文章与日志

在宇宙空间,碟子状结构是最常见的力学结构,大约1半的恒星都位于碟子状螺旋星系当中,而象太阳系这样有行星的碟子状恒星结构,也越来越有迹象表明是普遍存在的.另外碟子的构型也出现在很多其他地方,如白矮星和黑洞,因此碟子一定引力的常见力学结果.

用红外眼睛朝银河系中心望去:

CREDIT: IPAC/CALTECH/2MASS/NASA

如果有可能在远处俯视银河这个大盘子:

CREDIT: CHRIS BUTLER
宇宙可见结构的演化,最主要的研究方法是计算机模拟.

Cosmological Parameters from Eigenmode Analysis of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Galaxy Redshifts

原文

We present estimates of cosmological parameters from the application of the Karhunen-Loève transform to the analysis of the 3D power spectrum of density fluctuations using Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy redshifts. We use mh and fb = b/m to describe the shape of the power spectrum, 8gL" align="middle"> for the (linearly extrapolated) normalization, and to parametrize linear theory redshift space distortions. On scales k 0.16hMpc–1, our maximum likelihood values are mh = 0.264 ± 0.043, fb = 0.286 ± 0.065, 8gL" align="middle"> = 0.966 ± 0.048, and = 0.45 ± 0.12. When we take a prior on b from WMAP, we find mh = 0.207 ± 0.030, which is in excellent agreement with WMAP and 2dF. This indicates that we have reasonably measured the gross shape of the power spectrum but we have difficulty breaking the degeneracy between mh and fb because the baryon oscillations are not resolved in the current spectroscopic survey window function. ©2004 American Institute of Physics

Brane Inflation: From Superstring to Cosmic Strings

S.-H. Henry Tye
Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

Brane inflation, where branes move towards each other in the brane world, has been shown to be quite natural in superstring theory. Inflation ends when branes collide and heat the universe, initiating the hot big bang. Cosmic strings (but not domain walls or monopoles) are copiously produced during the brane collision. Using the COBE data on the temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background, the cosmic string tension µ is estimated to be around 10 –6 > Gµ > 10–11, while the present observational bound is 7 × 10 –7 > Gµ. This implies that the anisotropy that seeds structure formation comes mostly from inflation, but with a small component (< 10%) from cosmic string effects. This cosmic string effect should be testable in the near future via gravitational lensing, the cosmic microwave background radiation, and/or gravitational wave detectors like LIGO II/VIRGO. ©2004 American Institute of Physics