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Lopez-Honorez, L., Mena, O., Palomares-Ruiz, S., Villanueva-Domingo, P., & Witte, S. J. (2020). Variations in fundamental constants at the cosmic dawn. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 026–25pp.
Abstract: The observation of space-time variations in fundamental constants would provide strong evidence for the existence of new light degrees of freedom in the theory of Nature. Robustly constraining such scenarios requires exploiting observations that span different scales and probe the state of the Universe at different epochs. In the context of cosmology, both the cosmic microwave background and the Lyman-a forest have proven to be powerful tools capable of constraining variations in electromagnetism, however at the moment there do not exist cosmological probes capable of bridging the gap between recombination and reionization. In the near future, radio telescopes will attempt to measure the 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen during the epochs of reionization and the cosmic dawn (and potentially the tail end of the dark ages); being inherently sensitive to electromagnetic phenomena, these experiments will offer a unique perspective on space-time variations of the fine-structure constant and the electron mass. We show here that large variations in these fundamental constants would produce features on the 21 cm power spectrum that may be distinguishable from astrophysical uncertainties. Furthermore, we forecast the sensitivity for the Square Kilometer Array, and show that the 21 cm power spectrum may be able to constrain variations at the level of O(10(-3)).
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AbdusSalam, S. S. et al, & Eberhardt, O. (2022). Simple and statistically sound recommendations for analysing physical theories. Rep. Prog. Phys., 85(5), 052201–11pp.
Abstract: Physical theories that depend on many parameters or are tested against data from many different experiments pose unique challenges to statistical inference. Many models in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology fall into one or both of these categories. These issues are often sidestepped with statistically unsound ad hoc methods, involving intersection of parameter intervals estimated by multiple experiments, and random or grid sampling of model parameters. Whilst these methods are easy to apply, they exhibit pathologies even in low-dimensional parameter spaces, and quickly become problematic to use and interpret in higher dimensions. In this article we give clear guidance for going beyond these procedures, suggesting where possible simple methods for performing statistically sound inference, and recommendations of readily-available software tools and standards that can assist in doing so. Our aim is to provide any physicists lacking comprehensive statistical training with recommendations for reaching correct scientific conclusions, with only a modest increase in analysis burden. Our examples can be reproduced with the code publicly available at Zenodo.
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Cosme, C., Figueroa, D. G., & Loayza, N. (2023). Gravitational wave production from preheating with trilinear interactions. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 023–30pp.
Abstract: We investigate the production of gravitational waves (GWs) during preheating with monomial/polynomial inflationary potentials, considering a trilinear coupling & phi;x2 between a singlet inflaton & phi; and a daughter scalar field x. For sufficiently large couplings, the trilinear interaction leads to an exponential production of x particles and, as a result, a large stochastic GW background (SGWB) is generated throughout the process. We study the linear and non-linear dynamics of preheating with lattice simulations, following the production of GWs through all relevant stages. We find that large couplings lead to SGWBs with amplitudes today that can reach up to h2 �(0) GW <^> 5 & BULL; 10-9. These backgrounds are however peaked at high frequencies fp > 5 & BULL; 106 Hz, which makes them undetectable by current/planned GW observatories. As the amount of GWs produced is in any case remarkable, we discuss the prospects for probing the SGWB indirectly by using constraints on the effective number of relativistic species in the universe Neff.
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Pallis, C. (2014). Linking Starobinsky-type inflation in no-scale supergravity to MSSM. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 024–31pp.
Abstract: A novel realization of the Starobinsky inflationary model within a moderate extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is presented. The proposed superpotential is uniquely determined by applying a continuous R and a Z2 discrete symmetry, whereas the Kahler potential is associated with a no-scale-type SU(54, 1)/ SU(54) x U(1) R X Z2 Kahler manifold. The inflaton is identified with a Higgs-like modulus whose the vacuum expectation value controls the gravitational strength. Thanks to a strong enough coupling (with a parameter CT involved) between the inflaton and the Ricci scalar curvature, inflation can be attained even for subplanckian values of the inflaton with CT >= 76 and the corresponding effective theory being valid up to the Planck scale. The inflationary observables turn out to be in agreement with the current data and the inflaton mass is predicted to be 3 10(3) GeV. At the cost of a relatively small superpotential coupling constant, the model offers also a resolution of the f,t problem of MSSM for CT <= 4500 and gravitino heavier than about 10(4) GeV. Supplementing MSSM by three right-handed neutrinos we show that spontaneously arising couplings between the inflaton and the particle content of MSSM not only ensure a sufficiently low reheating temperature but also support a scenario of non-thermal leptogenesis consistently with the neutrino oscillation parameters.
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Vincent, A. C., Fernandez Martinez, E., Hernandez, P., Mena, O., & Lattanzi, M. (2015). Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 006–23pp.
Abstract: We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expected in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R-CMB and the sound horizon r(s) from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin(2) theta less than or similar to 0.026(m(s)/eV)(-2).
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