Choreography, controversy and child sex abuse: Theoretical reflections on a cultural criminological analysis of dance in a pop music video

This article was inspired by the controversy over claims of ‘pedophilia!!!!’ undertones and the ‘triggering’ of memories of childhood sexual abuse in some viewers by the dance performance featured in the music video for Sia’s ‘Elastic Heart’ (2015). The case is presented for acknowledging the hidden and/or overlooked presence of dance in social scientific theory and cultural studies and how these can enhance and advance cultural criminological research. Examples of how these insights have been used within other disciplinary frameworks to analyse and address child sex crime and sexual trauma are provided, and the argument is made that popular cultural texts such as dance in pop music videos should be regarded as significant in analysing and tracing public perceptions and epistemologies of crimes such as child sex abuse

Cosmology With Many Light Scalar Fields: Stochastic Inflation and Loop Corrections

We explore the consequences of the existence of a very large number of light scalar degrees of freedom in the early universe. We distinguish between participator and spectator fields. The former have a small mass, and can contribute to the inflationary dynamics; the latter are either strictly massless or have a negligible VEV. In N-flation and generic assisted inflation scenarios, inflation is a co-operative phenomenon driven by N participator fields, none of which could drive inflation on their own. We review upper bounds on N, as a function of the inflationary Hubble scale H. We then consider stochastic and eternal inflation in models with N participator fields showing that individual fields may evolve stochastically while the whole ensemble behaves deterministically, and that a wide range of eternal inflationary scenarios are possible in this regime. We then compute one-loop quantum corrections to the inflationary power spectrum. These are largest with N spectator fields and a single participator field, and the resulting bound on N is always weaker than those obtained in other ways. We find that loop corrections to the N-flation power spectrum do not scale with N, and thus place no upper bound on the number of participator fields. This result also implies that, at least to leading order, the theory behaves like a composite single scalar field. In order to perform this calculation, we address a number of issues associated with loop calculations in the Schwinger-Keldysh "in-in" formalism.Comment: Typos corrected. Matches published versio

Constraining the Inflationary Equation of State

We explore possible constraints on the inflationary equation state: p=w\rho. While w must be close to -1 for those modes that contribute to the observed power spectrum, for those modes currently out of experimental reach, the constraints on w are much weaker, with only w<-1/3 as an a priori requirement. We find, however, that limits on the reheat temperature and the inflationary energy scale constrain w further, though there is still ample parameter space for a vastly different (accelerating) equation of state between the end of quasi-de Sitter inflation and the beginning of the radiation-dominated era. In the event that such an epoch of acceleration could be observed, we review the consequences for the primordial power spectrum.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figur

Inflation and the Scale Dependent Spectral Index: Prospects and Strategies

We consider the running of the spectral index as a probe of both inflation itself, and of the overall evolution of the very early universe. Surveying a collection of simple single field inflationary models, we confirm that the magnitude of the running is relatively consistent, unlike the tensor amplitude, which varies by orders of magnitude. Given this target, we confirm that the running is potentially detectable by future large scale structure or 21 cm observations, but that only the most futuristic measurements can distinguish between these models on the basis of their running. For any specified inflationary scenario, the combination of the running index and unknown post-inflationary expansion history induces a theoretical uncertainty in the predicted value of the spectral index. This effect can easily dominate the statistical uncertainty with which Planck and its successors are expected to measure the spectral index. More positively, upcoming cosmological experiments thus provide an intriguing probe of physics between TeV and GUT scales by constraining the reheating history associated with any specified inflationary model, opening a window into the "primordial dark age" that follows the end of inflation.Comment: 32 pages. v2 and v3 Minor reference updates /clarification

Constraining holographic inflation with WMAP

In a class of recently proposed models, the early universe is strongly coupled and described holographically by a three-dimensional, weakly coupled, super-renormalizable quantum field theory. This scenario leads to a power spectrum of scalar perturbations that differs from the usual empirical LCDM form and the predictions of generic models of single field, slow roll inflation. This spectrum is characterized by two parameters: an amplitude, and a parameter g related to the coupling constant of the dual theory. We estimate these parameters, using WMAP and other astrophysical data. We compute Bayesian evidence for both the holographic model and standard LCDM and find that their difference is not significant, although LCDM provides a somewhat better fit to the data. However, it appears that Planck will permit a definitive test of this holographic scenario.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figs, published versio

Male frequent attenders of general practice and their help seeking preferences

Background: Low rates of health service usage by men are commonly linked to masculine values and traditional male gender roles. However, not all men conform to these stereotypical notions of masculinity, with some men choosing to attend health services on a frequent basis, for a variety of different reasons. This study draws upon the accounts of male frequent attenders of the General Practitioner's (GP) surgery, examining their help-seeking preferences and their reasons for choosing services within general practice over other sources of support. Methods: The study extends thematic analysis of interview data from the Self Care in Primary Care study (SCinPC), a large scale multi-method evaluation study of a self care programme delivered to frequent attenders of general practice. Data were collected from 34 semi-structured interviews conducted with men prior to their exposure to the intervention. Results: The ages of interviewed men ranged from 16 to 72 years, and 91% of the sample (n= 31) stated that they had a current health condition. The thematic analysis exposed diverse perspectives within male help-seeking preferences and the decision-making behind men's choice of services. The study also draws attention to the large variation in men's knowledge of available health services, particularly alternatives to general practice. Furthermore, the data revealed some men's lack of confidence in existing alternatives to general practice. Conclusions: The study highlights the complex nature of male help-seeking preferences, and provides evidence that there should be no 'one size fits all' approach to male service provision. It also provides impetus for conducting further studies into this under researched area of interest. © 2011 WPMH GmbH

Higher Order Corrections to the Primordial Gravitational Wave Spectrum and its Impact on Parameter Estimates for Inflation

We study the impact of the use of the power series expression for the primordial tensor spectrum on parameter estimation from future direct detection gravitational wave experiments. The spectrum approximated by the power series expansion may give large deviation from the true (fiducial) value when it is normalized at CMB scale because of the large separation between CMB and direct detection scales. We derive the coefficients of the higher order terms of the expansion up to the sixth order within the framework of the slow-roll approximation and investigate how well the inclusion of higher order terms improves the analytic prediction of the spectrum amplitude by comparing with numerical results. Using the power series expression, we consider future constraints on inflationary parameters expected from direct detection experiments of the inflationary gravitational wave background and show that the truncation of the higher order terms can lead to incorrect evaluation of the parameters. We present two example models; a quadratic chaotic inflation model and mixed inflaton and curvaton model with a quartic inflaton potential.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, revised version accepted by JCA

Running Spectral Index and Formation of Primordial Black Hole in Single Field Inflation Models

A broad range of single field models of inflation are analyzed in light of all relevant recent cosmological data, checking whether they can lead to the formation of long-lived Primordial Black Holes (PBHs). To that end we calculate the spectral index of the power spectrum of primordial perturbations as well as its first and second derivatives. PBH formation is possible only if the spectral index increases significantly at small scales, i.e. large wave number $k$. Since current data indicate that the first derivative $\alpha_S$ of the spectral index $n_S(k_0)$ is negative at the pivot scale $k_0$, PBH formation is only possible in the presence of a sizable and positive second derivative ("running of the running") $\beta_S$. Among the three small-field and five large-field models we analyze, only one small-field model, the "running mass" model, allows PBH formation, for a narrow range of parameters. We also note that none of the models we analyze can accord for a large and negative value of $\alpha_S$, which is weakly preferred by current data.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, Refs. added, Minor textual change; version to appear in JCA

Primordial Black Holes, Eternal Inflation, and the Inflationary Parameter Space after WMAP5

We consider constraints on inflation driven by a single, minimally coupled scalar field in the light of the WMAP5 dataset, as well as ACBAR and the SuperNova Legacy Survey. We use the Slow Roll Reconstruction algorithm to derive optimal constraints on the inflationary parameter space. The scale dependence in the slope of the scalar spectrum permitted by WMAP5 is large enough to lead to viable models where the small scale perturbations have a substantial amplitude when extrapolated to the end of inflation. We find that excluding parameter values which would cause the overproduction of primordial black holes or even the onset of eternal inflation leads to potentially significant constraints on the slow roll parameters. Finally, we present a more sophisticated approach to including priors based on the total duration of inflation, and discuss the resulting restrictions on the inflationary parameter space.Comment: v2: version published in JCAP. Minor clarifications and references adde