The decaying vacuum model (DV), treating dark energy as a varying vacuum, has been studied well recently. The vacuum energy decays linearly with the Hubble parameter in the late-times, $ρ_Λ(t) \propto H(t)$, and produces the additional matter component. We constrain the parameters of the DV model using the recent data-sets from supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, baryon acoustic oscillations, CMB, the Hubble rate and x-rays in galaxy clusters. It is found that the best fit of matter density contrast $Ω_m$ in the DV model is much lager than that in $Λ$CDM model. We give the confidence contours in the $Ω_m-h$ plane up to $3σ$ confidence level. Besides, the normalized likelihoods of $Ω_m$ and $h$ are presented, respectively. %
The thermodynamic behavior of a decaying vacuum cosmology describing the entire cosmological history evolving between two extreme (early and late time) de Sitter eras is investigated. The thermal evolution from the early de Sitter to the radiation phase is discussed in detail. The temperature evolution law and the increasing entropy function are analytically determined. The entropy of the effectively massless particles is initially zero but evolves continuously to the present day maximum value within the current Hubble radius, $S_0 \sim 10^{88}$ in natural units. By using the Gibbons-Hawking t…
We propose a novel cosmological scenario with the space-time emerging from a pure initial de Sitter stage and subsequently evolving into the radiation, matter and dark energy dominated epochs, thereby avoiding the initial singularity and providing a complete description of the expansion history and a natural solution to the horizon problem. The model is based on a dynamical vacuum energy density which evolves as a power series of the Hubble rate. The transit from the inflation into the standard radiation epoch is universal, giving a clue for a successful description of the graceful exit. Since…
We investigate a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmology in which a decaying vacuum term causes matter production at late times. Assuming a decay proportional to the Hubble rate, the ratio of the background energy densities of dark matter and dark energy changes with the cosmic scale factor as $a^{-3/2}$. The intrinsically non-adiabatic two-component perturbation dynamics of this model is reduced to a single second-order equation. Perturbations of the vacuum term are shown to be negligible on scales that are relevant for structure formation. On larger scales, dark-energy p…
In this work I discuss the dynamical and thermodynamical equivalence between a general k-essence scalar field cosmology and an arbitrary cosmological model with a decaying vacuum, thus generalizing the approach proposed by Maia and Lima [Phys. Rev. D {\bf 65}, 083513 (2002)]. The formalism obtained is quite general and holds for any non-canonical scalar field model. As a special case I derive a Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) model with an exponential potential and constant speed of sound, and show that it is equivalent to a cosmological model with decay law $Λ(H) = 3βH^2$.
We consider General Relativity with matter and radiation, one of these fluids being coupled to vacuum. We find that Universe dynamics starts by an inflation phase if the coupled fluid has a negative energy density at early time. Then, there is always a finite scale factor singularity but when vacuum and matter are coupled and matter density behaves like a negative radiation density. Moreover, the convergence to the LCDM model is clearly easier to reach when vacuum is coupled to matter rather than to radiation. Two classes of theories are studied to illustrate these results.
In this work we study the evolution of matter-density perturbations for an arbitrary $Λ(t)$ model, and specialize our analysis to the particular phenomenological law $Λ= Λ_0 + 3βH^2$. We study the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate in this particular dark energy scenario and, by constraining the $β$ parameter using both the age of the universe and the cosmic star formation rate curve, we show that it leads to a reasonable physical model for $β\lesssim 0.1$.
A model of a cloud formed by massive strings is used as a source of LRS Bianchi type II with time decaying vacuum energy density $Λ$. To construct string cosmological models we have used the energy-momentum tensor for such string as formulated by Letelier (1983). The high nonlinear field equations have been solved for two types of strings, (i) Massive string and (ii) Nambu string. The expansion $θ$ in the model is assumed to be proportional to the shear $σ$. This condition leads to $A=βB^{m}$, where $A$ and $B$ are the metric coefficients, $m$ is a constant and $β$ is an integrating constant. …
We discuss the cosmological consequences of an interacting model in the dark sector in which the $Λ$ component evolves as a truncated power series of the Hubble parameter. In order to constrain the free parameters of the model we carry out a joint statistical analysis involving observational data from current type Ia supernovae, recent estimates of the cosmic microwave background shift parameter and baryon acoustic oscillations measurements. Finally, we adopt a theoretical method to derive the coupled scalar field version for this non-equilibrium decaying vacuum accelerating cosmology.
Recent works of [1402.2301,1402.4119], claiming the detection of extra emission line with energy ~3.5 keV in X-ray spectra of certain clusters of galaxies and nearby Andromeda galaxy, have raised considerable interest in astrophysics and particle physics communities. A number of new observational studies claim detection or non-detection of the extra line in X-ray spectra of various cosmic objects. In this review I summarize existing results of these studies, overview possible interpretations of the extra line, including intriguing connection with radiatively decaying dark matter, and show futu…
We construct the cosmological model to explain the cosmological constant problem. We built the extension of the standard cosmological model $Λ$CDM by consideration of decaying vacuum energy represented by the running cosmological term. From the principles of quantum mechanics one can find that in the long term behavior survival probability of unstable states is a decreasing function of the cosmological time and has the inverse power-like form. This implies that cosmological constant $ρ_{\text{vac}} = Λ(t) = Λ_{\text{bare}} + \fracα{t^2}$ where $Λ_{\text{bare}}$ and $α$ are constants. We invest…
Within the quantum mechanical treatment of the decay problem one finds that at late times $t$ the survival probability of an unstable state cannot have the form of an exponentially decreasing function of time $t$ but it has an inverse power-like form. This is a general property of unstable states following from basic principles of quantum theory. The consequence of this property is that in the case of false vacuum states the cosmological constant becomes dependent on time: $Λ- Λ_{\text{bare}}\equiv Λ(t) -Λ_{\text{bare}} \sim 1/t^{2}$. We construct the cosmological model with decaying vacuum en…
We propose a large class of nonsingular cosmologies of arbitrary spatial curvature whose cosmic history is determined by a primeval dynamical $Λ(t)$-term. For all values of the curvature, the models evolve between two extreme de Sitter phases driven by the relic time-varying vacuum energy density. The transition from inflation to the radiation phase is universal and points to a natural solution of the graceful exit problem regardless of the values of the curvature parameter. The flat case recovers the scenario recently discussed in the literature (Perico et al., Phys. Rev. D88, 063531, 2013). …
We examine the decay vacuum model with a parameter $ε$ that indicates the vacuum energy decay rate. By constraining this model with cosmic microwave background radiation, baryon acoustic oscillation, type Ia supernovae and 30 H(z) cosmic chronometer data points, we find that $ε=-0.0003\pm0.00024$ with the best fitted $χ^{2}$ value slightly smaller than that in the $Λ$CDM model. A negative value of $ε$ suggesting dark matter energy decay into vacuum energy. We also obtain the Hubble constant $H_{0}=68.05\pm0.56$ that can alleviate the current $H_{0}$ tension between the local observation by the…
As an extension of $Λ$CDM, the decaying vacuum model (DV) describes the dark energy as a varying vacuum whose energy density decays linearly with the Hubble parameter in the late-times, $ρ_Λ(t) \propto H(t)$, and produces the matter component. We examine the high-$z$ cosmic age problem in the DV model, and compare it with $Λ$CDM and the Yang-Mills condensate (YMC) dark energy model. Without employing a dynamical scalar field for dark energy, these three models share a similar behavior of late-time evolution. It is found that the DV model, like YMC, can accommodate the high-$z$ quasar APM 08279…
We consider the perturbation dynamics for the cosmic baryon fluid and determine the corresponding power spectrum for a $Λ(t)$CDM model in which a cosmological term decays into dark matter linearly with the Hubble rate. The model is tested by a joint analysis of data from supernovae of type Ia (SNIa) (Constitution and Union 2.1), baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO), the position of the first peak of the anisotropy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale-structure (LSS) data (SDSS DR7). While the homogeneous and isotropic background dynamics is only marginally influence…
Global symmetry can guarantee the stability of dark matter particles (DMps). However, the nonminimal coupling between dark matter (DM) and gravity can destroy the global symmetry of DMps, which in turn leads to their decay. Under the framework of nonminimal coupling between scalar singlet dark matter (ssDM) and gravity, it is worth exploring to what extent the symmetry of ssDM is broken. It is suggested that the total amount of decay products of ssDM cannot exceed current observational constraints. Along these lines, the data obtained with satellites such as Fermi-LAT and AMS-02 can limit the …
The concordance particle creation model - a class of $Λ(t)$CDM cosmologies - is studied using large scale structure (LSS) formation, with particular attention to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. The evolution of the gravitational potential and the amplitude of the cross-correlation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal with LSS surveys are calculated in detail. We properly include in our analysis the peculiarities involving the baryonic dynamics of the $Λ(t)$CDM model which were not included in previous works. Although both the $Λ(t)$CDM and the standard cosmology are in agre…
We present an analysis of the Brans-Dicke cosmological model with a cosmological constant and cold dark matter (BD-$Λ$CDM). We find that the BD-$Λ$CDM is favored by the overall cosmological data (SNIa+BAO+$H(z)$+LSS+CMB) when it is compared with the standard model of cosmology. The BD-$Λ$CDM model can be viewed from the GR perspective as a Running Vacuum Model (RVM) with a time evolving vacuum energy density. Due to this fact and also to its time evolving effective gravitational coupling, the model can alleviate the $σ_8$ and the $H_0$ tensions at a time. We also present the results for differ…
Models of Co-Decaying dark matter lead to an early matter dominated epoch -- prior to BBN -- which results in an enhancement of the growth of dark matter substructure. If these primordial structures collapse further they can form primordial black holes providing an additional dark matter candidate. We derive the mass fraction in these black holes (which is not monochromatic) and consider observational constraints on how much of the dark matter could be comprised in these relics. We find that in many cases they can be a significant fraction of the dark matter. Interestingly, the masses of these…
In this paper, we investigate the observational constraints on the scenario of vacuum energy interacting with cold dark matter. We consider eight typical interaction forms in such an interacting vacuum energy scenario. The observational data used in this work to constrain these models include the JLA sample of type Ia supernovae observation, the Planck 2015 distance priors data of cosmic microwave background anisotropies observation, the baryon acoustic oscillations data, and the Hubble constant direct measurement. We find that the current observational data almost equally favor these interact…
We assess two potential signals of the formation of our universe by the decay of a false vacuum. Negative spatial curvature is one possibility, but the window for its detection is now small. However, another possible signal is a suppression of the CMB power spectrum at large angles. This arises from the steepening of the effective potential as it interpolates between a flat inflationary plateau and the high barrier separating us from our parent vacuum. We demonstrate that these two effects can be parametrically separated in angular scale. Observationally, the steepening effect appears to be ex…
We study effects of long-lived massive particles, which decay during the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch, on the primordial abundances of light elements. Compared to the previous studies, (i) the reaction rates of the standard BBN reactions are updated, (ii) the most recent observational data of light element abundances and cosmological parameters are used, (iii) the effects of the interconversion of energetic nucleons at the time of inelastic scatterings with background nuclei are considered, and (iv) the effects of the hadronic shower induced by energetic high energy anti-nucleons are i…
We study observational consequences of the model for dark energy proposed in [1] (Aoki et al., Phys.Rev. D97 (2018) no.4, 043517). We assume our universe has been created by bubble nucleation, and consider quantum fluctuations of an ultralight scalar field. Residual effects of fluctuations generated in an ancestor vacuum (de Sitter space in which the bubble was formed) is interpreted as dark energy. Its equation of state parameter w(z) has a characteristic form, approaching -1 in the future, but -1/3 in the past. A novel feature of our model is that dark energy effectively increases the magnit…
In the standard inflationary paradigm, cosmological density perturbations are generated as quantum fluctuations in the early Universe, but then undergo a quantum-to-classical transition. A key role in this transition is played by squeezing of the quantum state, which is a result of the strong suppression of the decaying mode component of the perturbations. Motivated by ever improving measurements of the cosmological perturbations, we ask whether there are scenarios where this decaying mode is nevertheless still observable in the late Universe, ideally leading to a ``smoking gun'' signature of …
The dynamics of interacting dark matter-dark energy models is characterized through an interaction rate function quantifying the energy flow between these dark sectors. In most of the interaction functions, the expansion rate Hubble function is considered and sometimes it is argued that, as the interaction function is a local property, the inclusion of the Hubble function may influence the overall dynamics. This is the starting point of the present article where we consider a very simple interacting cosmic scenario between vacuum energy and the cold dark matter characterized by various interac…
If the dark matter sector in the universe is composed by metastable particles, galaxies and galaxy clusters are expected to undergo significant secular evolution from high to low redshift. We show that the decay of dark matter, with a lifetime compatible with cosmological constraints, can be at the origin of the observed evolution of the Tully-Fisher relation of disk galaxies and alleviate the problem of the size-evolution of elliptical galaxies, while being consistent with the current observational constraints on the gas fraction of clusters of galaxies.
We analyse three cosmological scenarios with interaction in the dark sector, which are particular cases of a general expression for the energy flux from vacuum to matter. In the first case the interaction leads to a transition from an unstable de Sitter phase to a radiation dominated universe, avoiding in this way the initial singularity. In the second case the interaction gives rise to a slow-roll power-law inflation. Finally, the third scenario is a concordance model for the late-time universe, with the vacuum term decaying into cold dark matter. We identify the physics behind these forms of…
We investigate the power spectra of the CMB temperature and matter density in the running vacuum model (RVM) with the time-dependent cosmological constant of $Λ= 3 νH^2 + Λ_0$, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter. In this model, dark energy decreases in time and decays to both matter and radiation. By using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method, we constrain the model parameter $ν$ as well as the cosmological observables. Explicitly, we obtain $ν\leq 1.54 \times 10^{-4}$ (68\% confidence level) in the RVM with the best-fit $χ^2_{\mathrm{RVM}} = 13968.8$, which is slightly smaller than $χ^2_{Λ\math…
Decaying dark matter cosmological models have been proposed to remedy the overproduction problem at small scales in the standard cold dark matter paradigm. We consider a decaying dark matter model in which one CDM mother particle decays into two daughter particles, with arbitrary masses. A complete set of Boltzmann equations of dark matter particles is derived which is necessary to calculate the evolutions of their energy densities and their density perturbations. By comparing the expansion history of the universe in this model and the free-streaming scale of daughter particles with astronomic…
Numerous observations point towards the existence of an unknown elementary particle with no electromagnetic interactions, a large population of which was presumably produced in the early stages of the history of the Universe. This so-called dark matter has survived until the present day, accounting for the 26% of the present energy budget of the Universe. It remains an open question whether the particles comprising the dark matter are absolutely stable or whether they have a finite but very long lifetime, which is a possibility since there is no known general principle guaranteeing perfect sta…
Decaying dark matter particles could be indirectly detected as an excess over a simple power law in the energy spectrum of the diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background. Furthermore, since the Earth is not located at the center of the Galactic dark matter halo, the exotic contribution from dark matter decay to the diffuse gamma-ray flux is expected to be anisotropic, offering a complementary method for the indirect search for decaying dark matter particles. In this paper we discuss in detail the expected dipole-like anisotropies in the dark matter signal, taking also into account the radiatio…
If a fraction $f_{\rm dcdm}$ of the Dark Matter decays into invisible and massless particles (so-called "dark radiation") with the decay rate (or inverse lifetime) $Γ_{\rm dcdm}$, such decay will leave distinctive imprints on cosmological observables. With a full consideration of the Boltzmann hierarchy, we calculate the decay-induced impacts not only on the CMB but also on the redshift distortion and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, while providing detailed physical interpretations based on evaluating the evolution of gravitational potential. By using the current cosmological data with …
After decades of successful hot big-bang paradigm, Cosmology still lacks a framework in which the early inflationary phase of the universe smoothly matches the radiation epoch and evolves to the present `quasi' de Sitter spacetime. No less intriguing is that the current value of the effective vacuum energy density is vastly smaller than the value that triggered inflation. In this Essay we propose a new class of cosmologies capable of overcoming, or highly alleviating, some of these acute cosmic puzzles. Powered by a decaying vacuum energy density, the spacetime emerges from a pure nonsingular …
We explore the bounds that can be placed on interactions between cold dark matter and vacuum energy, with equation of state $w=-1$, using state-of-the-art cosmological observations. We consider linear perturbations about a simple background model where the energy transfer per Hubble time, $Q/H$, is a general linear function of the dark matter density, $ρ_c$, and vacuum energy, $V$. We explain the parameter degeneracies found when fitting cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies alone, and show how these are broken by the addition of supernovae data, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and…
Decaying Dark Energy models modify the background evolution of the most common observables, such as the Hubble function, the luminosity distance and the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature-redshift scaling relation. We use the most recent observationally-determined datasets, including Supernovae Type Ia and Gamma Ray Bursts data, along with $H(z)$ and Cosmic Microwave Background temperature versus $z$ data and the reduced Cosmic Microwave Background parameters, to improve the previous constraints on these models. We perform a Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis to constrain the parameter spa…
We propose a theoretical framework that can possibly constrain the initial vacuum by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations. With a generic vacuum without any particular choice a priori, thereby keeping both the Bogolyubov coefficients in the analysis, we compute observable parameters from two- and three-point correlation functions. We are thus left with constraining four model parameters from the two complex Bogolyubov coefficients. We also demonstrate a method of finding out the constraint relations between the Bogolyubov coefficients using the theoretical normalization condition and…
A large number of studies, all using Bayesian parameter inference from Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, have constrained the presence of a decaying dark matter component. All such studies find a strong preference for either very long-lived or very short-lived dark matter. However, in this letter, we demonstrate that this preference is due to parameter volume effects that drive the model towards the standard $Λ$CDM model, which is known to provide a good fit to most observational data. Using profile likelihoods, which are free from volume effects, we instead find that the best-fitting paramete…
An important and long-standing puzzle in the history of modern physics is the gross inconsistency between theoretical expectations and cosmological observations of the vacuum energy density, by at least 60 orders of magnitude, otherwise known as the \textit{cosmological constant problem}. A characteristic feature of vacuum energy is that it has a pressure with the same amplitude, but opposite sign to its energy density, while all the precision tests of General Relativity are either in vacuum, or for media with negligible pressure. Therefore, one may wonder whether an anomalous coupling to pres…
The recent discovery of unexplained X-ray line of $3.5-3.6$ keV emitted from the Perseus cluster of galaxies and M31 and the excess X-ray line of $8.7$ keV emitted from the Milky Way center may indicate that dark matter would decay. In this article, I show that approximately 80 \% of dark matter being 7.1 keV sterile neutrinos and 20 \% of dark matter being 17.4 keV sterile neutrinos can satisfactorily explain the observed X-ray lines and account for all missing mass. No free parameter is needed in this model. This scenario is also compatible with current robust observational constraints from …
Inspired by the decaying dark matter (DM) which can explain cosmic ray anomalies naturally, we consider the supersymmetric Standard Model with three right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and R-parity, and introduce a TeV-scale DM sector with two fields ϕ_{1,2} and a $Z_3$ discrete symmetry. The DM sector only interacts with the RHNs via a very heavy field exchange and then we can explain the cosmic ray anomalies. With the second right-handed neutrino N_2 dominant seesaw mechanism at the low scale around 10^4 GeV, we show that ϕ_{1,2} can obtain the vacuum expectation values around the TeV scale, and t…
In this paper, we introduce a novel class of interacting vacuum models, based on recasting the equation of state originally developed in the context of lattice kinetic theory by Shan \& Chen as the coupling between the vacuum and cold dark matter (CDM). This coupling allows the vacuum to evolve and is nonlinear around a characteristic energy scale $ρ_*$, changing into a linear coupling with a typical power law evolution at scales much lower and much higher than $ρ_*$. Focusing on the simplest sub-class of models where the interaction consists only of an energy exchange and the CDM remains geod…
We investigate the dynamics of the generalized $Λ$CDM model, which the $Λ$ term is running with the cosmological time. The $Λ(t)$ term emerges from the covariant theory of the scalar field $ϕ$ with the self-interacting potential $V(ϕ)$. On the example of the model $Λ(t)=Λ_{\text{bare}}+\frac{α^2}{t^2}$ we show the existence of a mechanism of the modification of the scaling law for energy density of dark matter: $ρ_{\text{dm}}\propto a^{-3+λ(t)}$. We discuss the evolution of $Λ(t)$ term and pointed out that during the cosmic evolution there is a long phase in which this term is approximately co…
We present a set of N-body simulations of a class of models in which an unstable dark matter particle decays into a stable non-interacting dark matter particle, with decay lifetime comparable to the Hubble time. We study the effects of the kinematic recoil velocity received by the stable dark matter on the structures of dark matter halos ranging from galaxy-cluster to Milky Way mass scales. For Milky Way-mass halos, we use high-resolution, zoom-in simulations to explore the effects of decays on Galactic substructure. In general, halos with circular velocities comparable to the magnitude of kic…
Decaying dark matter (DDM) is a candidate which can solve the discrepancies between predictions of the concordance $Λ$CDM model and observations at small scales such as the number counts of companion galaxies of the Milky Way and the density profile at the center of galaxies. Previous studies are limited to the cases where the decay particles are massless and/or have almost degenerate masses with that of mother particles. Here we expand the DDM models so that one can consider the DDM with arbitrary lifetime and the decay products with arbitrary masses. We calculate the time evolutions of pertu…
We investigate the cosmic thermal evolution with a vacuum energy which decays into photon at the low-redshift. We assume that the vacuum energy is a function of the scale factor that increases toward the early universe. We put on the constraints using recent observations of both type Ia supernovae (SNIa) by Union-2 compilation and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature at the range of the redshift 0.01 < z < 3. From SNIa, we find that the effects of a decaying vacuum energy on the cosmic expansion rate should be very small but could be possible for z < 1.5. On the other hand, we obt…
