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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Correlated signals of first-order phase transitions and primordial black hole evaporation

Fermi balls produced in a cosmological first-order phase transition may collapse to primordial black holes (PBHs) if the fermion dark matter particles that comprise them interact via a sufficiently strong Yukawa force. We show that phase transitions described by a quartic thermal effective potential with vacuum energy, 0.1 ≲ B 1/4 /MeV ≲ 10 3 , generate PBHs of mass, 10 –20 ≲ M PBH /M ⊙ ≲ 10 –16 , and gravitational waves from the phase transition (at THEIA/μAres) can be correlated with an isotropic extragalactic X-ray/γ-ray background from PBH evaporation (at AMEGO-X/e-ASTROGAM).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

The central dogma and cosmological horizons

The central dogma of black hole physics – which says that from the outside a black hole can be described in terms of a quantum system with exp(Area/4G N ) states evolving unitarily – has recently been supported by computations indicating that the interior of the black hole is encoded in the Hawking radiation of the exterior. In this paper, we probe whether such a dogma for cosmological horizons has any support from similar computations. The fact that the de Sitter bifurcation surface is a minimax surface (instead of a maximin surface) causes problems with this interpretation when trying to import calculations analogous to the AdS case. This suggests anchoring extremal surfaces to the horizon itself, where we formulate a two-sided extremization prescription and find answers consistent with general expectations for a quantum theory of de Sitter space: vanishing total entropy, an entropy of A/4G N when restricting to a single static patch, an entropy of a subregion of the horizon which grows as the region size grows until an island-like transition at half the horizon size when the entanglement wedge becomes the entire static patch interior, and a de Sitter version of the Hartman-Maldacena transition.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1981

Relativistic astrophysics - The view from Texas in Baltimore /Review/

Recent observational and theoretical work presented at the Tenth Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics held in Baltimore, Maryland from December 15-19, 1980, is outlined. Areas covered include the theoretical foundations of relativistic astrophysics in general relativity, quantum gravitational theory and the association of grand unification with astronomical and cosmological issues, the cosmic microwave, X-ray, gamma-ray, UV, cosmic ray and gravitational wave backgrounds, the current expansion rate and average mass-energy density of the universe, and mechanisms of galaxy formation. Also discussed are the characteristics of active galaxies and clusters emitting in the gamma-ray and X-ray regions, and compact objects formed from supernova explosions, including pulsars, X-ray-emitting neutron stars, Sco X-1 and SS 433, gamma-ray sources, and X-ray and gamma-ray bursters.

Trimble, V. L.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Missing scalars at the cosmological collider

Light scalar fields typically develop spatially varying backgrounds during inflation. Very often they do not directly affect the density perturbations, but interact with other fields that do leave nontrivial signals in primordial perturbations. In this sense they become “missing scalars” at the cosmological collider. We study potentially observable signals of these missing scalars, focusing on a special example where a missing scalar distorts the usual oscillatory features in the squeezed bispectrum. The distortion is also a useful signal distinguishing the de Sitter background induced thermal mass from a constant intrinsic mass.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Gravitational waves from global cosmic strings and cosmic archaeology

Global cosmic strings are predicted in many motivated extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics, with close connections to axion dark matter physics. Recent studies suggest that, although subdominant relative to Goldstone emission, gravitational wave (GW) signals from global strings can be detectable with current and planned GW detectors such as LIGO, LISA, DECIGO/BBO, ET/CE and AEDGE/AION, as well as pulsar timing arrays such as PPTA, NANOGrav and SKA. This work is an extensive, updated study on GWs from a global cosmic string network, taking into account of the most recent developments related to the subject. The main analysis is based on the analytical Velocity-dependent One-Scale (VOS) model calibrated with recent simulation results, which provides a generic protocol for such calculations with details given. We also demonstrate how the GW signal can be influenced with variations to the baseline model: this includes considering the uncertainties of model parameters and the potential deviation from the conventional VOS model prediction (i.e. the scaling behavior) as suggested by some of the recent simulation results. Furthermore, we investigated in detail the effect of a non-standard cosmology (e.g. early matter domination or kination) or new particle species on the GW signals from global strings. We demonstrate that the frequency spectrum of GW background from global cosmic strings can be used to probe the cosmic history prior to the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) (i.e. the primordial dark age) up to a temperature of T ~ 10 8 GeV.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

The wavefunction of a quantum S 1 × S 2 universe

We study quantum gravity corrections to the no-boundary wavefunction describing a universe with spatial topology S 1 × S 2 . It has been suggested that quantum effects become increasingly important when the size of the circle is large relative to the sphere. In this paper, we confirm this claim by an explicit four-dimensional one-loop calculation of the gravitational path integral preparing such a state. In the process, we clarify some aspects of the gravitational path integral on complex spacetimes. These quantum corrections play a crucial role in ensuring that the norm of the wavefunction is naturally expressed in terms of a path integral over S 2 × S 2 at the classical level. We extend some of the analysis to more general spatial topologies, as well as to the inclusion of fermions.

cosmological models↗
DOE OSTI2021

Model-independent versus model-dependent interpretation of the SDSS-III BOSS power spectrum: Bridging the divide

The traditional clustering analyses of galaxy redshift surveys compress the clustering data into a set of late-time physical variables in a model-independent way. This approach has recently been extended by an additional shape variable encoding early-time physics information. Here we apply this new technique, ShapeFit, to SDSS-III BOSS data and show that it matches the constraining power of alternative, model-dependent approaches, which directly constrain the model’s parameters adopting a cosmological model ab initio. ShapeFit is ~30 times faster, model independent, naturally splits early- and late-time variables, and enables a better control of observational systematics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dark freeze-out cogenesis

We propose a new mechanism where a multi-component dark sector generates the observed dark matter abundance and baryon asymmetry and thus addresses the coincidence between the two. The thermal freeze-out of dark matter annihilating into meta-stable dark partners sets the dark matter relic abundance while providing the out-of-equilibrium condition for baryogenesis. The meta-stable state triggers baryon asymmetry production by its decay well after the freeze-out and potentially induces a period of early matter domination before its decay. The dark matter and baryon abundances are related through number conservation within the dark sector (cogenesis). The “coincidence” is a natural outcome with GeV- to TeV-scale symmetric dark matter and the dark sector’s interactions with the Standard Model quarks. We present a UV-complete model and explore its phenomenological predictions, including dark matter direct detection signals, LHC signatures of new massive particles with color charges and long-lived particles with displaced vertices, dark matter-induced nucleon conversions, (exotic) dark matter indirect detection signals, and effects on the cosmological matter power spectrum. As a side result, we provide a novel analytical treatment for dark sector freeze-out, which may prove useful in the study of related scenarios.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Systematizing the effective theory of self-interacting dark matter

If dark matter has strong self-interactions, future astrophysical and cosmological observations, together with a clearer understanding of baryonic feedback effects, might be used to extract the velocity dependence of the dark matter scattering rate. To interpret such data, we should understand what predictions for this quantity are made by various models of the underlying particle nature of dark matter. In this paper, we systematically compute this function for fermionic dark matter with light bosonic mediators of vector, scalar, axial vector, and pseudoscalar type. We do this by matching to the nonrelativistic effective theory of self-interacting dark matter and then computing the spin-averaged viscosity cross section nonperturbatively by solving the Schrödinger equation, thus accounting for any possible Sommerfeld enhancement of the low-velocity cross section. In the pseudoscalar case, this requires a coupled-channel analysis of different angular momentum modes. We find, contrary to some earlier analyses, that nonrelativistic effects only provide a significant enhancement for the cases of light scalar and vector mediators. Scattering from light pseudoscalar and axial vector mediators is well described by tree-level quantum field theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Global electroweak symmetric vacuum

Although the Higgs potential in the Standard Model (SM) contains only a simple electroweak symmetry breaking vacuum in the small field region, additional metastable or global vacua could exist in models beyond the SM. In this paper, we study one intriguing scenario with an additional electroweak symmetric vacuum that could be the global one. For the thermal universe ending at the current metastable vacuum, the electroweak symmetry should stay non-restored at high temperatures. We realize the scenario in a model with Higgs-portal couplings to SM singlet scalars with approximately global O(N) symmetries with a large N. For a large portion of model parameter space, both the quantum and thermal tunneling rates are suppressed such that our current metastable vacuum is long-lived enough. Our scenario predicts order-one changes for the Higgs self-couplings and a large contribution to the signal of the off-shell Higgs invisible decay. It can be partly probed at the LHC Run 3 and well tested at the high luminosity LHC. We also discuss the subcritical (anti-de Sitter) bubbles from the thermal tunneling that could have a large population and interesting cosmological implications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

A cosmic microscope for the preheating era

Light fields with spatially varying backgrounds can modulate cosmic preheating, and imprint the nonlinear effects of preheating dynamics at tiny scales on large scale fluctuations. This provides us a unique probe into the preheating era which we dub the “cosmic microscope”. We identify a distinctive effect of preheating on scalar perturbations that turns the Gaussian primordial fluctuations of a light scalar field into square waves, like a diode. The effect manifests itself as local non-Gaussianity. We present a model, “modulated partial preheating”, where this nonlinear effect is consistent with current observations and can be reached by near future cosmic probes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Axion domain walls, small instantons, and non-invertible symmetry breaking

Non-invertible global symmetry often predicts degeneracy in axion potentials and carries important information about the global form of the gauge group. When these symmetries are spontaneously broken they can lead to the formation of stable axion domain wall networks which support topological degrees of freedom on their worldvolume. Such non-invertible symmetries can be broken by embedding into appropriate larger UV gauge groups where small instanton contributions lift the vacuum degeneracy, and provide a possible solution to the domain wall problem. We explain these ideas in simple illustrative examples and then apply them to the Standard Model, whose gauge algebra and matter content are consistent with several possible global structures. Each possible global structure leads to different selection rules on the axion couplings, and various UV completions of the Standard Model lead to more specific relations. As a proof of principle, we also present an example of a UV embedding of the Standard Model which can solve the axion domain wall problem. The formation and annihilation of the long-lived axion domain walls can lead to observables, such as gravitational wave signals. Observing such signals, in combination with the axion coupling measurements, can provide valuable insight into the global structure of the Standard Model, as well as its UV completion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electromagnetic signals of inelastic dark matter scattering

Light dark sectors in thermal contact with the Standard Model can naturally produce the observed relic dark matter abundance and are the targets of a broad experimental search program. A key light dark sector model is the pseudo-Dirac fermion with a dark photon mediator. The dynamics of the fermionic excited states are often neglected. We consider scenarios in which a nontrivial abundance of excited states is produced and their subsequent de-excitation yields interesting electromagnetic signals in direct detection experiments. We study three mechanisms of populating the excited state: a primordial excited fraction, a component up-scattered in the Sun, and a component up-scattered in the Earth. We find that the fractional abundance of primordial excited states is generically depleted to exponentially small fractions in the early universe. Nonetheless, this abundance can produce observable signals in current dark matter searches. MeV-scale dark matter with thermal cross sections and higher can be probed by down-scattering following excitation in the Sun. Up-scatters of GeV-scale dark matter in the Earth can give rise to signals in current and upcoming terrestrial experiments and X-ray observations. We comment on the possible relevance of these scenarios to the recent excess in XENON1T.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electroweak-like baryogenesis with new chiral matter

We propose a framework where a phase transition associated with a gauge symmetry breaking that occurs (not far) above the electroweak scale sets a stage for baryogenesis similar to the electroweak baryogenesis in the Standard Model. A concrete realization utilizes the breaking of SU(2) R × U(1) X → U(1) Y . New chiral fermions charged under the extended gauge symmetry have nonzero lepton numbers, which makes the B - L symmetry anomalous. The new lepton sector contains a large flavor-dependent CP violation, similar to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase, without inducing sizable electric dipole moments of the Standard Model particles. A bubble wall dynamics associated with the first-order phase transition and SU(2) R sphaleron processes generate a lepton asymmetry, which is transferred into a baryon asymmetry via the ordinary electroweak sphaleron process. Unlike the Standard Model electroweak baryogenesis, the new phase transition can be of the strong first order and the new CP violation is not significantly suppressed by Yukawa couplings, so that the observed asymmetry can be produced. The model can be probed by collider searches for new particles and the observation of gravitational waves. One of the new leptons becomes a dark matter candidate. The model can be also embedded into a left-right symmetric theory to solve the strong CP problem.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Current status and muon g - 2 explanation of lepton portal dark matter

In this paper, we summarize phenomenology in lepton portal dark matter (DM) models, where DM couples to leptons and extra leptons/sleptons. There are several possible setups: a DM field is either a complex/real scalar or a Dirac/Majorana fermion, and chiralities of leptons that couple to the DM are different according to the spin of the DM. We discuss the prediction of each model and compare it with the latest experimental constraints from the DM detections, the LHC, and the flavor experiments. We also propose simple setups to resolve the discrepancy in the anomalous magnetic moment of muon.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

TCC in the interior of moduli space and its implications for the string landscape and cosmology

We consider the classical Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solutions that describe a universe undergoing a transition from an accelerating expansion phase in the past to an eternal decelerating expansion phase in the future, driven by a scalar field evolving in a potential energy landscape. We show that any solution for which the accelerating phase violates the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), even in the interior of moduli space, never approaches the asymptotic vacuum with zero particles. Based on the assumption that the effective field theory must be valid for the vacuum on the asymptotic boundary, as motivated by holography and string theory, we argue that (multi-field) scalar potentials with such solutions are disallowed, thus strengthening the case for TCC. In particular, assuming the regularity of the future vacuum state in the string landscape, we derive results that imply a new set of highly-nonlinear constraints across the string landscape which in the absence of certain meta-stable vacua make realizing inflation impossible.

Cosmological models↗