Showing papers by "Rong-Gen Cai published in 2003"

Inflationary attractor from tachyonic matter

Abstract: We study the complete evolution of a flat and homogeneous universe dominated by tachyonic matter. We demonstrate the attractor behavior of tachyonic inflation using the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism. We also obtain analytical approximations for the trajectories of the tachyon field in different regions. The numerical calculation shows that an initial nonvanishing momentum does not prevent the onset of inflation. The slow-rolling solution is an attractor.

Holography in a radiation-dominated universe with a positive cosmological constant

Abstract: We discuss the holographic principle in a radiation-dominated, closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with a positive cosmological constant. By introducing a cosmological D bound on the entropy of matter in the universe, we can write the Friedmann equation governing the evolution of the universe in the form of the Cardy formula. When the cosmological D bound is saturated, the Friedmann equation coincides with the Cardy-Verlinde formula describing the entropy of radiation in the universe. As a concrete model, we consider a brane universe in the background of Schwarzschild-de Sitter black holes. It is found that the cosmological D bound is saturated when the brane crosses the black hole horizon of the background. At that moment, the Friedmann equation coincides with the Cardy-Verlinde formula describing the entropy of radiation matter on the brane.

Holography, the Cosmological Constant and the Upper Limit of the Number of e-foldings

Abstract: If the source of the current accelerating expansion of the universe is a positive cosmological constant, Banks and Fischler argued that there exists an upper limit of the total number of e-foldings of inflation. We further elaborate on the upper limit in the senses of viewing the cosmological horizon as the boundary of a cavity and of the holographic D-bound in a de Sitter space. Assuming a simple evolution model of inflation, we obtain an expression of the upper limit in terms of the cosmological constant, the energy density of inflaton when the inflation starts, the energy density as the inflation ends, and reheating temperature. We discuss how the upper limit is modified in the different evolution models of the universe. The holographic D-bound gives more high upper limit than the entropy threshold in the cavity. For the most extremal case where the initial energy density of inflation is as high as the Planck energy, and the reheating temperature is as low as the energy scale of nucleosynthesis, the D-bound gives the upper limit as 146 and the entropy threshold as 122. For reasonable assumption in the simplest cosmology, the holographic D-bound leads to a value about 85, while the cavity model gives a value around 65 for the upper limit, which is close to the value in order to solve the flatness problem and horizon problem in the hot big bang cosmology.