The surprisingly large value of r, the ratio of power in tensor to scalar density perturbations in the CMB reported by the BICEP2 Collaboration, if confirmed, provides strong evidence for Inflation at the GUT scale. While the Inflationary signal remains…
The surprisingly large value of r, the ratio of power in tensor to scalar density perturbations in the CMB reported by the BICEP2 Collaboration, if confirmed, provides strong evidence for Inflation at the GUT scale. While the Inflationary signal remains the best motivated source, a large value of r alone would still allow for the possibility that a comparable gravitational wave background might result from a self ordering scalar field (SOSF) transition that takes place later at somewhat lower energy. We find that even without detailed considerations of the predicted BICEP signature of such a transition, simple existing limits on the isocurvature contribution to CMB anisotropies would definitively rule out a contribution of more than 5% to r = 0.2. We also present a general relation for the allowed fractional SOSF contribution to r as a function of the ultimate measured value of r. These results point strongly not only to an inflationary origin of the BICEP2 signal, if confirmed, but also to the fact that if the GUT scale is of order 1016 GeV then either the GUT transition happens before Inflation or the Inflationary transition and the GUT transition must be one and the same.
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The identity and origin of dark matter is one of the more elusive mysteries in the fields of particle physics and cosmology. In the near future, direct dark matter detectors will offer a chance at observing dark matter non-gravitationally for…
The identity and origin of dark matter is one of the more elusive mysteries in the fields of particle physics and cosmology. In the near future, direct dark matter detectors will offer a chance at observing dark matter non-gravitationally for the first time. In this thesis, formalisms are developed to analyze direct detection experiments and to quantify the extent to which properties of the dark matter can be determined. A range of non-standard assumptions about the dark matter are considered, including inelastic scattering, isospin violation and momentum dependent scattering. Bayesian inference is applied to realistic detector configurations to evaluate parameter estimation and model selection ability.
A complete set of simplified models for spin-0, spin-1/2 and spin-1 dark matter candidates are formulated. The corresponding non-relativistic operators are found, and are used to derive observational signals for the simplified models. The ability to discern these simplified models with direct detection experiments is demonstrated. In the near future direct dark matter detectors will be sensitive to coherent neutrino scattering, which will limit the discovery potential of these experiments. It was found that eleven of the fourteen non-relativistic operators considered produce signals distinct from coherent scattering, and thus the neutrino background does not greatly affect the discovery potential in these cases.
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It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subjected to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some — including Einstein — have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is…
It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subjected to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some — including Einstein — have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is capable of detecting individual gravitons. However, as we describe, if inflation occurred, the universe, by acting as an ideal graviton amplifier, affords such access. It produces a classical signal, in the form of macroscopic gravitational waves, in response to spontaneous (not induced) emission of gravitons. Thus recent BICEP2 observations of polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will, if confirmed, provide firm empirical evidence for the quantization of gravity. Their details also support quantitative ideas concerning the unification of strong, electromagnetic and weak forces, and of all these with gravity.
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A single fluid approximation which treats perturbations in baryons and dark matter as equal has sometimes been used to calculate the growth of linear matter density perturbations in the Universe. We demonstrate that properly accounting for the separate growth of…
A single fluid approximation which treats perturbations in baryons and dark matter as equal has sometimes been used to calculate the growth of linear matter density perturbations in the Universe. We demonstrate that properly accounting for the separate growth of baryon and dark matter fluctuations can change some predictions of structure formation in the linear domain in a way that can alter conclusions about the consistency between predictions and observations for ΛCDM models vs modified gravity scenarios. Our results may also be useful for 21 cm tomography constraints on alternative cosmological models for the formation of large scale structure.
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Motivated by the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos which naturally generates small neutrino masses, we explore how a small grand-unified-theory-scale mixing between the standard model Higgs boson and an otherwise massless hidden sector scalar can naturally generate a small mass and…
Motivated by the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos which naturally generates small neutrino masses, we explore how a small grand-unified-theory-scale mixing between the standard model Higgs boson and an otherwise massless hidden sector scalar can naturally generate a small mass and vacuum expectation value for the new scalar which produces a false vacuum energy density contribution comparable to that of the observed dark energy dominating the current expansion of the Universe. This provides a simple and natural mechanism for producing the correct scale for dark energy, even if it does not address the long-standing question of why much larger dark energy contributions are not produced from the visible sector. The new scalar produces no discernible signatures in existing terrestrial experiments so that one may have to rely on other cosmological tests of this idea.
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Gamma-ray burst observations provide a great opportunity for cosmography in high redshift. Some tight correlations between different physical properties of GRBs are discovered and used for cosmography. However, data selection, assumptions, systematic uncertainty and some other issues affect most of…
Gamma-ray burst observations provide a great opportunity for cosmography in high redshift. Some tight correlations between different physical properties of GRBs are discovered and used for cosmography. However, data selection, assumptions, systematic uncertainty and some other issues affect most of them. Most importantly, until the physical origin of a relation is understood, one should be cautious to employ the relation to utilize Gamma ray bursts for cosmography. In the first part of this dissertation, I use Liang-Zhang correlation to constrain ¦« Cold Dark Matter standard cosmology and a particular class of brane cosmology (brane-induced gravity model). With the most probable model being ¦¸_m=0.23 and ¦¸_¦«=0.77 for flat ¦«CDM cosmology and ¦¸_m=0.18 and ¦¸_(r_c )=0.17 for flat brane-induced gravity cosmology, my result for the energy components of these two models is comparable with the result from SNIa observation. With average uncertainty of distance modulus being 0.2771, the two discussed cosmologies are indistinguishable using my current sample of GRB with redshift ranging between 0.1685 and 3.2. I argue that by expanding my sample and adding more low and high redshift GRBs and also with improvement in using GRB for cosmography, we might be able to distinguish between different cosmological models and tighten the most probable model. Looking into correlation and evolution of GRB prompt emission and afterglow has many advantages. It helps to open windows to comprehend the physics of GRBs and examine different GRB models. It is also possible to use GRB correlation as an accurate redshift estimator and more importantly to constrain the cosmological parameters. XRT flares of GRB afterglow are thought to be the result of central engine activity. Studying this component leads us to understand GRB flare and central engine nature. In the next part of this dissertation, I study the correlation and evolution of different prompt emission and afterglow GRB properties and some GRB flare-based quantities. Considering instrument bias and selection effect, I conclude some well-correlated correlations and establish some property evolution. The correlation between average luminosity and isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy, energy of plateau and isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy and luminosity at break time and break time and evolution of plateau energy are well established. It is also realized that the apparent evolution of isotropic ¦Ã-ray energy and average luminosity is due to the instrumental flux threshold. With expanding the sample of GRB and accommodating more GRBs with XRT flares to my sample, I can reevaluate my result more firmly and confirm or rule out some hard to assert results due to limited number of data. In search for physically motivated GRB relation, analyzing the thermal component of GRB prompt emission, I derive two well-correlated relations. They are between calculated and estimated flux of the GRB thermal component for the co-moving bolometric and co-moving detector band-pass range of spectrum. In this study, three samples of Swift, pre-Swift and combined samples are used. The quality of this correlation is comparable with the Ghirlanda relation in terms of Spearman rank correlation parameters (correlation coefficient and correlation significance) and reduced ¦Ö^2of best fit. These results for the Swift GRB sample for co-moving bolometric range of spectrum are 0.81, 4.07¡Á¡¼10¡½^(-7) and 0.66 respectively. The derived correlations also imply a E_(¦Ã,iso)-E_peak^4 relation that provides physical insight to E_¦Ã-E_peak Ghirlanda correlation. Three scaling coefficients are employed to study these correlations. Monte Carlo statistics indicates that the existing correlations are independent of these constants. For Swift and combined sample 73% - 84.8% successes are recorded. Therefore, it is expected by determining these constants, the tightness of these correlations will further improve.
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