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DOE OSTI2024

A closer look in the mirror: reflections on the matter/dark matter coincidence

We argue that the striking similarity between the cosmic abundances of baryons and dark matter, despite their very different astrophysical behavior, strongly motivates the scenario in which dark matter resides within a rich dark sector parallel in structure to that of the standard model. The near cosmic coincidence is then explained by an approximate ℤ$_{2}$ exchange symmetry between the two sectors, where dark matter consists of stable dark neutrons, with matter and dark matter asymmetries arising via parallel WIMP baryogenesis mechanisms. Taking a top-down perspective, we point out that an adequate ℤ$_{2}$ symmetry necessitates solving the electroweak hierarchy problem in each sector, without our committing to a specific implementation. A higher-dimensional realization in the far UV is presented, in which the hierarchical couplings of the two sectors and the requisite ℤ$_{2}$-breaking structure arise naturally from extra-dimensional localization and gauge symmetries. We trace the cosmic history, paying attention to potential pitfalls not fully considered in previous literature. Residual ℤ$_{2}$-breaking can very plausibly give rise to the asymmetric reheating of the two sectors, needed to keep the cosmological abundance of relativistic dark particles below tight bounds. We show that, despite the need to keep inter-sector couplings highly suppressed after asymmetric reheating, there can naturally be order-one couplings mediated by TeV scale particles which can allow experimental probes of the dark sector at high energy colliders. Massive mediators can also induce dark matter direct detection signals, but likely at or below the neutrino floor.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Anisotropic Satellite Galaxy Quenching: A Unique Signature of Energetic Feedback by Supermassive Black Holes?

The quenched fraction of satellite galaxies is aligned with the orientation of the halo's central galaxy, such that on average, satellites form stars at a lower rate along the major axis of the central. This effect, called anisotropic satellite galaxy quenching (ASGQ), has been found in observational data and cosmological simulations. Analyzing the IllustrisTNG simulation, Martín-Navarro et al. recently argued that ASGQ is caused by anisotropic energetic feedback and constitutes "compelling observational evidence for the role of black holes in regulating galaxy evolution." In this Letter, we study the causes of ASGQ in state-of-the-art galaxy formation simulations to evaluate this claim. We show that cosmological simulations predict that on average, satellite galaxies along the major axis of the dark matter halo tend to have been accreted at earlier cosmic times and are hosted by subhalos of larger peak halo masses. As a result, a modulation of the quenched fraction with respect to the major axis of the central galaxy is a natural prediction of hierarchical structure formation. We show that ASGQ is predicted by the UniverseMachine galaxy formation model, a model without anisotropic feedback. Furthermore, we demonstrate that even in the IllustrisTNG simulation, anisotropic satellite accretion properties are the main cause of ASGQ. Ultimately, we argue that ASGQ is not a reliable indicator of supermassive black hole feedback in galaxy formation simulations and, thus, should not be interpreted as such in observational data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Extremely massive disc galaxies in the nearby Universe form through gas-rich minor mergers

ABSTRACT In our hierarchical structure-formation paradigm, the observed morphological evolution of massive galaxies – from rotationally supported discs to dispersion-dominated spheroids – is largely explained via galaxy merging. However, since mergers are likely to destroy discs, and the most massive galaxies have the richest merger histories, it is surprising that any discs exist at all at the highest stellar masses. Recent theoretical work by our group has used a cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation to suggest that extremely massive (M* > 1011.4 M⊙) discs form primarily via minor mergers between spheroids and gas-rich satellites, which create new rotational stellar components and leave discs as remnants. Here, we use UV-optical and H i data of massive galaxies, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Galaxy Evolution Explorer, Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS), and Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA surveys, to test these theoretical predictions. Observed massive discs account for ∼13 per cent of massive galaxies, in good agreement with theory (∼11 per cent). ∼64 per cent of the observed massive discs exhibit tidal features, which are likely to indicate recent minor mergers, in the deep DECaLS images (compared to ∼60 per cent in their simulated counterparts). The incidence of these features is at least four times higher than in low-mass discs, suggesting that, as predicted, minor mergers play a significant (and outsized) role in the formation of these systems. The empirical star formation rates agree well with theoretical predictions and, for a small galaxy sample with H i detections, the H i masses and fractions are consistent with the range predicted by the simulation. The good agreement between theory and observations indicates that extremely massive discs are indeed remnants of recent minor mergers between spheroids and gas-rich satellites.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

TDCOSMO - IV. Hierarchical time-delay cosmography – joint inference of the Hubble constant and galaxy density profiles

The H0LiCOW collaboration inferred via strong gravitational lensing time delays a Hubble constant value of H0 = 73.3−1.8+1.7 km s−1 Mpc−1, describing deflector mass density profiles by either a power-law or stars (constant mass-to-light ratio) plus standard dark matter halos. The mass-sheet transform (MST) that leaves the lensing observables unchanged is considered the dominant source of residual uncertainty in H0. We quantify any potential effect of the MST with a flexible family of mass models, which directly encodes it, and they are hence maximally degenerate with H0. Our calculation is based on a new hierarchical Bayesian approach in which the MST is only constrained by stellar kinematics. The approach is validated on mock lenses, which are generated from hydrodynamic simulations. We first applied the inference to the TDCOSMO sample of seven lenses, six of which are from H0LiCOW, and measured H0 = 74.5−6.1+5.6 km s−1 Mpc−1. Secondly, in order to further constrain the deflector mass density profiles, we added imaging and spectroscopy for a set of 33 strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) sample. For nine of the 33 SLAC lenses, we used resolved kinematics to constrain the stellar anisotropy. From the joint hierarchical analysis of the TDCOSMO+SLACS sample, we measured H0 = 67.4−3.2+4.1 km s−1 Mpc−1. This measurement assumes that the TDCOSMO and SLACS galaxies are drawn from the same parent population. The blind H0LiCOW, TDCOSMO-only and TDCOSMO+SLACS analyses are in mutual statistical agreement. The TDCOSMO+SLACS analysis prefers marginally shallower mass profiles than H0LiCOW or TDCOSMO-only. Without relying on the form of the mass density profile used by H0LiCOW, we achieve a ∼5% measurement of H0. While our new hierarchical analysis does not statistically invalidate the mass profile assumptions by H0LiCOW – and thus the H0 measurement relying on them – it demonstrates the importance of understanding the mass density profile of elliptical galaxies. The uncertainties on H0 derived in this paper can be reduced by physical or observational priors on the form of the mass profile, or by additional data.Key words: gravitational lensing: strong / galaxies: general / galaxies: kinematics and dynamics / distance scale / cosmological parameters / cosmology: observations⋆ The full analysis is available at https://github.com/TDCOSMO/hierarchy_analysis_2020_public.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The High Fraction of Thin Disk Galaxies Continues to Challenge ΛCDM Cosmology

Any viable cosmological framework has to match the observed proportion of early- and late-type galaxies. In this contribution, we focus on the distribution of galaxy morphological types in the standard model of cosmology (Lambda cold dark matter, ΛCDM). Using the latest state-of-the-art cosmological ΛCDM simulations known as Illustris, IllustrisTNG, and EAGLE, we calculate the intrinsic and sky-projected aspect ratio distribution of the stars in subhalos with stellar mass M * > 10 10 M ⊙ at redshift z = 0. There is a significant deficit of intrinsically thin disk galaxies, which however comprise most of the locally observed galaxy population. Consequently, the sky-projected aspect ratio distribution produced by these ΛCDM simulations disagrees with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey at ≥12.52σ (TNG50-1) and ≥14.82σ (EAGLE50) confidence. The deficit of intrinsically thin galaxies could be due to a much less hierarchical merger-driven build-up of observed galaxies than is given by the ΛCDM framework. It might also arise from the implemented sub-grid models, or from the limited resolution of the above-mentioned hydrodynamical simulations. We estimate that an 8 5 times better mass resolution realization than TNG50-1 would reduce the tension with GAMA to the 5.58σ level. Finally, we show that galaxies with fewer major mergers have a somewhat thinner aspect ratio distribution. Given also the high expected frequency of minor mergers in ΛCDM, the problem may be due to minor mergers. In this case, the angular momentum problem could be alleviated in Milgromian dynamics because of a reduced merger frequency arising from the absence of dynamical friction between extended dark matter halos.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1994

Higher order moments of the matter distribution in scale-free cosmological simulations with large dynamic range

We calculate reduced moments (xi bar)(sub q) of the matter density fluctuations, up to order q = 5, from counts in cells produced by particle-mesh numerical simulations with scale-free Gaussian initial conditions. We use power-law spectra P(k) proportional to k(exp n) with indices n = -3, -2, -1, 0, 1. Due to the supposed absence of characteristic times or scales in our models, all quantities are expected to depend on a single scaling variable. For each model, the moments at all times can be expressed in terms of the variance (xi bar)(sub 2), alone. We look for agreement with the hierarchical scaling ansatz, according to which ((xi bar)(sub q)) proportional to ((xi bar)(sub 2))(exp (q - 1)). For n less than or equal to -2 models, we find strong deviations from the hierarchy, which are mostly due to the presence of boundary problems in the simulations. A small, residual signal of deviation from the hierarchical scaling is however also found in n greater than or equal to -1 models. The wide range of spectra considered and the large dynamic range, with careful checks of scaling and shot-noise effects, allows us to reliably detect evolution away from the perturbation theory result.

Lucchin, Francesco↗
DOE OSTI2022

Weak lensing trispectrum and Kurt-spectra

We introduce two kurt-spectra to probe fourth-order statistics of weak lensing convergence maps. Using state-of-the-art numerical simulations, we study the shapes of these kurt-spectra as a function of source redshifts and smoothing angular scales. We employ a pseudo-Cℓ approach to estimate the spectra from realistic convergence maps in the presence of an observational mask and noise for stage-IV large-scale structure surveys. We compare these results against theoretical predictions calculated using the FFTLog formalism, and find that a simple nonlinear clustering model — the hierarchical ansatz — can reproduce the numerical trends for the kurt-spectra in the nonlinear regime. In addition, we provide estimators for beyond fourth-order spectra where no definitive analytical results are available, and present corresponding results from numerical simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scaling pair count to next galaxy surveys

ABSTRACT Counting pairs of galaxies or stars according to their distance is at the core of real-space correlation analyses performed in astrophysics and cosmology. Upcoming galaxy surveys (LSST, Euclid) will measure properties of billions of galaxies challenging our ability to perform such counting in a minute-scale time relevant for the usage of simulations. The problem is only limited by efficient access to the data, hence belongs to the big data category. We use the popular Apache Spark framework to address it and design an efficient high-throughput algorithm to deal with hundreds of millions to billions of input data. To optimize it, we revisit the question of non-hierarchical sphere pixelization based on cube symmetries and develop a new one dubbed the ‘Similar Radius Sphere Pixelization’ (SARSPix) with very close to square pixels. It provides the most adapted indexing over the sphere for all distance-related computations. Using LSST-like fast simulations, we compute autocorrelation functions on tomographic bins containing between a hundred million to one billion data points. In each case, we achieve the construction of a standard pair-distance histogram in about 2 min, using a simple algorithm that is shown to scale, over a moderate number of nodes (16–64). This illustrates the potential of this new techniques in the field of astronomy where data access is becoming the main bottleneck. They can be easily adapted to other use-cases as nearest-neighbours search, catalogue cross-match or cluster finding. The software is publicly available from https://github.com/astrolabsoftware/SparkCorr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1993

The three-point function as a probe of models for large-scale structure

The consequences of models of structure formation for higher-order (n-point) galaxy correlation functions in the mildly non-linear regime are analyzed. Several variations of the standard Omega = 1 cold dark matter model with scale-invariant primordial perturbations were recently introduced to obtain more power on large scales, R(sub p) is approximately 20 h(sup -1) Mpc, e.g., low-matter-density (non-zero cosmological constant) models, 'tilted' primordial spectra, and scenarios with a mixture of cold and hot dark matter. They also include models with an effective scale-dependent bias, such as the cooperative galaxy formation scenario of Bower, etal. It is shown that higher-order (n-point) galaxy correlation functions can provide a useful test of such models and can discriminate between models with true large-scale power in the density field and those where the galaxy power arises from scale-dependent bias: a bias with rapid scale-dependence leads to a dramatic decrease of the hierarchical amplitudes Q(sub J) at large scales, r is approximately greater than R(sub p). Current observational constraints on the three-point amplitudes Q(sub 3) and S(sub 3) can place limits on the bias parameter(s) and appear to disfavor, but not yet rule out, the hypothesis that scale-dependent bias is responsible for the extra power observed on large scales.

Frieman, Joshua A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The three-point function as a probe of models for large-scale structure

We analyze the consequences of models of structure formation for higher order (n-point) galaxy correlation functions in the mildly nonlinear regime. Several variations of the standard Omega = 1 cold dark matter model with scale-invariant primordial perturbations have recently been introduced to obtain more power on large scales, R(sub p) is approximately 20/h Mpc, e.g., low matter-density (nonzero cosmological constant) models, 'tilted' primordial spectra, and scenarios with a mixture of cold and hot dark matter. They also include models with an effective scale-dependent bias, such as the cooperative galaxy formation scenario of Bower et al. We show that higher-order (n-point) galaxy correlation functions can provide a useful test of such models and can discriminate between models with true large-scale power in the density field and those where the galaxy power arises from scale-dependent bias: a bias with rapid scale dependence leads to a dramatic decrease of the the hierarchical amplitudes Q(sub J) at large scales, r is greater than or approximately R(sub p). Current observational constraints on the three-point amplitudes Q(sub 3) and S(sub 3) can place limits on the bias parameter(s) and appear to disfavor, but not yet rule out, the hypothesis that scale-dependent bias is responsible for the extra power observed on large scales.

Frieman, Joshua A.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Atacama Cosmology Telescope measurements of a large sample of candidates from the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey: Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect confirmation of MaDCoWS candidates using ACT

Context. Galaxy clusters are an important tool for cosmology, and their detection and characterization are key goals for current and future surveys. Using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey (MaDCoWS) located 2839 significant galaxy overdensities at redshifts 0.7 . z . 1.5, which included extensive follow-up imaging from the Spitzer Space Telescope to determine cluster richnesses. Concurrently, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) has produced large area millimeter-wave maps in three frequency bands along with a large catalog of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ)-selected clusters as part of its Data Release 5 (DR5). Aims. We aim to verify and characterize MaDCoWS clusters using measurements of, or limits on, their thermal SZ effect signatures. We also use these detections to establish the scaling relation between SZ mass and the MaDCoWS-defined richness. Methods. Using the maps and cluster catalog from DR5, we explore the scaling between SZ mass and cluster richness. We do this by comparing cataloged detections and extracting individual and stacked SZ signals from the MaDCoWS cluster locations. We use complementary radio survey data from the Very Large Array, submillimeter data from Herschel, and ACT 224 GHz data to assess the impact of contaminating sources on the SZ signals from both ACT and MaDCoWS clusters. We use a hierarchical Bayesian model to fit the mass-richness scaling relation, allowing for clusters to be drawn from two populations: one, a Gaussian centered on the mass-richness relation, and the other, a Gaussian centered on zero SZ signal. Results. We find that MaDCoWS clusters have submillimeter contamination that is consistent with a gray-body spectrum, while the ACT clusters are consistent with no submillimeter emission on average. Additionally, the intrinsic radio intensities of ACT clusters are lower than those of MaDCoWS clusters, even when the ACT clusters are restricted to the same redshift range as the MaDCoWS clusters. We find the best-fit ACT SZ mass versus MaDCoWS richness scaling relation has a slope of p1 = 1.84+0.15 −0.14, where the slope is defined as M ∝ λ p1 15 and λ15 is the richness. We also find that the ACT SZ signals for a significant fraction (∼57%) of the MaDCoWS sample can statistically be described as being drawn from a noise-like distribution, indicating that the candidates are possibly dominated by low-mass and unvirialized systems that are below the mass limit of the ACT sample. Further, we note that a large portion of the optically confirmed ACT clusters located in the same volume of the sky as MaDCoWS are not selected by MaDCoWS, indicating that the MaDCoWS sample is not complete with respect to SZ selection. Finally, we find that the radio loud fraction of MaDCoWS clusters increases with richness, while we find no evidence that the submillimeter emission of the MaDCoWS clusters evolves with richness. Conclusions. We conclude that the original MaDCoWS selection function is not well defined and, as such, reiterate the MaDCoWS collaboration’s recommendation that the sample is suited for probing cluster and galaxy evolution, but not cosmological analyses. We find a best-fit mass-richness relation slope that agrees with the published MaDCoWS preliminary results. Additionally, we find that while the approximate level of infill of the ACT and MaDCoWS cluster SZ signals (1–2%) is subdominant to other sources of uncertainty for current generation experiments, characterizing and removing this bias will be critical for next-generation experiments hoping to constrain cluster masses at the sub-percent level.

large↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Ionization History of The Intergalactic Medium:

The funded project seeked a unified description of the ionization, physical structure, and evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and quasar intervening absorption systems. We proposed to conduct theoretical studies of the IGM and QSO absorbers in the context of current theories of galaxy formation, developing and using numerical and analytical techniques aimed at a detailed modeling of cosmological radiative transfer, gas dynamics, and thermal and ionization evolution. The ionization history of the IGM has important implications for the metagalactic UV background, intergalactic helium absorption 21-cm tomography, metal absorption systems, fluctuations in the microwave background, and the cosmic rate of structure and star formation. All the original objectives of our program have been achieved, and the results widely used and quoted by the community. Indeed, they remain relevant as the level and complexity of research in this area has increased substantially since our proposal was submitted, due to new discoveries on galaxy formation and evolution, a flood of high-quality data on the distant universe, new theoretical ideas and direct numerical simulations of structure formation in hierarchical clustering theories.

Madau, Piero↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sleptonic SUSY: from UV framework to IR phenomenology

We study an attractive scenario, “Sleptonic SUSY”, which reconciles the 125 GeV Higgs scalar and the non-observation of superpartners thus far with potentially pivotal roles for slepton phenomenology: providing viable ongoing targets for LHC discovery, incorporating a co-annihilation partner for detectable thermal relic dark matter, and capable of mediating the potential muon g – 2 anomaly. This is accomplished by a modestly hierarchical spectrum, with sub-TeV sleptons and electroweakinos and with multi-TeV masses for the other new states. We study new elements in the UV MSSM realization of Sleptonic SUSY based on higher-dimensional sequestering and the synergy between the resulting gaugino-mediation, hypercharge D-term mediation and Higgs-mediation of SUSY-breaking, so as to more fully capture the range of possibilities. This framework stands out by harmoniously solving the flavor, CP and μ – Bμ problems of the supersymmetric paradigm. We discuss its extension to orbifold GUTs, including gauge-coupling and b-tau unification. We also develop a non-minimal model with extra Higgs fields, in which the electroweak vacuum is more readily cosmologically stable against decay to a charge-breaking vacuum, allowing a broader range of sleptonic spectra than in the MSSM alone. We survey the rich set of signals possible at the LHC and future colliders, covering both R-parity conservation and violation, as well as for dark matter detection. While the multi-TeV squarks imply a Little Hierarchy Problem, intriguingly, small changes in parameter space to improve naturalness result in dramatic phase transitions to either electroweak-preservation or charge-breaking. In a Multiverse setting, the modest unnaturalness may then be explained by the “principle of living dangerously”.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

TDCOSMO VIII. A key test of systematics in the hierarchical method of time-delay cosmography

The largest source of systematic errors in the time-delay cosmography method likely arises from the lens model mass distribution, where an inaccurate choice of model could in principle bias the value of $H$ 0 . A Bayesian hierarchical framework has been proposed which combines lens systems with kinematic data, constraining the mass profile shape at a population level. The framework has been previously validated using a small sample of lensing galaxies drawn from hydro-simulations. The goal of this work is to expand the validation to a more general set of lenses consistent with observed systems, as well as confirm the capacity of the method to combine two lens populations: one which has time delay information and one which lacks time delays and has systematically different image radii. For this purpose, we generated samples of analytic lens mass distributions made of baryons+dark matter and fit the subsequent mock images with standard power-law models. Corresponding kinematics data were also emulated. The hierarchical framework applied to an ensemble of time-delay lenses allowed us to correct the $H$ 0 bias associated with model choice to find $H$ 0 within 1.5σ of the fiducial value. We then combined this set with a sample of corresponding lens systems which have no time delays and have a source at lower $z$, resulting in a systematically smaller image radius relative to their effective radius. The hierarchical framework has successfully accounted for this effect, recovering a value of $H$ 0 which is both more precise (σ ~ 2%) and more accurate (0.7% median offset) than the time-delay set alone. This result confirms that non-time-delay lenses can nonetheless contribute valuable constraining power to the determination of $H$ 0 via their kinematic constraints, assuming they come from the same global population as the time-delay set.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

From Images to Dark Matter: End-to-end Inference of Substructure from Hundreds of Strong Gravitational Lenses

Abstract Constraining the distribution of small-scale structure in our universe allows us to probe alternatives to the cold dark matter paradigm. Strong gravitational lensing offers a unique window into small dark matter halos (<10 10 M ⊙ ) because these halos impart a gravitational lensing signal even if they do not host luminous galaxies. We create large data sets of strong lensing images with realistic low-mass halos, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observational effects, and galaxy light from HST’s COSMOS field. Using a simulation-based inference pipeline, we train a neural posterior estimator of the subhalo mass function (SHMF) and place constraints on populations of lenses generated using a separate set of galaxy sources. We find that by combining our network with a hierarchical inference framework, we can both reliably infer the SHMF across a variety of configurations and scale efficiently to populations with hundreds of lenses. By conducting precise inference on large and complex simulated data sets, our method lays a foundation for extracting dark matter constraints from the next generation of wide-field optical imaging surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1994

Galaxy mergers and gravitational lens statistics

We investigate the impact of hierarchical galaxy merging on the statistics of gravitational lensing of distant sources. Since no definite theoretical predictions for the merging history of luminous galaxies exist, we adopt a parameterized prescription, which allows us to adjust the expected number of pieces comprising a typical present galaxy at z approximately 0.65. The existence of global parameter relations for elliptical galaxies and constraints on the evolution of the phase space density in dissipationless mergers, allow us to limit the possible evolution of galaxy lens properties under merging. We draw two lessons from implementing this lens evolution into statistical lens calculations: (1) The total optical depth to multiple imaging (e.g., of quasars) is quite insensitive to merging. (2) Merging leads to a smaller mean separation of observed multiple images. Because merging does not reduce drastically the expected lensing frequency, it cannot make lambda-dominated cosmologies compatible with the existing lensing observations. A comparison with the data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Snapshot Survey shows that models with little or no evolution of the lens population are statistically favored over strong merging scenarios. A specific merging scenario proposed to Toomre can be rejected (95% level) by such a comparison. Some versions of the scenario proposed by Broadhurst, Ellis, & Glazebrook are statistically acceptable.

Rix, Hans-Walter↗
DOE OSTI2022

Particle physics and cosmology of the string derived no-scale flipped SU(5)

In a recent paper, we identified a cosmological sector of a flipped SU(5) model derived in the free fermionic formulation of the heterotic superstring, containing the inflaton and the goldstino superfields with a superpotential leading to Starobinsky type inflation, while SU(5) × U(1) is still unbroken. Here, we study the properties and phenomenology of the vacuum after the end of inflation, where the gauge group is broken to the Standard Model. We identify a set of vacuum expectation values, triggered by the breaking of an anomalous U(1) A gauge symmetry at roughly an order of magnitude below the string scale, that solve the F and D-flatness supersymmetric conditions up to 6th order in the superpotential which is explicitly computed, leading to a successful particle phenomenology. In particular, all extra colour triplets become superheavy guaranteeing observable proton stability, while the Higgs doublet mass matrix has a massless pair eigenstate with realistic hierarchical Yukawa couplings to quarks and leptons. The supersymmetry breaking scale is constrained to be high, consistent with the non observation of supersymmetry signals at the LHC.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1993

Testing higher-order Lagrangian perturbation theory against numerical simulation. 1: Pancake models

We present results showing an improvement of the accuracy of perturbation theory as applied to cosmological structure formation for a useful range of quasi-linear scales. The Lagrangian theory of gravitational instability of an Einstein-de Sitter dust cosmogony investigated and solved up to the third order is compared with numerical simulations. In this paper we study the dynamics of pancake models as a first step. In previous work the accuracy of several analytical approximations for the modeling of large-scale structure in the mildly non-linear regime was analyzed in the same way, allowing for direct comparison of the accuracy of various approximations. In particular, the Zel'dovich approximation (hereafter ZA) as a subclass of the first-order Lagrangian perturbation solutions was found to provide an excellent approximation to the density field in the mildly non-linear regime (i.e. up to a linear r.m.s. density contrast of sigma is approximately 2). The performance of ZA in hierarchical clustering models can be greatly improved by truncating the initial power spectrum (smoothing the initial data). We here explore whether this approximation can be further improved with higher-order corrections in the displacement mapping from homogeneity. We study a single pancake model (truncated power-spectrum with power-spectrum with power-index n = -1) using cross-correlation statistics employed in previous work. We found that for all statistical methods used the higher-order corrections improve the results obtained for the first-order solution up to the stage when sigma (linear theory) is approximately 1. While this improvement can be seen for all spatial scales, later stages retain this feature only above a certain scale which is increasing with time. However, third-order is not much improvement over second-order at any stage. The total breakdown of the perturbation approach is observed at the stage, where sigma (linear theory) is approximately 2, which corresponds to the onset of hierarchical clustering. This success is found at a considerable higher non-linearity than is usual for perturbation theory. Whether a truncation of the initial power-spectrum in hierarchical models retains this improvement will be analyzed in a forthcoming work.

Buchert, T.↗