| Biography | |
|---|---|
 Prof. Rajendra P. Gupta University of Ottawa, Canada |
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| Title: Exploring Cosmological Observations with Varying Physical Constants | |
| Abstract: Despite the stunning success of the standard ΛCDM model in explaining the cosmological observations, there remain many gaps that need to be bridged. We believe these gaps warrant looking at alternative theories based on examining the foundation of physics that has been developed over centuries from local observations extrapolated to the universe at large. One corner stone of the foundation is that constants relating various observables have the same value everywhere and at every time in the Universe. There has been extensive effort to relax the constancy constraints on physical constants but observations have established very tight limits on their variation. We show that the null results on the variations are due to the fact that the variations of various physical constants cancel each other in equations used to interpret many of the observations. However, there are several observations such cancellation does not happen resulting in anomalous findings which do not fit theoretical predictions. We report here a variable physical constant (VPC) model that is relativistically compliant and fits cosmological observations wonderfully and resolves several astrophysical anomalies. This VPC model is consistent with the recently published variational approach wherein Einstein equations are modified to include the variation of the speed of light , gravitational constant and cosmological constant Λ using the Einstein-Hilbert action. In this approach, the general constraint resulting from satisfying the local conservation laws and contracted Bianchi identities provides the freedom to choose the form of the variation of the constants as well as how their variations are related. When we choose / = 3/, = exp − 1, = exp[3 − 1] and Λ = Λ exp − 1, where is the scale factor, = 1.8, and suffix 0 is relates to a constant’s current value at = 1, we are able to show that the resulting model: (a) fits the supernovae 1a observational data marginally better than the ΛCDM model; (b) determines the first peak in the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies at multipole value of = 217.3; (c) calculates the age of the universe as 14.1 Gyr; and (d) finds the BAO acoustic scale to be 145.2 Mpc. These numbers are within less than 3% of the values derived using the ΛCDM model. Surprisingly we find that the darkenergy density is negative in a universe that has significant negative curvature and whose expansion is accelerating at a faster rate than predicted by the ΛCDM model. The model also resolves 3 astrometric anomalies: (i) the Pioneer anomaly related to the anomalous deceleration of the spacecraft; (ii) anomalous secular increase of the Moon eccentricity; and (iii) the anomalous secular increase of the astronomical unit AU. Additionally, we have established the variation of the Planck constant as ℎ = ℎ exp − 1 and the Boltzmann constant as = , exp[1.25 − 1]. When we applied this model to the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis, we could resolve the so called ‘lithium problem’ by postulating that the neutron lifetime varies as !" = !", exp[−0.5 − 1]. Since the neutron lifetime is related to $- decay time, we are able to show that the decay times of isotopes % used in radiometric dating, such as for determining the Earth’s age, will also be affected due to VPC as % = % exp[0.5 − 1]. The current status of this research will be presented at the conference. | |
| Biography: Current Research Interest and Experience Astrophysics, cosmology and general relativity, especially the dynamics of the universe under evolutionary physical constants beyond the standard model, and scalar-tensor formulation of Einstein field equations for the same; electromagnetics, field theory and plasma physics mainly for controlled thermonuclear fusion research; synchrotron radiation and electron spectroscopy for studying condensed matter physics, including inner shell ionization phenomena; cold neutron spectroscopy for studying lattice dynamics; pulsed power for inertially confined fusion research; etc. | |
