Quantization of perturbations during inflation in the 1+3 covariant formalism

This note derives the analogue of the Mukhanov-Sasaki variables both for scalar and tensor perturbations in the 1+3 covariant formalism. The possibility of generalizing them to non-flat Friedmann-Lemaitre universes is discussed.Comment: 4 pages: v2 has minor changes to match published versio

General up to next-nearest neighbour elasticity of triangular lattices in three dimensions

We establish the most general form of the discrete elasticity of a 2D triangular lattice embedded in three dimensions, taking into account up to next-nearest neighbour interactions. Besides crystalline system, this is relevant to biological physics (e.g., red blood cell cytoskeleton) and soft matter (e.g., percolating gels, etc.). In order to correctly impose the rotational invariance of the bulk terms, it turns out to be necessary to take into account explicitly the elasticity associated with the vertices located at the edges of the lattice. We find that some terms that were suspected in the litterature to violate rotational symmetry are in fact admissibl

Simulation of equatorial von Neumann measurements on GHZ states using nonlocal resources

Reproducing with elementary resources the correlations that arise when a quantum system is measured (quantum state simulation), allows one to get insight on the operational and computational power of quantum correlations. We propose a family of models that can simulate von Neumann measurements in the x-y plane of the Bloch sphere on n-partite GHZ states using only bipartite nonlocal boxes. For the tripartite and fourpartite states, the models use only bipartite nonlocal boxes; they can be translated into classical communication schemes with finite average communication cost.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, published versio

The Role of Normalization in the Belief Propagation Algorithm

An important part of problems in statistical physics and computer science can be expressed as the computation of marginal probabilities over a Markov Random Field. The belief propagation algorithm, which is an exact procedure to compute these marginals when the underlying graph is a tree, has gained its popularity as an efficient way to approximate them in the more general case. In this paper, we focus on an aspect of the algorithm that did not get that much attention in the literature, which is the effect of the normalization of the messages. We show in particular that, for a large class of normalization strategies, it is possible to focus only on belief convergence. Following this, we express the necessary and sufficient conditions for local stability of a fixed point in terms of the graph structure and the beliefs values at the fixed point. We also explicit some connexion between the normalization constants and the underlying Bethe Free Energy

The cosmic microwave background bispectrum from the non-linear evolution of the cosmological perturbations

This article presents the first computation of the complete bispectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies arising from the evolution of all cosmic fluids up to second order, including neutrinos. Gravitational couplings, electron density fluctuations and the second order Boltzmann equation are fully taken into account. Comparison to limiting cases that appeared previously in the literature are provided. These are regimes for which analytical insights can be given. The final results are expressed in terms of equivalent fNL for different configurations. It is found that for moments up to lmax=2000, the signal generated by non-linear effects is equivalent to fNL~5 for both local-type and equilateral-type primordial non-Gaussianity.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figure

CMB spectra and bispectra calculations: making the flat-sky approximation rigorous

This article constructs flat-sky approximations in a controlled way in the context of the cosmic microwave background observations for the computation of both spectra and bispectra. For angular spectra, it is explicitly shown that there exists a whole family of flat-sky approximations of similar accuracy for which the expression and amplitude of next to leading order terms can be explicitly computed. It is noted that in this context two limiting cases can be encountered for which the expressions can be further simplified. They correspond to cases where either the sources are localized in a narrow region (thin-shell approximation) or are slowly varying over a large distance (which leads to the so-called Limber approximation). Applying this to the calculation of the spectra it is shown that, as long as the late integrated Sachs-Wolfe contribution is neglected, the flat-sky approximation at leading order is accurate at 1% level for any multipole. Generalization of this construction scheme to the bispectra led to the introduction of an alternative description of the bispectra for which the flat-sky approximation is well controlled. This is not the case for the usual description of the bispectrum in terms of reduced bispectrum for which a flat-sky approximation is proposed but the next-to-leading order terms of which remain obscure.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure

Cosmic microwave background bispectrum on small angular scales

This article investigates the non-linear evolution of cosmological perturbations on sub-Hubble scales in order to evaluate the unavoidable deviations from Gaussianity that arise from the non-linear dynamics. It shows that the dominant contribution to modes coupling in the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies on small angular scales is driven by the sub-Hubble non-linear evolution of the dark matter component. The perturbation equations, involving in particular the first moments of the Boltzmann equation for the photons, are integrated up to second order in perturbations. An analytical analysis of the solutions gives a physical understanding of the result as well as an estimation of its order of magnitude. This allows to quantify the expected deviation from Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and, in particular, to compute its bispectrum on small angular scales. Restricting to equilateral configurations, we show that the non-linear evolution accounts for a contribution that would be equivalent to a constant primordial non-Gaussianity of order fNL~25 on scales ranging approximately from l~1000 to l~3000.Comment: 21 pages, replaced to match published versio

Local stability of Belief Propagation algorithm with multiple fixed points

A number of problems in statistical physics and computer science can be expressed as the computation of marginal probabilities over a Markov random field. Belief propagation, an iterative message-passing algorithm, computes exactly such marginals when the underlying graph is a tree. But it has gained its popularity as an efficient way to approximate them in the more general case, even if it can exhibits multiple fixed points and is not guaranteed to converge. In this paper, we express a new sufficient condition for local stability of a belief propagation fixed point in terms of the graph structure and the beliefs values at the fixed point. This gives credence to the usual understanding that Belief Propagation performs better on sparse graphs.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1101.417

Anisotropy of the astrophysical gravitational wave background: analytic expression of the angular power spectrum and correlation with cosmological observations

Unresolved and resolved sources of gravitational waves are at the origin of a stochastic gravitational wave background. While the computation of its mean density as a function of frequency in a homogeneous and isotropic universe is standard lore, the computation of its anisotropies requires to understand the coarse graining from local systems, to galactic scales and then to cosmology. An expression of the gravitational wave energy density valid in any general spacetime is derived. It is then specialized to a perturbed Friedmann-Lema\^itre spacetime in order to determine the angular power spectrum of this stochastic background as well as its correlation with other cosmological probes, such as the galaxy number counts and weak lensing. Our result for the angular power spectrum also provides an expression for the variance of the gravitational wave background.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure