International Journal of Modern Physics D

The homogeneous expansion history H(z) of our universe (Hubble diagram) measures only kinematic variables, it cannot fix the underlying dynamics driving the recent acceleration: cosmographic measurements of the homogeneous universe are consistent with either a static fine-tuned cosmological constant or a dynamic "dark energy" mechanism, which itself may be either material dark energy or low-curvature modifications of Einstein gravity (dark gravity). This dark energy/dark gravity degeneracy in the homogeneous expansion observations can only be resolved by observing the growth of the cosmological fluctuations. However, because the "dark energy" evolution is now quasi-static at most, any dynamical effects on the fluctuation growth function g(z) will be minimal. Projected observations may potentially distinguish static from dynamic "dark energy", but distinguishing dynamic dark energy from dark gravity will require a weak lensing shear survey more ambitious than any now projected. Dark gravity is also, in principle, observable in the solar system or in isolated galaxy clusters.

The cosmological constant problem — that quantum material vacuum fluctuations apparently do not gravitate — suggests identifying gravitational "vacuum energy" with classical intrinsic space–time curvature, divorcing it from any quantum material property. This empty space–time curvature appears cosmologically and about isolated sources and can only be fine-tuned, at present. The cosmological coincidence problem — that we live when the ordinary matter density approximates the "gravitational vacuum energy" — on the other hand, is a material problem, calling for an understanding of the observers' role in cosmology. A particularly restrictive weak anthropic principle, that dark energy and dark gravity be indistinguishable, selects static "dark energy" (ΛCDM) and rejects any dynamical effects in the growth of fluctuations.

In this paper, we investigate cosmological application of holographic dark energy density in the modified gravity framework. We employ the holographic model of dark energy to obtain the equation of state for the holographic energy density in a spatially flat universe. Our calculation shows that, taking Ω_Λ = 0.73 for the present time, it is possible to have w_Λ crossing -1. This implies that one can generate a phantom-like equation of state from a holographic dark energy model in flat universe in the modified gravity cosmology framework. Also, we develop a reconstruction scheme for the modified gravity with f(R) action.

A duality transformation that interrelates expanding and contracting cosmological models is shown to single out a duality invariant, interacting two-component description of any irrotational, geodesic and shear-free cosmic medium with vanishing three-curvature scalar. We have applied this feature to a system of matter and radiation, to a mixture of dark matter and dark energy, to minimal and conformal scalar fields, and to an enlarged Chaplygin gas model of the cosmic substratum. We have extended the concept of duality transformations to cosmological perturbations and demonstrated the invariance of adiabatic pressure perturbations under these transformations.

In this paper, we analyze the bending of light by galaxies or clusters of galaxies in the presence of the Λ term. Using Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) coordinates, which are used for the description of actual observations, we demonstrate that the cosmological constant does not practically influence the lensing effect.

We calculate the Casimir stress on a spherical shell in a de Sitter background corresponding to different metric signatures and cosmological constants, for massless scalar fields that satisfy Dirichlet boundary conditions on the shell. We show that a contribution appears due to signature change, which leads to late-time expansion of the bubbles in this background.

Although it has been believed that models with generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) do not contain singularities, in previous work we have studied how a big freeze could take place in some kinds of phantom-generalized Chaplygin gas. In the present work, we study some types of generalized Chaplygin gas in order to show how different sorts of singularities could appear in such models, either in the future or in the past. We point out that (i) singularities may not originate from the phantom nature of the fluid, and (ii) if initially the tension of the brane in a brane-world Chaplygin model is large enough, then an infrared cutoff appears in the past.

General relativistic equilibrium conditions imply that an electrically charged compact star, in a spherically symmetric configuration, can sustain a huge amount of electric charge (up to 10²⁰ C). The equilibrium, however, is reached under very critical conditions such that a perturbation to the stellar structure can cause these systems to collapse. We study the effects of rotation in charged compact stars and obtain conditions, the modified Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equations, under which such stars form a stable gravitational system against Coulomb repulsion. We assume the star to be rotating slowly. We also assume that the charge density is proportional to the mass density everywhere inside the star. The modified TOV equations for hydrostatic equilibrium are integrated numerically for the general equation of state for a polytrope. The detailed numerical study shows that the centrifugal force adds to the Coulomb pressure in the star. In the stable equilibrium configurations, therefore, a loss in stellar mass (energy) density occurs for higher values of the angular frequency. The additional energy is radiated in the form of electrical energy. The stellar radius is also decreased so that the star does not necessarily becomes more compact.

In this paper, we perform an analysis of the large set of microlensing events detected so far toward the galactic center, with the purpose of investigating whether some of the dark lenses are located in galactic globular clusters. We found that in four cases some events might have occurred due to lenses located in the globular clusters themselves. We also give a rough estimate for the average lens mass of the subset of events being highly aligned with galactic globular-cluster centers and find that, under reasonable assumptions, the deflectors could possibly be either brown dwarfs, M-stars, or stellar remnants.

Interpretation of cosmological data to determine the number and values of parameters describing the universe must not rely solely on statistics but involve physical insight. When statistical techniques such as "model selection" or "integrated survey optimization" blindly apply Occam's Razor, this can lead to painful results. Sensitivity to prior probabilities and to the number of models compared can lead to "prior selection" rather than robust model selection. A concrete example demonstrates that information criteria can in fact misinform over a large region of parameter space.

The tachyon field in cosmology is studied in this paper by applying the generating function method to obtain exact solutions. The equation of state parameter of the tachyon field is , which can be expressed as a function in terms of the redshift z. Based on these solutions, we propose some tachyon-inspired dark energy models to explore the properties of the corresponding cosmological evolution. The explicit relations between the Hubble parameter and redshift enable us to test the models with SNeIa data sets easily. In this paper, we employ the SNeIa data with the parameter measured from the SDSS and the shift parameter from WMAP observations to constrain the parameters in our models.

In this paper, we analyze the available data on isolated X-ray pulsars, their wind nebulae, and the supernova remnants that are connected to some of these sources. It is shown that the electric fields of neutron stars tear off charged particles from the surface of the neutron star and trigger the acceleration of particles. The charged particles are accelerated mainly in the field of a magneto-dipole radiation wave. The power and energy spectra of the charged particles depend on the strength of the magneto-dipole radiation. Therefore, the X-ray radiation is strongly dependent on the rate of rotational energy loss and weakly dependent on the electric field intensity. Coulombic interaction between the charged particles is the main factor for the energy loss and the X-ray spectra of the charged particles.

A cosmological model with two phantom scalar fields with a special choice of the field potential is considered. The obtained regular solution describes a bounce with a subsequent transition to the de Sitter stage of the expansion of the universe. This solution could also be interpreted as an S-brane solution.