Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 APS April Meeting
Volume 52, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2007; Jacksonville, Florida
Session Y11: Cosmology II & Galaxy Dynamics |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP Chair: Steve Kahn, Stanford University/Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Room: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront City Terrace 7 |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
Y11.00001: Black Hole Constraints on Varying Fundamental Constants Jane MacGibbon We apply the Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics and derive upper limits on the variation in the fundamental constants. Intriguingly, the maximum variation in the electronic charge permitted by the GSL for black holes accreting and emitting in the present cosmic microwave background matches the variation in the fine structure constant measured by Webb et al. using absorption lines in the spectra of distant quasars. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
Y11.00002: Displaying polarization fields with line integral convolution David Larson The method of line integral convolution, introduced by Cabral and Leedom in 1993, can be very useful for displaying polarization fields. The method creates a texture which is aligned with the direction of the polarization. When using it to view polarization on the sphere, such as with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), this method creates a smooth texture which: represents both magnitude and direction of the polarization field, can be easier to interpret than discrete-lines-on-a-grid, can be correctly projected as easily as CMB temperature data, and can easily be overlayed on CMB temperature data. This method has been implemented as part of the Healpix code. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
Y11.00003: On the dynamical friction effects operating in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy -- Fornax. Ramanath Cowsik, Kasey Wagoner, Amit Sircar The dwarf spheroidal Fornax is a satellite of the Galaxy, and it comprises mostly of population-II stars gravitationally bound together by a dense halo of dark matter; it has several globular clusters, which are broadly distributed within the dwarf spheroidal. Recently Goerdt et al. have reopened the paradoxical question: why is it that the dynamical friction, caused by the dark matter in Fornax, acting on the globular clusters has not caused their orbits to spiral inwards making them coalesce to form a nucleus? We provide a possible resolution to this paradox: as the assumed size of the halo increases, yet maintaining the dark matter density needed to bind the cluster, the dispersion in the velocities of the dark matter particles also increases thereby reducing steeply the magnitude of the dynamical friction, so that for a halo radius larger than $\sim $3kpc the time needed for the globular clusters to spiral in becomes longer than the age of the Universe. These considerations complement earlier efforts based on detailed modeling of spatial distributions and rotational velocities of the visible components of galactic systems. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
Y11.00004: Flatness of the rotation curves of the galaxies; Exit the recourse to a massive halo Michel Mizony The rotation curves of galaxies remain flat to large distances, this fact raises a rather crucial question, and the only explanation is to admit the existence of a massive spherical halo around a galaxy. We show that, within a Newtonian framework, the phenomenon of flatness of the curves is very simply explained without recourse to a possible massive halo. Moreover our method gives also the Einsteinian correction which appears to be non negligible. Our direct method rests on the simulation of a spiral galaxy by a disc of N massive bodies distributed with an axial symmetry. As these bodies follow a given curve of rotation, then the balance of the radial forces between N bodies leads to a set of linear equations (the unknown are the masses of the N bodies) that one reverses and which thus provides the surface density curve. In fact it is an ``inverse method of the N-bodies problem,'' which give results very precise and easy to implement. Our method is a Riemannian approximation of the double integral coming from the method which uses the elliptic integrals; it is thus theoretically equivalent to it and also to the method of the Bessel transform. As this last method is invertible, our method provides a surface density whatever the given curve of rotation, and this without recourse to a massive halo. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
Y11.00005: The South Pole Telescope Kathryn Miknaitis The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a new 10-meter telescope recently deployed at the NSF South Pole Station. The SPT will perform millimeter-wave observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background using a large-format bolometer array. The first goal of the SPT project will be to image 4000 square degrees of sky at arcminute resolution, searching for galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. The evolution of the number density of galaxy clusters is critically sensitive to the value of fundamental cosmological parameters, and offers a poweful method to investigate the nature of dark energy. An update on the SPT project and prospects for cosmology results will be described. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
Y11.00006: Dark Matter Explained: Exploring shadows on the cave wall James Beichler Science has been faced with an unknown in its theories of the universe for more than two decades. The observed reality of CDM in the galactic halos presents a crisis for science because the present paradigms of physics cannot explain its existence. The quantum solution is to assume that some form of esoteric heavy particles, such as WIMPs, MACHOs or supersymmetry particles, will eventually account for Dark Matter. However, their existence has never been verified. Or a modification of Newton's basic laws of motion called MOND has also been proposed. Yet adding a specialized `fudge-factor' to Newton's fundamental laws of motion merely to save appearances seems questionable. The CDM problem affects gravity theory, not the laws of motion. The problem is relativistic in nature and a relativistic solution is easily found with only a slight change of approach, but that change is radical and not without consequences. The addition of a macroscopically extended fourth spatial dimension to our present four-dimensional space-time world structure explains CDM, but this would amount to the acceptance of the reality of a five-dimensional space-time continuum. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
Y11.00007: Discovery that F-L expansion-predicted T$_{CBR}$=0.08 K, not COBE's 2.73 K, disproves the big bang and Cosmological Principle, showing instead the Hubble relation proves a universal Center exists nearby. Robert Gentry Nothing is more relevant as to whether big bang's F-L expansion actually governs the universe than is the wide perception that its CBR temperature prediction closely matches COBE's T$_{CBR}$ = 2.73 K. Thus if it were now discovered this prediction has always been in contradiction to 2.73 K, this would constitute the most effectual disproof of the expansion hypothesis that could be imagined. We now report this discovery. Re-examination of big bang's central spacetime expansion postulate reveals that it predicts a CBR redshift z $>$ 36000 instead of the widely accepted z $\simeq$ 1000. This leads to an expansion-predicted CBR temperature of only T=0.08 K, not COBE's 2.73 K. These results disprove big bang's F-L expanding spacetime paradigm, and show the universe is relativistically governed by Einstein static spacetime GR, not the F-L paradigm. This result overturns all of big bang cosmology, including the Cosmological Principle's explanation of the Hubble relation, showing instead that the spherical symmetry of the Hubble relation is astronomical proof that a universal Center exists nearby. A new Cosmic Center Universe model has been developed using vacuum gravity repulsion to explain the Hubble redshift relation, the CBR, and other big bang predictions. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
Y11.00008: Galactic mass distribution without dark matter or modified Newtonian mechanics Kenneth Nicholson Given the dimensions (including thickness) of a galaxy, and its rotation profile, a method is arranged to find the mass and density distribution in the defined envelope that will cause that rotation profile with near-exact speed matches. Newton's law is unchanged. Surface-light intensity and dark matter are not needed. Results are presented in dimensionless plots allowing easy comparisons of galaxies. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:06PM - 3:18PM |
Y11.00009: Physics of Non-Observables Paul Suh The anomalous nature of dark matter and energy has been a formidably difficult mystery to unravel, and the excruciating efforts over the past several decades to identify and explain them in terms of the time-honored standard theory have completely failed. The Physics of Non-Observables, elaborations of the basic principles of quantum and relativity theories initially published (Int. J. of Theor. Physics) in 1970, identifies the dark matter and energy and shows how the quantum interactions between the dark constituents and their visible counterparts are tangentially free, while leaving them to relate in the gravitational interaction. This paper unveils the possible governing mechanism of the universe, providing predictions that are sweepingly consistent with the recent observational results. The paper is available on request to pksuh@msn.com. [Preview Abstract] |
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