Archeops, mapping the CMB sky from large to small angular scales

Archeops is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the temperature fluctuations of the CMB on a large region of the sky ($\simeq 30$) with a high angular resolution (10 arcminutes) and a high sensitivity ($60\mu K$ per pixel). Archeops will perform a measurement of the CMB anisotropies power spectrum from large angular scales ($\ell\simeq 30$) to small angular scales ($\ell \simeq 800$). Archeops flew for the first time for a test flight in July 1999 from Sicily to Spain and the first scientific flight took place from Sweden to Russia in January 2001. The data analysis is on its way and I present here preliminary results, realistic simulations showing the expected accuracy on the measurement of the power spectrum and perspectives for the incoming flights (Winter 2001/2003).Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, proceedings to TAUP2001 conference, LNGS, Italy, Sept. 200

Primordial Nucleosynthesis: an updated comparison of observational light nuclei abundances with theoretical predictions

An up to date review of Standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis predictions vs the astrophysical estimates of light nuclei abundances is here presented. In particular the analysis reports the expected ranges for baryon fraction and effective number of neutrinos as obtained by BBN only.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of NOW 200

Reconstructing Dark Matter Density with e^+e^- Linear Collider in Focus-Point Supersymmetry

It has been known that, in the focus point scenario of supersymmetry, the thermal relic of the lightest superparticle (LSP) is known to be a good candidate of the cold dark matter. Assuming that the LSP in the focus-point scenario be the cold dark matter, we address a question how and how well the relic density of the LSP can be determined once the superparticles are found at future e^+e^- linear collider. We will see that the determinations of the mass of the LSP as well as those of the Higgsino-like chargino and neutralinos, which will be possible by a study of the decay kinematics of the chargino or by threshold scan, will give us important information to theoretically reconstruct the relic density. Even if the Higgsino-like superparticles and the LSP are the only superparticles which are kinematically accessible, relic density of the LSP may be calculated with the accuracy of factor \sim 2; by adopting a mild theoretical assumption or by determining the masses of the Wino-like superparticles, uncertaintiy can be reduced to \sim 10 % or smaller.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

A Century of Cosmology

In the century since Einstein's anno mirabilis of 1905, our concept of the Universe has expanded from Kapteyn's flattened disk of stars only 10 kpc across to an observed horizon about 30 Gpc across that is only a tiny fraction of an immensely large inflated bubble. The expansion of our knowledge about the Universe, both in the types of data and the sheer quantity of data, has been just as dramatic. This talk will summarize this century of progress and our current understanding of the cosmos.Comment: Talk presented at the "Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology - Einstein's Legacy" meeting in Munich, Nov 2005. Proceedings will be published in the Springer-Verlag "ESO Astrophysics Symposia" series. 10 pages Latex with 2 figure

A search for concentric rings with unusual variance in the 7-year WMAP temperature maps using a fast convolution approach

We present a method for the computation of the variance of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps on azimuthally symmetric patches using a fast convolution approach. As an example of the application of the method, we show results for the search for concentric rings with unusual variance in the 7-year WMAP data. We re-analyse claims concerning the unusual variance profile of rings centred at two locations on the sky that have recently drawn special attention in the context of the conformal cyclic cosmology scenario proposed by Penrose (2009). We extend this analysis to rings with larger radii and centred on other points of the sky. Using the fast convolution technique enables us to perform this search with higher resolution and a wider range of radii than in previous studies. We show that for one of the two special points rings with radii larger than 10 degrees have systematically lower variance in comparison to the concordance LambdaCDM model predictions. However, we show that this deviation is caused by the multipoles up to order l=7. Therefore, the deficit of power for concentric rings with larger radii is yet another manifestation of the well-known anomalous CMB distribution on large angular scales. Furthermore, low variance rings can be easily found centred on other points in the sky. In addition, we show also the results of a search for extremely high variance rings. As for the low variance rings, some anomalies seem to be related to the anomalous distribution of the low-order multipoles of the WMAP CMB maps. As such our results are not consistent with the conformal cyclic cosmology scenario.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Published in MNRAS. This research was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-08-CEXC-0002-01

Pre-Big Bang, fundamental Physics and noncyclic cosmologies

Contribution à la conférence ICFP 2012, International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, Kolymbari, Crete 10-16 juin 2012International audienceDetailed analyses of WMAP and Planck data can have significant implications for noncyclic pre-Big Bang approaches incorporating a new fundamental scale beyond the Planck scale and, potentially, new ultimate constituents of matter with unconventional basic properties as compared to standard particles. Cosmic-ray experiments at the highest energies can also yield relevant information. Hopefully, future studies will be able to deal with alternatives: i) to standard physics for the structure of the physical vacuum, the nature of space-time, the validity of quantum field theory and conventional symmetries, the interpretation of string-like theories...; ii) to standard cosmology concerning the origin and evolution of our Universe, unconventional solutions to the cosmological constant problem, the validity of inflationary scenarios, the need for dark matter and dark energy... Lorentz-like symmetries for the properties of matter can then be naturally stable space-time configurations resulting from more general primordial scenarios that incorporate physics beyond the Planck scale and describe the formation and evolution of the physical vacuum. A possible answer to the question of the origin of half-integer spins can be provided by a primordial spinorial space-time with two complex coordinates instead of the conventional four real ones, leading to a really new cosmology. We discuss basic questions and phenomenological topics concerning noncyclic pre-Big Bang cosmologies and potentially related physics. (Contribution to the International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, ICFP 2012, Kolymbari, Crete, June 10-16 2012