No Arabic abstract
The recent measurement of a cutoff k_min in the fluctuation power spectrum P(k) of the cosmic microwave background may vitiate the possibility that slow-roll inflation can simultaneously solve the horizon problem and account for the formation of structure via the growth of quantum fluctuations in the inflaton field. Instead, we show that k_min may be interpreted more successfully in the R_h=ct cosmology, as the first mode exiting from the Planck scale into the semi-classical Universe shortly after the Big Bang. In so doing, we demonstrate that such a scenario completely avoids the well-known trans-Planckian problem plaguing standard inflationary cosmology.
In the standard model of cosmology, the Universe began its expansion with an anomalously low entropy, which then grew dramatically to much larger values consistent with the physical conditions at decoupling, roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang. There does not appear to be a viable explanation for this `unnatural history, other than via the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSL), in which the entropy of the bulk, S_bulk, is combined with the entropy of the apparent (or gravitational) horizon, S_h. This is not completely satisfactory either, however, since this approach seems to require an inexplicable equilibrium between the bulk and horizon temperatures. In this paper, we explore the thermodynamics of an alternative cosmology known as the R_h=ct universe, which has thus far been highly successful in resolving many other problems or inconsistencies in LCDM. We find that S_bulk is constant in this model, eliminating the so-called initial entropy problem simply and elegantly. The GSL may still be relevant, however, principally in selecting the arrow of time, given that S_h ~ t^2 in this model.
Inflation drives quantum fluctuations beyond the Hubble horizon, freezing them out before the small-scale modes re-enter during the radiation dominated epoch, and subsequently decay, while large-scale modes re-enter later during the matter dominated epoch and grow. This distinction shapes the matter power spectrum and provides observational evidence in support of the standard model. In this paper, we demonstrate that another mechanism, based on the fluctuation growth in the R_h=ct universe, itself an FLRW cosmology with the added constraint of zero active mass (i.e., rho+3p=0), also accounts very well for the observed matter power spectrum, so this feature is not unique to LambdaCDM. In R_h=ct, the shape of the matter power spectrum is set by the interplay between the more rapid decay of the gravitational potential for the smaller mode wavelengths and the longer dynamical timescale for the larger wavelengths. This combination produces a characteristic peak that grows in both amplitude and mode number as a function of time. Today, that peak lies at k approx 0.02 Mpc^-1, in agreement with the Ly-alpha and Planck data. But there is no need of an inflationary expansion, and a complicated epoch dependence as one finds in LambdaCDM.
The aim of Quantum Fisher Cosmology is to use the quantum Fisher information about pure de Sitter states to derive model independent observational consequences of the existence of a primordial phase of the Universe of de Sitter accelerated expansion. These quantum features are encoded in a scale dependent quantum cosmological tilt that defines what we can call the de Sitter universality class. The experimental predictions are: i) A phase transition from red into blue tilt at a scale order $k= 1$ Mpc$^{-1}$ that naturally solves the cosmological trans-Planckian problem, ii) A spectral index for curvature fluctuations at CMB scales $k= 0.05$ Mpc$^{-1}$ equal to $0.0328$, iii) A tilt running at scale $k=0.002$ Mpc$^{-1}$ equal to $-0.0019$, iv) An enhancement of the amplitude of CMB peaks for extremely high multipoles ($l > 10^5$) that can provide a natural mechanism for primordial black hole formation as a source of dark matter, v) A lack of power at scales of $8$ Mpc with respect to the CMB scale that can explain the $sigma_8$ tension.
In any conformally invariant gravitational theory, the space of exact solutions is greatly enlarged. The Weyls conformal invariance can then be spontaneously broken to spherically symmetric vacuum solutions that exclude the spacetime region inside the black holes event horizon from our Universe. We baptize these solutions conformalons. It turns out that for all such spacetimes nothing can reach the Schwarzschild event horizon in a finite amount of proper time for conformally coupled ``massive particles, or finite values of the affine parameter for massless particles. Therefore, for such vacuum solutions the event horizon is an asymptotic region of the Universe. As a general feature, all conformalons show a gravitational blueshift instead of a gravitational redshift at the unattainable event horizon, hence avoiding the Trans-Planckian problem in the Hawking evaporation process. The latter happens as usual near the event horizon, but now the annihilation process between the matter and Hawkings negative energy particles takes place outside of the event horizon. Indeed, in these solutions the gravitational collapse consists of matter that falls down forever towards the horizon without ever reaching it. According to a previous work that has been faithfully adapted to the conformalons scenario, the information is not lost in the whole process of singularity-free collapse and evaporation, as evident from the Penrose diagram.
We point out that the nonempty $R_h=ct$ cosmological model has some known antecedents in the literature. Some of those eternal coasting models are published even before the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe and were shown to have none of the commonly discussed cosmological problems and also that $H_0t_0=1$. The $R_h=ct$ model is only the special (flat) case of the eternal coasting model. An additional feature in the coasting model is that $Omega_m/Omega_{dark ; energy}$ = some constant of the order of unity, so that also the cosmic coincidence problem is avoided.