45 research outputs found
Deuteronomy and Numbers
Four light isotopes - D, ^3He, ^4He and ^7Li - were produced by nuclear
reactions a few seconds after the big bang. New measurements of ^3He in the ISM
by Gloeckler and Geiss and of deuterium in high redshift hydrogen clouds by
Tytler and his collaborators provide further confirmation of big-bang
nucleosynthesis and new insight about the density of ordinary matter (baryons).Comment: 6 pages LaTeX with 1 eps Figur
Simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis: hypercharge U(1) and the creation of helical magnetic fields
We perform numerical simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis, including for the first time in the Bosonic sector the full electroweak gauge group SU(2)ĂU(1) and CP-violation. We find that the maximum generated baryon asymmetry is reduced by a factor of three relative to the SU(2)-only model, but that the quench time dependence is very similar. In addition, we compute the magnitude of the helical magnetic fields, and find that it is proportional to the strength of CP-violation and dependent on quench time, but is not proportional to the magnitude of the baryon asymmetry as proposed in the literature. Astrophysical signatures of primordial magnetic helicity can therefore not in general be used as evidence that electroweak baryogenesis has taken place
A High Deuterium Abundance at z=0.7
Of the light elements, the primordial abundance of deuterium, (D/H)_p,
provides the most sensitive diagnostic for the cosmological mass density
parameter Omega_B. Recent high redshift (D/H) measurements are highly
discrepant, although this may reflect observational uncertainties. The larger
(D/H) values, which imply a low Omega_B and require the Universe to be
dominated by non-baryonic matter (dynamical studies indicate a higher total
density parameter), cause problems for galactic chemical evolution models since
they have difficulty in reproducing the large decline down to the lower
present-day (D/H). Conversely, low (D/H) values imply an Omega_B greater than
derived from ^7Li and ^4He abundance measurements, and may require a deuterium
abundance evolution that is too low to easily explain. Here we report the first
measurement at intermediate redshift, where the observational difficulties are
smaller, of a gas cloud with ideal characteristics for this experiment. Our
analysis of the z = 0.7010 absorber toward 1718+4807 indicates (D/H) = 2.0 +/-
0.5 x 10^{-4} which is in the high range. This and other independent
observations suggests there may be a cosmological inhomogeneity in (D/H)_p of
at least a factor of ten.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
The Imprint of Galaxy Formation on X-ray Clusters
It is widely believed that structure in the Universe evolves hierarchically,
as primordial density fluctuations, amplified by gravity, collapse and merge to
form progressively larger systems. The structure and evolution of X-ray
clusters, however, seems at odds with this hierarchical scenario for structure
formation. Poor clusters and groups, as well as most distant clusters detected
to date, are substantially fainter than expected from the tight relations
between luminosity, temperature and redshift predicted by these models. Here we
show that these discrepancies arise because, near the centre, the entropy of
the hot, diffuse intracluster medium (ICM) is higher tha possible if the ICM
is heated at modest redshift (z \ltsim 2) but prior to cluster collapse,
indicating that the formation of galaxies precedes that of clusters and that
most clusters have been assembled very recently.Comment: 5 pages, plus 2 postscript figures (one in colour), accepted for
publication in Natur
The Cosmological Baryon Density from the Deuterium Abundance at a redshift z = 3.57
We present a measurement of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio in a quasar
absorption system at redshift z = 3.57 towards QSO 1937-1009. We use a two
component fit, with redshifts determined from unsaturated metal lines, to fit
the hydrogen and deuterium features simultaneously. We find a low value of D/H
= 2.3 \pm 0.6 \times 10^{-5}, which does not agree with other measurements of
high D/H (Songaila et al. 1994, Carswell et al. 1994). The absorption system is
very metal poor, with metallicities less than 1/100 solar. Standard models of
chemical evolution show the astration of deuterium is limited to a few percent
from primordial for systems this metal-poor, so we believe our value represents
the primordial one. Using predictions of standard big-bang nucleosynthesis and
measurements of the cosmic microwave background, our measurement gives the
density of baryons in units of the critical density, , where H_0 = 100 h km s^{-1] Mpc^{-1}.Comment: 10 pages, 2 Figures, also available at http://nately.ucsd.edu/ ;
submitted to Natur
Dark Matter in 3D
We discuss the relevance of directional detection experiments in the
post-discovery era and propose a method to extract the local dark matter phase
space distribution from directional data. The first feature of this method is a
parameterization of the dark matter distribution function in terms of integrals
of motion, which can be analytically extended to infer properties of the global
distribution if certain equilibrium conditions hold. The second feature of our
method is a decomposition of the distribution function in moments of a model
independent basis, with minimal reliance on the ansatz for its functional form.
We illustrate our method using the Via Lactea II N-body simulation as well as
an analytical model for the dark matter halo. We conclude that O(1000) events
are necessary to measure deviations from the Standard Halo Model and constrain
or measure the presence of anisotropies.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figure
Inflation with stable anisotropic hair: is it cosmologically viable?
Recently an inflationary model with a vector field coupled to the inflaton
was proposed and the phenomenology studied for the Bianchi type I spacetime. It
was found that the model demonstrates a counter-example to the cosmic no-hair
theorem since there exists a stable anisotropically inflationary fix-point. One
of the great triumphs of inflation, however, is that it explains the observed
flatness and isotropy of the universe today without requiring special initial
conditions. Any acceptable model for inflation should thus explain these
observations in a satisfactory way. To check whether the model meets this
requirement, we introduce curvature to the background geometry and consider
axisymmetric spacetimes of Bianchi type II,III and the Kantowski-Sachs metric.
We show that the anisotropic Bianchi type I fix-point is an attractor for the
entire family of such spacetimes. The model is predictive in the sense that the
universe gets close to this fix-point after a few e-folds for a wide range of
initial conditions. If inflation lasts for N e-folds, the curvature at the end
of inflation is typically of order exp(-2N). The anisotropy in the expansion
rate at the end of inflation, on the other hand, while being small on the
one-percent level, is highly significant. We show that after the end of
inflation there will be a period of isotropization lasting for about 2N/3
e-folds. After that the shear scales as the curvature and becomes dominant
around N e-folds after the end of inflation. For plausible bounds on the reheat
temperature the minimum number of e-folds during inflation, required for
consistency with the isotropy of the supernova Ia data, lays in the interval
(21,48). Thus the results obtained for our restricted class of spacetimes
indicates that inflation with anisotropic hair is cosmologically viable.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures; v2: Minor changes, refs added; v3: JHEP version
(proof-reading corrections
Role of trans-Planckian modes in cosmology
Motivated by the old trans-Planckian (TP) problem of inflationary cosmology,
it has been conjectured that any consistent effective field theory should keep
TP modes `hidden' behind the Hubble horizon, so as to prevent them from turning
classical and thereby affecting macroscopic observations. In this paper we
present two arguments against the Hubble horizon being a scale of singular
significance as has been put forward in the TP Censorship Conjecture (TCC).
First, refinements of TCC are presented that allow for the TP modes to grow
beyond the horizon while still keeping the de-Sitter conjecture valid. Second,
we show that TP modes can turn classical even well within the Hubble horizon,
which, as such, negates this rationale behind keeping them from crossing it.
The role of TP modes is known to be less of a problem in warm inflation,
because fluctuations start out usually as classical. This allows warm inflation
to be more resilient to the TP problem compared to cold inflation. To
understand how robust this is, we identity limits where quantum modes can
affect the primordial power spectrum in one specific case.Comment: 33 pages, comments welcome; v2: References updated, matches published
versio
The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical
frameworks for analysing them is reviewed. Einstein's equivalence principle
(EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the Eotvos experiment, tests of
special relativity, and the gravitational redshift experiment. Future tests of
EEP and of the inverse square law are searching for new interactions arising
from unification or quantum gravity. Tests of general relativity at the
post-Newtonian level have reached high precision, including the light
deflection, the Shapiro time delay, the perihelion advance of Mercury, and the
Nordtvedt effect in lunar motion. Gravitational-wave damping has been detected
in an amount that agrees with general relativity to better than half a percent
using the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, and other binary pulsar systems have
yielded other tests, especially of strong-field effects. When direct
observation of gravitational radiation from astrophysical sources begins, new
tests of general relativity will be possible.Comment: 89 pages, 8 figures; an update of the Living Review article
originally published in 2001; final published version incorporating referees'
suggestion