Gravitation, the 'Dark Matter' Effect and the Fine Structure Constant
Authors: Reginald T. Cahill (Flinders University)
Comments: 11 pages, 3 eps figures
Subj-class: General PhysicsGravitational anomalies such as the mine/borehole g anomaly, the near-flatness of the spiral galaxy rotation-velocity curves, currently interpreted as a `dark matter' effect, the absence of that effect in ordinary elliptical galaxies, and the ongoing problems in accurately determining Newton's gravitational constant G_N are explained by a generalisation of the Newtonian theory of gravity to a fluid-flow formalism with one new dimensionless constant. By analysing the borehole and spiral galaxy data this constant is shown to be the fine structure constant alpha=1/137. This formalism then also explains the cause of the long-standing uncertainties in G_N and leads to the introduction of a fundamental gravitational constant G not = G_N with value G=(6.6526 +/- 0.013)x 10^-11 m^2s^{-2}kg^{-1}. The occurrence of alpha implies that space has a quantum structure, and we have the first evidence of quantum gravity effects.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0401047
Axion Phantom Energy
Authors: Pedro F. Gonzalez-Diaz (IMAFF, CSIC, Madrid)
Comments: 6 pages, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev. D
Report-no: IMAFF-RCA-03-03The existence of phantom energy in a universe which evolves to eventually show a big rip doomsday is a possibility which is not excluded by present observational constraints. In this letter it is argued that the field theory associated with a simple quintessence model is compatible with a field definition which is interpretable in terms of a rank-three axionic tensor field, whenever we consider a perfect-fluid equation of state that corresponds to the phantom energy regime. Explicit expressions for the axionic field and its potential, both in terms of an imaginary scalar field, are derived which show that these quantities both diverge at the big rip, and that the onset of phantom-energy dominance must take place just at present.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0401082
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