arXiv subjects

Chiara Caprini

Publications and source records attributed to Chiara Caprini.

72 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions

First order phase transitions in the early universe can give rise to a stochastic background of gravitational waves. A hypothetical first order electroweak phase transition is particularly interesting in this respect, since the signal is in the good frequency range to be detectable by the space interferometer LISA. Three main processes lead to the production of the gravitational wave signal: the collision of the broken phase bubbles, the magnetohydrodynamical turbulence in the plasma stirred by the bubble collisions, and the magnetic fields amplified by the magnetohydrodynamical turbulence. The main features of the gravitational wave spectrum, such as the peak frequency, the amplitude, and the slopes both at low and high wave-number can be predicted by general arguments based on the characteristics of the source: in particular, the structure of its space and time correlation. We find that the gravitational wave signal from a first order phase transition occurring at electroweak symmetry breaking falls into the LISA sensitivity range if the phase transition lasts for about one hundredth of the Hubble time and the energy density of the turbulent motions is about twenty percent of the total energy density in the universe at the phase transition time.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

CMB temperature anisotropy at large scales induced by a causal primordial magnetic field

We present an analytical derivation of the Sachs Wolfe effect sourced by a primordial magnetic field. In order to consistently specify the initial conditions, we assume that the magnetic field is generated by a causal process, namely a first order phase transition in the early universe. As for the topological defects case, we apply the general relativistic junction conditions to match the perturbation variables before and after the phase transition which generates the magnetic field, in such a way that the total energy momentum tensor is conserved across the transition and Einstein's equations are satisfied. We further solve the evolution equations for the metric and fluid perturbations at large scales analytically including neutrinos, and derive the magnetic Sachs Wolfe effect. We find that the relevant contribution to the magnetic Sachs Wolfe effect comes from the metric perturbations at next-to-leading order in the large scale limit. The leading order term is in fact strongly suppressed due to the presence of free-streaming neutrinos. We derive the neutrino compensation effect dynamically and confirm that the magnetic Sachs Wolfe spectrum from a causal magnetic field behaves as l(l+1)C_l^B \propto l^2 as found in the latest numerical analyses.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

The stochastic gravitational wave background from turbulence and magnetic fields generated by a first-order phase transition

We analytically derive the spectrum of gravitational waves due to magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence generated by bubble collisions in a first-order phase transition. In contrast to previous studies, we take into account the fact that turbulence and magnetic fields act as sources of gravitational waves for many Hubble times after the phase transition is completed. This modifies the gravitational wave spectrum at large scales. We also model the initial stirring phase preceding the Kolmogorov cascade, while earlier works assume that the Kolmogorov spectrum sets in instantaneously. The continuity in time of the source is relevant for a correct determination of the peak position of the gravitational wave spectrum. We discuss how the results depend on assumptions about the unequal-time correlation of the source and motivate a realistic choice for it. Our treatment gives a similar peak frequency as previous analyses but the amplitude of the signal is reduced due to the use of a more realistic power spectrum for the magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence. For a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition, the signal is observable with the space interferometer LISA.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Can the observed large scale magnetic fields be seeded by helical primordial fields?

Gravitational wave production induces a strong constraint on the amplitude of a primordial magnetic field. It has been shown that the nucleosynthesis bound for a stochastic gravitational wave background implies that causally generated fields cannot have enough power on large scales to provide the seeds necessary for the observed magnetic fields in galaxies and clusters, even by the most optimistic dynamo amplification. Magnetic fields generated at inflation can have high enough amplitude only if their spectrum is very red. Here we show that helicity, which leads to an inverse cascade, can mitigate these limits. In particular, we find that helical fields generated at the QCD phase transition or at inflation with red spectrum are possible seeds for the dynamo. Helical fields generated at the electroweak phase transition are instead excluded as seeds at large scales. We also calculate the spectrum of gravitational waves generated by helical magnetic fields.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

The cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum from scalar perturbations induced by primordial magnetic fields

We evaluate the angular bispectrum of the CMB temperature anisotropy at large angular scale due to a stochastic background of primordial magnetic fields. The shape of non-Gaussianity depends on the spectral index of the magnetic field power spectrum and is peaked in the squeezed configuration for a scale-invariant magnetic spectrum. By using the large angular part of the bispectrum generated by magnetic fields, the present bounds on non-Gaussianity set a limit on the amplitude of the primordial magnetic field of the order of 10 nGauss for the scale-invariant case and 20 nGauss for the other spectral indexes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

General Properties of the Gravitational Wave Spectrum from Phase Transitions

In this paper we discuss some general aspects of the gravitational wave background arising from post-inflationary short-lasting cosmological events such as phase transitions. We concentrate on the physics which determines the shape and the peak frequency of the gravitational wave spectrum. We then apply our general findings to the case of bubble collisions during a first order phase transition and compare different results in the recent literature.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Gravitational wave generation from bubble collisions in first-order phase transitions: an analytic approach

Gravitational wave production from bubble collisions was calculated in the early nineties using numerical simulations. In this paper, we present an alternative analytic estimate, relying on a different treatment of stochasticity. In our approach, we provide a model for the bubble velocity power spectrum, suitable for both detonations and deflagrations. From this, we derive the anisotropic stress and analytically solve the gravitational wave equation. We provide analytical formulae for the peak frequency and the shape of the spectrum which we compare with numerical estimates. In contrast to the previous analysis, we do not work in the envelope approximation. This paper focuses on a particular source of gravitational waves from phase transitions. In a companion article, we will add together the different sources of gravitational wave signals from phase transitions: bubble collisions, turbulence and magnetic fields and discuss the prospects for probing the electroweak phase transition at LISA.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Dirac Born Infeld (DBI) Cosmic Strings

Motivated by brane physics, we consider the non-linear Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) extension of the Abelian-Higgs model and study the corresponding cosmic string configurations. The model is defined by a potential term, assumed to be of the mexican hat form, and a DBI action for the kinetic terms. We show that it is a continuous deformation of the Abelian-Higgs model, with a single deformation parameter depending on a dimensionless combination of the scalar coupling constant, the vacuum expectation value of the scalar field at infinity, and the brane tension. By means of numerical calculations, we investigate the profiles of the corresponding DBI-cosmic strings and prove that they have a core which is narrower than that of Abelian-Higgs strings. We also show that the corresponding action is smaller than in the standard case suggesting that their formation could be favoured in brane models. Moreover we show that the DBI-cosmic string solutions are non-pathological everywhere in parameter space. Finally, in the limit in which the DBI model reduces to the Bogomolnyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) Abelian-Higgs model, we find that DBI cosmic strings are no longer BPS: rather they have positive binding energy. We thus argue that, when they meet, two DBI strings will not bind with the corresponding formation of a junction, and hence that a network of DBI strings is likely to behave as a network of standard cosmic strings.

hep-th↗

arXiv2008

Optimising large galaxy surveys for ISW detection

We report on investigations of the power of next generation cosmic microwave background and large scale structure surveys in constraining the nature of dark energy through the cross-correlation of the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect and the galaxy distribution. First we employ a signal to noise analysis to find the most appropriate properties of a survey in order to detect the correlated signal at a level of more than 4 sigma: such a survey should cover more than 35% of the sky, the galaxy distribution should be probed with a median redshift higher than 0.8, and the number of galaxies detected should be higher than a few per squared arcmin. We consider the forthcoming surveys DUNE, LSST, SNAP, PanSTARRS. We then compute the constraints that the DUNE survey can put on the nature of dark energy (through different parametrizations of its equation of state) with a standard Fisher matrix analysis. We confirm that, with respect to pure CMB constraints, cross-correlation constraints help in breaking degeneracies among the dark energy and the cosmological parameters. Naturally, the constraining capability is not independent of the choice of the dark energy model. Despite being weaker than some other probes (like Gravitational Weak-Lensing), these constraints are complementary to them, being sensitive to the high-redshift behaviour of the dark energy.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Challenges for creating magnetic fields by cosmic defects

We analyse the possibility that topological defects can act as a source of magnetic fields through the Harrison mechanism in the radiation era. We give a detailed relativistic derivation of the Harrison mechanism at first order in cosmological perturbations, and show that it is only efficient for temperatures above T ~ 0.2 keV. Our main result is that the vector metric perturbations generated by the defects cannot induce vorticity in the matter fluids at linear order, thereby excluding the production of currents and magnetic fields. We show that anisotropic stress in the matter fluids is required to source vorticity and magnetic fields. Our analysis is relevant for any mechanism whereby vorticity is meant to be transferred purely by gravitational interactions, and thus would also apply to dark matter or neutrinos.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Superluminal motion and closed signal curves

We discuss some properties of Lorentz invariant theories which allow for superluminal motion. We show that, if signals are always sent forward in time, closed curves along which signals propagate can be formed. This leads to problems with causality and with the second law of thermodynamics. Only if one singles out one frame with respect to which all signals travel forward in time, the formation of 'closed signal curves' can be prevented. However, the price to pay is that in some reference frames perturbations propagate towards the past or towards the future, depending on the direction of emission.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

On the frequency of gravitational waves

We show that there are physically relevant situations where gravitational waves do not inherit the frequency spectrum of their source but its wavenumber spectrum.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Gravitational waves from stochastic relativistic sources: primordial turbulence and magnetic fields

The power spectrum of a homogeneous and isotropic stochastic variable, characterized by a finite correlation length, does in general not vanish on scales larger than the correlation scale. If the variable is a divergence free vector field, we demonstrate that its power spectrum is blue on large scales. Accounting for this fact, we compute the gravitational waves induced by an incompressible turbulent fluid and by a causal magnetic field present in the early universe. The gravitational wave power spectra show common features: they are both blue on large scales, and peak at the correlation scale. However, the magnetic field can be treated as a coherent source and it is active for a long time. This results in a very effective conversion of magnetic energy in gravitational wave energy at horizon crossing. Turbulence instead acts as a source for gravitational waves over a time interval much shorter than a Hubble time, and the conversion into gravitational wave energy is much less effective. We also derive a strong constraint on the amplitude of a primordial magnetic field when the correlation length is much smaller than the horizon.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

No-go theorem for k-essence dark energy

We demonstrate that if k-essence can solve the coincidence problem and play the role of dark energy in the universe, the fluctuations of the field have to propagate superluminally at some stage. We argue that this implies that successful k-essence models violate causality. It is not possible to define a time ordered succession of events in a Lorentz invariant way. Therefore, k-essence cannot arise as low energy effective field theory of a causal, consistent high energy theory.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Limits on stochastic magnetic fields: A defense of our paper [1]

In their recent paper ``Faraday rotation of the cosmic microwave background polarization by a stochastic magnetic field'', Kosowsky et al. Phys.Rev. D71, 043006 (2005) have commented about our paper [C.Caprini and R.Durrer, Phys. Rev. D65, 023517 (2002)], in which we derived very strong limits on the amplitude of a primordial magnetic field from gravitational wave production. They argue that our limits are erroneous. In this short comment we defend our result.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

The Cosmic Microwave Background and Helical Magnetic Fields: the tensor mode

We study the effect of a possible helicity component of a primordial magnetic field on the tensor part of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies and polarization. We give analytical approximations for the tensor contributions induced by helicity, discussing their amplitude and spectral index in dependence of the power spectrum of the primordial magnetic field. We find that an helical magnetic field creates a parity odd component of gravity waves inducing parity odd polarization signals. However, only if the magnetic field is close to scale invariant and if its helical part is close to maximal, the effect is sufficiently large to be observable. We also discuss the implications of causality on the magnetic field spectrum.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Primordial Magnetic Fields and Causality

We discuss the implications of causality on a primordial magnetic field. We show that the residual field on large scales is much more suppressed than usually assumed and that a helical component is even more reduced. Due to this strong suppression, even maximal primordial fields generated at the electroweak phase transition can just marginally seed the fields in clusters, but they cannot leave any detectable imprint on the cosmic microwave background.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Gravitational wave production: A strong constraint on primordial magnetic fields

We compute the gravity waves induced by anisotropic stresses of stochastic primordial magnetic fields. The nucleosynthesis bound on gravity waves is then used to derive a limit on the magnetic field amplitude as function of the spectral index. The obtained limits are extraordinarily strong: If the primordial magnetic field is produced by a causal process, leading to a spectral index $n\ge 2$ on super horizon scales, galactic magnetic fields produced at the electroweak phase transition or earlier have to be weaker than $B_\la \le 10^{-27}$Gauss! If they are induced during an inflationary phase (reheating temperature $T\sim 10^{15}$GeV) with a spectral index $n\sim 0$, the magnetic field has to be weaker than $B_\la \le 10^{-39}$Gauss! Only very red magnetic field spectra, $n\sim -3$ are not strongly constrained. We also find that a considerable amount of the magnetic field energy is converted into gravity waves. The gravity wave limit derived in this work rules out most of the proposed processes for primordial seeds for the large scale coherent magnetic fields observed in galaxies and clusters.

astro-ph↗