Search results for "General Relativity"
showing 10 items of 1057 documents
GW190521 as a Merger of Proca Stars: A Potential New Vector Boson of 8.7×10−13 eV
2021
Advanced LIGO-Virgo have reported a short gravitational-wave signal (GW190521) interpreted as a quasicircular merger of black holes, one at least populating the pair-instability supernova gap, that formed a remnant black hole of ${M}_{f}\ensuremath{\sim}142\text{ }\text{ }{M}_{\ensuremath{\bigodot}}$ at a luminosity distance of ${d}_{L}\ensuremath{\sim}5.3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Gpc}$. With barely visible pre-merger emission, however, GW190521 merits further investigation of the pre-merger dynamics and even of the very nature of the colliding objects. We show that GW190521 is consistent with numerically simulated signals from head-on collisions of two (equal mass and spin) horizonless vecto…
Nonminimal dark sector physics and cosmological tensions
2019
We explore whether non-standard dark sector physics might be required to solve the existing cosmological tensions. The properties we consider in combination are an interaction between the dark matter and dark energy components, and a dark energy equation of state $w$ different from that of the canonical cosmological constant $w=-1$. In principle, these two parameters are independent. In practice, to avoid early-time, superhorizon instabilities, their allowed parameter spaces are correlated. We analyze three classes of extended interacting dark energy models in light of the 2019 Planck CMB results and Cepheid-calibrated local distance ladder $H_0$ measurements of Riess et al. (R19), as well …
Dynamical Dark sectors and Neutrino masses and abundances
2020
We investigate generalized interacting dark matter-dark energy scenarios with a time-dependent coupling parameter, allowing also for freedom in the neutrino sector. The models are tested in the phantom and quintessence regimes, characterized by an equation of state $w_x-1$, respectively. Our analyses show that for some of the scenarios the existing tensions on the Hubble constant $H_0$ and on the clustering parameter $S_8$ can be significantly alleviated. The relief is either due to \textit{(a)} a dark energy component which lies within the phantom region; or \textit{(b)} the presence of a dynamical coupling in quintessence scenarios. The inclusion of massive neutrinos into the interaction …
All-inclusive interacting dark sector cosmologies
2020
In this paper we explore possible extensions of Interacting Dark Energy cosmologies, where Dark Energy and Dark Matter interact non-gravitationally with one another. In particular, we focus on the neutrino sector, analyzing the effect of both neutrino masses and the effective number of neutrino species. We consider the Planck 2018 legacy release data combined with several other cosmological probes, finding no evidence for new physics in the dark radiation sector. The current neutrino constraints from cosmology should be therefore regarded as robust, as they are not strongly dependent on the dark sector physics, once all the available observations are combined. Namely, we find a total neutri…
Lepton number asymmetries and the lower bound on the reheating temperature
2017
We show that the reheating temperature of a matter-domination era in the early universe can be pushed down to the neutrino decoupling temperature at around $2 \ {\rm MeV}$ if the reheating takes place through non-hadronic decays of the dominant matter and neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries are still large enough, $|L| \gtrsim \mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ (depending on the neutrino flavor) at the end of reheating.
Emergent Dark Energy, neutrinos and cosmological tensions
2020
The Phenomenologically Emergent Dark Energy model, a dark energy model with the same number of free parameters as the flat $\Lambda$CDM, has been proposed as a working example of a minimal model which can avoid the current cosmological tensions. A straightforward question is whether or not the inclusion of massive neutrinos and extra relativistic species may spoil such an appealing phenomenological alternative. We present the bounds on $M_{\nu}$ and $N_{\rm eff}$ and comment on the long standing $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$ tensions within this cosmological framework with a wealth of cosmological observations. Interestingly, we find, at $95\%$ confidence level, and with the most complete set of cos…
Search for Quantum Black Hole Production in High-Invariant-MassLepton+JetFinal States UsingppCollisions ats=8 TeVand the ATLAS Detector
2014
This Letter presents a search for quantum black-hole production using 20.3 fb(-1) of data collected with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The quantum black holes are assumed to decay into a final state characterized by a lepton (electron or muon) and a jet. In either channel, no event with a lepton-jet invariant mass of 3.5 TeV or more is observed, consistent with the expected background. Limits are set on the product of cross sections and branching fractions for the lepton + jet final states of quantum black holes produced in a search region for invariant masses above 1 TeV. The combined 95% confidence level upper limit on this product for quantum black hol…
Gravity and handedness of photons
2017
Vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields are altered in presence of a strong gravitational background, with important physical consequences. We argue that a non-trivial spacetime geometry can act as an optically active medium for quantum electromagnetic radiation, in such a way that the state of polarization of radiation changes in time, even in the absence of electromagnetic sources. This is a quantum effect, and is a consequence of an anomaly related to the classical invariance under electric-magnetic duality rotations in Maxwell theory.
Lens Effect and CMB Anisotropies: Simulations
2003
Cosmological structures deviate the photons of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The resulting deviations can be calculated moving photons in the gravitational field of realistic lens distributions obtained from numerical simulations. The main goal of this paper is answering the following question: Which types of numerical simulations are appropriate to study angular CMB deformations caused by lensing?
Spontaneous creation of circularly polarized photons in chiral astrophysical systems
2020
This work establishes a relation between chiral anomalies in curved spacetimes and the radiative content of the gravitational field. In particular, we show that a flux of circularly polarized gravitational waves triggers the spontaneous creation of photons with net circular polarization from the quantum vacuum. Using waveform catalogues we identify precessing binary black holes as astrophysical configurations that emit such gravitational radiation, and then solve the fully non-linear Einstein's equations with numerical relativity to evaluate the net effect. The quantum amplitude for a merger is comparable to the Hawking emission rate of the final black hole, and small to be directly observe…