Abstract: A study on cosmic muons has been performed for the two identical near and far neutrino detectors of the Double Chooz experiment, placed at similar to 120 and similar to 300 m. w.e. underground respectively, including the corresponding simulations using the MUSIC simulation package. This characterization has allowed us to measure the muon flux reaching both detectors to be (3.64 +/- 0.04) x 10(-4) cm(-2) s(-1) for the near detector and (7.00 +/- 0.05) x 10(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) for the far one. The seasonal modulation of the signal has also been studied observing a positive correlation with the atmospheric temperature, leading to an effective temperature coefficient of alpha(T) = 0.212 +/- 0.024 and 0.355 +/- 0.019 for the near and far detectors respectively. These measurements, in good agreement with expectations based on theoretical models, represent one of the first measurements of this coefficient in shallow depth installations.

Abstract: This paper describes CosmoGattice, a modern package for lattice simulations of the dynamics of interacting scalar and gauge fields in an expanding universe. CosmoGattice incorporates a series of features that makes it very versatile and powerful: i) it is written in C++ fully exploiting the object oriented programming paradigm, with a modular structure and a clear separation between the physics and the technical details, ii) it is MPI-based and uses a discrete Fourier transform parallelized in multiple spatial dimensions, which makes it specially appropriate for probing scenarios with well -separated scales, running very high resolution simulations, or simply very long ones, iii) it introduces its own symbolic language, defining field variables and operations over them, so that one can introduce differential equations and operators in a manner as close as possible to the continuum, iv) it includes a library of numerical algorithms, ranging from O(delta t(2)) to O(delta t(10)) methods, suitable for simulating global and gauge theories in an expanding grid, including the case of 'self-consistent' expansion sourced by the fields themselves. Relevant observables are provided for each algorithm (e.g. energy densities, field spectra, lattice snapshots) and we note that, remarkably, all our algorithms for gauge theories (Abelian or non-Abelian) always respect the Gauss constraint to machine precision. Program summary Program Title:: CosmoGattice CPC Library link to program files: https://doi .org /10 .17632 /44vr5xssc6 .1 Developer's repository link: http://github .com /cosmolattice /cosmolattice Licensing provisions: MIT Programming language: C++, MPI Nature of problem: The phenomenology of high energy physics in the early universe is typically characterized by non-linear dynamics, which cannot be captured accurately with analytical techniques. In order to fully understand the non-linearities developed in a given scenario, one needs to carry out lattice simulations. A number of public packages for lattice simulations have appeared over the years, but most of them are only capable of simulating scalar fields. However, realistic models of particle physics do contain other kind of field species, such as (Abelian or non-Abelian) gauge fields, whose non-linear dynamics can also play a relevant role in the early universe. Tensor modes representing gravitational waves are also naturally expected in many scenarios. Solution method: CosmoGattice represents a modern code for lattice simulations of scalar-gauge field theories in an expanding universe. It allows for the simulation of the evolution of interacting (singlet) scalar fields, charged scalar fields under U(1) and/or SU(2) gauge groups, and the corresponding associated Abelian and/or non-Abelian gauge fields. From version 1.1 onward, CosmoGattice also allows to simulate the production of gravitational waves. Simulations can be done either in a flat space-time background, or in a homogeneous and isotropic (spatially flat) expanding FLRW background. CosmoGattice provides symplectic integrators, with accuracy ranging from O (delta t(2)) up to O(delta t(10)), to simuate the non-linear dynamics of the appropriate fields in comoving three-dimensional lattices. The code is parallelized with MPI, and uses a discrete Fourier Transform parallelized in multiple spatial dimensions, which makes it a very powerful code for probing physical problems with well-separated scales. Moreover, the code has been designed as a `platform' to implement any system of dynamical equations suitable for discretization on a lattice.

Abstract: We revisit the joint constraints in the mixed hot dark matter scenario in which both thermally produced QCD axions and relic neutrinos are present. Upon recomputing the cosmological axion abundance via recent advances in the literature, we improve the state-of-the-art analyses and provide updated bounds on axion and neutrino masses. By avoiding approximate methods, such as the instantaneous decoupling approximation, and limitations due to the limited validity of the perturbative approach in QCD that forced to artificially divide the constraints from the axion-pion and the axion-gluon production channels, we find robust and self-consistent limits. We investigate the two most popular axion frameworks: KSVZ and DFSZ. From Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) light element abundances data we find for the KSVZ axion Delta N-eff < 0.31 and an axion mass bound m(a) < 0.53 eV (i.e., a bound on the axion decay constant f(a) > 1.07 x 10(7) GeV) both at 95% CL. These BBN bounds are improved to Delta N-eff < 0.14 and m(a) < 0.16 eV (f(a) > 3.56 x 10(7) GeV) if a prior on the baryon energy density from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data is assumed. When instead considering cosmological observations from the CMB temperature, polarization and lensing from the Planck satellite combined with large scale structure data we find Delta N-eff < 0.23, m(a) < 0.28 eV (f(a) > 2.02 x 10(7) GeV) and Sigma m(nu) < 0.16 eV at 95% CL. This corresponds approximately to a factor of 5 improvement in the axion mass bound with respect to the existing limits. Very similar results are obtained for the DFSZ axion. We also forecast upcoming observations from future CMB and galaxy surveys, showing that they could reach percent level errors for m(a) similar to 1 eV.

Abstract: Light dark photons are subject to various plasma effects, such as Debye screening and resonant oscillations, which can lead to a more complex cosmological evolution than is experienced by conventional cold dark matter candidates. Maintaining a consistent history of dark photon dark matter requires ensuring that the superthennal abundance present in the early Universe (i) does not deviate significantly after the formation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and (ii) does not excessively leak into the Standard Model plasma after big band nucleosynthesis (BBN). We point out that the role of nonresonant absorption, which has previously been neglected in cosmological studies of this dark matter candidate, produces strong constraints on dark photon dark matter with mass as low as 10(-22) eV. Furthermore, we show that resonant conversion of dark photons after recombination can produce excessive heating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) which is capable of prematurely reionizing hydrogen and helium, leaving a distinct imprint on both the Ly-a forest and the integrated optical depth of the CMB. Our constraints surpass existing cosmological bounds by more than 5 orders of magnitude across a wide range of dark photon masses.

Abstract: Neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with electrons are known to alter the picture of neutrino de coupling from the cosmic plasma. NSI modify both flavour oscillations through matter effects, and the annihilation and scattering between neutrinos and electrons and positrons in the thermal plasma. In view of the forthcoming cosmological observations, we perform a precision study of the impact of non universal and flavour-changing NSI on the effective number of neutrinos, Neff. We present the variation of Neff arising from the different NSI parameters and discuss the existing degeneracies among them, from cosmology alone and in relation to the current bounds from terrestrial experiments. Even though cosmology is generally less sensitive to NSI than these experiments, we find that future cosmological data would provide competitive and complementary constraints for some of the couplings and their combinations.