Professor T. Padmanabhan

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    Crisis in cosmology: Observational constraints on Omega and H
    (Overseas Publishers Association, 1996-03-18) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.; Narlikar, J. V.
    This review of recent observations of cosmological interest seeks to take stock of how they constrain the standard hot big bang models with or without inflation. We look at two specific series indicative of this class of models. In one series the flatness condition of inflation requires that the density parameter shall be unity. Of late this statement has been relaxed somewhat to include the cosmological constant also as a contributor to the density parameter. Hence we ha»e used this "generalised" flatness condition. The other series of models does not need (be cosmological constant but assumes that the curvature parameter k = -1. Both these models are currently being pushed as "the" models of the universe. The observational constraints used by us are the measurements of the Hubble constant and the deceleration parameter, the ages of globular clusters, the abundance of primordial deuterium, the abundance of rich clusters, the baryon content of galaxy clusters and the abundance of high rsdshift objects. These constraints essentially limit the allowed values of the cosmological parameters. Our findings are that with measurements within their quoted error bars, the available parameter space has shrunk to negligible proportions. For survival of the standard models, therefore, one needs to take recourse to two normally unpalatable steps: (i) to doubt the existing error bars and hope to expand them and (ii) to fine-tone the theoretical parameters so that they fall within the available space. This is the essence of our perception of the crisis in cosmology.
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    Cosmological N-Body Simulations
    (Indian Academy of Sciences, 1997-08-12) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.
    In this review we discuss Cosmological N-Body codes with a special emphasis on Particle Mesh codes. We present the mathematical model for each component of N-Body codes. We compare alternative methods for computing each quantity by calculating errors for each of the components. We suggest an optimum set of components that can be combined reduce overall errors in N-Body codes.
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    Transfer of power in nonlinear gravitational clustering
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 1996-12-15) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.
    We investigate the transfer of power between different scales and the coupling of modes during the non-linear evolution of gravitational clustering in an expanding universe. We start with a power spectrum of density fluctuations that is exponentially damped outside a narrow range of scales, and use numerical simulations to study the evolution of this power spectrum. Non-linear effects generate power at other scales, with most power flowing from larger to smaller scales. The ‘cascade’ of power leads to equipartition of energy at smaller scales, implying a power spectrum with index n ~ - 1. We find that such a spectrum is produced in the range 1 < ð < 200 for density contrast ð. This result continues to hold even when small-scale power is added to the initial power spectrum. Semi-analytic models for gravitational clustering suggest a tendency for the effective index to move towards a critical index Nc ~-1. We find that such a spectrum is produced in the range 1< ð<200 for density contrast ð. This result continues to hold even when small-scale power is added to the initial power spectrum. Semi-analytic models for gravitational clustering suggest a tendency for the effective index to move towards a critical index Nc ~-1 in this range. For n< Nc , power in this range grows faster than linear rate, while if n> Nc , it grows at a slower rate- thereby changing the index closer to Nc. At scales larger than the narrow range of scales with initial power, a k⁴ tail is produced. We demonstrate that non-linear small scales do not affect the growth of perturbations at larger scales.
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    Scaling Relations for Gravitational Clustering in two Dimensions
    (American Astronomical Society, 1997-10-10) Bagla, J. S.; Engineer, Sunu; Padmanabhan, T.
    It is known that radial collapse around density peaks can explain the key features of the evolution of a correlation function in gravitational clustering in three dimensions. The same model also makes spe-ciÐc predictions for two dimensions. In this paper we test these predictions in two dimensions with the help of N-body simulations. We Ðnd that there is no stable clustering in the extremely nonlinear regime, but a nonlinear scaling relation does exist and can be used to relate the linear and the nonlinear corre-lation function. In the intermediate regime, the simulations agree with the model.
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    Nonlinear evolution of density perturbations using approximate constancy of gravitational potential
    (Royal Astronomical Society, 1993-07-28) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.
    During the evolution of density inhomogeneties in an Ω=1, matter dominated universe, the typical density contrast changes from δ≃ 10-4 to δ≃ 102. However, during the same time, the typical value of the gravitational potential generated by the perturbations changes only by a factor of order unity. This significant fact can be exploited to provide a new, powerful, approximation scheme for studying the formation of nonlinear structures in the universe. This scheme, discussed in this paper, evolves the initial perturbation using a Newtonian gravitational potential frozen in time. We carry out this procedure for different intial spectra and compare the results with the Zeldovich approximation and the frozen flow approximation (proposed by Mattarrese et al. recently). Our results are in far better agreement with the N-body simulations than the Zeldovich approximation. It also provides a dynamical explanation for the fact that pancakes remain thin during the evolution. While there is some superficial similarity between the frozen flow results and ours, they differ considerably in the velocity information. Actual shell crossing does occur in our approximation; also there is motion of particles along the pancakes leading to further clumping. These features are quite different from those in frozen flow model. We also discuss the evolution of the two-point correlation function in various approximations.
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    Nonlinear evolution of density perturbations
    (Indian Academy of Sciences, 1995-02-28) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.
    From the epoch of recombination (z~10³) till today, the typical density contrasts have grown by a factor of about 10⁶ in a Friedmann universe with Ω= 1. However, during the same epoch the typical gravitational potential has grown only by a factor of order unity. This fact can be exploited to provide a new, powerful, approximation scheme to study the formation of nonlinear structures in the universe by evolving the initial distribution of matter using a gravitational potential frozen in time. We carry out this scheme for several standard models and discuss the results.
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    New statistical indicator to study nonlinear gravitational clustering and structure formation
    (American Astronomical Society, 1996-04-22) Bagla, J. S.; Padmanabhan, T.
    In an = 1 universe dominated by nonrelativistic matter, velocity field and gravitational force field are proportional to each other in the linear regime. Neither of these quantities evolve in time and these can be scaled suitably so that the constant of proportionality is unity and velocity and force field are equal. The Zeldovich approximation extends this feature beyond the linear regime, until formation of pancakes. Nonlinear clustering which takes place after the breakdown of Zeldovich approximation, breaks this relation and the mismatch between these two vectors increases as the evolution proceeds. We suggest that the difference of these two vectors could form the basis for a powerful, new, statistical indicator of nonlinear clustering. We define an indicator called velocity contrast, study its behaviour using N-Body simulations and show that it can be used effectively to delineate the regions where nonlinear clustering has taken place.We discuss several features of this statistical indicator and provide simple analytic models to understand its behaviour. Particles with velocity contrast higher than a threshold have a correlation function which is biased with respect to the original sample. This bias factor is scale dependent and tends to unity at large scales.
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    Neutral hydrogen at high redshifts as a probe of structure formation – III. Radio maps from N-body simulations.
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 1997-04-04) Bagla, J. S.; Nath, B. B.; Padmanabhan, T.
    Large inhomogeneities in neutral hydrogen in the universe can be detected at redshifts z 10 using the redshifted 21cm line emission. We use cosmological N-Body simulations for dark matter and a simple model for baryonic collapse to estimate the signal expected from structures like proto-clusters of galaxies at high redshifts.We study : (i) the standard CDM model, (ii) a modified CDM model with less power at small scales, and (iii) a +CDM model in a universe with 0 + = 1. We show that it should be possible for the next generation radio telescopes to detect such structures at the redshift 3.34 with an integration of about 100 hours. We also discuss possible schemes for enhancing signal to noise ratio to detect proto-condensates at high redshifts.