For the first time, measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) alone favor cosmologies with w = -1 dark energy over models without dark energy at a 3.2-sigma level. We demonstrate this by combining the CMB lensing deflection power spectrum from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope with temperature and polarization power spectra from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The ...

In this paper, we extend previous work on the absorption of high energy γ-rays in intergalactic space by calculating the absorption of 10 to 500 GeV γ-rays at high redshifts. This calculation requires the determination of the high-redshift evolution of the intergalactic starlight photon field, including its spectral energy distribution out to frequencies beyond the Lyman limit. To estimate this...

Tirthabir Biswas, Anupam Mazumdar, and Arman Shafieloo Department of Physics, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301, USA Department of Physics, Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, United Kingdom Physics Department, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3NP, United Kingdom (Received 13 May 2010; published...

After a short introduction on the predicted cosmic neutrino background in the universe, we review some of the cosmological bounds related to neutrinos. In particular we show how the recent data on the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation from the WMAP satellite, combined with other experimental results, can constrain the radiation content of the universal energy density and...

The most important criteria for a successful inflation are to explain the observed temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation, and exiting inflation in a vacuum where it can excite the Standard Model quarks and leptons required for the success of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In this paper we provide the first ever closed string model of inflation where the inflaton couplin...

We predict luminosity functions and number counts for extragalactic infrared sources at various wavelengths using the framework of our empirically based model. Comparisons of our galaxy count results with existing data indicate that either galaxy luminosity evolution is not much stronger than Q = 3.1, where L ∝ (1+z), or that this evolution does not continue beyond a redshift of 2. However, a d...

Due to time and financial restrictions in an educational laboratory, we are making compromises, using experimental setups in which limitations and uncertainties are important. In these cases we should pay particular attention to the role of different factors that affect our experiment, in order to achieve the best possible educational outcome and to avoid misconceptions. In this paper problems ...

If the large-angular-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation is caused by the long-wavelength cosmological perturbations of quantum mechanical origin, they are, most likely, gravitational waves, rather than density perturbations or rotational perturbations. PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq, 04.30.+x, 42.50.Dv, 98.70.Vc Typeset using REVTEX 1

I give a brief overview of our theoretical understanding of blazars. I highlight currently unresolved problems and show how multiwavelength (X-ray and TeV) observation of TeV emitting blazars like Mkn 501 may be particularly useful in constraining emission models. I also note that intergalactic absorption of TeV gamma-rays is a process that can no longer be ignored by blazars modelers and that ...

1 Servicio de Protección Radiológica, Hospital Universitario La Fe. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Servicio de Dosimetría Biológica, Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (U.A.B.). 3 Departamento de Biología Celular, Fisiología e Inmunología Celular (U.A.B.). 4 Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear, Universidad Politécnica de Va...