arXiv subjects

Abhishek Naskar

Publications and source records attributed to Abhishek Naskar.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Is there ghost and tachyon free bounce in UV complete gravity theory?

Analytic infinite derivative gravity theories provide a renormalizable and ghost-free description of gravity around covariantly constant backgrounds. These theories can have non-singular bouncing Universe solutions. In this paper we aim to address a question whether it is possible to realize a bouncing solution without the presence of a ghost or a tachyon instability in this framework. We perform a detailed analysis of degrees of freedom in $(1+3)$ formalism around Minkowski and de Sitter space-times. As a result it becomes clear that on a very general basis one cannot construct an instability free bounce without a negative cosmological constant. An analysis of known bouncing solutions in this model shows that an analyticity of higher derivative form factors in combination with solutions parameters result in the presence of a ghost radiation. Being motivated by the idea of resolving the cosmological singularity problem we proceed by analyzing scalar and tensor modes anyway. Scalar modes appear to not influence Cosmic Microwave Background observations at all, while tensor modes spectrum is computed and the corresponding implications are discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Unified Origin of Curvature Perturbation and Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe

We propose a unified framework that describes both the curvaton mechanism for generating primordial density fluctuations and the Affleck-Dine (AD) mechanism for baryogenesis. By introducing a complex scalar field (AD field) carrying a baryon/lepton number and its potential consisting of quadratic and quartic terms with a small baryon/lepton-number-violating mass term, we investigate the evolution of the scalar field during the radiation-dominated era following inflation. We set the initial conditions such that the quartic term dominates the scalar potential, and the angular component of the AD field is non-zero. We focus on a scenario where the AD field sufficiently dominates the energy density of the universe before its decay. We show that the radial component of the AD field can be identified with the curvaton to solely produce the Planck normalized scalar power spectrum while the evolution of the angular component is crucial for generating the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe. Additionally, we find that the amplitude of scalar bispectrum $f_{NL}$ is negative, which is consistent with the current Planck data and testable in future observations such as CMB-S4, LiteBIRD, LSS, and 21-cm experiments. In our estimation of the scalar power spectrum and bispectrum, we develop a novel analytical scheme for computing scalar fluctuations based on the $δN$ formalism, which allows us to deal with the evolution of curvaton with polynomial potential more accurately in comparison to the existing analytical methods.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Cosmic inflation in non-perturbative quantum gravity

String field theory motivated infinite-derivative models lead to non-local gravity modifications which form a promising class of quantum gravity candidates. In this paper we investigate effects of non-locality on the three-point function (the bi-spectrum) during cosmic inflation. The study is done in an Einstein frame with an infinite-derivative scalar field Lagrangian minimally coupled to the Einstein-Hilbert term. A non-local generalization of the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation is derived. Infinite-derivative operators present in this equation lead to an appearance of infinitely many new background induced states in the perturbation spectrum during inflation with complex masses on top of a usual nearly massless inflaton. On contrary to a flat background such states can be classically stable in a de Sitter space-time. This helps preserving observational constraints on the scalar power-spectrum. We proceed by studying a particular configuration assuming that the generalized Mukhanov-Sasaki equation gives rise to an inflaton and one pair of new states with complex conjugate masses as perturbative degrees of freedom. The corresponding scalar bi-spectrum is computed numerically in squeezed and equilateral limits. We use the latest observational constraints on amplitude of the bi-spectrum $f_{NL}$ from Planck 2018 dataset as a guideline for possible values of masses of new emerging states. We find that $f_{NL}$ is non-trivially sensitive to the values of complex masses and this can reduce the parameter space of gravity modifications. In particular we find that the amplitude of the squeezed limit gets easily enhanced while of the equilateral limit can stay like in a local single-field model of inflation. We end up discussing open questions relevant for this class of models of inflation.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Primordial non-Gaussianity as a probe of seesaw and leptogenesis

We present the possibility that the seesaw mechanism and nonthermal leptogenesis can be {investigated} via primordial non-Gaussianities in the context of a majoron curvaton model. Originating as a massless Nambu-Goldstone boson from the spontaneous breaking of the global baryon ($B$) minus lepton ($L$) number symmetry at a scale $v_{B-L}$, majoron becomes massive when it couples to a new confining sector through anomaly. Acting as a curvaton, majoron produces the observed red-tilted curvature power spectrum without relying on any inflaton contribution, and its decay in the post-inflationary era gives rise to a nonthermal population of right-handed neutrinos that participate in leptogenesis. A distinctive feature of the mechanism is the generation of observable non-Gaussianity, {in the parameter space where the red-tilted power spectrum and sufficient baryon asymmetry are produced.} We {find} that the non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{\rm NL} \gtrsim \mathcal{O} (0.1)$ is produced for high-scale seesaw ($v_{B-L}$ at $\mathcal{O}(10^{14-17})$ GeV) and leptogenesis ($M_1 \gtrsim \mathcal{O}(10^6)$ GeV) where the latter represents the lightest right-handed neutrino mass. While the current bounds on local non-Gaussianity excludes some part of parameter space, the rest can be fully probed by future experiments like CMB-S4, LSST, and 21 cm tomography.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Growth of curvature perturbations for PBH formation \& detectable GWs in non-minimal curvaton scenario revisited

We revisit the growth of curvature perturbations in non-minimal curvaton scenario with a non-trivial field metric $λ(ϕ)$ where $ϕ$ is an inflaton field, and incorporate the effect from the non-uniform onset of curvaton's oscillation in terms of an axion-like potential. The field metric $λ(ϕ)$ plays a central role in the enhancement of curvaton field perturbation $δχ$, serving as an effective friction term which can be either positive or negative, depending on the first derivative $λ_{,ϕ}$.Our analysis reveals that $δχ$ undergoes the superhorizon growth when the condition $η_\text{eff} \equiv - 2 \sqrt{2ε} M_\text{Pl} { λ_{,ϕ} \over λ} < -3$ is satisfied. This is analogous to the mechanism responsible for the amplification of curvature perturbations in the context of ultra-slow-roll inflation, namely the growing modes dominate curvature perturbations. As a case study, we examine the impact of a Gaussian dip in $λ(ϕ)$ and conduct a thorough investigation of both the analytical and numerical aspects of the inflationary dynamics.Our findings indicate that the enhancement of curvaton perturbations during inflation is not solely determined by the depth of the dip in $λ(ϕ)$. Rather, the first derivative $λ_{,ϕ}$ also plays a significant role, a feature that has not been previously highlighted in the literature. Utilizing the $δ\mathcal{N}$ formalism, we derive analytical expressions for both the final curvature power spectrum and the non-linear parameter $f_\text{NL}$ in terms of an axion-like curvaton's potential leading to the non-uniform curvaton's oscillation. Additionally, the resulting primordial black hole abundance and scalar-induced gravitational waves are calculated, which provide observational windows for PBHs.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Generalising Axion-like particle as the curvaton: sourcing primordial density perturbation and non-Gaussianities

We investigate the non-perturbatively generated axion-like particle (ALP) potential, involving fermions in the dark sector that couple to the ALP, in an early cosmological inflationary stage with the ALP being a spectator field. The potential here deviates from the standard cosine nature due to the presence of the two fermion masses $m_u$ and $m_d$ which couple to the ALP. The ALP is a spectator field during inflation but it starts to oscillate and dominates the energy density of the universe after inflation ends, thereby sourcing isocurvature perturbations, while standard curvature fluctuations form the inflaton are assumed to be sub-dominant. Subsequently the ALP decays converting the isocurvature perturbations to adiabatic perturbations thereby acting as the origin of the primordial density perturbations. We identify the parameter space involving the axion decay constant $f_a$, scale of confinement $Λ$, ALP mass $m$ and the masses of the fermions, $m_u$ and $m_d$ where it can satisfactorily behave as the curvaton and source the observed primordial density perturbation. We also predict local non-Gaussianity signals for bi-spectrum and tri-spectrum $f_{NL}$ and $g_{NL}$, as a function of the ratio $m_u/m_d$, which are within the allowed range in the latest Planck observations and are detectable with future observations. Particularly we observed that the value of $f_{NL}$ and $g_{NL}$ are dependent on the ratio of $m_u$ and $m_d$: $f_{NL}$ is more or less positive for all scenarios except $m_u = m_d$ and $g_{NL}$ is always positive irrespective of the ratio between $m_u$ and $m_d$. The results of our analysis in the limit $m_u = m_d$ resembles vanilla curvaton scenario while in the limit $m_u \gg m_d$ resembles pure axion cosine potential.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Effective field theory of magnetogenesis identify necessary and sufficient conditions

At astrophysical and cosmological scales, there is a detectable amount of magnetic field. There are several probable origins for this observed magnetic field, including the possibility of its origin in the early Universe. There are several models for primordial magnetogenesis, and if the inflationary background is taken into account, broken conformal invariance is required to generate a sufficient amount of magnetic field. The breaking of conformal invariance is introduced either by new couplings between electromagnetic field and inflaton field or including higher derivative terms to the theory. As a step to unify these different approaches in the literature, we propose an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach based on expansion about the Hubble parameter $(H)$ and its derivatives, where EFT parameters describe the magnetogenesis scenario in the early Universe, and different choices of parameters correspond to different models. We explicitly show that the generation of primordial magnetic fields requires two necessary conditions -- conformal invariance breaking and causal propagation. While broken conformal invariance is a common requirement for primordial magnetogenesis, for the first time, we show that causal propagation is also a necessary condition. We confirm this by considering a specific model of primordial magnetogenesis.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

EFT of Inflation: Reflections on CMB and Forecasts on LSS Surveys

We investigate the possibility of constraining parameters of Effective Field Theory (EFT) of inflation with upcoming Large Scale Structure (LSS) surveys in order to have a better understanding of inflationary dynamics. With the development of the construction algorithm of EFT, we arrive at a properly truncated action for the entire scenario. Using this, we compute the two-point correlation function for quantum fluctuations from Goldstone modes and related inflationary observables in terms of coefficients of relevant EFT operators. We then perform Fisher matrix forecast analysis to estimate the possible error bars on the parameters of EFT as well as on the inflationary parameters using two upcoming LSS surveys, namely, LSST and EUCLID.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Enhanced tensor non-Gaussianities in presence of a source

We address the possibility of having an enhanced signal for tensor non-Gaussianities in presence of a source, as a signature of Primordial Gravitational Waves. We employ a nearly model-independent framework based on Effective Field Theory of inflation and compute tensor non-Gaussianities therefrom sourced by particle production during (p)reheating to arrive at an enhanced signal strength. We obtain the model-independent non-linearity parameters and also find that squeezed limit bispectra are more enhanced than equilateral limit.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Generic 3-point Statistics with Tensor Modes in Light of Swampland and TCC

Recently proposed Swampland Criteria (SC) and Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC) together put stringent theoretical constraints on slow roll inflation, raising a question on future prospects of detection of Primordial Gravitational Waves (PGW). As it appears, the only option to relax the constraints is by considering Non Bunch Davies (NBD) initial states, that in turn brings back the observational relevance of PGW via its 2-point function. In this article we develop consistent 3-point statistics with tensor modes for all possible correlators (auto and mixed) for NBD initial states in the light of SC and TCC in a generic, model independent framework of Effective Field Theory of inflation. We also construct the templates of the corresponding nonlinearity parameters $f_{NL}$ for different shapes of relevance and investigate if any of the 3-point correlators could be of interest for future CMB missions. Our analysis reveals that the prospects of detecting the tensor auto correlator are almost nil whereas the mixed correlators might be relevant for future CMB missions.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Strong Bounds on Sum of Neutrino Masses in a 12 Parameter Extended Scenario with Non-Phantom Dynamical Dark Energy ($w(z)\geq -1$)

We obtained constraints on a 12 parameter extended cosmological scenario including non-phantom dynamical dark energy (NPDDE) with CPL parametrization. We also include the six $Λ$CDM parameters, number of relativistic neutrino species ($N_{\textrm{eff}}$) and sum over active neutrino masses ($\sum m_ν$), tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r_{0.05}$), and running of the spectral index ($n_{run}$). We use CMB Data from Planck 2015; BAO Measurements from SDSS BOSS DR12, MGS, and 6dFS; SNe Ia Luminosity Distance measurements from the Pantheon Sample; CMB B-mode polarization data from BICEP2/Keck collaboration (BK14); Planck lensing data; and a prior on Hubble constant ($73.24\pm1.74$ km/sec/Mpc) from local measurements (HST). We have found strong bounds on the sum of the active neutrino masses. For instance, a strong bound of $\sum m_ν <$ 0.123 eV (95\% C.L.) comes from Planck+BK14+BAO. Although we are in such an extended parameter space, this bound is stronger than a bound of $\sum m_ν <$ 0.158 eV (95\% C.L.) obtained in $Λ\textrm{CDM}+\sum m_ν$ with Planck+BAO. Varying $A_{\textrm{lens}}$ instead of $r_{0.05}$ however leads to weaker bounds on $\sum m_ν$. Inclusion of the HST leads to the standard value of $N_{\textrm{eff}} = 3.045$ being discarded at more than 68\% C.L., which increases to 95\% C.L. when we vary $A_{\textrm{lens}}$ instead of $r_{0.05}$, implying a small preference for dark radiation, driven by the $H_0$ tension.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Non-Gaussian Features of Primordial Gravitational Waves

We explore possible non-Gaussian features of primordial gravitational waves by constructing model-independent templates for nonlinearity parameters of tensor bispectrum. Our analysis is based on Effective Field Theory of inflation that relies on no particular model as such and thus the results are quite generic. The analysis further reveals that chances of detecting squeezed limit tensor bispectrum are fairly higher than equilateral limit. We also discuss prospects of detectability in upcoming CMB missions.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Dipole anisotropy in sky brightness and source count distribution in radio NVSS data

We study the dipole anisotropy in number counts and flux density weighted number counts {or sky brightness} in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) data. The dipole anisotropy is expected due to our local motion with respect to the CMBR rest frame. We analyse data with an improved fit to the number density, n(S), as a function of the flux density S, which allows deviation from a pure power law behaviour. We also impose more stringent cuts to remove the contribution due to clustering dipole. In agreement with earlier results, we find that the amplitude of anisotropy is significantly larger in comparison to the prediction based on CMBR measurements. The extracted speed is found to be roughly 3 times the speed corresponding to CMBR. The significance of deviation is smaller, roughly 2 sigma, in comparison to earlier estimates. For the cut, S>30 mJy, the speed is found to be $1110\pm370$ Km/s using the source count analysis. The direction of the dipole anisotropy is found to be approximately in agreement with CMBR. We find that the results are relatively insensitive to the lower as well as upper limit imposed on the flux density. Our results suggest that the Universe is intrinsically anisotropic with the axis of anisotropy axis pointing roughly towards the CMBR dipole direction. Finally we present a method which may allow an independent extraction of the local speed and an intrinsic dipole anisotropy, provided a larger data set becomes available in future.

astro-ph.CO↗