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Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 14:00 in P8445B
Ali Narimani (UBC)
Dimensionless cosmology
Although it is possible that some fundamental physical constants could vary in time, it is important to only consider dimensionless combinations, such as the fine structure constant or the equivalent coupling constant for gravity. An additional feature of the standard model of cosmology raises an extra complication, namely that the epoch at which we live is a crucial part of the model. This can be defined by giving the value of any one of the evolving cosmological parameters. It takes some care to avoid inconsistent results for constraints on variable constants, which could be caused by effectively fixing more than one parameter today. In this talk I will describe a dimensionless approach to astrophysics and cosmology through the calculations of the mass of a star, Big Bang Neucleosynthesis, and the Cosmic Microwave Background. I will also go through some examples in the literature that are either wrong or incomplete due to being dimensional or overly constraining the cosmological epoch.
Seminars in 2011:
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Modified by Andrei Frolov <frolov@sfu.ca> on 2023-11-01