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Racker, J., Pena, M., & Rius, N. (2012). Leptogenesis with small violation of B – L. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 030–18pp.
Abstract: We analyze leptogenesis in the context of seesaw models with almost conserved lepton number, focusing on the L-conserving contribution to the flavoured CP asymmetries. We find that, contrary to previous claims, successful leptogenesis is feasible for masses of the lightest heavy neutrino as low as M-1 similar to 10(6) GeV, without resorting to the resonant enhancement of the CP asymmetry for strongly degenerate heavy neutrinos. This lower limit renders thermal leptogenesis compatible with the gravitino bound in supersymmetric scenarios.
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Barenboim, G., Park, W. I., & Kinney, W. H. (2016). Eternal hilltop inflation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 030–15pp.
Abstract: We consider eternal inflation in hilltop-type inflation models, favored by current data, in which the scalar field in inflation rolls off of a local maximum of the potential. Unlike chaotic or plateau-type inflation models, in hilltop inflation the region of field space which supports eternal inflation is finite, and the expansion rate H-EI during eternal inflation is almost exactly the same as the expansion rate H-* during slow roll inflation. Therefore, in any given Hubble volume, there is a finite and calculable expectation value for the lifetime of the “eternal” inflation phase, during which quantum flucutations dominate over classical field evolution. We show that despite this, inflation in hilltop models is nonetheless eternal in the sense that the volume of the spacetime at any finite time is exponentially dominated by regions which continue to inflate. This is true regardless of the energy scale of inflation, and eternal inflation is supported for inflation at arbitrarily low energy scale.
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Chakraborty, S., Gupta, A., & Vanvlasselaer, M. (2023). Anomaly induced cooling of neutron stars: a Standard Model contribution. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 030–23pp.
Abstract: Young neutron stars cool via the emission of neutrinos from their core. A precise understanding of all the different processes producing neutrinos in the hot and degenerate matter is essential for assessing the cooling rate of such stars. The main Standard Model processes contributing to this effect are nu bremsstrahlung, mURCA among others. In this paper, we investigate another Standard Model process initiated by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term, leading to the emission of neutrino pairs via N gamma -> N nu nu over bar . We find that for proto-neutron stars, such processes with degenerate neutrons can be comparable and even dominate over the typical and well-known cooling mechanisms.
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Afonso, V. I., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). Scalar geons in Born-Infeld gravity. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 031–35pp.
Abstract: The existence of static, spherically symmetric, self-gravitating scalar field solutions in the context of Born-Infeld gravity is explored. Upon a combination of analytical approximations and numerical methods, the equations for a free scalar field (without a potential term) are solved, verifying that the solutions recover the predictions of General Relativity far from the center but finding important new effects in the central regions. We find two classes of objects depending on the ratio between the Schwarzschild radius and a length scale associated to the Born-Infeld theory: massive solutions have a wormhole structure, with their throat at r = 2 M, while for the lighter configurations the topology is Euclidean. The total energy density of these solutions exhibits a solitonic profile with a maximum peaked away from the center, and located at the throat whenever a wormhole exists. The geodesic structure and curvature invariants are analyzed for the various configurations considered.
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Casas, J. A., Gomez Vargas, G. A., Moreno, J. M., Quilis, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2018). Extended Higgs-portal dark matter and the Fermi-LAT Galactic Center Excess. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 031–16pp.
Abstract: In the present work, we show that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) emission, as recently updated by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration, could be explained by a mixture of Fermi bubbles-like emission plus dark matter (DM) annihilation, in the context of a scalar-singlet Higgs portal scenario (SHP). In fact, the standard SHP, where the DM particle, S, only has renormalizable interactions with the Higgs, is non-operational due to strong constraints, especially from DM direct detection limits. Thus we consider the most economical extension, called ESHP (for extended SHP), which consists solely in the addition of a second (more massive) scalar singlet in the dark sector. The second scalar can be integrated-out, leaving a standard SHP plus a dimension-6 operator. Mainly, this model has only two relevant parameters (the DM mass and the coupling of the dim-6 operator). DM annihilation occurs mainly into two Higgs bosons, SS -> hh. We demonstrate that, despite its economy, the ESHP model provides an excellent fit to the GCE (with p-value similar to 0.6-0.7) for very reasonable values of the parameters, in particular, ms similar or equal to 130 GeV. This agreement of the DM candidate to the GCE properties does not clash with other observables and keep the S – particle relic density at the accepted value for the DM content in the universe.
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