51 research outputs found
From heaviness to lightness during inflation
We study the quantum fluctuations of scalar fields with a variable effective
mass during an inflationary phase. We consider the situation where the
effective mass depends on a background scalar field, which evolves during
inflation from being frozen into a damped oscillatory phase when the Hubble
parameter decreases below its mass. We find power spectra with suppressed
amplitude on large scales, similar to the standard massless spectrum on small
scales, and affected by modulations on intermediate scales. We stress the
analogies and differences with the parametric resonance in the preheating
scenario. We also discuss some potentially observable consequences when the
scalar field behaves like a curvaton.Comment: 23 pages; 8 figures; published versio
Fermionic massive modes along cosmic strings
The influence on cosmic string dynamics of fermionic massive bound states
propagating in the vortex, and getting their mass only from coupling to the
string forming Higgs field, is studied. Such massive fermionic currents are
numerically found to exist for a wide range of model parameters and seen to
modify drastically the usual string dynamics coming from the zero mode currents
alone. In particular, by means of a quantization procedure, a new equation of
state describing cosmic strings with any kind of fermionic current, massive or
massless, is derived and found to involve, at least, one state parameter per
trapped fermion species. This equation of state exhibits transitions from
subsonic to supersonic regimes while the massive modes are filled.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, uses ReVTeX. Shortened version, accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
Fine-Tuning in DBI Inflationary Mechanism
We show a model-independent fine-tuning issue in the DBI inflationary
mechanism. DBI inflation requires a warp factor h small enough to sufficiently
slow down the inflaton. On the other hand, the Einstein equation in extra
dimensions under the inflationary background deforms the warp space in the IR
side. Generically these two locations coincide with each other, spoiling the
DBI inflation. The origin and tuning of this ``h-problem'' is closely related,
through the AdS/CFT duality, to those of the well-known ``eta-problem'' in the
slow-roll inflationary mechanism.Comment: 13 pages; v4, several discussions expanded, JCAP versio
Brane inflation and the WMAP data: a Bayesian analysis
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) constraints on string
inspired ''brane inflation'' are investigated. Here, the inflaton field is
interpreted as the distance between two branes placed in a flux-enriched
background geometry and has a Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) kinetic term. Our method
relies on an exact numerical integration of the inflationary power spectra
coupled to a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo exploration of the parameter space. This
analysis is valid for any perturbative value of the string coupling constant
and of the string length, and includes a phenomenological modelling of the
reheating era to describe the post-inflationary evolution. It is found that the
data favour a scenario where inflation stops by violation of the slow-roll
conditions well before brane annihilation, rather than by tachyonic
instability. Concerning the background geometry, it is established that log(v)
> -10 at 95% confidence level (CL), where "v" is the dimensionless ratio of the
five-dimensional sub-manifold at the base of the six-dimensional warped
conifold geometry to the volume of the unit five-sphere. The reheating energy
scale remains poorly constrained, Treh > 20 GeV at 95% CL, for an extreme
equation of state (wreh ~ -1/3) only. Assuming the string length is known, the
favoured values of the string coupling and of the Ramond-Ramond total
background charge appear to be correlated. Finally, the stochastic regime
(without and with volume effects) is studied using a perturbative treatment of
the Langevin equation. The validity of such an approximate scheme is discussed
and shown to be too limited for a full characterisation of the quantum effects.Comment: 65 pages, 15 figures, uses iopart. Shortened version, updated
references. Matches publication up to appendix B kept on the arXi
Production of topological defects at the end of inflation
Hybrid inflation within supersymmetric grand unified theories, as well as
inflation through brane collisions within braneworld cosmological models, lead
to the formation of one-dimensional defects. Observational data, mainly from
the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies but also from the
gravitational wave background, impose constraints on the free parameters of the
models. I review these inflationary models and discuss the constraints from the
currently available data.Comment: 9 pages, Invited talk in the Conference "Challenges in Particle
Astrophysics" -- 6th Rencontres du Vietnam, Hanoi (Vietnam) 6-12 Aug. 200
DBI Inflation using a One-Parameter Family of Throat Geometries
We demonstrate the possibility of examining cosmological signatures in the
DBI inflation setup using the BGMPZ solution, a one-parameter family of
geometries for the warped throat which interpolate between the Maldacena-Nunez
and Klebanov-Strassler solutions. The warp factor is determined numerically and
subsequently used to calculate cosmological observables including the scalar
and tensor spectral indices, for a sample point in the parameter space. As one
moves away from the KS solution for the throat the warp factor is qualitatively
different, which leads to a significant change for the observables, but also
generically increases the non-Gaussianity of the models. We argue that the
different models can potentially be differentiated by current and future
experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures; v2: section 4 expanded, references added; v3:
typos fixe
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
Current-carrying cosmic string loops 3D simulation: towards a reduction of the vorton excess problem
The dynamical evolution of superconducting cosmic string loops with specific
equations of state describing timelike and spacelike currents is studied
numerically. This analysis extends previous work in two directions: first it
shows results coming from a fully three dimensional simulation (as opposed to
the two dimensional case already studied), and it now includes fermionic as
well as bosonic currents. We confirm that in the case of bosonic currents,
shocks are formed in the magnetic regime and kinks in the electric regime. For
a loop endowed with a fermionic current with zero-mode carriers, we show that
only kinks form along the string worldsheet, therefore making these loops
slightly more stable against charge carrier radiation, the likely outcome of
either shocks or kinks. All these combined effects tend to reduce the number
density of stable loops and contribute to ease the vorton excess problem. As a
bonus, these effects also may provide new ways of producing high energy cosmic
rays.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX 4 format, 8 figures, submitted to PR
Equation of state of cosmic strings with fermionic current-carriers
The relevant characteristic features, including energy per unit length and
tension, of a cosmic string carrying massless fermionic currents in the
framework of the Witten model in the neutral limit are derived through
quantization of the spinor fields along the string. The construction of a Fock
space is performed by means of a separation between longitudinal modes and the
so-called transverse zero energy solutions of the Dirac equation in the vortex.
As a result, quantization leads to a set of naturally defined state parameters
which are the number densities of particles and anti-particles trapped in the
cosmic string. It is seen that the usual one-parameter formalism for describing
the macroscopic dynamics of current-carrying vortices is not sufficient in the
case of fermionic carriers.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, uses ReVTeX, equation of state corrected,
comments and references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Curvaton Dynamics in Brane-worlds
We study the curvaton dynamics in brane-world cosmologies. Assuming that the
inflaton field survives without decay after the end of inflation, we apply the
curvaton reheating mechanism to Randall-Sundrum and to its curvature
corrections: Gauss-Bonnet, induced gravity and combined Gauss-Bonnet and
induced gravity cosmological models. In the case of chaotic inflation and
requiring suppression of possible short-wavelength generated gravitational
waves, we constraint the parameters of a successful curvaton brane-world
cosmological model. If density perturbations are also generated by the curvaton
field then, the fundamental five-dimensional mass could be much lower than the
Planck massComment: 47 pages, 1 figure, references added, to be published in JCA
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