187 research outputs found
General Gauss-Bonnet brane cosmology
We consider 5-dimensional spacetimes of constant 3-dimensional spatial
curvature in the presence of a bulk cosmological constant. We find the general
solution of such a configuration in the presence of a Gauss-Bonnet term. Two
classes of non-trivial bulk solutions are found. The first class is valid only
under a fine tuning relation between the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant and the
cosmological constant of the bulk spacetime. The second class of solutions are
static and are the extensions of the AdS-Schwarzchild black holes. Hence in the
absence of a cosmological constant or if the fine tuning relation is not true,
the generalised Birkhoff's staticity theorem holds even in the presence of
Gauss-Bonnet curvature terms. We examine the consequences in brane world
cosmology obtaining the generalised Friedmann equations for a perfect fluid
3-brane and discuss how this modifies the usual scenario.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, typos corrected, refs added, section IV changed
yielding novel result
Minimal Noncanonical Cosmologies
We demonstrate how much it is possible to deviate from the standard
cosmological paradigm of inflation-assisted LambdaCDM, keeping within current
observational constraints, and without adding to or modifying any theoretical
assumptions. We show that within a minimal framework there are many new
possibilities, some of them wildly different from the standard picture. We
present three illustrative examples of new models, described phenomenologically
by a noncanonical scalar field coupled to radiation and matter. These models
have interesting implications for inflation, quintessence, reheating,
electroweak baryogenesis, and the relic densities of WIMPs and other exotics.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
Optimal Location of Two Laser-interferometric Detectors for Gravitational Wave Backgrounds at 100 MHz
Recently, observational searches for gravitational wave background (GWB) have
been developed and given constraints on the energy density of GWB in a broad
range of frequencies. These constraints have already resulted in the rejection
of some theoretical models of relatively large GWB spectra. However, at 100
MHz, there is no strict upper limit from direct observation, though an indirect
limit exists due to He4 abundance due to big-bang nucleosynthesis. In our
previous paper, we investigated the detector designs that can effectively
respond to GW at high frequencies, where the wavelength of GW is comparable to
the size of a detector, and found that the configuration, a so-called
synchronous-recycling interferometer is best at these sensitivity. In this
paper, we investigated the optimal location of two synchronous-recycling
interferometers and derived their cross-correlation sensitivity to GWB. We
found that the sensitivity is nearly optimized and hardly changed if two
coaligned detectors are located within a range 0.2 m, and that the sensitivity
achievable in an experiment is far below compared with the constraint
previously obtained in experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
On the Transverse-Traceless Projection in Lattice Simulations of Gravitational Wave Production
It has recently been pointed out that the usual procedure employed in order
to obtain the transverse-traceless (TT) part of metric perturbations in lattice
simulations was inconsistent with the fact that those fields live in the
lattice and not in the continuum. It was claimed that this could lead to a
larger amplitude and a wrong shape for the gravitational wave (GW) spectra
obtained in numerical simulations of (p)reheating. In order to address this
issue, we have defined a consistent prescription in the lattice for extracting
the TT part of the metric perturbations. We demonstrate explicitly that the GW
spectra obtained with the old continuum-based TT projection only differ
marginally in amplitude and shape with respect to the new lattice-based ones.
We conclude that one can therefore trust the predictions appearing in the
literature on the spectra of GW produced during (p)reheating and similar
scenarios simulated on a lattice.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to JCA
Intermediate inflation in Gauss-Bonnet braneworld
In this article we study an intermediate inflationary universe models using
the Gauss-Bonnet brane. General conditions required for these models to be
realizable are derived and discussed. We use recent astronomical observations
to constraint the parameters appearing in the model.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in European Physical
Journal
A Terminal Velocity on the Landscape: Particle Production near Extra Species Loci in Higher Dimensions
We investigate particle production near extra species loci (ESL) in a higher
dimensional field space and derive a speed limit in moduli space at weak
coupling. This terminal velocity is set by the characteristic ESL-separation
and the coupling of the extra degrees of freedom to the moduli, but it is
independent of the moduli's potential if the dimensionality of the field space
is considerably larger than the dimensionality of the loci, D >> d. Once the
terminal velocity is approached, particles are produced at a plethora of nearby
ESLs, preventing a further increase in speed via their backreaction. It is
possible to drive inflation at the terminal velocity, providing a
generalization of trapped inflation with attractive features: we find that more
than sixty e-folds of inflation for sub-Planckian excursions in field space are
possible if ESLs are ubiquitous, without fine tuning of initial conditions and
less tuned potentials. We construct a simple, observationally viable model with
a slightly red scalar power-spectrum and suppressed gravitational waves; we
comment on the presence of additional observational signatures originating from
IR-cascading and individual massive particles. We also show that
moduli-trapping at an ESL is suppressed for D >> d, hindering dynamical
selection of high-symmetry vacua on the landscape based on this mechanism.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. V3: typos corrected compared to JHEP version,
conclusions unchange
Scalar brane backgrounds in higher order curvature gravity
We investigate maximally symmetric brane world solutions with a scalar field.
Five-dimensional bulk gravity is described by a general lagrangian which yields
field equations containing no higher than second order derivatives. This
includes the Gauss-Bonnet combination for the graviton. Stability and
gravitational properties of such solutions are considered, and we particularily
emphasise the modifications induced by the higher order terms. In particular it
is shown that higher curvature corrections to Einstein theory can give rise to
instabilities in brane world solutions. A method for analytically obtaining the
general solution for such actions is outlined. Genericaly, the requirement of a
finite volume element together with the absence of a naked singularity in the
bulk imposes fine-tuning of the brane tension. A model with a moduli scalar
field is analysed in detail and we address questions of instability and
non-singular self-tuning solutions. In particular, we discuss a case with a
normalisable zero mode but infinite volume element.Comment: published versio
Curvaton Dynamics in Brane-worlds
We study the curvaton dynamics in brane-world cosmologies. Assuming that the
inflaton field survives without decay after the end of inflation, we apply the
curvaton reheating mechanism to Randall-Sundrum and to its curvature
corrections: Gauss-Bonnet, induced gravity and combined Gauss-Bonnet and
induced gravity cosmological models. In the case of chaotic inflation and
requiring suppression of possible short-wavelength generated gravitational
waves, we constraint the parameters of a successful curvaton brane-world
cosmological model. If density perturbations are also generated by the curvaton
field then, the fundamental five-dimensional mass could be much lower than the
Planck massComment: 47 pages, 1 figure, references added, to be published in JCA
eLISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
This document introduces the exciting and fundamentally new science and astronomy that the European New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO) mission (derived from the previous LISA proposal) will deliver. The mission (which we will refer to by its informal name "eLISA") will survey for the first time the low-frequency gravitational wave band (about 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), with sufficient sensitivity to detect interesting individual astrophysical sources out to z = 15. The eLISA mission will discover and study a variety of cosmic events and systems with high sensitivity: coalescences of massive black holes binaries, brought together by galaxy mergers; mergers of earlier, less-massive black holes during the epoch of hierarchical galaxy and black-hole growth; stellar-mass black holes and compact stars in orbits just skimming the horizons of massive black holes in galactic nuclei of the present era; extremely compact white dwarf binaries in our Galaxy, a rich source of information about binary evolution and about future Type Ia supernovae; and possibly most interesting of all, the uncertain and unpredicted sources, for example relics of inflation and of the symmetry-breaking epoch directly after the Big Bang. eLISA's measurements will allow detailed studies of these signals with high signal-to-noise ratio, addressing most of the key scientific questions raised by ESA's Cosmic Vision programme in the areas of astrophysics and cosmology. They will also provide stringent tests of general relativity in the strong-field dynamical regime, which cannot be probed in any other way. This document not only describes the science but also gives an overview on the mission design and orbits
Thermal Inflation and the Gravitational Wave Background
We consider the impact of thermal inflation -- a short, secondary period of
inflation that can arise in supersymmetric scenarios -- on the stochastic
gravitational wave background. We show that while the primordial inflationary
gravitational wave background is essentially unchanged at CMB scales, it is
massively diluted at solar system scales and would be unobservable by a BBO
style experiment. Conversely, bubble collisions at the end of thermal inflation
can generate a new stochastic background. We calculate the likely properties of
the bubbles created during this phase transition, and show that the expected
amplitude and frequency of this signal would fall within the BBO range.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; accepted for JCAP; a reference added; table
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