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Afonso, V. I., Olmo, G. J., Orazi, E., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2019). Correspondence between modified gravity and general relativity with scalar fields. Phys. Rev. D, 99(4), 044040–15pp.
Abstract: We describe a novel procedure to map the field equations of nonlinear Ricci-based metric-affine theories of gravity, coupled to scalar matter described by a given Lagrangian, into the field equations of general relativity coupled to a different scalar field Lagrangian. Our analysis considers examples with a single and N real scalar fields, described either by canonical Lagrangians or by generalized functions of the kinetic and potential terms. In particular, we consider several explicit examples involving foRthorn theories and the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity model, coupled to different scalar field Lagrangians. We show how the nonlinearities of the gravitational sector of these theories can be traded to nonlinearities in the matter fields and how the procedure allows to find new solutions on both sides of the correspondence. The potential of this procedure for applications of scalar field models in astrophysical and cosmological scenarios is highlighted.
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Caputo, A., & Reig, M. (2019). Cosmic implications of a low-scale solution to the axion domain wall problem. Phys. Rev. D, 100(6), 063530–10pp.
Abstract: The post-inflationary breaking of Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry can lead to the cosmic domain wall catastrophe. In this paper we show how to avoid domain walls by implementing the instanton interference effect with a new interaction which itself breaks PQ symmetry and confines at an energy scale smaller than Lambda(QCD). We give a general description of the mechanism and consider its cosmological implications and constraints within a minimal model. Contrary to other mechanisms, we do not require an inverse phase transition or fine-tuned bias terms. Incidentally, the mechanism leads to the introduction of new self-interacting dark matter candidates and the possibility of producing gravitational waves in the frequency range of SKA. Unless a fine-tuned hidden sector is introduced, the mechanism predicts a QCD axion in the mass range 1-15 meV.
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Escudero, M., Hooper, D., Krnjaic, G., & Pierre, M. (2019). Cosmology with a very light Lmu – Ltau gauge boson. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 071–29pp.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore in detail the cosmological implications of an abelian L – L gauge extension of the Standard Model featuring a light and weakly coupled Z. Such a scenario is motivated by the longstanding approximate to 4 sigma discrepancy between the measured and predicted values of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment, (g – 2), as well as the tension between late and early time determinations of the Hubble constant. If sufficiently light, the Z population will decay to neutrinos, increasing the overall energy density of radiation and altering the expansion history of the early universe. We identify two distinct regions of parameter space in this model in which the Hubble tension can be significantly relaxed. The first of these is the previously identified region in which a approximate to 10 – 20 MeV Z reaches equilibrium in the early universe and then decays, heating the neutrino population and delaying the process of neutrino decoupling. For a coupling of g (-) similar or equal to (3 – 8) x 10(-4), such a particle can also explain the observed (g – 2) anomaly. In the second region, the Z is very light (mZ approximate to 1eV to MeV) and very weakly coupled (g (-) approximate to 10(-13) to 10(-9)). In this case, the Z population is produced through freeze-in, and decays to neutrinos after neutrino decoupling. Across large regions of parameter space, we predict a contribution to the energy density of radiation that can appreciably relax the reported Hubble tension, N-eff similar or equal to 0.2.
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Gariazzo, S., & Mena, O. (2019). Cosmology-marginalized approaches in Bayesian model comparison: The neutrino mass as a case study. Phys. Rev. D, 99(2), 021301–6pp.
Abstract: We propose here a novel method which singles out the a priori unavoidable dependence on the underlying cosmological model when extracting parameter constraints, providing robust limits which only depend on the considered dataset. Interestingly, when dealing with several possible cosmologies and interpreting the Bayesian preference in terms of the Gaussian statistical evidence, the preferred model is much less favored than when only two cases are compared. As a working example, we apply our approach to the cosmological neutrino mass bounds, which play a fundamental role not only in establishing the contribution of relic neutrinos to the dark matter of the Universe but also in the planning of future experimental searches of the neutrino character and of the neutrino mass ordering.
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Chen, P., Centelles Chulia, S., Ding, G. J., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). CP symmetries as guiding posts: revamping tri-bi-maximal mixing. Part I. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 036–27pp.
Abstract: We analyze the possible generalized CP symmetries admitted by the Tri-Bi-Maximal (TBM) neutrino mixing. Taking advantage of these symmetries we construct in a systematic way other variants of the standard TBM Ansatz. Depending on the type and number of generalized CP symmetries imposed, we get new mixing matrices, all of which related to the original TBM matrix. One of such revamped TBM variants is the recently discussed mixing matrix of arXiv:1806.03367. We also briefly discuss the phenomenological implications following from these mixing patterns.
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