The most recently celebrated cosmological implications of the cosmic microwave background studies with WMAP (2006), though fascinating by themselves, do, however, create some extremely hard conceptual challenges for the present-day cosmology. These recent extremely refined WMAP observations seem to reflect a universe which was extremely homogeneous at the recombination age and thus is obviously causally closed at the time of the cosmic recombination era. From the very tiny fluctuations apparent at this early epoch the presently observable nonlinear cosmic density structures can, however, only have grown up, if in addition to a mysteriously high percentage of dark matter an even higher percentage of dark energy is admitted as drivers of the cosmic evolution. The required dark energy density, on the other hand, is nevertheless 120 orders of magnitude smaller then the theoretically calculated value. These are outstanding problems of present day cosmology onto which we are looking here under new auspices. We shall investigate in the following, up to what degree a universe simply abolishes all these outstanding problems in case it reveals itself as an universe of constant total energy. As we shall show basic questions like: How could the gigantic mass of the universe of about 10 80 proton masses at all become created? -Why is the presently recognized and obviously indispensable cosmic vacuum energy density so terribly much smaller than is expected from quantum theoretical considerations, but nevertheless terribly important for the cosmic evolution? -Why is the universe within its world horizon a causally closed system? -, can perhaps simply be answered, when the assumption is made that the universe has a constant total energy with the consequence that the total mass density of the universe (matter and vacuum) scales with R −2 u . Such a scaling of matter and vacuum energy abolishes the horizon problem, and the cosmic vacuum energy density can easily be reconciled with its theoretical expectation values. In this model the mass of the universe increases linearly with the world extension Ru and can grow up from a Planck mass as a vacuum fluctuation.
In the more recent literature on cosmological evolutions of the universe, the cosmic vacuum energy has become a nonrenouncable ingredient. The cosmological constant Lambda, first invented by Einstein, but later also rejected by him, presently experiences an astonishing revival. Interestingly enough, it acts like a constant vacuum energy density would also do. Namely, it has an accelerating action on cosmic dynamics, without which, as it appears, presently obtained cosmological data cannot be conciliated with theory. As we are going to show in this review, however, the concept of a constant vacuum energy density is unsatisfactory for very basic reasons because it would claim for a physical reality that acts upon spacetime and matter dynamics without itself being acted upon by spacetime or matter.
Key words cosmology: mass of the universe -cosmology: cosmic densityIn this article we want to answer the cosmologically relevant question what, with some good semantic and physical reason, could be called the mass Mu of an infinitely extended, homogeneously matter-filled and expanding universe. To answer this question we produce a space-like sum of instantaneous cosmic energy depositions surrounding equally each spacepoint in the homogeneous universe. We calculate the added-up instantaneous cosmic energy per volume around an arbitrary space point in the expanding universe. To carry out this sum we use as basic metrics an analogy to the inner Schwarzschild metric applied to stars, but this time applied to the spacepoint-related universe. It is then shown that this leads to the added-up proper energy within a sphere of a finite outer critical radius defining the point-related infinity. As a surprise this radius turns out to be reciprocal to the square root of the prevailing average cosmic energy density. The equivalent mass of the universe can then also be calculated and, by the expression which is obtained here, shows a scaling with this critical radius of this universe, a virtue of the universe which was already often called for in earlier works by E. Mach, H. Thirring and F. Hoyle and others. This radius on the other hand can be shown to be nearly equal to the Schwarzschild radius of the so-defined mass Mu of the universe.
Context. The pressure equilibrium between the inner heliosheath and the outer heliosheath (referred to as the local interstellar medium) is an eminent theoretical and practical problem; theoretical, because the relevant pressure carriers have to be identified, and practical, because data must be gathered in order to confirm such a pressure equilibrium. The problem is closely connected with the stability of the heliopause, that is, of the tangential discontinuity between these two counterflowing media, and is of utmost importance for understanding the stability of the whole circumsolar plasma structure. Aims. In this paper we analyze the thermodynamic conditions of the multi-fluid plasma between the solar wind termination shock and the heliopause determining the total heliosheath pressure. We look into this problem from a theoretical standpoint and revisit theoretical descriptions of the solar wind plasma after its passage over the solar wind termination shock, thereafter forming the subsonic heliosheath region. Methods. Hereby we take into account the 3D magnetohydrodynamics shock conditions and the resulting 3D temperature structure of the downstream plasma flow. We use a kind of seismological procedure to probe the heliosheath plasma by inquiring into the propagation conditions of traveling shock wave perturbations in this predetermined 3D heliosheath plasma structure. We discuss the fact that the front geometry of such a traveling shock wave most probably does not remain spherical, if it was to begin with, due to asymmetric shock propagation conditions. In contrast, the wave front is likely to become strongly deformed into an upwind bulge. Results. Concerning the plasma pressure, in addition to solar wind and pick-up proton pressures, we have to take into account the solar wind electron pressure which as a surprise turns out to be of comparable magnitude. As a consequence, the characteristic propagation speed of the traveling shock wave in the weakly magnetized heliosheath plasma is given as a mixed speed expressed by the sound speeds of the protons and the electrons. We describe local low-energy proton density signatures that can be found in Voyager-2 proton data as a consequence of traveling shock wave passages and show that the total local plasma pressure can be directly derived from them.
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