Peculiar relics from Primordial Black Holes in the inflationary paradigm

Depending on various assumptions on the energy scale of inflation and assuming a primordial power spectrum of a step‐like structure, we explore new possibilities for Primordial Black Holes (PBH) and Planck relics to contribute substantially to Cold Dark Matter in the Universe. A recently proposed possibility to produce Planck relics in four‐dimensional string gravity is considered in this framework. Possible experimental detection of PBHs through gravitational waves is also explored. We stress that inflation with a low energy scale, and also possibly when Planck relics are produced, leads unavoidably to relics originating from PBHs that are not effectively classical during their formation, rendering the usual formalism inadequate for them.     

第四讲暴涨宇宙学的研究与进展

文章简单介绍了标准(大爆炸)宇宙模型的成功和困难，着重介绍了暴涨宇宙学的研究历史和最近的进展，并展望了今后人们可能的关注方向     

The warm inflationary universe

In the past decade, the importance of dissipation and fluctuation to inflationary dynamics has been realized and has led to a new picture of inflation called warm inflation. Although these phenomena are common to condensed matter systems, for inflation models their importance has only recently started to be appreciated. The article describes the motivation for these phenomena during inflation and then examines their origins from first principles quantum field theory treatments of inflation models. Cosmology today is a data intensive field and this is driving theory to greater precision and predictability. This opens the possibility to consider tests for detecting observational signatures of dissipative processes, which will be discussed. In addition, it will be discussed how particle physics and cosmology are now working in tandem to push the boundaries of our knowledge about fundamental physics.     

CMB: the isotropic part

The Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, is the only truly diffuse background, whereas the other backgrounds come from the integrated light (along the line of sight) of various sources. The CMB is now known, thanks to the FIRAS experiment above the COBE satellite, to have a nearly perfect blackbody spectrum. This proves to be quite constraining on early energy releases. We review the average spectrum of the CMB with respect to other backgrounds and the consequences regarding the history of the early Universe. To cite this article: F.R. Bouchet, J.-L. Puget, C. R. Physique 4 (2003).     

New approaches for inflationary cosmology

Extended and hyperextended inflationary models of the universe have been developed which avoid the extreme fine-tuning required by all previous approaches. The models also generate a new source of inhomogeneities that affect large-scale structure. The most surprising feature is the role that inflation can play in altering the nature of the gravitational force.This essay received the second award from the Gravity Research Foundation, 1990 —Ed.     

Horizon ratio bound for inflationary fluctuations

We demonstrate that the gravity wave background amplitude implies a robust upper bound on the wavelength-to-horizon ratio at the end of inflation: lambda/H(-1) less than or approximately equal e(60), as long as the cosmic energy density does not drop faster than radiation subsequent to inflation. This limit implies that N, the number of e-folds between horizon exit and the end of inflation for wave modes of interest, is less, similar 60 plus a model-dependent factor-for vast classes of slow-roll models, N less than or approximately equal 67. As an example, this bound solidifies the tension between observations of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and chaotic inflation with a phi(4) potential by closing the escape hatch of large N (<62).     

The fractal dimension of the inflationary universe

In cosmological scenarios of the new inflationary type, inflation never ends completely. The total volume of inflating regions grows exponentially with time, and they form a self-similar fractal of dimension slightly less than 3.     

The search for quantum gravity effects II: Specific predictions

The variety and structure of quantum gravity effects are described and the expected magnitude of the effects and a corresponding strategy for the search for these effects is discussed. We present some of the “predictions” of possible effects. These are no real predictions because these derivations do not start from an established physical theory; they start from some hypothesis. Furthermore, in some cases even the derivation is unclear and not settled. PACS 04.80.Cc; 03.30.+p; 06.20.-f; 04.60.-m     

The premature recollapse problem in closed inflationary universes

We discuss whether closed universe can avoid recollapsing before inflation ensues. We show that in general closed universe are not equivalent to recollapsing universes or positive curvature universes. Closed universes will not in general recollapse if the matter content violates the strong energy condition. This violation is also a necessary condition for inflation to occur. When the strong energy condition holds closed universes can only recollapse if they possess S³ or S²×S¹ spatial topology. Even when the topology is S³ and the strong energy condition holds it is not known whether anisotropic closed universes do all recollapse. We give examples to show that closed universes which begin in an extremely anisotropic state cannot recollapse until they are close to isotropy. This suggests that if the initial conditions prior to inflation are sufficiently anisotropic then the universe cannot recollapse until it has been isotropized by inflation. We also discuss the existence of inflation in isotropic cosmological models in R+R² lagrangian theories of gravity and extend a result of Whitt to show that such theories are conformally equivalent to general relativity plus a scalar field with an asymmetric potential.     

The Szekeres Swiss Cheese model and the CMB observations

This paper presents the application of the Szekeres Swiss Cheese model to the analysis of observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The impact of inhomogeneous matter distribution on the CMB observations is in most cases studied within the linear perturbations of the Friedmann model. However, since the density contrast and the Weyl curvature within the cosmic structures are large, this issue is worth studying using another approach. The Szekeres model is an inhomogeneous, non-symmetrical and exact solution of the Einstein equations. In this model, light propagation and matter evolution can be exactly calculated, without such approximations as small amplitude of the density contrast. This allows to examine in more realistic manner the contribution of the light propagation effect to the measured CMB temperature fluctuations. The results of such analysis show that small-scale, non-linear inhomogeneities induce, via Rees-Sciama effect, temperature fluctuations of amplitude 10⁻⁷–10⁻⁵ on angular scale ϑ < 0.24° (ℓ > 750). This is still much smaller than the measured temperature fluctuations on this angular scale. However, local and uncompensated inhomogeneities can induce temperature fluctuations of amplitude as large as 10⁻³, and thus can be responsible the low multipoles anomalies observed in the angular CMB power spectrum.     

Narrowing the window for millicharged particles by CMB anisotropy

We calculate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum in models with millicharged particles of electric charge q～10^?6?10^?1 in units of electron charge. We find that a large region of the parameter space for the millicharged particles exists where their effect on the CMB spectrum is similar to the effect of baryons. Using WMAP data on the CMB anisotropy and assuming the Big Bang nucleosynthesis value for the baryon abundance, we find that only a small fraction of cold dark matter, Ω_mcp<0.007 (at 95% CL), may consist of millicharged particles with the parameters (charge and mass) from this region. This bound significantly narrows the allowed range of the parameters of millicharged particles. In models without paraphotons, millicharged particles are now excluded as a dark matter candidate. We also speculate that recent observation of 511-keV γ rays from the Galactic bulge may be an indication that a (small) fraction of cold dark matter is comprised of millicharged particles.     

New evidence for lack of CMB power on large scales

A digitalized temperature map is recovered from the first light sky survey image published by the Planck team, from which an angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is derived. The amplitudes of the low multipoles (low-l) measured from the preliminary Planck power spectrum are significantly lower than those reported by the WMAP team. Possible systematical effects are far from enough to explain the observed low-l differences.