arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A. D. Dolgov.
A review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is presented. Observations of deuterium and helium-4 are discussed. Some BBN restrictions on non-standard physics, especially on neutrino properties and time-variation of fundamental constants are given.
After brief personal recollections of the author's long-time friendship with Misha Marinov the problem of particle production by classical time- varying scalar field is discussed. In the quasiclassical limit the calculations are done by imaginary time method developed, in particular, in Marinov's works. The method permits to obtain simple analytical expressions which well agree with the later found numerical solutions. The results are compared with perturbative calculations and it is argued that perturbation theory gives an upper limit for the rate of production.
We show that an inhomogeneous cosmological lepton number may have produced turbulence in the primordial plasma when neutrinos entered (almost) free-streaming regime. This effect may be responsible for the origin of cosmic magnetic fields and give rise to a detectable background of gravitational waves. An existence of inhomogeneous lepton asymmetry could be naturally generated by active-sterile neutrino oscillations or by some versions of Affleck and Dine baryogenesis scenario.
Mechanisms of generation of magnetic fields in the early universe which could seed the present-day large scale galactic magnetic fields, are briefly reviewed. Three possible ways to create large scale magnetic fields are discussed: breaking of conformal invariance of electromagnetic interactions and inflationary stretching of the field wave length, first order cosmological phase transitions, and chaotic electric currents generated by turbulent flows in the primeval plasma.
The role of neutrinos in big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed. Neutrino oscillations in the early universe both in resonance and non-resonance case are briefly discussed. BBN and supernova limits on heavy sterile neutrinos with the mass in 10-100 MeV range are presented and compared with direct experimental bounds.
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors. This paper started with a wrong term describing elastic scattering. The correct form of the kinetic equations for the density matrix are derived e.g. in A. Dolgov, Yad. Fiz. 33 (1981) 1309; K. Enqvist, K. Kainulainen and J. Maalampi, Nucl. Phys. B 349 (1991) 754; G. Sigl and G. Raffelt, Nucl. Phys. B 406 (1993) 423. When using the correct form of the kinetic equations, the result is in good agreement with old results, A. Dolgov and S. Hansen, hep-ph/0009083.
Several models of baryo(lepto)-genesis that give rise to large inhomogeneities in the composition of the universe are presented. In particular, a variation of primordial abundances of light elements by the factor 2-5 at large distances is predicted. A cosmological model of baryonic island is considered. Creation of domains with very large baryon and antibaryon number is described. Such domains mostly collapsed into primordial black holes that could be the dominant part of (non-standard) cosmological cold dark matter with a widely dispersed mass spectrum. A non-collapsed part of these bubbles might make clouds of matter or antimatter with an enriched abundances of metals. A mechanism for creation of such exotic objects can be realized by mixed order phase transitions induced by the inflaton field.
We show that massive sterile neutrinos mixed with the ordinary ones may be produced in the early universe in the right amount to be natural warm dark matter particles. Their mass should be below 40 keV and the corresponding mixing angles sin^2 2θ> 10^{-11} for mixing with ν_μor ν_τ, while mixing with ν_e is slightly stronger bounded with mass less than 30 keV.
The spectral distortion of the cosmic background radiation produced by the inverse Compton scattering on hot electrons in clusters of galaxies (thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect) is calculated for arbitrary optical depth and electron temperature. The distortion is found by a numerical solution of the exact Boltzmann equation for the photon distribution function. In the limit of small optical depth and low electron temperature our results confirm the previous analyses. In the opposite limits, our method is the only one that permits to make accurate calculations.
Lepton asymmetry generated in the early universe by neutrino oscillations into sterile partners is calculated. Kinetic equations are analytically reduced to a simple form that permits an easy numerical treatment. Asymptotic values of the asymmetry are at the level of 0.2-0.3 and are reasonably close to those obtained by other groups, though the approach to asymptotics in some cases is noticeably slower. No chaoticity is observed.
A possible existence of cosmologically large domains of antimatter or astronomical ``anti-objects'' is discussed. A brief review of different scenarios of baryogenesis predicting a noticeable amount of antimatter is given. Though both theory and observations indicate that the universe is most possibly uniformly charge asymmetric without any noticeable amount of antimatter, several natural scenarios are possible that allow for cosmologically (astronomically) interesting objects in close vicinity to us. The latter may be discovered by observation of cosmic ray antinuclei.
We discuss the hypothesis that the cosmological baryon asymmetry and entropy were produced in the early Universe by the primordial black hole (PBHs) evaporation.
Cosmological and astrophysical effects of heavy (10 - 200 MeV) sterile Dirac neutrinos, mixed with the active ones, are considered. The bounds on mass and mixing angle from both supernovae and big-bang nucleosynthesis are presented.
A brief review of neutrino anomalies in particle physics and of the role played by neutrinos in cosmology and astrophysics is presented. The main part of the talk is dedicated to the impact of neutrinos and in particular of neutrino oscillations on BBN and to a possible spatial variation of primordial abundances.
New nucleosynthesis bounds on the oscillation parameters of active neutrinos mixed with a sterile one are derived for the non-resonant case. The controversy in the literature whether to use the annihilation rate or the total reaction rate for the estimates of sterile neutrino production is resolved in favor of the annihilation rate. In contrast to previous papers, the restrictions on oscillations of electronic neutrinos are weaker than those of muonic and tauonic ones.
Phenomenology of neutrino oscillations in vacuum and in cosmological plasma is considered. Neutrino oscillations in vacuum are usually described in plane wave approximation. In this formalism there is an ambiguity if one should assume $δp =0$ and correspondingly $δE\neq 0$ or vice versa $δE =0$ and $δp \neq 0$, or some other condition. We will use the standard set of quantum field theory rules and show that the theoretical description is unambiguous and that the state of oscillating neutrinos is determined by the conditions of their registration. The wave packet formalism is a natural result of such an approach. Oscillating neutrinos in cosmological plasma cannot be described in terms of wave function because of a fast loss of coherence due to elastic or inelastic scattering, so that one should use the density matrix formalism. Kinetic equations for the density matrix of oscillating neutrinos are derived. Numerical and semi-analytical solutions of the equations are examined. In particular, a possibility of amplification of cosmological lepton asymmetry in the sector of active neutrinos mixed to sterile ones is critically discussed.
Constraints on the lifetime of the heavy sterile neutrino, that was proposed as a possible interpretation of the KARMEN anomaly, are derived from primordial nucleosynthesis and SN 1987A. Together with the recent experimental bounds on the nu_s lifetime, SN 1987A completely excludes this interpretation. Nucleosynthesis arguments permit a narrow window for the lifetime in the interval 0.1-0.2 sec. If nu_s possesses an anomalous interaction with nucleons, the SN bounds may not apply, while the nucleosynthesis ones would remain valid.
Cosmological arguments proving that the universe is dominated by invisible non-baryonic matter are reviewed. Possible physical candidates for dark matter particles are discussed. A particular attention is paid to non-compensated remnants of vacuum energy, to the question of stability of super-heavy relics, cosmological mass bounds for very heavy neutral lepton, and some other more exotic possibilities.