Cosmological Moduli Problem and Thermal Inflation Models

In superstring theories, there exist various dilaton and modulus fields which masses are expected to be of the order of the gravitino mass $m_{3/2}$. These fields lead to serious cosmological difficulties, so called ``cosmological moduli problem'', because a large number of moduli particles are produced as the coherent oscillations after the primordial inflation. We make a comprehensive study whether the thermal inflation can solve the cosmological moduli problem in the whole modulus mass region $m_\phi \sim 10 eV - 10^4 GeV$ predicted by both hidden sector supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking and gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models. In particular, we take into account the primordial inflation model whose reheating temperature is so low that its reheating process finishes after the thermal inflation ends. We find that the above mass region $m_\phi (\simeq m_{3/2}) \sim 10 eV - 10^4 GeV$ survives from various cosmological constraints in the presence of the thermal inflation.Comment: 49 pages, 17 figure

Hadronic Axion Model in Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking and Cosmology of Saxion

Recently we have proposed a simple hadronic axion model within gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. In this paper we discuss various cosmological consequences of the model in great detail. A particular attention is paid to a saxion, a scalar partner of an axion, which is produced as a coherent oscillation in the early universe. We show that our model is cosmologically viable, if the reheating temperature of inflation is sufficiently low. We also discuss the late decay of the saxion which gives a preferable power spectrum of the density fluctuation in the standard cold dark matter model when compared with the observation.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

The masses of active neutrinos in the nuMSM from X-ray astronomy

In an extention of the Standard Model by three relatively light right-handed neutrinos (the nuMSM model) the role of the dark matter particle is played by the lightest sterile neutrino. We demonstrate that the observations of the extragalactic X-ray background allow to put a strong upper bound on the mass of the lightest active neutrino and predict the absolute values of the mass of the two heavier active neutrinos in the nuMSM, provided that the mass of the dark matter sterile neutrino is larger than 1.8 keV.Comment: 6 pages. revtex

On the Moduli Problem and Baryogenesis in Gauge-mediated SUSY Breaking Models

We investigate whether the Affleck-Dine mechanism can produce sufficient baryon number of the universe in the gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, while evading the cosmological moduli problem by late-time entropy production. We find that the Q-ball formation renders the scenario very difficult to work, irrespective of the detail mechanism of the entropy production.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 5 postscript figures include

Reheating-temperature independence of cosmological baryon asymmetry in Affleck-Dine leptogenesis

In this paper we point out that the cosmological baryon asymmetry in our universe is generated almost independently of the reheating temperature $T_R$ in Affleck-Dine leptogenesis and it is determined mainly by the mass of the lightest neutrino, $m_{\nu_1}$, in a wide range of the reheating temperature $T_R\simeq 10^5$--$10^{12}$ GeV. The present baryon asymmetry predicts the $m_{\nu_1}$ in a narrow region, $m_{\nu_1}\simeq (0.3$--$1)\times 10^{-9}$ eV. Such a small mass of the lightest neutrino leads to a high predictability on the mass parameter $m_{\nu_e \nu_e}$ contributing to the neutrinoless double beta decay. We also propose an explicit model in which such an ultralight neutrino can be naturally obtained.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figure

Where to find a dark matter sterile neutrino?

We propose a strategy of how to look for dark matter (DM) particles possessing a radiative decay channel and derive constraints on their parameters from observations of X-rays from our own Galaxy and its dwarf satellites. When applied to the sterile neutrinos in keV mass range, it allows a significant improvement of restrictions to its parameters, as compared with previous works.Comment: 5 pp, revtex; v3: 1-sigma limits have been replaced by more conservative 3-sigma limits, a picture illustrating the data analysis methods has been ade

Leptogenesis from N~\widetilde{N}-dominated early universe

We investigate in detail the leptogenesis by the decay of coherent right-handed sneutrino $\widetilde{N}$ having dominated the energy density of the early universe, which was originally proposed by HM and TY. Once the $\widetilde{N}$ dominant universe is realized, the amount of the generated lepton asymmetry (and hence baryon asymmetry) is determined only by the properties of the right-handed neutrino, regardless of the history before it dominates the universe. Moreover, thanks to the entropy production by the decay of the right-handed sneutrino, thermally produced relics are sufficiently diluted. In particular, the cosmological gravitino problem can be avoided even when the reheating temperature of the inflation is higher than 10^{10}\GeV, in a wide range of the gravitino mass m_{3/2}\simeq 10\MeV--100\TeV. If the gravitino mass is in the range m_{3/2}\simeq 10\MeV--1\GeV as in the some gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models, the dark matter in our universe can be dominantly composed of the gravitino. Quantum fluctuation of the $\widetilde{N}$ during inflation causes an isocurvature fluctuation which may be detectable in the future.Comment: 16 page