Inflation: From Theory to Observation and Back

Alan Guth introduced cosmologists to inflation at the 1980 Texas Symposium. Since, inflation has had almost as much impact on cosmology as the big-bang model itself. However, unlike the big-bang model, it has little observational support. Hopefully, that situation is about to change as a variety and abundance of data begin to test inflation in a significant way. The observations that are putting inflation to test involve the formation of structure in the Universe, especially measurements of the anisotropy of the cosmic background radiation. The cold dark matter models of structure formation motivated by inflation are holding up well as the observational tests become sharper. In the next decade inflation will be tested even more significantly, with more precise measurements of CBR anisotropy, the mean density of the Universe, the Hubble constant, and the distribution of matter, as well as sensitive searches for the nonbaryonic dark matter predicted to exist by inflation. As an optimist I believe that we may be well on our way to a standard cosmology that includes inflation and extends back to around 10^{-32} sec, providing an important window on the earliest moments and fundamental physics.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX with 2 eps figure

Can the Type-IIB axion prevent Pre-big Bang inflation?

We look at the possibility of superinflationary behavior in a class of anisotropic Type-IIB superstring cosmologies in the context of Pre-big Bang scenario and find that there exists a rather narrow range of parameters for which these models inflate. We then show that, although in general this behavior is left untouched by the introduction of a Ramond-Ramond axion field through a SL(2,R) rotation, there exists a particular class of axions for which inflation disappears completely. Asymptotic past initial conditions are briefly discussed, and some speculations on the possible extension of Pre-big Bang ideas to gravitational collapse are presented.Comment: harvmac, epsf. 3 figures include

Scalar Field as Dark Matter in the Universe

We investigate the hypothesis that the scalar field is the dark matter and the dark energy in the Cosmos, wich comprises about 95% of the matter of the Universe. We show that this hypothesis explains quite well the recent observations on type Ia supernovae.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, 1 eps figure. Minor changes. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

XMM-Newton observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud: X-ray outburst of the 6.85 s pulsar XTE J0103-728

A bright X-ray transient was seen during an XMM-Newton observation in the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) in October 2006. The EPIC data allow us to accurately locate the source and to investigate its temporal and spectral behaviour. X-ray spectra covering 0.2-10 keV and pulse profiles in different energy bands were extracted from the EPIC data. The detection of 6.85 s pulsations in the EPIC-PN data unambiguously identifies the transient with XTE J0103-728, discovered as 6.85 s pulsar by RXTE. The X-ray light curve during the XMM-Newton observation shows flaring activity of the source with intensity changes by a factor of two within 10 minutes. Modelling of pulse-phase averaged spectra with a simple absorbed power-law indicates systematic residuals which can be accounted for by a second emission component. For models implying blackbody emission, thermal plasma emission or emission from the accretion disk (disk-blackbody), the latter yields physically sensible parameters. The photon index of the power-law of ~0.4 indicates a relatively hard spectrum. The 0.2-10 keV luminosity was 2x10^{37} with a contribution of ~3% from the disk-blackbody component. A likely origin for the excess emission is reprocessing of hard X-rays from the neutron star by optically thick material near the inner edge of an accretion disk. From a timing analysis we determine the pulse period to 6.85401(1) s indicating an average spin-down of ~0.0017 s per year since the discovery of XTE J0103-728 in May 2003. The X-ray properties and the identification with a Be star confirm XTE J0103-728 as Be/X-ray binary transient in the SMC.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to A&A on 21 Dec. 200

Cosmological scaling solutions of minimally coupled scalar fields in three dimensions

We examine Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models in three spacetime dimensions. The matter content of the models is composed of a perfect fluid, with a $\gamma$-law equation of state, and a homogeneous scalar field minimally coupled to gravity with a self-interacting potential whose energy density red-shifts as $a^{-2 \nu}$, where a denotes the scale factor. Cosmological solutions are presented for different range of values of $\gamma$ and $\nu$. The potential required to agree with the above red-shift for the scalar field energy density is also calculated.Comment: LaTeX2e, 11 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Can Moduli Fields parametrize the Cosmological Constant?

We study the cosmological evolution of string/M moduli fields T. We use T-duality to fix the potential and show that the superpotential W is a function of the duality invariant function j(T) only. If W is given as a finite polynomial of j then the moduli fields {\it do not} give an accelerating universe, i.e. they {\it cannot} be used as quintessence. Furthermore, at T >>1 the potential is given by a double exponential potential V \simeq e^{-a e^{\sqrt{2} T}} leading to a fast decaying behaviour at large times. For moduli potentials with a finite v.e.v. of T the energy density redshift is model dependent but if T has a finite mass, m < \infty, then the moduli energy density redshifts faster or equal to matter. Only if the moduli mass is infinite can the moduli energy density dominate the universe independently of the initial conditions.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 3 postscript figure

XMM-Newton observation of the persistent Be/NS X-ray binary pulsar RX J1037.5-5647 in a low luminosity state

The spectra of several X-ray binary pulsars display a clear soft excess, which in most cases can be described with a blackbody model, above the main power-law component. While in the high-luminosity sources it is usually characterized by low temperature (kT 100 km), in the two persistent and low-luminosity pulsars 4U 0352+309 and RX J0146.9+6121 this component has a high temperature (kT > 1 keV) and a smaller radius (R < 0.5 km), consistent with the estimated size of the neutron-star polar cap. Here we report on the timing and spectral analysis of RX J1037.5-5647, another low-luminosity persistent Be binary pulsar, based on the first XMM-Newton observation of this source. We have found a best-fit period P = 853.4(+/-0.2) s, that implies an average pulsar spin-up dP/dt ~ -2E-8 s/s in the latest decade. The estimated source luminosity is Lx ~ 10^34 erg/s, a value comparable to that of the other persistent Be binary pulsars and about one order of magnitude lower than in most of the previous measurements. The source spectrum can be described with a power law plus blackbody model, with kTbb = 1.26(+0.16/-0.09) keV and Rbb = 128(+13/-21) m, suggesting a polar-cap origin of this component. These results strengthen the hypothesis that, in addition to low luminosities and long periods, this class of sources is characterized also by common spectral propertiesComment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Dynamical Solutions to the Horizon and Flatness Problems

We discuss in some detail the requirements on an early-Universe model that solves the horizon and flatness problems during the epoch of classical cosmology ($t\ge t_i\gg 10^{-43}\sec$). We show that a dynamical resolution of the horizon problem requires superluminal expansion (or very close to it) and that a truly satisfactory resolution of the flatness problem requires entropy production. This implies that a proposed class of adiabatic models in which the Planck mass varies by many orders of magnitude cannot fully resolve the flatness problem. Furthermore, we show that, subject to minimal assumptions, such models cannot solve the horizon problem either. Because superluminal expansion and entropy production are the two generic features of inflationary models, our results suggest that inflation, or something very similar, may be the only dynamical solution to the horizon and flatness problems.Comment: 17 page

Quintessence and Scalar Dark Matter in the Universe

Continuing with previous works, we present a cosmological model in which dark matter and dark energy are modeled by scalar fields $\Phi$ and $\Psi$, respectively, endowed with the scalar potentials $V(\Phi)=V_{o}[ \cosh {(\lambda \sqrt{\kappa_{o}}\Phi)}-1]$ and $\tilde{V}(\Psi)=\tilde{V_{o}}[ \sinh {(\alpha \sqrt{\kappa_{o}}\Psi)}] ^{\beta}$. This model contains 95% of scalar field. We obtain that the scalar dark matter mass is $m_{\Phi}\sim 10^{-26}eV.$ The solution obtained allows us to recover the success of the standard CDM. The implications on the formation of structure are reviewed. We obtain that the minimal cutoff radio for this model is $r_{c}\sim 1.2 kpc.$Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, 3 eps color figures. Minor changes and references updated. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity as a Letter to the Editor. More information at http://www.fis.cinvestav.mx/~siddh/PHI