Gravitation and Cosmology
I have investigated problems involving the gravitational force or gravitational potential in a wide range of fundamental matters concerning orbital dynamics, quantum interference, stellar collapse, dark matter, expansion of the universe…and fall of a ladder. Among these researches are
- Satellite-based test for intermediate-range deviations from Newton's law of gravity. Terrestrial tests of departures from the inverse-square law of gravity have usually foundered as a result of uncontrollable effects from local mass distributions. These effects can be greatly reduced in a satellite-based experiment in which predicted variations from Newton's law would be manifested in a small, but measurable, frequency shift of free-falling oscillators.
- In the book And Yet It Moves
- Effect of gravity and rotational motion on quantum processes. One such process entails the level splitting of atomic states by the rotation of the Earth with concomitant induction of an optical activity analogous to the Faraday effect.
- In the book More Than One Mystery
- The question of what constitutes the non-luminous matter and energy, estimated at over 90% of the content of the universe. In a radical departure from standard hot and cold dark matter models, I have expounded a model in which a significant component of dark matter comprises very low mass bosons in a Bose-Einstein condensate in the halos of galaxies and throughout the cosmos.
- In the book A Universe of Atoms
- Quantum stabilization of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel and exceed the threshold mass for collapse to a black hole. By taking account of quantum phase transitions that a system of neutrons subjected to extreme pressure may potentially undergo, the non-physical end state of a star with infinitely dense central singularity where the laws of physics break down can be avoided.