Effects of a decaying cosmological fluctuation

We present the initial conditions for a decaying cosmological perturbation and study its signatures in the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and matter power spectra. An adiabatic decaying mode in the presence of components that are not described as perfect fluids (such as collisionless matter) decays slower than in a perfect-fluid dominated Universe and displays super-Hubble oscillations. Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe first year data constrain the decaying to growing ratio of scale invariant adiabatic fluctuations at the matter-radiation equality to less than 10%.     

Observational constraints on decaying vacuum dark energy model

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)∝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 the matter density contrast Ω _m in the DV model is much lager than that in ΛCDM 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.     

Physical constants as cosmological constraints

A solution to the primary “missing mass” problem is found in the context of accounting for the coincidence of large dimensionless numbers first noticed by Weyl, Eddington, and Dirac. This solution entails (1) a log₂ relation between the electromagnetic and gravitational coupling constants; (2) setting the maximum radius of curvature at the gravitational radius, 2GM/c ²; (3) a changing gravitational parameterG, which varies as an inverse function of the universal radius of curvature. These features motivate the development of a neo-Friedmann formalism, which employs a function,ε(χ). governing the change from Euclidian to non-Euclidian volumes. Observational consequences include (1) a universal density of 7.6×10^?31g cm^?3, (2) a Hubble parameter of 15 km s^?1 Mpc^?1, (3) an age of the universe of 32×10⁹ yr, (4) a gravitational parameter diminishing at a current rate of 2.2×10^?12 yr^?1, and (5) a deceleration parameter of 1.93. Moreover, it is shown that for a Friedmann-type (λ=0) cosmology (whether open or closed) any deceleration parameter will be represented by a straight line in the (log-log) red shift: luminosity-distance space of the Hubble diagram. The major claim of this paper is that we have devised a model in which the large-scale structure of the universe is completely determined by the values of the fundamental physical constants:c, h, e, andm _e setting the scale, andG selecting the epoch.     

Observational constraints on dark matter decaying via gravity portals

Global symmetry can guarantee the stability of dark matter particles (DMps). However, the nonminimal coupling between dark matter (DM) and gravity can break 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 the extent to which the symmetry of ssDM is broken. It is suggested that the total number 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 suggest that the scale of ssDM global symmetry breaking can be limited. Because the mass of many promising DM candidates is likely to be in the GeV-TeV range, we determine reasonable parameters for the ssDM lifetime within this range. We find that when the mass of ssDM is around the electroweak scale (246 GeV), the corresponding 3begin{document}$sigma$end{document} lower limit of the lifetime of ssDM is begin{document}$5.3times10^{26}$end{document} s. Our analysis of ssDM around the electroweak scale encompasses the most abundant decay channels of all mass ranges so that the analysis of the behavior of ssDM under the influence of gravity is more comprehensive.     

Vacuum decay constraints on a cosmological scalar field

If the potential of a scalar field phi which currently provides the "dark energy" of the Universe has a minimum at phi = -M(0)(4)<0, then quantum-mechanical fluctuations could nucleate a bubble of phi at a negative value of the potential. This bubble would then expand at the speed of light. Given that no such bubble enveloped us in the past, we find that any minimum in V(phi) must be separated from the current phi value by more than min[1.5M(0),0.21M(Pl)], where M(Pl) is the Planck mass. We also show that vacuum decay renders a cyclic or ekpyrotic universe with M(0)(4) > or approximately 10(-10)M(4)(Pl) untenable.     

Time and distance constraints on accelerating cosmological models

The absence of guidance from fundamental physics about the mechanism behind cosmic acceleration has given rise to a number of alternative cosmological scenarios. These are based either on modifications of general relativistic gravitation theory on large scales or on the existence of new fields in Nature. In this Letter we investigate the observational viability of some accelerating cosmological models in light of 32 age measurements of passively evolving galaxies as a function of redshift and recent estimates of the product of the cosmic microwave background acoustic scale and the baryonic acoustic oscillation peak scale. By using information-criteria model selection, we select the best-fit models and rank the alternative scenarios. We show that some of these models may provide a better fit to the data than does the current standard cosmological constant dominated (ΛCDM) model.     

Influence of higgs particles on cosmological models

It is shown that a conformally invariant scalar field can have anomalous vacuum expectation values in a Tolman universe of any kind: closed, quasi-Euclidean, or open. The anomalous vacuum expectation values lead in the initial stages of evolution of the universe to the existence of negative energy in the closed and quasi-Euclidean models if the square of the unrenormalized mass is negative and, in the open model, if the square of the unrenormalized mass is less than the square of the Planck mass. The influence of the negative energy on cosmological models of any type with and without term is investigated. It is shown that there is no singular state.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 17–20, July, 1980.We are very grateful to K. A. Bronnikov for valuable comments.     

Factorization theorem for decaying spinning particles

We demonstrate that the differential cross section for multiparticle production via the production and subsequent decay of a heavy, spinning particle factorizes into a production piece and a decay piece provided we choose our kinematic variables properly and the parent decays into at least three particles.     

Galaxy cluster number count data constraints on cosmological parameters

We use data on massive galaxy clusters (M _cluster>8×10¹⁴ h ^?1 M _?? within a comoving radius of R _cluster=1.5h ^?1?Mpc) in the redshift range 0.05?z?0.83 to place constraints, simultaneously, on the nonrelativistic matter density parameter ?? _m , on the amplitude of mass fluctuations ?? ₈, on the index n of the power-law spectrum of the density perturbations, and on the Hubble constant H ₀, as well as on the equation-of-state parameters (w ₀,w _a ) of a smooth dark energy component. For the first time, we properly take into account the dependence on redshift and cosmology of the quantities related to cluster physics: the critical density contrast, the growth factor, the mass conversion factor, the virial overdensity, the virial radius and, most importantly, the cluster number count derived from the observational temperature data. We show that, contrary to previous analyses, cluster data alone prefer low values of the amplitude of mass fluctuations, ?? ₈??0.69 (1?? C.L.), and large amounts of nonrelativistic matter, ?? _m ??0.38 (1?? C.L.), in slight tension with the ??CDM concordance cosmological model, though the results are compatible with ??CDM at 2??. In addition, we derive a ?? ₈ normalization relation, $\sigma_{8} \varOmega_{m}^{1/3} = 0.49 \pm 0.06$ (2?? C.L.). Combining cluster data with ?? ₈-independent baryon acoustic oscillation observations, cosmic microwave background data, Hubble constant measurements, Hubble parameter determination from passively evolving red galaxies, and magnitude?Credshift data of type Ia supernovae, we find $\varOmega_{m} = 0.28^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ and $\sigma_{8} = 0.73^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$ , the former in agreement and the latter being slightly lower than the corresponding values in the concordance cosmological model. We also find $H_{0} = 69.1^{+1.3}_{-1.5}~\mbox {km}/\mbox {s}/\mbox {Mpc}$ , the fit to the data being almost independent on n in the adopted range [0.90,1.05]. Concerning the dark energy equation-of-state parameters, we show that the present data on massive clusters weakly constrain (w ₀,w _a ) around the values corresponding to a cosmological constant, i.e. (w ₀,w _a )=(?1,0). The global analysis gives $w_{0} = -1.14^{+0.14}_{-0.16}$ and $w_{a} = 0.85^{+0.42}_{-0.60}$ (1?? C.L. errors). Very similar results are found in the case of time-evolving dark energy with a constant equation-of-state parameter w=const (the XCDM parametrization). Finally, we show that the impact of bounds on (w ₀,w _a ) is to favor top-down phantom models of evolving dark energy.     

Effects of cosmological constant on motion of UHECR particles

Recent astronomical observations manifest that about two-thirds of the whole energy in the Universe is contributed by a small positive cosmological constant A (> 0). Then, an asymptotically de Sitter spacetime is premised naturally. However, physics in the de Sitter spacetime is very different from that in the Minkowski spacetime. As the first step, a covariant formalism of the kinematics in the de Sitter spacetime is presented here. By solving exactly the equations of motion for a field, we obtain the dispersion relation of a free particle. It is noticed that the dispersion relation is dependent on the degree of freedom of angular momentum of the particle. We show the threshold anomaly of the ultra high energy cosmic ray disappears naturally in the framework of the de Sitter kinematics.     

Production of scalar particles in cosmological models

The mean number of particles produced in a space-time with the metric ds²=dt²–t² (dx²+dy²)–Kt²dz²(=1/t², 1) is calculated. It is shown that the produced particles are described by a Bose-Einstein distribution with a certain temperature.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 3–6, July, 1980.I thank D. M. Gitman and V. P. Frolov for discussing a number of questions touched upon in the paper.     

Majorana masses,photon gas heating and cosmological constraints on neutrinos

Non-vanishing Majorana masses generally lead to flavor-changing neutral currents in the neutrino sector. It is shown that when both right- and left-handed neutrinos have non-vanishing Majorana masses (M_R≠0 and M_L≠0), flavor-changing neutral currents could be as large as flavor-diagonal ones. However, when only right-handed neutrinos have non-vanishing Majorana masses (M_R≠0 but M_L=0), flavor-changing neutral currents are small. If M_R?D (Dirac masses), they are of $\text{O}\text{((}\text{D}\text{M}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>R</mtext>}}\text{)}{}^2\text{)}$. If M_R?D, they are $\text{?(}\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>L</mtext>}}\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>H</mtext>}}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$, where m_L and m_H are masses of light and heavy neutrinos appearing in a flavor-changing process.By using these results we examine cosmological implications of non-vanishing flavor-changing neutral currents. Heavy neutrinos can decay into three light neutrinos at an appreciable rate by exchanging a Z-boson. It is demonstrated that owing to this decay mode, heavy neutrinos of mass larger than 70 keV but less than 2m_e give rise to no contradiction with the standard big bang cosmology in the most general case.We also show that if there exist heavy neutrinos of mass m_H2m_e, their decay at an early era of the universe induces photon gas heating, which alters Cowsik and McClelland's constraint on light neutrino masses to Σm_L < k · 100 eV with the sum running over all Majorana eigenstates. Here the constant k, representing the heating effect of the photon gas, is restricted by the deuterium abundance of the present universe. For instance, Σm_L < 240 eV for m_H ～ 25 MeV and the present baryon density = 3.4 × 10^?31 g · cm^?3.     

Dark matter and structure formation with late decaying particles

Since it became evident that the CDM model for cosmic structure formation predicts smaller power on large scales than observed, many alternatives have been suggested. Among them, the existence of late decaying particle can cure it by delaying the beginning of the matter domination and increasing the horizon length at that time. We discuss the realization of this scenario and present the light neutrino and the light axino as possible examples of a working particle physics model. We point out that the increased power at sub-galaxy scale predicted by this scenario could lead to rich sub-galaxy structures.     

Features of holographic dark energy under combined cosmological constraints

We investigate the observational signatures of the holographic dark-energy models, including both the original model and a model with an interaction term between the dark energy and dark matter. We first delineate the dynamical behavior of such models, especially considering whether they would have a “big rip” for different parameters; then we use several recent observations, including 182 high-quality type Ia supernovae data observed with the Hubble Space Telescope, the SNLS and ESSENCE surveys, 42 latest Chandra X-ray cluster gas mass fraction, 27 high-redshift gamma-ray burst samples, the baryon acoustic oscillation measurement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the CMB shift parameter from the WMAP three-year result to give more reliable and tighter constraints on the holographic dark-energy models. The results of our constraints for the holographic dark-energy model without interaction is c=0.748_−0.009^+0.108, Ω _m0=0.276_−0.016^+0.017, and for the model with interaction (c=0.692_−0.107^+0.135, Ω _m0=0.281_−0.017^+0.017, α=−0.006_−0.024^+0.021, where α is an interacting parameter). As these models have more parameters than the ΛCDM model, we use the Bayesian Evidence as a model-selection criterion to make comparisons. We found that the holographic dark-energy models are mildly favored by the observations as compared to the ΛCDM model.     

Z decay constraints on supersymmetric particles revisited

The allowed regions in the chargino-gluino mass plane are mapped out using the latestZ decay data from experiments. The determination of these masses in future experiments will uniquely fix the neutralino mass spectrum for a fixedv ₁/v ₂. Since the usual two-fold ambiguity is removed by LEP data for gluino masses upto 200 GeV. Constraints have also been placed on neutralino masses.