500 research outputs found
Cosmological constraints on Lorentz violating dark energy
The role of Lorentz invariance as a fundamental symmetry of nature has been
lately reconsidered in different approaches to quantum gravity. It is thus
natural to study whether other puzzles of physics may be solved within these
proposals. This may be the case for the cosmological constant problem. Indeed,
it has been shown that breaking Lorentz invariance provides Lagrangians that
can drive the current acceleration of the universe without experiencing large
corrections from ultraviolet physics. In this work, we focus on the simplest
model of this type, called ThetaCDM, and study its cosmological implications in
detail. At the background level, this model cannot be distinguished from
LambdaCDM. The differences appear at the level of perturbations. We show that
in ThetaCDM, the spectrum of CMB anisotropies and matter fluctuations may be
affected by a rescaling of the gravitational constant in the Poisson equation,
by the presence of extra contributions to the anisotropic stress, and finally
by the existence of extra clustering degrees of freedom. To explore these
modifications accurately, we modify the Boltzmann code CLASS. We then use the
parameter inference code Monte Python to confront ThetaCDM with data from
WMAP-7, SPT and WiggleZ. We obtain strong bounds on the parameters accounting
for deviations from LambdaCDM. In particular, we find that the discrepancy
between the gravitational constants appearing in the Poisson and Friedmann
equations is constrained at the level 1.8%.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Cosmological constraints on deviations from Lorentz invariance in gravity and dark matter
We consider a scenario where local Lorentz invariance is violated by the
existence of a preferred time direction at every space-time point. This
scenario can arise in the context of quantum gravity and its description at low
energies contains a unit time-like vector field which parameterizes the
preferred direction. The particle physics tests of Lorentz invariance preclude
a direct coupling of this vector to the fields of the Standard Model, but do
not bear implications for dark matter. We discuss how the presence of this
vector and its possible coupling to dark matter affect the evolution of the
Universe. At the level of homogeneous cosmology the only effect of Lorentz
invariance violation is a rescaling of the expansion rate. The physics is
richer at the level of perturbations. We identify three effects crucial for
observations: the rescaling of the matter contribution to the Poisson equation,
the appearance of an extra contribution to the anisotropic stress and the
scale-dependent enhancement of dark matter clustering. These effects result in
distinctive features in the power spectra of the CMB and density fluctuations.
Making use of the data from Planck and WiggleZ we obtain the most stringent
cosmological constraints to date on departures from Lorentz symmetry. Our
analysis provides the first direct bounds on deviations from Lorentz invariance
in the dark matter sector.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, revtex; footnote on isocurvature modes added,
discussion on the decoupling of the Standard Model fields from the aether
extended, a reference added; version to be published in JCA
Probing neutrino masses with CMB lensing extraction
We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using
quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the
sensitivity of upcoming CMB experiments such as BICEP, QUaD, BRAIN, ClOVER and
PLANCK to the non-zero total neutrino mass M_nu indicated by current neutrino
oscillation data. We find that these experiments greatly benefit from lensing
extraction techniques, improving their one-sigma sensitivity to M_nu by a
factor of order four. The combination of data from PLANCK and the SAMPAN
mini-satellite project would lead to sigma(M_nu) = 0.1 eV, while a value as
small as sigma(M_nu) = 0.035 eV is within the reach of a space mission based on
bolometers with a passively cooled 3-4 m aperture telescope, representative of
the most ambitious projects currently under investigation. We show that our
results are robust not only considering possible difficulties in subtracting
astrophysical foregrounds from the primary CMB signal but also when the minimal
cosmological model (Lambda Mixed Dark Matter) is generalized in order to
include a possible scalar tilt running, a constant equation of state parameter
for the dark energy and/or extra relativistic degrees of freedom.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. One new figure and references added. Version
accepted for publicatio
Cosmological lepton asymmetry with a nonzero mixing angle \theta_{13}
While the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is nowadays well measured by
cosmological observations, the bounds on the lepton asymmetry in the form of
neutrinos are still significantly weaker. We place limits on the relic neutrino
asymmetries using some of the latest cosmological data, taking into account the
effect of flavor oscillations. We present our results for two different values
of the neutrino mixing angle \theta_{13}, and show that for large \theta_{13}
the limits on the total neutrino asymmetry become more stringent, diluting even
large initial flavor asymmetries. In particular, we find that the present
bounds are still dominated by the limits coming from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis,
while the limits on the total neutrino mass from cosmological data are
essentially independent of \theta_{13}. Finally, we perform a forecast for
COrE, taken as an example of a future CMB experiment, and find that it could
improve the limits on the total lepton asymmetry approximately by up to a
factor 6.6.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. v2: updated COrE specifications. v3:
matches Phys. Rev. D accepted versio
On the Entropy and the Density Matrix of Cosmological Perturbations
We look at the transition to the semiclassical behaviour and the decoherence
process for the inhomogeneous perturbations in the inflationary universe. Two
different decoherence mechanisms appear: one dynamical, accompanied with a
negligible, if at all, entropy gain, and the other, effectively irreversible
dephasing, due to a rapid variation in time of the off-diagonal density matrix
elements in the post-inflationary epoch. We thus settle the discrepancies in
the entropy content of perturbations evaluated by different authors.Comment: LaTeX2e with the epsf packag
Constraints on the Neutrino Mass from SZ Surveys
Statistical measures of galaxy clusters are sensitive to neutrino masses in
the sub-eV range. We explore the possibility of using cluster number counts
from the ongoing PLANCK/SZ and future cosmic-variance-limited surveys to
constrain neutrino masses from CMB data alone. The precision with which the
total neutrino mass can be determined from SZ number counts is limited mostly
by uncertainties in the cluster mass function and intracluster gas evolution;
these are explicitly accounted for in our analysis. We find that projected
results from the PLANCK/SZ survey can be used to determine the total neutrino
mass with a (1\sigma) uncertainty of 0.06 eV, assuming it is in the range
0.1-0.3 eV, and the survey detection limit is set at the 5\sigma significance
level. Our results constitute a significant improvement on the limits expected
from PLANCK/CMB lensing measurements, 0.15 eV. Based on expected results from
future cosmic-variance-limited (CVL) SZ survey we predict a 1\sigma uncertainty
of 0.04 eV, a level comparable to that expected when CMB lensing extraction is
carried out with the same experiment. A few percent uncertainty in the mass
function parameters could result in up to a factor \sim 2-3 degradation of our
PLANCK and CVL forecasts. Our analysis shows that cluster number counts provide
a viable complementary cosmological probe to CMB lensing constraints on the
total neutrino mass.Comment: Replaced with a revised version to match the MNRAS accepted version.
arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1009.411
Forecasting neutrino masses from galaxy clustering in the Dark Energy Survey combined with the Planck Measurements
We study the prospects for detecting neutrino masses from the galaxy angular
power spectrum in photometric redshift shells of the Dark Energy Survey (DES)
over a volume of 20 (Gpc/h)^3 combined with the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) angular fluctuations expected to be measured from the Planck satellite.
We find that for a Lambda-CDM concordance model with 7 free parameters in
addition to a fiducial neutrino mass of M_nu = 0.24 eV, we recover from DES
&Planck the correct value with uncertainty of +- 0.12 eV (95 % CL), assuming
perfect knowledge of the galaxy biasing. If the fiducial total mass is close to
zero, then the upper limit is 0.11 eV (95 % CL). This upper limit from DES
&Planck is over 3 times tighter than using Planck alone, as DES breaks the
parameter degeneracies in a CMB-only analysis. The analysis utlilizes spherical
harmonics up to 300, averaged in bin of 10 to mimic the DES sky coverage. The
results are similar if we supplement DES bands (grizY) with the VISTA
Hemisphere Survey (VHS) near infrared band (JHK). The result is robust to
uncertainties in non-linear fluctuations and redshift distortions. However, the
result is sensitive to the assumed galaxy biasing schemes and it requires
accurate prior knowledge of the biasing. To summarize, if the total neutrino
mass in nature greater than 0.1eV, we should be able to detect it with DES
&Planck, a result with great importance to fundamental Physics.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 9 pages, 10 figure
Cosmological measurement of neutrino mass in the presence of leptonic asymmetry
We show that even the smallest neutrino mass consistent with the
Super--Kamiokande data is relevant for cosmological models of structure
formation and cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, provided that a
relic neutrino asymmetry exists. We calculate the precision with which a 0.07
eV neutrino mass could be extracted from CMB anisotropy and large-scale
structure data by the future Planck satellite and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We
find that such a mass can be detected, assuming a large relic neutrino
asymmetry still allowed by current experimental data. This measurement of the
absolute value of the neutrino mass would be crucial for our understanding of
neutrino models.Comment: 8 pages, 2 PS figures, version to be publishe
Constrained analytical interrelations in neutrino mixing
Hermitian squared mass matrices of charged leptons and light neutrinos in the
flavor basis are studied under general additive lowest order perturbations away
from the tribimaximal (TBM) limit in which a weak basis with mass diagonal
charged leptons is chosen. Simple analytical expressions are found for the
three measurable TBM-deviants in terms of perturbation parameters appearing in
the neutrino and charged lepton eigenstates in the flavor basis. Taking
unnatural cancellations to be absent and charged lepton perturbation parameters
to be small, interrelations are derived among masses, mixing angles and the
amount of CP-violation.Comment: To be published in the Springer Proceedings in the Physics Series
under the heading of the XXI DAE-BRNS Symposium (Guwahati, India
From Wave Geometry to Fake Supergravity
The `Wave Geometry' equation of the pre-WWII Hiroshima program is also the
key equation of the current `fake supergravity' program. I review the status of
(fake) supersymmetric domain walls and (fake) pseudo-supersymmetric
cosmologies. An extension of the domain-wall/cosmology correspondence to a
triple correspondence with instantons shows that `pseudo-supersymmetry' has
another interpretation as Euclidean supersymmetry.Comment: 14 pages. Minor Revisions to original. To appear in proceedings of
the 5th International Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries (QTS5),
Vallodolid, July 2007. in version
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