Download:

Current browse context:

physics.hist-ph

< prev | next >

new | recent | 1110

Physics > History and Philosophy of Physics

Conceptual Problems in Cosmology

F. J. Amaral Vieira

(Submitted on 25 Oct 2011 (v1), last revised 11 Nov 2011 (this version, v2))

In this essay a critical review of present conceptual problems in current cosmology is provided from a more philosophical point of view. In essence, a digression on how could philosophy help cosmologists in what is strictly their fundamental endeavor is presented. We start by recalling some examples of enduring confrontations among philosophers and physicists on what could be contributed by the formers to the day-time striving of the second ones. Then, a short review of the standard model Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walter (FLRW) of cosmology is given. It seems apparent that cosmology is living a golden age with the advent of observations of high precision. Nonetheless, a critical revisiting of the direction in which it should go on appears also needed, for misconcepts like "quantum backgrounds for cosmological classical settings" and "quantum gravity unification" have not been properly constructed up-to-date. Thus, knowledge-building in cosmology, more than in any other field, should begin with visions of the reality, then taking technical form whenever concepts and relations inbetween are translated into a mathematical structure. It is mandatory, therefore, that the meaning of such concepts be the same for all cosmologists, and that any relationship among all them be tested both logically as well as mathematically. In other words, the notorius feature of improbability of our universe, as is well-known, assures to cosmologists a priviledged degree of freedom for formulating interpretations and theories. However, at the same time, it demands for their formulations and conclusions to be considered in the light of data taken from astrophysical observations.

Comments:	Typos corrected, extended discussion: subsection II-F: singularity, bouncing, and Section III cosmological principle, violation of statistical isotropy, CMB multipole alignments. Added references. Comments, criticisms and suggestions kindly welcome. Published in "A life of Achievements" - Festschrift in honor of Prof. Alberto Santoro 70th birthday. Revtex4-1.sty, 16 pages, 5 figures
Subjects:	History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Journal reference:	Festschrift in honor of Prof. Alberto Santoro 70th birthday, Eds. F. Caruso, E. Christoph, V. Oguri and R. Rubinstein, AIAFEX Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 2011. ISBN 978-85-85806-03-3
Cite as:	arXiv:1110.5634v2 [physics.hist-ph]

Submission history

From: Francisco José Amaral Vieira Amaralvieira [view email]
[v1] Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:54:54 GMT (606kb,D)
[v2] Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:47:00 GMT (608kb,D)

Which authors of this paper are endorsers?