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DOE OSTI2016

Axion dark matter: strings and their cores

Axions constitute a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and if PQ symmetry breaking occurred after inflation, it should be possible to make a clean prediction for the relation between the axion mass and the axion dark matter density. We show that axion (or other global) string networks in 3D have a network density that depends logarithmically on the string separation-to-core ratio. This logarithm would be about 10 times larger in axion cosmology than what we can achieve in numerical simulations. We simulate axion production in the early Universe, finding that, for the separation-to-core ratios we can achieve, the changing density of the network has little impact on the axion production efficiency.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Entanglement masquerading in the CMB

The simplest single-field inflation models capture all the relevant contributions to the patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observed today. A key assumption in these models is that the quantum inflationary fluctuations that source such patterns are generated by a particular quantum state — the Bunch-Davies (BD) state. While this is a well-motivated choice from a theoretical perspective, the question arises of whether current data can rule out other, also well motivated, choices of states. In particular, as we previously demonstrated in [1], entanglement is naturally and inevitably dynamically generated during inflation given the presence of a "rolling" spectator scalar field — and the resulting entangled state will yield a primordial power spectrum with potentially measurable deviations compared to the canonical BD result. For this work we developed a perturbative framework to allow a systematic exploration of constraints on (or detection of) entangled states with Planck CMB data using Monte Carlo techniques. We have found that most entangled states accessible with our framework are consistent with the data. One would have to expand the framework to allow a greater variety of entangled states in order to saturate the Planck constraints and more systematically explore any preferences the data may have among the different possibilities.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmological parameter forecasts for a CMB-HD survey

We present forecasts on cosmological parameters for a CMB-HD survey. For a $\Lambda$CDM + $N_{eff}$ + $\sum m_\nu$ model, we find $\sigma(n_s) = 0.0013$ and $\sigma(N_{eff}) = 0.014$ using CMB and CMB lensing multipoles in the range of $\ell \in [30, 20000]$, after adding anticipated residual foregrounds, delensing the acoustic peaks, and adding DESI BAO data. This is about a factor of two improvement in ability to probe inflation via $n_s$ compared to precursor CMB surveys. The $N_{eff}$ constraint can rule out light thermal particles back to the end of inflation with 95% CL; for example, it can rule out the QCD axion in a model-independent way assuming the Universe's reheating temperature was high enough that the axion thermalized. We find that delensing the acoustic peaks and adding DESI BAO tightens parameter constraints. We also find that baryonic effects can bias parameters if not marginalized over, and that uncertainties in baryonic effects can increase parameter error bars; however, the latter can be mitigated by including information about baryonic effects from kinetic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements by CMB-HD. The CMB-HD likelihood and Fisher estimation codes used here are publicly available; the likelihood is integrated with Cobaya to facilitate parameter forecasting.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Planck 2015 results: XVII. Constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity

We report that the Planck full mission cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and E-mode polarization maps are analysed to obtain constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity (NG). Using three classes of optimal bispectrum estimators – separable template-fitting (KSW), binned, and modal – we obtain consistent values for the primordial local, equilateral, and orthogonal bispectrum amplitudes, quoting as our final result from temperature alone ƒ local NL = 2.5 ± 5.7, ƒ equil NL = -16 ± 70, , and ƒ ortho NL = -34 ± 32 (68% CL, statistical). Combining temperature and polarization data we obtain ƒ local NL = 0.8 ± 5.0, ƒ equil NL = -4 ± 43, and ƒ ortho NL = -26 ± 21 (68% CL, statistical). The results are based on comprehensive cross-validation of these estimators on Gaussian and non-Gaussian simulations, are stable across component separation techniques, pass an extensive suite of tests, and are consistent with estimators based on measuring the Minkowski functionals of the CMB. The effect of time-domain de-glitching systematics on the bispectrum is negligible. In spite of these test outcomes we conservatively label the results including polarization data as preliminary, owing to a known mismatch of the noise model in simulations and the data. Beyond estimates of individual shape amplitudes, we present model-independent, three-dimensional reconstructions of the Planck CMB bispectrum and derive constraints on early universe scenarios that generate primordial NG, including general single-field models of inflation, axion inflation, initial state modifications, models producing parity-violating tensor bispectra, and directionally dependent vector models. We present a wide survey of scale-dependent feature and resonance models, accounting for the “look elsewhere” effect in estimating the statistical significance of features. We also look for isocurvature NG, and find no signal, but we obtain constraints that improve significantly with the inclusion of polarization. The primordial trispectrum amplitude in the local model is constrained to be g local NL = (-0.9 ± 7.7 ) X 10 4 (68% CL statistical), and we perform an analysis of trispectrum shapes beyond the local case. The global picture that emerges is one of consistency with the premises of the ΛCDM cosmology, namely that the structure we observe today was sourced by adiabatic, passive, Gaussian, and primordial seed perturbations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Multi-scale gravity and cosmology

The gravitational dynamics and cosmological implications of three classes of recently introduced multi-scale spacetimes (with, respectively, ordinary, weighted and q-derivatives) are discussed. These spacetimes are non-Riemannian: the metric structure is accompanied by an independent measure-differential structure with the characteristics of a multi-fractal, namely, different dimensionality at different scales and, at ultra-short distances, a discrete symmetry known as discrete scale invariance. Under this minimal paradigm, five general features arise: (a) the big-bang singularity can be replaced by a finite bounce, (b) the cosmological constant problem is reinterpreted, since accelerating phases can be mimicked by the change of geometry with the time scale, without invoking a slowly rolling scalar field, (c) the discreteness of geometry at Planckian scales can leave an observable imprint of logarithmic oscillations in cosmological spectra and (d) give rise to an alternative mechanism to inflation or (e) to a fully analytic model of cyclic mild inflation, where near scale invariance of the perturbation spectrum can be produced without strong acceleration. Various properties of the models and exact dynamical solutions are discussed. In particular, the multi-scale geometry with weighted derivatives is shown to be a Weyl integrable spacetime.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Decay rates of Gaussian-type I-balls and Bose-enhancement effects in 3+1 dimensions

I-balls/oscillons are long-lived spatially localized lumps of a scalar field which may be formed after inflation. In the scalar field theory with monomial potential nearly and shallower than quadratic, which is motivated by chaotic inflationary models and supersymmetric theories, the scalar field configuration of I-balls is approximately Gaussian. If the I-ball interacts with another scalar field, the I-ball eventually decays into radiation. Recently, it was pointed out that the decay rate of I-balls increases exponentially by the effects of Bose enhancement under some conditions and a non-perturbative method to compute the exponential growth rate has been derived. In this paper, we apply the method to the Gaussian-type I-ball in 3+1 dimensions assuming spherical symmetry, and calculate the partial decay rates into partial waves, labelled by the angular momentum of daughter particles. We reveal the conditions that the I-ball decays exponentially, which are found to depend on the mass and angular momentum of daughter particles and also be affected by the quantum uncertainty in the momentum of daughter particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Constraining the initial conditions of the Universe using large scale structure

Primordial non-Gaussianity induces a scale-dependent bias in large scale structure (LSS) data, proportional to f{sub NL}/k{sup 2} for the exact local ansatz. Recent work has shown that models of inflation that predict a large squeezed limit bispectrum, such as multi-field models and single field inflation with a modified initial state, typically give rise to a generalized local ansatz, with the scale-dependent bias now proportional to A{sub NL}/k{sup α}. We use photometric measurements of the angular power spectrum of luminous red galaxies and quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Eight (SDSS DR8) with the above parameterization to constrain the amplitude A{sub NL} and scale-dependence α. We find that the marginalized upper limit on α is 2.0 at the 95% confidence level, consistent with the local ansatz. We also present Fisher forecasts for a survey of the same size as DR8 to assess the role of systematics in current photometric LSS data. Moreover, we present analytic results on the expected mass dependence of A{sub NL} for different inflationary models, which can be an important observable for future surveys, if primordial non-Gaussianity is non-zero.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Evolution of entanglement entropy in the early universe

We investigate the entropy evolution in the early universe by computing the change of the entanglement entropy in Freedmann-Robertson-Walker quantum cosmology in the presence of particle horizon. The matter is modeled by a Chaplygin gas so as to provide a smooth interpolation between inflationary and radiation epochs, rendering the evolution of entropy from early time to late time trackable. We found that soon after the onset of the inflation, the total entanglement entropy rapidly decreases to a minimum. It then rises monotonically in the remainder of the inflation epoch as well as the radiation epoch. Our result is in qualitative agreement with the area law of Ryu and Takayanagi including the logarithmic correction. We comment on the possible implication of our finding to the cosmological entropy problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Gravitational waves from preheating in M-flation

Matrix inflation, or M-flation, is a string theory motivated inflationary model with three scalar field matrices and gauge fields in the adjoint representation of the U(N) gauge group. One of these 3N{sup 2} scalars appears as the effective inflaton while the rest of the fields (scalar and gauge fields) can play the role of isocurvature fields during inflation and preheat fields afterwards. There is a region in parameter space and initial field values, ''the hilltop region'', where predictions of the model are quite compatible with the recent Planck data. We show that in this hilltop region, if the inflaton ends up in the supersymmetric vacuum, the model can have an embedded preheating mechanism. Couplings of the preheat modes are related to the inflaton self-couplings and therefore are known from the CMB data. Through lattice simulations performed using a symplectic integrator, we numerically compute the power spectra of gravitational waves produced during the preheating stage following M-flation. The preliminary numerical simulation of the spectrum from multi-preheat fields peaks in the GHz band with an amplitude Ω{sub gw}h{sup 2}∝10{sup −16}, suggesting that the model has concrete predictions for the ultra-high frequency gravity-wave probes. This signature could be used to distinguish the model from rival inflationary models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Simulating the universe(s): from cosmic bubble collisions to cosmological observables with numerical relativity

The theory of eternal inflation in an inflaton potential with multiple vacua predicts that our universe is one of many bubble universes nucleating and growing inside an ever-expanding false vacuum. The collision of our bubble with another could provide an important observational signature to test this scenario. We develop and implement an algorithm for accurately computing the cosmological observables arising from bubble collisions directly from the Lagrangian of a single scalar field. We first simulate the collision spacetime by solving Einstein's equations, starting from nucleation and ending at reheating. Taking advantage of the collision's hyperbolic symmetry, the simulations are performed with a 1+1-dimensional fully relativistic code that uses adaptive mesh refinement. We then calculate the comoving curvature perturbation in an open Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, which is used to determine the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation. For a fiducial Lagrangian, the anisotropies are well described by a power law in the cosine of the angular distance from the center of the collision signature. For a given form of the Lagrangian, the resulting observational predictions are inherently statistical due to stochastic elements of the bubble nucleation process. Further uncertainties arise due to our imperfect knowledge about inflationary and pre-recombination physics. We characterize observational predictions by computing the probability distributions over four phenomenological parameters which capture these intrinsic and model uncertainties. This represents the first fully-relativistic set of predictions from an ensemble of scalar field models giving rise to eternal inflation, yielding significant differences from previous non-relativistic approximations. Thus, our results provide a basis for a rigorous confrontation of these theories with cosmological data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Non-Gaussianity consistency relations, initial states and back-reaction

We explore the consistency relations for the three-point functions, in the squeezed limit, of scalar and tensor perturbations in single-field inflation with general initial conditions for the perturbations. For slow-roll inflation, we find that all the three-point functions of scalar and tensor perturbations with a coherent state as the initial state are identical to the three-point functions with the Bunch-Davies initial state. On the other hand, there is an apparent violation of some of the consistency relations for initial states that are related to the Bunch-Davies state by Bogoliubov transformations and we identify the reason for this violation. The back-reaction calculations indicate that the three-point functions for these states can be large enough to violate the consistency relations, however, they are too small to be observed in the near future.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Signatures of anisotropic sources in the trispectrum of the cosmic microwave background

Soft limits of N-point correlation functions, in which one wavenumber is much smaller than the others, play a special role in constraining the physics of inflation. Anisotropic sources such as a vector field during inflation generate distinct angular dependence in all these correlators, and introduce a fix privileged direction in our sky. In this paper we focus on the four-point correlator (the trispectrum T). We adopt a parametrization motivated by models in which the inflaton φ is coupled to a vector field through a I{sup 2}(φ)F{sup 2} interaction, namely T{sub ζ}(k{sub 1},k{sub 2},k{sub 3},k{sub 4})≡∑{sub n}d{sub n}[P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 1}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 3})+P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 1}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 12})+P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 3}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 12})]P{sub ζ}(k{sub 1})P{sub ζ}(k{sub 3})P{sub ζ}(k{sub 12})+(23perm), where P{sub n} denotes the Legendre polynomials. This shape is enhanced when the wavenumbers of the diagonals of the quadrilateral are much smaller than the sides, k{sub i}. The coefficient of the isotropic part, d{sub 0}, is equal to τ{sub NL}/6 discussed in the literature. A I{sup 2}(φ)F{sup 2} interaction generates d{sub 2} = 2d{sub 0} which is, in turn, related to the quadrupole modulation parameter of the power spectrum, g{sub *}, as d{sub 2} ≈ 14|g{sub *}|N{sup 2} with N ≈ 60. We show that d{sub 0} and d{sub 2} can be equally well-constrained: the expected 68% CL error bars on these coefficients from a cosmic-variance-limited experiment measuring temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background up to ℓ{sub max} = 2000 are δd{sub 2} ≈ 4δd{sub 0} = 105. Therefore, we can reach |g{sub *}| = 10{sup −3} by measuring the angle-dependent trispectrum. The current upper limit on τ{sub NL} from the Planck temperature maps yields |g{sub *}| < 0.02 (95% CL)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
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

On the anisotropy of the gravitational wave background from massless preheating

When a light scalar field is present during inflation, its value varies on superhorizon scales, modulating the preheating process at the end of inflation. Consequently, the amplitude of the gravitational wave (GW) background produced during preheating is also modulated. The observed energy density of this background appears therefore anisotropic at different angles in the sky. We provide a master formula for the angular power spectrum C{sub l} of the anisotropies in the GW background from preheating, valid for any scenario where the anisotropies are due to the superhorizon modulation of a light degree of freedom. Using lattice field theory simulations of massless preheating with g{sup 2}/λ = 2, we find a flat angular spectrum l(l+1)C{sub l} ≈ 3 × 10{sup −4}, which represents a strong anisotropy of ∼ 1% variations on large angular scales. For our choice of couplings, long wavelengths are amplified most strongly during parametric resonance, which is crucial for the development of the anisotropies. If future direct detection GW observatories are capable of detecting backgrounds of cosmological origin, they (may also) be able to detect this effect. This could eventually become a powerful tool to discriminate among inflationary and preheating scenarios.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The scale invariant power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbations from the coupled scalar tachyon bounce cosmos

We investigate the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in a bounce cosmos modeled by a scalar field coupled to the string tachyon field (CSTB cosmos). By explicit computation of its primordial spectral index we show the power spectrum of curvature perturbations, generated during the tachyon matter dominated contraction phase, to be nearly scale invariant. We propose a unified parameter space for a systematic study of inflationary and bounce cosmologies. The CSTB cosmos is dual-in Wands's sense-to slow-roll inflation as can be visualized with the aid of this parameter space. Guaranteed by the dynamical attractor behavior of the CSTB Cosmos, the scale invariance of its power spectrum is free of the fine-tuning problem, in contrast to the slow-roll inflation model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Is imaginary Starobinsky model real?

We investigate the recently proposed possibility of chaotic inflation with respect to the imaginary part of the field T in a supersymmetric embedding of the Starobinsky model. We show that the stage of rapid expansion driven by Im T in this model ends almost instantly, and the subsequent stages of inflation are driven by the real part of the field T, as in the standard Starobinsky model. Thus, the Starobinsky model and its supersymmetric generalizations remain disfavored by the recent BICEP2 data.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Power spectra beyond the slow roll approximation in theories with non-canonical kinetic terms

We derive analytical expressions for the power spectra at the end of inflation in theories with two inflaton fields and non-canonical kinetic terms. We find that going beyond the slow-roll approximation is necessary and that the nature of the non-canonical terms have an important impact on the final power spectra at the end of inflation. We study five models numerically and find excellent agreement with our analytical results. Our results emphasise the fact that going beyond the slow-roll approximation is important in times of high-precision data coming from cosmological observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Viability of the matter bounce scenario in Loop Quantum Cosmology from BICEP2 last data

The CMB map provided by the Planck project constrains the value of the ratio of tensor-to-scalar perturbations, namely r, to be smaller than 0.11 (95 % CL). This bound rules out the simplest models of inflation. However, recent data from BICEP2 is in strong tension with this constrain, as it finds a value r=0.20{sup +0.07}{sub -0.05} with 0r= disfavored at 7.0 σ, which allows these simplest inflationary models to survive. The remarkable fact is that, even though the BICEP2 experiment was conceived to search for evidence of inflation, its experimental data matches correctly theoretical results coming from the matter bounce scenario (the alternative model to the inflationary paradigm). More precisely, most bouncing cosmologies do not pass Planck's constrains due to the smallness of the value of the tensor/scalar ratio r≤ 0.11, but with new BICEP2 data some of them fit well with experimental data. This is the case with the matter bounce scenario in the teleparallel version of Loop Quantum Cosmology.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗