Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2001-06-04
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
17 pages, 3 figures
Scientific paper
Observations of an apparent acceleration in the expansion rate of the universe, derived from measurements of high-redshift supernovae, have been used to support the hypothesis that the universe is permeated by some form of dark energy. We show that an alternative cosmological model, based on a linearly expanding universe with Omega=1, can fully account for these observations. This model is also able to resolve the other problems associated with the standard Big Bang model. A scale-invariant form of the field equations of General Relativity is postulated, based on the replacement of the Newtonian gravitational constant by an formulation based explicitly on Mach's principle. We derive the resulting dynamical equations, and show that their solutions describe a linearly expanding universe. Potential problems with non-zero divergencies in the modified field equations are shown to be resolved by adopting a radically different definition of time, in which the unit of time is a function of the scale-factor. We observe that the effects of the modified field equations are broadly equivalent to a Newtonian gravitational constant that varies both in time and in space, and show that this is also equivalent to Varying Speed of Light (VSL) theories using a standard definition of time. Some of the implications of this observation are discussed in relation to Black Holes, Planck scale phenomena, and the ultimate fate of the Universe.
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