Questions tagged [cosmology]
The study of the large-scale structure, history, and future of the universe. Cosmology is about asking and answering questions about the "big picture" - the extent, origin, and fate of everything we know.
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Are there any experimental bounds on the ratio of neutrinos to antineutrinos in the universe?
In the Standard Model, both baryon number and lepton number are conserved quantities (excluding the theoretical possibility of sphaleron processes which are exceeding rare, at least at non-"near in ...
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Time diffeomorphisms breaking in inflation
I am currently working on the topic of inflation.
It seems that at the stage of inflation, the universe can be described as a de Sitter space. In such a space, all spacetime diffeomorphisms are ...
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Equation of motion for cyclic model of the universe
I recently started to study the cyclic universe. I came across this article [1]. My question is about the action used for describing the cyclic model:
$$S = \int d^{4}x\sqrt{-g}(\frac{1}{16\pi G}R-\...
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Lagrangian for Perfect fluid Stress-Energy tensor
The wiki article on the Einstein-Hilbert action for General Relativity says that the stress-energy tensor $T_{\mu\nu}$ is related to the Lagrangian of matter, $\mathcal{L}_M$, by
$$T_{\mu\nu}=-2\frac{\...
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Is it a coincidence that Big Bang nucleosynthesis lasted about one free neutron half-life?
The free neutron half-life is about 10 minutes. Big Bang nucleosynthesis, which mostly involves protons and neutrons interacting, lasted about 20 minutes.
Question: Is it a coincidence that these ...
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The color of deep space background of an arbitrary universe
While writing my notes on cosmology in general relativity and the Olber's paradox, I was wondering about the color of the deep background of space. Our universe is mostly black because light didn't ...
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Why is the Ricci tensor diagonal for isotropic spacetime?
I'm reading Zee's Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell and while calculating the Ricci tensor for FRW spacetime he claims that because the spacelike slices of constant $t$ are rotationally invariant, the ...
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The emergence of space-time from entangled states
I recently read an article by Yasunori Nomura (https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.05263), in which he says that space-time is an emerging phenomenon. At the same time, space-time disappears when the ...
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How do inflationary models predict the generation of gravitational waves during the inflationary period?
Recent results from the BICEP2 experiment have produced a lot of talk about the primordial gravitational waves produced during the inflationary period.
I would like to have some explanation about how ...
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Does quark color contribute to "spin degeneracy" for QGP calculations?
Like the title say, does quark color matter in counting contributions in a early universe plasma (QGP), as when adding up the total plasma energy density, or is it just spin? The book I have (Pathria) ...
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Does the Standard Model plasma develop a spontaneous magnetisation at finite temperature?
Reference: arXiv:1204.3604v1 [hep-ph] Long-range magnetic fields in the ground state of the Standard Model plasma.
Alexey Boyarsky, Oleg Ruchayskiy, Mikhail Shaposhnikov.
The authors of this paper ...
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Implications of Unruh-inertia to theories of gravity
If it turns out to be true that the galaxy rotation curves can be explained away by Unruh modes that become greater than the Hubble scale at accelerations around $10^{-10} m/s^2$ as proposed in here, ...
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How many apparent horizons could the universe have?
I was reading a paper written by Nobel laureate George Smoot, Go with the Flow, Average Holographic Universe, which assumes the holographic principle as true and conjectures that our universe would be ...
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Is GR the only theory in physics which cares about absolute energy?
In my QFT course, they justify dropping the vacuum energy as 'physics only cares about relative energies except for GR in the stress-energy tensor'.
Is this strictly true?
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Trying to reproduce curves with angle of CMB anisotropies as a function of distance and curvature parameter
I am looking for a way to get, by a simple numerical computation, the 3 curves on the following figure:
For this, I don't know what considering as abcissa (comoving distance ?, i.e
$$D_{comoving} = ...
user87745
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750 GeV diphoton resonance: KK graviton?
As everybody of you may know at LHC they found this probable resonance (https://cds.cern.ch/record/2114808, https://cds.cern.ch/record/2114853?ln=en). It may be a scalar or a KK graviton mode. Now, ...
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Poincare recurrence and the multiverse
In this paper Susskind claims that a stable de Sitter universe is problematic (among other things) due to the existence of Poincare recurrence, which happen because of finite entropy. I disagree that ...
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Does Goldstone theorem have anything to do with Cosmic string
Cosmic strings are formed due to topological defects during symmetry breaking phase transition in early universe.
While Goldstone theorem states whenever we have continuous symmetry and it is ...
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What is torsion physically in the Einstein-Cartan theory?
In Einsteins theory of gravity the metric gives a unique torsion free connection called the Levi-Civita connection.
In the Einstein-Cartan theory we allow any connection compatible with the metric ...
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Sterile (4th) neutrino and cosmological bound
Recent results by MicroBoone seems to give support to old LSND experiment in favor of a fourth neutrino (sterile). How does it fit with the current cosmological bound for neutrinos?
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Adiabatic fluctuations
In Baumann's cosmology lecture, chapter 4, page 89, he defines adiabatic perturbation as:
Adiabatic perturbations have the property that the local state of matter (determined, for example, by the ...
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In a perturbative FRW cosmology, why do constant-density hypersurfaces define a good gauge?
It appears to be common in the discussion of perturbative FRW cosmologies to choose a gauge using hypersurfaces for special values of some quantity, like surfaces of constant density $\rho$, constant ...
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$f_{NL}$ non-Gaussianity in cosmology
In the context of cosmology, what is meant by "..arbitrary quadratic non-Gaussianity i.e non-Gaussianity that is described to leading order by a 3-point function.."? (.."quadratic non-Gaussianity" ...
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Status of large-scale structure formation within cosmology today
Since the CMB results of the past decade, would it be fair to say that the consensus among cosmologists is that cosmic strings are no longer considered as a (major) source for density perturbations?
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How do you explain cosmological red shifting in terms of gravitons?
We know that the photons from the big bang are continually being red shifted and losing more and more energy. In terms of the graviton view, how would you explain that? Where is the energy going?
Are ...
user84158
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Bargmann–Wigner equations in NP formalism
Bargmann-Wigner equations describe free particles of arbitrary spin $j$, namely
$$(-\gamma^{\mu}\partial_{\mu}+m)_{\alpha_r \alpha_{r’}}\Psi_{\alpha_1,..,\alpha_{r’},...,\alpha_{2j}}=0$$
where we have ...
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Wheeler-deWitt equation in words?
Looking at the Wheeler-deWitt equation. My attempt to describe it in words is this:
"For each 3d-manifold given by metric tensor field $\gamma$, associate a complex number $\Psi$. The Wheeler-de-Witt ...
user84158
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Why is the relation between luminosity distance $d_L$ and comoving distance $\chi$ $d_L=\chi/a$?
The textbook (Scott Dodelson, Modern Cosmology, Section 2.2 Distance, Page 35-36) states the following:
Another way of inferring distances in astronomy is to measure the flux from
an object of known ...
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Meaning of the simplest potential of quintessence models. Fields in denominator?
I am reading Sec. 1.12 of the Cosmology book by Weinberg.
In this section he explains the very simple model of quintessence which attempts to provide a dynamical explanation of the smallness of the ...
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A question from cosmological perturbation theory
We consider the following scalar perturbation on the FRW metric
$$ds^2=-(1+2\Phi)dt^2+2a(\partial_iB)dx^idt+a^2[(1-2\Psi)\delta_{ij}+2\partial_{ij}E]dx^idx^j,$$
where $\Phi$, $B$, $\Psi$ and $E$ are ...
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