118889842
Superimposed oscillations in the WMAP data
The possibility that the cosmic variance outliers present in the recently released Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) multipole moments are due to oscillations in the primordial power spectrum is investigated. Since the most important contribution to the WMAP likelihood originates from the outliers at a relatively small angular scale (around the first Doppler peak), special attention is paid to these in contrast with previous studies on the subject which have concentrated on the large scales outliers only (i.e., the quadrupole and octupole). As a physically motivated example, the case where the oscillations are of trans-Planckian origin is considered. It is shown that the presence of the oscillations causes an important drop in the WMAP χ2 of about 15. The F test reveals that such a drop has a probability less than 0.06% to occur by chance and can therefore be considered as statistically significant.
9441094
Topology change in canonical quantum cosmology
We develop the canonical quantization of a midisuperspace model which contains, as a subspace, a minisuperspace constituted of a Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker universe filled with homogeneous scalar and dust fields, where the sign of the intrinsic curvature of the spacelike hypersurfaces of homogeneity is not specified, allowing the study of topology change in these hypersurfaces. We solve the Wheeler-DeWitt equation of the midisuperspace model restricted to this minisuperspace subspace in the semiclassical approximation. Adopting the conditional probability interpretation, we find that some of the solutions present change of topology of the homogeneous hypersurfaces. However, this result depends crucially on the interpretation we adopt: using the usual probabilistic interpretation, we find selection rules which forbid some of these topology changes.
119353279
Stochastic Quintessence
The behavior of the quintessence field is studied during inflation. In order to have a satisfactory model of dark energy, the quintessence field value today should be as insensible to the initial conditions as possible. Usually, only the dependence on the initial conditions specified at the end of inflation or, equivalently, at the beginning of the radiation dominated era, is considered. Provided the quintessence field is initially within a large but, crucially, finite interval, its present value becomes independent of the initial value it started from. The question as to whether inflation naturally drives the quintessence field to the above-mentioned interval is addressed. Since the quantum effects turn out to be important, the formalism of stochastic inflation is used in order to calculate the evolution of the quintessence field. Moreover, the quantum effects originating from the inflaton field are also taken into account and are proved to be sub-dominant in most cases. Finally, the requirement that the quintessence field is on tracks today is shown to imply quite tight constraints on the initial values of the quintessence and inflaton fields at the beginning of inflation. In particular, the initial value of the inflaton field cannot be too large which indicates that the quintessential scenario seems to be compatible with inflation only if the total number of e-folds is quite small.
119240885
Constraints on moduli cosmology from the production of dark matter and baryon isocurvature fluctuations
We set constraints on moduli cosmology from the production of dark matter—radiation and baryon— radiation isocurvature fluctuations through modulus decay, assuming the modulus remains light during inflation. We find that the moduli problem becomes worse at the perturbative level as a significant part of the parameter space m σ (modulus mass)—σ inf (modulus vacuum expectation value at the end of inflation) is constrained by the nonobservation of significant isocurvature fluctuations. We discuss in detail the evolution of the modulus vacuum expectation value and perturbations, in particular, the consequences of Hubble scale corrections to the modulus potential, and the stochastic motion of the modulus during inflation. We show, in particular, that a high modulus mass scale m σ ≳ 100 TeV, which allows the modulus to evade big bang nucleosynthesis constraints is strongly constrained at the perturbative level. We find that generically, solving the moduli problem requires the inflationary scale to be much smaller than 10 13 GeV.
15021448
Amplitude of superhorizon cosmological perturbations
We study the influence of reheating on super-horizon density perturbations and gravitational waves. We correct wrong claims [L. P. Grishchuk Phys. Rev. D 50, 7154 (1994) and gr-qc/9801011] about the joining of perturbations at cosmological transitions and about the quantization of cosmological perturbations.
18746371
Non-vacuum initial states for the cosmological perturbations and the back-reaction problem of inflation
In the framework of Inflationary theory, the assumption that the quantum state of the perturbations is a non-vacuum state leads to a difficulty: non-vacuum initial states imply, in general, a large energy density of inflaton field quanta, not of a cosmological term type, that could prevent the inflationary phase. In this short note, we discuss in detail why this is so, keeping an eye on possible non-Gaussian features due to considering generic non-vacuum initial states.
120424709
The histrap proposal: Heavy-ion storage ring for atomic physics
Abstract HISTRAP, Heavy-Ion Storage Ring for Atomic Physics, is a proposed 46.8-m-circumference synchrotron-cooling-storage ring optimized to accelerate, decelerate, and store beams of highly charged very-heavy ions at energies appropriate for advanced atomic physics research. The ring is designed to allow studies of electron-ion, photon-ion, ion-atom, and ion-ion interactions. An electron cooling system will provide ion beams with small angular divergence and energy spread for precision spectroscopic studies and also is necessary to allow the deceleration of heavy ions to low energies. HISTRAP will have a maximum bending power of 2.0 T m and will be injected with ions from either the existing Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility 25-MV tandem accelerator or from a dedicated ECR source and 250 keV/nucleon RFQ linac.
124286964
INNOVATIONS IN ISOCHRONOUS CYCLOTRONS.
Since the last International Conference on Isochronous Cyclotrons, three major projects have been approved: the 585 MeV proton cyclotron of the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research (SIN) to be built at Villigen near Zurich; the 500 MeV Hcyclotron of the Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF) at Vancouver, British Columbia; and the 200 MeV variable energy cyclotron of the Indiana University. A much smaller but unique project has been successfully brought into operation, the cyclograaff at Duke University which combines a small cyclotron with a tandem accelerator in a way which enhances the desirable characteristics of both. Finally, the most important happening since the last conference has been the renewed interest in accelerators for very heavy ions. In the United States alone, there will be more than ten major proposals. This paper reviews the activities and progress of the past several years and discusses some of the important innovations accomplished or foreseen.
115293095
TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE ACCELERATION OF HEAVY IONS.
115550416
RECENT PROGRESS ON A SUPERCURRENT SEPARATED ORBIT CYCLOTRON.
118969271
Lattice design of HISTRAP: Heavy Ion Storage Ring for Atomic Physics
HISTRAP, a Heavy-Ion Storage Ring for Atomic Physics, is a proposed 46.8-m-circumference synchrotron-cooling-storage ring optimized to accelerate, cool, decelerate, and store beams of highly charged very-heavy ions at energies appropriate for advanced atomic physics research. This four-fold symmetrical ring has a maximum bending power of 2 Tm. It has achromatic bends and uses quadrupole triplets for focusing.