Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel

Details Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel

2003-12-24

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0312108v2

Phys.Rev. D69 (2004) 104009

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

33 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Physical Review D15 (Dec 23, 2003). v2: 1 reference added. No other changes

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.69.104009

We investigate the possibility that the late acceleration observed in the rate of expansion of the universe is due to vacuum quantum effects arising in curved spacetime. The theoretical basis of the vacuum cold dark matter (VCDM), or vacuum metamorphosis, cosmological model of Parker and Raval is revisited and improved. We show, by means of a manifestly nonperturbative approach, how the infrared behavior of the propagator (related to the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel) of a free scalar field in curved spacetime causes the vacuum expectation value of its energy-momentum tensor to exhibit a resonance effect when the scalar curvature R of the spacetime reaches a particular value related to the mass of the field. we show that the back reaction caused by this resonance drives the universe through a transition to an accelerating expansion phase, very much in the same way as originally proposed by Parker and Raval. Our analysis includes higher derivatives that were neglected in the earlier analysis, and takes into account the possible runaway solutions that can follow from these higher-derivative terms. We find that the runaway solutions do not occur if the universe was described by the usual classical FRW solution prior to the growth of vacuum energy-density and negative pressure (i.e., vacuum metamorphosis) that causes the transition to an accelerating expansion of the universe in this theory.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-625063