Search results for " Cosmology"
showing 10 items of 1486 documents
Do current data prefer a nonminimally coupled inflaton?
2015
We examine the impact of a non-minimal coupling of the inflaton to the Ricci scalar, $\frac12 \xi R\phi^2$, on the inflationary predictions. Such a non-minimal coupling is expected to be present in the inflaton Lagrangian on fairly general grounds. As a case study, we focus on the simplest inflationary model governed by the potential $V\propto \phi^2$, using the latest combined 2015 analysis of Planck and BICEP2/Keck Array. We find that the presence of a coupling $\xi$ is favoured at a significance of $99\%$ CL, assuming that nature has chosen the potential $V\propto \phi^2$ to generate the primordial perturbations and a number of e-foldings $N=60$. Within the context of the same scenario, …
Cold positrons from decaying dark matter
2012
Many models of dark matter contain more than one new particle beyond those in the Standard Model. Often heavier particles decay into the lightest dark matter particle as the Universe evolves. Here we explore the possibilities that arise if one of the products in a (Heavy Particle) $\rightarrow$ (Dark Matter) decay is a positron, and the lifetime is shorter than the age of the Universe. The positrons cool down by scattering off the cosmic microwave background and eventually annihilate when they fall into Galactic potential wells. The resulting 511 keV flux not only places constraints on this class of models but might even be consistent with that observed by the INTEGRAL satellite.
Cosmological radiation density with non-standard neutrino-electron interactions
2021
Neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with electrons are known to alter the picture of neutrino decoupling from the cosmic plasma. NSI modify both flavour oscillations through matter effects, and the annihilation and scattering between neutrinos and electrons and positrons in the thermal plasma. In view of the forthcoming cosmological observations, we perform a precision study of the impact of non-universal and flavour-changing NSI on the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{eff}$. We present the variation of $N_{eff}$ arising from the different NSI parameters and discuss the existing degeneracies among them, from cosmology alone and in relation to the current bounds from terrestrial exper…
Direct neutralino searches in the NMSSM with gravitino LSP in the degenerate scenario
2011
In the present work a two-component dark matter model is studied adopting the degenerate scenario in the R-parity conserving NMSSM. The gravitino LSP and the neutralino NLSP are extremely degenerate in mass, avoiding the BBN bounds and obtaining a high reheating temperature for thermal leptogenesis. In this model both gravitino (absolutely stable) and neutralino (quasi-stable) contribute to dark matter, and direct detection searches for neutralino are discussed. Points that survive all the constraints correspond to a singlino-like neutralino.
Is the baryon asymmetry of the Universe related to galactic magnetic fields?
2009
A tiny hypermagnetic field generated before the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) associated to the generation of elementary particle masses can polarize the early Universe hot plasma at huge redshifts z >= 10(15). The anomalous violation of the right-handed electron current characteristic of the EWPT converts the lepton asymmetry into a baryon asymmetry. Under reasonable approximations, the magnetic field strength inferred by requiring such "leptogenic'' origin for the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe matches the large-scale cosmological magnetic field strengths estimated from current astronomical observations.
Dark matter as the origin of neutrino mass in the inverse seesaw mechanism
2021
We propose that neutrino masses are "seeded" by a dark sector within the inverse seesaw mechanism. This way we have a new, "hidden", variant of the scotogenic scenario for radiative neutrino masses. We discuss both explicit and dynamical lepton number violation. In addition to invisible Higgs decays with majoron emission, we discuss in detail the pheneomenolgy of dark matter, as well as the novel features associated to charged lepton flavour violation, and neutrino physics.
Likelihood approach to the first dark matter results from XENON100
2011
Many experiments that aim at the direct detection of Dark Matter are able to distinguish a dominant background from the expected feeble signals, based on some measured discrimination parameter. We develop a statistical model for such experiments using the Profile Likelihood ratio as a test statistic in a frequentist approach. We take data from calibrations as control measurements for signal and background, and the method allows the inclusion of data from Monte Carlo simulations. Systematic detector uncertainties, such as uncertainties in the energy scale, as well as astrophysical uncertainties, are included in the model. The statistical model can be used to either set an exclusion limit or …
Elimination of unitarily nonequivalent vacua in supersymmetric grand unified theories by gravity
1983
Abstract In globally supersymmetric grand unified theories, there may be unitarily nonequivalent vacua which are not present in ordinary theories, reflecting the invariance of the Higgs potential under the complex extension of the gauge group. We show that such vacua are eliminated in the presence of N = 1 supergravity coupling, if local supersymmetry is broken and the costomological constant vanishes.
Consistency of the triplet seesaw model revisited
2015
14 pages.- 5 figures
Fermion Regge poles and relations between phase shifts in the pion-nucleon scattering
1967
A Regge pole model is proposed. It is shown that simple relations between the smallπN phase shifts can be obtained without using any Regge pole parameters.