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DOE OSTI2015

A method for the construction of stable Galileon models consistent with the Planck data results

The reconstruction procedure, which has proven quite useful to obtain viable models of the universe evolution, is here employed in order to construct inflation models. It has the advantages that it ensures full consistency with astronomical observations and that it allows to evaluate the stability of the resulting cosmological model in a rather simple way. The reconstruction is carried out in detail for two different types of Lagrangian, included in the frame of G-inflation, and explicit models for each Lagrangian are obtained. As a bonus for having used this reconstruction formalism, the final models are easily adjusted to satisfy the observational constraints—imposed by the most recent data releases of the Planck mission—on the spectral index, the tensor to scalar ratio, and the running of the spectral index. Further, it turns also to be not difficult to impose the models to be stable. Thus, the method here developed provides a general and very efficient tool, a quite natural procedure in order to construct models consistent with very precise observations. It can be also applied to other models, besides the ones here considered.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Primordial gravitational waves in bimetric gravity

We study primordial tensor power-spectra generated during inflation in bimetric gravity. More precisely, we examine a homogeneous expanding spacetime in a minimal bimetric model with an inflaton and calculate tensor perturbations on the homogeneous background under slow-roll approximation. In terms of the mass eigenstates, only the power-spectrum of the massless state remains constant and both the power-spectrum of the massive state and the cross power-spectrum rapidly decay during inflation. The amplitude of the physical power-spectrum is suppressed due to the flavor mixing. All power-spectra in the flavor eigenstates coincide with each other up to the first order of the slow-roll parameter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the three primordial numbers

Cosmological observations have provided us with the measurement of just three numbers that characterize the very early universe: 1−n{sub s} , N and ln Δ{sub R}{sup 2}. Although each of the three numbers individually carries limited information about the physics of inflation, one may hope to extract non-trivial information from relations among them. Invoking minimality, namely the absence of ad hoc large numbers, we find two viable and mutually exclusive inflationary scenarios. The first is the well-known inverse relation between 1− n{sub s} and N. The second implies a new relation between 1−n{sub s} and ln Δ{sub R}{sup 2}, which might provide us with a handle on the beginning of inflation and predicts the intriguing lower bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r > 0.006 (95% CL)

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Non-Gaussian structure of B-mode polarization after delensing

The B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background on large scales has been considered as a probe of gravitational waves from the cosmic inflation. Ongoing and future experiments will, however, suffer from contamination due to the B-modes of non-primordial origins, one of which is the lensing induced B-mode polarization. Subtraction of the lensing B-modes, usually referred to as delensing, will be required for further improvement of detection sensitivity of the gravitational waves. In such experiments, knowledge of statistical properties of the B-modes after delensing is indispensable to likelihood analysis particularly because the lensing B-modes are known to be non-Gaussian. In this paper, we study non-Gaussian structure of the delensed B-modes on large scales, comparing it with that of the lensing B-modes. In particular, we investigate the power spectrum correlation matrix and the probability distribution function (PDF) of the power spectrum amplitude. Assuming an experiment in which the quadratic delensing is an almost optimal method, we find that delensing reduces correlations of the lensing B-mode power spectra between different multipoles, and that the PDF of the power spectrum amplitude is well described as a normal distribution function with a variance larger than that in the case of a Gaussian field. These features are well captured by an analytic model based on the 4th order Edgeworth expansion. As a consequence of the non-Gaussianity, the constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio after delensing is degraded within approximately a few percent, which depends on the multipole range included in the analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Consistency relations for sharp features in the primordial spectra

We study the generation of sharp features in the primordial spectra within the framework of effective field theory of inflation, wherein curvature perturbations are the consequence of the dynamics of a single scalar degree of freedom. We identify two sources in the generation of features: rapid variations of the sound speed c{sub s} (at which curvature fluctuations propagate) and rapid variations of the expansion rate H during inflation. With this in mind, we propose a non-trivial relation linking these two quantities that allows us to study the generation of sharp features in realistic scenarios where features are the result of the simultaneous occurrence of these two sources. This relation depends on a single parameter with a value determined by the particular model (and its numerical input) responsible for the rapidly varying background. As a consequence, we find a one-parameter consistency relation between the shape and size of features in the bispectrum and features in the power spectrum. To substantiate this result, we discuss several examples of models for which this one-parameter relation (between c{sub s} and H) holds, including models in which features in the spectra are both sudden and resonant.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Neutrino masses and cosmology with Lyman-alpha forest power spectrum

We present constraints on neutrino masses, the primordial fluctuation spectrum from inflation, and other parameters of the ΛCDM model, using the one-dimensional Lyα-forest power spectrum measured by [1] from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), complemented by Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and other cosmological probes. This paper improves on the previous analysis by [2] by using a more powerful set of calibrating hydrodynamical simulations that reduces uncertainties associated with resolution and box size, by adopting a more flexible set of nuisance parameters for describing the evolution of the intergalactic medium, by including additional freedom to account for systematic uncertainties, and by using Planck 2015 constraints in place of Planck 2013. Fitting Lyα data alone leads to cosmological parameters in excellent agreement with the values derived independently from CMB data, except for a weak tension on the scalar index n{sub s}. Combining BOSS Lyα with Planck CMB constrains the sum of neutrino masses to ∑ m{sub ν} < 0.12 eV (95% C.L.) including all identified systematic uncertainties, tighter than our previous limit (0.15 eV) and more robust. Adding Lyα data to CMB data reduces the uncertainties on the optical depth to reionization τ, through the correlation of τ with σ{sub 8}. Similarly, correlations between cosmological parameters help in constraining the tensor-to-scalar ratio of primordial fluctuations r. The tension on n{sub s} can be accommodated by allowing for a running dn{sub s}/d ln k. Allowing running as a free parameter in the fits does not change the limit on ∑ m{sub ν}. We discuss possible interpretations of these results in the context of slow-roll inflation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Reheating signature in the gravitational wave spectrum from self-ordering scalar fields

We investigate the imprint of reheating on the gravitational wave spectrum produced by self-ordering of multi-component scalar fields after a global phase transition. The equation of state of the Universe during reheating, which usually has different behaviour from that of a radiation-dominated Universe, affects the evolution of gravitational waves through the Hubble expansion term in the equations of motion. This gives rise to a different power-law behavior of frequency in the gravitational wave spectrum. The reheating history is therefore imprinted in the shape of the spectrum. We perform 512{sup 3} lattice simulations to investigate how the ordering scalar field reacts to the change of the Hubble expansion and how the reheating effect arises in the spectrum. We also compare the result with inflation-produced gravitational waves, which has a similar spectral shape, and discuss whether it is possible to distinguish the origin between inflation and global phase transition by detecting the shape with future direct detection gravitational wave experiments such as DECIGO.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

δN formalism from superpotential and holography

We consider the superpotential formalism to describe the evolution of D scalar fields during inflation, generalizing it to include the case with non-canonical kinetic terms. We provide a characterization of the attractor behaviour of the background evolution in terms of first and second slow-roll parameters (which need not be small). We find that the superpotential is useful in justifying the separate universe approximation from the gradient expansion, and also in computing the spectra of primordial perturbations around attractor solutions in the δN formalism. As an application, we consider a class of models where the background trajectories for the inflaton fields are derived from a product separable superpotential. In the perspective of the holographic inflation scenario, such models are dual to a deformed CFT boundary theory, with D mutually uncorrelated deformation operators. We compute the bulk power spectra of primordial adiabatic and entropy cosmological perturbations, and show that the results agree with the ones obtained by using conformal perturbation theory in the dual picture.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Designing and testing inflationary models with Bayesian networks

Even simple inflationary scenarios have many free parameters. Beyond the variables appearing in the inflationary action, these include dynamical initial conditions, the number of fields, and couplings to other sectors. These quantities are often ignored but cosmological observables can depend on the unknown parameters. We use Bayesian networks to account for a large set of inflationary parameters, deriving generative models for the primordial spectra that are conditioned on a hierarchical set of prior probabilities describing the initial conditions, reheating physics, and other free parameters. We use N{sub f}-quadratic inflation as an illustrative example, finding that the number of e-folds N{sub *} between horizon exit for the pivot scale and the end of inflation is typically the most important parameter, even when the number of fields, their masses and initial conditions are unknown, along with possible conditional dependencies between these parameters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Inflationary magnetogenesis and non-local actions: the conformal anomaly

We discuss the possibility of successful magnetogenesis during inflation by employing the one-loop effective action of massless QED. The action is strictly non-local and results from the long distance fluctuations of massless charged particles present at the inflationary scale. Most importantly, it encodes the conformal anomaly of QED which is crucial to avoid the vacuum preservation in classical electromagnetism. In particular, we find a blue spectrum for the magnetic field with spectral index n{sub B} ≅ 2 − α{sub e} where α{sub e} depends on both the number of e-folds during inflation as well as the coefficient of the one-loop beta function. In particular, the sign of the beta function has important bearing on the final result. A low reheating temperature is required for the present day magnetic field to be consistent with the lower bound inferred on the field in the intergalactic medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Post-inflationary gravitino production revisited

We revisit gravitino production following inflation. As a first step, we review the standard calculation of gravitino production in the thermal plasma formed at the end of post-inflationary reheating when the inflaton has completely decayed. Next we consider gravitino production prior to the completion of reheating, assuming that the inflaton decay products thermalize instantaneously while they are still dilute. We then argue that instantaneous thermalization is in general a good approximation, and also show that the contribution of non-thermal gravitino production via the collisions of inflaton decay products prior to thermalization is relatively small. Our final estimate of the gravitino-to-entropy ratio is approximated well by a standard calculation of gravitino production in the post-inflationary thermal plasma assuming total instantaneous decay and thermalization at a time t ≅ 1.2/Γ{sub φ}. Finally, in light of our calculations, we consider potential implications of upper limits on the gravitino abundance for models of inflation, with particular attention to scenarios for inflaton decays in supersymmetric Starobinsky-like models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Primordial statistical anisotropies: the effective field theory approach

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

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Bosonic condensates in realistic supersymmetric GUT cosmic strings

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

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

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

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

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

A strong electroweak phase transition from the inflaton field

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

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Hidden in the background: a local approach to CMB anomalies

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

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Inhomogeneous anisotropic cosmology

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

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Gravitational waves from axion monodromy

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

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗