Giant Void Research Articles

Evolving belief and being human: The emergence of religion in science and theology

Every human society as well as almost all human life is infused with ethics. There is common acknowledgement that morality and ethics are indispensable in addressing the serious global challenges humanity is faced with today. However, we seemed to have lost our grip on what morality is. How do we best understand human morality and ethics? This research argues that responsible ethics rests on a credible understanding of what it means to be human. The following exploration of the emergence of religion within the science and religion discourse formed part of a series of three seminars that have as their main objective to address a giant void regarding ethical and moral reflection within our society. This research was part of the discourse of the first seminar with the following main research question: What do we learn from the empirical study of morality (in the evolutionary sciences, the neurosciences, cultural anthropology, sociology, and moral psychology) about the sources, functions and characteristics of morality, and its relation to religion? This study offers an exploration of our capacity for religious awareness and belief against the background of niche construction theory. The capacity for imagination seems to have contributed to human evolutionary success and consequently our religious disposition. This transdisciplinary study combines perspectives of some of the most prominent interlocutors in the contemporary discourse on the emergence of religious awareness. By integrating the numerous perspectives evident in this study, this research explores how evolutionary thought can be constructively appropriated to interdisciplinary theology and ethics.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article explores the origin of religious awareness and belief as part of a larger discourse on morality in history. The interdisciplinary conversation covers the fields of evolutionary anthropology and theology within the contemporary science-theology discourses.

Cosmological distances scale. Part 15: cosmically jerk and the dipole of gravitational heterogeneity

The central question of the cosmic shock in the series of articles “Cosmological Distance Scale” is considered: do the data for parametric identification of the Friedman-Robertson-Walker model in the form of a dependence of the photometric distance on the redshift of type Ia supernovae used in the work of the High-Z SN Search Team and Supernovae Cosmology Project allow us to consider the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe as the most plausible hypothesis on the criterion of the minimum error of inadequacy. The previously discovered discrepancies (changes in the structure and parameters of the systematic component of the model) and rank inversions of photometric distances of supernovae SN Ia for the systematic component of this model are analyzed. It is shown that the cause of these metric violations is the isotropy of the Friedman-Robertson-Walker model. In the anisotropic model of the cosmological distance scale, the disjunctions and rank inversions are associated with the orientation of the gravitational dipoles of the heterogeneity of the large-scale structure of the Universe. These dipoles represent diametrically opposite pairs of “super cluster galaxies – giant void” on the celestial sphere. Due to the size of only the super-void in the constellation Eridanus, comparable to the size of the observable part of the Universe, a colossal imbalance of the gravitational action of a massive super cluster of galaxies is created. This leads to disturbances in the form of disorders and rank inversions in isotropic Friedman-Robertson-Walker type models.

Relativistic cosmology number densities in void-Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi models

The goal of this work is to compute the number density of far-IR selected galaxies in the comoving frame and along the past lightcone of observationally constrained LTB models and to compare those results with their standard model counterparts. We derived integral number densities and differential number densities using different cosmological distance definitions in the LTB models. Then, we computed selection functions and consistency functions for the luminosity functions in the combined fields of the Herschel/PACS evolutionary probe (PEP) survey in both standard and void cosmologies, from which we derived the observed values of the above-mentioned densities. We used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics to study both the evolution of the consistency functions and its connection to the evolution of the comoving density of sources. Finally, we fitted the power-law behaviour of the densities along the observer's past lightcone. The analysis of the comoving number density shows that the increased flexibility of the LTB models is not enough to fit the observed redshift evolution of the number counts, if it is specialised to a recent best-fit giant void parametrisation. The results for the power-law fits of the densities along the observer's past lightcone show general agreement across both cosmological models studied here around a slope of -2.5 $\pm$ 0.1 for the integral number density on the luminosity-distance volumes. The differential number densities show much bigger slope discrepancies. We conclude that the differential number densities on the observer's past lightcone were still rendered dependent on the cosmological model by the flux limits of the PEP survey. In addition, we show that an intrinsic evolution of the sources must be assumed to fit the comoving number-density redshift evolution in the giant void parametrisation for the LTB models used in this work.

CFHTLenS: mapping the large-scale structure with gravitational lensing

We present a quantitative analysis of the largest contiguous maps of projected mass density obtained from gravitational lensing shear. We use data from the 154 deg2 covered by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey. Our study is the first attempt to quantitatively characterize the scientific value of lensing maps, which could serve in the future as a complementary approach to the study of the dark universe with gravitational lensing. We show that mass maps contain unique cosmological information beyond that of traditional two-points statistical analysis techniques. Using a series of numerical simulations, we first show how, reproducing the CFHTLenS observing conditions, gravitational lensing inversion provides a reliable estimate of the projected matter distribution of large scale structure. We validate our analysis by quantifying the robustness of the maps with various statistical estimators. We then apply the same process to the CFHTLenS data. We find that the 2-points correlation function of the projected mass is consistent with the cosmological analysis performed on the shear correlation function discussed in the CFHTLenS companion papers. The maps also lead to a significant measurement of the third order moment of the projected mass, which is in agreement with analytic predictions, and to a marginal detection of the fourth order moment. Tests for residual systematics are found to be consistent with zero for the statistical estimators we used. A new approach for the comparison of the reconstructed mass map to that predicted from the galaxy distribution reveals the existence of giant voids in the dark matter maps as large as 3 degrees on the sky. Our analysis shows that lensing mass maps can be used for new techniques such as peak statistics and the morphological analysis of the projected dark matter distribution.

A (giant) void is not mandatory to explain away dark energy with a Lemaître-Tolman model

Lema\^itre - Tolman (L--T) toy models with a central observer have been used to study the effect of large scale inhomogeneities on the SN Ia dimming. Claims that a giant void is mandatory to explain away dark energy in this framework are currently dominating. Our aim is to show that L-T models exist that reproduce a few features of the $\Lambda$CDM model, but do not contain the giant cosmic void. We propose to use two sets of data - the angular diameter distance together with the redshift-space mass-density and the angular diameter distance together with the expansion rate - both defined on the past null cone as functions of the redshift. We assume that these functions are of the same form as in the $\Lambda$CDM model. Using the Mustapha-Hellaby-Ellis algorithm, we numerically transform these initial data into the usual two L-T arbitrary functions and solve the evolution equation to calculate the mass distribution in spacetime. For both models, we find that the current density profile does not exhibit a giant void, but rather a giant hump. However, this hump is not directly observable, since it is in a spacelike relation to a present observer. The alleged existence of the giant void was a consequence of the L-T models used earlier because their generality was limited a priori by needless simplifying assumptions, like, for example, the bang-time function being constant. Instead, one can feed any mass distribution or expansion rate history on the past light cone as initial data to the L-T evolution equation. When a fully general L-T metric is used, the giant void is not implied.

What the small angle CMB really tells us about the curvature of the Universe

It is well known that observations of the cosmic microwavebackground (CMB) are highly sensitive to the spatial curvature of the Universe, k.Here we find that what is in fact being tightly constrained by small anglefluctuations is spatial curvature near the surface of last scattering,and that if we allow k to be a function of position, ratherthan taking a constant value everywhere, then considerable spatialcurvature is permissible within our own locale. Thisresult is of interest for the giant void models that attempt toexplain the supernovae observations without Dark Energy. We findsuch voids to be compatible with the observed small angle CMB, butthey must be either very deep (and unnaturally empty) or exist in apositively curved Universe.

Is Earth at the heart of a giant cosmic void?

We assume that there is nothing particularly special about our cosmic neighbourhood. Abandoning that assumption might solve one of cosmology's most pressing problems

Giant molecular spoked wheels in giant voids: two-dimensional molecular self-assembly goes big

We present here the formation of giant pores in surface-confined molecular networks of a triangular-shaped dehydrobenzo-[12]annulene derivative: the diameter of the pores reaches over 7 nm and the giant pores are used as templates to accommodate a giant molecular spoked wheel, which allows us to observe rotational and adsorption-desorption dynamics of single guest molecules.

Orientation of Galaxies in Clusters

A detailed analysis of the geometry of galaxies in clusters has been undertaken in both two and three dimensional space. The procedure was applied to the three Abell clusters A1644, A548 E and A548 W. No significant alignment trend of galaxies in clusters confirmed in three dimensional space was found. This result is consistent with the mixed dark matter model MDM of galaxy formation. The result is also consistent with Peebles suggestion that protogalaxies acquired angular momentum from tidal torques exerted by their neighbours in the early universe. The amount of angular momentum predicted by this mechanism could be described by a single dimensionless papameter λ≈ 0.8. N-body experiments have shown that λ has approximately normal distribution with mean value about 0.07 and with a standard deviation of about 0.03. From the analyic fit to flat rotation curves it is found that tidal torque can provide the observed angular momentum if the mean collapse factor is about 20 and the mean halo-to-disk mass ratio is of order 10. The MDM model does not predict any systematic relation between the tidal torques among the halos of galaxies and the large scale structures such as the clusters, superclusters of galaxies and giant voids in between. Further work in this area is still required.

Search for streaming motion of galaxy clusters around the Giant Void

We present the results of a study of streaming motion of galaxy clusters around the Giant Void ($\alpha \approx 13^{\rm h}, \delta \approx 40^\circ, z \approx 0.11$ and a diameter of 300 Mpc) in the distribution of rich Abell clusters. We used the Kormendy relation as a distance indicator taking into account galaxy luminosities. Observations were carried out in Kron–Cousins R c system on the 6 m and 1 m telescopes of SAO RAS. For 17 clusters in a spherical shell of 50 Mpc in thickness centered on the void no significant diverging motion (expected to be generated by the mass deficit in the void) has been detected. This implies that cosmological models with low $\Omega_{\rm m}$ are preferred. To explain small mass underdensity inside the Giant Void, a mechanism of void formation with strong biasing is required.

From invention to metaphor: plastics and American culture

IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT RUBBERMAID AND TUPPERWARE, NYLON AND acrylic, or films and compact disks. To do so is to imagine the preplastic world of very different colors, weights, textures, sights, and sounds. Posing just such a challenge to readers, Jeffrey L. Meikle begins his latest big book, American Plastic, a broadly conceived, extensively documented, and truly cross-disciplinary work about the production, distribution, use, and meaning of plastics. Meikle's volume is not only a welcome addition to the literature in American cultural history, but it also fills a giant void in material culture scholarship, where there are too few monographs about everyday products and their makers for the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries.' A bright, shining star in this particular dark universe, Meikle's American Plastic-which won the 1996 Dexter Prize for the best book on

Discovery of intergalactic radio emission in the Coma–A1367 supercluster

THE Coma cluster is a rich cluster of galaxies nested in an even larger supercluster of galaxies. The plane of the supercluster seems to be defined by the Coma cluster itself and another galaxy cluster, Abell 1367, which lies ∼40 Mpc farther west1, 2. The largest structures known are the giant voids and superclusters which are as large as 70h−175 Mpc (refs 3–5). The Coma cluster of galaxies seems to be located on the rim of a giant void6 in the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies. Here we describe the detection of faint, supercluster-scale radio emission at 326 MHz that extends between the Coma cluster of galaxies (Abell 1656) and the Abell 1367 cluster and which is apparently not associated with any individual galaxy system in the complex. The radiation's synchrotron origin implies the existence of a large-scale intercluster magnetic field with an estimated strength of 0.3–0.6 μG, which is remarkably strong. The synchrotron-emitting relativistic electrons cannot be older than a few times 108 yr, but we speculate that the magnetic field is the fossil of a pre-galactic primaeval field, which was amplified in the course of the formation of intergalactic voids and superclusters.

Theory of adhesion for the large-scale structure of the Universe

At present we see the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe primarily as clusters and superclusters of galaxies, with giant voids between them1,2. Understanding the origin and evolution of the large-scale structure (LSS) is one of the central problems in cosmology; it is of direct concern in understanding both the nature of the dominant dark matter in the Universe and physical processes in the very early Universe when primordial inhomogeneities were generated3–5. Here we use a new theoretical approach6–8 to the formation of LSS by applying the Burgers' equation9 that mimics the gravitational sticking of matter at the non-linear stage of gravitational instability. In this theory the non-linear evolution, including both the formation and clustering of clumps of matter separated from the Hubble expansion, is directly determined by the geometrical structure of the initial random field of linear newtonian gravitational potential fluctuations o which may be gaussian or non-gaussian, depending on the model.

Giant voids in the Universe

Recent observations indicate that most galaxies are concentrated in superclusters consisting of galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, aligned along strings. Giant volumes exist between superclusters which are almost empty of visible objects. Theories of galaxy formation predict the formation of non-spherical superclusters and giant voids. Large-scale structure changes very slowly, so the currently observed structure reflects the whole history of galaxy formation and structural evolution.