arXiv subjects

Tiberiu Harko

Publications and source records attributed to Tiberiu Harko.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Cosmology with higher-derivative matter fields

We investigate the cosmological implications of a new class of modified gravity, where the field equations generically include higher-order derivatives of the matter fields, arising from the introduction of non-dynamical auxiliary fields in the action. Imposing a flat, homogeneous and isotropic geometry we extract the Friedmann equations, obtaining an effective dark-energy sector containing higher derivatives of the matter energy density and pressure. For the cases of dust, radiation, and stiff matter we analyze the cosmological behavior, finding accelerating, de Sitter, and non-accelerating phases, dominated by matter or dark energy. Additionally, the effective dark-energy equation-of-state parameter can be quintessence-like, cosmological-constant-like, or even phantom-like. The detailed study of these scenarios may provide signatures that could distinguish them from other candidates of modified gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Perturbative Instability of Cosmology from Quantum Potential

Apart from its debatable correctness, we examine the perturbative stability of the recently proposed cosmology from quantum potential. We find that the proposed quantum corrections invoke additional parameters which apparently introduce perturbative instability to the Universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Electromagnetic radiation of charged particles in stochastic motion

The study of the Brownian motion of a charged particle in electric and magnetic fields fields has many important applications in plasma and heavy ions physics, as well as in astrophysics. In the present paper we consider the electromagnetic radiation properties of a charged non-relativistic particle in the presence of electric and magnetic fields, of an exterior non-electromagnetic potential, and of a friction and stochastic force, respectively. We describe the motion of the charged particle by a Langevin and generalized Langevin type stochastic differential equation. We investigate in detail the cases of the Brownian motion with or without memory in a constant electric field, in the presence of an external harmonic potential, and of a constant magnetic field. In all cases the corresponding Langevin equations are solved numerically, and a full description of the spectrum of the emitted radiation and of the physical properties of the motion is obtained. The Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the emitted power is also obtained for each case, and, for all considered oscillating systems, it shows the presence of peaks, corresponding to certain intervals of the frequency.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Cosmological constraints on superconducting dark energy models

We consider cosmological tests of a scalar-vector-tensor gravitational model, in which the dark energy is included in the total action through a gauge invariant, electromagnetic type contribution. The ground state of dark energy, corresponding to a constant potential $V$ is a Bose-Einstein type condensate with spontaneously broken U(1) symmetry. In another words dark energy appears as a massive vector field emerging from a superposition of a massless vector and a scalar field, the latter corresponding to the Goldstone boson. Two particular cosmological models, corresponding to pure electric and pure magnetic type potentials, respectively are confronted with Type IA Supernovae and Hubble parameter data. In the electric case good fit is obtained along a narrow inclined stripe in the $Ω_{m}-Ω_{V}\,$ parameter plane, which includes the $Λ$CDM limit as the best fit. The other points on this admissible region represent superconducting dark energy as a sum of a cosmological constant and a time-evolving contribution. In the magnetic case the cosmological test selects either i) parameter ranges of the superconducting dark energy allowing for the standard baryonic plus dark matter or ii) a unified superconducting dark matter and dark energy model, additionally including only the baryonic sector.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Kosambi-Cartan-Chern (KCC) theory for higher order dynamical systems

The Kosambi-Cartan-Chern (KCC) theory represents a powerful mathematical method for the investigation of the properties of dynamical systems. The KCC theory introduces a geometric description of the time evolution of a dynamical system, with the solution curves of the dynamical system described by methods inspired by the theory of geodesics in a Finsler spaces. The evolution of a dynamical system is geometrized by introducing a non-linear connection, which allows the construction of the KCC covariant derivative, and of the deviation curvature tensor. In the KCC theory the properties of any dynamical system are described in terms of five geometrical invariants, with the second one giving the Jacobi stability of the system. Usually, the KCC theory is formulated by reducing the dynamical evolution equations to a set of second order differential equations. In the present paper we introduce and develop the KCC approach for dynamical systems described by systems of arbitrary $n$-dimensional first order differential equations. We investigate in detail the properties of the $n$-dimensional autonomous dynamical systems, as well as the relationship between the linear stability and the Jacobi stability. As a main result we find that only even-dimensional dynamical systems can exhibit both Jacobi stability and instability behaviors, while odd-dimensional dynamical systems are always Jacobi unstable, no matter their Lyapunov stability. As applications of the developed formalism we consider the geometrization and the study of the Jacobi stability of the complex dynamical networks, and of the $Λ$-Cold Dark Matter cosmological models, respectively.

math.DG↗

arXiv2015

Testing the Bose-Einstein Condensate dark matter model at galactic cluster scale

The possibility that dark matter may be in the form of a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) has been extensively explored at galactic scale. In particular, good fits for the galactic rotations curves have been obtained, and upper limits for the dark matter particle mass and scattering length have been estimated. In the present paper we extend the investigation of the properties of the BEC dark matter to the galactic cluster scale, involving dark matter dominated astrophysical systems formed of thousands of galaxies each. By considering that one of the major components of a galactic cluster, the intra-cluster hot gas, is described by King's $β$-model, and that both intra-cluster gas and dark matter are in hydrostatic equilibrium, bound by the same total mass profile, we derive the mass and density profiles of the BEC dark matter. In our analysis we consider several theoretical models, corresponding to isothermal hot gas and zero temperature BEC dark matter, non-isothermal gas and zero temperature dark matter, and isothermal gas and finite temperature BEC, respectively. The properties of the finite temperature BEC dark matter cluster are investigated in detail numerically. We compare our theoretical results with the observational data of 106 galactic clusters. Using a least-squares fitting, as well as the observational results for the dark matter self-interaction cross section, we obtain some upper bounds for the mass and scattering length of the dark matter particle. Our results suggest that the mass of the dark matter particle is of the order of $μ$eV, while the scattering length has values in the range of $10^{-7}$ fm.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Bose-Einstein condensate strings

We consider the possible existence of gravitationally bound general relativistic strings consisting of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) matter which is described, in the Newtonian limit, by the zero temperature time-dependent nonlinear Schrödinger equation (the Gross-Pitaevskii equation), with repulsive interparticle interactions. In the Madelung representation of the wave function, the quantum dynamics of the condensate can be formulated in terms of the classical continuity equation and the hydrodynamic Euler equations. In the case of a condensate with quartic nonlinearity, the condensates can be described as a gas with two pressure terms, the interaction pressure, which is proportional to the square of the matter density, and the quantum pressure, which is without any classical analogue though, when the number of particles in the system is high enough, the latter may be neglected. Assuming cylindrical symmetry, we analyze the physical properties of the BEC strings in both the interaction pressure and quantum pressure dominated limits, by numerically integrating the gravitational field equations. In this way we obtain a large class of stable stringlike astrophysical objects, whose basic parameters (mass density and radius) depend sensitively on the mass and scattering length of the condensate particle, as well as on the quantum pressure of the Bose-Einstein gas.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Cosmic strings in $f\left(R,L_m\right)$ gravity

We consider Kasner-type static, cylindrically symmetric interior string solutions in the $f\left(R,L_m\right)$ theory of modified gravity. The physical properties of the string are described by an anisotropic energy-momentum tensor satisfying the condition $T_t^t=T_z^z$; that is, the energy density of the string along the $z$-axis is equal to minus the string tension. As a first step in our study we obtain the gravitational field equations in the $f\left(R,L_m\right)$ theory for a general static, cylindrically symmetric metric, and then for a Kasner-type metric, in which the metric tensor components have a power law dependence on the radial coordinate $r$. String solutions in two particular modified gravity models are investigated in detail. The first is the so-called "exponential" modified gravity, in which the gravitational action is proportional to the exponential of the sum of the Ricci scalar and matter Lagrangian, and the second is the "self-consistent model", obtained by explicitly determining the gravitational action from the field equations under the assumption of a power law dependent matter Lagrangian. In each case, the thermodynamic parameters of the string, as well as the precise form of the matter Lagrangian, are explicitly obtained.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Null fluid collapse in brane world models

The brane world description of our universe entails a large extra dimension and a fundamental scale of gravity that may be lower than the Planck scale by several orders of magnitude. An interesting consequence of this scenario occurs in the nature of spherically-symmetric vacuum solutions to the brane gravitational field equations, which often have properties quite distinct from the standard black hole solutions of general relativity. In this paper, the spherically-symmetric collapse on the brane world of four types of null fluid, governed by the barotropic, polytropic, strange quark "bag" model and Hagedorn equations of state, is investigated. In each case, we solve the approximate gravitational field equations, obtained in the high density limit, determine the equation which governs the formation of apparent horizons and investigate the conditions for the formation of naked singularities. Though, naively, one would expect the increased effective energy density on the brane to favor the formation of black holes over naked singularities, we find that, for the types of fluid considered, this is not the case. However, the black hole solutions differ substantially from their general-relativistic counterparts and brane world corrections often play a role analogous to charge in general relativity. As a possible astrophysical application of this work, the possibility that energy emission from a Hagedorn fluid collapsing to form a naked singularity may be a source of GRBs in the brane world is also considered.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

The minimum mass of a spherically symmetric object in $D$-dimensions, and its implications for the mass hierarchy problem

The existence of both a minimum mass and a minimum density in nature, in the presence of a positive cosmological constant, is one of the most intriguing results in classical general relativity. These results follow rigorously from the Buchdahl inequalities in four dimensional de Sitter space. In this work, we obtain the generalized Buchdahl inequalities in arbitrary space-time dimensions with $Λ\neq 0$ and consider both the de Sitter and anti-de Sitter cases. The dependence on $D$, the number of space-time dimensions, of the minimum and maximum masses for stable spherical objects is explicitly obtained. The analysis is then extended to the case of dark energy satisfying an arbitrary linear barotropic equation of state. The Jeans instability of barotropic dark energy is also investigated, for arbitrary $D$, in the framework of a simple Newtonian model with and without viscous dissipation, and we determine the dispersion relation describing the dark energy$-$matter condensation process, along with estimates of the corresponding Jeans mass (and radius). Finally, the quantum mechanical implications of mass limits are investigated, and we show that the existence of a minimum mass scale naturally leads to a model in which dark energy is composed of a `sea' of quantum particles, each with an effective mass proportional to $Λ^{1/4}$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

A new perspective on the Kosambi-Cartan-Chern theory, and its applications

A powerful mathematical method for the investigation of the properties of dynamical systems is represented by the Kosambi-Cartan-Chern (KCC) theory. In this approach the time evolution of a dynamical system is described in geometric terms, treating the solution curves of a dynamical system by geometrical methods inspired by the geodesics theory of Finsler spaces. In order to geometrize the dynamical evolution one introduces a non-linear and a Berwald type connection, respectively, and thus the properties of any dynamical system are described in terms of five geometrical invariants, with the second one giving the Jacobi stability of the system. The Jacobi (in)stability is a natural generalization of the (in)stability of the geodesic flow on a differentiable manifold endowed with a metric (Riemannian or Finslerian) to the {\it non-metric} setting. Usually, the KCC theory is formulated by reducing the dynamical evolution equations to a set of second order differential equations. In this paper we present an alternative view on the KCC theory, in which the theory is applied to a first order dynamical system. After introducing the general framework of the KCC theory, we investigate in detail the properties of the two dimensional autonomous dynamical systems. The relationship between the linear stability and the Jacobi stability is also established. As a physical application of the formalism we consider the geometrization of Hamiltonian systems with one degree of freedom, and their stability properties.

math.DG↗

arXiv2015

Gravitational, lensing, and stability properties of Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter halos

The possibility that dark matter, whose existence is inferred from the study of the galactic rotation curves, and from the mass deficit in galaxy clusters, can be in a form of a Bose-Einstein Condensate, has been extensively investigated lately. In the present work, we consider a detailed analysis of the astrophysical properties of the Bose-Einstein Condensate dark matter halos that could provide clear observational signatures that help discriminate between different dark matter models. In the Bose-Einstein condensation model dark matter can be described as a non-relativistic, gravitationally confined Newtonian gas, whose density and pressure are related by a polytropic equation of state with index $n=1$. The mass and gravitational properties of the condensate halos are obtained in a systematic form, including the mean logarithmic slopes of the density and of the tangential velocity. The lensing properties of the condensate dark matter are investigated in detail. In particular, a general analytical formula for the surface density, an important quantity that defines the lensing properties of a dark matter halos, is obtained in the form of series expansions. This enables arbitrary-precision calculations of the surface mass density, deflection angle, deflection potential, and of the magnification factor, thus giving the possibility of the comparison of the predicted lensing properties of the condensate dark matter halos with observations. The stability properties of the condensate halos are also investigated by using the scalar and the tensor virial theorems, respectively, and the virial perturbation equation for condensate dark matter halos is derived.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Hybrid metric-Palatini gravity

Recently, the phenomenology of f(R) gravity has been scrutinized motivated by the possibility to account for the self-accelerated cosmic expansion without invoking dark energy sources. Besides, this kind of modified gravity is capable of addressing the dynamics of several self-gravitating systems alternatively to the presence of dark matter. It has been established that both metric and Palatini versions of these theories have interesting features but also manifest severe and different downsides. A hybrid combination of theories, containing elements from both these two formalisms, turns out to be also very successful accounting for the observed phenomenology and is able to avoid some drawbacks of the original approaches. This article reviews the formulation of this hybrid metric-Palatini approach and its main achievements in passing the local tests and in applications to astrophysical and cosmological scenarios, where it provides a unified approach to the problems of dark energy and dark matter.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Irreversible matter creation processes through a nonminimal curvature-matter coupling

An interesting cosmological history was proposed by Prigogine {\it et al.} who considered the Universe as a thermodynamically open system. This scenario is characterized by a process of matter creation, which corresponds to an irreversible energy flow from the gravitational field to the pressureless matter fluid. Here, we show that the gravitationally induced particle production may arise from a nonminimal curvature-matter coupling. By considering the equivalent scalar-tensor theory, the cosmological implications of the model are discussed. As all known natural systems tend to a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, and assuming the universe is not different in this respect, we also discuss the conditions to attain the equilibrium state.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Gravitational induced particle production through a nonminimal curvature-matter coupling

We consider the possibility of a gravitationally induced particle production through the mechanism of a nonminimal curvature-matter coupling. An interesting feature of this gravitational theory is that the divergence of the energy-momentum tensor is nonzero. As a first step in our study we reformulate the model in terms of an equivalent scalar-tensor theory, with two arbitrary potentials. By using the formalism of open thermodynamic systems, we interpret the energy balance equations in this gravitational theory from a thermodynamic point of view, as describing irreversible matter creation processes. The particle number creation rates, the creation pressure, and the entropy production rates are explicitly obtained as functions of the scalar field and its potentials, as well as of the matter Lagrangian. The temperature evolution laws of the newly created particles are also obtained. The cosmological implications of the model are briefly investigated, and it is shown that the late-time cosmic acceleration may be due to particle creation processes. Furthermore, it is also shown that due to the curvature--matter coupling, during the cosmological evolution a large amount of comoving entropy is also produced.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Self Organized Criticality in a two dimensional Cellular Automaton model of a magnetic flux tube with background flow

We investigate the transition to Self Organized Criticality in a two-dimensional model of a flux tube with a background flow. The magnetic induction equation, represented by a partial differential equation with a stochastic source term, is discretized and implemented on a two dimensional cellular automaton. The energy released by the automaton during one relaxation event is the magnetic energy. As a result of the simulations we obtain the time evolution of the energy release, of the system control parameter, of the event lifetime distribution and of the event size distribution, respectively, and we establish that a Self Organized Critical state is indeed reached by the system. Moreover, energetic initial impulses in the magnetohydrodynamic flow can lead to one dimensional signatures in the magnetic two dimensional system, once the Self Organized Critical regime is established. The applications of the model for the study of Gamma Ray Bursts is briefly considered, and it is shown that some astrophysical parameters of the bursts, like the light curves, the maximum released energy, and the number of peaks in the light curve can be reproduced and explained, at least on a qualitative level, by working in a framework in which the systems settles in a Self Organized Critical state via magnetic reconnection processes in the magnetized Gamma Ray Burst fireball.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Exact solutions of the Liénard and generalized Liénard type ordinary non-linear differential equations obtained by deforming the phase space coordinates of the linear harmonic oscillator

We investigate the connection between the linear harmonic oscillator equation and some classes of second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations of Liénard and generalized Liénard type, which physically describe important oscillator systems. By using a method inspired by quantum mechanics, and which consist on the deformation of the phase space coordinates of the harmonic oscillator, we generalize the equation of motion of the classical linear harmonic oscillator to several classes of strongly non-linear differential equations. The first integrals, and a number of exact solutions of the corresponding equations are explicitly obtained. The devised method can be further generalized to derive explicit general solutions of nonlinear second order differential equations unrelated to the harmonic oscillator. Applications of the obtained results for the study of the travelling wave solutions of the reaction-convection-diffusion equations, and of the large amplitude free vibrations of a uniform cantilever beam are also presented.

math-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cosmology of a Lorentz violating Galileon theory

We modify the scalar Einstein-aether theory by breaking the Lorentz invariance of a gravitational theory coupled to a Galileon type scalar field. This is done by introducing a Lagrange multiplier term into the action, thus ensuring that the gradient of the scalar field is time-like, with unit norm. The theory can also be considered as an extension to the mimetic dark matter theory, by adding some derivative self interactions to the action, which keeps the equation of motion at most second order in time derivatives. The cosmological implications of the model are discussed in detail. In particular, for pressure-less baryonic matter, we show that the universe experiences a late time acceleration. The cosmological implications of a special coupling between the scalar field and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor are also explored.

gr-qc↗