Primordial Fluctuations Research Articles

The 21-cm signals from ultracompact minihaloes as a probe of primordial small-scale fluctuations

ABSTRACT Ultracompact minihaloes (UCMHs) can form after the epoch of matter–radiation equality, if the density fluctuations of dark matter have significantly large amplitude on small scales. The constraint on the UCMH abundance allows us to access such small-scale fluctuations. In this paper, we present that, through the measurement of 21-cm fluctuations before the epoch of reionization, we can obtain a constraint on the UCMH abundance. We calculate the 21-cm signal from UCMHs and show that UCMHs provide the enhancement of the 21-cm fluctuations. We also investigate the constraint on the UCMH abundance and small-scale curvature perturbations. Our results indicate that the upcoming 21-cm observation, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), provides the constraint on amplitude of primordial curvature power spectrum, ${\cal A}_{\zeta } \lesssim 10^{-6}$ on 100 ≲ k ≲ 1000 Mpc−1. Although it is not stronger than the one from the non-detection of gamma-rays induced by dark matter annihilation in UCMHs, the constraint by the SKA will be important because this constraint is independent of the dark matter particle model.

Probing small scale primordial power spectrum with 21cm line global signal

We argue that the global signal of neutral hydrogen 21cm line can be a powerful probe of primordial power spectrum on small scales. Since the amplitude of small scale primordial fluctuations is important to determine the early structure formation and the timing when the sources of Lyman ${\alpha}$ photons are produced, they in turn affect the neutral hydrogen 21cm line signal. We show that the information of the position of the absorption trough can severely constrain the small scale amplitude of primordial fluctuations once astrophysical parameters relevant to the 21cm line signal are fixed. We also discuss how the uncertainties of astrophysical parameters affect the constraints.

Super-CMB fluctuations and the Hubble tension

We study the covariance in the angular power spectrum estimates of CMB fluctuations when the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian. The non-Gaussian covariance comes from a nonzero connected four-point correlation function – or the trispectrum in Fourier space – and can be large when long-wavelength (super-CMB) modes are strongly coupled to short-wavelength modes. The effect of such non-Gaussian covariance can be modeled through additional freedom in the theoretical CMB angular power spectrum and can lead to different inferred values of the standard cosmological parameters relative to those in ΛCDM. Taking the collapsed limit of the primordial trispectrum in the quasi-single field inflation model as an example, we study how the six standard ΛCDM parameters shift when two additional parameters describing the trispectrum are allowed. The reduced statistical significance of the Hubble tension in the extended model allows us to combine the Planck temperature data and the type Ia supernovae data from Panstarrs with the distance-ladder measurement of the Hubble constant. This combination of data shows strong evidence for a primordial trispectrum-induced non-Gaussian covariance, with a likelihood improvement of Δχ2≈−15 (with two additional parameters) relative to ΛCDM.

Cosmological collider physics and the curvaton

Primordial non-Gaussianity signatures of extremely heavy particles are re- examined within a simple alternative to the standard inflationary paradigm, in which the primordial fluctuations and the inflationary spacetime expansion are sourced by two different fields. The curvaton scenario provides an example of this in which the distinct roles are played by the curvaton and the inflaton fields, respectively. We study couplings of the curvaton to heavy particles with masses of order the inflationary Hubble scale, and show that they can lead to non-Gaussian signals orders of magnitude larger than those in standard inflation, consistent with explicit effective field theory control of inflationary dynamics. This brings various motivated particle physics signatures, such as loops of heavy gauge-charged scalars and fermions, within future observational reach.

On the slope of the curvature power spectrum in non-attractor inflation

The possibility that primordial black holes constitute a fraction of dark matter motivates a detailed study of possible mechanisms for their production. Black holes can form by the collapse of primordial curvature fluctuations, if the amplitude of their small scale spectrum gets amplified by several orders of magnitude with respect to CMB scales. Such enhancement can for example occur in single-field inflation that exhibit a transient non-attractor phase: in this work, we make a detailed investigation of the shape of the curvature spectrum in this scenario. We make use of an analytical approach based on a gradient expansion of curvature perturbations, which allows us to follow the changes in slope of the spectrum during its path from large to small scales. After encountering a dip in its amplitude, the spectrum can acquire steep slopes with a spectral index up to ns−1 = 8, to then relax to a more gentle growth with ns −1 ≲ 3 towards its peak, in agreement with the results found in previous literature. For scales following the peak associated with the presence of non-attractor phase, the spectrum amplitude then mildly decays, during a transitional stage from non-attractor back to attractor evolution. Our analysis indicates that this gradient approach offers a transparent understanding of the contributions controlling the slope of the curvature spectrum. As an application of our findings, we characterise the slope in frequency of a stochastic gravitational wave background generated at second order from curvature fluctuations, using the more accurate information we gained on the shape of curvature power spectrum.

Probing P and CP violations on the cosmological collider

In direct analogy to the 4-body decay of a heavy scalar particle, the 4-point correlation function of primordial fluctuations carries P and CP information. The CP violation appears as a P-odd angular dependence in the imaginary part of the trispectrum in momentum space. We construct a model with axion-like couplings which leads to observably large CP-violating trispectrum for future surveys. Furthermore, we show the importance of on-shell particle production in observing P- and CP-violating signals. It is impossible to observe these signals from local 4-scalar EFT operators that respect dilation symmetry, and thus any such observation can rule out single-field EFT with sufficiently small slow-roll parameters. This calculation opens a new frontier of studying P and CP at very high energy scales.

Modified holographic energy density-driven inflation and some cosmological outcomes

Motivated by the work of Nojiri et al. [S. Nojiri, S. D. Odintsov and E. N. Saridakis, Holographic inflation, Phys. Lett. B 797 (2019) 134829], this study reports a model of inflation under the consideration that the inflationary regime is originated by a type of holographic energy density. The infrared cutoff has been selected based on the modified holographic model that is a particular case of Nojiri–Odintsov holographic dark energy [S. Nojiri and S. D. Odintsov, Unifying phantom inflation with late-time acceleration: Scalar phantom–non-phantom transition model and generalized holographic dark energy, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 38 (2006) 1285] that unifies phantom inflation with the acceleration of the universe on late time. On getting an analytical solution for Hubble parameter we considered the presence of bulk viscosity and the effective equation of state parameter appeared to be consistent with inflationary scenario with some constraints. It has also being observed that in the inflationary scenario the contribution of bulk viscosity is not of much significance and its influence is increasing with the evolution of the universe. Inflationary observables have been computed for the model and the slow-roll parameters have been computed. Finally, it has been observed that the trajectories in [Formula: see text] are compatible with the observational bound found by Planck. It has been concluded that the tensor to scalar ratio for this model can explain the primordial fluctuation in the early universe as well.

Nonlinear statistics of primordial black holes from Gaussian curvature perturbations

We develop the non-linear statistics of primordial black holes generated by a gaussian spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations. This is done by employing the compaction function as the main statistical variable under the constraints that: a) the over-density has a high peak at a point $\vec{x}_0$, b) the compaction function has a maximum at a smoothing scale $R$, and finally, c) the compaction function amplitude at its maximum is higher than the threshold necessary to trigger a gravitational collapse into a black hole of the initial over-density. Our calculation allows for the fact that the patches which are destined to form PBHs may have a variety of profile shapes and sizes. The predicted PBH abundances depend on the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations. For a very peaked power spectrum, our non-linear statistics, the one based on the linear over-density and the one based on the use of curvature perturbations, all predict a narrow distribution of PBH masses and comparable abundance. For broader power spectra the linear over-density statistics over-estimate the abundance of primordial black holes while the curvature-based approach under-estimates it. Additionally, for very large smoothing scales, the abundance is no longer dominated by the contribution of a mean over-density but rather by the whole statistical realisations of it.

Spin of primordial black holes

Primordial black holes, formed from rare peaks in the primordial fluctuations ζ, are non-rotating if the RMS (root mean square) fluctuation ζrms is sent to zero. We show that the spin also vanishes at first order in ζrms, suggesting the dimensionless spin parameter arms ∼ ζrms2. We identify one quadratic contribution to the spin by calculating (and extrapolating to the formation time) the torque on a black hole due to ambient acoustic waves. For a reasonable density of primordial black holes this implies a percent level spin parameter.

Adiabatic regularization and Green’s function of a scalar field in de Sitter space: Positive energy spectrum and no trace anomaly

In the conventional adiabatic regularization the vacuum ultraviolet divergences of a quantum field in curved spacetime are removed by subtracting the $k$-mode of the stress tensor to the 4th-order. For a scalar field in de Sitter space, we find that the 4th-order regularized spectral energy density is negative. Moreover, the 2nd-order regularization for minimal coupling ($\xi=0$) and the 0th-order regularization for conformal coupling ($\xi=\frac16$) yield a positive and UV-convergent spectral energy density and power spectrum. The regularized stress tensor in the vacuum is maximally symmetric and can drive inflation, while its $k$-modes representing the primordial fluctuations are nonuniformly distributed. Conventional regularization of a Green's function in position space is generally plagued by a log IR divergence. Only in the massless case with $\xi=0$ or $\frac16$, we can directly regularize the Green's functions and obtain vanishing results that agree with the adiabatic regularization results. In this case, the regularized power spectrum and stress tensor are both zero, and no trace anomaly exists. To overcome the log IR divergence problem in the massive cases with $\xi=0$ and $\frac16$, we perform Fourier transformation of the regularized power spectra and obtain the regularized analytical Green's functions which are IR- and UV-convergent.

A novel formulation of the primordial black hole mass function

Abstract Computations of the primordial black hole (PBH) mass function discussed in the literature have conceptual issues. They stem from the fact that the mass function is a differential quantity and the standard criterion of the PBH formation from the seed primordial fluctuations cannot be directly applied to the computation of the differential quantities. We propose a new criterion of the PBH formation, which is the addition of one extra condition to the existing one. By doing this, we derive a formal expression of the PBH mass function without introducing any ambiguous interpretations that exist in the previous studies. Once the underlying primordial fluctuations are specified, the PBH mass function can be in principle determined by the new formula. As a demonstration of our formulation, we compute the PBH mass function analytically for the case where the perturbations are Gaussian and the space is 1 dimension.

Cosmic textures and global monopoles as seeds for super-massive black holes

We consider theories with global monopole or global texture defects and compute the number density of nonlinear seed fluctuations as a function of mass and redshift. Specifically, we focus on the mass range which is expected to be relevant for seeding supermassive black holes. We find that there is an interesting range of symmetry breaking scales for which the density of seeds is larger that what is predicted in the standard cosmological model with Gaussian primordial fluctuations. Hence, global defects may help in light of the mounting tension between the standard cosmological model and observations of supermassive black hole candidates at high redshifts.

Cosmology of a generalised version of holographic dark energy in presence of bulk viscosity and its inflationary dynamics through slow roll parameters

This study reports a reconstruction scheme of a Dark Energy (DE) model with higher-order derivative of Hubble parameter, which is a particular case of Nojiri–Odintsov holographic DE (HDE) [S. Nojiri and S. D. Odintsov, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 38 (2006) 1285.] that unifies phantom inflation with the acceleration of the universe on late-time. The reconstruction has been carried out in the presence of bulk viscosity, where the bulk-viscous pressure has been taken as a function of Hubble parameter. Ranges of cosmic time [Formula: see text] have been derived for quintessence, cosmological constant and phantom behaviour of the equation-of-state (EoS) parameter. In the viscous scenario, the reconstruction has been carried out in an interacting and noninteracting situations and in both the cases stability against small perturbations has been observed. Finally, the slow roll parameters have been studied and a scope of exit from inflation has been observed. Also, the availability of quasi-exponential expansion has been demonstrated for interacting viscous scenario and a study through tensor-to-scalar ratio has ensured consistency of the model with the observational bound by Planck. Alongwith primordial fluctuations, the interacting scenario has been found to generate strong dissipative regime.

Gravitational waves from binary black holes as probes of the structure formation history

Gravitational-wave detectors on earth have detected gravitational waves from merging compact objects in the local Universe. In future we will detect gravitational waves from higher-redshift sources, which trace the high-redshift structure formation history. That is, by observing high-redshift gravitational-wave events we will be able to probe structure formation history. This will provide additional insight into the early Universe when primordial fluctuations are generated and also into the nature of dark matter.

Primordial features from linear to nonlinear scales

Oscillatory features in the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations are an important signature of inflationary physics and are often tied to the origin of inflation itself. The authors provide a treatment of how to search for these features in the distribution of galaxies in the late-time universe. This includes the insight that the impact of nonlinear evolution of the density fluctuations is a tractable problem. As a consequence, they are able to use the full statistical power of the currently largest galaxy survey BOSS

Primordial power spectra of cosmological fluctuations with generalized uncertainty principle and maximum length quantum mechanics

The existence of the cosmological particle horizon as the maximum measurable length $l_{max}$ in the universe leads to a generalization of the quantum uncertainty principle (GUP) to the form $\Delta x \Delta p \geq \frac{\hbar}{2}\frac{1}{1-\alpha\Delta x^2} $, where $\alpha\equiv l_{max}^{-2}$. The effects of this GUP on simple quantum mechanical systems has been shown recently by one of the authors\cite{Perivolaropoulos:2017rgq} to be extremely small (beyond current measurements) due to the extremely large scale of the current particle horizon. This is not the case in the Early Universe during the quantum generation of the inflationary primordial fluctuation spectrum. We estimate the effects of such GUP on the primordial fluctuation spectrum and on the corresponding spectral index. We generalize the field commutation (GFC) relation to $[\varphi(k),\pi_{\varphi}(k')]$=$i\delta(k-k')\frac{1}{1-\mu\varphi^2(k)}$, where $\mu\sim \alpha^2\equiv l_{max}^{-4}$ is a GFC parameter, $\varphi$ denotes a scalar field and $\pi_{\varphi}$ denotes its canonical conjugate momentum. We obtain the predicted primordial perturbation spectrum as $P_S(k)=P_S^{(0)}(k)\left(1+\frac{\bar{\mu}}{k}\right)$ where $\bar{\mu}\equiv\mu V_* \simeq \sqrt{\alpha}= l_{max}^{-1}$ (here $V_*\simeq l_{max}^3$ is the volume corresponding to $l_{max}$) and $P_S^{(0)}(k)$ is the standard primordial spectrum obtained in the context of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle ($\mu=0$). We show that the predicted scalar spectral index is $n_s=1-\lambda-\frac{\bar{\mu}}{k}$ where $\lambda$ is a slow-roll parameter. Using observational constraints on the scale dependence of the spectral index $n_s$ we show that the $2\sigma$ range of $\alpha$ corresponds to $l_{max}\gtrsim 10^{26} m $ which is of the same order as the current particle horizon.

Constraints on the growth rate using the observed galaxy power spectrum

The large-scale structure growth index γ provides a consistency test of the standard cosmology and is a potential indicator of modified gravity. We investigate the constraints on γ from next-generation spectroscopic surveys, using the power spectrum that is observed in redshift space, i.e., the angular power spectrum. The angular power spectrum avoids the need for an Alcock-Packzynski correction. It also naturally incorporates cosmic evolution and wide-angle effects, without any approximation. We include the cross-correlations between redshift bins, using a hybrid approximation when the total number of bins is computationally unfeasible. We show that the signal-to-noise on γ increases as the redshift bin-width is decreased. Shot noise per bin also increases—but this is compensated by the increased number of auto- and cross-spectra. In our forecasts, we marginalise over the amplitude of primordial fluctuations and other standard cosmological parameters, including the dark energy equation of state parameter, as well as the clustering bias. Neglecting cross-bin correlations increases the errors by ∼40–150%. Using only linear scales, we find that a DESI-like BGS survey and an HI intensity mapping survey with the SKA1 precursor MeerKAT deliver similar errors of ∼4–6%, while a Euclid-like survey and an SKA1 intensity mapping survey give ∼3% errors.

Absorption in the 21-cm Line in Primordial Matter Density Fluctuations at the Stage of Their Nonlinear Compression

The mechanisms of absorption formation in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum at the frequency of the 21-cm line of the transition between the ground-state hyperfine sublevels of the hydrogen atom are analyzed. We show that a strong nonlinearity at the compression stage of primordial matter density fluctuations can give rise to a significant (in depth) absorption even before the explosions of the first stars. In this case, the main effect is due to the heating of matter in a certain narrow range of temperatures under cloud compression. We consider a steady-state radiative transfer in the 21-cm line in a medium that represents a contracting primordial matter density fluctuation at a given redshift z modeled by a homogeneous spherically symmetric cloud in the state of collapse with an adiabatic change in the gas temperature. For a sequence of cloud states with different degrees of compression we have calculated the frequency profiles of the line in the flux of radiation emerging from the cloud. In the initial state we specify the cloud radius r0, while the gas density is assumed to be equal to the mean cosmological density for a given redshift. We show that for a separate cloud at z = 20, r0 = 1 kpc, and a degree of radius compression of 1.9 the absorption depth in the line center can reach 0.9 K. When averaged over an ensemble of clouds, the central frequency of the line and its width are determined by the details of the fluctuation evolution dynamics.

Search for Subsolar Mass Ultracompact Binaries in Advanced LIGO’s Second Observing Run

We present a search for subsolar mass ultracompact objects in data obtained during Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In contrast to a previous search of Advanced LIGO data from the first observing run, this search includes the effects of component spin on the gravitational waveform. We identify no viable gravitational-wave candidates consistent with subsolar mass ultracompact binaries with at least one component between 0.2 M_{⊙}-1.0 M_{⊙}. We use the null result to constrain the binary merger rate of (0.2 M_{⊙}, 0.2 M_{⊙}) binaries to be less than 3.7×10^{5} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1} and the binary merger rate of (1.0 M_{⊙}, 1.0 M_{⊙}) binaries to be less than 5.2×10^{3} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}. Subsolar mass ultracompact objects are not expected to form via known stellar evolution channels, though it has been suggested that primordial density fluctuations or particle dark matter with cooling mechanisms and/or nuclear interactions could form black holes with subsolar masses. Assuming a particular primordial black hole (PBH) formation model, we constrain a population of merging 0.2 M_{⊙} black holes to account for less than 16% of the dark matter density and a population of merging 1.0 M_{⊙} black holes to account for less than 2% of the dark matter density. We discuss how constraints on the merger rate and dark matter fraction may be extended to arbitrary black hole population models that predict subsolar mass binaries.

Clustering of primordial black holes with non-Gaussian initial fluctuations

Abstract We formulate the two-point correlation function of primordial black holes (PBHs) at their formation time, based on the functional integration approach which has often been used in the context of halo clustering. We find that PBH clustering on super-Hubble scales could never be induced in the case where the initial primordial fluctuations are Gaussian, while it can be enhanced by the so-called local-type trispectrum (four-point correlation function) of the primordial curvature perturbations.