ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Colomer, M., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Khan-Chowdhury, N. R., et al. (2021). Monte Carlo simulations for the ANTARES underwater neutrino telescope. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 064–20pp.
Abstract: Monte Carlo simulations are a unique tool to check the response of a detector and to monitor its performance. For a deep-sea neutrino telescope, the variability of the environmental conditions that can affect the behaviour of the data acquisition system must be considered, in addition to a reliable description of the active parts of the detector and of the features of physics events, in order to produce a realistic set of simulated events. In this paper, the software tools used to produce neutrino and cosmic ray signatures in the telescope and the strategy developed to represent the time evolution of the natural environment and of the detector efficiency are described.
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Sierra, D. A., De Romeri, V., Flores, L. J., & Papoulias, D. K. (2022). Impact of COHERENT measurements, cross section uncertainties and new interactions on the neutrino floor. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 055–26pp.
Abstract: We reconsider the discovery limit of multi-ton direct detection dark matter experiments in the light of recent measurements of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering process. Assuming the cross section to be a parameter entirely determined by data, rather than using its Standard Model prediction, we use the COHERENT CsI and LAr data sets to determine WIMP discovery limits. Being based on a data-driven approach, the results are thus free from theoretical assumptions and fall within the WIMP mass regions where XENONnT and DARWIN have best expected sensitivities. We further determine the impact of subleading nuclear form factor and weak mixing angle uncertainties effects on WIMP discovery limits. We point out that these effects, albeit small, should be taken into account. Moreover, to quantify the impact of new physics effects in the neutrino background, we revisit WIMP discovery limits assuming light vector and scalar mediators as well as neutrino magnetic moments/transitions. We stress that the presence of new interactions in the neutrino sector, in general, tend to worsen the WIMP discovery limit.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Alves, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2023). Limits on the nuclearite flux using the ANTARES neutrino telescope. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 012–19pp.
Abstract: In this work, a search for nuclearites of strange quark matter by using nine years of ANTARES data taken in the period 2009-2017 is presented. The passage through matter of these particles is simulated taking into account a detailed description of the detector response to nuclearites and of the data acquisition conditions. A down-going flux of cosmic nuclearites with Galactic velocities (beta = 10(-3)) was considered for this study. The mass threshold for detecting these particles at the detector level is 4 x 10(13) GeV/c(2). Upper limits on the nuclearite flux for masses up to 10(17) GeV/c(2) at the level of similar to 5 x 10(-17) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) are obtained. These are the first upper limits on nuclearites established with a neutrino telescope and the most stringent ever set for Galactic velocities.
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Boudet, S., Bombacigno, F., Moretti, F., & Olmo, G. J. (2023). Torsional birefringence in metric-affine Chern-Simons gravity: gravitational waves in late-time cosmology. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 026–28pp.
Abstract: In the context of the metric-affine Chern-Simons gravity endowed with projective invariance, we derive analytical solutions for torsion and nonmetricity in the homogeneous and isotropic cosmological case, described by a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. We discuss in some details the general properties of the cosmological solutions in the presence of a perfect fluid, such as the dynamical stability and the emergence of big bounce points, and we examine the structure of some specific solutions reproducing de Sitter and power law behaviours for the scale factor. Then, we focus on first-order perturbations in the de Sitter scenario, and we study the propagation of gravitational waves in the adiabatic limit, looking at tensor and scalar polarizations. In particular, we find that metric tensor modes couple to torsion tensor components, leading to the appearance, as in the metric version of Chern-Simons gravity, of birefringence, characterized by different dispersion relations for the left and right circularized polarization states. As a result, the purely tensor part of torsion propagates like a wave, while nonmetricity decouples and behaves like a harmonic oscillator. Finally, we discuss scalar modes, outlining as they decay exponentially in time and do not propagate.
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Maji, R., & Park, W. I. (2024). Supersymmetric U(1)B-L flat direction and NANOGrav 15 year data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 015–19pp.
Abstract: We show that, when connected with monopoles, the flat D-flat direction breaking the local U(1)B-L symmetry as an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model can be responsible for the signal of a stochastic gravitational wave background recently reported by NANOGrav collaborations, while naturally satisfying constraints at high frequency band. Thanks to the flatness of the direction, a phase of thermal inflation arises naturally. The reheating temperature is quite low, and suppresses signals at frequencies higher than the characteristic frequency set by the reheating temperature. Notably, forthcoming spaced based experiments such as LISA can probe the cutoff frequency, providing an indirect clue of the scale of soft SUSY-breaking mass parameter.
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Wagner, C., Verde, L., & Boubekeur, L. (2010). N-body simulations with generic non-Gaussian initial conditions I: power spectrum and halo mass function. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 022–24pp.
Abstract: We address the issue of setting up generic non-Gaussian initial conditions for N-body simulations. We consider inflationary-motivated primordial non-Gaussianity where the perturbations in the Bardeen potential are given by a dominant Gaussian part plus a non-Gaussian part specified by its bispectrum. The approach we explore here is suitable for any bispectrum, i.e. it does not have to be of the so-called separable or factorizable form. The procedure of generating a non-Gaussian field with a given bispectrum (and a given power spectrum for the Gaussian component) is not univocal, and care must be taken so that higher-order corrections do not leave a too large signature on the power spectrum. This is so far a limiting factor of our approach. We then run N-body simulations for the most popular inflationary-motivated non-Gaussian shapes. The halo mass function and the non-linear power spectrum agree with theoretical analytical approximations proposed in the literature, even if they were so far developed and tested only for a particular shape (the local one). We plan to make the simulations outputs available to the community via the non-Gaussian simulations comparison project web site http://icc.ub.edu/similar to liciaverde/NGSCP.html.
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Olmo, G. J. (2011). Palatini actions and quantum gravity phenomenology. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 018–15pp.
Abstract: We show that an invariant an universal length scale can be consistently introduced in a generally covariant theory through the gravitational sector using the Palatini approach. The resulting theory is able to capture different aspects of quantum gravity phenomenology in a single framework. In particular, it is found that in this theory field excitations propagating with different energy-densities perceive different background metrics, which is a fundamental characteristic of the DSR and Rainbow Gravity approaches. We illustrate these properties with a particular gravitational model and explicitly show how the soccer ball problem is avoided in this framework. The isotropic and anisotropic cosmologies of this model also avoid the big bang singularity by means of a big bounce.
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Bernal, N., Colucci, S., Josse-Michaux, F. X., Racker, J., & Ubaldi, L. (2013). On baryogenesis from dark matter annihilation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 035–30pp.
Abstract: We study in detail the conditions to generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe from the annihilation of dark matter. This scenario requires a low energy mechanism for thermal baryogenesis, hence we first discuss some of these mechanisms together with the specific constraints due to the connection with the dark matter sector. Then we show that, contrary to what stated in previous studies, it is possible to generate the cosmological asymmetry without adding a light sterile dark sector, both in models with violation and with conservation of B – L. In addition, one of the models we propose yields some connection to neutrino masses.
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Lineros, R. A., & Pereira dos Santos, F. A. (2014). Inert scalar dark matter in an extra dimension inspired model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 059–17pp.
Abstract: In this paper we analyze a dark matter model inspired by theories with extra dimensions. The dark matter candidate corresponds to the first Kaluza-Klein mode of an real scalar added to the Standard Model. The tower of new particles enriches the calculation of the relic abundance. For large mass splitting, the model converges to the predictions of the inert singlet dark matter model. For nearly degenerate mass spectrum, coannihilations increase the cross-sections used for direct and indirect dark matter searches. Moreover, the Kaluza-Klein zero mode can mix with the SM higgs and further constraints can be applied.
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Pallis, C. (2014). Reconciling induced-gravity inflation in supergravity with the Planck 2013 & BICEP2 results. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 058–18pp.
Abstract: We generalize the embedding of induced-gravity inflation beyond the no-scale Supergravity presented in ref. [1] employing two gauge singlet chiral superfields, a superpotential uniquely determined by applying a continuous R and a discrete Z(n) symmetries, and a logarithmic Kahler potential including all the allowed terms up to fourth order in powers of the various fields. We show that, increasing slightly the prefactor (-3) encountered in the adopted Kahler potential, an efficient enhancement of the resulting tensor-to-scalar ratio can be achieved rendering the predictions of the model consistent with the recent BICEP2 results, even with subplanckian excursions of the original inflaton field. The remaining inflationary observables can become compatible with the data by mildly tuning the coefficient involved in the fourth order term of the Kahler potential which mixes the inflaton with the accompanying non-inflaton field. The inflaton mass is predicted to be close to 10(14) GeV.
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