Scale invariance in cosmology and physics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a scale-invariant cosmological model where fundamental constants vary with the universe's scale, challenging traditional models and offering new explanations for cosmic observations without invoking dark energy or inflation.

Contribution

It introduces a fully scale-invariant cosmological model consistent with Lorentz invariance, addressing key cosmological problems and revising the Hubble law and universe age estimates.

Findings

Revised Hubble constant H0=37 fits high-z data as well as traditional models.

Critical density is only 28% of previous estimates, implying no dark energy.

Suggests universe expansion may be due to changing c, not acceleration.

Abstract

The fundamental laws of physics are required to be invariant under local spatial scale change. In 3-dimensional space, this leads to a variation in Planck constant \hbar and speed of light c. They vary as \hbar ~ a^(1/2) and c ~ a^(-1/2), a is the local scale. A direct consequence is that the expanding universe progressively alters the values of c which in turn affects the evolution of the universe itself. Friedmann eqns violate scale invariance and neglect to account for the scale dependency of c. We build a cosmological model which is fully consistent with scale invariance and respects Lorentz invariance. This model leads to a universe different from the ones depicted in Friedmann model. We apply our model to resolve a series of observational and theoretical difficulties in modern cosmology: "runaway density parameter" problem, budgetary shortfall, horizon problem, eg. Our model does not resort to inflation hypothesis. We derive a modification to the Hubble law and Hubble constant, and a new brightness-redshift relationship for Type Ia supernovae: (a) Hubble constant has been inadvertently overestimated by a factor of 9/5; so has the critical density by (9/5)^2; (b) Our new photometric distance-redshift relationship d_L=2c/(3H0)*(1+z)^(5/6)\ln(1+z) with one parameter H0=37 fits to the high-$z$ objects as equally well as the traditional relationship does with three parameters H0=70.5, OmegaM=0.27, OmegaL=0.73. We draw two conclusions: (i) With H0=37, the critical density is only 0.28 time the value previously thought; dark energy is absent. (ii) H0=37 restores the age estimate to 17.6 Gy (via t_0=2/(3H0)). They also raise the possibility that the universe expansion is not accelerating, but rather a result of c progressively adapting to new spatial scale as the universe expands. Finally, we discuss an array of implications of scale invariance in the larger context of physics.