International Journal of Modern Physics D

In this paper, we focus on the astrophysical results and the related cosmological implications derived from recent microwave surveys, with emphasis to those coming from the Planck mission. We critically discuss the impact of systematic effects and the role of methods to separate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal from the astrophysical emissions and each different astrophysical component from the others. We then review the state-of-the-art diffuse emissions, extragalactic sources, cosmic infrared background and galaxy clusters, addressing the information they provide to our global view of the cosmic structure evolution and for some crucial physical parameters, as the neutrino mass. Finally, we present three different kinds of scientific perspectives for fundamental physics and cosmology offered by the analysis of on-going and future CMB projects at different angular scales dedicated to anisotropies in total intensity and polarization and to absolute temperature.

The current state of the vacuum evolution problem in general relativity is reviewed from a perspective of rigorous mathematical results.

After introducing the Szekeres and Lemaître–Tolman cosmological models, the real-time cosmology program is briefly mentioned. Then, a few widespread misconceptions about the cosmological models are pointed out and corrected. Investigation of null geodesic equations in the Szekeres models shows that observers in favorable positions would see galaxies drift across the sky at a rate of up to 10^-6 arc s per year. Such a drift would be possible to measure using devices that are under construction; the required time of monitoring would be ≈10 years. This effect is zero in the FLRW models, so it provides a measure of inhomogeneity of the Universe. In the Szekeres models, the condition for zero drift is zero shear. But in the shearfree normal models, the condition for zero drift is that, in the comoving coordinates, the time dependence of the metric completely factors out.

We explore the cosmological evolution of equation of state (EoS) for dark energy in g-essence models, the action of which is described by a function of both the canonical kinetic term of both the scalar and fermionic fields. We examine g-essence models with realizing the crossing of the phantom divide line of w_DE = -1 as well as the models in which the universe always stays in the nonphantom (quintessence) phase (w_DE > -1). In particular, we find an explicit g-essence model with the crossing from the nonphantom phase to the phantom one (w_DE < -1). This transition behavior is consistent with the recent observational data analyses.

We apply the Dirac's square root idea to constraints for embedded four-geometries swept by a three-dimensional membrane. The resulting Dirac-like equation is then analyzed for general coordinates as well as for the case of a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) metric for spatially closed geometries. The problem of the singularity formation at the quantum level is addressed.

The effect of spatial curvature in reconstructing the cosmic expansion history and the property of dark energy is studied in this paper by smoothing the noise of the Union2.1 Type Ia Supernovae (SNIa) data with a Gaussian smoothing function. We find that the spatial curvature induces an apparent effect in reconstructing the Hubble parameter H(z), the deceleration parameter q(z), and especially on the equation of state w(z) of dark energy. Thus, when one probes the dark energy property, an assumption of a flat universe may induce critical bias and it is imperative to take account of the spatial curvature.

If two particles collide near the black hole horizon, the energy in their center of mass (CM) frame can grow indefinitely (the so-called Bañados, Silk and West (BSW) effect). This requires fine-tuning the parameters (the energy–momentum, angular momentum or electric charge) of one particle. We show that the CM energy can be unbound also for collisions in the spacetime of quasiblack holes (QBHs) (the objects on the threshold of forming the horizon which do not collapse). It does not require special fine-tuning of parameters and occurs when any particle inside a QBH having a finite energy collides with the particle that entered a QBH from the outside region.

It is demonstrated that the near-horizon geometry of general nonextremal black holes can be described by a portion of AdS space. We show that the reason why hidden conformal symmetries near horizons of general nonextremal black holes are achieved in previous works is that the near-horizon geometries have been equivalently taken as these AdS segments rather than simply the Rindler space.

The dynamical behavior of tachyon field with an inverse potential is investigated in loop quantum cosmology. It reveals that the late-time behavior of tachyon field with this potential leads to a power-law expansion. In addition, an additional barotropic perfect fluid with the adiabatic index 0 < γ < 2 is added and the dynamical system is shown to be an autonomous one. The stability of this autonomous system is discussed using phase plane analysis. There exist up to five fixed points with only two of them possibly stable. The two stable node (attractor) solutions are specified and their cosmological indications are discussed. For the tachyon dominated solution, the further discussion is stretched to the possibility of considering tachyon field as a combination of two parts which respectively behave like dark matter and dark energy.