Baryogenesis after Hyperextended Inflation

We study a baryogenesis mechanism operating in the context of hyperextended inflation and making use of a coupling between the scalar field and a standard model global current, such as B or B-L. The method is efficient at temperatures at which these currents are not conserved due to some higher dimensional operator. The particle physics and cosmological phenomenology are discussed. We consider constraints stemming from nucleosynthesis and solar system experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, uses RevTe

Adiabatic instability in coupled dark energy-dark matter models

We consider theories in which there exists a nontrivial coupling between the dark matter sector and the sector responsible for the acceleration of the universe. Such theories can possess an adiabatic regime in which the quintessence field always sits at the minimum of its effective potential, which is set by the local dark matter density. We show that if the coupling strength is much larger than gravitational, then the adiabatic regime is always subject to an instability. The instability, which can also be thought of as a type of Jeans instability, is characterized by a negative sound speed squared of an effective coupled dark matter/dark energy fluid, and results in the exponential growth of small scale modes. We discuss the role of the instability in specific coupled CDM and Mass Varying Neutrino (MaVaN) models of dark energy, and clarify for these theories the regimes in which the instability can be evaded due to non-adiabaticity or weak coupling.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures; final published versio

Generalizing Galileons

The Galileons are a set of terms within four-dimensional effective field theories, obeying symmetries that can be derived from the dynamics of a 3+1-dimensional flat brane embedded in a 5-dimensional Minkowski Bulk. These theories have some intriguing properties, including freedom from ghosts and a non-renormalization theorem that hints at possible applications in both particle physics and cosmology. In this brief review article, we will summarize our attempts over the last year to extend the Galileon idea in two important ways. We will discuss the effective field theory construction arising from co-dimension greater than one flat branes embedded in a flat background - the multiGalileons - and we will then describe symmetric covariant versions of the Galileons, more suitable for general cosmological applications. While all these Galileons can be thought of as interesting four-dimensional field theories in their own rights, the work described here may also make it easier to embed them into string theory, with its multiple extra dimensions and more general gravitational backgrounds.Comment: 16 pages; invited brief review article for a special issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity. Submitted to CQ

Preheating in Derivatively-Coupled Inflation Models

We study preheating in theories where the inflaton couples derivatively to scalar and gauge fields. Such couplings may dominate in natural models of inflation, in which the flatness of the inflaton potential is related to an approximate shift symmetry of the inflaton. We compare our results with previously studied models with non-derivative couplings. For sufficiently heavy scalar matter, parametric resonance is ineffective in reheating the universe, because the couplings of the inflaton to matter are very weak. If scalar matter fields are light, derivative couplings lead to a mild long-wavelength instability that drives matter fields to non-zero expectation values. In this case however, long-wavelength fluctuations of the light scalar are produced during inflation, leading to a host of cosmological problems. In contrast, axion-like couplings of the inflaton to a gauge field do not lead to production of long-wavelength fluctuations during inflation. However, again because of the weakness of the couplings to the inflaton, parametric resonance is not effective in producing gauge field quanta.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Cosmological Evolution of Interacting Dark Energy Models with Mass Varying Neutrinos

In this paper we consider the cosmological implications of dark energy models with a coupled system of a dynamical scalar field (the quintessence) and the neutrinos. By detailed numerical calculations we study the various possibilities on the evolution and the fates of the universe in this class of models. Our results show that due to the interaction with quintessence, neutrinos could be dominant over the quintessence in the future universe, however would eventually decay away.Comment: One typographical error corrected, references updated and presentation improve

Exact Quantum States for all Two-Dimensional Dilaton Gravity Theories

It is shown that the recently obtained quantum wave functionals in terms of the CJZ variables for generic 2d dilaton gravity are equivalent to the previously reported exact quantum wave functionals in geometrical variables. A third representation of these exact quantum states is also presented

Coexistence of different vacua in the effective quantum field theory and Multiple Point Principle

According to the Multiple Point Principle our Universe is on the coexistence curve of two or more phases of the quantum vacuum. The coexistence of different quantum vacua can be regulated by the exchange of the global fermionic charges between the vacua, such as baryonic, leptonic or family charge. If the coexistence is regulated by the baryonic charge, all the coexisting vacua exhibit the baryonic asymmetry. Due to the exchange of the baryonic charge between the vacuum and matter which occurs above the electroweak transition, the baryonic asymmetry of the vacuum induces the baryonic asymmetry of matter in our Standard-Model phase of the quantum vacuum. The present baryonic asymmetry of the Universe indicates that the characteristic energy scale which regulates the equilibrium coexistence of different phases of quantum vacua is about 10^6 GeV.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, modified version submitted to JETP letter

Quintessence, inflation and baryogenesis from a single pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson

We exhibit a model in which a single pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson explains dark energy, inflation and baryogenesis. The model predicts correlated signals in future collider experiments, WIMP searches, proton decay experiments, dark energy probes, and the PLANCK satellite CMB measurements.Comment: 16 pages, 3 color figure

Extra-dimensional cosmology with domain-wall branes

We show how to define a consistent braneworld cosmology in a model in which the brane is constructed as a field-theoretic domain wall of finite thickness. The Friedmann, Robertson-Walker metric is recovered in the region of the brane, but, remarkably, with scale factor that depends on particle energy and on particle species, constituting a breakdown of the weak equivalence principle on sufficiently small scales. This unusual effect comes from the extended nature of particles confined to a domain-wall brane, and the fact that they feel an "average" of the bulk spacetime. We demonstrate how to recover the standard results of brane cosmology in the infinitely-thin brane limit, and comment on how our results have the potential to place bounds on parameters such as the thickness of domain-wall braneworlds.Comment: 23 pages; v2 has additional references and reflects journal versio

Can Cosmic Parallax Distinguish Between Anisotropic Cosmologies?

In an anisotropic universe, observers not positioned at a point of special symmetry should observe cosmic parallax - the relative angular motion of test galaxies over cosmic time. It was recently argued that the non-observance of this effect in upcoming precision astrometry missions such as Gaia may be used to place strong bounds on the position of off-center observers in a void-model universe described by the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi metric. We consider the analogous effect in anisotropic cosmological models described by an axisymmetric homogeneous Bianchi type I metric and discuss whether any observation of cosmic parallax would distinguish between different anisotropic evolutions.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure