Abstract: We study the impact of gravitational waves originating from a first order phase transition on structure formation. To do so, we perform a second order perturbation analysis in the 1 + 3 covariant framework and derive a wave equation in which second order, adiabatic density perturbations of the photon-baryon fluid are sourced by the gravitational wave energy density during radiation domination and on sub-horizon scales. The scale on which such waves affect the energy density perturbation spectrum is found to be proportional to the horizon size at the time of the phase transition times its inverse duration. Consequently, structure of the size of galaxies and bigger can only be affected in this way by relatively late phase transitions at >= 10(6) s. Using cosmic variance as a bound we derive limits on the strength a and the relative duration (beta/H-*)(-1) of phase transitions as functions of the time of their occurrence which results in a new exclusion region for the energy density in gravitational waves today. We find that the cosmic variance bound forbids only relative long lasting phase transitions, e.g. beta/H-* less than or similar to 6.8 for t(*) approximate to 5 x 10(11 )s, which exhibit a substantial amount of supercooling alpha > 20 to affect the matter power spectrum.

Abstract: The presence of scalar fields with non-minimal gravitational interactions of the form & xi;|& phi;|2R may have important implications for the physics of the early universe. We propose a procedure to solve the dynamics of non-minimally coupled scalar fields directly in the Jordan frame, where the non-minimal couplings are maintained explicitly. Our algorithm can be applied to lattice simulations that include minimally coupled fields and an arbitrary number of non-minimally coupled scalars, with the expansion of the universe sourced by all fields present. This includes situations when the dynamics become fully inhomogeneous, fully non-linear (due to e.g. backreaction or mode rescattering effects), and/or when the expansion of the universe is dominated by non-minimally coupled species. As an example, we study geometric preheating with a non-minimally coupled scalar spectator field when the inflaton oscillates following the end of inflation.

Abstract: We present a new algorithm for anomaly detection called Anomaly Awareness. The algorithm learns about normal events while being made aware of the anomalies through a modification of the cost function. We show how this method works in different Particle Physics situations and in standard Computer Vision tasks. For example, we apply the method to images from a Fat Jet topology generated by Standard Model Top and QCD events, and test it against an array of new physics scenarios, including Higgs production with EFT effects and resonances decaying into two, three or four subjets. We find that the algorithm is effective identifying anomalies not seen before, and becomes robust as we make it aware of a varied-enough set of anomalies.