The inflationary origin of the Cold Spot anomaly

Single-field inflation, arguably the simplest and most compelling paradigm for the origin of our Universe, is strongly supported by the recent results of the Planck satellite and the BICEP2 experiment. The results from Planck, however, also confirm the presence of a number of anomalies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), whose origin becomes problematic in single-field inflation. Among the most prominent and well-tested of these anomalies is the Cold Spot, which constitutes the only significant deviation from gaussianity in the CMB. Planck's non-detection of primordial non-gaussianity on smaller scales thus suggests the existence of a physical mechanism whereby significant non-gaussianity is generated on large angular scales only. In this letter, we address this question by developing a localized version of the inhomogeneous reheating scenario, which postulates the existence of a scalar field able to modify the decay of the inflaton on localized spatial regions only. We demonstrate that if the Cold Spot is due to an overdensity in the last scattering surface, the localization mechanism offers a feasible explanation for it, thus providing a physical mechanism for the generation of localized non-gaussianity in the CMB. If, on the contrary, the Cold Spot is caused by a newly discovered supervoid (as recently claimed), we argue that the localization mechanism, while managing to enhance underdensities, may well shed light on the rarity of the discovered supervoid.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. v3 Comments and references added. It matches published versio

Universal entanglement for higher dimensional cones

The entanglement entropy of a generic $d$-dimensional conformal field theory receives a regulator independent contribution when the entangling region contains a (hyper)conical singularity of opening angle $\Omega$, codified in a function $a^{(d)}(\Omega)$. In arXiv:1505.04804, we proposed that for three-dimensional conformal field theories, the coefficient $\sigma$ characterizing the smooth surface limit of such contribution ($\Omega\rightarrow \pi$) equals the stress tensor two-point function charge $C_{ T}$, up to a universal constant. In this paper, we prove this relation for general three-dimensional holographic theories, and extend the result to general dimensions. In particular, we show that a generalized coefficient $\sigma^{ (d)}$ can be defined for (hyper)conical entangling regions in the almost smooth surface limit, and that this coefficient is universally related to $C_{ T}$ for general holographic theories, providing a general formula for the ratio $\sigma^{ (d)}/C_{ T}$ in arbitrary dimensions. We conjecture that the latter ratio is universal for general CFTs. Further, based on our recent results in arXiv:1507.06997, we propose an extension of this relation to general R\'enyi entropies, which we show passes several consistency checks in $d=4$ and $d=6$.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; v3: minor modifications to match published version, references adde

Quantum black holes in Type-IIA String Theory

We study black hole solutions of Type-IIA Calabi-Yau compactifications in the presence of perturbative quantum corrections. We define a class of black holes that only exist in the presence of quantum corrections and that, consequently, can be considered as purely quantum black holes. The regularity conditions of the solutions impose the topological constraint h^{1,1}>h^{2,1} on the Calabi-Yau manifold, defining a class of admissible compactifications, which we prove to be non-empty for h^{1,1}=3 by explicitly constructing the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifolds, new in the literature.Comment: 17 pages. References added. Explanation of the truncation improve

Non-standard Dirac adjoint spinor: The emergence of a new dual

In this present communication we provide a new derivation of the Dirac dual structure by employing a different approach from the originally proposed. Following a general and rigorous mathematical process to compute the dual structure, we investigate if is possible to break the existing "rigidity" in its primordial formulation. For this task, firstly, we look towards to understand the core of the Dirac spinors construction and then, we suggest to built an alternative dual structure for the Dirac spinor, which preserve an invariant norm under any $SL(2,\mathcal{C})$ transformation. Finally, we verify if the prominent physical contents are maintained or if it is affected by such construction.Comment: 7 pages, 0 figure