119202822
Ultralight scalar fields and the growth of structure in the Universe
Ultralight scalar fields, with masses of between m=10{sup -33} eV and m=10{sup -22} eV, can affect the growth of structure in the Universe. We identify the different regimes in the evolution of ultralight scalar fields, how they affect the expansion rate of the Universe, and how they affect the growth rate of cosmological perturbations. We find a number of interesting effects, discuss how they might arise in realistic scenarios of the early universe, and comment on how they might be observed.
17421918
Living in a void: testing the Copernican principle with distant supernovae.
We show that the local redshift dependence of the luminosity distance can be used to test the Copernican principle that we are not in a central or otherwise special region of the Universe. Future surveys of type Ia supernovae that focus on a redshift range of approximately 0.1-0.4 will be ideally suited to observationally determine the validity of the Copernican principle on new scales, as well as probing the degree to which dark energy must be considered a necessary ingredient in the Universe.
36591368
Fast and precise map‐making for massively multi‐detector CMB experiments
Future cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation experiments aim to measure an unprecedentedly small signal - the primordial gravity wave component of the polarisation field B-mode. To achieve this, they will analyse huge dataset s, involving years worth of timeordered data (TOD) from massively multi-detector focal planes. This creates the need for fast and precise methods to complement the M-L approach in analysis pipelines. In this paper, we investigate fast map-making methods as applied to long duration, massively multi-detector, ground-based experiments, in the context of the search for B-modes. We focus on two alternative map-making approaches: destriping and TOD filtering , comparing their performance on simulated multi-detector polarisation data. We have written an optimised, parallel destriping code, the DEStriping CARTographer (DESCART), that is generalised for massive focal planes, including the potential effect of cross-correlate d TOD 1/f noise. We also determine the scaling of computing time for destriping as applied to a simulated full-season data-set for a realistic experiment. We find that destriping can out-perf orm filtering in estimating both the large-scale E and B-mode angular power spectra. In particular, filtering can produce significant spurious B-mode power via EB mixing. Whilst this can be removed, it contributes to the variance of B-mode bandpower estimates at scales near the primordial B-mode peak. For the experimental configuration we simulate, this has an effect o n the possible detection significance for primordial B-modes. Destriping is a viable alternative fast method to the full M-L approach that does not cause the problems associated with fil tering, and is flexible enough to
11014726
Initial conditions of the universe: how much isocurvature is allowed?
We investigate the constraints imposed by current data on correlated mixtures of adiabatic and nonadiabatic primordial perturbations. We discover subtle flat directions in parameter space that tolerate large (approximately 60%) fractions of nonadiabatic fluctuations. In particular, larger values of the baryon density and a spectral tilt are allowed. The cancellations in the degenerate directions are explored and the role of priors is elucidated.
119408227
CMB likelihood functions for beginners and experts
Although the broad outlines of the appropriate pipeline for cosmological likelihood analysis with CMB data has been known for several years, only recently have we had to contend with the full, large-scale, computationally challenging problem involving both highly-correlated noise and extremely large datasets (N>1000). In this talk we concentrate on the beginning and end of this process. First, we discuss estimating the noise covariance from the data itself in a rigorous and unbiased way; this is essentially an iterated minimum-variance mapmaking approach. We also discuss the unbiased determination of cosmological parameters from estimates of the power spectrum or experimental bandpowers.
122687802
Imaging the early universe with the BOOMERanG Experiment
The BOOMERanG experiment has recently detected temperature fluctuations the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the otherwise isotropic radiation coming from the early Universe. These anisotropies have a low contrast (about 30 ppm) and feature a peculiar angular power spectrum at angles corresponding to sub-horizon scales at recombination. In the current cosmological model, these structures result from acoustic oscillations in the primeval plasma. In the framework of the Hot Big Bang theory with the inflationary hypothesis, the statistical properties of the image of the CMB allow us to measure most of the cosmological parameters.
118670235
Evading death by vacuum
In the Standard Model, the Higgs potential allows only one minimum at tree level. But the open possibility that there might be two scalar doublets enriches the vacuum structure, allowing for the risk that we might now be in a metastable state, which we dub the panic vacuum. Current experiments at the LHC are probing the Higgs particle predicted as a result of the spontaneous symmetry breaking. Remarkably, in the two Higgs model with a softly broken U(1) symmetry, the LHC experiments already allow to exclude many panic vacuum solutions.
118589050
Avoiding Death by Vacuum
The two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM) can have two electroweak breaking, CP-conserving, minima. The possibility arises that the minimum which corresponds to the known elementary particle spectrum is metastable, a possibility we call the panic vacuum. We present analytical bounds on the parameters of the softly broken Peccei-Quinn 2HDM which are necessary and sufficient conditions to avoid this possibility. We also show that, for this particular model, the current LHC data already tell us that we are necessarily in the global minimum of the theory, regardless of any cosmological considerations about the lifetime of the false vacua.
119205906
Discrete and continuous symmetries in multi-Higgs-doublet models
We consider the Higgs sector of multi-Higgs-doublet models in the presence of simple symmetries relating the various fields. We construct basis-invariant observables which may in principle be used to detect these symmetries for any number of doublets. A categorization of the symmetries into classes is required, which we perform in detail for the case of two and three Higgs doublets.
119087524
Neutral minima in two-Higgs doublet models
We study the neutral minima of two-Higgs doublet models, showing that these potentials can have at least two such minima with different depths. We analyse the phenomenology of these minima for the several types of two-Higgs doublet potentials, where CP is explicitly broken, spontaneously broken or preserved. We discover that it is possible to have a neutral minimum in these potentials where the masses of the known particles have their standard values, with another deeper minimum where those same particles acquire different masses.
119098673
Pseudo-Photon Radiative Corrections in Non-Regular Backgrounds
Extended $U_e(1)\times U_g(1)$ electromagnetism containing both a photon and a pseudo-photon is introduced at variational level and is justified by the violation of the Bianchi identities in conceptual systems, either in the presence of magnetic monopoles or non-regular external fields, not being accounted by the standard Maxwell action. It is shown that in the perturbative quantum field theory regimes there are observable consequences both for the magnetic momenta and second order vacuum polarization radiative corrections in the presence of non-regular strong electromagnetic fields (e.g. rotating magnetic fields).