118452202
Understanding the WMAP Cold Spot mystery
The Cold Spot (CS) at galactic coordinates (b = −57°, l = 209°) was discovered in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)data as a cosmic background anomaly. In order to assess the cosmological significance of the Spot, we examine its properties using the cluster analysis of the local extrema in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal. We also check the hypothesis that the CMB signal has a non-Gaussian tail, localized in the low-multipole components. We constructed a linear filter, dividing the signal into two parts: non-Gaussian and Gaussian. Using the filter scale as a variable, we can maximize the skewness and kurtosis of the smoothed signal and minimize these statistics. We discovered that the shape of the CS is formed primarily by the components of the CMB signal represented by the multipoles between 10 ≤ ℓ ≤ 20, with a corresponding angular scale of about 5°–10°. This signal leads to the modulation of the CMB on the whole sky, clearly seen at |b| > 30° in both the ILC andWCM maps, rather than in a single localized feature. After subtraction of this modulation, the remaining part of the CMB signal appears to be consistent with statistical homogeneity and Gaussianity. We therefore infer that the mystery of the WMAP Cold Spot reflects directly the peculiarities of low multipoles of the CMB signal, rather than a single local (isolated) defect or the manifestations of a globally anisotropic cosmology.
17325286
THE GAUSS–LEGENDRE SKY PIXELIZATION FOR THE CMB POLARIZATION (GLESP-POL) ERRORS DUE TO PIXELIZATION OF THE CMB SKY
We present the development of the method for numerical analysis of polarization in the Gauss–Legendre sky pixelization (GLESP) scheme for CMB maps. This incorporation of the polarization transforms in the pixelization scheme GLESP completes the creation of our new method for numerical analysis of CMB maps. A comparison of GLESP and HEALPix calculations is done.
118530966
How accurately can we measure the hydrogen 2S->1S transition rate from the cosmological data?
Recent progress in observational cosmology, and especially the forthcoming PLANCK mission data, open new directions in so-called precision cosmology. In this paper we illustrate this statement considering the accuracy of cosmological determination of the two-quanta decay rate of 2s hydrogen atom state. We show that the PLANCK data will allow us to measure this decay rate significantly better than in the laboratory experiments.
118613110
How to make a clean separation between CMB E and B modes with proper foreground masking
We investigate the E/B decomposition of CMB polarization on a masked sky. In real space, operators of E and B mode decomposition involve only differentials of CMB polarization. We may, therefore in principle, perform a clean E/B decomposition from incomplete sky data. Since it is impractical to apply second derivatives to observation data, we usually rely on spherical harmonic transformation and inverse transformation, instead of using real-space operators. In spherical harmonic representation, jump discontinuities in a cut sky produces Gibbs phenomenon, unless a spherical harmonic expansion is made up to an infinitely high multipole. By smoothing a foreground mask, we may suppress the Gibbs phenomenon effectively in a similar manner to apodization of a foreground mask discussed in other works. However, we incur foreground contamination by smoothing a foreground mask, because zero-value pixels in the original mask may be rendered non-zero by the smoothing process. In this work, we investigate an optimal foreground mask, which ensures proper foreground masking and suppresses Gibbs phenomenon. We apply our method to a simulated map of the pixel resolution comparable to the Planck satellite. The simulation shows that the leakage power is lower than unlensed CMB B mode power spectrum of tensor-to-scalar ratio r ∼ 1 × 10 −7 . We compare the result with that of the original mask. We find that the leakage power is reduced by a factor of 10 6 ∼ 10 9 at the cost of a sky fraction 0.07, and that that the enhancement is highest at lowest multipoles. We confirm that all the zero-value pixels in the original mask remain zero in our mask. The application of this method to the Planck data will improve the detectability of primordial tensor perturbation.
118455901
CMB data constraint on self-annihilation of dark matter particles
Recently, self‐annihilation of dark matter particles is proposed to explain the “WMAP Haze” and excess of energetic positrons and electrons in ATIC and PAMELA results. If self‐annihilation of dark matter occurs around the recombination of cosmic plasma, energy release from self‐annihilation of dark matter delays the recombination, and hence affects CMB anisotropy. By using the recent CMB data, we have investigated the self‐annihilation of dark matter particles. In this investigation, we do not find statistically significant evidence, and impose an upper bound on 〈σν〉/mϰ.The upcoming data from Planck surveyor and the Fermi Gamma‐ray telescope will allow us to break some of parameter degeneracy and improve constraints on self‐annihilation of dark matter particles.
118997460
Alfv\'en turbulence in the WMAP 5 year data and a forecast for the PLANCK
14615026
The μ and soft masses from the intermediate scale brane with non-factorizable geometry
Abstract The proton decay problem and the negative brane tension problem in the original Randall–Sundrum model can be resolved by interpreting the Planck scale brane as the visible sector brane. The hierarchy problem is resolved with supersymmetry, and the TeV scales for soft masses and μ in supersymmetric models are generated by the physics at the intermediate scale (∼10 11–13  GeV) brane.
814570
Electroweak contributions to squark pair production at the CERN LHC
In this paper we compute electroweak contributions to the production of squark pairs at hadron colliders. These include the exchange of electroweak gauge bosons in the s-channel as well as electroweak gaugino exchange in the t- and/or u-channel. In many cases these can interfere with the dominant QCD contributions. As a result, we find sizable contributions to the production of two SU(2) doublet squarks. At the LHC, they amount to 10% to 20% for typical mSUGRA (or CMSSM) scenarios, but in more general scenarios they can vary between -40% and +55%, depending on size and sign of the SU(2) gaugino mass. The electroweak contribution to the total squark pair production rate at the LHC is about 3.5 times smaller.
14910648
Cosmological Implications of Radiatively Generated Axion Scale
Abstract We study cosmological implications of supersymmetric axion models in which the axion scale is generated radiatively. Such models lead to the so-called thermal inflation and subsequent reheating should be constrained not to yield to a too large axion energy density at the time of nucleosynthesis. We examine how plausible it is that this nucleosynthesis constraint is satisfied for both hadronic and Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitskii type axion models. Baryogenesis and the possibility for raising up the cosmological upper bound on the axion scale in thermal inflation scenario are also discussed.
120800011
A common scale for the invisible axion, local SUSY GUTs and Saxino decay
Abstract We identify the scale 10 11–12 GeV as that of the invisible axion and the SUSY breaking scale of local SUSY GUTs. The saxino ( a SUSY partner of the axino; the other partner is the invisble axion) decay is also commented on.
8343479
Very light axion
Here, the question arises, “Why is |θ̄| so small?”, which is the parameter problem in the standard model. It is commonly called the strong CP problem. Most small parameters in physics have led to some ideas, mostly those related to symmetries. For example, the small ratio MW /MP ≪ 1 (the so-called gauge hierarchy problem) led to supersymmetric solution [3], and mu,md ≪ 1 GeV led to the chiral symmetry [4]. The nicest solution of the strong CP problem is the existence of axion (very light, or invisible(?)