arXiv subjects

Hardi Veermae

Publications and source records attributed to Hardi Veermae.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

The recent gravitational wave observation by pulsar timing arrays and primordial black holes: the importance of non-gaussianities

We study whether the signal seen by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) may originate from gravitational waves (GWs) induced by large primordial perturbations. Such perturbations may be accompanied by a sizeable primordial black hole (PBH) abundance. We improve existing analyses and show that PBH overproduction disfavors Gaussian scenarios for scalar-induced GWs at 2σ and single-field inflationary scenarios, accounting for non-Gaussianity, at 3σ as the explanation of the most constraining NANOGrav 15-year data. This tension can be relaxed in models where non-Gaussianites suppress the PBH abundance. On the flip side, the PTA data does not constrain the abundance of PBHs.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Minkowski space in $f(T)$ gravity

The full set of solutions of $f(T)$ gravity with the Minkowski metric is considered in this note. At the 4-th order in perturbations around the trivial tetrad solution, a new mode is found explicitly. Its presence signals a strong coupling problem that transcends the Minkowski background and also suggests the pathological nature of cosmological solutions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

New infra-red enhancements in 4-derivative gravity

4-derivative gravity provides a renormalizable theory of quantum gravity at the price of introducing a physical ghost, which could admit a sensible positive-energy quantization. To understand its physics, we compute ghost-mediated scatterings among matter particles at tree-level, finding a new power-like infra-red enhancement typical of 4-derivative theories, that we dub '$ghostrahlung$'. Super-Planckian scatterings get downgraded to Planckian by radiating hard gravitons and ghosts, which are weakly coupled and carry away the energy.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Collisionless shocks in self-interacting dark matter

Self-interacting dark matter has been proposed as a solution to small scale problems in cosmological structure formation, and hints of dark matter self scattering have been observed in mergers of galaxy clusters. One of the simplest models for self-interacting dark matter is a particle that is charged under dark electromagnetism, a new gauge interaction analogous to the usual electromagnetic force, but operating on the dark matter particle instead of the visible particles. In this case, the collisional behaviour of dark matter is primarily due to the formation of collisionless shocks, that should affect the distribution of DM in merging galaxy clusters. We evaluate the time and length scales of shock formation in cluster mergers, and discuss the implications for modelling charged dark matter in cosmological simulations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Anomalous Higgs-boson coupling effects in HWW production at the LHC

We study the LHC associated production of a Higgs boson and a W^+W^- vector-boson pair at 14 TeV, in the Standard Model and beyond. We consider different signatures corresponding to the cleanest H and W decay channels, and discuss the potential of the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. In particular, we investigate the sensitivity of the HWW production to possible anomalous Higgs couplings to vector bosons and fermions. Since the b-quark initiated partonic channel contributes significantly to this process, we find a moderate sensitivity to both the size and sign of an anomalous top-quark Yukawa coupling, because perturbative unitarity in the standard model implies a destructive interference in the b b-bar subprocess. We show that a combination of various signatures can reach a ~9 standard-deviation sensitivity in the presently allowed negative region of the top-Higgs coupling, if not previously excluded.

hep-ph↗