Semiclassical fermion pair creation in de Sitter spacetime

We present a method to semiclassically compute the pair creation rate of bosons and fermions in de Sitter spacetime. The results in the bosonic case agree with the ones in the literature. We find that for the constant electric field the fermionic and bosonic pair creation rate are the same. This analogy of bosons and fermions in the semiclassical limit is known from several flat spacetime examples.Comment: 10 pages, no figure, proceeding of the 2nd Cesare Lattes Meetin

Schwinger effect and backreaction in de Sitter spacetime

We consider the particle-antiparticle pairs produced by both a strong electric field and de Sitter curvature. We investigate in 1 + 1 D the backreaction of the pairs on the electromagnetic field. To do so we describe the canonical quantization of an electromagnetic field in de Sitter space and add in the Einstein-Maxwell equation the fermionic current induced by the pairs. After solving this equation, we find that the electric field gets either damped or unaffected depending on the value of the pair mass and the gauge coupling. No enhancement of the electromagnetic field to support a magnetogenesis scenario is found. The physical picture is that the Schwinger pairs locally created screen the production and amplification of the electromagnetic field. However, if one considers light bosons created by the Schwinger mechanism, we report a solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equation with an enhancement of the electromagnetic field. This solution could be a new path to primordial magnetogenesis.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, matches published versio

A model of interacting dark fluids tested with supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data

We compare supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data to the predictions of a cosmological model of interacting dark matter and dark energy. This theoretical model can be derived from the effective field theory of Einstein-Cartan gravity with two scaling exponents $\delta_G$ and $\delta_{\Lambda}$, related to the interaction between dark matter and dark energy. We perform a $\chi^2$ fit to the data to compare and contrast it with the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. We then explore the range of parameter of the model which gives a better $\chi^2$ than the standard cosmological model. All those results lead to tight constraints on the scaling exponents of the model. Our conclusion is that this class of models, provides a decent alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM model.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, matches published versio

Exploring the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity at galactic scales

While large scale primordial non-Gaussianity is strongly constrained by present-day data, there are no such constraints at Mpc scales. Here we investigate the effect of significant small-scale primordial non-Gaussianity on structure formation and the galaxy formation process with collisionless simulations: specifically, we explore four different types of non-Gaussianities. Generically, we find a distinct and potentially detectable feature in the matter power spectrum around the non-linear scale. We then show in particular that a negatively-skewed distribution of the potential random field, hence positively skewed in terms of overdensities, with $f_{\rm NL} \approx -1000$ at these scales, implies that typical galaxy-sized halos reach half of their present-day mass at an earlier stage and have a quieter merging history than in the Gaussian case. Their environment between 1 and 5 virial radii at $z=0$ is less dense than in the Gaussian case. This quieter history and less dense environment has potentially interesting consequences in terms of the formation of bulges and bars. Moreover, we show that subhalos have a more flattened distribution around their host than in the Gaussian case, albeit not as flattened as the 11 most massive Milky Way satellites, and that the two most massive subhalos tend to display an interesting anti-correlation of velocities around their host, indicative of kinematic coherence. All these hints will need to be statistically confirmed in larger-box simulations with scale-dependent non-Gaussian initial conditions, followed by hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations to explore the detailed consequences of small-scale non-Gaussianities on galaxy formation.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, comments welcome