118724442
Measuring the speed of cosmological gravitational waves
In general relativity gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, however in alternative theories of gravity that might not be the case. We study the effects of a modified speed of gravity, $c_T^2$, on the B-modes of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy in polarisation. We find that a departure from the light speed value would leave a characteristic imprint on the BB spectrum part induced by tensors, manifesting as a shift in the angular scale of its peaks. We derive constraints by using the available {\it Planck} and BICEP2 datasets showing how $c_T^2$ can be measured, albeit obtaining weak constraints due to the overall poor accuracy of the current BB power spectrum measurements. The present constraint corresponds to $c_T^2 = 1.30 \pm 0.79$ and $c_T^2< 2.85$ at $95%$ C.L. by assuming a power law primordial tensor power spectrum and $c_T^2<2.33$ at $95%$ C.L. if the running of the spectral index is allowed. We derive forecasts for the next generation CMB satellites, which we find capable of tightly constraining $c_T^2$ at percent level, comparable with bounds from binary pulsar measurements, largely due to the absence of degeneracy with other cosmological parameters.
119273766
Gravitational waves from oscillon preheating
A bstractOscillons are long-lived, localized excitations of nonlinear scalar fields which may be copiously produced during preheating after inflation, leading to a possible oscillon dominated phase in the early Universe. For example, this can happen after axion monodromy inflation, on which we run our simulations. We investigate the stochastic gravitational wave background associated with an oscillon-dominated phase. An isolated oscillon is spherically symmetric and does not radiate gravitational waves, and we show that the flux of gravitational radiation generated between oscillons is also small. However, a significant stochastic gravitational wave background may be generated during preheating itself (i.e, when oscillons are forming), and in this case the characteristic size of the oscillons is imprinted on the gravitational wave power spectrum, which has multiple, distinct peaks.
55434748
Multi-Galileons, solitons, and Derrick's theorem
The field theory Galilean symmetry, which was introduced in the context of modified gravity, gives a neat way to construct Lorentz-covariant theories of a scalar field, such that the equations of motion contain at most second-order derivatives. Here we extend the analysis to an arbitrary number of scalars, and examine the restrictions imposed by an internal symmetry, focussing in particular on SU(N) and SO(N). This therefore extends the possible gradient terms that may be used to stabilise topological objects such as sigma model lumps.
118686993
Bi-galileon theory II: phenomenology
We continue to introduce bi-galileon theory, the generalisation of the single galileon model introduced by Nicolis et al. The theory contains two coupled scalar fields and is described by a Lagrangian that is invariant under Galilean shifts in those fields. This paper is the second of two, and focuses on the phenomenology of the theory. We are particularly interesting in models that admit solutions that are asymptotically self accelerating or asymptotically self tuning. In contrast to the single galileon theories, we find examples of self accelerating models that are simultaneously free from ghosts, tachyons and tadpoles, able to pass solar system constraints through Vainshtein screening, and do not suffer from problems with superluminality, Cerenkov emission or strong coupling. We also find self tuning models and discuss how Weinberg’s no go theorem is evaded by breaking Poincaré invariance in the scalar sector. Whereas the galileon description is valid all the way down to solar system scales for the self-accelerating models, unfortunately the same cannot be said for self tuning models owing to the scalars backreacting strongly on to the geometry.
119117717
Gradient expansion of superhorizon perturbations in G-inflation
We develop the gradient expansion formalism for shift-symmetric Galileon-type actions. We focus on backgrounds that undergo inflation, work in the synchronous gauge, and obtain a general solution up to second order without imposing extra conditions at first order. The solution simplifies during the late stages of inflation. We also define a curvature perturbation conserved up to first order.
55684447
Cosmological constraints on f(G) dark energy models
Modified gravity theories with the Gauss-Bonnet term G = R2−4RμνRμν+RμνρσRμνρσ have recently gained a lot of attention as a possible explanation of dark energy. We perform a thorough phase space analysis on the so-called f(G) models, where f(G) is some general function of the Gauss-Bonnet term, and derive conditions for the cosmological viability of f(G) dark energy models. Following the f(R) case, we show that these conditions can be nicely presented as geometrical constraints on the derivatives of f(G). We find that for general f(G) models there are two kinds of stable accelerated solutions, a de Sitter solution and a phantom-like solution. They co-exist with each other and which solution the universe evolves to depends on the initial conditions. Finally, several toy models of f(G) dark energy are explored. Cosmologically viable trajectories that mimic the ΛCDM model in the radiation and matter dominated periods, but have distinctive signatures at late times, are obtained.
15422606
Meson Spectra from an Effective Light Cone QCD-Inspired Model
I present some recent applications of a light cone QCD-inspired model with the mass squared operator consisting of a harmonic oscillator potential as confinement in the meson spectra. The model gives an universal and satisfactory description of both singlet and triplet states of S-wave mesons. In the present work P-wave D_s mesons are also investigated. The mass of the recently found meson, D_s(2317) is reproduced fairly well by this simple model.
119226033
Impacts of the Higgs mass on vacuum stability, running fermion masses and two-body Higgs decays
The recent results of the ATLAS and CMS experiments indicate 116 GeV less than or similar to M-H less than or similar to 131 GeV and 115 GeV less than or similar to M-H less than or similar to 127 GeV, respectively, for the mass of the Higgs boson in the standard model (SM) at the 95% confidence level. In particular, both experiments point to a preferred narrow mass range M-H similar or equal to (124 . . . 126) GeV. We examine the impact of this preliminary result of M-H on the SM vacuum stability by using the two-loop renormalization-group equations, and arrive at the cutoff scale Lambda(VS) similar to 4 X 10(12) GeV (for M-H = 125 GeV, M-t = 172.9 GeV, and alpha(s)(M-Z) = 0.1184), where the absolute stability of the SM vacuum is lost and some kind of new physics might take effect. We update the values of running lepton and quark masses at some typical energy scales, including the ones characterized by M-H, 1 TeV and Lambda(VS), with the help of the two-loop renormalization-group equations. The branching ratios of some important two-body Higgs decay modes, such as H -> b (b) over bar, H -> tau(+)tau(-), H -> gamma gamma, H -> W+W-, and H -> ZZ, are also recalculated by inputting the values of relevant particle masses at M-H.
118442205
Real stabilization method for nuclear single-particle resonances
We develop the real stabilization method within the framework of the relativistic mean-field (RMF) model. With the self-consistent nuclear potentials from the RMF model, the real stabilization method is used to study single-particle resonant states in spherical nuclei. As examples, the energies, widths, and wave functions of low-lying neutron resonant states in {sup 120}Sn are obtained. These results are compared with those from the scattering phase-shift method and the analytic continuation in the coupling constant approach and satisfactory agreements are found.
13176056
Updated values of running quark and lepton masses
Reliable values of quark and lepton masses are important for model building at a fundamental energy scale, such as the Fermi scale M-Z approximate to 91.2 GeV and the would-be GUT scale Lambda(GUT) similar to 2 x 10(16) GeV. Using the latest data given by the Particle Data Group, we update the running quark and charged-lepton masses at a number of interesting energy scales below and above M-Z. In particular, we take into account the possible new physics scale (mu similar to 1 TeV) to be explored by the CERN LHC and the typical seesaw scales (mu similar to 10(9) GeV and mu similar to 10(12) GeV) which might be relevant to the generation of neutrino masses. For illustration, the running masses of three light Majorana neutrinos are also calculated. Our up-to-date tables of running fermion masses are expected to be very useful for the study of flavor dynamics at various energy scales.
12995113
Possible deviation from the tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing in a seesaw model
We propose a simple but suggestive seesaw model with two phenomenological conjectures: three heavy (right-handed) Majorana neutrinos are degenerate in mass in the symmetry limit and three light Majorana neutrinos have the tri-bimaximal mixing pattern ${V}_{0}$. We show that a small mass splitting between the first generation and the other two generations of heavy Majorana neutrinos is responsible for the deviation of the solar neutrino mixing angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{12}$ from its initial value $35.3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ given by ${V}_{0}$, and the slight breaking of the mass degeneracy between the second and third generations of heavy Majorana neutrinos results in a small mixing angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{13}$ and a tiny departure of the atmospheric neutrino mixing angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{23}$ from $45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$. It turns out that a normal hierarchy of the light neutrino mass spectrum is favored in this seesaw scenario.