A string-inspired running-vacuum-model of cosmology, primordial-black-hole dark matter, and the current tensions in cosmological data
Nick E. Mavromatos
备注：
29 pages latex, uses special macros (Proceedings of Science), several pdf figures incorporated; Invited talk, presented at Corfu Summer Institute 2022 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", 28 August - 1 October, 2022, Corfu, Greece
I review a cosmological model based on string-inspired gravity with anomalies and torsion, which leads to a cosmology of running-vacuum-model (RVM) type. It is argued that such a model can lead to observable, in principle, deviations from the standard $Λ$CDM paradigm of cosmology at late (modern) eras of the Universe evolution, contributing to an alleviation of the currently observed cosmological $H_0$ and structure-growth tensions, but also to a potential enhancement of the density of primordial black holes produced during inflation. The latter can thus play a role as dark matter components, and leave observable imprints in gravitational-wave patterns during the radiation-dominance era of the Universe.
For a standard $Λ$CDM universe with a power-law primordial power spectrum, the discrepancy between early- and late-universe measurements of the Hubble constant continued to grow and recently reached $5.3σ$. During inflation, local features in the inflationary potential often lead to band-limited features in the primordial power spectrum, hence breaking the power-law assumption in the derivation of the Hubble tension. We investigate whether such inflationary "glitches" can ease the Hubble tension. The recently released \emph{Planck} temperature and polarization data and the 2019 SH0ES+H0LiCOW j…
The three-year WMAP(WMAP3), combined with other cosmological observations from galaxy clustering and Type Ia Supernova (SNIa), prefers a non-vanishing running of the primordial spectral index independent of the low CMB multipoles. Motivated by this feature we study cosmological constraint on the neutrino mass, which severely depends on what prior we adopt for the spectral shape of primordial fluctuations, taking possible running into account. As a result we find a more stringent constraint on the sum of the three neutrino masses, m_ν< 0.76eV (2 σ), compared with m_ν< 0.90eV (2 σ) for the case …
We examine the possibility of positive spectral index of the power spectrum of the primordial tensor perturbation produced during inflation in the light of the detection of the B-mode polarization by the BICEP2 collaboration. We find a blue tilt is in general possible when the slow-roll parameter decays rapidly. We present two known examples in which a positive spectral index for the tensor power spectrum can be obtained. We also briefly discuss other consistency tests for further studies on inflationary dynamics.
We study possibilities to explain the whole dark matter abundance by primordial black holes (PBHs) or to explain the merger rate of binary black holes estimated from the gravitational wave detections by LIGO/Virgo. We assume that the PBHs are originated in a radiation- or matter-dominated era from large primordial curvature perturbation generated by inflation. We take a simple model-independent approach considering inflation with large running spectral indices which are parametrized by $n_\text{s}, α_\text{s}$, and $β_\text{s}$ consistent with the observational bounds. The merger rate is fitte…
Measurements of 21 cm line fluctuations from minihalos have been discussed as a powerful probe of a wide range of cosmological models. However, previous studies have taken into account only the pixel variance, where contributions from different scales are integrated. In order to sort out information from different scales, we formulate the angular power spectrum of 21 cm line fluctuations from minihalos at different redshifts, which can enhance the constraining power enormously. By adopting this formalism, we investigate expected constraints on parameters characterizing the primordial power spe…
Recently, it has been found that complete resolution of the Hubble tension might point to a scale-invariant Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum of primordial scalar perturbation, i.e. $n_s=1$ for $H_0\sim 73$km/s/Mpc. We show that for well-known slow-roll models, if inflation ends by a waterfall instability with respect to another field in the field space while inflaton is still at a deep slow-roll region, $n_s$ can be lifted to $n_s= 1$. A surprise of our result is that with pre-recombination early dark energy, chaotic $ϕ^2$ inflation, ruled out by Planck+BICEP/Keck in standard $Λ$CDM, can be revived…
Running into tension: primordial black holes from ultra-slow-roll inflation, spectral running, and the Hubble tension
University of Trento（特伦托大学）；Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA)-INFN（特伦托基础物理与应用研究所（TIFPA）-意大利国家核物理研究所）；New York University Abu Dhabi（纽约大学阿布扎比分校）
In prerecombination resolutions of the Hubble tension, such as early dark energy, new physics before recombination shifts the values of relevant cosmological parameters so that the models can fit with cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillations observations as well as $Λ$CDM does. In this paper, we clarify how the parameter shifts are related with $δH_0$, particularly we find the shift of primordial scalar spectral index scales as ${δn_s}\simeq 0.4{δH_0\over H_0}$ by performing the Monte Carlo Markov chain analysis with the Planck2018+BAO+Pantheon+R19+Keck Array/BICEP dataset.…
Next generation of cosmological observations are expected to improve the measurements of several quantities connected to the primordial inflation in the early Universe. These quantities include for example improved measurements for the spectral index of the scalar curvature of the primordial power spectrum and to also bring a better understanding on the scaling dependence of the primordial spectrum. This includes the running of the tilt and, possibly, also the running of the running. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of generating large runnings in the context of warm inflation. Us…
We compute the spectral index of primordial perturbations in a rainbow universe. We allow the Newton constant $G$ to run at (super-)Planckian energies and we consider both vacuum and thermal perturbations. If the rainbow metric is the one associated to a generalized Horava-Lifshitz dispersion relation, we find that only when $G$ tends asymptotically to zero can one match the observed value of the spectral index and solve the horizon problem, both for vacuum and thermal perturbations. For vacuum fluctuations the observational constraints imply that the primordial universe expansion can be both …
In light of our previous work \cite{Liu:2019xhn}, we investigate the possibility of the formation of a primordial black hole in the second inflationary process induced by the oscillation of curvaton. By adopting the instability of the Mathieu equation, one could utilize the $δ$ function to fully describe the power spectrum. Due to the running of curvaton mass, we can simulate the value of abundance of primordial black holes nearly covering all of the mass ranges, in which we have given three special cases. One case could account for the dark matter in some sense since the abundance of a primor…
It has recently been shown that the class of running vacuum models (RVMs) has the capacity to fit the overall cosmological observations better than the concordance $Λ$CDM model, therefore supporting the possibility of dynamical dark energy (DE). Apart from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, the most crucial datasets involved are: i) baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), and ii) direct large scale structure (LSS) formation data. Analyses mainly focusing on CMB and with insufficient BAO+LSS input generally fail to capture the dynamical DE signature, whereas the few existing stud…
Freeze-out and spectral running of primordial gravitational waves in viscous cosmology
Libera Università Mediterranea (LUM) “Giuseppe Degennaro”（利贝拉地中海大学（卢姆）“朱塞佩·德真纳罗”）；Università di Bari（巴里大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari（意大利国家核物理研究所，巴里分部）
The running of the Higgs self coupling may lead to numerous phenomena in early universe cosmology. In this paper we introduce a scenario where the Higgs running induces turns in the trajectory passing a region with tachyonic mass, leading to a temporal tachyonic growth in the curvature power spectrum. This effect induced by the Higgs leaves phenomena in the form of primordial black holes and stochastic gravitational waves, where proposed GW observatories will be able to probe in the near future.
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…
The cosmological term, $Λ$, was introduced $104$ years ago by Einstein in his gravitational field equations. Whether $Λ$ is a rigid quantity or a dynamical variable in cosmology has been a matter of debate for many years, especially after the introduction of the general notion of dark energy (DE). $Λ$ is associated to the vacuum energy density, $ρ_{\rm vac}$, and one may expect that it evolves slowly with the cosmological expansion. Herein we present a devoted study testing this possibility using the promising class of running vacuum models (RVM's). We use a large string $SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+CMB…
In previous works we have derived a Running Vacuum Model (RVM) for a string Universe, which provides an effective description of the evolution of 4-dimensional string-inspired cosmologies from inflation till the present epoch. In the context of this "stringy RVM" version, it is assumed that the early Universe is characterised by purely gravitational degrees of freedom, from the massless gravitational string multiplet, including the antisymmetric tensor field. The latter plays an important role, since its dual gives rise to a `stiff' gravitational-axion "matter", which in turn couples to the gr…
Recent studies suggest that dynamical dark energy (DDE) provides a better fit to the rising affluence of modern cosmological observations than the concordance model ($Λ$CDM) with a rigid cosmological constant, $Λ$. Such is the case with the running vacuum models (RVMs) and to some extent also with a simple XCDM parametrization. Apart from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, the most crucial datasets potentially carrying the DDE signature are: i) baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), and ii) direct large scale structure (LSS) formation data (i.e. the observations on $f(z)σ_8(z)$…
The (absence of detecting) lensing dispersion of Supernovae type Ia (SNIa) can be used as a novel and extremely efficient probe of cosmology. In this preliminary example we analyze its consequences for the primordial power spectrum. The main setback is the knowledge of the power spectrum in the non-linear regime, 1 Mpc^{-1} < k < 10^2-10^3 Mpc^{-1} up to redshift of about unity. By using the lensing dispersion and conservative estimates in this regime of wavenumbers, we show how the current upper bound sigma_mu(z=1) < 0.12on existing data gives strong indirect constraints on the primordial pow…
Theoretically, the running of the cosmological constant in the IR region is not ruled out. On the other hand, from the QFT viewpoint, the energy released due to the variation of the cosmological constant in the late universe cannot go to the matter sector. For this reason, the phenomenological bounds on such a running are not sufficiently restrictive. The situation can be different in the early universe when the gravitational field was sufficiently strong to provide an efficient creation of particles from the vacuum. We develop a framework for systematically exploring this ossibility. It is su…
Using the O(N) model as an example, we investigate the self-interaction effects of inflaton on the dynamics of the primordial perturbations. When taking interactions into account, it is essential to employ a self-consistent off-equilibrium formalism to study the evolution of the inflationary background field and its fluctuations with the back-reaction effects. Within the Hartree factorization scheme, we show that the O(N) model has at least two observable remains left behind the off-equilibrium processes: the running spectral index of primordial density perturbations and the correlations betwe…
We investigate the cosmological production of gravitational waves in a nonsingular flat cosmology powered by a "running vacuum" energy density described by $ρ_Λ\equivρ_Λ(H)$, a phenomenological expression potentially linked with the renormalization group approach in quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. The model can be interpreted as a particular case of the class recently discussed by Perico et al. (Phys. Rev. D {\bf 88}, 063531, 2013) which is termed complete in the sense that the cosmic evolution occurs between two extreme de Sitter stages (early and late time de Sitter phases). {The …
We show that involving a sterile neutrino species in the $Λ$CDM+$r$ model can help relieve the tension about the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ between the Planck temperature data and the BICEP2 B-mode polarization data. Such a model is called the $Λ$CDM+$r$+$ν_s$ model in this paper. Compared to the $Λ$CDM+$r$ model, there are two extra parameters, $N_{\rm eff}$ and $m_{ν,{\rm sterile}}^{\rm eff}$, in the $Λ$CDM+$r$+$ν_s$ model. We show that in this model the tension between Planck and BICEP2 can be greatly relieved at the cost of the increase of $n_s$. However, comparing with the $Λ$CDM+$r$+$dn_…
In this article we provide a new closed relationship between cosmic abundance of primordial gravitational waves and primordial blackholes originated from initial inflationary perturbations for inflection-point models of inflation where inflation occurs below the Planck scale. The current Planck constraint on tensor-to-scalar ratio, running of the spectral tilt, and from the abundance of dark matter content in the universe, we can deduce a strict bound on the current abundance of primordial blackholes to be within a range, $9.99712\times 10^{-3}<Ω_{PBH}h^{2}<9.99736\times 10^{-3}$.
Beware of the running $n_s$ when producing heavy primordial black holes
Keemilise ja Bioloogilise Füüsika Instituut（化学与生物物理研究所）；Tallinn University of Technology（塔林理工大学）；Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS), New York University Abu Dhabi（纽约大学阿布扎比分校天体物理学与空间科学中心）
The problem of cosmological production of gravitational waves is discussed in the framework of an expanding, spatially homogeneous and isotropic FRW type Universe with time-evolving vacuum energy density. The gravitational wave equation is established and its modified time-dependent part is analytically resolved for different epochs in the case of a flat geometry. Unlike the standard $Λ$CDM cosmology (no interacting vacuum), we show that gravitational waves are produced in the radiation era even in the context of general relativity. We also show that for all values of the free parameter, the h…
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…
We provide predictions on small-scale cosmological density power spectrum from supernova lensing dispersion. Parameterizing the primordial power spectrum with running $α$ and running of running $β$ of the spectral index, we exclude large positive $α$ and $β$ parameters which induce too large lensing dispersions over current observational upper bound. We ran cosmological N-body simulations of collisionless dark matter particles to investigate non-linear evolution of the primordial power spectrum with positive running parameters. The initial small-scale enhancement of the power spectrum is large…
A solution of effective string theory in four dimensions is presented which admits interpretation of a rotating black cosmic string. It is constructed by tensoring the three dimensional black hole, extended with the Kalb-Ramond axion, with a flat direction. The physical interpretation of the solution is discussed, with special attention on the axion, which is found to play a role very similar to a Higgs field. Finally, it is pointed out that the solution represents an exact WZWN $σ$ model on the string world sheet, to all orders in the inverse string tension $α'$.
It is possible that the primordial non-Gaussianity is dominated by the higher order terms, such as that set by $g_{NL}$, not $f_{NL}$. In this paper we derive the spectral index and running of $g_{NL}$ from a single isocurvature scalar field. The scale dependences of non-Gaussianity parameters are detectable if the mass of isocurvature field is not too small compared to the Hubble parameter during inflation. In addition, we also apply our results to investigate the curvaton model with near quadratic potential in detail.
Employing an effective field theory approach to inflationary perturbations, we analyze in detail the effect of curvature-generated Lagrangian operators on various observables, focusing on their running with scales. At quadratic order, we solve the equation of motion at next-to-leading leading order in a generalized slow-roll approximation for a very general theory of single-field inflation. We derive the resulting power spectrum, its tilt and running. We then focus on the contribution to the primordial non-Gaussianity amplitude f_{NL} sourced by a specific interaction term. We show that the ru…
The recently released BICEP2 data detected the primordial B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map which strongly supports for a large tensor-to-scalar ratio, and thus, is found to be in tension with the Planck experiment with no evidence of primordial gravitational waves. Such an observational tension, if confirmed by forthcoming measurements, would bring a theoretical challenge for the very early universe models. To address this issue, we in the present paper revisit a single field inflation model, which includes a modulated potential. We show that this inflation mode…
An intriguing hypothesis is that gravity may be non-perturbatively renormalizable via the notion of asymptotic safety. We show that the Higgs sector of the SM minimally coupled to asymptotically safe gravity can generate the observed near scale-invariant spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background through the curvaton mechanism. The resulting primordial power spectrum places an upper bound on the Higgs mass, which for finely tuned values of the curvaton parameters, is compatible with the recently released Large Hadron Collider data.
We explore the warm inflation scenario theoretical predictions looking at two different dissipative regimes for several representative primordial potentials. As it is well known, the warm inflation is able to decrease the tensor-to-scalar ratio value, rehabilitating several primordial potential ruled out in the cold inflation context by the recent cosmic microwave background data. Here we show that it is also able to produce a running of the running $n_s"$ positive and within the Planck data limits. This is very remarkable since the standard cold inflation model is unable to justify the curren…
The LIGO/Virgo Collaboration has recently observed GW190521, the first binary black hole merger with at least the primary component mass in the mass gap predicted by the pair-instability supernova theory. This observation disfavors the standard stellar-origin formation scenario for the heavier black hole, motivating alternative hypotheses. We show that GW190521 cannot be explained within the Primordial Black Hole (PBH) scenario if PBHs do not accrete during their cosmological evolution, since this would require an abundance which is already in tension with current constraints. On the other han…
In extended quintessence models, a scalar field which couples to the curvature scalar R provides most of the energy density of the universe. We point out that such models can also lead naturally to a decrease in the primordial abundance of helium-4, relieving the tension which currently exists between the primordial helium-4 abundance inferred from observations and the amount predicted by Standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (SBBN) corresponding to the observed deuterium abundance. Using negative power-law potentials for the quintessence field, we determine the range of model parameters which can…
We investigate the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs) from the collapse of spherically symmetric domain wall bubbles, which spontaneously nucleate via quantum tunneling during inflation. Since the tension of domain walls changes with time and so domain walls nucleate in a short time interval, the mass function of PBHs in general has a spike-like structure. In contrast to models in which PBHs produced from overdense regions, our model avoids the uncertainties of PBHs production mechanism. PBHs from domain walls with mass around $10^{20}\mathrm{g}$ may constitute all dark matter, those w…
In this work, we constrain the spectral index $n_t$ of the primordial gravitational wave power spectrum in a universe with sterile neutrinos by using the Planck temperature data, the WMAP 9-year polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, and the BICEP2 data. We call this model the $Λ$CDM+$r$+$ν_s$+$n_t$ model. The additional massive sterile neutrino species can significantly relieve the tension between the Planck and BICEP2 data, and thus can reduce the possible effects of this tension on the fit results of $n_t$. To constrain the parameters of sterile neutrino, we also utilize t…
It has been shown that black holes would have formed in the early Universe if, on any given scale, the spectral amplitude of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) exceeds 10^(-4). This value is within the bounds allowed by astrophysical phenomena for the small scale spectrum of the CMB, corresponding to scales which exit the horizon at the end of slow-roll inflation. Previous work by Kohri et. al. (2007) showed that for black holes to form from a single field model of inflation, the slope of the potential at the end of inflation must be flatter than it was at horizon exit. In this work we show…
We use data from the WMAP temperature maps to constrain a scale-dependent generalization of the popular 'local' model for primordial non-Gaussianity. In the model where the parameter fNL is allowed to run with scale k, fNL(k) = fNL* (k/k_piv)^n, we constrain the running to be n = 0.30(+1.9)(-1.2) at 95% confidence, marginalized over the amplitude fNL*. The constraints depend somewhat on the prior probabilities assigned to the two parameters. In the near future, constraints from a combination of Planck and large-scale structure surveys are expected to improve this limit by about an order of mag…
We make a joint analysis of BICEP2 and recently released Planck HFI 353 GHz dust polarization data, and find that there is no evidence for the primordial gravitational waves and the bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio becomes $r<0.083$ at $95%$ confidence level in the base $Λ$CDM + tensor model. Extending to the model with running of scalar spectral index, the bound is a little bit relaxed to $r<0.116$ at $95%$ confidence level. Our results imply that the inflation model with a single monomial potential is marginally disfavored at around $95%$ confidence level. Especially, the $m^2ϕ^2/2$ infla…
We present a novel mechanism to generate the cosmic perturbation from evaporation of primordial black holes. A mass of a field is fluctuated if it is given by a vacuum expectation value of a light scalar field because of the quantum fluctuation during inflation. The fluctuated mass causes variations of the evaporation time of the primordial black holes. Therefore provided the primordial black holes dominate the universe when they evaporate, primordial cosmic perturbations are generated. We find that the amplitude of the large scale curvature perturbation generated in this scenario can be consi…
A sudden small change in the second derivative of the inflaton potential can result in a universal local feature in the spectrum of primordial perturbations generated during inflation. The exact solution describing this feature \cite{minu} is characterized by a step in the spectral index modulated by characteristic oscillations and results in a large running of the spectral index localized over a few e-folds of scale. In this paper we confront this step-like feature with the 5 year WMAP results and demonstrate that it provides a better fit to this data than a featureless initial spectrum. If s…
