We analyze an inflationary model in which part of the power in density perturbations arises due to particle production. The amount of particle production is modulated by an auxiliary field. Given an initial gradient for the auxiliary field, this model produces a hemispherical power asymmetry and a suppression of power at low multipoles similar to those observed by WMAP and Planck in the CMB temperature. It also predicts an additive contribution to $δT$ with support only at very small $l$ that is aligned with the direction of the power asymmetry and has a definite sign, as well as small oscillations in the power spectrum at all $l$.
The residuals of the power spectra of WMAP and Planck's cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies data are known to exhibit a few interesting anomalies at different scales with marginal statistical significance. Combining bottom-up and top-down model-building approaches and using a pipeline that efficiently compares model predictions with data, we construct a model of primordial standard clock that is able to link and address the anomalies at both the large and small scales. This model, and its variant, provide some of the best fits to the feature anomalies in CMB. According to Bayes evid…
We study incomplete relaxation to quantum equilibrium at long wavelengths, during a pre-inflationary phase, as a possible explanation for the reported large-scale anomalies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Our scenario makes use of the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave formulation of quantum theory, in which the Born probability rule has a dynamical origin. The large-scale power deficit could arise from incomplete relaxation for the amplitudes of the primordial perturbations. We show, by numerical simulations for a spectator scalar field, that if the pre-inflationary era is radiation dominat…
Silk damping of primordial small-scale perturbations in the photon-baryon fluid due to diffusion of photons inevitably creates spectral distortions in the CMB. With the proposed CMB experiment PIXIE it might become possible to measure these distortions and thereby constrain the primordial power spectrum at comoving wavenumbers 50 Mpc^{-1} < k < 10^4 Mpc^{-1}. Since primordial fluctuations in the CMB on these scales are completely erased by Silk damping, these distortions may provide the only way to shed light on otherwise unobservable aspects of inflationary physics. A consistent treatment of …
Acoustic peaks in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature spectrum as observed by the Planck satellite appear to be smoother than our expectation from the standard model lensing effect. This anomalous effect can be also mimicked by a spatially closed Universe with a very low value of Hubble constant that consequently aggravates the already existing discordance between cosmological observations. We reconstruct a signature from the early Universe, a particular form of oscillation in the primordial spectrum of quantum fluctuations with a characteristic frequency, that solves all these a…
We propose an inflationary primordial feature model that can explain both the large and small-scale anomalies in the currently measured cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectra, revealing a clip of adventurous history of the Universe during its primordial epoch. Although the model is currently statistically indistinguishable from the Standard Model, we show that future observations such as the Simons Observatory and LiteBIRD will complement each other in distinguishing the model differences due to their accurate E-mode polarization measurements, and the PICO mission, if funded, can…
Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales $k=0.002$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ and $k=0.0035$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ respectively. We analyze for the first time the effects a local feature in the inflaton potential to explain the observed deviations from scale invariance in the primordial spectrum. We perform a best fit analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation temperature and polarization data. The effects of the features can improve the agreement with observational data respect to the featureles…
A short inflationary phase may not erase all traces of the primordial universe. Associated observables include both spatial curvature and "anomalies" in the microwave background or large scale structure. The present curvature $Ω_{K,0}$ reflects the initial curvature, $Ω_{K,\mathrm{start}}$, and the angular size of anomalies depends on $k_\mathrm{start}$, the comoving horizon size at the onset of inflation. We estimate posteriors for $Ω_{K,\mathrm{start}}$ and $k_\mathrm{start}$ using current data and simulations, and show that if either quantity is measured to have a non-zero value, both are l…
The dissipation effects of primordial magnetic fields on the primordial elemental abundances were investigated. When a magnetic field reconnects, its energy is converted to the kinetic energy of charged particles, as observed for solar energetic particles arriving on earth. This accelerates the cosmic background nuclei, and energetic nuclei induce nonthermal reactions. A constraint on the dissipation is derived from a theoretical calculation of the nonthermal reactions during Big Bang nucleosynthesis. We found that observations of the Li and D abundances can be explained if 0.01--0.1 % of the …
Several satellite missions have uncovered a series of potential anomalies in the fluctuation spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature, including: (1) an unexpectedly low level of correlation at large angles, manifested via the angular correlation function, C(theta); and (2) missing power in the low multipole moments of the angular power spectrum, C_ell. Their origin is still debated, however, due to a persistent lack of clarity concerning the seeding of quantum fluctuations in the early Universe. A likely explanation for the first of these appears to be a cutoff, k_min=(3.14 +/-…
We provide a simple but robust bound on the primordial curvature perturbation in the range $10^4 {\rm Mpc}^{-1} < k < 10^5 {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, which has not been constrained so far unlike low wavenumber modes. Perturbations on these scales dissipate the energy of their acoustic oscillations by the Silk damping after primordial nucleosynthesis but before the redshift $z \sim 2 \times 10^6$ and reheat the photon bath without invoking CMB distortions. This {\it acoustic reheating} results in the decrease of the baryon-photon ratio. By combining independent measurements probing the nucleosynthesis er…
Recent Planck measurements show some CMB anomalies on large angular scales, which confirms the early observations by WMAP. We show that an inflationary model, in which before the slow-roll inflation the Universe is in a superinflationary phase, can generate a large-scale cutoff in the primordial power spectrum, which may account for not only the power suppression on large angular scales, but also a large dipole power asymmetry in the CMB. We discuss an implementation of our model in string theory.
Spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may become a powerful probe of primordial perturbations at small scales. Existing studies of spectral distortions focus almost exclusively on primordial scalar metric perturbations. Similarly, vector and tensor perturbations should source CMB spectral distortions. In this paper, we give general expressions for the effective heating rate caused by these types of perturbations, including previously neglected contributions from polarization states and higher multipoles. We then focus our discussion on the dissipation of tensors, showin…
CMB photons travel from the last scattering surface, when the primary CMB has been generated, along the surface of the light cone to us. During their travel, they are affected by many secondary effects such as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect and CMB lensing. These CMB secondary effects modify the CMB primary power spectrum adding degeneracies and decreasing the sensibility to primordial parameters. The possibility to reconstruct the primary CMB anisotropies will allow us to have a more direct observable to test the physics of the early universe. We propose to study the imprint of features in…
We outline a new explanation for the primordial density perturbations in cosmology. Dimension zero fields are a minimal addition to the Standard Model of particle physics: if the Higgs doublet is emergent, they cancel the vacuum energy and both Weyl anomalies without introducing any new particles. Furthermore, the cancellation explains why there are three generations of elementary particles, including RH neutrinos. We show how quantum zero point fluctuations of dimension zero fields seed nearly scale-invariant, Gaussian, adiabatic density perturbations. We calculate the amplitude of the primor…
While the standard, six-parameter, spatially flat $Λ$CDM model has been highly successful, certain anomalies in the cosmic microwave background bring out a tension between this model and observations. The statistical significance of any one anomaly is small. However, taken together, the presence of two or more of them imply that according to standard inflationary theories we live in quite an exceptional universe. We revisit the analysis of the PLANCK collaboration using loop quantum cosmology, where an unforeseen interplay between the ultraviolet and the infrared makes the \emph{primordial} po…
The first year of observations by the Planck satellite mission shows that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations are consistent with gaussian statistics in the primordial perturbations, a key prediction of the simplest models of inflation. However, there are hints of anomalies in the CMB power spectrum and bispectrum. We check for the possibility that some of these anomalous features have a common physical origin in a transient reduction of the inflaton speed of sound. We do this by exploiting predicted correlations between the power spectrum and bispectrum. Our results suggest tha…
We compute the primordial curvature spectrum generated during warm inflation, including shear viscous effects. The primordial spectrum is dominated by the thermal fluctuations of the radiation bath, sourced by the dissipative term of the inflaton field. The dissipative coefficient Υ, computed from first principles in the close-to-equilibrium approximation, depends in general on the temperature T, and this dependence renders the system of the linear fluctuations coupled. Whenever the dissipative coefficient is larger than the Hubble expansion rate H, there is a growing mode in the fluctuations …
Recent observations of magnetic fields in intergalactic void regions and in high redshift galaxies may indicate that large scale magnetic fields have a primordial origin. If primordial magnetic fields were present soon after the recombination epoch, they would have induced density fluctuations on the one hand and dissipated their energy into the primordial gas on the other, and thereby significantly alter the thermal history of the Universe. Here we consider both the effects and calculate the brightness temperature fluctuations of the 21cm line using simple Monte Carlo simulations. We find tha…
Dark energy genesis: modeling dissipative effects in primordial cosmology
Dipartimento di Fisica Ettore Pancini, Università di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；INFN, Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）；Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, CPT（艾克斯-马赛大学、土伦大学、法国国家科学研究中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）
We derive a general expression for the probability of observing deviations from statistical isotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) if the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian and extend to superhorizon scales. The primary motivation is to properly characterize the monopole and dipole modulations of the primordial power spectrum that are generated by the coupling between superhorizon and subhorizon perturbations. Unlike previous proposals for generating the hemispherical power asymmetry, we do not assume that the power asymmetry results from a single large superhorizon mode. Inst…
Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background energy spectrum of the $μ$ type are sensitive to the primordial power spectrum through the dissipation of curvature perturbations on scales $k\simeq 50$ - $10^4\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. Their angular correlation with large-scale temperature anisotropies is then sensitive to the squeezed limit of the primordial bispectrum. For inflationary models obeying the single-field consistency relation, we show that the observed $μT$ angular correlation that would correspond to the local shape vanishes exactly. All leading non-primordial contributions, including …
Probing the small-scale primordial power spectrum via relic neutrinos and acoustic reheating
University of Zurich（苏黎世大学）；University of Trento（特伦托大学）；Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA)-INFN（基本物理与应用特伦托研究所（TIFPA）-意大利国家核物理研究所）；Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP)（巴黎天体物理学研究所）；The Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）
Based on recent observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), claims of statistical anomalies in the properties of the CMB fluctuations have been made. Although the statistical significance of the anomalies remains only at the $\sim2-3σ$ significance level, the fact that there are many different anomalies, several of which support a possible deviation from statistical isotropy, has motivated a search for models that provide a common mechanism to generate them. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether these anomalies could originate from non-Gaussian cosmological models, and to…
We perform a cosmological analysis in which we allow the primordial power spectrum of scalar perturbations to assume a shape that is different from the usual power-law predicted by the simplest models of cosmological inflation. We parameterize the free primordial power spectrum with a "piecewise cubic Hermite interpolating polynomial" (PCHIP). We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing model with a sterile neutrino having a mass at the eV scale, which can explain the anomalies observed in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. We find that the freedom of the primordial power spectrum allows t…
The recent observation of the 21-cm global absorption signal by EDGES suggests that the intergalactic medium (IGM) gas has been cooler than the cosmic microwave background during $15 \lesssim z \lesssim 20$. This result can provide a strong constraint on heating sources for the IGM gas at these redshifts. In this paper we study the constraint on the primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) by the EDGES result. The PMFs can heat the IGM gas through their energy dissipation due to the magnetohydrodynamic effects. By numerically solving the thermal evolution of the IGM gas with the PMFs, we find that th…
We update and extend our previous CMB anisotropy constraints on primordial magnetic fields through their dissipation by ambipolar diffusion and MHD decaying turbulence effects on the post-recombination ionization history. We derive the constraints using the latest Planck 2018 data release which improves on the E-mode polarization leading to overall tighter constraints with respect to Planck 2015. We also use the low-multipole E-mode polarization likelihood obtained by the SROLL2 map making algorithm and we note how it is compatible with larger magnetic field amplitudes than the Planck 2018 bas…
Damping of magnetic fields via ambipolar diffusion and decay of magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) turbulence in the post decoupling era heats the intergalactic medium (IGM). Delayed recombination of hydrogen atoms in the IGM yields an optical depth to scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The optical depth generated at $z\gg 10$ does not affect the "reionization bump" of the CMB polarization power spectrum at low multipoles, but affects the temperature and polarization power spectra at high multipoles. Writing the present-day energy density of fields smoothed over the damping scale at…
Cosmic magnetic fields may be generated during early cosmic phase transition, such as the QCD- or electroweak- transitions. The magnitude of the remainder of such fields at the present epoch crucially depends on the exponent $n$ of their (initially super-Hubble) large-scale tail, i.e. B(lambda) ~ lambda^(-n). It has been claimed that causality requires n=5/2, contrary to much earlier claims of n=3/2. Here we analyze this question in detail. First, we note that contrary to current belief, the large-scale magnetic field tail is not established at the phase transition itself, but rather continuou…
Single field inflationary models that seek to greatly enhance small scale power in order to form primordial black holes predict both a squeezed bispectrum that is enhanced by this small scale power and a potentially detectable enhancement of CMB spectral distortions. Despite this combination, spectral distortion anisotropy on CMB scales remains small since the squeezed bispectrum represents an unobservable modulation of the scale rather than local amplitude for the short wavelength acoustic power that dissipates and forms the $μ$ spectral distortion. The leading order amplitude effect comes fr…
We investigate the possibility that a heavy scalar field, whose mass exceeds the Hubble scale during inflation, could leave non-negligible signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy power spectrum through the parametric resonance between its background oscillations and the inflaton fluctuations. By assuming the heavy scalar field couples with the inflaton derivatively, we show that the resonance can be efficient without spoiling the slow-roll inflation. The primordial power spectrum modulated by the resonance has a sharp peak at a specific scale and could be an …
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) serve as a unique probe to the physics of the early Universe, particularly inflation. In light of this, we study the formation of PBHs by the collapse of overdense perturbations generated during a model of warm inflation. For our model, we find that the primordial curvature power spectrum is red-tilted (spectral index $n_s<1$) at the large scale (small $k$) and is consistent with the $n_s-r$ values allowed from the CMB observations. Along with that, it has a blue-tilt ($n_s>1$) for the small PBH scales (large $k$), with a sufficiently large amplitude of the primor…
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is affected by the energy density of a primordial magnetic field (PMF). For an easy derivation of constraints on models for PMF generations, we assume a PMF with a power law (PL) distribution in wave number defined with a field strength, a PL index, and maximum and minimum scales at a generation epoch. We then show a relation between PL-PMF parameters and the scale invariant (SI) strength of PMF for the first time. We perform a BBN calculation including PMF effects, and show abundances as a function of baryon to photon ratio $η$. The SI strength of the PMF is con…
We study the amplification of magnetic fields during the formation of primordial halos. The turbulence generated by gravitational infall motions during the formation of the first stars and galaxies can amplify magnetic fields very efficiently and on short timescales up to dynamically significant values. Using the Kazantsev theory, which describes the so-called small-scale dynamo - a magnetohydrodynamical process converting kinetic energy from turbulence into magnetic energy - we can then calculate the growth rate of the small-scale magnetic field. Our calculations are based on a detailed chemi…
CMB Spectral Distortion Anisotropies from Acoustic Damping with primordial non-Gaussianity
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学物理与天文学学院乔德雷尔银行天体物理学中心）；Department of Physics and Chongqing Key Laboratory for Strongly Coupled Physics, Chongqing University（重庆大学物理系及强耦合物理重庆市重点实验室）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Galileo Galilei" Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利莱物理与天文学系）
Mixing of blackbodies with different temperatures creates a spectral distortion which, at lowest order, is a y-type distortion, indistinguishable from the thermal y-type distortion produced by the scattering of CMB photons by hot electrons residing in clusters of galaxies. This process occurs in the radiation-pressure dominated early Universe, when the primordial perturbations excite standing sound waves on entering the sound horizon. Photons from different phases of the sound waves, having different temperatures, diffuse through the electron-baryon plasma and mix together. This diffusion, wit…
In this Thesis I discuss several recent results obtained using the CMB spectra measured by Planck and several other cosmological probes. Extensions of the $Λ$CDM model are studied, including the presence of an additional sterile neutrino (motivated by the short-baseline oscillation anomalies) and of a thermal axion. The degeneracies of the cosmological effects of these particles with the power spectrum of primordial perturbations are tested. We also show that the power spectrum of initial scalar perturbations can be degenerate with the presence of primordial non-Gaussianities, thus affecting t…
Future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments will deliver extremely accurate measurements of the E-modes pattern of the CMB polarization field. Given the sharpness of the E-modes transfer functions, such surveys make for a powerful detector of high-frequency signals from primordial features that may be lurking in current data sets. With a handful of toy models that increase the fit to the latest Planck data, but are of marginal statistical significance, we use a state-of-the-art forecast pipeline to illustrate the promising prospects to test primordial features in the next decade. Not …
We investigate the effect on the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) from the presence of a stochastic primordial magnetic field (PMF) whose strength is spatially inhomogeneous. We assume a uniform total energy density and a gaussian distribution of field strength. In this case, domains of different temperatures exist in the BBN epoch due to variations in the local PMF. We show that in such case, the effective distribution function of particle velocities averaged over domains of different temperatures deviates from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. This deviation is related to the scale invariant…
Recent FERMI observations provide a lower limit of 10^{-15} G for the magnetic field strength in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This is consistent with theoretical expectations based on the Biermann battery effect, which predicts such IGM fields already at redshifts z~10. During gravitational collapse, such magnetic fields can be amplified by compression and by turbulence, giving rise to the small-scale dynamo. On scales below the Jeans length, the eddy turnover timescale is much shorter than the free-fall timescale, so that saturation can be reached during collapse. This scenario has been te…
We explore the effects of magnetic energy dissipation on the formation of the first stars. For this purpose, we follow the evolution of primordial chemistry in the presence of magnetic fields in the post-recombination universe until the formation of the first virialized halos. From the point of virialization, we follow the protostellar collapse up to densities of $\sim10^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$ in a one-zone model. In the intergalactic medium (IGM), comoving field strengths of $\gtrsim0.1$ nG lead to Jeans masses of $10^8 M_\odot$ or more and thus delay gravitational collapse in the first halos until …
We study the dissipation of small-scale adiabatic perturbations at early times when the Universe is hotter than T ~ 0.5 keV. When the wavelength falls below the damping scale 1/kD, the acoustic modes diffuse and thermalize, causing entropy production. Before neutrino decoupling, kD is primarily set by the neutrino shear viscosity, and we study the effect of acoustic damping on the relic neutrino number, primordial nucleosynthesis, dark-matter freeze-out, and baryogenesis. This sets a new limit on the amplitude of primordial fluctuations of DeltaR^2 < 0.007 at 10^4/Mpc< k < 10^5/Mpc and a model…
We consider the possibility that the primordial curvature perturbation is direction-dependent. To first order this is parameterised by a quadrupolar modulation of the power spectrum and results in statistical anisotropy of the CMB, which can be quantified using `bipolar spherical harmonics'. We compute these for the Planck DR2-2015 SMICA map and estimate the noise covariance from Planck Full Focal Plane 9 simulations. A constant quadrupolar modulation is detected with 2.2 sigma significance, dropping to 2 sigma when the primordial power is assumed to scale with wave number k as a power law. Go…
