STRUCTURES IN THE MIRROR UNIVERSE

The idea of the universe having a mirror sector in which all particles and forces are identical to those in the familiar sector has been pro posed recently in the context of neutrino physics as well as superstri ng theories some time ago. Assuming that all the quark and charged lep ton masses in the mirror universe are scaled by a common factor, zeta, as is required in one interpretation of the neutrino data, we investi gate domains of the parameter zeta where physical conditions are favor able for the formation of compact structures given the initial conditi on Omega(B) similar or equal to Omega((B) over tilde) ((B) over tilde denoting the mirror baryon). We consider both isocurvature and curvatu re perturbations; we address primordial mirror molecule formation, mir ror Compton cooling, mirror Silk and collisionless damping, and variou s mirror cooling mechanisms that can lead to compact mirror structures for various regions of zeta space, so that the mirror model can be co nfronted with astrophysical observations. For isocurvature perturbatio ns, we find a variety of possible structural final states. For curvatu re (or adiabatic) perturbations, we find a likelihood that part of zet a space would result in detectable effects that are not observed, whil e a part would not.