1,231 research outputs found
Primordial Black Holes from Inflation and non-Gaussianity
Primordial black holes may owe their origin to the small-scale enhancement of
the comoving curvature perturbation generated during inflation. Their mass
fraction at formation is markedly sensitive to possible non-Gaussianities in
such large, but rare fluctuations. We discuss a path-integral formulation which
provides the exact mass fraction of primordial black holes at formation in the
presence of non-Gaussianity. Through a couple of classes of models, one based
on single-field inflation and the other on spectator fields, we show that
restricting to a Gaussian statistics may lead to severe inaccuracies in the
estimate of the mass fraction as well as on the clustering properties of the
primordial black holes.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, v2: matching published versio
CMB temperature anisotropies from third order gravitational perturbations
In this paper we present a complete computation of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB) anisotropies up to third order from gravitational
perturbations accounting for scalar, vector and tensor perturbations. We then
specify our results to the large scale limit, providing the evolution of the
gravitational potentials in a flat universe filled with matter and cosmological
constant which characterizes the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. As a byproduct
in the large scale approximation we are able to give non-perturbative solutions
for the photon geodesic equations. Our results are the first step to provide a
complete theoretical prediction for cubic non-linearities which are
particularly relevant for characterizing the level of non-Gaussianity in the
CMB through the detection of the four-point angular connected correlation
function (trispectrum). For this purpose we also allow for generic initial
conditions due to primordial non-Gaussianity.Comment: 19 pages, LateX file; typos corrected; some corrections made and
several consistency checks performed regarding Eqs.(2.18); (2.28)-(2.29) and
Eqs.(3.8)-(3.24) and Eq.(4.2). Version accepted for publication in JCA
Velocity Fields in Non--Gaussian Cold Dark Matter Models
We analyse the large--scale velocity field obtained by N--body simulations of
cold dark matter (CDM) models with non--Gaussian primordial density
fluctuations, considering models with both positive and negative primordial
skewness in the density fluctuation distribution. We study the velocity
probability distribution and calculate the dependence of the bulk flow,
one--point velocity dispersion and Cosmic Mach Number on the filtering size. We
find that the sign of the primordial skewness of the density field provides
poor discriminatory power on the evolved velocity field. All non--Gaussian
models here considered tend to have lower velocity dispersion and bulk flow
than the standard Gaussian CDM model, while the Cosmic Mach Number turns out to
be a poor statistic in characterizing the models. Next, we compare the
large--scale velocity field of a composite sample of optically selected
galaxies as described by the Local Group properties, bulk flow, velocity
correlation function and Cosmic Mach Number, with the velocity field of mock
catalogues extracted from the N--body simulations. The comparison does not
clearly permit to single out a best model: the standard Gaussian model is
however marginally preferred by the maximum likelihood analysis.Comment: 10 pages in Latex with mn.sty (available at the end of the paper
A reassessment of the evidence of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect through the WMAP-NVSS correlation
We reassess the estimate of the cross-correlation of the spatial distribution
of the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) radio sources with that of Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB) anisotropies from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP). This re-analysis is motivated by the fact that most previous studies
adopted a redshift distribution of NVSS sources inconsistent with recent data.
We find that the constraints on the bias-weighted redshift distribution,
b(z)xN(z), of NVSS sources, set by the observed angular correlation function,
w(theta), strongly mitigate the effect of the choice of N(z). If such
constraints are met, even highly discrepant redshift distributions yield
NVSS-WMAP cross-correlation functions consistent with each other within
statistical errors. The models favoured by recent data imply a bias factor,
b(z), decreasing with increasing z, rather than constant, as assumed by most
previous analyses. As a consequence, the function b(z)xN(z) has more weight at
z<1, i.e. in the redshift range yielding the maximum contribution to the ISW in
a standard LambdaCDM cosmology. On the whole, the NVSS turns out to be better
suited for ISW studies than generally believed, even in the absence of an
observational determination of the redshift distribution. The NVSS-WMAP
cross-correlation function is found to be fully consistent with the prediction
of the standard LambdaCDM cosmology.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to MNRA
Can sterile neutrinos be ruled out as warm dark matter candidates?
We present constraints on the mass of warm dark matter (WDM) particles from a
combined analysis of the matter power spectrum inferred from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey \lya flux power spectrum at 2.2<z<4.2, cosmic microwave background
data, and the galaxy power spectrum. We obtain a lower limit of m~10 keV (2
sigma) if the WDM consists of sterile neutrinos and m~2 keV (2 sigma) for early
decoupled thermal relics. If we combine this bound with the constraint derived
from x-ray flux observations in the Coma cluster, we find that the allowed
sterile neutrino mass is ~10 keV (in the standard production scenario). Adding
constraints based on x-ray fluxes from the Andromeda galaxy, we find that dark
matter particles cannot be sterile neutrinos, unless they are produced by a
nonstandard mechanism (resonant oscillations, coupling with the inflaton) or
get diluted by some large entropy release.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, matches published versio
A Comment on the Path Integral Approach to Cosmological Perturbation Theory
It is pointed out that the exact renormalization group approach to
cosmological perturbation theory, proposed in Matarrese and Pietroni, JCAP 0706
(2007) 026, arXiv:astro-ph/0703563 and arXiv:astro-ph/0702653, constitutes a
misnomer. Rather, having instructively cast this classical problem into path
integral form, the evolution equation then derived comes about as a special
case of considering how the generating functional responds to variations of the
primordial power spectrum.Comment: 2 pages, v2: refs added, published in JCA
The bispectrum of redshifted 21-cm fluctuations from the dark ages
Brightness-temperature fluctuations in the redshifted 21-cm background from
the cosmic dark ages are generated by irregularities in the gas-density
distribution and can then be used to determine the statistical properties of
density fluctuations in the early Universe. We first derive the most general
expansion of brightness-temperature fluctuations up to second order in terms of
all the possible sources of spatial fluctuations. We then focus on the
three-point statistics and compute the angular bispectrum of
brightness-temperature fluctuations generated prior to the epoch of hydrogen
reionization. For simplicity, we neglect redshift-space distortions. We find
that low-frequency radio experiments with arcmin angular resolution can easily
detect non-Gaussianity produced by non-linear gravity with high signal-to-noise
ratio. The bispectrum thus provides a unique test of the gravitational
instability scenario for structure formation, and can be used to measure the
cosmological parameters. Detecting the signature of primordial non-Gaussianity
produced during or right after an inflationary period is more challenging but
still possible. An ideal experiment limited by cosmic variance only and with an
angular resolution of a few arcsec has the potential to detect primordial
non-Gaussianity with a non-linearity parameter of f_NL ~ 1. Additional sources
of error as weak lensing and an imperfect foreground subtraction could severely
hamper the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity which will benefit from the
use of optimal estimators combined with tomographic techniques.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, revised version accepted for publication in ApJ
(contains an improved discussion of gas temperature fluctuations
On the spatial distribution of dark matter halos
We study the spatial distribution of dark matter halos in the Universe in
terms of their number density contrast, related to the underlying dark matter
fluctuation via a non-local and non-linear bias random field. The description
of the matter dynamics is simplified by adopting the `truncated' Zel'dovich
approximation to obtain both analytical results and simulated maps. The halo
number density field in our maps and its probability distribution reproduce
with excellent accuracy those of halos in a high-resolution N-body simulation
with the same initial conditions. Our non-linear and non-local bias
prescription matches the N-body halo distribution better than any Eulerian
linear and local bias.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX (uses emulateapj; included psfig.tex), 3 figures, 1
table. Shortened version, matching the size requirements of ApJ Letters.
Accepted for publicatio
Light-cone averages in a swiss-cheese universe
We analyze a toy swiss-cheese cosmological model to study the averaging
problem. In our model, the cheese is the EdS model and the holes are
constructed from a LTB solution. We study the propagation of photons in the
swiss-cheese model, and find a phenomenological homogeneous model to describe
observables. Following a fitting procedure based on light-cone averages, we
find that the the expansion scalar is unaffected by the inhomogeneities. This
is because of spherical symmetry. However, the light-cone average of the
density as a function of redshift is affected by inhomogeneities. The effect
arises because, as the universe evolves, a photon spends more and more time in
the (large) voids than in the (thin) high-density structures. The
phenomenological homogeneous model describing the light-cone average of the
density is similar to the concordance model. Although the sole source in the
swiss-cheese model is matter, the phenomenological homogeneous model behaves as
if it has a dark-energy component. Finally, we study how the equation of state
of the phenomenological model depends on the size of the inhomogeneities, and
find that the equation-of-state parameters w_0 and w_a follow a power-law
dependence with a scaling exponent equal to unity. That is, the equation of
state depends linearly on the distance the photon travels through voids. We
conclude that within our toy model, the holes must have a present size of about
250 Mpc to be able to mimic the concordance model.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures; replaced to fit the version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
On cosmological observables in a swiss-cheese universe
Photon geodesics are calculated in a swiss-cheese model, where the cheese is
made of the usual Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solution and the holes are
constructed from a Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi solution of Einstein's equations. The
observables on which we focus are the changes in the redshift, in the
angular-diameter--distance relation, in the luminosity-distance--redshift
relation, and in the corresponding distance modulus. We find that redshift
effects are suppressed when the hole is small because of a compensation effect
acting on the scale of half a hole resulting from the special case of spherical
symmetry. However, we find interesting effects in the calculation of the
angular distance: strong evolution of the inhomogeneities (as in the approach
to caustic formation) causes the photon path to deviate from that of the FRW
case. Therefore, the inhomogeneities are able to partly mimic the effects of a
dark-energy component. Our results also suggest that the nonlinear effects of
caustic formation in cold dark matter models may lead to interesting effects on
photon trajectories.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures; replaced to fit the version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
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