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Amjad Ashoorioon

Publications and source records attributed to Amjad Ashoorioon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Static horizons in cosmology

Although previous results have ruled out the possibility of a static event horizon in cosmology, we present black hole and white hole metrics that retain static event horizons while reproducing cosmological behavior at large distances. Using an appropriate coordinate choice, we demonstrate that a static event horizon can exist in a cosmological setting without introducing curvature invariant singularities at the horizon. The resulting metric reduces to the Schwarzschild de Sitter solution when the Hubble parameter is constant. We find that white hole metrics in an expanding universe, or black holes in a contracting universe, are significantly easier to construct, as a black hole in an expanding cosmology requires the velocity function to change sign. Consequently, this work initially examines white holes in expanding cosmologies as a foundation for subsequent analysis of black holes in expanding universes. In later sections, we investigate scenarios involving a white hole coupled with cosmological matter, as well as a white hole with both matter and a cosmological constant. Assuming the pressure component takes its cosmological value, we show that the physical radius of the apparent horizon can asymptotically approach a constant value at late times. This metric avoids pathologies such as a singular horizon in the limit of a vanishing Hubble parameter. Finally, we analyze the realistic case of a black hole embedded in pressureless cosmological matter with and without a cosmological constant and explore its properties. We specifically show that the velocity function can become zero and change sign in the vicinity of a black hole. This means we can smoothly transition from an expanding cosmological phase with a positive velocity function to a contracting black hole phase with a negative velocity function.

gr-qc

Gravitational radiation reaction around a static black hole surrounded by a Dehnen type dark matter halo

We consider the motion of a particle in the geometry of a Schwarzschild-like black hole embedded in a dark matter (DM) halo with Dehnen type density profile and calculate the orbital periods along with the evolution of the semi-latus rectum and eccentricity for extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs). Such a system emits gravitational waves (GWs), and the particle's orbit evolves under radiation reaction. We also consider the effects of dynamical friction and accretion of DM on the orbital parameters. We find that the eccentricity and semi-latus rectum decrease faster with respect to the case in which EMRI is in empty spacetime.

gr-qc

Cosmological perturbation theory with trinity of scalar fields

We present an explicit formulation of cosmological perturbation theory for three-field models with a flat field space. By performing rotations to align one field with the direction of curvature perturbations and applying the same rotations to the other two field directions, we introduce the semikinematic basis, which is applicable to models with more than two fields. We derive the governing equations in this basis. We also stress a characteristic property of more-than-two-field models: the freedom in choosing the isocurvature perturbations. This framework enables the computation of the curvature and two isocurvature power spectra for any given potential. We numerically solve the background and perturbation equations for three distinct scenarios. First, to validate the consistency of our three-field formalism, we examine an effective two-field model inspired by the two-block case of the multigiant vacua matrix inflation scenario. Next, we analyze a purely three-field system without direct interfield interactions. Finally, we study a three-field case that incorporates direct interactions. For all scenarios, we numerically compute the curvature perturbation power spectra and highlight the effects of rapid turns on the spectra. Finally, we investigate the relationship between these quantities and the observables in the early radiation-dominated era. Through both general arguments and a simple example, we show that three-field inflation can yield a much richer phenomenology. This is particularly true when we assume the initial perturbations in the radiation era include two isocurvature modes.

hep-th

Measuring black hole spin through gravitational lensing of pulsars

We propose a new procedure for measuring the spin of a black hole with an unprecedented accuracy based on the gravitational lensing of millisecond pulsars. We derive the basic equations for lensing by a rotating black hole. We show that the frame dragging effect increases the deflection angle of a light ray co-rotating with the black hole. For the primary (secondary) images the angular positions are larger (smaller) for a rotating black hole by an amount on the order of tens of microarcseconds. The differential time delay of images for the case in which the lens is a rotating black hole is smaller than that in the case of non-rotating lens of the same mass, and it can be larger than a few milliseconds. We show that this quantity offers the possibility of reducing the error of spin measurement to less than one percent if we could measure the differential time delay with accuracy of microseconds. We also study relativistic images that are produced by light rays that rotate around the black hole before reaching the observer. The angular positions of relativistic images on the same side as the primary (secondary) image are a few microarcseconds larger (smaller) if the black hole is rotating. Furthermore, the differential time delay between relativistic images is about twelve orders of magnitude larger in the case of rotating lens.

gr-qc

Spherical Collapse Approach for Non-standard Dark Matter Models and Enhanced Early Galaxy Formation in JWST

Using the spherical collapse approach, we investigate the impact of two alternative dark matter models, each characterized by distinct non-zero equations of state, one constant and the other time dependent on the nonlinear regime. Specifically, we compare these models to standard cold dark matter (CDM) by analyzing their influence on the linear density threshold for nonrelativistic component collapse and virial overdensity. Additionally, we explore the number count of collapsed objects, or dark matter halos, analogous to the number count of galaxy clusters. Finally, in light of recent discoveries by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), indicating the potential for more efficient early galaxy formation at higher redshifts, we investigate how alternative dark matter assumptions can enhance structure formation efficiency during the early universe.

astro-ph.CO

Particle motion and accretion disk around rotating accelerating black holes

We investigate the motion of test particles and the properties of accretion disks around rotating, accelerating black hole spacetimes with non-zero cosmological constants. To do so, we explore the impact of both rotation and acceleration on massive particle dynamics in motion around these configurations. In this respect, we derive the geodesic equations in the Pleba{ń}ski-Demia{ń}ski spacetime and analyse the characteristics of circular orbits, including the innermost and outermost stable circular orbits. Accordingly, we find that the acceleration parameter significantly influences the radii and angular momenta of these orbits. Further, we examine the precession of non-circular orbits and find that the precession is in the same direction as the black hole rotation regardless of the direction of the black hole spin. We also investigate the thermal spectra of geometrically thin, optically thick accretion disks described by the Novikov-Thorne model. We consider both co-rotating and counter-rotating disks and show that the radiative flux and luminosity are significantly larger for co-rotating disks. We compare the spectral features and luminosity of accretion disks around accelerating black holes with those around non-accelerating Kerr black holes, revealing that acceleration generally reduces the luminosity and flux of emitted light. Our results provide insights into the complex interplay between black hole acceleration, rotation, and the surrounding accretion disk dynamics.

astro-ph.HE

Dark Matter Cosmology with Varying Viscosity: a Possible Resolution to the $S_8$ Tension

We study varying forms of viscous dark matter and try to address the intriguing tensions of the standard model of cosmology with recent cosmological data, including the Hubble and $S_8$ tensions. We note that by assuming the dark matter viscosity depends on the Hubble parameter, dark matter density, or both, one can improve the statistics. Although the models tend to aggravate the Hubble tension a bit, they tend to reduce the $S_8$ tension, even in comparison with the constant viscosity case. Since similar to viscosity massive neutrinos suppress the power spectrum of matter on small length scales, considering them along with the viscous dark matter, we find that the neutrino mass range is tightened.

astro-ph.CO

Transient Acceleration after Non-minimal M-flation Preheating

Light massive preheat fields acquire a non-vanishing dispersion during parametric resonance from their quantum particle production. This in turn will modify the inflaton potential, which in some cases can induce a transient period of acceleration. We illustrate this phenomenon in the setup of non-supersymmetric non-minimal M-flation (non-$\mathbb{M}$-flation) which has some motivations from the brane compactifications in string theory. Implementing a lattice simulation by the LATTICEEASY code, we compute the potential correction term in our scenario and show that the modified term indeed causes the universe to make a transition from the decelerated expansion to a temporary phase of acceleration. The correction term reduces to some extent the number density of the particles generated during preheating, but the efficiency of preheating remains still enough to have successful particle production after inflation. We also compute the spectrum of the gravitational waves (GWs) generated during preheating in our setup by using the LATTICEEASY code. Although the peak frequency remains almost the same, the inclusion of the correction term reduces the amplitude of the gravitational spectrum by almost one order of magnitude.

hep-th

Non-Gaussianities in the Extended EFT of Inflation

In earlier works, we studied the validity of Extended Effective Field Theory of Inflation (EEFToI) in the regime where initial conditions are set with dispersion relations $ω^2 \propto k^6$. We had also evaluated and examined the power spectrum for some interesting corners of the parameter space. In this paper, we compute the bispectrum in the EEFToI, take a closer look at the strong coupling constraints and calculate the size of the non-Gaussianities in those regions of parameter space. We also investigate the shape of triangles that contribute to the enhancement of non-Gaussianities in this regime. We find that there are allowed parts of parameter spaces where EEFToI description with initial conditions set with $ω^2 \propto k^6$ is sensible and interesting.

hep-th

Distinguishing a Slowly Accelerating Black Hole by Differential Time Delays of Images

Accelerating supermassive black holes, connected to cosmic strings, could contribute to structure formation and get captured by galaxies if their velocities are small. This would mean that the acceleration of these black holes is small too. Such a slow acceleration has no significant effect on the shadow of such supermassive black holes. We also show that, for slowly accelerating black holes, the angular position of images in the gravitational lensing effects do not change significantly. We propose a method to observe the acceleration of these black holes through the gravitational lensing. The method is based on the observation that differential time delays associated with the images are substantially different with respect to the case of non-accelerating black holes.

gr-qc

NANOGrav Signal from the End of Inflation and the LIGO Mass and Heavier Primordial Black Holes

Releasing the 12.5-year pulsar timing array data, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has recently reported the evidence for a stochastic common-spectrum which would herald the detection of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) for the first time. We investigate if the signal could be generated from the end of a $\sim 10$ MeV but still phenomenologically viable double-field inflation when the field configuration settles to its true vacuum. During the double-field inflation at such scales, bubbles of true vacuum that can collapse to LIGO mass and heavier primordial black holes form. We show that only when this process happens with a first-order phase transition, the produced gravitational wave spectrum can match with the NANOGrav acclaimed SGWB signal. We show that the produced gravitational wave spectrum matches the NANOGrav SGWB signal only when this process happens through a first-order phase transition. Using LATTICEEASY, we also examine the previous observation in the literature that by lowering the scale of preheating, despite the shift of the peak frequency of the gravitational wave profile to smaller values, the amplitude of the SGWB could be kept almost constant. We notice that this observation breaks down at the preheating scale, $M\lesssim 10^{-14}~m_{{}_{\rm Pl}}$.

astro-ph.CO

Lensing Signatures of a Slowly-Accelerated Black Hole

Accelerating black holes, connected to cosmic strings could evolve to supermassive black holes. However, if they are going to take part in structure formation and resides at the center of galaxies, their acceleration should be small. This slow acceleration does not change the shadow or image position in gravitational lensing effect significantly. However we show that the time delay associated to these images change significantly. This is in contrast with when the theory governing the strong gravitational field around the black hole is different from general relativity, where not only the differential time delays but the angular position of images would be different. We conclude that, if the observed angular position of images are compatible with the prediction of general relativity, a possible deviation in the differential time delays between the observed values and those predicted by general relativity, could be due to the acceleration of the black hole.

gr-qc

EFT Compatible PBHs: Effective Spawning of the Seeds for Primordial Black Holes during Inflation

Most of the inflationary scenarios that try to explain the origin of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) from the enhancements of the power spectrum to values of order one, at the relevant scales, run into clashes with the Effective Field Theory (EFT) criteria or fail to enhance the power spectrum to such large amplitudes. In this paper, we unravel a mechanism for enhancing the power spectrum during inflation that does not use the flattening of the potential or reduction of the sound speed of scalar perturbations. The mechanism is based on this observation in the formalism of Extended EFT of inflation (EEFToI) with the sixth order polynomial dispersion relation for scalar perturbations that if the quartic coefficient in the dispersion relation is negative and smaller than a certain threshold, the amplitude of the power spectrum is enhanced substantially. The instability mechanism must arrange to kick in at the scales of interest related to the mass of the PBHs one would like to produce, which can be ten(s) of solar mass PBHs, suitable for LIGO events, or $10^{-17}-10^{-13}$ solar mass PBHs, which can comprise the whole dark matter energy density. We argue that the strong coupling is avoided for the range of parameters that the mechanisms enhance the power spectrum to the required amount.

astro-ph.CO

Examining the end of inflation with primordial black holes mass distribution and gravitational waves

We explicitly construct a double-field inflationary model, which satisfies the latest Planck constraints at the cosmic microwave background (CMB) scales and produces the whole dark matter energy density as primordial black holes (PBHs), in the mass range $10^{-17}~M_{\odot}\lesssim M_{{}_{\rm PBH}}\lesssim 10^{-13}~M_{\odot}$. The PBHs can be produced after the end of slow-roll inflation from the bubbles of true vacuum that nucleate during the course of inflation. Obtaining PBHs in this mass range enforces the scale of inflation to be extremely low, $10^{-7} \lesssim H \lesssim 10^{-3} ~{\rm GeV}$, which makes the efforts to observe gravitational waves at the CMB scales futile, although it is high enough to allow for a successful big bang nucleosynthesis. We will show that the shape of the mass distribution of the PBHs is dependent on how inflation ends and the Universe settles from the metastable direction to the true one. End of inflation can also be probed by examining the gravitational waves spectrum. In particular, we show that if exit from the rolling metastable direction to the true vacuum of the potential happens through a first-order phase transition after the end of slow-roll inflation, it leaves behind a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), which is potentially observable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. Examining the mass distribution of PBHs and possible SGWB from the end of inflation, we may be able to gain invaluable information about the end of inflation.

astro-ph.CO

Black hole pair production on cosmic strings in the presence of a background magnetic field

We investigate the pair creation of magnetically charged black holes on a cosmic string in the presence of a background magnetic field. The string may either break or fray to produce a pair of accelerating black holes described by Ernst metric. By using the instanton action we obtain the rate of such production. For large values of background magnetic field the production of large black holes is probable. Comparing our results with the case of black hole pair creation in magnetic field with no string, we show that fraying/breaking of the cosmic string can substantially enhance the production rate. We also obtain the result of monopole-antimonopole pair production on cosmic string in an external magnetic field, using the WKB approximation and compare it with the black hole results. We also provide a heuristic study of black hole pair creation on cosmic string in the presence of a magnetic field in the de Sitter background, although the analog of Ernst metric with a cosmological constant is lacking. Like a cosmic string and/or a background magnetic field, a positive cosmological constant increases the production rate.

hep-th

Non-Minimal M-flation

We show how in a matrix inflationary model in which there is a non-minimal coupling between the matrix inflatons and gravity --hence dubbed Non-$\MM$-flation-- some of the disadvantages of the minimal model can be avoided. In particular, the number of D3 branes can be reduced substantially to $\lesssim \mathcal{O}(100)$, which can alleviate the ``potential'' backreaction problem of large number of D3 branes on the background geometry. This is achieved by values of non-minimal coupling of order few hundred, which is much smaller than that of Higgs Inflation. The prediction of the model in the symmetry breaking part of the potential, which is a local attractor and can support eternal inflation, is compatible with the latest PLANCK results. In contrast to the minimal model, the spectator fields can partially or completely reheat the universe, depending on the symmetry-breaking vacuum expectation value and the non-minimal coupling parameter. We also comment on how the presence of gauge species keep the UV cutoff at around the Planck scale in the Einstein frame and, in contrast to the Higgs inflation, the problem of field displacements beyond the cutoff does not occur.

hep-th

Rescuing Single Field Inflation from the Swampland

The difficulty of building metastable vacua in string theory has led some to conjecture that, in the string theory landscape, potentials satisfy $\left|\nabla V/V\right|\geq c\sim \mathcal{O}(1)$. This condition, which is supported by different explicit constructions, suggests that the EFTs which lead to metastable de-Sitter vacua belong to what is dubbed as swampland. This condition endangers the paradigm of single field inflation. In this paper, we show how scalar excited initial states cannot rescue single field inflation from the swampland, as they produce large local scalar non-gaussianity, which is in conflict with the Planck upper bound. Instead, we demonstrate that one can salvage single field inflation using excited initial states for tensor perturbations, which in this case produce only large flattened non-gaussianity in the tensor bispectrum. We comment on the possible methods one can prepare such excited initial conditions for the tensor perturbations.

hep-th

Non-Unitary Evolution in the General Extended EFT of Inflation & Excited Initial States

I study the "general" case that arises in the Extended Effective Field Theory of Inflation (gEEFToI), in which the coefficients of the sixth order polynomial dispersion relation depend on the physical wavelength of the fluctuation mode, hence they are time-dependent. At arbitrarily short wavelengths the unitarity is lost for each mode. Depending on the values of the gEEFToI parameters in the unitary gauge action, two scenarios can arise: in one, the coefficients of the polynomial become singular, flip signs at some physical wavelength and asymptote to a constant value as the wavelength of the mode is stretched to infinity. Starting from the WKB vacuum, the two-point function is essentially singular in the infinite IR limit. In the other case, the coefficients of the dispersion relation evolve monotonically from zero to a constant value in the infinite IR. In order to have a finite power spectrum starting from the vacuum in this case, the mode function has to be an eigensolution of the Confluent Heun (CH) equation, which leads to a very confined parameter space for gEEFToI. Finally, I look at a solution of the CH equation which is regular in the infinite IR limit and yields a finite power spectrum in either scenario. I demonstrate that this solution asymptotes to an excited state in past infinity in both cases. The result is interpreted in the light of the loss of unitarity for very small wavelengths. The outcome of such a non-unitary phase evolution should prepare each mode in the excited initial state that yields a finite two-point function for all the parameter space. This will be constraining of the new physics that UV completes such scenarios.

hep-th