Agullo, I., Navarro-Salas, J., & Parker, L. (2012). Enhanced local-type inflationary trispectrum from a non-vacuum initial state. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 019–13pp.
Abstract: We compute the primordial trispectrum for curvature perturbations produced during cosmic inflation in models with standard kinetic terms, when the initial quantum state is not necessarily the vacuum state. The presence of initial perturbations enhances the trispectrum amplitude for configuration in which one of the momenta, say k(3), is much smaller than the others, k(3) << k(1,2,4). For those squeezed con figurations the trispectrum acquires the so-called local form, with a scale dependent amplitude that can get values of order epsilon(k(1)/k(3))(2). This amplitude could be larger than the prediction of the so-called Maldacena consistency relation by a factor as large as 10(6), and could reach the sensitivity of forthcoming observations, even for single-field inflationary models.
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Semikoz, V. B., Sokoloff, D. D., & Valle, J. W. F. (2012). Lepton asymmetries and primordial hypermagnetic helicity evolution. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 008–12pp.
Abstract: The hypermagnetic helicity density at the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) exceeds many orders of magnitude the galactic magnetic helicity density. Together with previous magnetic helicity evolution calculations after the EWPT and hypermagnetic helicity conversion to the magnetic one at the EWPT, the present calculation completes the description of the evolution of this important topological feature of cosmological magnetic fields. It suggests that if the magnetic field seeding the galactic dynamo has a primordial origin, it should be substantially helical. This should be taken into account in scenarios of galactic magnetic field evolution with a cosmological seed.
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Blennow, M., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Mena, O., Redondo, J., & Serra, E. P. (2012). Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 022–23pp.
Abstract: Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) models invoke a particle-antiparticle asymmetry, similar to the one observed in the Baryon sector, to account for the Dark Matter (DM) abundance. Both asymmetries are usually generated by the same mechanism and generally related, thus predicting DM masses around 5 GeV in order to obtain the correct density. The main challenge for successful models is to ensure efficient annihilation of the thermally produced symmetric component of such a light DM candidate without violating constraints from collider or direct searches. A common way to overcome this involves a light mediator, into which DM can efficiently annihilate and which subsequently decays into Standard Model particles. Here we explore the scenario where the light mediator decays instead into lighter degrees of freedom in the dark sector that act as radiation in the early Universe. While this assumption makes indirect DM searches challenging, it leads to signals of extra radiation at BBN and CMB. Under certain conditions, precise measurements of the number of relativistic species, such as those expected from the Planck satellite, can provide information on the structure of the dark sector. We also discuss the constraints of the interactions between DM and Dark Radiation from their imprint in the matter power spectrum.
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Das, S., de Putter, R., Linder, E. V., & Nakajima, R. (2012). Weak lensing cosmology beyond Lambda CDM. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 23pp.
Abstract: Weak gravitational lensing is one of the key probes of the cosmological model, dark energy, and dark matter, providing insight into both the cosmic expansion history and large scale structure growth history. Taking into account a broad spectrum of physics affecting growth – dynamical dark energy, extended gravity, neutrino masses, and spatial curvature – we analyze the cosmological constraints. Similarly we consider the effects of a range of systematic uncertainties, in shear measurement, photometric redshifts, intrinsic alignments, and the nonlinear power spectrum, on cosmological parameter extraction. We also investigate, and provide fitting formulas tor, the influence of survey parameters such as redshift depth, galaxy number densities, and sky area on the cosmological constraints in the beyond-ACDM parameter space. Finally, we examine the robustness of results for different fiducial cosmologies.
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Creminelli, P., Norena, J., Pena, M., & Simonovic, M. (2012). Khronon inflation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 032–16pp.
Abstract: We study the possibility that the approximate time shift symmetry during inflation is promoted to the full invariance under time reparametrization t -> (t) over tilde (t), or equivalently under field redefinition of the inflaton phi -> (phi) over tilde(phi). The symmetry allows only two operators at leading order in derivatives, so that all n-point functions of scalar perturbations are fixed in terms of the power spectrum normalization and the speed of sound. During inflation the decaying mode only decays as 1/a and this opens up the possibility to violate some of the consistency relations in the squeezed limit, although this violation is suppressed by the (small) breaking of the field reparametrization symmetry. In particular one can get terms in the 3-point function that are only suppressed by 1/k(L) in the squeezed limit k(L) -> 0 compared to the local shape.
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