Related papers: Laboratory Physics and Cosmology
General relativity predicts a singularity in the beginning of the universe being called big bang. Recent developments in loop quantum cosmology avoid the singularity and the big bang is replaced by a big bounce. A classical theory of…
If textbook Lorentz invariance is actually a property of the equations describing a sector of matter above some critical distance scale, several sectors of matter with different critical speeds in vacuum can coexist and an absolute rest…
One hope to solve the cosmological constant problem is to identify a symmetry principle, based on which the cosmological constant can be reduced either to zero, or to a tiny value. Here, we note that requiring that the vacuum state is…
An alternative cosmological model is presented, which avoids the requirement of dark energy and dark matter. Based on the proposition that energy conservation should be valid not only locally but also globally, the energy tensor of general…
There have been various varying speed of light (VSL) models with one free parameter, $b$, to characterize the time variation of the speed of light as a function of a scale factor, $c = c_0a^{b/4}$, based on the expanding universe. One needs…
If the fine structure constant $\alpha =e^2/(\hbar c)$ were to change, then a number of interpretations would be possible, attributing this change either to variations in the electron charge, the dielectric constant of the vacuum, the speed…
From the equivalence principle, one gets the strength of the gravitational effect of a mass $M$ on the metric at position r from it. It is proportional to the dimensionless parameter $\beta^2 = 2GM/rc^2$, which normally is $<< 1$. Here $G$…
The source of the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe is still unknown. We examine some consequences of the possible scale invariance of the empty space at large scales. The central hypothesis of this work is that, at macroscopic…
We suggest a new perspective on the Cosmological Constant Problem by scrutinizing its standard formulation. In classical and quantum mechanics without gravity, there is no definition of the zero point of energy. Furthermore, the Casimir…
A stationary line element of general relativity seems to be compatible to essential cosmological facts (though only as far as one can expect solving the nonlinear Einstein equations neglecting local cosmic evolution and all spatial…
Superluminal particles are not excluded by particle physics. The apparent Lorentz invariance of the laws of physics does not imply that space-time is indeed minkowskian. Matter made of solutions of Lorentz-invariant equations would feel a…
A Universe with finite age also has a finite causal scale. Larger scales can not affect our local measurements or modeling, but far away locations could have different cosmological parameters. The size of our causal Universe depends on the…
Every relativistic particle has 4-speed equal to $c$, since $g_{\mu \nu} \frac{dx^\mu}{d\tau} \frac{dx^\nu}{d\tau} = c^2$. With the choice of $k = +1$ in the FRW metric, the cosmological scale factor $a(t)$ has the natural interpretation of…
Unimodular relativity is a theory of gravity and space-time with a fixed absolute space-time volume element, the modulus, which we suppose is proportional to the number of microscopic modules in that volume element. In general relativity an…
Both from gravitational (G) experiments and from a new theoretical approach based on a particle model it is proved that the classical invariability of the bodies, after a change of relative rest-position with respect to other bodies, it is…
In the late 1990s, observations of type Ia supernovae led to the astounding discovery that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. The explanation of this anomalous acceleration has been one of the great problems in physics since…
The discovery that the cosmic expansion is accelerating has been followed by an intense theoretical and experimental response in physics and astronomy. The discovery implies that our most basic notions about how gravity work are violated on…
In this paper, the suggested similarity between micro and macro-cosmos is extended to quantum behavior, postulating that quantum mechanics, like general relativity and classical electrodynamics, is invariant under discrete scale…
At least one dimensionless physical constant (i.e., a physically observable) must change for the cosmic time to make the varying speed of light (VSL) models phenomenologically feasible. Various physical constants and quantities also should…
Among the suggested solutions to the cosmological constant problem, we find the idea of a dynamic vacuum, with an energy density decaying with the universe expansion. We investigate the possibility of a variation in the gravitational…