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Author Diamanti, R.; Giusarma, E.; Mena, O.; Archidiacono, M.; Melchiorri, A.
Title Dark radiation and interacting scenarios Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 87 Issue 6 Pages 063509 - 8pp
Keywords
Abstract (up) An extra dark radiation component can be present in the universe in the form of sterile neutrinos, axions or other very light degrees of freedom which may interact with the dark matter sector. We derive here the cosmological constraints on the dark radiation abundance, on its effective velocity and on its viscosity parameter from current data in dark radiation-dark matter coupled models. The cosmological bounds on the number of extra dark radiation species do not change significantly when considering interacting schemes. We also find that the constraints on the dark radiation effective velocity are degraded by an order of magnitude while the errors on the viscosity parameter are a factor of two larger when considering interacting scenarios. If future Cosmic Microwave Background data are analyzed assuming a noninteracting model but the dark radiation and the dark matter sectors interact in nature, the reconstructed values for the effective velocity and for the viscosity parameter will be shifted from their standard 1/3 expectation, namely c(eff)(2) = 0.34(-0.003)(+0.006) and c(vis)(2) = 0.29(-0.001)(+0.002) at 95% C.L. for the future COrE mission data.
Address [Diamanti, Roberta] Univ Roma Tre, Dept Phys, I-00146 Rome, Italy
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Amer Physical Soc Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1550-7998 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000315739200004 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1349
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Author Wurm, M. et al; Mena, O.
Title The next-generation liquid-scintillator neutrino observatory LENA Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal Astropart Phys.
Volume 35 Issue 11 Pages 685-732
Keywords Neutrino detectors; Liquid-scintillator detectors; Low-energy neutrinos; Proton decay; Longbaseline neutrino beams
Abstract (up) As part of the European LAGUNA design study on a next-generation neutrino detector, we propose the liquid-scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy) as a multipurpose neutrino observatory. The outstanding successes of the Borexino and KamLAND experiments demonstrate the large potential of liquid-scintillator detectors in low-energy neutrino physics. Low energy threshold, good energy resolution and efficient background discrimination are inherent to the liquid-scintillator technique. A target mass of 50 kt will offer a substantial increase in detection sensitivity. At low energies, the variety of detection channels available in liquid scintillator will allow for an energy and flavor-resolved analysis of the neutrino burst emitted by a galactic Supernova. Due to target mass and background conditions, LENA will also be sensitive to the faint signal of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background. Solar metallicity, time-variation in the solar neutrino flux and deviations from MSW-LMA survival probabilities can be investigated based on unprecedented statistics. Low background conditions allow to search for dark matter by observing rare annihilation neutrinos. The large number of events expected for geoneutrinos will give valuable information on the abundances of Uranium and Thorium and their relative ratio in the Earth's crust and mantle. Reactor neutrinos enable a high-precision measurement of solar mixing parameters. A strong radioactive or pion decay-at-rest neutrino source can be placed close to the detector to investigate neutrino oscillations for short distances and sub-MeV to MeV energies. At high energies, LENA will provide a new lifetime limit for the SUSY-favored proton decay mode into kaon and antineutrino, surpassing current experimental limits by about one order of magnitude. Recent studies have demonstrated that a reconstruction of momentum and energy of GeV particles is well feasible in liquid scintillator. Monte Carlo studies on the reconstruction of the complex event topologies found for neutrino interactions at multi-GeV energies have shown promising results. If this is confirmed. LENA might serve as far detector in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently investigated in LAGUNA-LBNO.
Address [Wurm, Michael; Bick, Daniel; Hagner, Caren; Lorenz, Sebastian] Univ Hamburg, Inst Expt Phys, Hamburg, Germany, Email: michael.wurm@desy.de
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Elsevier Science Bv Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0927-6505 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000304787800001 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1054
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Author Blennow, M.; Fernandez-Martinez, E.; Mena, O.; Redondo, J.; Serra, E.P.
Title Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation Type Journal Article
Year 2012 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 07 Issue 7 Pages 022 - 23pp
Keywords dark matter theory; particle physics – cosmology connection; physics of the early universe
Abstract (up) 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.
Address [Blennow, Mattias] Max Planck Inst Kernphys, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany, Email: Mattias.Blennow@mpi-hd.mpg.de;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000307079600033 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1165
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Author Mena, O.; Razzaque, S.
Title Hints of an axion-like particle mixing in the GeV gamma-ray blazar data? Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 11 Issue 11 Pages 023 - 12pp
Keywords axions; active galactic nuclei
Abstract (up) Axion-Like Particles (ALPs), if exist in nature, are expected to mix with photons in the presence of an external magnetic field. The energy range of photons which undergo strong mixing with ALPs depends on the ALP mass, on its coupling with photons as well as on the external magnetic field and particle density configurations. Recent observations of blazars by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope in the 0.1-300 GeV energy range show a break in their spectra in the 1-10 GeV range. We have modeled this spectral feature for the flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C454.3 during its November 2010 outburst, assuming that a significant fraction of the gamma rays convert to ALPs in the large scale jet of this blazar. Using theoretically motivated models for the magnetic field and particle density con figurations in the kiloparsec scale jet, outside the broad-line region, we find an ALP mass m(a) similar to (1 – 3).10(-7) eV and coupling g(a gamma) similar to (1 – 3).10(-10) GeV-1 after performing an illustrative statistical analysis of spectral data in four different epochs of emission. The precise values of m(a) and g(a gamma) depend weakly on the assumed particle density con figuration and are consistent with the current experimental bounds on these quantities. We apply this method and ALP parameters found from fitting 3C454.3 data to another flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS1222+216 (4C+21.35) data up to 400 GeV, as a consistency check, and found good fit. We find that the ALP-photon mixing effect on the GeV spectra may not be washed out for any reasonable estimate of the magnetic field in the intergalactic media.
Address [Mena, Olga] Univ Valencia, CSIC, IFIC, E-46071 Valencia, Spain, Email: omena@ific.uv.es;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000327843900024 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1673
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Author Di Valentino, E.; Giusarma, E.; Lattanzi, M.; Mena, O.; Melchiorri, A.; Silk, J.
Title Cosmological axion and neutrino mass constraints from Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data Type Journal Article
Year 2016 Publication Physics Letters B Abbreviated Journal Phys. Lett. B
Volume 752 Issue Pages 182-185
Keywords
Abstract (up) Axions currently provide the most compelling solution to the strong CP problem. These particles may be copiously produced in the early universe, including via thermal processes. Therefore, relic axions constitute a hot dark matter component and their masses are strongly degenerate with those of the three active neutrinos, as they leave identical signatures in the different cosmological observables. In addition, thermal axions, while still relativistic states, also contribute to the relativistic degrees of freedom, parameterized via N-eff. We present the cosmological bounds on the relic axion and neutrino masses, exploiting the full Planck mission data, which include polarization measurements. In the mixed hot dark matter scenario explored here, we find the tightest and more robust constraint to date on the sum of the three active neutrino masses, Sigma m nu < 0.136eV at 95% CL, as it is obtained in the very well-known linear perturbation regime. The Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster number count data further tightens this bound, providing a 95% CL upper limit of Sigma m nu < 0.126 eV in this very same mixed hot dark matter model, a value which is very close to the expectations in the inverted hierarchical neutrino mass scenario. Using this same combination of data sets we find the most stringent bound to date on the thermal axion mass, m(a) < 0.529 eV at 95% CL.
Address [Di Valentino, Eleonora; Silk, Joseph] CNRS, UMR7095, Inst Astrophys Paris, F-75014 Paris, France, Email: elena.giusarma@roma1.infn.it
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Elsevier Science Bv Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0370-2693 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000368026000026 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 2524
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Author Giare, W.; Di Valentino, E.; Melchiorri, A.; Mena, O.
Title New cosmological bounds on hot relics: axions and neutrinos Type Journal Article
Year 2021 Publication Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Abbreviated Journal Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc.
Volume 505 Issue 2 Pages 2703-2711
Keywords cosmic background radiation; cosmological parameters; dark matter; early Universe; cosmology: observations
Abstract (up) Axions, if realized in nature, can be copiously produced in the early universe via thermal processes, contributing to the mass-energy density of thermal hot relics. In light of the most recent cosmological observations, we analyse two different thermal processes within a realistic mixed hot dark matter scenario which includes also massive neutrinos. Considering the axion-gluon thermalization channel, we derive our most constraining bounds on the hot relic masses m(a) < 7.46 eV and Sigma m(nu) < 0.114 eV both at 95 percent CL; while studying the axion-pion scattering, without assuming any specific model for the axion-pion interactions, and remaining in the range of validity of the chiral perturbation theory, our most constraining bounds are improved to m(a) < 0.91 eV and Sigma m(nu) < 0.105 eV, both at 95 percent CL. Interestingly, in both cases, the total neutrino mass lies very close to the inverted neutrino mass ordering prediction. If future terrestrial double beta decay and/or long-baseline neutrino experiments find that the nature mass ordering is the inverted one, this could rule out a wide region in the currently allowed thermal axion window. Our results therefore, strongly support multi messenger searches of axions and neutrino properties, together with joint analyses of their expected sensitivities.
Address [Giare, William; Melchiorri, Alessandro] Univ Roma La Sapienza, Phys Dept, Ple Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Rome, Italy, Email: william.giare@gmail.com
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Oxford Univ Press Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0035-8711 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000672803400085 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4912
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Author Eisenstein, D.J. et al; Mena, O.
Title SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Astronomical Journal Abbreviated Journal Astron. J.
Volume 142 Issue 3 Pages 72 - 24pp
Keywords cosmology: observations; Galaxy: evolution; planets and satellites: detection; surveys
Abstract (up) Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS Data Release 8 (DR8), which was made public in 2011 January and includes SDSS-I and SDSS-II images and spectra reprocessed with the latest pipelines and calibrations produced for the SDSS-III investigations. This paper presents an overview of the four surveys that comprise SDSS-III. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Ly alpha forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the baryon acoustic oscillation feature of large-scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z < 0.7 and at z approximate to 2.5. SEGUE-2, an already completed SDSS-III survey that is the continuation of the SDSS-II Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE), measured medium-resolution (R = lambda/lambda Delta approximate to 1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE, the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment, will obtain high-resolution (R approximate to 30,000), high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N >= 100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51 μm < lambda < 1.70 μm) spectra of 105 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for similar to 15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. The Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS) will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 ms(-1), similar to 24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. As of 2011 January, SDSS-III has obtained spectra of more than 240,000 galaxies, 29,000 z >= 2.2 quasars, and 140,000 stars, including 74,000 velocity measurements of 2580 stars for MARVELS.
Address [Eisenstein, DJ; Fan, XH; Jiang, LH; Maseman, P; McGreer, ID; Rieke, GH; Rieke, MJ; Young, E] Univ Arizona, Steward Observ, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0004-6256 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000294669700006 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ elepoucu @ Serial 754
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Martinelli, M.; Lopez Honorez, L.; Melchiorri, A.; Mena, O.
Title Future CMB cosmological constraints in a dark coupled universe Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 81 Issue 10 Pages 103534 - 7pp
Keywords
Abstract (up) Cosmic microwave background satellite missions as the ongoing Planck experiment are expected to provide the strongest constraints on a wide set of cosmological parameters. Those constraints, however, could be weakened when the assumption of a cosmological constant as the dark energy component is removed. Here we show that it will indeed be the case when there exists a coupling among the dark energy and the dark matter fluids. In particular, the expected errors on key parameters as the cold dark matter density and the angular diameter distance at decoupling are significantly larger when a dark coupling is introduced. We show that it will be the case also for future satellite missions as EPIC, unless CMB lensing extraction is performed.
Address [Martinelli, Matteo; Melchiorri, Alessandro] Univ Roma La Sapienza, Dept Phys, I-00185 Rome, Italy
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Amer Physical Soc Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1550-7998 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes ISI:000278146700047 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ elepoucu @ Serial 429
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Author Lopez Honorez, L.; Reid, B.A.; Mena, O.; Verde, L.; Jimenez, R.
Title Coupled dark matter-dark energy in light of near universe observations Type Journal Article
Year 2010 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 09 Issue 9 Pages 029 - 36pp
Keywords dark energy experiments; dark energy theory; cosmological parameters from LSS
Abstract (up) Cosmological analysis based on currently available observations are unable to rule out a sizeable coupling among the dark energy and dark matter fluids. We explore a variety of coupled dark matter-dark energy models, which satisfy cosmic microwave background constraints, in light of low redshift and near universe observations. We illustrate the phenomenology of different classes of dark coupling models, paying particular attention in distinguishing between effects that appear only on the expansion history and those that appear in the growth of structure. We find that while a broad class of dark coupling models are effectively models where general relativity (GR) is modified – and thus can be probed by a combination of tests for the expansion history and the growth of structure -, there is a class of dark coupling models where gravity is still GR, but the growth of perturbations is, in principle modified. While this effect is small in the specific models we have considered, one should bear in mind that an inconsistency between reconstructed expansion history and growth may not uniquely indicate deviations from GR. Our low redshift constraints arise from cosmic velocities, redshift space distortions and dark matter abundance in galaxy voids. We find that current data constrain the dimensionless coupling to be vertical bar xi vertical bar < 0.2, but prospects from forthcoming data are for a significant improvement. Future, precise measurements of the Hubble constant, combined with high-precision constraints on the growth of structure, could provide the key to rule out dark coupling models which survive other tests. We shall exploit as well weak equivalence principle violation arguments, which have the potential to highly disfavour a broad family of coupled models.
Address [Lopez Honorez, Laura] UAM, CSIC, Dept Phys, Madrid 28049, Spain, Email: laura.lopez@uam.es
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes ISI:000283576500007 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ elepoucu @ Serial 343
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Author Das, C.R.; Mena, O.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Pascoli, S.
Title Determining the dark matter mass with DeepCore Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Physics Letters B Abbreviated Journal Phys. Lett. B
Volume 725 Issue 4-5 Pages 297-301
Keywords Dark matter; Neutrino telescopes
Abstract (up) Cosmological and astrophysical observations provide increasing evidence of the existence of dark matter in our Universe. Dark matter particles with a mass above a few GeV can be captured by the Sun, accumulate in the core, annihilate, and produce high energy neutrinos either directly or by subsequent decays of Standard Model particles. We investigate the prospects for indirect dark matter detection in the IceCube/DeepCore neutrino telescope and its capabilities to determine the dark matter mass.
Address [Das, Chitta R.; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio] Univ Ten Lisboa, Inst Super Tecn, CFTP, P-1049001 Lisbon, Portugal, Email: sergio.palomares.ruiz@ist.utl.pt
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Elsevier Science Bv Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0370-2693 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000324223100015 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1589
Permanent link to this record