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DOE OSTI2025

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 power spectrum foreground model and validation

We discuss the model of astrophysical emission at millimeter wavelengths used to characterize foregrounds in the multi-frequency power spectra of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6), expanding on Louis et al. (2025) (2503.14452). We detail several tests to validate the capability of the DR6 parametric foreground model to describe current observations and complex simulations, and show that cosmological parameter constraints are robust against model extensions and variations. We demonstrate consistency of the model with pre-DR6 ACT data and observations from Planck and the South Pole Telescope. We evaluate the implications of using different foreground templates and extending the model with new components and/or free parameters. In all scenarios, the DR6 ΛCDM and ΛCDM+N eff cosmological parameters shift by less than 0.5σ relative to the baseline constraints. Some foreground parameters shift more; we estimate their systematic uncertainties associated with modeling choices. From our constraint on the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich power, we obtain a conservative limit on the duration of reionization of Δz rei < 4.4, assuming a reionization midpoint consistent with optical depth measurements and a minimal low-redshift contribution, with varying assumptions for this component leading to tighter limits. Finally, we analyze realistic non-Gaussian, correlated microwave sky simulations containing Galactic and extragalactic foreground fields, built independently of the DR6 parametric foreground model. Processing these simulations through the DR6 power spectrum and likelihood pipeline, we recover the input cosmological parameters of the underlying cosmic microwave background field, a new demonstration for small-scale CMB analysis. These tests validate the robustness of the ACT DR6 foreground model and cosmological parameter constraints.

CMBR experiments↗

DOE OSTI2019

Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: Status and Prospects

Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a forbidden, lepton-number-violating nuclear transition whose observation would have fundamental implications for neutrino physics, theories beyond the Standard Model, and cosmology. In this review, we summarize the theoretical progress to understand this process, the expectations and implications under various particle physics models, and the nuclear physics challenges that affect the precise predictions of the decay half-life. Finally, we provide a synopsis of the current and future large-scale experiments that aim to discover this process in physically well-motivated half-life ranges.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

How Does Feedback Affect the Star Formation Histories of Galaxies?

Star formation in galaxies is regulated by the interplay of a range of processes that shape the multiphase gas in the interstellar and circumgalactic media. Using the Cosmology and Astrophysics with MachinE Learning Simulations (CAMELS) suite of cosmological simulations, we study the effects of varying feedback and cosmology on the average star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies at z ∼ 0 across the IllustrisTNG, SIMBA, and ASTRID galaxy formation models. We find that galaxy SFHs in all three models are sensitive to changes in stellar feedback, which affect the efficiency of baryon cycling and the rates at which central black holes grow, whereas the effects of varying active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback depend on model-specific implementations of black hole seeding, accretion, and feedback. We also find strong interaction terms that couple stellar and AGN feedback, usually by regulating the amount of gas available for the central black hole to accrete. Using a double power law to describe the average SFHs, we derive a general set of equations relating the shape of the SFHs to physical quantities like baryon fraction and black hole mass across all three models. We find that a single set of equations (albeit with different coefficients) can describe the SFHs across all three CAMELS models, with cosmology dominating the SFH at early times, followed by halo accretion, and feedback and baryon cycling at late times. Galaxy SFHs provide a novel, complementary probe to constrain cosmology and feedback, and can connect the observational constraints from current and upcoming galaxy surveys with the physical mechanisms responsible for regulating galaxy growth and quenching.

Iyer, Kartheik G. [Columbia Univ., New York, NY (U↗

DOE OSTI2022

Dark Energy Survey year 3 results: Constraints on cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias models from galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing using the redMaGiC sample

We constrain cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias parameters using the combination of galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year-3 data. We describe our modeling framework and choice of scales analyzed, validating their robustness to theoretical uncertainties in small-scale clustering by analyzing simulated data. Using a linear galaxy-bias model and redMaGiC galaxy sample, we obtain 10% constraints on the matter density of the Universe. Here, we also implement a nonlinear galaxy-bias model to probe smaller scales that includes parametrization based on hybrid perturbation theory and find that it leads to a 17% gain in cosmological constraining power. We perform robustness tests of our methodology pipeline and demonstrate stability of the constraints to changes in the theory model. Using the redMaGiC galaxy sample as foreground lens galaxies and adopting the best-fitting cosmological parameters from DES year-1 data, we find the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements to exhibit significant signals akin to decorrelation between galaxies and mass on large scales, which is not expected in any current models. This likely systematic measurement error biases our constraints on galaxy bias and the S 8 parameter. We find that a scale-, redshift- and sky-area-independent phenomenological decorrelation parameter can effectively capture this inconsistency between the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing. We trace the source of this correlation to a color-dependent photometric issue and minimize its impact on our result by changing the selection criteria of redMaGiC galaxies. Using this new sample, our constraints on the S 8 parameter are consistent with previous studies and we find a small shift in the Ω m constraints compared to the fiducial redMaGiC sample. We infer the constraints on the mean host-halo mass of the redMaGiC galaxies in this new sample from the large-scale bias constraints, finding the galaxies occupy halos of mass approximately 1.6 × 10 13 M ⊙ /h.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

A falsely fat curvaton with an observable running of the spectral tilt

In slow roll inflation, the running of the spectral tilt is generically proportional to the square of the deviation from scale invariance, α{sub s}∝(n{sub s}−1){sup 2}, and is therefore currently undetectable. We present a mechanism able to generate a much larger running within slow roll. The mechanism is based on a curvaton field with a large mass term, and a time evolving normalization. This may happen for instance to the angular direction of a complex field in presence of an evolving radial direction. At the price of a single tuning between the mass term and the rate of change of the normalization, the curvaton can be made effectively light at the CMB scales, giving a spectral tilt in agreement with observations. The lightness is not preserved at later times, resulting in a detectable running of the spectral tilt. This mechanism shows that fields with a large mass term do not necessarily decouple from the inflationary physics, and provides a new tool for model building in inflation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

2HOT: an improved parallel hashed oct-tree n-body algorithm for cosmological simulation

We report on improvements made over the past two decades to our adaptive treecode N-body method (HOT). A mathematical and computational approach to the cosmological N-body problem is described, with performance and scalability measured up to 256k (2 18 ) processors. We present error analysis and scientific application results from a series of more than ten 69 billion (4096 3 ) particle cosmological simulations, accounting for 4 × 10 20 floating point operations. These results include the first simulations using the new constraints on the standard model of cosmology from the Planck satellite. Our simulations set a new standard for accuracy and scientific throughput, while meeting or exceeding the computational efficiency of the latest generation of hybrid TreePM N-body methods.

Computer Science↗

DOE OSTI2015

Probing reheating with primordial spectrum

We study the impacts of reheating temperature on the inflationary predictions of the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio. Assuming sinusoidal oscillations and that reheating process is very fast, the reheating temperature can be constrained within a factor of 10–100 or even better with the prospect of future observations. Beyond this, we find that the predictions can also be insensitive to the reheating temperature in certain models, including Higgs inflation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2017

From inflation to recent cosmic acceleration: the fermionic Elko field driving the evolution of the universe

In this paper we construct the complete evolution of the universe driven by the mass dimension one dark spinor called Elko, starting with inflation, passing by the matter dominated era and finishing with the recent accelerated expansion. The dynamic of the fermionic Elko field with a symmetry breaking type potential can reproduce all phases of the universe in a natural and elegant way. The dynamical equations in general case and slow roll conditions in the limit H || m {sub pl} are also presented for the Elko system. Numerical analysis for the number of e-foldings during inflation, energy density after inflation and for present time and also the actual size of the universe are in good agreement with the standard model of cosmology. An interpretation of the inflationary phase as a result of Pauli exclusion principle is also possible if the Elko field is treated as an average value of its quantum analogue.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1979

Cosmology of a charged universe

The Proca generalization of electrodynamics admits the possibility that the universe could possess a net electric charge uniformly distributed throughout space, while possessing no electric field. A general-relativistic model of cosmological expansion dominated by such a charged background has been calculated, and is consistent with present observational limits on the Hubble constant, the deceleration parameter, and the age of the universe. However, if this cosmology applied at the present epoch, the very early expansion of the universe would have been too rapid for cosmological nucleosynthesis or thermalization of the background radiation to have occurred. Hence, domination of the present expansion by background charge appears to be incompatible with the 3-K background and big-bang production of light elements. If the present background charge density were sufficiently small (but not strictly zero), expansion from the epoch of nucleosynthesis would proceed according to the conventional scenario, but the energy due to the background charge would have dominated at some earlier epoch. This last possibility leads to equality of pressure and energy density in the primordial universe.

Barnes, A.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Galaxy Size and Rotation Curve Diversity in ΛCDM with Baryons

The observed rotation curves of dwarf galaxies exhibit significant diversity at fixed halo mass, challenging galaxy formation within the cold dark matter (CDM) model. Previous cosmological galaxy formation simulations with baryonic physics fail to reproduce the full diversity of rotation curves, suggesting that there is a flaw in baryonic feedback models, observational bias, or that an alternative to CDM must be invoked. In this work, we use the Marvelous Massive Dwarf zoom-in simulations, a suite of high-resolution dwarf simulations with M 200 ∼ 10 10 –10 11 M ⊙ and M * ∼ 10 7 –10 9 M ⊙ , designed to target the mass range where the galaxy rotation curve diversity is maximized, i.e., between and 100 km s −1 . We add to this a set of low-mass galaxies from the Marvel Dwarf Zoom Volumes to extend the galaxy mass range to lower values. Our fiducial star formation and feedback models produce simulated dwarfs with a broader range of rotation curve shapes, similar to observations. These simulations both create dark matter cores via baryonic feedback, reproducing the slower-rising rotation curves, while also allowing for compact galaxies and steeply rising rotation curves. Our simulated dwarfs also reproduce the observed size–M * relation, including scatter, producing both extended and compact dwarfs for the first time in simulated field dwarfs. However, the slowly rising and high baryon mass fraction, as well as the steeply rising and low baryon mass fraction, remain missing. We explore star formation and feedback models and conclude that previous simulations may have had feedback that was too strong to produce compact dwarfs.

Cruz, Akaxia [Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (Un↗

DOE OSTI2024

Testing the scalar weak gravity conjecture in no-scale supergravity

We explore possible extensions of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) to scalar field theories. To avoid charged black hole remnants, the WGC requires the existence of a particle with a mass m ≤ gqM P , with charge q and U(1) gauge coupling g, allowing the decay to shed the black hole charge. Although there is no obvious problem that arises in the absence of a U(1) charge, it has been postulated that gravity must remain the weakest force even when extended to scalar interactions. Quantifying this conjecture may be done by comparing scalar and gravitational amplitudes, or as we advocate here by comparing scattering cross sections. In theories with non-trivial field space geometries, by working out examples with perturbation theory around arbitrary field values and performing tadpole resummations, we argue that the conjecture must be applied only at extrema of the scalar potential (when expressed in locally canonical coordinates). We consider several toy models in the context of no-scale supergravity and also consider examples of inflationary models.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Testing the Kerr metric with the iron line and the KRZ parametrization

The spacetime geometry around astrophysical black holes is supposed to be well approximated by the Kerr metric, but deviations from the Kerr solution are predicted in a number of scenarios involving new physics. Broad iron Kα lines are commonly observed in the X-ray spectrum of black holes and originate by X-ray fluorescence of the inner accretion disk. The profile of the iron line is sensitively affected by the spacetime geometry in the strong gravity region and can be used to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In this paper, we extend previous work in the literature. In particular: i ) as test-metric, we employ the parametrization recently proposed by Konoplya, Rezzolla, and Zhidenko, which has a number of subtle advantages with respect to the existing approaches; ii ) we perform simulations with specific X-ray missions, and we consider NuSTAR as a prototype of current observational facilities and eXTP as an example of the next generation of X-ray observatories. We find a significant difference between the constraining power of NuSTAR and eXTP. With NuSTAR, it is difficult or impossible to constrain deviations from the Kerr metric. With eXTP, in most cases we can obtain quite stringent constraints (modulo we have the correct astrophysical model).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Cosmological Inflation with Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity

Cosmological inflation models based on Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity with a nonminimal coupling of the scalar field and the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) scalar in the four-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe are considered. A method for construction of exact solutions based on the relationship between these models and the standard inflation with Einstein gravity is presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Testing gravitational physics by combining DESI DR1 and weak lensing datasets using the E_G estimator

The action of gravitational physics across space-time creates observable signatures in the behaviour of light and matter. We perform combined-probe studies using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey Data Release 1 (DESI-DR1), in combination with three existing weak lensing surveys, the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (HSC), to test and constrain General Relativity (GR) in the context of the standard model of cosmology (LCDM). We focus on measuring the gravitational estimator statistic, E_G, which describes the relative amplitudes of weak gravitational lensing and galaxy velocities induced by a common set of overdensities. By comparing our amplitude measurements with their predicted scale- and redshift-dependence within the GR+LCDM model, we demonstrate that our results are consistent with the predictions of the Planck cosmology. The redshift span of the DESI dataset allows us to perform these E_G measurements at the highest redshifts achieved to date, z ~ 1.

cosmology↗

DOE OSTI2014

Neutrinos and dark energy after Planck and BICEP2: data consistency tests and cosmological parameter constraints

The detection of the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by the BICEP2 experiment implies that the tensor-to-scalar ratio r should be involved in the base standard cosmology. In this paper, we extend the ΛCDM r+neutrino/dark radiation models by replacing the cosmological constant with the dynamical dark energy with constant w. Four neutrino plus dark energy models are considered, i.e., the wCDM r ∑ m{sub ν}, wCDM r N{sub eff}, wCDM r ∑ m{sub ν} N{sub eff}, and wCDM r N{sub eff} m{sub ν,sterile}{sup eff} models. The current observational data considered in this paper include the Planck temperature data, the WMAP 9-year polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts data, the Planck CMB lensing data, the cosmic shear data, and the BICEP2 polarization data. We test the data consistency in the four cosmological models, and then combine the consistent data sets to perform joint constraints on the models. We focus on the constraints on the parameters w, ∑ m{sub ν}, N{sub eff}, and m{sub ν,sterile}{sup eff}.

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↗

DOE OSTI2019

Baryogenesis, dark matter, and flavor structure in non-thermal moduli cosmology

The appearance of scalar/moduli fields in the early universe, as motivated by string theory, naturally leads to non-thermal “moduli cosmology”. Such cosmology provides a consistent framework where the generation of radiation, baryons, and dark matter can occur while maintaining successful Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and avoiding the cosmological moduli problem. We present a relatively economical construction with moduli cosmology, building on a variety of string-inspired components (e.g. supersymmetry, discrete symmetries, Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation). We address a range of outstanding problems of particle physics and cosmology simultaneously, including the fermion mass hierarchy and flavor puzzle, the smallness of neutrino masses, baryogenesis and dark matter. Our setup, based on discrete $\mathbb{Z}^R_{12}$ symmetry and anomalous U(1) A , is void of the usual issues plaguing the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, i.e. the μ-problem and the overly-rapid proton decay due to dimension-4,-5 operators. The model is compatible with SU(5) Grand Unification. The smallness of Dirac neutrino masses is automatically established by requiring the cancellation of mixed gravitational-gauge anomalies. The decay of the moduli field provides a common origin for the baryon number and dark matter abundance, explaining the observed cosmic coincidences, Ω B ~ Ω DM .

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2025

The gravitational path integral from an observer’s point of view

One of the fundamental problems in quantum gravity is to describe the experience of a gravitating observer in generic spacetimes. In this paper, we develop a framework for describing non-perturbative physics relative to an observer using the gravitational path integral. We apply our proposal to an observer that lives in a closed universe and one that falls behind a black hole horizon. We find that the Hilbert space that describes the experience of the observer is much larger than the Hilbert space in the absence of an observer. In the case of closed universes, the Hilbert space is not one-dimensional, as calculations in the absence of the observer suggest. Rather, its dimension scales exponentially with ${G}_{N}^{-1}$. Similarly, from an observer’s perspective, the dimension of the Hilbert space in a two-sided black hole is increased. We compute various observables probing the experience of a gravitating observer in this Hilbert space. We find that an observer experiences non-trivial physics in the closed universe in contrast to what it would see in a one-dimensional Hilbert space. In the two-sided black hole setting, our proposal implies that non-perturbative corrections to effective field theory for an infalling observer are suppressed until times exponential in the black hole entropy, resolving a recently-raised puzzle in black hole physics. While the framework that we develop is exemplified in the toy-model of JT gravity, most of our analysis can be extended to higher dimensions and, in particular, to generic spacetimes not admitting a conventional holographic description, such as cosmological universes or black hole interiors.

2D gravity↗