106 research outputs found
Mapping systematic errors in helium abundance determinations using Markov Chain Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo techniques have been used to evaluate the statistical and
systematic uncertainties in the helium abundances derived from extragalactic
H~II regions. The helium abundance is sensitive to several physical parameters
associated with the H~II region. In this work, we introduce Markov Chain Monte
Carlo (MCMC) methods to efficiently explore the parameter space and determine
the helium abundance, the physical parameters, and the uncertainties derived
from observations of metal poor nebulae. Experiments with synthetic data show
that the MCMC method is superior to previous implementations (based on flux
perturbation) in that it is not affected by biases due to non-physical
parameter space. The MCMC analysis allows a detailed exploration of
degeneracies, and, in particular, a false minimum that occurs at large values
of optical depth in the He~I emission lines. We demonstrate that introducing
the electron temperature derived from the [O~III] emission lines as a prior, in
a very conservative manner, produces negligible bias and effectively eliminates
the false minima occurring at large optical depth. We perform a frequentist
analysis on data from several "high quality" systems. Likelihood plots
illustrate degeneracies, asymmetries, and limits of the determination. In
agreement with previous work, we find relatively large systematic errors,
limiting the precision of the primordial helium abundance for currently
available spectra.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure
On the reheating stage after inflation
We point out that inflaton decay products acquire plasma masses during the
reheating phase following inflation. The plasma masses may render inflaton
decay kinematicaly forbidden, causing the temperature to remain frozen for a
period at a plateau value. We show that the final reheating temperature may be
uniquely determined by the inflaton mass, and may not depend on its coupling.
Our findings have important implications for the thermal production of
dangerous relics during reheating (e.g., gravitinos), for extracting bounds on
particle physics models of inflation from Cosmic Microwave Background
anisotropy data, for the production of massive dark matter candidates during
reheating, and for models of baryogenesis or leptogensis where massive
particles are produced during reheating.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Submitted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Conformal aspects of Palatini approach in Extended Theories of Gravity
The debate on the physical relevance of conformal transformations can be
faced by taking the Palatini approach into account to gravitational theories.
We show that conformal transformations are not only a mathematical tool to
disentangle gravitational and matter degrees of freedom (passing from the
Jordan frame to the Einstein frame) but they acquire a physical meaning
considering the bi-metric structure of Palatini approach which allows to
distinguish between spacetime structure and geodesic structure. Examples of
higher-order and non-minimally coupled theories are worked out and relevant
cosmological solutions in Einstein frame and Jordan frames are discussed
showing that also the interpretation of cosmological observations can
drastically change depending on the adopted frame
Baryon number violation, baryogenesis and defects with extra dimensions
In generic models for grand unified theories(GUT), various types of baryon
number violating processes are expected when quarks and leptons propagate in
the background of GUT strings. On the other hand, in models with large extra
dimensions, the baryon number violation in the background of a string is not
trivial because it must depend on the mechanism of the proton stabilization. In
this paper we argue that cosmic strings in models with extra dimensions can
enhance the baryon number violation to a phenomenologically interesting level,
if the proton decay is suppressed by the mechanism of localized wavefunctions.
We also make some comments on baryogenesis mediated by cosmological defects. We
show at least two scenarios will be successful in this direction. One is the
scenario of leptogenesis where the required lepton number conversion is
mediated by cosmic strings, and the other is the baryogenesis from the decaying
cosmological domain wall. Both scenarios are new and have not been discussed in
the past.Comment: 20pages, latex2e, comments and references added, to appear in PR
Challenges and Obstacles for a Bouncing Universe in Brane Models
A Brane evolving in the background of a charged AdS black-hole displays in
general a bouncing behaviour with a smooth transition from a contracting to an
expanding phase. We examine in detail the conditions and consequences of this
behaviour in various cases. For a cosmological-constant-dominated Brane, we
obtain a singularity-free, inflationary era which is shown to be compatible
only with an intermediate-scale fundamental Planck mass. For a
radiation-dominated Brane, the bouncing behaviour can occur only for
background-charge values exceeding those allowed for non-extremal black holes.
For a matter-dominated Brane, the black-hole mass affects the proper volume or
the expansion rate of the Brane. We also consider the Brane evolving in an
asymmetric background of two distinct charged AdS black hole spacetimes being
bounded by the Brane and find that, in the case of an empty critical Brane,
bouncing behaviour occurs only if the black-hole mass difference is smaller
than a certain value. The effects of a Brane curvature term on the bounce at
early and late times are also investigated.Comment: 23 pages, Latex file, comments and references added, version to
appear in Phys. Rev.
SuperWIMP Dark Matter Signals from the Early Universe
Cold dark matter may be made of superweakly-interacting massive particles,
superWIMPs, that naturally inherit the desired relic density from late decays
of metastable WIMPs. Well-motivated examples are weak-scale gravitinos in
supergravity and Kaluza-Klein gravitons from extra dimensions. These particles
are impossible to detect in all dark matter experiments. We find, however, that
superWIMP dark matter may be discovered through cosmological signatures from
the early universe. In particular, superWIMP dark matter has observable
consequences for Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background
(CMB), and may explain the observed underabundance of 7Li without upsetting the
concordance between deuterium and CMB baryometers. We discuss implications for
future probes of CMB black body distortions and collider searches for new
particles. In the course of this study, we also present a model-independent
analysis of entropy production from late-decaying particles in light of WMAP
data.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, typos correcte
Production and dilution of gravitinos by modulus decay
We study the cosmological consequences of generic scalar fields like moduli
which decay only through gravitationally suppressed interactions. We consider a
new production mechanism of gravitinos from moduli decay, which might be more
effective than previously known mechanisms, and calculate the final
gravitino-to-entropy ratio to compare with the constraints imposed by
successful big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) etc., taking possible hadronic decays
of gravitinos into account. We find the modulus mass smaller than
TeV is excluded. On the other hand, inflation models with high reheating
temperatures GeV can be compatible with BBN thanks
to the late-time entropy production from the moduli decay if model parameters
are appropriately chosen.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Is the evidence for dark energy secure?
Several kinds of astronomical observations, interpreted in the framework of
the standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology, have indicated that our
universe is dominated by a Cosmological Constant. The dimming of distant Type
Ia supernovae suggests that the expansion rate is accelerating, as if driven by
vacuum energy, and this has been indirectly substantiated through studies of
angular anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and of spatial
correlations in the large-scale structure (LSS) of galaxies. However there is
no compelling direct evidence yet for (the dynamical effects of) dark energy.
The precision CMB data can be equally well fitted without dark energy if the
spectrum of primordial density fluctuations is not quite scale-free and if the
Hubble constant is lower globally than its locally measured value. The LSS data
can also be satisfactorily fitted if there is a small component of hot dark
matter, as would be provided by neutrinos of mass 0.5 eV. Although such an
Einstein-de Sitter model cannot explain the SNe Ia Hubble diagram or the
position of the `baryon acoustic oscillation' peak in the autocorrelation
function of galaxies, it may be possible to do so e.g. in an inhomogeneous
Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi cosmology where we are located in a void which is
expanding faster than the average. Such alternatives may seem contrived but
this must be weighed against our lack of any fundamental understanding of the
inferred tiny energy scale of the dark energy. It may well be an artifact of an
oversimplified cosmological model, rather than having physical reality.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; to appear in a special issue of General
Relativity and Gravitation, eds. G.F.R. Ellis et al; Changes: references
reformatted in journal style - text unchange
Dimensionless cosmology
Although it is well known that any consideration of the variations of
fundamental constants should be restricted to their dimensionless combinations,
the literature on variations of the gravitational constant is entirely
dimensionful. To illustrate applications of this to cosmology, we explicitly
give a dimensionless version of the parameters of the standard cosmological
model, and describe the physics of Big Bang Neucleosynthesis and recombination
in a dimensionless manner. The issue that appears to have been missed in many
studies is that in cosmology the strength of gravity is bound up in the
cosmological equations, and the epoch at which we live is a crucial part of the
model. We argue that it is useful to consider the hypothetical situation of
communicating with another civilization (with entirely different units),
comparing only dimensionless constants, in order to decide if we live in a
Universe governed by precisely the same physical laws. In this thought
experiment, we would also have to compare epochs, which can be defined by
giving the value of any {\it one} of the evolving cosmological parameters. By
setting things up carefully in this way one can avoid inconsistent results when
considering variable constants, caused by effectively fixing more than one
parameter today. We show examples of this effect by considering microwave
background anisotropies, being careful to maintain dimensionlessness
throughout. We present Fisher matrix calculations to estimate how well the fine
structure constants for electromagnetism and gravity can be determined with
future microwave background experiments. We highlight how one can be misled by
simply adding to the usual cosmological parameter set
Detectability of Tensor Perturbations Through CBR Anisotropy (final published version)
Detection of the tensor perturbations predicted in inflationary models is
important for testing inflation as well as for reconstructing the inflationary
potential. We show that because of cosmic variance the tensor contribution to
the square of the CBR quadrupole anisotropy must be greater than about 20\% of
the scalar contribution to ensure a statistically significant detection of
tensor perturbations. This sensitivity could be achieved by full-sky
measurements on angular scales of and .Comment: 10 pages, uu-encoded postscript file, FERMILAB-PUB-94/175-
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