This is the first newsletter of the post-CCC2 epoch, and was consequently delayed while we attended to the conference. We have had our hands full over the past several months! During this time, it seems that an increasing proportion of published papers in astrophysics is resorting to the terms “anomalous”, “peculiar”, “puzzling”, “problem”, and “difficult to explain in terms of the model”. It is also pleasing to see that some CCC2 papers have already appeared on arXiv.
 

Redshift

Reference to redshift is ubiquitous in astrophysical publications, either as a distance indicator or measure of velocity, or both. CCC2 participant John Hartnett uses Fourier analysis of galaxy redshifts from large surveys to reveal an onion skin-like periodicity in number counts. This is a novel view of redshift quantisation. Navia, Augusto, and Tsui created a Hubble diagram of QSOs, AGN, and GRBs which reveals spectral variability that erodes their usefulness as standard candles.

Title: Galaxy redshift abundance periodicity from Fourier analysis of number counts  N(z) using SDSS and 2dF galaxy surveys.
Authors: John. G. Hartnett, Koichi Hirano.
Astro-ph/0711.4885

Title:  The Hubble diagram of high redshift objects, QSOs and AGNs.
Authors: C. E. Navia, C. R. A. Augusto, K. H. Tsui.
Astro-ph/0807.0590

Nucleosynthesis

Lithium remains the Achilles’ heel of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The June newsletter referenced papers by Burbidge, and by Frebel et al. Here we mention two more, selected examples of numerous studies indicating failure of the Big Bang evolutionary scheme. Cyburt et al report a “significant discrepancy between the primordial 7Li abundance as predicted by BBN theory and the WMAP baryon density, and the pre-Galactic lithium abundance inferred from the observation of metal-poor stars.”

Title: The Puzzling origin of the 6Li plateau.
Authors: Carmelo Evoli, Stefania Salvadori, and Andrea Ferrara.
Astro-ph/0806.4184

Title: A Bitter Pill: The Primordial Lithium problem.
Authors: Richard H. Cyburt, Brian D. Fields, and Keith A. Olive.
Astro-ph/0808.2818

Expansion

At the very heart of the Standard Model of Cosmology is the notion of expansion. Andre Assis presented a paper at CCC2 illustrating Edwin Hubble’s own scepticism about universal expansion and whether his own measurements supported the idea. Cosmic fractals pioneer Yurij Baryshev focuses on the physics (or lack thereof) of expanding space, pointing out the conceptual problems that arise with the suggestion that vacuum is continuously created. Here he develops the theme he presented at CCC1.

Title: Hubble’s Cosmology: From a Finite Expanding Universe to a Static Endless Universe.
Authors: A.K.T. Assis, M.C.D. Neves, and D.S.L. Soares.
Astro-ph/0806.4481

Title: Expanding Space: The Root of Conceptual problems of the Cosmological Physics.
Authors: Yu. V. Baryshev.
Astro-ph/0810.0153

Quasars

QSOs have proven to be enigmatic from their discovery over 40 years ago. Two recent studies examine QSO HI absorption along line-of-sight, comparing foreground and background (Kirkman & Tytler), and the time scale of QSO size evolution (L. Fan et al) respectively.

Title: The transverse proximity effect in the z~2 Lyman-alpha forest suggest QSO episodic lifetimes of ~1 Myr.
Authors: David Kirkman and David Tytler.
Astro-ph/0809.2277

Title: The dramatic size evolution of elliptical galaxies and the quasar feedback.
Authors: L. Fan, A. Lapi, G. De Zotti, and L. Danese.
Astro-ph/0809.4574

Microwave Background

Analyses of the WMAP data continue to pour in with the release of WMAP5.  Many are finding anomalous results. Whilst sitting fog-bound at Port Angeles airport after CCC2, John Hartnett raised the very interesting point that conventional analysis holds that the radiation picture is frozen in time. If therefore, analysts could access the year-by-year WMAP data separately (data are currently released cumulatively), a telling comparison between data sets at different times could be made. According to the Standard Model, there should be no differences. In these three examples, peculiarities are found in the lack of large-angle correlations (Copi et al), distortions in the WMAP maps (Liu and Li), and spatial topology (Gurzadyan et al).

Title: No large-angle correlations on the non-Galactic microwave sky.
Authors: Craig J. Copi, Dragan Huterer, Dominik J. Schwarz, and Glenn D. Starkman.
Astro-ph/0809.3767

Title: Statistical and systematical errors in cosmic microwave background maps.
Authors: Hao Liu and Ti-Pei Li.
Astro-ph/0809.4493

Title: Large Scale Plane-Mirroring in the Cosmic Microwave Background WMAP5 Maps.

Authors: V.G. Gurzadyan, A.A. Starobinsky,  T. Ghahramanyan, A.L. Kashin, H. Khachatryan, H. Kuloghliyan, D. Vetrugno, and G. Yegorian.
Astro-ph/0807.3652

Large structure

The observed presence of large-scale structure is an embarrassment to the LCDM model, which relies on the Cosmological Principle for uniform expansion. Several studies have revealed additional features of large or supposedly distant structures that defy standard interpretations. Data from the GOODS NICMOS survey (Buitrago et al) show a diminishing of size-evolution above z = 2, and the high densities of massive galaxies at z = 3 makes evolution unlikely beyond that point. Another study (Damjanov et al) supports this more specifically, with around one third of massive red objects (“Red Nuggets”) being extraordinarily compact. A new Kormendy Relation (stellar mass density vs. size) is introduced which isolates size evolution from luminosity and colour evolution. These results fit very well with Arp’s intrinsic redshift, quasar ejection model.  Three further studies, including Yurij Baryshev’s collaboration with N.V. Nabokov, are included in this list that investigate the implications of structure, evolution, and velocities.

Title: Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging.
Authors: Fernando Buitrago et al.
Astro-ph/0807.4141

Title: Red Nuggets at z~1.5: Compact passive galaxies and the formation of the Kormendy relation.
Authors: Ivana Damjanov et al..
Astro-ph/0807.1744

Title: Recent Structural Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies: Size Growth from z = 1 to z = 0.
Authors: Arjen van der Wel et al.
Astro-ph/0808.0077

Title: A search for super-large structures in deep galaxy surveys.
Authors: N.V. Nabokov and Yu. V. Baryshev.
Astro-ph/0809.2390

Title: A measurement of large-scale peculiar velocities of clusters of galaxies: results and cosmological implications.
Authors: A. Kashlinsky, F. Atrio-Barandela, D. Kocevski, and H. Ebeling.
Astro-ph/0809.3734