arXiv subjects

Clément Stahl

Publications and source records attributed to Clément Stahl.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Scalar QED effective action in dS: implications for primordial magnetogenesis and the running of coupling constants

Particles creation and vacuum polarization under the influence of both an electromagnetic field and a de~Sitter (dS) spacetime nonperturbatively probes quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum gravitational effects. By applying the gamma-function regularization to the in-out formulation, we find the exact one-loop effective action in the proper-time integral representation for a charged scalar field in a uniform electric field and a parallel magnetic field in a dS spacetime. It reduces to the one-loop scalar QED Weisskopf-Schwinger effective action in the limit of Minkowski spacetime and the one-loop effective action in the pure dS spacetime. After carefully considering the different limiting cases, a striking result concerns the effective strengths of the coupling constants in the pure strong electric field limit. Our study provides further evidence for evolution of Newton's gravitational constant under the influence of the external fields. Remarkably, the analysis of the effective potential shows that the leading order contributions to the vacuum polarization amplitude, depending on the nonminimal coupling threshold, give a nonzero vacuum expectation value of the magnetic field. This mechanism generates a large magnetic field in the early dS stage of the expansion that may imply primordial magnetogenesis.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Massless fermionic current of Schwinger pairs in 3D de Sitter spacetime

Pair creation from the vacuum in the presence of a U(1) gauge field in de Sitter $(\mathrm{dS})$ spacetime provides an important setting for exploring quantum field theory in curved backgrounds. In this work, we investigate massless fermion production and the associated induced current generated by a constant electric field in (1+2)-dimensional $\mathrm{dS}$ spacetime. Assuming the Bunch--Davies vacuum and employing adiabatic regularization, we derive, for the first time, a finite expression for the induced current of massless fermions in $\mathrm{dS}_{3}$. The produced fermions generate a net current opposite to the external electric field. In the strong-field regime, the induced current exhibits the expected semiclassical scaling and reproduces the standard Schwinger behavior in the flat-spacetime limit. In the weak-field regime, the current is linear in the electric-field strength. This behavior is characteristic of the fermionic nature of the particles, since the corresponding bosonic case exhibits infrared hyperconductivity, which is absent in our study. We further show that the induced current remains monotonic throughout the parameter space and, unlike in $\mathrm{dS}_4$, does not exhibit any sign change. Our results thus highlight the role of dimensionality and clarify the interplay between spin and infrared physics in $\mathrm{dS}$. This work provides a consistent basis for future investigations including backreaction effects, topologically massive fermions, and time-dependent electromagnetic backgrounds.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

A primordial origin to cosmic tensions: towards reconciling $H_0$ and $S_8$ with early dark energy and scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities

The Hubble ($H_0$) tension between direct measurements of the expansion rate and the prediction of the $Λ$CDM cosmological model calibrated on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), is a strong motivation to explore alternative cosmological models. A popular class of such models includes an additional component of dark energy relevant in the early Universe, which solves the Hubble tension. These Early Dark Energy (EDE) models however typically overpredict the value of the $S_8$ parameter. Here, we show how combining EDE with scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities (sPNG) can in principle both increase $H_0$ and decrease $S_8$ at once, even conceivably allowing to solve the potential $S_8$ tension between measurements of weak gravitational lensing and the $Λ$CDM expectation. Such sPNG are related to non-trivial inflationary physics, and observationally affect the non-linear regime of structure formation while leaving the linear regime mostly untouched. Depending on the amplitude of the sPNG, such models can either yield back the $Λ$CDM expectation for the power spectrum in the non-linear regime, and hence an $S_8$ parameter compatible with $Λ$CDM, or can even reconcile the value of $S_8$ from old weak-lensing measurements with the CMB, while solving the Hubble tension in all cases. In such models, both tensions would then be entirely related to pre-CMB physics of the early Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Primordial Sharp Features through the Nonlinear Regime of Structure Formation

Sudden violations of the slow-roll regime during inflation, a natural prediction of many UV-complete inflationary models, give rise to sharp features in the primordial power spectrum. At large scales, these features provide a unique window into the physics of inflation, with constraints primarily derived from Cosmic Microwave Background observations of linearly evolved primordial fluctuations. However, on smaller scales, it is less clear whether primordial features would survive the late-time nonlinear cosmological evolution, as they are expected to be washed out by mode coupling. In this paper, we run dedicated N-body simulations to tackle this question. We demonstrate that, while oscillatory-like patterns are erased over time by nonlinearities, signatures of primordial sharp features can persist through the nonlinear regime of structure formation. Those take the form of a localised power enhancement or decrease in the matter power spectrum, whose amplitude and position can in principle be used to recover the scale of the primordial feature, and an oscillatory pattern in the halo mass function. While these findings highlight the power for constraining inflationary physics at small scales, they also show the challenges posed by potential degeneracies with other physical processes relevant in the nonlinear regime of structure formation such as non-cold dark matter candidates. Our results open new avenues for probing inflationary physics in large scale structures and galactic physics and emphasise the need for refined theoretical tools to robustly constrain primordial features.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

A cosmic degeneracy story: structure formation with warm dark matter and scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities

It has been recently shown that cosmological models with scale-dependent primordial non-Gaussianities (sPNG) could provide a possible path to solve current cosmic tensions. Moreover, it has been pointed out that some of these models might mimic the effects of Warm Dark Matter (WDM) for several observables at low redshift. Here, we confirm the qualitative similarity of the matter power spectrum for sPNG and WDM models, but also point out differences in the halo mass function and void size function. We then jointly simulate WDM and sPNG together. Such simulations allow us to demonstrate that the joint impact of WDM and sPNG is close to the linear superposition of their respective effects at low redshift, at the percent level. We finally propose a model with mixed hot and cold dark matter together with sPNG, that reproduces the $Λ$CDM power spectrum at redshifts $z \leq 3$ but is still distinct in terms of halo statistics.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Simulating the Universe from the cosmological horizon to halo scales

Ultra-large scales close to the cosmological horizon will be probed by the upcoming observational campaigns. They hold the promise to constrain single-field inflation as well as general relativity, but in order to include them in the forthcoming analyses, their modelling has to be robust. In particular, general relativistic effects may be mistaken for primordial signals, and no consensus has emerged either from analytical modelling nor from the numerical route, obstructed by the large dynamical range to be simulated. In this work, we present a numerical technique to overcome the latter limitation: we compute the general relativistic displacement field with the N-body relativistic code gevolution and combine it with the accurate Newtonian simulation Gadget-4. This combination leads to an effective simulation reproducing the desired behaviour at the level of the matter power spectrum and bispectrum. We then measure, for the first time in a simulation, the relativistic scale-dependent bias in Poisson gauge; at redshift $z=0$, we find $b_1^{\mathrm{GR}}=-5.7 \pm 1.7$. Our results at the field level are only valid in the Poisson gauge and need to be complemented with a relativistic ray tracing algorithm to compute the number count observable.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Scale-dependent local primordial non-Gaussianity as a solution to the $S_8$ tension

For the last decade, several probes have pointed to a cosmological tension between the amplitude of density fluctuations extrapolated from the cosmic microwave background within the standard cosmological model and the one encapsulated by the $S_8$ parameter from large scale structure. The origin of this $S_8$ tension has not yet been elucidated and may hint at systematics in the data, unaccounted effects from baryonic physics, or new physics beyond the standard model of cosmology. Baryonic physics may in principle provide a nonlinear solution to the tension by suppressing the matter power spectrum more strongly on nonlinear scales than is traditionally assumed. Such a solution would not worsen the Hubble tension, contrary to many other proposed solutions to the $S_8$ tension. However, no realistic baryonic feedback in hydrodynamical simulations provides the needed suppression as a function of redshift. Here, we point out that a scale-dependence of local-type primordial non-Gaussianities (PNG), with significant PNG at scales of a few Mpc, can provide the needed suppression, since such PNG can suppress the power spectrum at slightly larger scales than baryons do. We demonstrate this by devising collisionless numerical simulations of structure formation in boxes of 0.5 Gpc/$h$ with scale-dependent local-type PNG. Our simple models show that, as a proof of principle, scale-dependent PNG, with a Gaussian random field for primordial density fluctuations on large scales and $f_{\rm NL} \simeq -300$ at $\lesssim 10$ Mpc scales, together with state-of-the-art baryonification of the matter power spectrum, can in principle solve the $S_8$ tension. The $S_8$ tension would then be a smoking-gun of non-trivial inflationary physics.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

From inflation to dark matter halo profiles: the impact of primordial non-Gaussianities on the central density cusp

It has recently been shown that local primordial non-Gaussianities (PNG) with significant amplitude ($|f_{\rm NL}| \sim 1000$), at small (Mpc) scales, can help in forming simulated galaxies with more disky baryonic kinematics than in the Gaussian case, while generating matter power spectra that can differ by up to 20% from the Gaussian case at non-linear scales. Here, we explore in detail the consequences of such small-scale PNG on the dark matter halo profiles. We show in particular that, for negative $f_{\rm NL}$, dark matter halos formed in collisionless simulations are not always well described by the traditional Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profiles, as supported by their sparsity distribution. We conclude that NFW profiles are not as clear attractors for the density profiles of dark matter halos in the presence of PNG than in the case of a Gaussian contrast density field. We show how alternatives to the NFW profile can describe halos both in the Gaussian and non-Gaussian cases. From the combination of our sparsity analysis and the quality of the adjustments of the density profiles with a minimal extension to NFW, we conclude that $z=1$ halos carry the most interesting information about PNG

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation with non-Gaussian initial conditions

Collisionless simulations of structure formation with significant local primordial non-Gaussianities at Mpc scales have shown that a non-Gaussian tail favouring underdensities, with a negative $f_{\rm NL}$ parameter, can significantly change the merging history of galaxy-sized dark matter halos, which then typically assemble later than in vanilla $Λ$CDM. Moreover, such a small-scale negative $f_{\rm NL}$ could have interesting consequences for the cosmological $S_8$ tension. Here, we complement our previous work on collisionless simulations with new hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation in boxes of 30 Mpc/$h$, using the {\sc RAMSES} code. In particular, we show that all feedback prescriptions being otherwise identical, simulations with a negative $f_{\rm NL} \sim -1000$ on small scales, hence forming galaxies a bit later than in vanilla $Λ$CDM, allow to form simulated galaxies with more disky kinematics than in the vanilla case. Therefore, such small-scale primordial non-Gaussianities could potentially help alleviate, simultaneously, tensions in cosmology and galaxy formation. These hydrodynamical simulations on small scales will need to be complemented with larger box simulations with scale-dependent non-Gaussianities, to statistically confirm these trends and explore their observational consequences in further detail.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Relativistic matter bispectrum of cosmic structures on the light cone

Upcoming surveys of cosmic structures will probe scales close to the cosmological horizon, which opens up new opportunities for testing the cosmological concordance model to high accuracy. In particular, constraints on the squeezed bispectrum could rule out the single-field hypothesis during inflation. However, the squeezed bispectrum is also sensitive to dynamical effects of general relativity as well as interactions of matter with residual radiation from the early Universe. In this paper, we present a relativistic simulation pipeline that includes these relativistic effects consistently. We produce light cones and calculate the observed number counts of cold dark matter for five redshift bins between $z=0.55$-$2.25$. We compare the relativistic results against reference Newtonian simulations by means of angular power- and bispectra. We find that the dynamical relativistic effects scale roughly inversely proportional to the multipole in the angular power spectrum, with a maximum amplitude of $10\%$ for $\ell \lesssim 5$. By using a smoothing method applied to the binned bispectrum we detect the Newtonian bispectrum with very high significance. The purely relativistic part of the matter bispectrum is detected with a significance of $\sim 3\,σ$, mostly limited by cosmic variance. We find that the pure dynamical relativistic effects accounts for up to $3\%$ and $10\%$ of the total amplitude, respectively in the squeezed and equilateral limits. Our relativistic pipeline for modelling ultra-large scales yields gauge-independent results as we compute observables consistently on the past light cone, while the Newtonian treatment employs approximations that leave some residual gauge dependence. A gauge-invariant approach is required in order to meet the expected level of precision of forthcoming probes of cosmic structures on ultra-large scales.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Exploring the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity at galactic scales

While large scale primordial non-Gaussianity is strongly constrained by present-day data, there are no such constraints at Mpc scales. Here we investigate the effect of significant small-scale primordial non-Gaussianity on structure formation and the galaxy formation process with collisionless simulations: specifically, we explore four different types of non-Gaussianities. All of these prescriptions lead to a distinct and potentially detectable feature in the matter power spectrum around the non-linear scale. The feature might have interesting consequences for the $S_8$ tension. We then show in particular that a negatively-skewed distribution of the potential random field, hence positively skewed in terms of overdensities, with $f_{\rm NL}$ of the order of 1000 at these scales, implies that typical galaxy-sized halos reach half of their present-day mass at an earlier stage and have a quieter merging history at $z<3$ than in the Gaussian case. Their environment between 0.5 and 4 virial radii at $z=0$ is less dense than in the Gaussian case. This quieter history and less dense environment has potentially interesting consequences in terms of the formation of bulges and bars. Moreover, we show that the two most massive subhalos around their host tend to display an interesting anti-correlation of velocities, indicative of kinematic coherence. All these hints will need to be statistically confirmed in larger-box simulations with scale-dependent non-Gaussian initial conditions, followed by hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations to explore the detailed consequences of small-scale non-Gaussianities on galaxy formation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Dipolar dark matter simulations on galaxy scales with the RAMSES code

We numerically explore on galaxy scales the Dipolar dark matter (DM) model based on the concept of gravitational polarization. This DM model has been proposed as a natural way to reproduce observed tight galactic scaling relations such as the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation and the Radial Acceleration Relation. We present a customized version of the \texttt{RAMSES} code including for the first time the dynamics of this Dipolar DM in $N$-body simulations. As a first application of this code, we check that we recover an equilibrium configuration that had been found analytically, where a low density Dipolar DM halo is at rest with respect to its central galaxy, recovering the aforementioned scaling relations. A characteristic signature of this equilibrium model is that it harbours a dynamical instability with a characteristic time depending on the Dipolar DM halo density, which we recover numerically. This represents a first step towards more involved simulations needed to test this framework, ranging from galaxy interactions to structure formation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

MOND-like behavior in the Dirac-Milne universe -- Flat rotation curves and mass/velocity relations in galaxies and clusters

We show that in the Dirac-Milne universe (a matter-antimatter symmetric universe where the two components repel each other), rotation curves are generically flat beyond the characteristic distance of about 3 virial radii, and that a Tully-Fisher relation with exponent $\approx 3$ is satisfied. Using 3D simulations with a modified version of the RAMSES code, we show that the Dirac-Milne cosmology presents a Faber-Jackson relation with a very small scatter and an exponent equal to $\approx 3$ between the mass and the velocity dispersion. We also show that the mass derived from the rotation curves assuming Newtonian gravity is systematically overestimated compared to the mass really present. We also show that the Dirac-Milne universe, featuring a polarization between its matter and antimatter components, presents a behavior similar to that of MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics), characterized by an additional surface gravity compared to the Newtonian case. We show that in the Dirac-Milne universe, at the present epoch, the intensity of the additional gravitational field $g_{am}$ due to the presence of clouds of antimatter is of the order of a few $10^{-11}$ m/s$^2$, similar to the characteristic acceleration of MOND. We study the evolution of this additional acceleration $g_{am}$ and show that it depends on the redshift, and is therefore not a fundamental constant. Combined with its known concordance properties on SNIa luminosity distance, age, nucleosynthesis and structure formation, the Dirac-Milne cosmology may then represent an interesting alternative to the $Λ$CDM, MOND, and other scenarios for explaining the Dark Matter and Dark Energy conundrum.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

From matter to galaxies: General relativistic bias for the one-loop bispectrum

We write down the Lagrangian bias expansion in general relativity up to 4th order in terms of operators describing the curvature of an early-time hypersurface for comoving observers. They can be easily expanded in synchronous or comoving gauges. This is necessary for the computation of the one-loop halo bispectrum, where relativistic effects can be degenerate with a primordial non-Gaussian signal. Since the bispectrum couples scales, an accurate prediction of the squeezed limit behavior needs to be both non-linear and relativistic. We then evolve the Lagrangian bias operators in time in comoving gauge, obtaining non-local operators analogous to what is known in the Newtonian limit. Finally, we show how to renormalize the bias expansion at an arbitrary time and find that this is crucial in order to cancel unphysical $1/k^2$ divergences in the large-scale power spectrum and bispectrum that could be mistaken for a contamination to the non-Gaussian signal.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Large scale structures: from inflation to today: a brief report

We briefly review some selected topics gravitating around large scale structures. We derive from inflation the evolution of dark matter perturbations. The stress is put on the non-linear regime of structures formation, with a particular emphasis on relativistic effects, the Effective Field Theory approach, the role of dark energy and the possibility of inhomogeneous universes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Effect of Schwinger pair production on the evolution of the Hubble constant in de~Sitter spacetime

In this proceeding we consider a massive charged scalar field in a uniform electric field background in a de~Sitter spacetime (dS). We compute the in-vacuum expectation value of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor for the created Schwinger pairs, and using adiabatic subtraction scheme the trace is regularized. The effect of the Schwinger pair creation on the evolution of the Hubble constant is investigated. We find that the production of the semiclassical pairs leads to a decay of the Hubble constant. Whereas, the production of a light scalar field in the weak electric field regime leads to a superacceleration phenomenon.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Relativistic cosmological large scale structures at one-loop

The large scale structure bispectrum in the squeezed limit couples large with small scales. Since relativity is important at large scales and non-linear loop corrections are important at small scales, the proper calculation of the observed bispectrum in this limit requires a non-linear relativistic calculation. We compute the matter bispectrum in general relativity in the weak field approximation. The calculation is as involved as existing second-order results. We find several differences with the Newtonian calculation such as the non-cancellation of IR divergences, the need to renormalize the background, and the fact that initial conditions must be set at second order in perturbation theory. For the bispectrum, we find relativistic corrections to be as large as the newtonian result in the squeezed limit. In that limit relativistic one-loop contributions, which we compute for the first time, can be as large as tree level results and have the same $1/k^2$ dependence as a primordial local non-Gaussianity signal where $k$ is the momentum approaching zero. Moreover, we find the time dependence of the relavistic corrections to the bispectrum to be the same as that of a primordial non-Gaussianity signal.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

A model of interacting dark fluids tested with supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data

We compare supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data to the predictions of a cosmological model of interacting dark matter and dark energy. This theoretical model can be derived from the effective field theory of Einstein-Cartan gravity with two scaling exponents $δ_G$ and $δ_Λ$, related to the interaction between dark matter and dark energy. We perform a $χ^2$ fit to the data to compare and contrast it with the standard $Λ$CDM model. We then explore the range of parameter of the model which gives a better $χ^2$ than the standard cosmological model. All those results lead to tight constraints on the scaling exponents of the model. Our conclusion is that this class of models, provides a decent alternative to the $Λ$CDM model.

astro-ph.CO↗