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The ACG newsletter is distributed gratis to
subscribers. Get onto our mailing list without
obligation at
www.cosmology.info/newsletter. The
current newsletter is a review of 1,104 papers
published on arXiv under astro-ph, together with
639 under gen-phys, for the month of March,
2010. We now include papers archived elsewhere,
provided access is full and open. The
Alternative Cosmology Group draws its mandate
from the open letter published in New
Scientist, 2004 (www.cosmologystatement.org),
and this newsletter seeks to publicise recently
published empirical results that are aligned
with that ethos. We prefer observational results
and tend to avoid complete cosmologies and
purely theoretical work. Discussion of method is
welcome. If you would like to suggest recently
published or archived papers for inclusion,
please send the arXiv, viXra or other direct
reference and a brief exposition to Hilton
Ratcliffe (hilton@hiltonratcliffe.com).
Note that our spam filter rejects slash and
colon in the text, so please write web addresses
commencing “www”.
The emphasis in the arXiv astro-ph catalogue
continues to grow in the direction of purely
theoretical, model-dependent studies, with a
consequently smaller pie-slice representing the
type of empirically derived, observationally
based results preferred for this list. This has
let to subsets of research initiatives which
despite their internal consistency, may be based
upon historical assumptions which more recent,
independent enquiries have shown to be uncertain
at best. Evolutionary timelines for galaxies are
based largely upon star birth rates, themselves
dependent upon metallicity and colour. The
interpretations of spectral data and colours are
inherently model-dependent, and the possibility
exists that some deeply embedded principles
underpinning the models would not stand modern
scrutiny. Is the abundance of heavy metals
directly or inversely proportional to stellar
age? Or neither? Cosmologists appear inclined to
take an opportunistic stance on this issue, and
the results being published are ambiguous at
best.
[951]
arXiv:1003.6026
Title:
When are extremely metal-deficient galaxies
extremely metal-deficient?
Authors:
B. Ekta,
Jayaram N. Chengalur
CCC2 Proceedings Volume
For those who may have missed it, here is the
notification of CCC2 proceedings publication.
Thanks to the almost single-handed efforts of
Frank Potter, the proceedings volume of the 2nd
Crisis in Cosmology Conference has now been
published and is available for purchase. It is
very well turned out indeed and well worth the
purchase price. It is a highly recommended
reference work in contemporary cosmology. Here
is Frank’s letter explaining the purchase
procedure:
Dear CCC-2 Participant,
(1) I now have the 2nd Crisis in Cosmology,
CCC-2 proceedings book ready for purchase by
credit card through Paypal (or by Cashier's
Check or Money Order).
(2) To place your order (or check out the TOC)
go to:
http://www.sciencegems.com/CCC2/CCC2proceedings.html
N.B. I will send you the book as soon as I know
you have ordered and have your address.
(3) There are 3 different rates:
(i) U.S. shipping address
($13.45, 3-4 days )
(ii) Canada or Mexico ($22.39,
6 - 10 days)
(iii) International ($25.23, 6 -
10 days).
(4) Note that these rates offer a considerable
savings over the $65 normal price plus shipping
charges.
(5) If you buy the book, you will also have
online ebook access to this proceedings after I
send the publisher the list of buyers.
(6) Note that the last article in the
proceedings is a wonderful summary article that
includes predictions for critical cosmological
measurements that is based upon talks about the
different conjectured cosmologies given at both
Crisis in Cosmology conferences.
Thank you,
Frank Potter
Press coverage
The Times of India has given substantial
coverage to some recent scientific results
refuting Big Bang Theory. In his paper "Big
Bang? A Critical Review", Ashwini Kumar Lal
says: "There is a growing body of evidence
which demonstrates the Universe could not have
begun with a Big Bang 13.75 billion years ago.
Indeed, the day may come when it is determined
there never was a Big Bang and cosmologists of
the future will only gaze back in wonder at how
anyone could have believed in a creation event
which was refuted by so much contradictory
evidence."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-US-scientists-question-Big-Bang-theory/articleshow/5761894.cms
Books
Here are some suggested titles for our members’
book list. Thank you.
-
Author: Avtar Singh, Sc. D. The Hidden
Factor: An Approach for Resolving
Paradoxes of Science, Cosmology and
Universal Reality (AuthorHouse, 2003).
-
Author: Bernard R. Bligh
The Big Bang Exploded! Cosmology
Corrected, A Commentary with Thermodynamics
(Self published).
-
Author: John Moffat Redefining Gravity
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061170887
)
-
Authors: J. Narlikar and G. Burbidge
Facts and Speculations in Cosmology
(Cambridge, 2008).
Expansion/Evolution/Nucleosynthesis
“The current total
(core-collapse + Ia) SN rate in the MCs is
2.5-4.6 SNe per millennium (68% c.l. +
systematics), or 1.7-3.1 SNuM [SNe/100
yr/10^{10}Msun], in agreement with the
historical record and with rates measured in
other dwarf irregulars. Conversely, assuming the
SNRs are in free expansion, rather than in their
Sedov phase, would impose on the SNRs a maximum
age of 6 kyr, and would imply a MC SN rate per
unit mass that is 5 times higher than in any
type of galaxy, and a low-mass limit for
core-collapse progenitors in conflict with
stellar evolution theory.”
[475]
arXiv:1003.3031
Title:
The supernova rate and delay times in the
Magellanic Clouds
Authors:
Dan Maoz,
Carles Badenes
“The age of an individual
star cannot be measured, only estimated through
mostly model-dependent or empirical methods, and
no single method works well for a broad range of
stellar types or for a full range in age. This
review presents a summary of the available
techniques for age-dating stars and ensembles of
stars, their realms of applicability, and their
strengths and weaknesses. My emphasis is on
low-mass stars because they are present from all
epochs of star formation in the Galaxy and
because they present both special opportunities
and problems. The ages of open clusters are
important for understanding the limitations of
stellar models and for calibrating empirical age
indicators. For individual stars, a hierarchy of
quality for the available age-dating methods is
described. Although our present ability to
determine the ages of even the nearest stars is
mediocre, the next few years hold great promise
as asteroseismology probes beyond stellar
surfaces and starts to provide precise interior
properties of stars and as models continue to
improve when stressed by better observations.”
[961]
arXiv:1003.6074
Title:
The Ages of Stars
Authors:
David R. Soderblom
Black Holes
“In
this chapter I focus on asking and answering the
following questions: (1) What is a black hole?
Answer: There are three types of black holes,
namely mathematical black holes, physical black
holes and astrophysical black holes. An
astrophysical black hole, with mass distributed
within its event horizon but not concentrated at
the singularity point, is not a mathematical
black hole. (2) Can astrophysical black holes be
formed in the physical universe? Answer: Yes, at
least this can be done with gravitational
collapse. (3) How can we prove that what we call
astrophysical black holes are really black
holes? Answer: Finding direct evidence of event
horizon is not the way to go. Instead I propose
five criteria which meet the highest standard
for recognizing new discoveries in experimental
physics and observational astronomy. (4) Do we
have sufficient evidence to claim the existence
of astrophysical black holes in the physical
universe? Answer: Yes, astrophysical black holes
have been found at least in some galactic binary
systems, at the center of almost every galaxy,
and as the central engines of at least some long
gamma-ray bursts. (5) Will all matter in the
universe eventually fall into black holes?
Answer: Probably "no", because "naked" compact
objects, if they do exist with radii smaller
than the radii of event horizons for their
masses but are not enclosed by event horizons,
can rescue the universe from an eternal death by
re-cycling out the matter previously accreted
into astrophysical black holes. Finally I also
discuss briefly if we need a quantum theory of
gravity in order to further understand
astrophysical black holes, and what further
astronomical observations and telescopes are
needed to make further progress on our
understanding of astrophysical black holes.”
[46]
arXiv:1003.0291
Title:
Astrophysical Black Holes in the Physical
Universe
Authors:
Shuang-Nan Zhang
“The theory
of black holes states that without the energy
set free by nuclear fusion, the gravity of a big
star will always be stronger than all other
forces, causing it to collapse and ending in a
singularity. During such a collapse, however,
gravity itself should free enough binding energy
to ultimately prevent the star from collapsing
to a state where its escape velocity reaches the
speed of light.”
[158]
viXra:1003.0176
[pdf]
submitted on 15 Mar 2010
Title: Gravitational Limits
Authors:
Willi Penker
Aether
“I will examine the reaction
of the Michelson interferometer, which has as
light's carrier of orthogonal beams various
media with refractive indices in the interval of
values 1 < n < 1.8. In the article [Phys.Lett.A
374 (2010) 1110] I reported on the measuring the
projection (on the plane of the horizon) of the
absolute velocity of the Earth relative to the
aether at a latitude of Obninsk at different
times of day and night that was found to be
significantly distinct from zero and change in
the range 140-480 km/sec.”
[212] gen-phys
arXiv:1003.2899
Title:
What and how does a Michelson interferometer
measure?
Authors:
V.V. Demjanov
Dark Matter/Dark Energy
“The universe has evolved to
be a filamentary web of galaxies and large
inter-galactic zones of space without matter.
The Euclidian nature of the universe indicates
that it is not a 3D manifold within space with
an extra spatial dimension. This justifies our
assumption that the FRW space-time evolves in
the inter-galactic zones like separate FRW
universes. Thus we do not necessarily have to
consider the entirety of the universe. Our
assumption enables us to prove that: -In the
current epoch, space in the intergalactic zones
expands at a constant rate. -In and around
galaxies, space expansion is inhibited. With
these results, and an extended Gauss Theorem for
a deformed space, we show that there is no need
for the hypothetical Dark Energy (DE) and Dark
Matter (DM) to explain phenomena attributed to
them.”
[824]
arXiv:1003.5092
Title: A Universe without Dark
Energy and Dark Matter
Authors:
Shlomo
Barak,
Elia
M. Leibowitz
Redshift
“It is proposed that there has been a
longstanding misunderstanding of the
relationship between scale factor of the
universe and redshift. It is shown how value of
omega(matter) of one quarter of the true value,
(hence the apparent dark energy phenomenon) can
result from such a misconception. Predictions
for the magnitudes of supernovae against
redshift are made and found to be in good
agreement with supernovae data, without dark
energy.”
[165]
viXra:1003.0222
Title: On the Scale Factor of the Universe and
Redshift.
Authors:
John Hunter
The authors of this study have found systematic
biases in redshifts in the SDSS catalogue of
~600km sec-1 over small and large
redshift intervals. Researchers using SDSS data
are advised to take note of this.
[470] http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.3017
Title: Improved redshifts for SDSS quasar
spectra
Authors:
Paul C. Hewett
,
Vivienne Wild
“This work summarises some of
the attempts to explain the phenomenon of dark
energy as an effective description of complex
gravitational physics and the proper
interpretation of observations. Cosmological
backreaction has been shown to be relevant for
observational (precision) cosmology,
nevertheless no convincing explanation of dark
energy by means of backreaction has been given
so far.”
[473]
arXiv:1003.3026
Title:
Cosmological backreaction
Authors:
Dominik J. Schwarz
CMBR anomalies
“Several anomalies appear to
be present in the large-angle cosmic microwave
background (CMB) anisotropy maps of WMAP,
including the alignment of large-scale
multipoles and a hemispheric asymmetry. Models
in which isotropy is spontaneously broken (e.g.,
by a scalar field) have been proposed as
explanations for these anomalies, as have models
in which a preferred direction is imposed during
inflation. We examine models inspired by these,
in which isotropy is broken by a multiplicative
factor with dipole and/or quadrupole terms. We
evaluate the evidence provided by these
anomalies using a Bayesian framework, finding
that the evidence in favor of the model is
generally weak. We also compute approximate
changes in estimated cosmological parameters in
the broken-isotropy models. Only the overall
normalization of the power spectrum is modified
significantly.”
[876]
arXiv:1003.5548
Title:
Cosmic microwave background constraints on
cosmological models with large-scale isotropy
breaking
Authors:
Haoxuan Zheng,
Emory F. Bunn
Electricity?
Comets have over the last two
decades or so provided useful fields of
investigation into possible electrical effects
in astrophysical objects, particular with
regards to their abrupt and repeated fissioning.
Comet Holmes is a recent example.
[690]
arXiv:1003.4308
Title:
Transient Fragments in Outbursting Comet
17P/Holmes
Authors:
Rachel Stevenson,
Jan Kleyna,
David Jewitt
Titles of the month
[520] gen-phys
arXiv:1003.2688
Title:
WARNING: Physics Envy May Be Hazardous To Your
Wealth!
Authors:
Andrew W. Lo,
Mark T. Mueller
Do the authors hereby propose that the “Fractal
Structure Filaments” are somehow progenitor
objects, and therefore distinct from the
Universe?
[354] gen-phys
arXiv:1003.5016
Title:
Birth of Universe following Rupture of Fractal
Structure Filaments
Authors:
Valentin A. Rantsev-Kartinov,
Christian G. Parigger
“We study a model of opinion
formation where the opinions in conflict are not
equivalent. This is the case when the subject of
the decision is to respect a norm or a law. In
such scenarios, one of the possible behaviors is
to abide by the norm and the other to ignore it.
The evolution of the dynamics is implemented
through an imitation mechanism, in which agents
can change their opinions based on the opinions
of a set of partners and their own state. We
determine, for different social situations, the
minimum percentage of supporters of the law
necessary to arrive at a state of consensus of
law abiders.”
[370]
arXiv:1003.5166
Title:
Do the right thing
Authors:
M.F. Laguna,
G. Abramson,
S. Risau-Gusman,
J.R. Iglesias
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