6,441 research outputs found
Best Unbiased Estimates for the Microwave Background Anisotropies
It is likely that the observed distribution of the microwave background
temperature over the sky is only one realization of the underlying random
process associated with cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical
origin. If so, one needs to derive the parameters of the random process, as
accurately as possible, from the data of a single map. These parameters are of
the utmost importance, since our knowledge of them would help us to reconstruct
the dynamical evolution of the very early Universe. It appears that the lack of
ergodicity of a random process on a 2-sphere does not allow us to do this with
arbitrarily high accuracy. We are left with the problem of finding the best
unbiased estimators of the participating parameters. A detailed solution to
this problem is presented in this article. The theoretical error bars for the
best unbiased estimates are derived and discussed.Comment: 26 pages, revtex; minor modifications, 8 new references, to be
published in Phys. Rev.
Primordial Gravitational Waves From Open Inflation
We calculate the spectrum of gravitational waves generated during inflation
in open inflationary models. In such models an initial epoch of
old inflation solves the horizon and flatness problems, and during this first
epoch of inflation the quantum state of the graviton field rapidly approaches
the Bunch-Davies vacuum. Then old inflation ends by the nucleation of a single
bubble, inside of which there is a shortened epoch of slow-roll inflation
giving today. In this paper we re-express the Bunch-Davies vacuum
for the graviton field in terms of the hyperbolic modes inside the bubble and
propagate these modes forward in time into the present era. We derive the
expression for the contribution from these gravity waves to the cosmic
microwave background anisotropy including the effect of a finite energy
difference across the bubble wall.Comment: 40 pages, TEX with phyzzx macro, 5 figure
Search for Global Dipole Enhancements in the HiRes-I Monocular Data above 10^{18.5} eV
Several proposed source models for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs)
consist of dipole distributions oriented towards major astrophysical landmarks
such as the galactic center, M87, or Centaurus A. We use a comparison between
real data and simulated data to show that the HiRes-I monocular data for
energies above 10^{18.5} eV is, in fact, consistent with an isotropic source
model. We then explore methods to quantify our sensitivity to dipole source
models oriented towards the Galactic Center, M87, and Centaurus A.Comment: 17 pages, 31 figure
Constraints on Brane Inflation and Cosmic Strings
By considering simple, but representative, models of brane inflation from a
single brane-antibrane pair in the slow roll regime, we provide constraints on
the parameters of the theory imposed by measurements of the CMB anisotropies by
WMAP including a cosmic string component. We find that inclusion of the string
component is critical in constraining parameters. In the most general model
studied, which includes an inflaton mass term, as well as the brane-antibrane
attraction, values n_s < 1.02 are compatible with the data at 95 % confidence
level. We are also able to constrain the volume of internal manifold (modulo
factors dependent on the warp factor) and the value of the inflaton field to be
less than 0.66M_P at horizon exit. We also investigate models with a mass term.
These observational considerations suggest that such models have r < 2*10^-5,
which can only be circumvented in the fast roll regime, or by increasing the
number of antibranes. Such a value of r would not be detectable in CMB
polarization experiment likely in the near future, but the B-mode signal from
the cosmic strings could be detectable. We present forecasts of what a similar
analysis using PLANCK data would yield and find that it should be possible to
rule out G\mu > 6.5*10^-8 using just the TT, TE and EE power spectra.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, revtex4, typos corrected, references adde
Multiple-field inflation and the CMB
In this paper, we investigate some consequences of multiple-field inflation
for the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). We derive expressions for
the amplitudes, the spectral indices and the derivatives of the indices of the
CMB power spectrum in the context of a very general multiple-field theory of
slow-roll inflation, where the field metric can be non-trivial. Both scalar
(adiabatic, isocurvature and mixing) and tensor perturbations are treated and
the differences with single-field inflation are discussed. From these
expressions, several relations are derived that can be used to determine the
importance of multiple-field effects observationally from the CMB. We also
study the evolution of the total entropy perturbation during radiation and
matter domination and the influence of this on the isocurvature spectral
quantities.Comment: 24 pages. References added, some very minor textual changes, matches
version to be published in CQ
COrE (Cosmic Origins Explorer) A White Paper
COrE (Cosmic Origins Explorer) is a fourth-generation full-sky,
microwave-band satellite recently proposed to ESA within Cosmic Vision
2015-2025. COrE will provide maps of the microwave sky in polarization and
temperature in 15 frequency bands, ranging from 45 GHz to 795 GHz, with an
angular resolution ranging from 23 arcmin (45 GHz) and 1.3 arcmin (795 GHz) and
sensitivities roughly 10 to 30 times better than PLANCK (depending on the
frequency channel). The COrE mission will lead to breakthrough science in a
wide range of areas, ranging from primordial cosmology to galactic and
extragalactic science. COrE is designed to detect the primordial gravitational
waves generated during the epoch of cosmic inflation at more than
for . It will also measure the CMB gravitational lensing
deflection power spectrum to the cosmic variance limit on all linear scales,
allowing us to probe absolute neutrino masses better than laboratory
experiments and down to plausible values suggested by the neutrino oscillation
data. COrE will also search for primordial non-Gaussianity with significant
improvements over Planck in its ability to constrain the shape (and amplitude)
of non-Gaussianity. In the areas of galactic and extragalactic science, in its
highest frequency channels COrE will provide maps of the galactic polarized
dust emission allowing us to map the galactic magnetic field in areas of
diffuse emission not otherwise accessible to probe the initial conditions for
star formation. COrE will also map the galactic synchrotron emission thirty
times better than PLANCK. This White Paper reviews the COrE science program,
our simulations on foreground subtraction, and the proposed instrumental
configuration.Comment: 90 pages Latex 15 figures (revised 28 April 2011, references added,
minor errors corrected
Limits on the gravity wave contribution to microwave anisotropies
We present limits on the fraction of large angle microwave anisotropies which
could come from tensor perturbations. We use the COBE results as well as
smaller scale CMB observations, measurements of galaxy correlations, abundances
of galaxy clusters, and Lyman alpha absorption cloud statistics. Our aim is to
provide conservative limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio for standard
inflationary models. For power-law inflation, for example, we find T/S<0.52 at
95% confidence, with a similar constraint for phi^p potentials. However, for
models with tensor amplitude unrelated to the scalar spectral index it is still
currently possible to have T/S>1.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D.
Calculations extended to blue spectral index, Fig. 6 added, discussion of
results expande
Signatures of Short Distance Physics in the Cosmic Microwave Background
We systematically investigate the effect of short distance physics on the
spectrum of temperature anistropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background produced
during inflation. We present a general argument-assuming only low energy
locality-that the size of such effects are of order H^2/M^2, where H is the
Hubble parameter during inflation, and M is the scale of the high energy
physics.
We evaluate the strength of such effects in a number of specific string and M
theory models. In weakly coupled field theory and string theory models, the
effects are far too small to be observed. In phenomenologically attractive
Horava-Witten compactifications, the effects are much larger but still
unobservable. In certain M theory models, for which the fundamental Planck
scale is several orders of magnitude below the conventional scale of grand
unification, the effects may be on the threshold of detectability.
However, observations of both the scalar and tensor fluctuation contributions
to the Cosmic Microwave Background power spectrum-with a precision near the
cosmic variance limit-are necessary in order to unambiguously demonstrate the
existence of these signatures of high energy physics. This is a formidable
experimental challenge.Comment: 49 pages, 2 figures. References added, minor typos correcte
Einstein and Brans-Dicke frames in multidimensional cosmology
Inhomogeneous multidimensional cosmological models with a higher dimensional
space-time manifold M= M_0 x M_1 ...x M_n are investigated under dimensional
reduction to a D_0-dimensional effective non-minimally coupled sigma-model
which generalizes the familiar Brans-Dicke model.
It is argued that the Einstein frame should be considered as the physical
one. The general prescription for the Einstein frame reformulation of known
solutions in the Brans-Dicke frame is given. As an example, the reformulation
is demonstrated explicitly for the generalized Kasner solutions where it is
shown that in the Einstein frame there are no solutions with inflation of the
external space.Comment: 27 pages, Revte
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