arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to V. Faraoni.
A class of Kaluza-Klein cosmologies recently proposed is compared with observations of the cosmic microwave background. Some models are ruled out, while others turn out to be viable, with the number of extra dimensions being constrained by the COBE and Tenerife experiments.
We explore the possibility of describing our universe with a singularity--free, closed, spatially homogeneous and isotropic cosmological model, using only general relativity and a suitable equation of state which produces an inflationary era. A phase transition to a radiation--dominated era occurs as a consequence of boundary conditions expressing the assumption that the temperature cannot exceed the Planck value. We find that over a broad range of initial conditions, the predicted value of the Hubble parameter is approximately $47$ km$\cdot$~s$^{-1}\cdot$~Mpc$^{-1}$. Inflation is driven by a scalar field, which must be conformally coupled to the curvature if the Einstein equivalence principle has to be satisfied. The form of the scalar field potential is derived, instead of being assumed a priori.
A laser interferometric detector of gravitational waves is studied and a complete solution (to first order in the metric perturbation) of the coupled Einstein-Maxwell equations with appropriate boundary conditions for the light beams is determined. The phase shift, the light deflection and the rotation of the polarization axis induced by gravitational waves are computed. The results are compared with previous literature, and are shown to hold also for detectors which are large in comparison with the gravitational wavelength.