1,553 research outputs found
A Hamilton-Jacobi approach to non-slow-roll inflation
I describe a general approach to characterizing cosmological inflation
outside the standard slow-roll approximation, based on the Hamilton-Jacobi
formulation of scalar field dynamics. The basic idea is to view the equation of
state of the scalar field matter as the fundamental dynamical variable, as
opposed to the field value or the expansion rate. I discuss how to formulate
the equations of motion for scalar and tensor fluctuations in situations where
the assumption of slow roll is not valid. I apply the general results to the
simple case of inflation from an ``inverted'' polynomial potential, and to the
more complicated case of hybrid inflation.Comment: 21 pages, RevTeX (minor revisions to match published version
Summary: Working Group on QCD and Strong Interactions
In this summary of the considerations of the QCD working group at Snowmass
2001, the roles of quantum chromodynamics in the Standard Model and in the
search for new physics are reviewed, with empahsis on frontier areas in the
field. We discuss the importance of, and prospects for, precision QCD in
perturbative and lattice calculations. We describe new ideas in the analysis of
parton distribution functions and jet structure, and review progress in
small- and in polarization.Comment: Snowmass 2001. Revtex4, 34 pages, 4 figures, revised to include
additional references on jets and lattice QC
The scalar bi-spectrum during preheating in single field inflationary models
In single field inflationary models, preheating refers to the phase that
immediately follows inflation, but precedes the epoch of reheating. During this
phase, the inflaton typically oscillates at the bottom of its potential and
gradually transfers its energy to radiation. At the same time, the amplitude of
the fields coupled to the inflaton may undergo parametric resonance and, as a
consequence, explosive particle production can take place. A priori, these
phenomena could lead to an amplification of the super-Hubble scale curvature
perturbations which, in turn, would modify the standard inflationary
predictions. However, remarkably, it has been shown that, although the
Mukhanov-Sasaki variable does undergo narrow parametric instability during
preheating, the amplitude of the corresponding super-Hubble curvature
perturbations remain constant. Therefore, in single field models, metric
preheating does not affect the power spectrum of the large scale perturbations.
In this article, we investigate the corresponding effect on the scalar
bi-spectrum. Using the Maldacena's formalism, we analytically show that, for
modes of cosmological interest, the contributions to the scalar bi-spectrum as
the curvature perturbations evolve on super-Hubble scales during preheating is
completely negligible. Specifically, we illustrate that, certain terms in the
third order action governing the curvature perturbations which may naively be
expected to contribute significantly are exactly canceled by other
contributions to the bi-spectrum. We corroborate selected analytical results by
numerical investigations. We conclude with a brief discussion of the results we
have obtained.Comment: v1: 15 pages, 4 figures; v2: 15 pages, 4 figures, discussion and
references added, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Low temperature spin fluctuations in geometrically frustrated Yb3Ga5O12
In the garnet structure compound Yb3Ga5O12, the Yb3+ ions (ground state
effective spin S' = 1/2) are situated on two interpenetrating corner sharing
triangular sublattices such that frustrated magnetic interactions are possible.
Previous specific heat measurements evidenced the development of short range
magnetic correlations below 0.5K and a lambda-transition at 54mK (Filippi et
al. J. Phys. C: Solid State Physics 13 (1980) 1277). From 170-Yb M"ossbauer
spectroscopy measurements down to 36mK, we find there is no static magnetic
order at temperatures below that of the lambda-transition. Below 0.3K, the
fluctuation frequency of the short range correlated Yb3+ moments progressively
slows down and as the temperature tends to 0, the frequency tends to a
quasi-saturated value of 3 x 10^9 s^-1. We also examined the Yb3+ paramagnetic
relaxation rates up to 300K using 172-Yb perturbed angular correlation
measurements: they evidence phonon driven processes.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
The Luminosity Function Of Field Galaxies And Its Evolution Since z=1
We present the B-band luminosity function and comoving space and luminosity
densities for a sample of 2779 I-band selected field galaxies based on
multi-color data from the CADIS survey. The sample is complete down to I_815 =
22 without correction and with completeness correction extends to I_815=23.0.
By means of a new multi-color analysis the objects are classified according to
their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and their redshifts are determined
with typical errors of delta z <= 0.03. We have split our sample into four
redshift bins between z=0.1 and z=1.04 and into three SED bins E-Sa,Sa-Sc and
starbursting (emission line) galaxies. The evolution of the luminosity function
is clearly differential with SED. The normalization phi* of luminosity function
for the E-Sa galaxies decreases towards higher redshift, and we find evidence
that the comoving galaxy space density decreases with redshift as well. In
contrast, we find phi* and the comoving space density increasing with redshift
for the Sa-Sc galaxies. For the starburst galaxies we find a steepening of the
luminosity function at the faint end and their comoving space density increases
with redshift.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted by Astronomy&Astrophysic
Astrophysical Constraints on Modifying Gravity at Large Distances
Recently, several interesting proposals were made modifying the law of
gravity on large scales, within a sensible relativistic formulation. This
allows a precise formulation of the idea that such a modification might account
for galaxy rotation curves, instead of the usual interpretation of these curves
as evidence for dark matter. We here summarize several observational
constraints which any such modification must satisfy, and which we believe make
more challenging any interpretation of galaxy rotation curves in terms of new
gravitational physics.Comment: References added, submitted to Classical & Quantum Gravit
Stochastic Inflation Revisited: Non-Slow Roll Statistics and DBI Inflation
Stochastic inflation describes the global structure of the inflationary
universe by modeling the super-Hubble dynamics as a system of matter fields
coupled to gravity where the sub-Hubble field fluctuations induce a stochastic
force into the equations of motion. The super-Hubble dynamics are ultralocal,
allowing us to neglect spatial derivatives and treat each Hubble patch as a
separate universe. This provides a natural framework in which to discuss
probabilities on the space of solutions and initial conditions. In this article
we derive an evolution equation for this probability for an arbitrary class of
matter systems, including DBI and k-inflationary models, and discover
equilibrium solutions that satisfy detailed balance. Our results are more
general than those derived assuming slow roll or a quasi-de Sitter geometry,
and so are directly applicable to models that do not satisfy the usual slow
roll conditions. We discuss in general terms the conditions for eternal
inflation to set in, and we give explicit numerical solutions of highly
stochastic, quasi-stationary trajectories in the relativistic DBI regime.
Finally, we show that the probability for stochastic/thermal tunneling can be
significantly enhanced relative to the Hawking-Moss instanton result due to
relativistic DBI effects.Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures. v3: minor revisions; version accepted into JCA
A two-scalar model for a small but nonzero cosmological constant
We revisit a model of the two-scalar system proposed previously for
understanding a small but nonzero cosmological constant. The model provides
solutions of the scalar-fields energy which behaves truly constant for
a limited time interval rather than in the way of tracker- or scaling-type
variations. This causes a mini-inflation, as indicated by recent observations.
As another novel feature, and the ordinary matter density
fall off always side by side, but interlacing, also like (time) as an
overall behavior in conformity with the scenario of a decaying cosmological
constant. A mini-inflation occurs whenever overtakes , which
may happen more than once, shedding a new light on the coincidence problem. We
present a new example of the solution, and offer an intuitive interpretation of
the mechanism of the nonlinear dynamics. We also discuss a chaos-like nature of
the solution.Comment: 9 pages plus 7 figure
The proton and deuteron F_2 structure function at low Q^2
Measurements of the proton and deuteron structure functions are
presented. The data, taken at Jefferson Lab Hall C, span the four-momentum
transfer range GeV, and Bjorken values from 0.009 to
0.45, thus extending the knowledge of to low values of at low .
Next-to-next-to-leading order calculations using recent parton distribution
functions start to deviate from the data for GeV at the low and
high -values. Down to the lowest value of , the structure function is
in good agreement with a parameterization of based on data that have been
taken at much higher values of or much lower values of , and which is
constrained by data at the photon point. The ratio of the deuteron and proton
structure functions at low remains well described by a logarithmic
dependence on at low .Comment: 3 figures, submitted pape
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
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