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12 results

  • Appendix 2 - General Relativity
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 420-424
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • Appendix 6 - Mixtures
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 459-460
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • Appendix 3 - Perturbations
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 425-429
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • Appendix 5 - Special Functions
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 454-458
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • Appendix 7 - Statistical Utensils
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 461-467
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • Appendix 4 - Special Functions
  • Ruth Durrer, Université de Genève
  • Book: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Published online: 10 December 2020
  • Print publication: 17 December 2020, pp 430-453
  • View extract

    Summary

    In a series of appendices we give a list of physical constants and conversion factors; we present some mathematical details and the special functions needed in the main text; we derive the Boltzmann equation for a curved universe and we compute the fluctuations of the luminosity distance. We also solve some of the exercises given in the main text.

  • The physical constants as biosignature: an anthropic retrodiction of the Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis
  • James N. Gardner
  • Journal: International Journal of Astrobiology / Volume 3 / Issue 3 / July 2004
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2005, pp. 229-236
  • View abstract

    Goal 7 of the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap states: ‘Determine how to recognize signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. Identify biosignatures that can reveal and characterize past or present life in ancient samples from Earth, extraterrestrial samples measured in situ, samples returned to Earth, remotely measured planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and other cosmic phenomena.’ The cryptic reference to ‘other cosmic phenomena’ would appear to be broad enough to include the possible identification of biosignatures embedded in the dimensionless constants of physics. The existence of such a set of biosignatures – a life-friendly suite of physical constants – is a retrodiction of the Selfish Biocosm (SB) hypothesis. This hypothesis offers an alternative to the weak anthropic explanation of our indisputably life-friendly cosmos favoured by (1) an emerging alliance of M-theory-inspired cosmologists and advocates of eternal inflation like Linde and Weinberg, and (2) supporters of the quantum theory-inspired sum-over-histories cosmological model offered by Hartle and Hawking. According to the SB hypothesis, the laws and constants of physics function as the cosmic equivalent of DNA, guiding a cosmologically extended evolutionary process and providing a blueprint for the replication of new life-friendly progeny universes.