Search results for "Astrophysics - cosmology and nongalactic astrophysics"
showing 10 items of 607 documents
Primordial Black Holes and Slow-Roll Violation
2017
For primordial black holes (PBH) to be the dark matter in single-field inflation, the slow-roll approximation must be violated by at least ${\cal O}(1)$ in order to enhance the curvature power spectrum within the required number of efolds between CMB scales and PBH mass scales. Power spectrum predictions which rely on the inflaton remaining on the slow-roll attractor can fail dramatically leading to qualitatively incorrect conclusions in models like an inflection potential and misestimate the mass scale in a running mass model. We show that an optimized temporal evaluation of the Hubble slow-roll parameters to second order remains a good description for a wide range of PBH formation models …
Spiral Inflation
2015
We propose a novel scenario of primordial inflation in which the inflaton goes through a spiral motion starting from around the top of a symmetry breaking potential. We show that, even though inflation takes place for a field value much smaller than Planck scale, it is possible to obtain relatively large tensor to scalar ratio ($r \sim 0.1$) without fine tuning. The inflationary observables perfectly match Planck data.
Spiral Inflation with Coleman-Weinberg Potential
2015
We apply the idea of spiral inflation to Coleman-Weinberg potential, and show that inflation matching well observations is allowed for a symmetry-breaking scale ranging from an intermediate scale to GUT scale even if the quartic coupling $\lambda$ is of $\mathcal{O}(0.1)$. The tensor-to-scalar ratio can be of $\mathcal{O}(0.01)$ in case of GUT scale symmetry-breaking.
Inflationary Imprints on Dark Matter
2015
We show that dark matter abundance and the inflationary scale $H$ could be intimately related. Standard Model extensions with Higgs mediated couplings to new physics typically contain extra scalars displaced from vacuum during inflation. If their coupling to Standard Model is weak, they will not thermalize and may easily constitute too much dark matter reminiscent to the moduli problem. As an example we consider Standard Model extended by a $Z_2$ symmetric singlet $s$ coupled to the Standard Model Higgs $\Phi$ via $\lambda \Phi^{\dag}\Phi s^2$. Dark matter relic density is generated non-thermally for $\lambda \lesssim 10^{-7}$. We show that the dark matter yield crucially depends on the inf…
Peccei–Quinn field for inflation, baryogenesis, dark matter, and much more
2016
We propose a scenario of brane cosmology in which the Peccei-Quinn field plays the role of the inflaton and solves simultaneously many cosmological and phenomenological issues such as the generation of a heavy Majorana mass for the right-handed neutrinos needed for seesaw mechanism, MSSM $\mu$-parameter, the right amount of baryon number asymmetry and dark matter relic density at the present universe, together with an axion solution to the strong CP problem without the domain wall obstacle. Interestingly, the scales of the soft SUSY-breaking mass parameter and that of the breaking of $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ symmetry are lower bounded at $\mathcal{O}(10) {\mathrm TeV}$ and $\mathcal{O}(10^{11}) {\ma…
Eternal hilltop inflation
2016
We consider eternal inflation in hilltop-type inflation models, favored by current data, in which the scalar field in inflation rolls off of a local maximum of the potential. Unlike chaotic or plateau-type inflation models, in hilltop inflation the region of field space which supports eternal inflation is finite, and the expansion rate $H_{EI}$ during eternal inflation is almost exactly the same as the expansion rate $H_*$ during slow roll inflation. Therefore, in any given Hubble volume, there is a finite and calculable expectation value for the lifetime of the "eternal" inflation phase, during which quantum flucutations dominate over classical field evolution. We show that despite this, i…
JET PROPAGATION AND DECELERATION
2013
Extragalactic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are divided into two morphological types, namely Fanaroff-Riley I (FRI) and Fanaroff-Riley II (FRII). The former show decollimated structure at the kiloparsec scales and are thought to be decelerated by entrainment within the first kiloparsecs of evolution inside the host galaxy. The entrainment and deceleration can be, at least partly, due to the interaction of jets with stellar winds and gas clouds that enter in the jet as they orbit around the galactic centre. In this contribution, I review recent simulations to study the dynamic effect of entrainment from stellar winds in jets and the direct interaction of jets with gas clouds and stell…
Evidence for shock-shock interaction in the jet of CTA 102
2010
We have found evidence for interaction between a standing and a traveling shock in the jet of the blazar CTA 102. Our result is based in the study of the spectral evolution of the turnover frequency-turnover flux density plane. The radio/mm light curves were taken during a major radio outburst in April 2006.
SDSS DR7 superclusters. Morphology
2011
We study the morphology of a set of superclusters drawn from the SDSS DR7. We calculate the luminosity density field to determine superclusters from a flux- limited sample of galaxies from SDSS DR7, and select superclusters with 300 and more galaxies for our study. The morphology of superclusters is described with the fourth Minkowski functional V3, the morphological signature (the curve in the shapefinder's K1-K2 plane) and the shape parameter (the ratio of the shapefinders K1/K2). We investigate the supercluster sample using multidimensional normal mixture modelling, and use Abell clusters to identify our superclusters with known superclusters and to study the large-scale distribution of …
Sachs-Wolfe at second order: the CMB bispectrum on large angular scales
2009
We calculate the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy bispectrum on large angular scales in the absence of primordial non-Gaussianities, assuming exact matter dominance and extending at second order the classic Sachs-Wolfe result delta T/T = Phi/3. The calculation is done in Poisson gauge. Besides intrinsic contributions calculated at last scattering, one must consider integrated effects. These are associated to lensing, and to the time dependence of the potentials (Rees-Sciama) and of the vector and tensor components of the metric generated at second order. The bispectrum is explicitly computed in the flat-sky approximation. It scales as l(-4) in the scale invariant limit and the shape d…