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Full-Text Articles in Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity

Exact Solutions In Gravity: A Journey Through Spacetime With The Kerr-Schild Ansatz, Benjamin Ett Nov 2015

Exact Solutions In Gravity: A Journey Through Spacetime With The Kerr-Schild Ansatz, Benjamin Ett

Doctoral Dissertations

The Kerr-Schild metric ansatz can be expressed in the form $g_{ab} = \gbar_{ab}+\lambda k_ak_b$, where $\gbar_{ab}$ is a background metric satisfying Einstein's equations, $k_a$ is a null-vector, and $\lambda$ is a free parameter. It was discovered in 1963 while searching for the elusive rotating black hole solutions to Einstein's equations, fifty years after the static solution was found and Einstein first formulated his theory of general relativity. While the ansatz has proved an excellent tool in the search for new exact solutions since then, its scope is limited, particularly with respect to higher dimensional theories. In this thesis, we present …


Gaussian Cosmology: A New Model For The Accelerated Expansion Of The Universe, Brian Robert Neils Strigel Jan 2015

Gaussian Cosmology: A New Model For The Accelerated Expansion Of The Universe, Brian Robert Neils Strigel

Senior Projects Fall 2015

In this paper I lay the groundwork for an alternative model for the contemporary expansion of the universe. The current model states that the universe is growing exponentially due to the vacuum of space pulling on it. This model states that the growth rate of the universe is linear in time. However in 1998, researchers suggested that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating. This means the universe is not expanding logarithmically, not linearly. In my model, I lay the groundwork for future research and suggest that the universe develops in time in accordance to a Gaussian scale factor …