Barenboim, G., Kinney, W. H., & Morse, M. J. P. (2018). Phantom Dirac-Born-Infeld dark energy. Phys. Rev. D, 98(8), 083531–11pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the apparent discrepancy between cosmic microwave background measurements of the Hubble constant and measurements from Type-la supernovae, we construct a model for dark energy with equation of state w = p/rho < -1, violating the null energy condition. Naive canonical models of so-called “phantom” dark energy require a negative scalar kinetic term, resulting in a Hamiltonian unbounded from below and associated vacuum instability. We construct a scalar field model for dark energy with w < -1, which nonetheless has a Hamiltonian bounded from below in the comoving reference frame, i.e., in the rest frame of the fluid. We demonstrate that the solution is a cosmological attractor, and find that early-time cosmological boundary conditions consist of a “frozen” scalar field, which relaxes to the attractor solution once the dark energy component dominates the cosmological energy density. We consider the model in an arbitrary choice of gauge, and find that, unlike the case of comoving gauge, the fluid Hamiltonian is in fact unbounded from below in the reference frame of a highly boosted observer, corresponding to a nonlinear gradient instability. We discuss this in the context of general NEC-violating perfect fluids, for which this instability is a general property.
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Barenboim, G., Kinney, W. H., & Park, W. I. (2017). Flavor versus mass eigenstates in neutrino asymmetries: implications for cosmology. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(9), 590–7pp.
Abstract: We show that, if they exist, lepton number asymmetries (L-alpha) of neutrino flavors should be distinguished from the ones (L-i) of mass eigenstates, since Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the flavor eigenstates cannot be directly applied to the mass eigenstates. Similarly, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) constraints on the mass eigenstates do not directly constrain flavor asymmetries. Due to the difference of mass and flavor eigenstates, the cosmological constraint on the asymmetries of neutrino flavors can be much stronger than the conventional expectation, but they are not uniquely determined unless at least the asymmetry of the heaviest neutrino is well constrained. The cosmological constraint on L-i for a specific case is presented as an illustration.
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Barenboim, G., Kinney, W. H., & Park, W. I. (2017). Resurrection of large lepton number asymmetries from neutrino flavor oscillations. Phys. Rev. D, 95(4), 043506–6pp.
Abstract: We numerically solve the evolution equations of neutrino three-flavor density matrices, and show that, even if neutrino oscillations mix neutrino flavors, large lepton number asymmetries are still allowed in certain limits by big bang nucleosynthesis.
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Barenboim, G., Ko, P., & Park, W. I. (2024). Axi-Majoron: One-shot solution to most of the big puzzles of particle cosmology. Phys. Rev. D, 110(12), 123521–32pp.
Abstract: The details of the minimal cosmological standard model (MCSM) proposed in [The minimal cosmological standard model, arXiv:2403.05390.] are discussed. The model is based on the scalesymmetry and the global Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry with a key assumption that the latter is broken only in the gravity sector in a scale-invariant manner. We show that the model provides a quite simple unified framework for the unknown history of the Universe from inflation to the epoch of big-bang nucleosynthesis, simultaneously addressing key puzzles of high energy theory and cosmology: (i) the origin of scales, (ii) primordial inflation, (iii) matter-antimatter asymmetry, (iv) tiny neutrino masses, (v) dark matter, and (vi) the strong CP-problem. Scale symmetry can be exact, and the Planck scale is dynamically generated. The presence of Gauss-Bonnet term may safely retain dangerous nonperturbative symmetry-breaking effects negligible, allowing a large-field trans-Planckian inflation along the PQ-field. Isocurvature perturbations of axi-Majorons are suppressed. A sizable amount of PQ-number asymmetry is generated at the end of inflation, and conserved afterward. Domain wall problem is absent due to the nonrestoration of the symmetry and the nonzero PQ-number asymmetry. Baryogenesis can be realized by either the transfer of the PQ-number asymmetry through the seesaw sector, or by resonant leptogenesis. Dark matter is purely cold axi-Majorons from the misalignment contribution with the symmetry-breaking scale of O(1012) GeV. Hot axi-Majorons from the decay of the inflaton become a natural source for a sizable amount of dark radiation. Inflationary gravitational waves have information about the mass parameters of the lightest left-handed and right-handed neutrinos, thanks to the presence of an early matterdomination era driven by the long-lived lightest right-handed neutrino species.
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Barenboim, G., Martinez-Mirave, P., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2023). Neutrino CPT violation in the solar sector. Phys. Rev. D, 108(3), 035039–10pp.
Abstract: In this paper, we place new bounds on CPT violation in the solar neutrino sector analyzing the results from solar experiments and KamLAND. We also discuss the sensitivity of the next-generation experiments DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande, which will provide accurate measurements of the solar neutrino oscillation parameters. The joint analysis of both experiments will further improve the precision due to cancellations in the systematic uncertainties regarding the solar neutrino flux. In combination with the next-generation reactor experiment JUNO, the bound on CPT violation in the solar sector could be improved by 1 order of magnitude in comparison with current constraints. The distinguishability among CPT-violating neutrino oscillations and neutrino nonstandard interactions in the solar sector is also addressed.
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Barenboim, G., Martinez-Mirave, P., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2020). Sterile neutrinos with altered dispersion relations revisited. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 070–18pp.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate neutrino oscillations with altered dispersion relations in the presence of sterile neutrinos. Modified dispersion relations represent an agnostic way to parameterize new physics. Models of this type have been suggested to explain global neutrino oscillation data, including deviations from the standard three-neutrino paradigm as observed by a few experiments. We show that, unfortunately, in this type of models new tensions arise turning them incompatible with global data.
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Barenboim, G., Masud, M., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). Exploring the intrinsic Lorentz-violating parameters at DUNE. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 308–315.
Abstract: Neutrinos can push our search for new physics to a whole new level. What makes them so hard to be detected, what allows them to travel humongous distances without being stopped or deflected allows to amplify Planck suppressed effects (or effects of comparable size) to a level that we can measure or bound in DUNE. In this work we analyze the sensitivity of DUNE to CPT and Lorentz-violating interactions in a framework that allows a straightforward extrapolation of the bounds obtained to any phenomenological modification of the dispersion relation of neutrinos.
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Barenboim, G., & Nierste, U. (2021). Modified majoron model for cosmological anomalies. Phys. Rev. D, 104(2), 023013–6pp.
Abstract: The vacuum expectation value v(s) of a Higgs triplet field Delta carrying two units of lepton number L induces neutrino masses alpha v(s). The neutral component of Delta gives rise to two Higgs particles, a pseudoscalar A and a scalar S. The most general renormalizable Higgs potential V for Delta and the Standard-Model Higgs doublet Phi does not permit the possibility that the mass of either A or S is small, of order v(s), while the other mass is heavy enough to forbid the decay Z -> AS to comply with LEP 1 data. We present a model with additional dimension-6 terms in V, in which this feature is absent and either A or S can be chosen light. Subsequently we propose the model as a remedy to cosmological anomalies, namely the tension between observed and predicted tensor-to-scalar mode ratios in the cosmic microwave background and the different values of the Hubble constant measured at different cosmological scales. Furthermore, if Delta dominantly couples to the third-generation doublet L-tau = (v(tau), tau), the deficit of v(tau) events at IceCube can be explained. The singly and doubly charged triplet Higgs bosons are lighter than 280 GeV and 400 GeV, respectively, and could be found at the LHC.
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Barenboim, G., & Oteo, J. A. (2013). One pendulum to run them all. Eur. J. Phys., 34(4), 1049–1065.
Abstract: The analytical solution for the three-dimensional linear pendulum in a rotating frame of reference is obtained, including Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations, and expressed in terms of initial conditions. This result offers the possibility of treating Foucault and Bravais pendula as trajectories of the same system of equations, each of them with particular initial conditions. We compare them with the common two-dimensional approximations in textbooks. A previously unnoticed pattern in the three-dimensional Foucault pendulum attractor is presented.
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Barenboim, G., & Panotopoulos, G. (2011). Direct neutralino searches in the NMSSM with gravitino LSP in the degenerate scenario. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 027–16pp.
Abstract: In the present work a two-component dark matter model is studied adopting the degenerate scenario in the R-parity conserving NMSSM. The gravitino LSP and the neutralino NLSP are extremely degenerate in mass, avoiding the BBN bounds and obtaining a high reheating temperature for thermal leptogenesis. In this model both gravitino (absolutely stable) and neutralino (quasi-stable) contribute to dark matter, and direct detection searches for neutralino are discussed. Points that survive all the constraints correspond to a singlino-like neutralino.
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