1,841 research outputs found
Constraints on Inflation in Einstein-Brans-Dicke Frame
The density perturbation during inflation seeds the large scale structure. We
consider both new inflation-type and chaotic inflation-type potentials in the
framework of Einstein-Brans-Dicke gravity. The density perturbation gives
strong constraints on the parameters in these potentials. For both potentials,
the constraints are not much different from those obtained in the original
inflationary models by using of Einstein gravity.Comment: 6 pages, Revtex file, typos adde
Dynamics of Symmetry Breaking and Tachyonic Preheating
We reconsider the old problem of the dynamics of spontaneous symmetry
breaking using 3d lattice simulations, and develop a theory of tachyonic
preheating, which occurs due to the spinodal instability of the scalar field.
Tachyonic preheating is so efficient that symmetry breaking typically completes
within a single oscillation of the field distribution as it rolls towards the
minimum of its effective potential. As an application of this theory we
consider preheating in the hybrid inflation scenario, including SUSY-motivated
F-term and D-term inflationary models. We show that preheating in hybrid
inflation is typically tachyonic and the stage of oscillations of a homogeneous
component of the scalar fields driving inflation ends after a single
oscillation. Our results may also be relevant for the theory of the formation
of disoriented chiral condensates in heavy ion collisions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Higher quality figures and computer generated
movies in gif format illustrating our results can be found at
http://physics.stanford.edu/gfelder/hybri
Symmetry Breaking and False Vacuum Decay after Hybrid Inflation
We discuss the onset of symmetry breaking from the false vacuum in generic
scenarios in which the mass squared of the symmetry breaking (Higgs) field
depends linearly with time, as it occurs, via the evolution of the inflaton, in
models of hybrid inflation. We show that the Higgs fluctuations evolve from
quantum to classical during the initial stages. This justifies the subsequent
use of real-time lattice simulations to describe the fully non-perturbative and
non-linear process of symmetry breaking. The early distribution of the Higgs
field is that of a smooth classical gaussian random field, and consists of
lumps whose shape and distribution is well understood analytically. The lumps
grow with time and develop into ``bubbles'' which eventually collide among
themselves, thus populating the high momentum modes, in their way towards
thermalization at the true vacuum. With the help of some approximations we are
able to provide a quasi-analytic understanding of this process.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, LaTeX, uses revtex. Version to be published in
Phys. Rev. with minor change
Testing the Void against Cosmological data: fitting CMB, BAO, SN and H0
In this paper, instead of invoking Dark Energy, we try and fit various
cosmological observations with a large Gpc scale under-dense region (Void)
which is modeled by a Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi metric that at large distances
becomes a homogeneous FLRW metric. We improve on previous analyses by allowing
for nonzero overall curvature, accurately computing the distance to the
last-scattering surface and the observed scale of the Baryon Acoustic peaks,
and investigating important effects that could arise from having nontrivial
Void density profiles. We mainly focus on the WMAP 7-yr data (TT and TE),
Supernova data (SDSS SN), Hubble constant measurements (HST) and Baryon
Acoustic Oscillation data (SDSS and LRG). We find that the inclusion of a
nonzero overall curvature drastically improves the goodness of fit of the Void
model, bringing it very close to that of a homogeneous universe containing Dark
Energy, while by varying the profile one can increase the value of the local
Hubble parameter which has been a challenge for these models. We also try to
gauge how well our model can fit the large-scale-structure data, but a
comprehensive analysis will require the knowledge of perturbations on LTB
metrics. The model is consistent with the CMB dipole if the observer is about
15 Mpc off the centre of the Void. Remarkably, such an off-center position may
be able to account for the recent anomalous measurements of a large bulk flow
from kSZ data. Finally we provide several analytical approximations in
different regimes for the LTB metric, and a numerical module for CosmoMC, thus
allowing for a MCMC exploration of the full parameter space.Comment: 70 pages, 12 figures, matches version accepted for publication in
JCAP. References added, numerical values in tables changed due to minor bug,
conclusions unaltered. Numerical module available at
http://web.physik.rwth-aachen.de/download/valkenburg
Stationarity of Inflation and Predictions of Quantum Cosmology
We describe several different regimes which are possible in inflationary
cosmology. The simplest one is inflation without self-reproduction of the
universe. In this scenario the universe is not stationary. The second regime,
which exists in a broad class of inflationary models, is eternal inflation with
the self-reproduction of inflationary domains. In this regime local properties
of domains with a given density and given values of fields do not depend on the
time when these domains were produced. The probability distribution to find a
domain with given properties in a self-reproducing universe may or may not be
stationary, depending on the choice of an inflationary model. We give examples
of models where each of these possibilities can be realized, and discuss some
implications of our results for quantum cosmology. In particular, we propose a
new mechanism which may help solving the cosmological constant problem.Comment: 30 pages, Stanford preprint SU-ITP-94-24, LaTe
Particle Production and Effective Thermalization in Inhomogeneous Mean Field Theory
As a toy model for dynamics in nonequilibrium quantum field theory we
consider the abelian Higgs model in 1+1 dimensions with fermions. In the
approximate dynamical equations, inhomogeneous classical (mean) Bose fields are
coupled to quantized fermion fields, which are treated with a mode function
expansion. The effective equations of motion imply e.g. Coulomb scattering, due
to the inhomogeneous gauge field. The equations are solved numerically. We
define time dependent fermion particle numbers with the help of the single-time
Wigner function and study particle production starting from inhomogeneous
initial conditions. The particle numbers are compared with the Fermi-Dirac
distribution parametrized by a time dependent temperature and chemical
potential. We find that the fermions approximately thermalize locally in time.Comment: 16 pages + 6 eps figures, some clarifications and two references
added, typos corrected; to appear in Phys.Rev.
Real-time static potential in hot QCD
We derive a static potential for a heavy quark-antiquark pair propagating in
Minkowski time at finite temperature, by defining a suitable gauge-invariant
Green's function and computing it to first non-trivial order in Hard Thermal
Loop resummed perturbation theory. The resulting Debye-screened potential could
be used in models that attempt to describe the ``melting'' of heavy quarkonium
at high temperatures. We show, in particular, that the potential develops an
imaginary part, implying that thermal effects generate a finite width for the
quarkonium peak in the dilepton production rate. For quarkonium with a very
heavy constituent mass M, the width can be ignored for T \lsim g^2 M/12\pi,
where g^2 is the strong gauge coupling; for a physical case like bottomonium,
it could become important at temperatures as low as 250 MeV. Finally, we point
out that the physics related to the finite width originates from the
Landau-damping of low-frequency gauge fields, and could be studied
non-perturbatively by making use of the classical approximation.Comment: 20 pages. v2: a number of clarifications and a few references added;
published versio
New constraints on multi-field inflation with nonminimal coupling
We study the dynamics and perturbations during inflation and reheating in a
multi-field model where a second scalar field is nonminimally coupled to
the scalar curvature ). When is positive, the usual
inflationary prediction for large-scale anisotropies is hardly altered while
the fluctuation in sub-Hubble modes can be amplified during preheating
for large . For negative values of , however, long-wave modes of the
fluctuation exhibit exponential increase during inflation, leading to
the strong enhancement of super-Hubble metric perturbations even when
is less than unity. This is because the effective mass becomes negative
during inflation. We constrain the strength of and the initial by
the amplitude of produced density perturbations. One way to avoid nonadiabatic
growth of super-Hubble curvature perturbations is to stabilize the mass
through a coupling to the inflaton. Preheating may thus be necessary in these
models to protect the stability of the inflationary phase.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Brane preheating
We study brane-world preheating in massive chaotic inflationary scenario
where scalar fields are confined on the 3-brane. Assuming that quadratic
contribution in energy densities dominates the Hubble expansion rate during
preheating, the amplitude of inflaton decreases slowly relative to the standard
dust-dominated case. This leads to an efficient production of particles
via nonperturbative decay of inflaton even if its coupling is of order
. We also discuss massive particle creation heavier than inflaton,
which may play important roles for the baryo- and lepto-genesis scenarios.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Conditions for Successful Extended Inflation
We investigate, in a model-independent way, the conditions required to obtain
a satisfactory model of extended inflation in which inflation is brought to an
end by a first-order phase transition. The constraints are that the correct
present strength of the gravitational coupling is obtained, that the present
theory of gravity is satisfactorily close to general relativity, that the
perturbation spectra from inflation are compatible with large scale structure
observations and that the bubble spectrum produced at the phase transition
doesn't conflict with the observed level of microwave background anisotropies.
We demonstrate that these constraints can be summarized in terms of the
behaviour in the conformally related Einstein frame, and can be compactly
illustrated graphically. We confirm the failure of existing models including
the original extended inflation model, and construct models, albeit rather
contrived ones, which satisfy all existing constraints.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX file with one figure incorporated (uses RevTeX and
epsf). Also available by e-mailing ARL, or by WWW at
http://star-www.maps.susx.ac.uk/papers/infcos_papers.html; Revised to include
extra references, results unchanged, to appear Phys Rev
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