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DOE OSTI2016

Primordial statistical anisotropies: the effective field theory approach

In this work we present the effective field theory of primordial statistical anisotropies generated during anisotropic inflation involving a background U(1) gauge field. Besides the usual Goldstone boson associated with the breaking of time diffeomorphism we have two additional Goldstone bosons associated with the breaking of spatial diffeomorphisms. We further identify these two new Goldstone bosons with the expected two transverse degrees of the U(1) gauge field fluctuations. Upon defining the appropriate unitary gauge, we present the most general quadratic action which respects the remnant symmetry in the unitary gauge. The interactions between various Goldstone bosons leads to statistical anisotropy in curvature perturbation power spectrum. Calculating the general results for power spectrum anisotropy, we recover the previously known results in specific models of anisotropic inflation. In addition, we present novel results for statistical anisotropy in models with non-trivial sound speed for inflaton fluctuations. Also we identify the interaction which leads to birefringence-like effects in anisotropic power spectrum in which the speed of gauge field fluctuations depends on the direction of the mode propagation and the two polarization of gauge field fluctuations contribute differently in statistical anisotropy. As another interesting application, our EFT approach naturally captures interactions generating parity violating statistical anisotropies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Bosonic condensates in realistic supersymmetric GUT cosmic strings

We study the realistic structure of F-term Nambu-Goto cosmic strings forming in a general supersymmetric Grand Unified Theory implementation, assuming standard hybrid inflation. Examining the symmetry breaking of the unification gauge group down to the Standard Model, we discuss the minimal field content necessary to describe abelian cosmic strings appearing at the end of inflation. We find that several fields will condense in most theories, questioning the plausible occurrence of associated currents (bosonic and fermionic). We perturbatively evaluate the modification of their energy per unit length due to the condensates. We provide a criterion for comparing the usual abelian Higgs approximation used in cosmology to realistic situations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Simulating the universe(s) III: observables for the full bubble collision spacetime

This is the third paper in a series establishing a quantitative relation between inflationary scalar field potential landscapes and the relic perturbations left by the collision between bubbles produced during eternal inflation. We introduce a new method for computing cosmological observables from numerical relativity simulations of bubble collisions in one space and one time dimension. This method tiles comoving hypersurfaces with locally-perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker coordinate patches. The method extends previous work, which was limited to the spacetime region just inside the future light cone of the collision, and allows us to explore the full bubble-collision spacetime. We validate our new methods against previous work, and present a full set of predictions for the comoving curvature perturbation and local negative spatial curvature produced by identical and non-identical bubble collisions, in single scalar field models of eternal inflation. In both collision types, there is a non-zero contribution to the spatial curvature and cosmic microwave background quadrupole. Some collisions between non-identical bubbles excite wall modes, giving extra structure to the predicted temperature anisotropies. We comment on the implications of our results for future observational searches. For non-identical bubble collisions, we also find that the surfaces of constant field can readjust in the presence of a collision to produce spatially infinite sections that become nearly homogeneous deep into the region affected by the collision. Contrary to previous assumptions, this is true even in the bubble into which the domain wall is accelerating.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

A strong electroweak phase transition from the inflaton field

We study a singlet scalar extension of the Standard Model. The singlet scalar is coupled non-minimally to gravity and assumed to drive inflation, and also couple sufficiently strongly with the SM Higgs field in order to provide for a strong first order electroweak phase transition. Requiring the model to describe inflation successfully, be compatible with the LHC data, and yield a strong first order electroweak phase transition, we identify the regions of the parameter space where the model is viable. We also include a singlet fermion with scalar coupling to the singlet scalar to probe the sensitivity of the constraints on additional degrees of freedom and their couplings in the singlet sector. We also comment on the general feasibility of these fields to act as dark matter.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Hidden in the background: a local approach to CMB anomalies

We investigate a framework aiming to provide a common origin for the large-angle anomalies detected in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which are hypothesized as the result of the statistical inhomogeneity developed by different isocurvature fields of mass m ∼ H present during inflation. The inhomogeneity arises as the combined effect of ( i ) the initial conditions for isocurvature fields (obtained after a fast-roll stage finishing many e -foldings before cosmological scales exit the horizon), ( ii ) their inflationary fluctuations and ( iii ) their coupling to other degrees of freedom. Our case of interest is when these fields (interpreted as the precursors of large-angle anomalies) leave an observable imprint only in isolated patches of the Universe. When the latter intersect the last scattering surface, such imprints arise in the CMB. Nevertheless, due to their statistically inhomogeneous nature, these imprints are difficult to detect, for they become hidden in the background similarly to the Cold Spot. We then compute the probability that a single isocurvature field becomes inhomogeneous at the end of inflation and find that, if the appropriate conditions are given (which depend exclusively on the preexisting fast-roll stage), this probability is at the percent level. Finally, we discuss several mechanisms (including the curvaton and the inhomogeneous reheating) to investigate whether an initial statistically inhomogeneous isocurvature field fluctuation might give rise to some of the observed anomalies. In particular, we focus on the Cold Spot, the power deficit at low multipoles and the breaking of statistical isotropy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Inhomogeneous anisotropic cosmology

In homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology, the topology of the universe determines its ultimate fate. If the Weak Energy Condition is satisfied, open and flat universes must expand forever, while closed cosmologies can recollapse to a Big Crunch. A similar statement holds for homogeneous but anisotropic (Bianchi) universes. Here, we prove that arbitrarily inhomogeneous and anisotropic cosmologies with “flat” (including toroidal) and “open” (including compact hyperbolic) spatial topology that are initially expanding must continue to expand forever at least in some region at a rate bounded from below by a positive number, despite the presence of arbitrarily large density fluctuations and/or the formation of black holes. Because the set of 3-manifold topologies is countable, a single integer determines the ultimate fate of the universe, and, in a specific sense, most 3-manifolds are “flat” or “open”. Our result has important implications for inflation: if there is a positive cosmological constant (or suitable inflationary potential) and initial conditions for the inflaton, cosmologies with “flat” or “open” topology must expand forever in some region at least as fast as de Sitter space, and are therefore very likely to begin inflationary expansion eventually, regardless of the scale of the inflationary energy or the spectrum and amplitude of initial inhomogeneities and gravitational waves. Our result is also significant for numerical general relativity, which often makes use of periodic (toroidal) boundary conditions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Gravitational waves from axion monodromy

Large field inflation is arguably the simplest and most natural variant of slow-roll inflation. Axion monodromy may be the most promising framework for realising this scenario. As one of its defining features, the long-range polynomial potential possesses short-range, instantonic modulations. These can give rise to a series of local minima in the post-inflationary region of the potential. We show that for certain parameter choices the inflaton populates more than one of these vacua inside a single Hubble patch. This corresponds to a dynamical phase decomposition, analogously to what happens in the course of thermal first-order phase transitions. In the subsequent process of bubble wall collisions, the lowest-lying axionic minimum eventually takes over all space. Our main result is that this violent process sources gravitational waves, very much like in the case of a first-order phase transition. We compute the energy density and peak frequency of the signal, which can lie anywhere in the mHz-GHz range, possibly within reach of next-generation interferometers. We also note that this “dynamical phase decomposition' phenomenon and its gravitational wave signal are more general and may apply to other inflationary or reheating scenarios with axions and modulated potentials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Anisotropic non-gaussianity from rotational symmetry breaking excited initial states

If the initial quantum state of the primordial perturbations broke rotational invariance, that would be seen as a statistical anisotropy in the angular correlations of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) temperature fluctuations. This can be described by a general parameterisation of the initial conditions that takes into account the possible direction-dependence of both the amplitude and the phase of particle creation during inflation. The leading effect in the CMBR two-point function is typically a quadrupole modulation, whose coefficient is analytically constrained here to be |B|≲0.06. The CMBR three-point function then acquires enhanced non-gaussianity, especially for the local configurations. In the large occupation number limit, a distinctive prediction is a modulation of the non-gaussianity around a mean value depending on the angle that short and long wavelength modes make with the preferred direction. The maximal variations with respect to the mean value occur for the configurations which are coplanar with the preferred direction and the amplitude of the non-gaussianity increases (decreases) for the short wavelength modes aligned with (perpendicular to) the preferred direction. For a high scale model of inflation with maximally pumped up isotropic occupation and ϵ≃0.01 the difference between these two configurations is about 0.27, which could be detectable in the future. For purely anisotropic particle creation, the non-Gaussianity can be larger and its anisotropic feature very sharp. The non-gaussianity can then reach f{sub NL}∼30 in the preferred direction while disappearing from the correlations in the orthogonal plane.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Early Universe Higgs dynamics in the presence of the Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity couplings

Apparent metastability of the electroweak vacuum poses a number of cosmological questions. These concern evolution of the Higgs field to the current vacuum, and its stability during and after inflation. Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity interactions can make a crucial impact on these considerations potentially solving the problems. In this work, we allow for these couplings to be present simultaneously and study their interplay. We find that different combinations of the Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity couplings induce effective Higgs mass during and after inflation. This crucially affects the Higgs stability considerations during preheating. In particular, a wide range of the couplings leading to stable solutions becomes allowed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Fatal youth of the Universe: black hole threat for the electroweak vacuum during preheating

Small evaporating black holes were proposed to be dangerous inducing fast decay of the electroweak false vacuum. We observe that the flat-spectrum matter perturbations growing at the post-inflationary matter dominated stage can produce such black holes in a tiny amount which may nevertheless be sufficient to destroy the vacuum in the visible part of the Universe via the induced process. If the decay probability in the vicinity of Planck-mass black holes was of order one as suggested in literature, the absence of such objects in the early Universe would put severe constraints on inflation and subsequent stages thus excluding many well-motivated models (e.g. the R {sup 2}-inflation) and supporting the need of new physics in the Higgs sector. We give a qualitative argument, however, that exponential suppression of the probability should persist in the limit of small black hole masses. This suppression relaxes our cosmological constraints, and, if sufficiently strong, may cancel them.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The primordial matter power spectrum on sub-galactic scales

The primordial matter power spectrum quantifies fluctuations in the distribution of dark matter immediately following inflation. Over cosmic time, overdense regions of the primordial density field grow and collapse into dark matter haloes, whose abundance and density profiles retain memory of the initial conditions. By analysing the image magnifications in 11 strongly lensed and quadruply imaged quasars, we infer the abundance and concentrations of low-mass haloes, and cast the measurement in terms of the amplitude of the primordial matter power spectrum. We anchor the power spectrum on large scales, isolating the effect of small-scale deviations from the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) prediction. Assuming an analytic model for the power spectrum and accounting for several sources of potential systematic uncertainty, including three different models for the halo mass function, we obtain correlated inferences of $\log _{10}\left(P / P_{\Lambda \rm {CDM}}\right)$, the power spectrum amplitude relative to the predictions of the concordance cosmological model, of $0.0_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$, $0.1_{-0.6}^{+0.7}$, and $0.2_{-0.9}^{+1.0}$ at k = 10, 25, and 50 $\rm {Mpc^{-1}}$ at $68 {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ confidence, consistent with CDM and single-field slow-roll inflation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Impact of transforming to conformal Fermi coordinates on quasisingle field non-Gaussianity

In general relativity, predictions for observable quantities can be expressed in a coordinate independent way. Nonetheless it may be inconvenient to do so. Using a particular frame may be the easiest way to connect theoretical predictions to measurable quantities. For the cosmological curvature bispectrum such frame is described by the conformal Fermi coordinates. In single field inflation it was shown that going to this frame cancels the squeezed limit of the density perturbation bispectrum calculated in global coordinates. Furthermore, we explore this issue in quasisingle field inflation when the curvaton mass and the curvaton-inflaton mixing are small. In this case, the contribution to the bispectrum from the coordinate transformation to conformal Fermi coordinates is of the same order as that from the inflaton-curvaton interaction term but does not cancel it.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Inflaton production of scalar dark matter through fluctuations and scattering

We study the effects on particle production of a Planck-suppressed coupling between the inflaton and a scalar dark matter candidate, X. In the absence of this coupling the dominant source for the relic density of X is the long wavelength modes produced from the scalar field fluctuations during inflation. In this case, there are strong constraints on the mass of the scalar and the reheating temperature after inflation from the present-day relic density of X (assuming X is stable). When a coupling σ⁢Φ 2 ⁢X 2 is introduced, with σ = ˜σm$^{2}_{Φ}$/$M$$^{2}_{P}$ ~10 –10 ⁢ ˜σ, where m Φ is the inflaton mass, the allowed parameter space begins to open up considerably even for ˜σ as small as ≳10 –7 . For ˜σ ≳ $\frac{9}{16}$, particle production is dominated by the scattering of the inflaton condensate, either through single graviton exchange or the contact interaction between Φ and X. In this regime, the range of allowed masses and reheating temperatures is maximal. For 0.004 < ˜σ < 50, constraints from isocurvature fluctuations are satisfied, and the production from parametric resonance can be neglected.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cosmic Visions Dark Energy. Science

Cosmic surveys provide crucial information about high energy physics including strong evidence for dark energy, dark matter, and inflation. Ongoing and upcoming surveys will start to identify the underlying physics of these new phenomena, including tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, the viability of modified gravity, the existence of extra light species, the masses of the neutrinos, and the potential of the field that drove inflation. Even after the Stage IV experiments, DESI and LSST, complete their surveys, there will still be much information left in the sky. This additional information will enable us to understand the physics underlying the dark universe at an even deeper level and, in case Stage IV surveys find hints for physics beyond the current Standard Model of Cosmology, to revolutionize our current view of the universe. There are many ideas for how best to supplement and aid DESI and LSST in order to access some of this remaining information and how surveys beyond Stage IV can fully exploit this regime. These ideas flow to potential projects that could start construction in the 2020's.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cosmic Visions Dark Energy: Science

Cosmic surveys provide crucial information about high energy physics including strong evidence for dark energy, dark matter, and inflation. Ongoing and upcoming surveys will start to identify the underlying physics of these new phenomena, including tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, the viability of modified gravity, the existence of extra light species, the masses of the neutrinos, and the potential of the field that drove inflation. Even after the Stage IV experiments, DESI and LSST, complete their surveys, there will still be much information left in the sky. This additional information will enable us to understand the physics underlying the dark universe at an even deeper level and, in case Stage IV surveys find hints for physics beyond the current Standard Model of Cosmology, to revolutionize our current view of the universe. There are many ideas for how best to supplement and aid DESI and LSST in order to access some of this remaining information and how surveys beyond Stage IV can fully exploit this regime. These ideas flow to potential projects that could start construction in the 2020's.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

UNIVERSE IN A BLACK HOLE IN EINSTEIN–CARTAN GRAVITY

The conservation law for the angular momentum in curved spacetime, consistent with relativistic quantum mechanics, requires that the antisymmetric part of the affine connection (torsion tensor) is a variable in the principle of least action. The coupling between the spin of elementary particles and torsion in the Einstein–Cartan theory of gravity generates gravitational repulsion at extremely high densities in fermionic matter, approximated as a spin fluid, and thus avoids the formation of singularities in black holes. The collapsing matter in a black hole should therefore bounce at a finite density and then expand into a new region of space on the other side of the event horizon, which may be regarded as a nonsingular, closed universe. We show that quantum particle production caused by an extremely high curvature near a bounce can create enormous amounts of matter, produce entropy, and generate a finite period of exponential expansion (inflation) of this universe. This scenario can thus explain inflation without a scalar field and reheating. We show that, depending on the particle production rate, such a universe may undergo several nonsingular bounces until it has enough matter to reach a size at which the cosmological constant starts cosmic acceleration. The last bounce can be regarded as the big bang of this universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

TOI 694b and TIC 220568520b: Two Low-mass Companions near the Hydrogen-burning Mass Limit Orbiting Sun-like Stars

We report the discovery of TOI 694 b and TIC 220568520 b, two low-mass stellar companions in eccentric orbits around metal-rich Sun-like stars, first detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TOI 694 b has an orbital period of 48.05131 ± 0.00019 days and eccentricity of 0.51946 ± 0.00081, and we derive a mass of 89.0 ± 5.3 M{sub Jup} (0.0849 ± 0.0051 M{sub ⊙}) and radius of 1.111 ± 0.017 R{sub Jup} (0.1142 ± 0.0017 R{sub ⊙}). TIC 220568520 b has an orbital period of 18.55769 ± 0.00039 days and eccentricity of 0.0964 ± 0.0032, and we derive a mass of 107.2 ± 5.2 M{sub Jup} (0.1023 ± 0.0050 M{sub ⊙}) and radius of 1.248 ± 0.018 R{sub Jup} (0.1282 ± 0.0019 R{sub ⊙}). Both binary companions lie close to and above the hydrogen-burning mass threshold that separates brown dwarfs and the lowest-mass stars, with TOI 694 b being 2σ above the canonical mass threshold of 0.075 M{sub ⊙}. The relatively long periods of the systems mean that the magnetic fields of the low-mass companions are not expected to inhibit convection and inflate the radius, which according to one leading theory is common in similar objects residing in short-period tidally synchronized binary systems. Indeed we do not find radius inflation for these two objects when compared to theoretical isochrones. These two new objects add to the short but growing list of low-mass stars with well-measured masses and radii, and highlight the potential of the TESS mission for detecting such rare objects orbiting bright stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

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