We study a novel proposal for the origin of cosmological cold dark matter (CDM) which is rooted in the quantum nature of spacetime. In this model, off-shell modes of quantum fields can exist in asymptotic states as a result of spacetime nonlocality (expected in generic theories of quantum gravity), and play the role of CDM, which we dub off-shell dark matter (OfDM). However, their rate of production is suppressed by the scale of non-locality (e.g. Planck length). As a result, we show that OfDM is only produced in the first moments of big bang, and then effectively decouples (except through its gravitational interactions). We examine the observational predictions of this model: In the context of cosmic inflation, we show that this proposal relates the reheating temperature to the inflaton mass, which narrows down the uncertainty in the number of e-foldings of specific inflationary scenarios. We also demonstrate that OfDM is indeed cold, and discuss potentially observable signatures on small scale matter power spectrum.
The tracing of cosmological relics from the early string dynamics may enhance the theory and provide new perspectives on the major cosmological problems. This point is illustrated in a leading-order Bianchi-type $VII_0$ string background, wherein spatial isotropy can be claimed as such a relic. A much finer one, descending from a premordial gravitational wave, could be retrieved from its imprint on the small-scale structure of the cosmic microwave background. In spite of the absence of conventional inflation, there is no horizon problem thanks to the presence of an equally fundamental mixmaste…
Conversion of gravitational waves into electromagnetic radiation is discussed. The probability of transformations of gravitons into photons in presence of cosmological background magnetic field is calculated at the recombination epoch and during subsequent cosmological stages. The produced electromagnetic radiation is concentrated in the X-ray part of the spectrum. It is shown that if the early Universe was dominated by primordial black holes (PBHs) prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), the relic gravitons emitted by PBHs would transform to an almost isotropic background of electromagnetic …
The spectrum and amplitude of the stochastic background of relic gravitons produced in a bouncing universe is calculated. The matter content of the model consists of dust and radiation fluids, and the bounce occurs due to quantum cosmological effects when the universe approaches the classical singularity in the contracting phase. The resulting amplitude is very small and it cannot be observed by any present and near future gravitational wave detector. Hence, as in the ekpyrotic model, any observation of these relic gravitons will rule out this type of quantum cosmological bouncing model.
Cosmological Bounce Relics: Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Dark Matter
Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, University of Portsmouth（宇宙学与引力研究所，朴茨茅斯大学）；Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC)（空间科学研究所（ICE，CSIC））；Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC)（加泰罗尼亚太空研究学院（IEEC））
We discuss the relic density of the lightest of the supersymmetric particles ({\small LSP}) in view of new cosmological data, which favour the concept of an accelerating Universe with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. The new bound on the Cold Dark Matter density, $Ω_{\mathrm{CDM}} h_0^2 \lesssim 0.22$, puts stringent constraints on supersymmetry preferring low supersymmetry breaking scales, in sharp contrast to electroweak precision measurements favouring large supersymmetry breaking scales. Supersymmetric predictions are in agreement with cosmological data and electroweak precision data…
We discuss the relic density of the lightest of the supersymmetric particles in view of new cosmological data, which favour the concept of an accelerating Universe with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. Recent astrophysical observations provide us with very precise values of the relevant cosmological parameters. Certain of these parameters have direct implications on particle physics, e.g., the value of matter density, which in conjunction with electroweak precision data put severe constraints on the supersymmetry breaking scale. In the context of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric St…
A stochastic background of relic gravitational waves is achieved by the so called adiabatically-amplified zero-point fluctuations process derived from early inflation. It provides a distinctive spectrum of relic gravitational waves. In the framework of scalar-tensor gravity, we discuss the scalar modes of gravitational waves and the primordial production of this scalar component which is generated beside tensorial one. Then we analyze different viable $f(R)$-gravities towards the Solar System tests and stochastic gravitational waves background. The aim is to achive experimental bounds for the …
We show that relic vector fields can significantly impact a spectrum of primordial gravitational waves in the post-inflationary era. We consider a triplet of U(1) fields in a homogeneous, isotropic configuration. The interaction between the gravitational waves and the vector fields, from the end of reheating to the present day, yields novel spectral features. The amplitude, tilt, shape, and net chirality of the gravitational wave spectrum are shown to depend on the abundance of the electric- and magnetic-like vector fields. Our results show that even a modest abundance can have strong implicat…
A simple phenomenological description for the energy transfer between a variable cosmological constant (CC) and a gas of relic neutrinos in an expanding universe can account for a near coincidence between the neutrino and dark-energy densities to hold over a significant portion of the history of the universe. Although such a cosmological setup may promote neutrinos to mass-varying particles, both with slow and quick neutrino mass changing with the expansion of the universe naturally implemented in the model, it also works equally well for static neutrino masses. We also stress what sort of mod…
Non-local gravity effects in cosmological dynamics probed by IceCube/KM3NeT signals and dark matter relic abundance
Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)（意大利国家核物理研究所）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学）；Loyola Marymount University（洛约拉马利蒙特大学）
In this paper, we introduce a scale-independent energy-momentum squared gravity (EMSG) that allows different gravitational couplings for different types of sources, which may lead to scenarios with many interesting applications/implications in cosmology. In the present study, to begin with, we study a modification of the $Λ$ cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) model, where photons and baryons couple to the spacetime as in general relativity, while the cold dark matter and relativistic relics (neutrinos and any other relativistic relics) couple to the spacetime in accordance with EMSG. This scenario indu…
The polarizations of the tensor modes of the geometry evolving in cosmological backgrounds are treated as the components of a bispinor whose dynamics follows from an appropriate gauge-invariant action. This novel framework bears a close analogy with the (optical) Jones calculus and leads to a compact classification of the various interactions able to polarize the relic gravitons.
The cosmological consequences of $f(R)$ gravity are reviewed in the framework of recent data obtained by PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) experiment. This collaboration has reported an excess of positron events that cannot be explained by conventional cosmology and particle physics, and are usually ascribed to the dark matter presence (in particular, weak interacting massive particles). The dark matter interpretation of PAMELA data has motivated the study of alternative cosmological models (with respect to the standard cosmology) owing to the fac…
Absent any indirect tests on the thermal history of the Universe prior to the formation of light nuclear elements, it is legitimate to investigate situations where, before nucleosyntheis, the sound speed of the plasma was larger than $c/\sqrt{3}$, at most equalling the speed of light $c$. In this plausible extension of the current cosmological paradigm, hereby dubbed Tensor-$Λ$CDM (i.e. T$Λ$CDM) scenario, high-frequency gravitons are copiously produced. Without conflicting with the bounds on the tensor to scalar ratio stemming from the combined analysis of the three standard cosmological data …
We discuss the emergence of scalar gravitational waves in metric-affine f(R)-gravity. Such a component allows to discriminate between metric and metric-affine theories The intrinsic meaning of this result is that the geodesic structure of the theory can be discriminated. We extend the formalism of cross correlation analysis, including the additional polarization mode, and calculate the detectable energy density of the spectrum for cosmological relic gravitons. The possible detection of the signal is discussed against sensitivities of VIRGO, LIGO and LISA interferometers.
We establish an indirect link between relic neutrinos and the dark energy sector which originates from the vacuum energy contributions of the neutrino quantum fields. Via renormalization group effects they induce a running of the cosmological constant with time which dynamically influences the evolution of the cosmic neutrino background. We demonstrate that the resulting reduction of the relic neutrino abundance allows to largely evade current cosmological neutrino mass bounds and discuss how the scenario might be probed by the help of future large scale structure surveys and Planck data.
In this work we study the boson stars and boson shells in a theory involving massive complex scalar fields coupled to the U(1) gauge field and gravity in a conical potential in the presence of a cosmological constant $Λ$ which we treat as a free parameter taking positive and negative values and thereby allowing us to study the theory in the de Sitter and Anti de Sitter spaces respectively. Boson stars are found to come in two types, having either ball-like or shell-like charge density. We have studied the properties of these solutions and have also determined their domains of existence for som…
We investigate the thin-shell wormholes constrained by cosmological observations for the first time in the literature. Without loss of generality, we study the thin-shell wormholes in $ω$CDM model and analyze their stability under perturbations preserving the symmetry. Firstly, we constrain the $ω$CDM model using a combination of Union 2.1 SNe Ia data, the latest $H(z)$ data and CMB data. Secondly, we use the constrained dark energy equation of state (EoS) $ω$ which lies in $[-1.05,-0.89]$ to investigate thin-shell wormholes of various black hole spacetimes. We find that the stable Schwarzschi…
We generalize Israel's formalism to cover singular shells embedded in a non-vacuum Universe. That is, we deduce the relativistic equation of motion for a thin shell embedded in a Schwarzschild/Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetime. Also, we review the embedding of a Schwarzschild mass into a cosmological model using "curvature" coordinates and give solutions with (Sch/FLRW) and without the embedded mass (FLRW).
The existence of a scaling network of current-carrying cosmic strings in our Universe is expected to continuously create loops endowed with a conserved current during the cosmological expansion. These loops radiate gravitational waves and may stabilise into centrifugally supported configurations. We show that this process generates an irreducible population of vortons which has not been considered so far. In particular, we expect vortons to be massively present today even if no loops are created at the time of string formation. We determine their cosmological distribution, and estimate their r…
In this work we derive the modifications to the Boltzmann equation governing the cosmic evolution of relic abundances induced by dilaton dissipative-source and non-critical-string terms in dilaton-driven non-equilibrium string Cosmologies. We also discuss briefly the most important phenomenological consequences, including modifications of the constraints on the available parameter space of cosmologically appealing particle physics models, imposed by recent precision data of astrophysical measurements.
We analyze the dynamical implications of an exponential Lagrangian density for the gravitational field, as referred to an isotropic FRW Universe. Then, we discuss the features of the generalized deSitter phase, predicted by the new Friedmann equation. The existence of a consistent deSitter solution arises only if the ratio between the vacuum-energy density and that associated with the fundamental length of the theory acquires a tantalizing negative character. This choice allows us to explain the present universe dark energy as a relic of the vacuum-energy cancellation due to the cosmological c…
This is an expanded version of my talk given at the international conference "Zeldovich-90". I start with a brief recollection of interactions with Zeldovich in the context of the study of relic gravitational waves. I then summarise the principles and early results on the quantum-mechanical generation of cosmological perturbations. The expected amplitudes of relic gravitational waves are different in different frequency windows, and therefore the techniques and prospects of their detection are different. One section of the paper describes the present state of efforts in direct detection of rel…
Relic gravitational waves from primordial gravitational collapses
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交大汤川研究所和物理与天文学院）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）；Stellenbosch University（斯泰伦博斯大学）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics（亚太理论物理中心）
Inhomogeneous cosmological models have recently become a very interesting alternative to standard cosmology. This is because these models are able to fit cosmological observations without the need for dark energy. However, due to inhomogeneity and pressure-less matter content, these models can suffer from shell crossing singularities. These singularities occur when two shell of dust collide with each other leading to infinite values of the density. In this Letter we show that if inhomogeneous pressure is included then these singularities can be prevented from occurring over the period of struc…
This contribution summarizes some recent work on gravitational-wave astronomy and, especially, on the generation and detection of relic gravitational waves. We begin with a brief discussion of astrophysical sources of gravitational waves that are likely to be detected first by the coming in operation laser interferometers, such as GEO, LIGO, VIRGO. Then, we proceed to relic gravitational waves emphasizing their quantum-mechanical origin and the inevitability of their existence. Combining the theory with available observations, we discuss the prospects of direct detection of relic gravitational…
Spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes in the presence of a cosmological constant are constructed applying the cut-and-paste technique implemented by Visser. Using the Darmois-Israel formalism the surface stresses, which are concentrated at the wormhole throat, are determined. This construction allows one to apply a dynamical analysis to the throat, considering linearized radial perturbations around static solutions. For a large positive cosmological constant, i.e., for the Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution, the region of stability is significantly increased, relatively to the null cosmolog…
We examine the spectrum of gravitational radiation emitted by a network of cosmic strings, with emphasis on the observational constraints and the opportunities for detection. The analysis improves over past work, as we use a phenomenological model for the radiation spectrum emitted by a cosmic string loop. This model attempts to include the effect of the gravitational back-reaction on the radiation emission by an individual loop with a high frequency cut-off in the spectrum. Comparison of the total spectrum due to a network of strings with the recently improved bound on the amplitude of a stoc…
We present a new analytical solution of the Einstein field equations describing a wormhole shell of zero thickness joining two Lemaıtre-Tolman-Bondi universes, with no radial accretion. The material on the shell satisfies the energy conditions and, at late times, the shell becomes comoving with the dust-dominated cosmic substratum.
