Implications of a cosmological term coupled to matter

Abstract

The possibility that the cosmological term is proportional toGU, whereG is the gravitational coupling andU is the mass density of the universe is proposed and discussed. WithG = constant, a cosmological model is obtained, which avoids the flatness and horizon problems and does not affect the well known predictions on the cosmic helium abundance which come from standard big bang cosmology. In such model, the deceleration parameter is a null constant, there is matter creation process throughout the universe at the rate 10⁻⁴⁷ g cm⁻³ s⁻¹ and the cosmological term varies asH ² =t ⁻², whereH is the Hubble constant andt is the cosmic time.

The possibility of a time-dependentG is then considered. The main consequence of this is that there is a mass creation process on the local scale; the rate of mass creation inside a body of massM is dM/dt =M H. In Section 6 it is suggested that the new matter might be in the form of neutrinos. This suggestion leads to an interesting consequence in celestial mechanics: the radius of a binary system should depend on time according to the nature of the components (the radius of a binary star should decrease, the radius of a planet-moon system should expand, and the orbital radius of a planet should stay constant).