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Author Adey, D. et al; Cervera-Villanueva, A.; Donini, A.; Ghosh, T.; Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.; Hernandez, P.; Izmaylov, A.; Laing, A.; Mena, O.; Sorel, M.; Stamoulis, P.
Title Light sterile neutrino sensitivity at the nuSTORM facility Type Journal Article
Year 2014 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 89 Issue 7 Pages (down) 071301 - 7pp
Keywords
Abstract A facility that can deliver beams of electron and muon neutrinos from the decay of a stored muon beam has the potential to unambiguously resolve the issue of the evidence for light sterile neutrinos that arises in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and from estimates of the effective number of neutrino flavors from fits to cosmological data. In this paper, we show that the nuSTORM facility, with stored muons of 3.8 GeV/c +/- 10%, will be able to carry out a conclusive muon neutrino appearance search for sterile neutrinos and test the LSND and MiniBooNE experimental signals with 10 sigma sensitivity, even assuming conservative estimates for the systematic uncertainties. This experiment would add greatly to our knowledge of the contribution of light sterile neutrinos to the number of effective neutrino flavors from the abundance of primordial helium production and from constraints on neutrino energy density from the cosmic microwave background. The appearance search is complemented by a simultaneous muon neutrino disappearance analysis that will facilitate tests of various sterile neutrino models.
Address [Adey, D.; Brice, S. J.; Bross, A. D.; Cease, H.; Geelhoed, M.; Kobilarcik, T.; Liu, A.; Mokhov, N.; Morfin, J.; Neuffer, D.; Palmer, M. A.; Parke, S.; Plunkett, R.; Popovic, M.; Rubinov, P.; Sen, T.; Snopok, P.; Striganov, S.] Fermilab Natl Accelerator Lab, Batavia, IL 60510 USA, Email: Ryan.Bayes@glasgow.ac.uk
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:000334317200002 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1753
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Author Utrilla Gines, E.; Mena, O.; Witte, S.J.
Title Revisiting constraints on WIMPs around primordial black holes Type Journal Article
Year 2022 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 106 Issue 6 Pages (down) 063538 - 14pp
Keywords
Abstract While primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses MPBH greater than or similar to 10-11 Mo cannot comprise the entirety of dark matter, the existence of even a small population of these objects can have profound astrophysical consequences. A subdominant population of PBHs will efficiently accrete dark matter particles before matter-radiation equality, giving rise to high-density dark matter spikes. We consider here the scenario in which dark matter is comprised primarily of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with a small subdominant contribution coming from PBHs, and revisit the constraints on the annihilation of WIMPs in these spikes using observations of the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB), for a range of WIMP masses, annihilation channels, cross sections, and PBH mass functions. We find that the constraints derived using the IGRB have been significantly overestimated (in some cases by many orders of magnitude), and that limits obtained using observations of the CMB are typically stronger than, or comparable to, those coming from the IGRB. Importantly, we show that similar to OoMo thorn PBHs can still contribute significantly to the dark matter density for sufficiently low WIMP masses and p-wave annihilation cross sections.
Address [Utrilla Gines, Estanis; Mena, Olga] Univ Valencia, CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular IFIC, Parc Cient UV,C Catedrat Jose Beltran 2, E-46980 Paterna, Spain
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 2470-0010 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000866519600007 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 5390
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Author Giusarma, E.; de Putter, R.; Ho, S.; Mena, O.
Title Constraints on neutrino masses from Planck and Galaxy clustering data Type Journal Article
Year 2013 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 88 Issue 6 Pages (down) 063515 - 9pp
Keywords
Abstract We present here bounds on neutrino masses from the combination of recent Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and galaxy clustering information from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III. We use the full shape of either the photometric angular clustering (Data Release 8) or the 3D spectroscopic clustering (Data Release 9) power spectrum in different cosmological scenarios. In the Lambda CDM scenario, spectroscopic galaxy clustering measurements improve significantly the existing neutrino mass bounds from Planck data. We find Sigma m(v) < 0.39 eV at 95% confidence level for the combination of the 3D power spectrum with Planck CMB data (wi lensing included) and Wilkinson Microwave Anisoptropy Probe 9-year polarization measurements. Therefore, robust neutrino mass constraints can be obtained without the addition of the prior on the Hubble constant from Hubble Space Telescope. In extended cosmological scenarios with a dark energy fluid or with nonflat geometries, galaxy clustering measurements are essential to pin down the neutrino mass bounds, providing in the majority of cases better results than those obtained from the associated measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillation scale only. In the presence of a freely varying (constant) dark energy equation of state, we find Sigma m(v) < 0.49 eV at 95% confidence level for the combination of the 3D power spectrum with Planck CMB data (with lensing included) and Wilkinson Microwave Anisoptropy Probe 9-year polarization measurements. This same data combination in nonflat geometries provides the neutrino mass bound Sigma m(v) < 0.35 eV at 95% confidence level.
Address [Giusarma, Elena; Mena, Olga] Univ Valencia, CSIC, IFIC, Valencia 46071, Spain
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:000324233900002 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1592
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Author Gariazzo, S.; Lopez-Honorez, L.; Mena, O.
Title Primordial power spectrum features and f(NL) constraints Type Journal Article
Year 2015 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 92 Issue 6 Pages (down) 063510 - 12pp
Keywords
Abstract The simplest models of inflation predict small non-Gaussianities and a featureless power spectrum. However, there exist a large number of well-motivated theoretical scenarios in which large non-Gaussianties could be generated. In general, in these scenarios the primordial power spectrum will deviate from its standard power law shape. We study, in a model-independent manner, the constraints from future large-scale structure surveys on the local non-Gaussianity parameter f(NL) when the standard power law assumption for the primordial power spectrum is relaxed. If the analyses are restricted to the large-scale-dependent bias induced in the linear matter power spectrum by non-Gaussianites, the errors on the f(NL) parameter could be increased by 60% when exploiting data from the future DESI survey, if dealing with only one possible dark matter tracer. In the same context, a nontrivial bias vertical bar delta f(NL)vertical bar similar to 2.5 could be induced if future data are fitted to the wrong primordial power spectrum. Combining all the possible DESI objects slightly ameliorates the problem, as the forecasted errors on f(NL) would be degraded by 40% when relaxing the assumptions concerning the primordial power spectrum shape. Also, the shift on the non-Gaussianity parameter is reduced in this case, vertical bar delta f(NL)vertical bar similar to 1.6. The addition of cosmic microwave background priors ensures robust future f(NL) bounds, as the forecasted errors obtained including these measurements are almost independent on the primordial power spectrum features, and vertical bar delta f(NL)vertical bar similar to 0.2, close to the standard single-field slow-roll paradigm prediction.
Address [Gariazzo, Stefano] Univ Turin, Dept Phys, I-10125 Turin, 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:000360886300004 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 2382
Permanent link to this record
 

 
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 (down) 063509 - 8pp
Keywords
Abstract 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 Di Valentino, E.; Melchiorri, A.; Mena, O.; Vagnozzi, S.
Title Nonminimal dark sector physics and cosmological tensions Type Journal Article
Year 2020 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 101 Issue 6 Pages (down) 063502 - 20pp
Keywords
Abstract We explore whether nonstandard dark sector physics might be required to solve the existing cosmological tensions. The properties we consider in combination are (a) an interaction between the dark matter and dark energy components and (b) a dark energy equation of state w different from that of the canonical cosmological constant w = -1. In principle, these two parameters are independent. In practice, to avoid early-time, superhorizon instabilities, their allowed parameter spaces are correlated. Moreover, a clear degeneracy exists between these two parameters in the case of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. We analyze three classes of extended interacting dark energy models in light of the 2019 Planck CMB results and Cepheid-calibrated local distance ladder H-0 measurements of Riess et al. (R19), as well as recent baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) distance data. We find that in quintessence coupled dark energy models, where w > -1, the evidence for a nonzero coupling between the two dark sectors can surpass the 5 sigma significance. Moreover, for both Planck + BAO or Planck + SNeIa, we find a preference for w > -1 at about three standard deviations. Quintessence models are, therefore, in excellent agreement with current data when an interaction is considered. On the other hand, in phantom coupled dark energy models, there is no such preference for a nonzero dark sector coupling. All the models we consider significantly raise the value of the Hubble constant, easing the H-0 tension. In the interacting scenario, the disagreement between Planck thorn BAO and R19 is considerably reduced from 4.3 sigma in the case of the Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) model to about 2.5 sigma. The addition of low-redshift BAO and SNeIa measurements leaves, therefore, some residual tension with R19 but at a level that could be justified by a statistical fluctuation. Bayesian evidence considerations mildly disfavor both the coupled quintessence and phantom models, while mildly favoring a coupled vacuum scenario, even when late-time datasets are considered. We conclude that nonminimal dark energy cosmologies, such as coupled quintessence, phantom, or vacuum models, are still an interesting route toward softening existing cosmological tensions, even when low-redshift datasets and Bayesian evidence considerations are taken into account.
Address [Di Valentino, Eleonora] Univ Manchester, Jodrell Bank Ctr Astrophys, Sch Phys & Astron, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, Lancs, England, Email: eleonora.divalentino@manchester.ac.uk;
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 2470-0010 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000517964500003 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4309
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Barranco, L.; Boubekeur, L.; Mena, O.
Title Model-independent fit to Planck and BICEP2 data Type Journal Article
Year 2014 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 90 Issue 6 Pages (down) 063007 - 7pp
Keywords
Abstract Inflation is the leading theory to describe elegantly the initial conditions that led to structure formation in our Universe. In this paper, we present a novel phenomenological fit to the Planck, WMAP polarization (WP) and the BICEP2 data sets using an alternative parametrization. Instead of starting from inflationary potentials and computing the inflationary observables, we use a phenomenological parametrization due to Mukhanov, describing inflation by an effective equation of state, in terms of the number of e-folds and two phenomenological parameters alpha and beta. Within such a parametrization, which captures the different inflationary models in a model-independent way, the values of the scalar spectral index n(s), its running and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r are predicted, given a set of parameters (alpha, beta). We perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis of these parameters, and we show that the combined analysis of Planck and WP data favors the Starobinsky and Higgs inflation scenarios. Assuming that the BICEP2 signal is not entirely due to foregrounds, the addition of this last data set prefers instead the phi(2) chaotic models. The constraint we get from Planck and WP data alone on the derived tensor-to-scalar ratio is r < 0.18 at 95% C.L., value which is consistent with the one quoted from the BICEP2 Collaboration analysis, r = 0.16(-0.05)(+0-06), after foreground subtraction. This is not necessarily at odds with the 2 sigma tension found between Planck and BICEP2 measurements when analyzing data in terms of the usual n(s) and r parameters, given that the parametrization used here, for the preferred value n(s) similar or equal to 0.96, allows only for a restricted parameter space in the usual (n(s), r) plane.
Address [Barranco, Laura; Boubekeur, Lotfi; Mena, Olga] Univ Valencia, CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular, E-46071 Valencia, Spain
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:000342128700002 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1933
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Mena, O.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Villanueva-Domingo, P.; Witte, S.J.
Title Constraining the primordial black hole abundance with 21-cm cosmology Type Journal Article
Year 2019 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 100 Issue 4 Pages (down) 043540 - 23pp
Keywords
Abstract The discoveries of a number of binary black hole mergers by LIGO and VIRGO have reinvigorated the interest that primordial black holes (PBHs) of tens of solar masses could contribute non-negligibly to the dark matter energy density. Should even a small population of PBHs with masses greater than or similar to O(M-circle dot) exist, they could profoundly impact the properties of the intergalactic medium and provide insight into novel processes at work in the early Universe. We demonstrate here that observations of the 21-cm transition in neutral hydrogen during the epochs of reionization and cosmic dawn will likely provide one of the most stringent tests of solar mass PBHs. In the context of 21-cm cosmology, PBHs give rise to three distinct observable effects: (i) the modification to the primordial power spectrum (and thus also the halo mass function) induced by Poisson noise, (ii) a uniform heating and ionization of the intergalactic medium via x-rays produced during accretion, and (iii) a local modification to the temperature and density of the ambient medium surrounding isolated PBHs. Using a four-parameter astrophysical model, we show that experiments like SKA and HERA could potentially improve upon existing constraints derived using observations of the cosmic microwave background by more than 1 order of magnitude.
Address [Mena, Olga; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio; Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo; Witte, Samuel J.] Univ Valencia, CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular IFIC, Apartado Correos 22085, E-46071 Valencia, Spain
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 2470-0010 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000483047300003 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration no
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4122
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Di Valentino, E.; Gariazzo, S.; Mena, O.
Title Model marginalized constraints on neutrino properties from cosmology Type Journal Article
Year 2022 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 106 Issue 4 Pages (down) 043540 - 9pp
Keywords
Abstract We present robust, model-marginalized limits on both the total neutrino mass (E m1,) and abundances (Neff) to minimize the role of parametrizations, priors and models when extracting neutrino properties from cosmology. The cosmological observations we consider are cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuation and polarization measurements, supernovae Ia luminosity distances, baryon acoustic oscillation observations and determinations of the growth rate parameter from the Data Release 16 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV. The degenerate neutrino mass spectrum (which implies the prior sigma m(1), > 0) is weakly or moderately preferred over the normal and inverted hierarchy possibilities, which imply the priors sigma m(1), > 0.06 and sigma m(1), > 0.1 eV respectively. Concerning the underlying cosmological model, the ACDM minimal scenario is almost always strongly preferred over the possible extensions explored here. The most constraining 95% CL bound on the total neutrino mass in the ACDM + sigma m(1), picture is sigma m(1), < 0.087 eV. The parameter N-eff is restricted to 3.08 +/- 0.17 (68% CL) in the ACDM + Neff model. These limits barely change when considering the ACDM + sigma m(1), + Neff scenario. Given the robustness and the strong constraining power of the cosmological measurements employed here, the model -marginalized posteriors obtained considering a large spectra of nonminimal cosmologies are very close to the previous bounds, obtained within the ACDM framework in the degenerate neutrino mass spectrum. Future cosmological measurements may improve the current Bayesian evidence favoring the degenerate neutrino mass spectra, challenging therefore the consistency between cosmological neutrino mass bounds and oscillation neutrino measurements, and potentially suggesting a more complicated cosmological model and/or neutrino sector.
Address [Di Valentino, Eleonora] Univ Sheffield, Sch Math & Stat, Hounsfield Rd, Sheffield S3 7RH, England, Email: e.divalentino@sheffield.ac.uk;
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 2470-0010 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000862804700006 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 5375
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Di Valentino, E.; Giusarma, E.; Lattanzi, M.; Melchiorri, A.; Mena, O.
Title Axion cold dark matter: Status after Planck and BICEP2 Type Journal Article
Year 2014 Publication Physical Review D Abbreviated Journal Phys. Rev. D
Volume 90 Issue 4 Pages (down) 043534 - 11pp
Keywords
Abstract We investigate the axion dark matter scenario (ADM), in which axions account for all of the dark matter in the Universe, in light of the most recent cosmological data. In particular, we use the Planck temperature data, complemented by WMAP E-polarization measurements, as well as the recent BICEP2 observations of B-modes. Baryon acoustic oscillation data, including those from the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey, are also considered in the numerical analyses. We find that, in the minimal ADM scenario and for Delta(QCD) = 200 MeV, the full data set implies that the axion mass m(a) = 82.2 +/- 1.1 μeV [corresponding to the Peccei-Quinn symmetry being broken at a scale f(a) = (7.54 +/- 0.10) x 10(10) GeV], or m(a) = 76.6 +/- 2.6 μeV [f(a) = (8.08 +/- 0.27) x 10(10) GeV] when we allow for a nonstandard effective number of relativistic species N-eff. We also find a 2 sigma preference for N-eff > 3.046. The limit on the sum of neutrino masses is Sigma m(v) < 0.25 eV at 95% C.L. for N-eff = 3.046, or Sigma m(v) < 0.47 eV when N-eff is a free parameter. Considering extended scenarios where either the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w, the tensor spectral index n(t), or the running of the scalar index dn(s)/d ln k is allowed to vary does not change significantly the axion mass-energy density constraints. However, in the case of the full data set exploited here, there is a preference for a nonzero tensor index or scalar running, driven by the different tensor amplitudes implied by the Planck and BICEP2 observations. We also study the effect on our estimates of theoretical uncertainties, in particular the imprecise knowledge of the QCD scale Delta(QCD), in the calculation of the temperature-dependent axion mass. We find that in the simplest ADM scenario the Planck + WP data set implies that the axion mass m(a) = 63.7 +/- 1.2 μeV for Delta(QCD) = 400 MeV. We also comment on the possibility that axions do not make up for all the dark matter, or that the contribution of string-produced axions has been grossly underestimated; in that case, the values that we find for the mass can conservatively be considered as lower limits. Dark matter axions with mass in the 60-80 μeV (corresponding to an axion-photon coupling G(a gamma gamma) similar to 10(-14) GeV-1) range can, in principle, be detected by looking for axion-to-photon conversion occurring inside a tunable microwave cavity permeated by a high-intensity magnetic field, and operating at a frequency nu similar or equal to 15-20 GHz. This is out of the reach of current experiments like the axion dark matter experiment (limited to a maximum frequency of a few GHzs), but is, on the other hand, within the reach of the upcoming axion dark matter experiment-high frequency experiment that will explore the 4-40 GHz frequency range and then be sensitive to axion masses up to similar to 160 μeV.
Address [Di Valentino, Eleonora; Giusarma, Elena; 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 WOS:000340890100001 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 1893
Permanent link to this record