15662551
Some remarks on oscillating inflation
In a recent paper Damour and Mukhanov describe a scenario where inflation may continue during the oscillatory phase. This effect is possible because the scalar field spends a significant fraction of each period of oscillation on the upper part of the potential. Such additional period of inflation could push perturbations after the slow roll regime to observable scales. Although in this work we show that the small region of the Damour-Mukhanov parameter q gives the main contribution to oscillating inflation, it was not satisfactory understood until now. Furthermore, it gives an expression for the energy density spectrum of perturbations, which is well behaved in the whole physical range of q .
119359128
Variational Study of the Phase Transition at Finite T in the $\lambda \phi^4 $-Theory
Assuming triviality of the 4-dimensional $\lambda \phi ^4$-theory we compute the effective potential by means of a self consistent Feynman-Bogoliubov method. This potential $U_{eff}^{FB}$ depends on a UV-cutoff, which is fixed by a stability condition for the gap-equation for the plasma mass. It shows a second order phase transition at zero temperature, in agreement with a large amount of analytical and RG analysis as well as Monte Carlo numerical evidence. As the cutoff $\Lambda $ is removed the renormalized self coupling constant $\lambda _R$ goes to zero consistent with the claim of triviality. At finite temperature the phase transition becomes weakly first order.
1744775
Self-consistent calculation of real space renormalization group flows and effective potentials
Abstract We show how to compute real space renormalization group flows in lattice field theory by a self-consistent method which is designed to preserve the basic stability properties of a Boltzmann factor. Particular attention is paid to controlling the errors which come from truncating the action to a manageable form. In each step, the integration over the fluctuation field (high frequency components of the field) is performed by a saddle point method. The saddle point depends on the block spin. Higher powers of derivatives of the field are neglected in the actions, but no polynomial approximation in the field is made. The flow preserves a simple parameterization of the action. In the first part the method is described and numerical results are presented. In the second part we discuss an improvement of the method where the saddle point approximation is preceded by self-consistent normal ordering, i.e. solution of a gap equation. In the third part we describe a general procedure to obtain higher order corrections with the help of Schwinger-Dyson equations. In this paper we treat scalar field theories as an example. The basic limitations of the method are also discussed. They come from a possible breakdown of stability which may occur when a composite block spin or block variables for domain walls would be needed.
119486225
Resonance enhancement of particle production during reheating
We found a consistent equation of reheating after inflation which shows that for small quantum fluctuations the frequencies of resonance are slighted different from the standard ones. Quantum interference is taken into account and we found that at large fluctuations the process mimics very well the usual parametric resonance, but proceeds in a different dynamical way. The analysis is made in a toy quantum mechanical model and we discuss further its extension to quantum field theory.
121231484
Interference in the radiation of two relativistic charges
The radiation produced by two interacting relativistic point charges is considered. Under an appropriate approximation the radiation of the system as a whole (interference effects included) is expressed as a function of the relative velocity.
8354557
Cluster Algorithm Renormalization Group Method
We present a self consistent method based on cluster algorithms and Renormalization Group on the lattice to study critical systems numerically. We ill ustrate it by means of the 2D Ising model. We compute the critical exponents ν and η and the renormalization group flow of the probability density function of the magnetization. The results, compared to the standard Monte Carlo Renormalization Group proposed by Swendsen [1], are very accurate and the method works faster by a factor which grows monotonically with the lattice size. This allows to simulate larger lattices in reachable computational times.
118478824
A non-perturbative argument for the non-abelian Higgs mechanism
Abstract The evasion of massless Goldstone bosons by the non-abelian Higgs mechanism is proved by a non-perturbative argument in the local BRST gauge.
7618269
Heavy fields, reduced speeds of sound, and decoupling during inflation
We discuss and clarify the validity of effective single field theories of inflation obtained by integrating out heavy degrees of freedom in the regime where adiabatic perturbations propagate with a suppressed speed of sound. We show by construction that it is indeed possible to have inflationary backgrounds where the speed of sound remains suppressed and slow-roll persists for long enough. In this class of models, heavy fields influence the evolution of adiabatic modes in a manner that is consistent with decoupling of physical low and high energy degrees of freedom. We emphasize the distinction between the effective masses of the isocurvature modes and the eigenfrequencies of the propagating high energy modes. Crucially, we find that the mass gap that defines the high frequency modes increases with the strength of the turn, even as the naive heavy (isocurvature) and light (curvature) modes become more strongly coupled. Adiabaticity is preserved throughout, and the derived effective field theory remains in the weakly coupled regime, satisfying all current observational constraints on the resulting primordial power spectrum. In addition, these models allow for an observably large equilateral non-Gaussianity.
119299896
Mass hierarchies and non-decoupling in multi-scalar field dynamics
In this work we study the effects of field space curvature on scalar field perturbations around an arbitrary background field trajectory evolving in time. Non-trivial imprints of the 'heavy' directions on the low energy dynamics arise when the vacuum manifold of the potential does not coincide with the span of geodesics defined by the sigma model metric of the full theory. When the kinetic energy is small compared to the potential energy, the field traverses a curve close to the vacuum manifold of the potential. The curvature of the path followed by the fields can still have a profound influence on the perturbations as modes parallel to the trajectory mix with those normal to it if the trajectory turns sharply enough. We analyze the dynamical mixing between these non-decoupled degrees of freedom and deduce its non-trivial contribution to the low energy effective theory for the light modes. We also discuss the consequences of this mixing for various scenarios where multiple scalar fields play a vital role, such as inflation and low-energy compactifications of string theory.
199684483
LOOP QUANTUM GRAVITY AND ULTRA HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS
A device for introducing particles into an analyzer of dustiness of a gaseous medium comprises a cell having a transparent cover with a microscope arranged thereabove. A through guide duct is made in a wall of the cell, while provided in the bottom of the latter are a vertical feed duct communicating with the dustiness analyzer and a horizontal channel which is an extension of the through guide duct and intersects the vertical feed duct. The device also comprises a source of a pure gaseous medium which is fed under pressure into the through guide duct wherewith the source communicates.
31013176
Effective theories of single field inflation when heavy fields matter
We compute the low energy effective field theory (EFT) expansion for single-field inflationary models that descend from a parent theory containing multiple other scalar fields. By assuming that all other degrees of freedom in the parent theory are sufficiently massive relative to the inflaton, it is possible to derive an EFT valid to arbitrary order in perturbations, provided certain generalized adiabaticity conditions are respected. These conditions permit a consistent low energy EFT description even when the inflaton deviates off its adiabatic minimum along its slowly rolling trajectory. By generalizing the formalism that identifies the adiabatic mode with the Goldstone boson of this spontaneously broken time translational symmetry prior to the integration of the heavy fields, we show that this invariance of the parent theory dictates the entire non-perturbative structure of the descendent EFT. The couplings of this theory can be written entirely in terms of the reduced speed of sound of adiabatic perturbations. The resulting operator expansion is distinguishable from that of other scenarios, such as standard single inflation or DBI inflation. In particular, we re-derive how certain operators can become transiently strongly coupled along the inflaton trajectory, consistent with slow-roll and the validity of the EFT expansion, imprinting features in the primordial power spectrum, and we deduce the relevant cubic operators that imply distinct signatures in the primordial bispectrum which may soon be constrained by observations. We dedicate this paper to the memory of our dear colleague and friend, Sjoerd Hardeman. His ideas, insights and diligence permeates every aspect of this work.