…
Following fresh attempts to resolve the problem of the energy density of the vacuum, we reconsider the case where the cosmological constant is derived from a higher-dimensional version of general relativity, and interpret the…
We combine constraints from linear and nonlinear scales, for the first time, to study the interaction between dark matter and dark energy. We devise a novel N-body simulation pipeline for cosmological models beyond $\Lambda$CDM. This…
The energy density of the vacuum, Lambda, is at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it. Approaches to this problem are tightly constrained by data ranging from elementary observations to precision…
In this colloquium-level account, I describe the cosmological constant problem: why is the energy of empty space at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it from the Standard Model of particle physics? I…
The string tensions can be dynamical in the modified measure formalism and appear as an additional dynamical degrees of freedom . These tensions may not be universal, instead, each string generates its own tension. We then consider a new…
We use high-resolution simulations of large-scale structure formation to analyze the effects of interacting dark matter and dark energy on the evolution of the halo mass function. Using a chi-square likelihood analysis, we find significant…
There are several scales in the QCD as the theory of strong interaction: the vacuum gluonic condensate (as the divergence of the dilatation current), the nucleon mass as the basic mass scale in our universe, which is connected to the string…
The effects of particle discreteness in N-body simulations of Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LambdaCDM) are still an intensively debated issue. In this paper we explore such effects, taking into account the scatter caused by the randomness of the…
We consider a cosmological scenario endowed with an interaction between the universe's dark components $-$ dark matter and dark energy. Specifically, we assume the dark matter component to be a pressure-less fluid, while the dark energy…
We consider scalar perturbations of energy-density for a class of cosmological models where an early phase of accelerated expansion evolves, without any fine-tuning for graceful exit, towards the standard Friedman eras of observed universe.…
We consider a set of non-linear interactions between dark matter and dark energy which comprises couplings proportional to products of (powers of) the energy densities of both dark components and of the total energy. We demonstrate that…
String effective theories contain a dilaton scalar field which couples to gravity, matter and radiation. In general, particle masses will have different dilaton couplings. We can always choose a conformal frame in which baryons have…
The success of the Lambda-CDM model on large scales does not extend down to galaxy scales. We list a dozen problems of the dark matter hypothesis, some of which arise in specific models for the formation of structure in the universe, while…
The standard $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology is formulated as a simple modified gravity coupled to a single scalar field ("darkon") possessing a non-trivial hidden nonlinear Noether symmetry. The main ingredient in the construction is the…
We revisited the decaying dark matter (DDM) model, in which one collisionless particle decays early into two collisionless particles, that are potentially dark matter particles today. The effect of DDM will be manifested in the cosmic…
In this work we model two non-linear directly interacting scenarios in dark sector of the universe with the dimensionless parameter $\alpha$ and $\beta$, which dominate the energy exchange between dark energy and dark matter. The central…
We present a string theory construction in which the particle physics contributions to the one-loop vacuum energy exactly cancel, whilst the gravitational contributions are suppressed in the size of one or two large extra dimensions. This…
We present a novel source of dark energy, which is motivated by the prevalence of hidden sectors in string theory models and is consistent with all of the proposed swampland conjectures. Thermal effects hold a light hidden sector scalar at…
Exact solutions of the Einstein field equations with cosmic string and space varying cosmological constant, viz., $\Lambda= \Lambda(r)$, in the energy-momentum tensors are presented. Three cases have been studied: where variable…
We consider a self-interacting dark matter model in which the massive dark photon mediating the self-interaction decays to light dark fermions to avoid over-closing the universe. We find that if the model is constrained to explain the dark…