Gravitational particle production in braneworld cosmology

Gravitational particle production in time variable metric of an expanding universe is efficient only when the Hubble parameter $H$ is not too small in comparison with the particle mass. In standard cosmology, the huge value of the Planck mass $M_{Pl}$ makes the mechanism phenomenologically irrelevant. On the other hand, in braneworld cosmology the expansion rate of the early universe can be much faster and many weakly interacting particles can be abundantly created. Cosmological implications are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, v3 with new definition of $\Lambda$ and minor text modification

Baryogenesis from Gravitational Decay of TeV-Particles in Theories with Low Scale Gravity

In models with the fundamental gravity scale in the TeV range, early cosmology is quite different from the standard picture, because the universe must have arisen at a much lower temperature and the electroweak symmetry was probably never restored. In this context, baryogenesis appears to be problematic: if the involved physics is essentially that of the Standard Model, ``conventional'' non-conserving baryon number processes are completely negligible at such low temperatures. In this paper we show that the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe may be generated by gravitational decay of TeV-mass particles: such objects can be out of equilibrium after inflation and, if their mass is of the same order of magnitude as the true quantum gravity scale, they can quickly decay through a black hole intermediate state, violating global symmetries, in particular, baryon number. In this context, we take advantage of the fact that the ``Sakharov conditions'' for baryogenesis can be more easily satisfied with a low fundamental scale of gravity.Comment: 18 pages, added reference

Baryogenesis, 30 Years after

A review of the basic principles of baryogenesis is given. Baryogenesis in heavy particle decays as well as electroweak, SUSY-condensate, and spontaneous baryogenesis are discussed. The models of abundant creation of antimatter in the universe are briefly reviewed.Comment: 30 pages, latex twic

Difference between radiative transition rates in atoms and antiatoms

We demonstrate that CP violation results in a difference of the partial decay rates of atoms and antiatoms. The magnitude of this difference is estimated.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Massive sterile neutrinos as warm Dark Matter

We show that massive sterile neutrinos mixed with the ordinary ones may be produced in the early universe in the right amount to be natural warm dark matter particles. Their mass should be below 40 keV and the corresponding mixing angles sin^2 2\theta > 10^{-11} for mixing with \nu_\mu or \nu_\tau, while mixing with \nu_e is slightly stronger bounded with mass less than 30 keV.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, references and acknowledgement added; discussion on SN bound updated, matches version in Astropart.phy

Evolution of thick domain walls in inflationary and p=wρp=w\rho universe

We study the evolution of thick domain walls in the different models of cosmological inflation, in the matter-dominated and radiation-dominated universe, or more generally in the universe with the equation of state $p=w\rho$. We have found that the domain wall evolution crucially depends on the time-dependent parameter $C(t)=1/(H(t)\delta_0)^2$, where $H(t)$ is the Hubble parameter and $\delta_0$ is the thickness of the wall in flat space-time. For $C(t)>2$ the physical thickness of the wall, $a(t)\delta(t)$, tends with time to $\delta_0$, which is microscopically small. Otherwise, when $C(t) \leq 2$, the wall steadily expands and can grow up to a cosmologically large size.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Sterile neutrinos, lepton asymmetries, primordial elements: how much of each?

We investigate quantitatively the extent to which having a primordial leptonic asymmetry (n_nu \neq n_nubar) relaxes the bounds on light sterile neutrinos imposed by BBN and LSS. We adopt a few assumptions that allow us to solve the neutrino evolution equations over a broad range of mixing parameters and asymmetries. For the general cases of sterile mixing with the electron or muon neutrino, we identify the regions that can be reopened. For the particular case of a LSND-like sterile neutrino, soon to be rejected or confirmed by MiniBooNE, we find that an asymmetry of the order of 10^-4 is needed to lift the conflicts with cosmology.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. v2: References and minor comments added. Matches version published on PR

Shape of the inflaton potential and the efficiency of the universe heating

It is shown that the efficiency of the universe heating by an inflaton field depends not only on the possible presence of parametric resonance in the production of scalar particles but also strongly depends on the character of the inflaton approach to its mechanical equilibrium point. In particular, when the inflaton oscillations deviate from pure harmonic ones toward a succession of step functions, the production probability rises by several orders of magnitude. This in turn leads to a much higher temperature of the universe after the inflaton decay, in comparison to the harmonic case. An example of the inflaton potential is presented which creates a proper modification of the evolution of the inflaton toward equilibrium and does not destroy the nice features of inflation.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; final version published in EPJ