Cold dark matter halos in Multi-coupled Dark Energy cosmologies: structural and statistical properties

The recently proposed Multi-coupled Dark Energy (McDE) scenario - characterised by two distinct Cold Dark Matter (CDM) particle species with opposite couplings to a Dark Energy scalar field - introduces a number of novel features in the small-scale dynamics of cosmic structures, most noticeably the simultaneous existence of both attractive and repulsive fifth-forces. Such small-scale features are expected to imprint possibly observable footprints on nonlinear cosmic structures, that might provide a direct way to test the scenario. In order to unveil such footprints, we have performed the first suite of high-resolution N-body simulations of McDE cosmologies, covering the coupling range $|\beta |\leq 1$. We find that for coupling values corresponding to fifth-forces weaker than standard gravity, the impact on structure formation is very mild, thereby showing a new type of screening mechanism for long-range scalar interactions. On the contrary, for fifth-forces comparable to or stronger than standard gravity a number of effects appear in the statistical and structural properties of CDM halos. Collapsed structures start to fragment into pairs of smaller objects that move on different trajectories, providing a direct evidence of the violation of the weak equivalence principle. Consequently, the relative abundance of halos of different masses is significantly modified. For sufficiently large coupling values, the expected number of clusters is strongly suppressed, which might alleviate the present tension between CMB- and cluster-based cosmological constraints. Finally, the internal structure of halos is also modified, with a significant suppression of the inner overdensity, and a progressive segregation of the two CDM species.Comment: 38 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Physics of the Dark Univers

The nonlinear evolution of large scale structures in Growing Neutrino cosmologies

We present the results of the first N-body simulations of the Growing Neutrino scenario, as recently discussed in Baldi et al. (2011). Our results have shown for the first time how neutrino lumps forming in the context of Growing Neutrino cosmologies are expected to pulsate as a consequence of the rapid oscillations of the dark energy scalar field. We have also computed for the first time a realistic statistical distribution of neutrino halos and determined their impact on the underlying Cold Dark Matter structures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 Figures. To appear in the Proceedings Volume of the Conference "Advances in computational astrophysics", Cefalu' (Italy), 13-17 June 201

Time dependent couplings in the dark sector: from background evolution to nonlinear structure formation

We present a complete numerical study of cosmological models with a time dependent coupling between the dark energy component driving the present accelerated expansion of the Universe and the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) fluid. Depending on the functional form of the coupling strength, these models show a range of possible intermediate behaviors between the standard LCDM background evolution and the widely studied case of interacting dark energy models with a constant coupling. These different background evolutions play a crucial role in the growth of cosmic structures, and determine strikingly different effects of the coupling on the internal dynamics of nonlinear objects. By means of a suitable modification of the cosmological N-body code GADGET-2 we have performed a series of high-resolution N-body simulations of structure formation in the context of interacting dark energy models with variable couplings. Depending on the type of background evolution, the halo density profiles are found to be either less or more concentrated with respect to LCDM, contrarily to what happens for constant coupling models where concentrations can only decrease. However, for some specific choice of the interaction function the reduction of halo concentrations can be larger than in constant coupling scenarios. In general, we find that time dependent interactions between dark energy and CDM can in some cases determine stronger effects on structure formation as compared to the constant coupling case, with a significantly weaker impact on the background evolution of the Universe, and might therefore provide a more viable possibility to alleviate the tensions between observations and the LCDM model on small scales than the constant coupling scenario. [Abridged]Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables. Minor revisions. MNRAS accepte

Increasing Physical Layer Security through Scrambled Codes and ARQ

We develop the proposal of non-systematic channel codes on the AWGN wire-tap channel. Such coding technique, based on scrambling, achieves high transmission security with a small degradation of the eavesdropper's channel with respect to the legitimate receiver's channel. In this paper, we show that, by implementing scrambling and descrambling on blocks of concatenated frames, rather than on single frames, the channel degradation needed is further reduced. The usage of concatenated scrambling allows to achieve security also when both receivers experience the same channel quality. However, in this case, the introduction of an ARQ protocol with authentication is needed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; Proc. IEEE ICC 2011, Kyoto, Japan, 5-9 June 201

Coding with Scrambling, Concatenation, and HARQ for the AWGN Wire-Tap Channel: A Security Gap Analysis

This study examines the use of nonsystematic channel codes to obtain secure transmissions over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) wire-tap channel. Unlike the previous approaches, we propose to implement nonsystematic coded transmission by scrambling the information bits, and characterize the bit error rate of scrambled transmissions through theoretical arguments and numerical simulations. We have focused on some examples of Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes to estimate the security gap, which we have used as a measure of physical layer security, in addition to the bit error rate. Based on a number of numerical examples, we found that such a transmission technique can outperform alternative solutions. In fact, when an eavesdropper (Eve) has a worse channel than the authorized user (Bob), the security gap required to reach a given level of security is very small. The amount of degradation of Eve's channel with respect to Bob's that is needed to achieve sufficient security can be further reduced by implementing scrambling and descrambling operations on blocks of frames, rather than on single frames. While Eve's channel has a quality equal to or better than that of Bob's channel, we have shown that the use of a hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ) protocol with authentication still allows achieving a sufficient level of security. Finally, the secrecy performance of some practical schemes has also been measured in terms of the equivocation rate about the message at the eavesdropper and compared with that of ideal codes.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Simulating Momentum Exchange in the Dark Sector

Low energy interactions between particles are often characterised by elastic scattering. Just as electrons undergo Thomson scattering with photons, dark matter particles may experience an analogous form of momentum exchange with dark energy. We investigate the influence such an interaction has on the formation of linear and nonlinear cosmic structure, by running for the first time a suite of N-body simulations with different dark energy equations of state and scattering cross sections. In models where the linear matter power spectrum is suppressed by the scattering, we find that on nonlinear scales the power spectrum is strongly enhanced. This is due to the friction term increasing the efficiency of gravitational collapse, which also leads to a scale-independent amplification of the concentration and mass functions of halos. The opposite trend is found for models characterised by an increase of the linear matter power spectrum normalisation. More quantitatively, we find that power spectrum deviations at nonlinear scales ($k \approx 10\, h/$Mpc) are roughly ten times larger than their linear counterparts, exceeding $100$ for the largest value of the scattering cross section considered in the present work. Similarly, the concentration-mass relation and the halo mass function show deviations up to $100$ and $20$, respectively, over a wide range of masses. Therefore, we conclude that nonlinear probes of structure formation might provide much tighter constraints on the scattering cross section between dark energy and dark matter as compared to the present bounds based on linear observables.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to MNRA

A Physical Layer Secured Key Distribution Technique for IEEE 802.11g Wireless Networks

Key distribution and renewing in wireless local area networks is a crucial issue to guarantee that unauthorized users are prevented from accessing the network. In this paper, we propose a technique for allowing an automatic bootstrap and periodic renewing of the network key by exploiting physical layer security principles, that is, the inherent differences among transmission channels. The proposed technique is based on scrambling of groups of consecutive packets and does not need the use of an initial authentication nor automatic repeat request protocols. We present a modification of the scrambling circuits included in the IEEE 802.11g standard which allows for a suitable error propagation at the unauthorized receiver, thus achieving physical layer security.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters. Copyright transferred to IEE

Progressive Differences Convolutional Low-Density Parity-Check Codes

We present a new family of low-density parity-check (LDPC) convolutional codes that can be designed using ordered sets of progressive differences. We study their properties and define a subset of codes in this class that have some desirable features, such as fixed minimum distance and Tanner graphs without short cycles. The design approach we propose ensures that these properties are guaranteed independently of the code rate. This makes these codes of interest in many practical applications, particularly when high rate codes are needed for saving bandwidth. We provide some examples of coded transmission schemes exploiting this new class of codes.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Letters. Copyright transferred to IEE

Improving the efficiency of the LDPC code-based McEliece cryptosystem through irregular codes

We consider the framework of the McEliece cryptosystem based on LDPC codes, which is a promising post-quantum alternative to classical public key cryptosystems. The use of LDPC codes in this context allows to achieve good security levels with very compact keys, which is an important advantage over the classical McEliece cryptosystem based on Goppa codes. However, only regular LDPC codes have been considered up to now, while some further improvement can be achieved by using irregular LDPC codes, which are known to achieve better error correction performance than regular LDPC codes. This is shown in this paper, for the first time at our knowledge. The possible use of irregular transformation matrices is also investigated, which further increases the efficiency of the system, especially in regard to the public key size.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, presented at ISCC 201