Lopez Honorez, L., Mena, O., & Panotopoulos, G. (2010). Higher-order coupled quintessence. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123525–7pp.
Abstract: We study a coupled quintessence model in which the interaction with the dark-matter sector is a function of the quintessence potential. Such a coupling can arise from a field dependent mass term for the dark-matter field. The dynamical analysis of a standard quintessence potential coupled with the interaction explored here shows that the system possesses a late-time accelerated attractor. In light of these results, we perform a fit to the most recent Supernovae Ia, Cosmic Microwave Background, and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation data sets. Constraints arising from weak equivalence principle violation arguments are also discussed.
|
Pandolfi, S., Giusarma, E., Kolb, E. W., Lattanzi, M., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., et al. (2010). Impact of general reionization scenarios on extraction of inflationary parameters. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123527–10pp.
Abstract: Determination of whether the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum for primordial scalar perturbations is consistent with observations is sensitive to assumptions about the reionization scenario. In light of this result, we revisit constraints on inflationary models using more general reionization scenarios. While the bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are largely unmodified, when different reionization schemes are addressed, hybrid models are back into the inflationary game. In the general reionization picture, we reconstruct both the shape and amplitude of the inflaton potential. We discuss how relaxing the simple reionization restriction affects the reconstruction of the potential through the changes in the constraints on the spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the running of the spectral index. We also find that the inclusion of other Cosmic Microwave Background data in addition to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy probe data excludes the very flat potentials typical of models in which the inflationary evolution reaches a late-time attractor, as a consequence of the fact that the running of the spectral index is constrained to be different from zero at 99% confidence level.
|
Razzaque, S., Jean, P., & Mena, O. (2010). High energy neutrinos from novae in symbiotic binaries: The case of V407 Cygni. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123012–5pp.
Abstract: Detection of high-energy (>= 100 MeV) gamma rays by the Fermi Large Area Telescope from a nova in the symbiotic binary system V407 Cygni has opened the possibility of high-energy neutrino detection from this type of source. A thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf surface sets off a nova shell in motion that expands and slows down in a dense surrounding medium provided by the red giant companion. Particles are accelerated in the shocks of the shell and interact with the surrounding medium to produce observed gamma rays. We show that proton-proton interaction, which is most likely responsible for producing gamma rays via neutral pion decay, produces >= 0:1 GeV neutrinos that can be detected by the current and future experiments at >= 10 GeV.
|
Pandolfi, S., Cooray, A., Giusarma, E., Kolb, E. W., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., et al. (2010). Harrison-Zel'dovich primordial spectrum is consistent with observations. Phys. Rev. D, 81(12), 123509–6pp.
Abstract: Inflation predicts primordial scalar perturbations with a nearly scale-invariant spectrum and a spectral index approximately unity [the Harrison-Zel'dovich (HZ) spectrum]. The first important step for inflationary cosmology is to check the consistency of the HZ primordial spectrum with current observations. Recent analyses have claimed that a HZ primordial spectrum is excluded at more than 99% c. l. Here we show that the HZ spectrum is only marginally disfavored if one considers a more general reionization scenario. Data from the Planck mission will settle the issue.
|
Archidiacono, M., Lopez-Honorez, L., & Mena, O. (2014). Current constraints on early and stressed dark energy models and future 21 cm perspectives. Phys. Rev. D, 90(12), 123016–10pp.
Abstract: Despite the great progress of current cosmological measurements, the nature of the dominant component of the Universe, coined dark energy, is still an open question. Early dark energy is a possible candidate which may also alleviate some fine-tuning issues of the standard paradigm. Using the latest available cosmological data, we find that the 95% C.L. upper bound on the early dark energy density parameter is Tau(eDE) < 0.009. On the other hand, the dark energy component may be a stressed and inhomogeneous fluid. If this is the case, the effective sound speed and the viscosity parameters are unconstrained by current data. Future omniscopelike 21 cm surveys, combined with present cosmic microwave background data, could be able to distinguish between standard quintessence scenarios from other possible models with 2 sigma significance, assuming a non-negligible early dark energy contribution. The precision achieved on the Omega(eDE) parameter from these 21 cm probes could be below O(10%).
|
