118426631
Acoustic signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background bispectrum from primordial magnetic fields
Using the full radiation transfer function, we numerically calculate the CMB angular bispectrum seeded by the compensated magnetic scalar density mode. We find that, for the string inspired primordial magnetic fields characterized by index nB = −2.9 and mean-field amplitude Bλ = 9nG, the angular bispectrum is dominated by two primordial magnetic shapes. The first magnetic shape looks similar to the one from local-type primordial curvature perturbations, so both the amplitude and profile of the Komatsu-Spergel estimator (reduced bispectrum) seeded by this shape are almost the same as those of the primary CMB anisotropies. However, for different parameter sets (l1,l2), this ``local-type'' reduced bispectrum oscillates around different asymptotic values in the high-l3 regime because of the effect of the Lorentz force, which is exerted by the primordial magnetic fields on the charged baryons. This feature is different from the standard case where all modes approach to zero asymptotically in the high-l limit. On the other hand, the second magnetic shape appears only in the primordial magnetic field model. The amplitude of the Komatsu-Spergel estimator sourced by the second shape diverges in the low-l regime because of the negative slope of shape. In the high-l regime, this amplitude is approximately equal to that of the first estimator, but with a reversal phase.
119229799
Cosmological parameter estimation from CMB and X-ray cluster after Planck
. We investigate constraints on cosmological parameters in three 8-parameter models with the summed neutrino mass as a free parameter, by a joint analysis of CCCP X-ray cluster data, the newly released Planck CMB data as well as some external data sets including baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the 6dFGS, SDSS DR7 and BOSS DR9 surveys, and Hubble Space Telescope Ho measurement. We find that the combined data strongly favor a non-zero neutrino masses at more than 3 sigma confidence level in these non-vanilla models. Allowing the CMB lensing amplitude A(L) to vary, we find A(L) > 1 at 3 sigma confidence level. For dark energy with a constant equation of state w, we obtain w < -1 at 3 sigma confidence level. The estimate of the matter power spectrum amplitude 08 is discrepant with the Planck value at 2 sigma confidence level, which reflects some tension between X-ray cluster data and Planck data in these non-vanilla models. The tension can be alleviated by adding a 9% systematic shift in the cluster mass function.
118584779
Reconstruction of the primordial power spectra with Planck and BICEP2 data
By using the cubic spline interpolation method, we reconstruct the shape of the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra from the recently released Planck temperature and BICEP2 polarization cosmic microwave background data. We find that the vanishing scalar index running (dn(s)= d ln k) model is strongly disfavored at more than 3 sigma confidence level on the k = 0.0002 Mpc(-1) scale. Furthermore, the power-law parametrization gives a blue-tilt tensor spectrum, no matter using only the first five bandpowers n(t) = 1.20(-0.64)(+0.56) (95% C.L.) or the full nine bandpowers nt 1.24(-0.58)(+0.51) (95% C.L.) of BICEP2 data sets. Unlike the large tensor-to-scalar ratio value (r similar to 0.20) under the scale-invariant tensor spectrum assumption, our interpolation approach gives r(0.002) < 0.060 (95% C.L.) by using the first five bandpowers of BICEP2 data. After comparing the results with/without BICEP2 data, we find that Planck temperature with small tensor amplitude signals and BICEP2 polarization data with large tensor amplitude signals dominate the tensor spectrum reconstruction on the large and small scales, respectively. Hence, the resulting blue tensor tilt actually reflects the tension between Planck and BICEP2 data.
118634823
Gauss–Bonnet term on vacuum decay
We study the effect of the Gauss-Bonnet term on vacuum decay process in the Colennan-De Luccia formalism. The Gauss-Bonnet term has ail exponential Coupling With the real scalar held, which appears in the low energy effective action of string theories. We Calculate numerically the instanton Solution, which describes the process of vacuum decay, and obtain the critical size Of bubble. We find that the Gauss-Bonnet term has a nontrivial effect on the false Vacuum decay, depending oil the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
15707844
Holography, UV/IR Relation, Causal Entropy Bound, and Dark Energy
The constraint on the total energy in a given spatial region is given from holography by the mass of a black hole that just fits in that region, which leads to an UV/IR relation: the maximal energy density in that region is propotional to M(p)(2)/L(2), wher M(p) is the Planck mass and L is the spatial scale of that region under consideration. Assuming that maximal black hole in the universe is formed through gravitational collapse of perturbations in the universe, then the "Jeans" scale of the perturbations gives a causal connection scale R(CC). For gravitational perturbations, R(CC)(-2) = Max ((H) over dot + 2H(2), -(H) over dot) for a flat universe. We study the cosmological dynamics of the corresponding vacuum energy density by choosing the causal connection scale as the IR cutoff in the UV/IR relation, in the cases of the vacuum energy density as an independently conserved energy component and an effective dynamical cosmological constant, respectively. It turns out that only the case with the choice R(CC)(-2) = (H) over dot + 2H(2), could be consistent with the current cosmological observations when the vacuum density appears as an independently conserved energy component. In this case, the model is called holographic Ricci scalar dark energy model in the literature.
119260706
Parametrized modified gravity constraints after Planck
We constrain $f(R)$ and chameleon-type modified gravity in the framework of the Berstchinger-Zukin parametrization using the recent released Planck data, including both CMB temperature power spectrum and lensing potential power spectrum. Some other external data sets are included, such as BAO measurements from the 6dFGS, SDSS DR7 and BOSS DR9 surveys, HST $H_0$ measurement and supernovae from Union2.1 compilation. We also use WMAP9yr data for consistency check and comparison. For $f(R)$ gravity, WMAP9yr results can only give quite a loose constraint on the modified gravity parameter $B_0$, which is related to the present value of the Compton wavelength of the extra scalar degree of freedom, $B_0<3.37$ at $95\% {\rm C.L.}$ We demonstrate that this constraint mainly comes from the late ISW effect. With only Planck CMB temperature power-spectrum data, we can improve the WMAP9yr result by a factor $3.7$ ($B_0<0.91$ at $95\% {\rm C.L.}$). If the Planck lensing potential power-spectrum data are also taken into account, the constraint can be further strenghtened by a factor $5.1$ ($B_0<0.18$ at $95\% {\rm C.L.}$). This major improvement mainly comes from the small-scale lensing signal. Furthermore, BAO, HST and supernovae data could slightly improve the $B_0$ bound ($B_0<0.12$ at $95\% {\rm C.L.}$).For the chameleon-type model, we find that the data set which we used cannot constrain the Compton wavelength $B_0$ and the potential index $s$ of chameleon field, but can give a tight constraint on the parameter $\beta_1=1.043^{+0.163}_{-0.104}$ at $95\% {\rm C.L.}$ ($\beta_1=1$ in general relativity), which accounts for the non-minimal coupling between the chameleon field and the matter component. In addition, we find that both modified gravity models we considered favor a relatively higher Hubble parameter than the concordance LCDM model in general relativity.
123205869
Effect of finite-temperature quantum fields on the early universe☆
Abstract The finite-temperature effect of a quantized conformally invariant scalar field in a closed Robertson-Walker universe is studied. The general solution is characterized by one parameter ξ = Ta which measures the radiation content of the universe. In the high-temperature limit it reduces to the Fischetti-Hurtle-Hu solution where the universe expands linearly in cosmic time near the singularity. In the low-temperature limit, it reduces to a Starobinsky-de Sitter type solution where the singularity is avoided in an exponential expansion. Several characteristic functional dependences of ξ(t) are used to illustrate possible entropy generating processes. The finite-temperature formalism thus provides a unifying framework for the description of the interplay of vacuum and radiation energy and their combined effect on the state of the early universe.
118638822
Metric fluctuations of an evaporating black hole from backreaction of stress tensor fluctuations
This paper delineates the first steps in a systematic quantitative study of the spacetime fluctuations induced by quantum fields in an evaporating black hole under the stochastic gravity program. The central object of interest is the noise kernel, which is the symmetrized two-point quantum correlation function of the stress tensor operator. As a concrete example we apply it to the study of the spherically symmetric sector of metric perturbations around an evaporating black hole background geometry. For macroscopic black holes we find that those fluctuations grow and eventually become important when considering sufficiently long periods of time (of the order of the evaporation time), but well before the Planckian regime is reached. In addition, the assumption of a simple correlation between the fluctuations of the energy flux crossing the horizon and far from it, which was made in earlier work on spherically symmetric induced fluctuations, is carefully scrutinized and found to be invalid. Our analysis suggests the existence of an infinite amplitude for the fluctuations when trying to localize the horizon as a three-dimensional hypersurface, as in the classical case, and, as a consequence, a more accurate picture of the horizon as possessing a finite effective width due to quantum more » fluctuations. This is supported by a systematic analysis of the noise kernel in curved spacetime smeared with different functions under different conditions; the details are collected in the appendixes. This case study shows a pathway for probing quantum metric fluctuations near the horizon and understanding their physical meaning. « less
121158309
Finite temperature energy density and effective quasi-potential in anisotropic universes
Abstract By means of the adiabatic expansion method we derive the finite temperature energy density and the finite temperature effective quasi-potential of a massive λ∅ 4 scalar field arbitrarily coupled to a Bianchi type I universe with small anisotropy. These results and higher-dimensional generalizations thereof are useful for the study of thermal and quantum back-reaction effects inBianchi and Kaluza-Klein cosmologies.
15018343
Uncertainty Relation at Finite Temperature
We use the quantum Brownian model to derive the uncertainty relation for a quantum open system. We examine how the fluctuations of a quantum system evolve after it is brought in contact with a heat bath at finite temperature. We study the decoherence and relaxation processes and use this example to examine 1) the relation between quantum and thermal fluctuations; and 2) the conditions when the two basic postulates of quantum statistical mechanics become valid.
118646787
Symmetry behavior in the Einstein universe: effect of spacetime curvature and arbitrary field coupling
Abstract For the investigation of the effect of spacetime curvature and arbitrary field coupling on symmetry restoration, we have computed by zeta-function regularization the one-loop effective potential for a self-interacting scalar field arbitrarily coupled to a static Robertson-Walker universe. The classical contribution of curvature can restore broken symmetries for a wide range of parameters from conformal to near-minimal couplings whereas the quantum contribution is important only for a small range of values near the minimal coupling point. The symmetry behavior of the two extremes is found to be very different.