Table of contents

Galileon gravity offers a robust gravitational theory for explaining cosmic acceleration, having a rich phenomenology of testable behaviors. We explore three classes of Galileon models — standard uncoupled, and linearly or derivatively coupled to matter — investigating the expansion history with particular attention to early time and late time attractors, as well as the linear perturbations. From the relativistic and nonrelativistic Poisson equations we calculate the generalizations of the gravitational strength (Newton's constant), deriving its early and late time behavior. By scanning through the parameters we derive distributions of the gravitational strength at various epochs and trace the paths of gravity in its evolution. Using ghost-free and stability criteria we restrict the allowed parameter space, finding in particular that the linear and derivative coupled models are severely constrained by classical instabilities in the early universe.

We obtain the general cosmological evolution equations for a classically consistent theory of bimetric gravity. Their analytic solutions are demonstrated to generically allow for a cosmic evolution starting out from a matter dominated FLRW universe and relaxing towards a de Sitter (anti-de Sitter) phase at late cosmic time. In particular, we examine a subclass of models which contain solutions that are able to reproduce the expansion history of the cosmic concordance model inspite of the nonlinear couplings of the two metrics. This is demonstrated explicitly by fitting these models to observational data from Type Ia supernovae, Cosmic Microwave Background and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations. In the appendix we comment on the relation to massive gravity.

We investigate bounds on the strength of the primordial magnetic field (PMF) from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) bispectra of the intensity (temperature) modes induced from the auto- and cross-correlated bispectra of the scalar and tensor components of the PMF anisotropic stress. At first, we construct a general formula for the CMB intensity and polarization bispectra from PMFs composed of any type of perturbation. Then we derive an approximate expression which traces the exact shape of the CMB bispectrum in order to reduce the computation time with respect to a large number of the multipole configurations, and also show that the non-Gaussian structure coming from PMFs is classified as the local-type configuration. Computing the signal-to-noise ratio on the basis of the approximate formula with the information of the instrumental noises and resolutions, we find expected upper bounds on the magnetic field strength, when the magnetic spectrum is nearly scale invariant (n_B = −2.9), smoothed on 1Mpc scale at 95% confidence level from the WMAP and PLANCK experiments as B_1Mpc < 4.0−6.7nG and 3.8−6.5nG, respectively, depending on the energy scale of the magnetic field production from 10¹⁴GeV to 10³GeV. Our new consequences imply slight overestimations by the previous rough discussions.

We investigate how large lepton asymmetries affect the evolution of the early universe at times before big bang nucleosynthesis and in particular how they influence the relic density of WIMP dark matter. In comparison to the standard calculation of the relic WIMP abundance we find a decrease, depending on the lepton flavour asymmetry. We find an effect of up to 20 per cent for lepton flavour asymmetries l_f = (0.1).

In the very last years, cosmological models where the properties of the dark components of the Universe — dark matter and dark energy — are accounted for by a single ``dark fluid'' have drawn increasing attention and interest. Amongst many proposals, Unified Dark Matter (UDM) cosmologies are promising candidates as effective theories. In these models, a scalar field with a non-canonical kinetic term in its Lagrangian mimics both the accelerated expansion of the Universe at late times and the clustering properties of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. However, UDM models also present peculiar behaviours, the most interesting one being the fact that the perturbations in the dark-matter component of the scalar field do have a non-negligible speed of sound. This gives rise to an effective Jeans scale for the Newtonian potential, below which the dark fluid does not cluster any more. This implies a growth of structures fairly different from that of the concordance ΛCDM model. In this paper, we demonstrate that forthcoming large-scale surveys will be able to discriminate between viable UDM models and ΛCDM to a good degree of accuracy. To this purpose, the planned Euclid satellite will be a powerful tool, since it will provide very accurate data on galaxy clustering and the weak lensing effect of cosmic shear. Finally, we also exploit the constraining power of the ongoing CMB Planck experiment. Although our approach is the most conservative, with the inclusion of only well-understood, linear dynamics, in the end we also show what could be done if some amount of non-linear information were included.

We explore a class of dark matter models with two dark matter candidates, only one interacts with the standard model sector. One of the dark matter is thermalized with the assistance of the other stable particle. While both stable particles contribute to the total relic density only one can elastically scatter with nuclei, thus effectively reducing the direct detection rate.

In the present paper we study the oscillation spectrum of neutron stars containing both ordinary matter and dark energy in different proportions. Within the model we consider, the equilibrium configurations are numerically constructed and the results show that the properties of the mixed neuron-dark-energy star can differ significantly when the amount of dark energy in the stars is varied. The oscillations of the mixed neuron-dark-energy stars are studied in the Cowling approximation. As a result we find that the frequencies of the fundamental mode and the higher overtones are strongly affected by the dark energy content. This can be used in the future to detect the presence of dark energy in the neutron stars and to constrain the dark-energy models.

We show that the modulated reheating mechanism can naturally account for dark radiation, whose existence is hinted by recent observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the primordial Helium abundance. In this mechanism, the inflaton decay rate depends on a light modulus which acquires almost scale-invariant quantum fluctuations during inflation. We find that the light modulus is generically produced by the inflaton decay and therefore a prime candidate for the dark radiation. Interestingly, an almost scale-invariant power spectrum predicted in the modulated reheating mechanism gives a better fit to the observation in the presence of the extra radiation. We discuss the production mechanism of the light modulus in detail taking account of its associated isocurvature fluctuations. We also consider a case where the modulus becomes the dominant component of dark matter.

Using the dynamical system approach, we describe the general dynamics of cosmological scalar fields in terms of critical points and heteroclinic lines. It is found that critical points describe the initial and final states of the scalar field dynamics, but that heteroclinic lines give a more complete description of the evolution in between the critical points. In particular, the heteroclinic line that departs from the (saddle) critical point of perfect fluid-domination is the representative path in phase space of quintessence fields that may be viable dark energy candidates. We also discuss the attractor properties of the heteroclinic lines, and their importance for the description of thawing and freezing fields.

We construct generic spherically symmetric thin-shell gravastars by using the cut-and-paste procedure. We take considerable effort to make the analysis as general and unified as practicable; investigating both the internal physics of the transition layer and its interaction with "external forces" arising due to interactions between the transition layer and the bulk spacetime. Furthermore, we discuss both the dynamic and static situations. In particular, we consider "bounded excursion" dynamical configurations, and probe the stability of static configurations. For gravastars there is always a particularly compelling configuration in which the surface energy density is zero, while surface tension is nonzero.

We present a detailed analysis of the radio synchrotron emission induced by WIMP dark matter annihilations and decays in extragalactic halos. We compute intensity, angular correlation, and source counts and discuss the impact on the expected signals of dark matter clustering, as well as of other astrophysical uncertainties as magnetic fields and spatial diffusion. Bounds on dark matter microscopic properties are then derived, and, depending on the specific set of assumptions, they are competitive with constraints from other indirect dark matter searches. At GHz frequencies, dark matter sources can become a significant fraction of the total number of sources with brightness below the microJansky level. We show that, at this level of fluxes (which are within the reach of the next-generation radio surveys), properties of the faint edge of differential source counts, as well as angular correlation data, can become an important probe for WIMPs.

A wide range of multifield inflationary models generate non-Gaussian initial conditions in which the initial adiabatic fluctuation is of the form (ζ_G+g_NLζ_G³). We study halo clustering in these models using two different analytic methods: the peak-background split framework, and brute force calculation in a barrier crossing model, obtaining agreement between the two. We find a simple, theoretically motivated expression for halo bias which agrees with N-body simulations and can be used to constrain g_NL from observations. We discuss practical caveats to constraining g_NL using only observable properties of a tracer population, and argue that constraints obtained from populations whose observed bias is ≲2.5 are generally not robust to uncertainties in modeling the halo occupation distribution of the population.

Renormalized versions of cosmological perturbation theory have been very successful in recent years in describing the evolution of structure formation in the weakly non-linear regime. The concept of multi-point propagators has been introduced as a tool to quantify the relation between the initial matter distribution and the final one and to push the validity of the approaches to smaller scales. We generalize the n-point propagators that have been considered until now to include a new class of multi-point propagators that are relevant in the framework of the renormalization group formalism. The large-k results obtained for this general class of multi-point propagators match the results obtained earlier both in the case of Gaussian and non-Gaussian initial conditions. We discuss how the large-k results can be used to improve on the accuracy of the calculations of the power spectrum and bispectrum in the presence of initial non-Gaussianities.

We present new global fits of the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (cMSSM), including LHC 1/fb integrated luminosity SUSY exclusion limits, recent LHC 5/fb constraints on the mass of the Higgs boson and XENON100 direct detection data. Our analysis fully takes into account astrophysical and hadronic uncertainties that enter the analysis when translating direct detection limits into constraints on the cMSSM parameter space. We provide results for both a Bayesian and a Frequentist statistical analysis. We find that LHC 2011 constraints in combination with XENON100 data can rule out a significant portion of the cMSSM parameter space. Our results further emphasise the complementarity of collider experiments and direct detection searches in constraining extensions of Standard Model physics. The LHC 2011 exclusion limit strongly impacts on low-mass regions of cMSSM parameter space, such as the stau co-annihilation region, while direct detection data can rule out regions of high SUSY masses, such as the Focus-Point region, which is unreachable for the LHC in the near future. We show that, in addition to XENON100 data, the experimental constraint on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon plays a dominant role in disfavouring large scalar and gaugino masses. We find that, should the LHC 2011 excess hinting towards a Higgs boson at 126 GeV be confirmed, currently favoured regions of the cMSSM parameter space will be robustly ruled out from both a Bayesian and a profile likelihood statistical perspective.

The thermal production of relativistic right-handed Majorana neutrinos is of importance for models of thermal leptogenesis in the early Universe. Right-handed neutrinos can be produced both by 1↔2 decay or inverse decay and by 2 → 2 scattering processes. In a previous publication we have studied the production via 1↔2 (inverse) decay processes. There we have shown that multiple scattering mediated by soft gauge boson exchange also contributes to the production rate at leading order and gives a strong enhancement. Here we complete the leading order calculation by adding 2 → 2 scattering processes involving either electroweak gauge bosons or third-generation quarks. We find that processes with gauge interactions give the most important contributions. We also obtain a new sum rule for the Hard Thermal Loop resummed fermion propagator.

A non-equilibrium picture of thermodynamics is discussed at the apparent horizon of FRW universe in f(R,T) gravity, where R is the Ricci scalar and T is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. We take two forms of the energy-momentum tensor of dark components and demonstrate that equilibrium description of thermodynamics is not achievable in both cases. We check the validity of the first and second law of thermodynamics in this scenario. It is shown that the Friedmann equations can be expressed in the form of first law of thermodynamics T_hdS'_h+T_hd_𝚥S' = −dE'+W'dV, where d_𝚥S' is the entropy production term. Finally, we conclude that the second law of thermodynamics holds both in phantom and non-phantom phases.

We use type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) data in combination with recent baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations to constrain a kink-like parametrization of the deceleration parameter (q). This q-parametrization can be written in terms of the initial (q_i) and present (q₀) values of the deceleration parameter, the redshift of the cosmic transition from deceleration to acceleration (z_t) and the redshift width of such transition (τ). By assuming a flat space geometry, q_i = 1/2 and adopting a likelihood approach to deal with the SN Ia data we obtain, at the 68% confidence level (C.L.), that: z_t = 0.56^+0.13_−0.10, τ = 0.47^+0.16_−0.20 and q₀ = −0.31^+0.11_−0.11 when we combine BAO/CMB observations with SN Ia data processed with the MLCS2k2 light-curve fitter. When in this combination we use the SALT2 fitter we get instead, at the same C.L.: z_t = 0.64^+0.13_−0.07, τ = 0.36^+0.11_−0.17 and q₀ = −0.53^+0.17_−0.13. Our results indicate, with a quite general and model independent approach, that MLCS2k2 favors Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati-like cosmological models, while SALT2 favors ΛCDM-like ones. Progress in determining the transition redshift and/or the present value of the deceleration parameter depends crucially on solving the issue of the difference obtained when using these two light-curve fitters.

We address the issue of cosmological backreaction from non-linear structure formation by constructing an approximation for the time evolved metric of a dust dominated universe based on a gradient expansion. Our metric begins as a perturbation of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker state described by a nearly scale invariant, Gaussian, power-law distribution, and evolves in time until non-linear structures have formed. After describing and attempting to control for certain complications in the implementation of this approach, this metric then forms a working model of the universe. We numerically calculate the evolution of the average scale factor in this model and hence the backreaction. We argue that, despite its limitations, this model is more realistic than previous models that have confronted the issue of backreaction. We find that the instantaneous effects of backreaction in this model could be as large as ∼ 10% of the background. This suggests that a proper understanding of the cumulative effects of backreaction could be crucial for precision cosmology and any future exploration of the dark sector.

The extended Galileon models possess tracker solutions with de Sitter attractors along which the dark energy equation of state is constant during the matter-dominated epoch, i.e. w_DE = −1−s, where s is a positive constant. Even with this phantom equation of state there are viable parameter spaces in which the ghosts and Laplacian instabilities are absent. Using the observational data of the supernovae type Ia, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and baryon acoustic oscillations, we place constraints on the tracker solutions at the background level and find that the parameter s is constrained to be s = 0.034_−0.034^+0.327 (95 % CL) in the flat Universe. In order to break the degeneracy between the models we also study the evolution of cosmological density perturbations relevant to the large-scale structure (LSS) and the Integrated-Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in CMB. We show that, depending on the model parameters, the LSS and the ISW effect is either positively or negatively correlated. It is then possible to constrain viable parameter spaces further from the observational data of the ISW-LSS cross-correlation as well as from the matter power spectrum.

We study the Affleck-Dine (AD) baryogenesis in the inflating curvaton scenario, when the curvaton is a moduli field with (10–10² TeV) mass. A moduli field with such mass is known to be free from the Polonyi problem, and furthermore its decay products can explain the present cold dark matter abundance. In our scenario, it further explains the primordial curvature perturbation and the present baryon density all together. The current observational bound on the baryon isocurvature perturbation, which severely constrains the AD baryogenesis with the original oscillating moduli curvaton scenario, is shown to put practically negligible constraint if we replace the oscillating curvaton with the inflating curvaton.

We present forecast errors on a wide range of cosmological parameters obtained from a photometric cluster catalogue of a future wide-field Euclid-like survey. We focus in particular on the total neutrino mass as constrained by a combination of the galaxy cluster number counts and correlation function. For the latter we consider only the shape information and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), while marginalising over the spectral amplitude and the redshift space distortions. In addition to the cosmological parameters of the standard ΛCDM+ν model we also consider a non-vanishing curvature, and two parameters describing a redshift evolution for the dark energy equation of state. For completeness, we also marginalise over a set of ``nuisance'' parameters, representing the uncertainties on the cluster mass determination. We find that combining cluster counts with power spectrum information greatly improves the constraining power of each probe taken individually, with errors on cosmological parameters being reduced by up to an order of magnitude. In particular, the best improvements are for the parameters defining the dynamical evolution of dark energy, where cluster counts break degeneracies. Moreover, the resulting error on neutrino mass is at the level of σ(M_ν) ∼ 0.9 eV, comparable with that derived from present Lyα forest measurements and Cosmic Microwave background (CMB) data in the framework of a non-flat Universe. Further adopting Planck priors and reducing the number of free parameters to a ΛCDM+ν cosmology allows to place constraints on the total neutrino mass of σ(M_ν) ∼ 0.08 eV, close to the lower bound enforced by neutrino oscillation experiments. Finally, in the optimistic case where uncertainties in the calibration of the mass-observable relation were so small to be neglected, the combination of Planckpriors with cluster counts and power spectrum would constrain the total neutrino mass down to σ(M_ν) ∼ 0.034 eV, i.e. the minimum neutrino mass predicted by oscillation experiments would be detected in a ΛCDM framework. We thus show that galaxy clusters from future wide galaxy surveys will be an excellent tool for studying cosmology and fundamental physics.

The primordial curvature perturbation ζ may be generated by some curvaton field σ, which is negligible during inflation and has more or less negligible interactions until it decays. In the current scenario, the curvaton starts to oscillate while its energy density ρσ is negligible. We explore the opposite scenario, in which ρσ drives a fewe-folds of inflation before the oscillation begins. In this scenario for generating ζ it is exceptionally easy to solve the η problem; one just has to make the curvaton a string axion, with anomaly-mediated susy breaking which may soon be tested at the LHC. The observed spectral index n can be obtained with a potential V∝ϕ^p for the first inflation; p = 1 or 2 is allowed by the current uncertainty in n but the improvement in accuracy promised by Planck may rule out p = 1. The predictions include (i) running n' ≃ 0.0026 (0.0013) for p = 1 (2) that will probably be observed, (ii) non-gaussianity parameter f_NL; ∼ −1 that may be observed, (iii) tensor fraction r is probably too small to ever observed.

A number of recent analyses of cosmological data have reported hints for the presence of extra radiation beyond the standard model expectation. In order to test the robustness of these claims under different methods of constructing parameter constraints, we perform a Bayesian posterior-based and a likelihood profile-based analysis of current data. We confirm the presence of a slight discrepancy between posterior- and profile-based constraints, with the marginalised posterior preferring higher values of the effective number of neutrino species N_eff. This can be traced back to a volume effect occurring during the marginalisation process, and we demonstrate that the effect is related to the fact that cosmic microwave background (CMB) data constrain N_eff only indirectly via the redshift of matter-radiation equality. Once present CMB data are combined with external information about, e.g., the Hubble parameter, the difference between the methods becomes small compared to the uncertainty of N_eff. We conclude that the preference of precision cosmological data for excess radiation is "real" and not an artifact of a specific choice of credible/confidence interval construction.

Indirect Dark Matter searches are based on the observation of secondary particles produced by the annihilation or decay of Dark Matter. Among them, gamma-rays are perhaps the most promising messengers, as they do not suffer deflection or absorption on Galactic scales, so their observation would directly reveal the position and the energy spectrum of the emitting source. Here, we study the detailed gamma-ray energy spectrum of Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter in a theory with 5 Universal Extra Dimensions. We focus in particular on the two body annihilation of Dark Matter particles into a photon and another particle, which produces monochromatic photons, resulting in a line in the energy spectrum of gamma rays. Previous calculations in the context of the five dimensional UED model have computed the line signal from annihilations into γγ, but we extend these results to include γZand γH final states. We find that these spectral lines are subdominant compared to the predicted γγ signal, but they would be important as follow-up signals in the event of the observation of the γγ line, in order to distinguish the 5d UED model from other theoretical scenarios.

We investigate, in the context of asymmetric dark matter (DM), a new mechanism of spontaneous co-genesis of linked DM and baryon asymmetries, explaining the observed relation between the baryon and DM densities, Ω_DM /Ω_B ≃ 5. The co-genesis mechanism requires a light scalar field, ϕ, with mass below 5 eV which couples derivatively to DM, much like a 'dark axion'. The field ϕ can itself provide a final state into which the residual symmetric DM component can annihilate away.

We use the Chandra unresolved X-ray emission spectrum from a 12'–28' (2.8–6.4 kpc) annular region of the Andromeda galaxy to constrain the radiative decay of sterile neutrino warm dark matter. By excising the most baryon-dominated, central 2.8 kpc of the galaxy, we reduce the uncertainties in our estimate of the dark matter mass within the field of view and improve the signal-to-noise ratio of prospective sterile neutrino decay signatures relative to hot gas and unresolved stellar emission. Our findings impose the most stringent limit on the sterile neutrino mass to date in the context of the Dodelson-Widrow model, m_s < 2.2 keV (95% C.L.). Our results also constrain alternative sterile neutrino production scenarios at very small active-sterile neutrino mixing angles.

We discuss the phenomenology of the minimal inflation scenario. We concentrate on two aspects: inflationary trajectories and particle production. Our findings can be summarized in two main results: first, that inflationary trayectories that are very flat and provide enough number of e-foldings are natural in the scenario without fine tunning. We present a general formalism to identify attractors in multi-field inflation regardless of trajectories fulfilling the slow-roll conditions. We then explore particle production in the model and show how the inflaton naturally transmutes into a dark matter particle. One interesting feature of our model is that it provides a novel mechanism to generate particles and entropy in the universe: the filling of the Fermi sphere up to a given momentum p_F due to the sea of goldstinos that are an important part of the matter generated after inflation. With this mechanism in hand we predict that the gravitino should have a mass of > 100−1000 TeV. Another interesting feature of our model is that the predicted level of gravity waves is r = 0.1−0.001, which is in the range of detectability from Planck and upcoming CMB polarization experiments.

Strong lensing has developed into an important astrophysical tool for probing both cosmology and galaxies (their structure, formation, and evolution). Using the gravitational lensing theory and cluster mass distribution model, we try to collect a relatively complete observational data concerning the Hubble constant independent ratio between two angular diameter distances D_ds/D_s from various large systematic gravitational lens surveys and lensing by galaxy clusters combined with X-ray observations, and check the possibility to use it in the future as complementary to other cosmological probes. On one hand, strongly gravitationally lensed quasar-galaxy systems create such a new opportunity by combining stellar kinematics (central velocity dispersion measurements) with lensing geometry (Einstein radius determination from position of images). We apply such a method to a combined gravitational lens data set including 70 data points from Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) and Lens Structure and Dynamics survey (LSD). On the other hand, a new sample of 10 lensing galaxy clusters with redshifts ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 carefully selected from strong gravitational lensing systems with both X-ray satellite observations and optical giant luminous arcs, is also used to constrain three dark energy models (ΛCDM, constant w and CPL) under a flat universe assumption. For the full sample (n = 80) and the restricted sample (n = 46) including 36 two-image lenses and 10 strong lensing arcs, we obtain relatively good fitting values of basic cosmological parameters, which generally agree with the results already known in the literature. This results encourages further development of this method and its use on larger samples obtained in the future.

Assuming the existence of a primordial asymmetry in the dark sector, a scenario usually dubbed Asymmetric Dark Matter (aDM), we study the effect of oscillations between dark matter and its antiparticle on the re-equilibration of the initial asymmetry before freeze-out, which enable efficient annihilations to recouple. We calculate the evolution of the DM relic abundance and show how oscillations re-open the parameter space of aDM models, in particular in the direction of allowing large (WIMP-scale) DM masses. A typical WIMP with a mass at the EW scale ( ∼ 100 GeV – 1 TeV) presenting a primordial asymmetry of the same order as the baryon asymmetry naturally gets the correct relic abundance if the DM-number-violating Δ(DM) = 2 mass term is in the ∼ meV range. The re-establishment of annihilations implies that constraints from the accumulation of aDM in astrophysical bodies are evaded. On the other hand, the ordinary bounds from BBN, CMB and indirect detection signals on annihilating DM have to be considered.

Using observational data on the expansion rate of the universe (H(z)) we constrain the effective Lagrangian of the current accelerated expansion. Our results show that the effective potential is consistent with being flat i.e., a cosmological constant; it is also consistent with the field moving along an almost flat potential like a pseudo-Goldstone boson. We show that the potential of dark energy does not deviate from a constant at more than 6% over the redshift range 0 < z < 1. The data can be described by just a constant term in the Lagrangian and do not require any extra parameters; therefore there is no evidence for augmenting the number of parameters of the LCDM paradigm. We also find that the data justify the effective theory approach to describe accelerated expansion and that the allowed parameters range satisfy the expected hierarchy. Future data, both from cosmic chronometers and baryonic acoustic oscillations, that can measure H(z) at the % level, could greatly improve constraints on the flatness of the potential or shed some light on possible mechanisms driving the accelerated expansion. Besides the above result, it is shown that the effective Lagrangian of accelerated expansion can be constrained from cosmological observations in a model-independent way and that direct measurements of the expansion rate H(z) are most useful to do so.

We study the cosmological impact of the supersymmetric DFSZ axion model. Extending recent works, we first provide a comprehensive analysis of thermal production of the DFSZ axino considering all the possible scattering, decay and inverse decay processes depending on various mass parameters and the reheat temperature. Although it is hard for the DFSZ axino to be in thermal equilibrium, its coupling is still large enough to generate huge axino population which can turn into overabundant neutralino density. We examine the neutralino parameter space to identify the dark matter property depending on the Peccei-Quinn scale. As the Peccei-Quinn scale becomes higher resulting in longer axino lifetime, the neutralino dark matter appears in a lighter Higgsino-like LSP region or a more restricted Bino-like LSP region allowing a resonant annihilation through a CP-odd Higgs boson to meet stronger reannihilation.

We propose a method to probe higher-order correlators of the primordial density field through the inhomogeneity of local non-Gaussian parameters, such as f_NL, measured within smaller patches of the sky. Correlators between n-point functions measured in one patch of the sky and k-point functions measured in another patch depend upon the (n+k)-point functions over the entire sky. The inhomogeneity of non-Gaussian parameters may be a feasible way to detect or constrain higher- order correlators in local models of non-Gaussianity, as well as to distinguish between single and multiple-source scenarios for generating the primordial density perturbation, and more generally to probe the details of inflationary physics.

Squeezed primordial non-Gaussianity can strongly constrain early-universe physics, but it can only be observed on the CMB after it has been gravitationally lensed. We give a new simple non-perturbative prescription for accurately calculating the effect of lensing on any squeezed primordial bispectrum shape, and test it with simulations. We give the generalization to polarization bispectra, and discuss the effect of lensing on the trispectrum. We explain why neglecting the lensing smoothing effect does not significantly bias estimators of local primordial non-Gaussianity, even though the change in shape can be ≳10%. We also show how τ_NL trispectrum estimators can be well approximated by much simpler CMB temperature modulation estimators, and hence that there is potentially a ∼ 10–30% bias due to very large-scale lensing modes, depending on the range of modulation scales included. Including dipole sky modulations can halve the τ_NL error bar if kinematic effects can be subtracted using known properties of the CMB temperature dipole. Lensing effects on the g_NL trispectrum are small compared to the error bar. In appendices we give the general result for lensing of any primordial bispectrum, and show how any full-sky squeezed bispectrum can be decomposed into orthogonal modes of distinct angular dependence.

Pure singlets are typically disfavored as dark matter candidates, since they generically have a thermal relic abundance larger than the observed value. In this paper, we propose a new dark matter mechanism called "assimilation", which takes advantage of the baryon asymmetry of the universe to generate the correct relic abundance of singlet dark matter. Through assimilation, dark matter itself is efficiently destroyed, but dark matter number is stored in new quasi-stable heavy states which carry the baryon asymmetry. The subsequent annihilation and late-time decay of these heavy states yields (symmetric) dark matter as well as (asymmetric) standard model baryons. We study in detail the case of pure bino dark matter by augmenting the minimal supersymmetric standard model with vector-like chiral multiplets. In the parameter range where this mechanism is effective, the LHC can discover long-lived charged particles which were responsible for assimilating dark matter.

We propose a novel scenario to generate primordial magnetic fields during inflation induced by an oscillating coupling of the electromagnetic field to the inflaton. This resonant mechanism has two key advantages over previous proposals. First of all, it generates a narrow band of magnetic fields at any required wavelength, thereby allaying the usual problem of a strongly blue spectrum and its associated backreaction. Secondly, it avoids the need for a strong coupling as the coupling is oscillating rather than growing or decaying exponentially. Despite these major advantages, we find that the backreaction is still far too large during inflation if the generated magnetic fields are required to have a strength of (10⁻¹⁵ Gauss) today on observationally interesting scales. We provide a more general no-go argument, proving that this problem will apply to any model in which the magnetic fields are generated on subhorizon scales and freeze after horizon crossing.

We investigate the question of whether the recent modulation signal claimed by CoGeNT is best explained by the dark matter (DM) hypothesis from a Bayesian model comparison perspective. We consider five phenomenological explanations for the data: no modulation signal, modulation due to DM, modulation due to DM compatible with the total CoGeNT rate, and a signal coming from other physics with a free phase but annual period, or with a free phase and a free period. In each scenario, we assign to the free parameters physically motivated priors. We find that while the DM models are weakly preferred to the no modulation model, but when compared to models where the modulation is due to other physics, the DM hypothesis is favoured with odds ranging from 185:1 to 560:1. This result is robust even when astrophysical uncertainties are taken into account and the impact of priors assessed. Interestingly, the odds for the DM model in which the modulation signal is compatible with the total rate against a DM model in which this prior is not implemented is only 5:8, in spite of the former's prediction of a modulation amplitude in the energy range 0.9 → 3.0 keVee that is significantly smaller than the value observed by CoGeNT. Classical hypothesis testing also rules out the null hypothesis of no modulation at the 1.6σ to 2.3σ level, depending on the details of the alternative. Lastly, we investigate whether anisotropic velocity distributions can help to mitigate the tension between the CoGeNT total and modulated rates, and find encouraging results.

We analyze the conditions that enable acceleration of particles to ultra-high energies, ∼ 10²⁰ eV (UHECRs). We show that broad band photon data recently provided by WMAP,ISOCAM, Swift and Fermi satellites, yield constraints on the ability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) to produce UHECRs. The high energy (MeV–GeV) photons are produced by Compton scattering of the emitted low energy photons and the cosmic microwave background or extra-galactic background light. The ratio of the luminosities at high and low photon energies can therefore be used as a probe of the physical conditions in the acceleration site. We find that existing data excludes core regions of nearby radio-loud AGN as possible acceleration sites of UHECR protons. However, we show that giant radio lobes are not excluded. We apply our method to Cen A, and show that acceleration of protons to ∼ 10²⁰ eV can only occur at distances ≳100 kpc from the core.

We study cosmological perturbations of self-accelerating universe solutions in the recently proposed nonlinear theory of massive gravity, with general matter content. While the broken diffeomorphism invariance implies that there generically are 2 tensor, 2 vector and 2 scalar degrees of freedom in the gravity sector, we find that the scalar and vector degrees have vanishing kinetic terms and nonzero mass terms. Depending on their nonlinear behavior, this indicates either nondynamical nature of these degrees or strong couplings. Assuming the former, we integrate out the 2 vector and 2 scalar degrees of freedom. We then find that in the scalar and vector sectors, gauge-invariant variables constructed from metric and matter perturbations have exactly the same quadratic action as in general relativity. The difference from general relativity arises only in the tensor sector, where the graviton mass modifies the dispersion relation of gravitational waves, with a time-dependent effective mass. This may lead to modification of stochastic gravitational wave spectrum.

We derive constraints on the annual modulation signal in Dark Matter (DM) direct detection experiments in terms of the unmodulated event rate. A general bound independent of the details of the DM distribution follows from the assumption that the motion of the earth around the sun is the only source of time variation. The bound is valid for a very general class of particle physics models and also holds in the presence of an unknown unmodulated background. More stringent bounds are obtained, if modest assumptions on symmetry properties of the DM halo are adopted. We illustrate the bounds by applying them to the annual modulation signals reported by the DAMA and CoGeNT experiments in the framework of spin-independent elastic scattering. While the DAMA signal satisfies our bounds, severe restrictions on the DM mass can be set for CoGeNT.

On large scales a nonlinear transformation of matter density field can be viewed as a biased tracer of the density field itself. A nonlinear transformation also modifies the redshift space distortions in the same limit, giving rise to a velocity bias. In models with primordial nongaussianity a nonlinear transformation generates a scale dependent bias on large scales. We derive analytic expressions for the large scale bias, the velocity bias and the redshift space distortion (RSD) parameter β, as well as the scale dependent bias from primordial nongaussianity for a general nonlinear transformation. These biases can be expressed entirely in terms of the one point distribution function (PDF) of the final field and the parameters of the transformation. The analysis shows that one can view the large scale bias different from unity and primordial nongaussianity bias as a consequence of converting higher order correlations in density into 2-point correlations of its nonlinear transform. Our analysis allows one to devise nonlinear transformations with nearly arbitrary bias properties, which can be used to increase the signal in the large scale clustering limit. We apply the results to the ionizing equilibrium model of Lyman-α forest, in which Lyman-α flux F is related to the density perturbation δ via a nonlinear transformation. Velocity bias can be expressed as an average over the Lyman-α flux PDF. At z = 2.4 we predict the velocity bias of -0.1, compared to the observed value of −0.13±0.03. Bias and primordial nongaussianity bias depend on the parameters of the transformation. Measurements of bias can thus be used to constrain these parameters, and for reasonable values of the ionizing background intensity we can match the predictions to observations. Matching to the observed values we predict the ratio of primordial nongaussianity bias to bias to have the opposite sign and lower magnitude than the corresponding values for the highly biased galaxies, but this depends on the model parameters and can also vanish or change the sign.

The results of the calculation are presented for the fluxes of CN neutrinos from the Sun in case of mixing in a spherical layer in the solar core, consistent with the seismic data and with the measured solar neutrino fluxes. It is shown that a substantial increase of the flux of ¹³N neutrinos can be gained in this case. The possible implications for experiment are discussed.

We present N-body simulations for generic non-Gaussian initial conditions with the aim of exploring and modelling the scale-dependent halo bias. This effect is evident on very large scales requiring large simulation boxes. In addition, the previously available prescription to implement generic non-Gaussian initial conditions has been improved to keep under control higher-order terms which were spoiling the power spectrum on large scales. We pay particular attention to the differences between physical, inflation-motivated primordial bispectra and their factorizable templates, and to the operational definition of the non-Gaussian halo bias (which has both a scale-dependent and an approximately scale-independent contributions). We find that analytic predictions for both the non-Gaussian halo mass function and halo bias work well once a fudge factor (which was introduced before but still lacks convincing physical explanation) is calibrated on simulations. The halo bias remains therefore an extremely promising tool to probe primordial non-Gaussianity and thus to give insights into the physical mechanism that generated the primordial perturbations. The simulation outputs and tables of the analytic predictions will be made publicly available via the non-Gaussian comparison project web sitehttp://icc.ub.edu/~liciaverde/NGSCP.html.

Recently the CRESST collaboration has published the long anticipated results of their direct Dark Matter (DM) detection experiment with a CaWO₄ target. The number of observed events exceeds known backgrounds at more than 4σ significance, and this excess could potentially be due to DM scattering. We confront this interpretation with null results from other direct detection experiments for a number of theoretical models, and find that consistency is achieved in non-minimal models such as inelastic DM and isospin-violating DM. In both cases mild tension with constraints remain. The CRESST data can, however, not be reconciled with the null results and with the positive signals from DAMA and CoGeNT simultaneously in any of the models we study.