scholarly journals Happy birthday, ultra-cold neutron!∗

2019 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. 01001
Author(s):  
Hartmut Abele ◽  
Tobias Jenke ◽  
Hartmut Lemmel

What is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe and do we have an alternative for Einstein's cosmological constant? What is dark matter made of? Do extra dimensions of space and time exist? Is there a preferred frame in the universe? To which extent is left-handedness a preferred symmetry in nature? What's the origin of the baryon asymmetry in the universe? These fundamental and open questions are addressed by precision experiments using ultra-cold neutrons. This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first production, followed by first pioneering experiments. Actually, ultra-cold neutrons were discovered twice in the same year – once in the eastern and once in the western world [1, 2]. For five decades now research projects with ultra-cold neutrons have contributed to the determination of the force constants of nature's fundamental interactions, and several technological breakthroughs in precision allow to address the open questions by putting them to experimental test. To mark the event and tribute to this fabulous object, we present a birthday song for ultra-cold neutrons with acoustic resonant transitions [3], which are based solely on properties of ultra-cold neutrons, the inertial and gravitational mass of the neutron m, Planck's constant h, and the local gravity g. We make use of a musical intonation system that bears no relation to basic notation and basic musical theory as applied and used elsewhere [4] but addresses two fundamental problems of music theory, the problem of reference for the concert pitch and the problem of intonation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José D. Edelstein ◽  
Robert B. Mann ◽  
David Vázquez Rodríguez ◽  
Alejandro Vilar López

Abstract Within General Relativity, a minimally coupled scalar field governed by a quadratic potential is able to produce an accelerated expansion of the universe provided its value and excursion are larger than the Planck scale. This is an archetypical example of the so called large field inflation models. We show that by including higher curvature corrections to the gravitational action in the form of the Geometric Inflation models, it is possible to obtain accelerated expansion with a free scalar field whose values are well below the Planck scale, thereby turning a traditional large field model into a small field one. We provide the conditions the theory has to satisfy in order for this mechanism to operate, and we present two explicit models illustrating it. Finally, we present some open questions raised by this scenario in which inflation takes place completely in a higher curvature dominated regime, such as those concerning the study of perturbations.


Author(s):  
Michael Kachelriess

The contribution of vacuum fluctuations to the cosmological constant is reconsidered studying the dependence on the used regularisation scheme. Then alternative explanations for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe in the present epoch are introduced which either modify gravity or add a new component of matter, dubbed dark energy. The chapter closes with some comments on attempts to quantise gravity.


Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Verónica Motta ◽  
Miguel A. García-Aspeitia ◽  
Alberto Hernández-Almada ◽  
Juan Magaña ◽  
Tomás Verdugo

The accelerated expansion of the Universe is one of the main discoveries of the past decades, indicating the presence of an unknown component: the dark energy. Evidence of its presence is being gathered by a succession of observational experiments with increasing precision in its measurements. However, the most accepted model for explaining the dynamic of our Universe, the so-called Lambda cold dark matter, faces several problems related to the nature of such energy component. This has led to a growing exploration of alternative models attempting to solve those drawbacks. In this review, we briefly summarize the characteristics of a (non-exhaustive) list of dark energy models as well as some of the most used cosmological samples. Next, we discuss how to constrain each model’s parameters using observational data. Finally, we summarize the status of dark energy modeling.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (05) ◽  
pp. 295-302
Author(s):  
SUBENOY CHAKRABORTY

In this paper it is shown that the present accelerated expansion of the Universe can be explained only by considering variation of the speed of light, without taking into account the cosmological constant or quintessence matter.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2150114
Author(s):  
Manuel Urueña Palomo ◽  
Fernando Pérez Lara

The vacuum catastrophe results from the disagreement between the theoretical value of the energy density of the vacuum in quantum field theory and the estimated one observed in cosmology. In a similar attempt in which the ultraviolet catastrophe was solved, we search for the value of the cosmological constant by brute-force through computation. We explore combinations of the fundamental constants in physics performing a dimensional analysis, in search of an equation resulting in the measured energy density of the vacuum or cosmological constant that is assumed to cause the accelerated expansion of the universe.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (40) ◽  
pp. 1850240
Author(s):  
Babur M. Mirza

We present here a general relativistic mechanism for accelerated cosmic expansion and the Hubble’s parameter. It is shown that spacetime vorticity coupled to the magnetic field density in galaxies causes the galaxies to recede from one another at a rate equal to the Hubble’s constant. We therefore predict an oscillatory universe, with zero curvature, without assuming violation of Newtonian gravity at large distances or invoking dark energy/dark matter hypotheses. The value of the Hubble’s constant, along with the scale of expansion, as well as the high isotropy of CMB radiation are deduced from the model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Aguila ◽  
José Edgar Madriz Aguilar ◽  
Claudia Moreno ◽  
Mauricio Bellini

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Hasmukh Tank

<p>Astronomical observations of the cosmological red-shift are currently interpreted in terms of ‘expansion of universe’ and ‘accelerated-expansion of the universe’, at the rate of <em>H<sub>0</sub> c</em>; here <em>H<sub>0</sub></em> is Hubble’s constant, and c is the speed of light. Whereas a straight-forward derivation presented here suggests that: rather it is the photon which is decelerating, at the rate of <em>H<sub>0</sub> c</em>. Such a deceleration of photons can be caused by virtual electrons, positrons and pi-mesons, contained in the extra galactic quantum vacuum, because: they do have gravitational-acceleration of the same order as <em>H<sub>0</sub> c</em> at their “surfaces”; or by decay of a photon into a lighter photon and a particle of mass <em>h H<sub>0</sub> / c<sup>2</sup></em>. Tired-light interpretations of the cosmological red-shift’ were so far considered as not compatible with the observations of ‘time-dilation of super-novae light-curves’; so in a paper titled: “Wave-theoretical insight into the relativistic ‘length-contraction’ and ‘time-dilation of super-novae light-curves’” (Tank, Hasmukh K. 2013), it has been already shown that any mechanism which can cause ‘cosmological red-shift’ will also cause ‘time-dilation of super-novae light-curves’.  Therefore, we now need not to remain confined to the Big-Bang model of cosmology.</p>


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