[en] In this paper we study the impact of the fractional matter density uncertainty in the reconstruction of the equation of state of dark energy. We consider both standard reconstruction methods, based on the dynamical effect that dark energy has on the expansion of the Universe, as well as nonstandard methods, in which the evolution of the dark energy equation of state with redshift is inferred through the variation of fundamental couplings such as the fine-structure constant, α, or the proton-to-electron mass ratio, μ. We show that the negative impact of the matter density uncertainty in the dark energy reconstruction using varying couplings may be very small compared to standard reconstruction methods. We also briefly discuss other fundamental questions which need to be answered before varying couplings can be successfully used to probe the nature of the dark energy.

[en] We develop a velocity-dependent one-scale model describing p-brane dynamics in flat homogeneous and isotropic backgrounds in a unified framework. We find the corresponding scaling laws in frictionless and friction-dominated regimes considering both expanding and collapsing phases.

[en] In this paper, we investigate possible solutions to the coincidence problem in flat phantom dark-energy models with a constant dark-energy equation of state and quintessence models with a linear scalar field potential. These models are representative of a broader class of cosmological scenarios in which the universe has a finite lifetime. We show that, in the absence of anthropic constraints, including a prior probability for the models inversely proportional to the total lifetime of the universe excludes models very close to the Λ cold dark matter model. This relates a cosmological solution to the coincidence problem with a dynamical dark-energy component having an equation-of-state parameter not too close to -1 at the present time. We further show that anthropic constraints, if they are sufficiently stringent, may solve the coincidence problem without the need for dynamical dark energy.

[en] We study the cosmological evolution of the fine structure constant α and the proton-to-electron mass ratio μ=m_p/m_e in the context of a generic class of models, where the gauge kinetic function is a linear function of a quintessence-type real scalar field φ described by a Lagrangian with a standard kinetic term and a scalar field potential V(φ). We further assume that the scalar field potential is a monotonic function of φ and that the scalar field is always rolling down the potential. We show that, for this class of models, low-redshift constraints on the evolution of α and μ can provide very stringent limits on the corresponding variations at high redshift. We also demonstrate that these limits may be relaxed by considering more general models for the dynamics of α and μ. However, in this case, the ability to reconstruct the evolution of the dark energy equation of state using varying couplings could be seriously compromised.

[en] The Press-Ryden-Spergel (PRS) algorithm is a modification to the field theory equations of motion, parametrized by two parameters (α and β), implemented in numerical simulations of cosmological domain wall networks, in order to ensure a fixed comoving resolution. In this paper we explicitly demonstrate that the PRS algorithm provides the correct domain wall dynamics in (N+1)-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes if α+β/2=N, fully validating its use in numerical studies of cosmic domain evolution. We further show that this result is valid for generic thin featureless domain walls, independently of the Lagrangian of the model.

[en] A detailed nonlinear analysis of the internal structure of spherical, charged black holes that are accreting scalar matter is performed in the framework of the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity. We choose the lowest value of the Brans-Dicke parameter that is compatible with observational constraints. First, the homogeneous approximation is used. It indicates that mass inflation occurs and that the variations of the Brans-Dicke scalar inside the black hole, which could in principle be large in the absence of mass inflation, become small when mass inflation does occur. Then, a full nonlinear numerical study of the black hole interior perturbed by a self-gravitating massless uncharged scalar field is performed. We use an algorithm with adaptive mesh refinement capabilities. In this way, the changes in the internal structure of the black hole caused by mass inflation are determined, as well as the induced variations of the Brans-Dicke scalar, confirming, qualitatively, the indications given by the homogeneous approximation.

[en] We study the evolution of biased domain walls in the early universe. We explicitly discuss the roles played by the surface tension and volume pressure in the evolution of the walls, and quantify their effects by looking at the collapse of spherical wall solutions. We then apply our results to a particular mechanism, known as the devaluation scenario, in which the dynamics of biased domain walls was suggested as a possible solution to the cosmological constant problem. Our results indicate that devaluation will, in general, lead to values of the cosmological constant that differ by several orders of magnitude from the observationally inferred value, ρ_vac^1/4∼10^-3 eV. We also argue that the reasons behind this are not specific to a particular realization, and are expected to persist in any scenario of this kind, except if a low-energy cutoff on the spectra of vacuum energy densities, of the order of the critical density at the present time, is postulated. This implies that any such scenario will require a fine-tuning similar to the usual one.

[en] In this paper we derive, directly from the Nambu-Goto action, the relevant components of the acceleration of cosmological featureless p-branes, extending previous analysis based on the field theory equations in the thin-brane limit. The component of the acceleration parallel to the velocity is at the core of the velocity-dependent one-scale model for the evolution of p-brane networks. We use this model to show that, in a decelerating expanding universe in which the p-branes are relevant cosmologically, interactions cannot lead to frustration, except for fine-tuned nonrelativistic networks with a dimensionless curvature parameter k<<1. We discuss the implications of our findings for the cosmological evolution of p-brane networks.

[en] In this paper we compare the performances of the χ² and median likelihood analysis in the determination of cosmological constraints using type Ia supernovae data. We perform a statistical analysis using the 307 supernovae of the Union 2 compilation of the Supernova Cosmology Project and find that the χ² statistical analysis yields tighter cosmological constraints than the median statistic if only supernovae data is taken into account. We also show that when additional measurements from the cosmic microwave background and baryonic acoustic oscillations are considered, the combined cosmological constraints are not strongly dependent on whether one applies the χ² statistic or the median statistic to the supernovae data. This indicates that, when complementary information from other cosmological probes is taken into account, the performances of the χ² and median statistics are very similar, demonstrating the robustness of the statistical analysis.

[en] We provide a generic but physically clear discussion of the clustering properties of dark energy models. We explicitly show that in quintessence-type models the dark energy fluctuations, on scales smaller than the Hubble radius, are of the order of the perturbations to the Newtonian gravitational potential, hence necessarily small on cosmological scales. Moreover, comparable fluctuations are associated with different gauge choices. We also demonstrate that the often used homogeneous approximation is unrealistic, and that the so-called dark energy mutation is a trivial artifact of an effective, single fluid description. Finally, we discuss the particular case where the dark energy fluid is nonminimally coupled to dark matter