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Igor Tkachev

Publications and source records attributed to Igor Tkachev.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

New Method for Investigating the Presence of Extragalactic Magnetic Fields

The extragalactic magnetic field could be detected by searching for signatures of the electromagnetic cascade initiated by high-energy photons on the intergalactic radiation and deflected by the field. This process produces a time delay and an extended gamma-ray halo around the source, which are looked for. We propose a new signature of electromagnetic echoes: the asymmetry of the gamma-ray distribution around blazars. As a measure of asymmetry, we use the offset of the gamma-ray distribution to the location of the blazar. This offset is due to the tilt of the jet of the blazar relative to the line of sight. Using a subsample of the 10 brightest BL Lacs, we exclude the range of extragalactic magnetic fields from $10^{-16}$ to $10^{-14}$ G, assuming that these objects have maintained a constant average luminosity over hundreds of thousands of years.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2024

Measuring the Evolution of Entanglement in Compton Scattering

The evolution of the entanglement measure during Compton scattering is studied. Our analytical results show that the corresponding measure coincides with the concurrence of the two-qubit state arising after scattering. The state never collapses to a separable one, contrary to what was previously assumed. The behavior of quantum entanglement during scattering is identical to the behavior of initially classically correlated photons up to a constant factor equal to two. This is consistent with local quantum field theory, and "spooky action at a distance" is not required to explain the change in state of nonlocally entangled qubits during the measurement of one of them. Our dedicated experiment with annihilation photons confirms these results and explains the "Puzzle of Decoherence" observed recently.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2022

Entanglement of annihilation photons

We present the results of a new experimental study of the quantum entanglement of photon pairs produced in positron-electron annihilation at rest. The experimental setup includes a system of Compton polarimeters to measure the Compton scattering of annihilation photons in entangled and decoherent states. Decoherent states are prepared by pre-scattering of one of the initial photons prior to measurements in polarimeters. For the first time, a direct comparison of the polarization correlations of annihilation photons in the entangled and thus prepared separable states has been carried out. The angular distributions of scattered photons turned out to be the same in both quantum states, which is an unexpected discovery for the quantum-entangled positron emission tomography. Moreover, the correlation function in the Bell's inequality is also the same for entangled and separable states. It follows that, despite numerous measurements in a series of experiments, there is still no experimental proof of the entanglement of annihilation photons. These results are in line with recent theoretical predictions of an identical Compton scattering cross-section for entangled and specific mixed separable quantum states and cast doubt on the universality of the Bell's theorem for testing the entanglement and nonlocality in quantum theory.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2021

Mass production and characterization of 3-inch PMTs for the JUNO experiment

26,000 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have been produced for Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) by the Hainan Zhanchuang Photonics Technology Co., Ltd (HZC) company in China and passed all acceptance tests with only 15 tubes rejected. The mass production began in 2018 and elapsed for about 2 years at a rate of $\sim$1,000~PMTs per month. The characterization of the PMTs was performed in the factory concurrently with production as a joint effort between HZC and JUNO. Fifteen performance parameters were tracked at different sampling rates, and novel working strategies were implemented to improve quality assurance. This constitutes the largest sample of 3-inch PMTs ever produced and studied in detail to date.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2019

Measurements with a TRISTAN prototype detector system at the "Troitsk nu-mass" experiment in integral and differential mode

Sterile neutrinos emerge in minimal extensions of the Standard Model which can solve a number of open questions in astroparticle physics. For example, sterile neutrinos in the keV-mass range are viable dark matter candidates. Their existence would lead to a kink-like distortion in the tritium $β$-decay spectrum. In this work we report about the instrumentation of the Troitsk nu-mass experiment with a 7-pixel TRISTAN prototype detector and measurements in both differential and integral mode. The combination of the two modes is a key requirement for a precise sterile neutrino search, as both methods are prone to largely different systematic uncertainties. Thanks to the excellent performance of the TRISTAN detector at high rates, a sterile neutrino search up to masses of about 6 keV could be performed, which enlarges the previous accessible mass range by a factor of 3. Upper limits on the neutrino mixing amplitude in the mass range < 5.6 keV (differential) and < 6.6 keV (integral) are presented. These results demonstrate the feasibility of a sterile neutrino search as planned in the upgrade of the KATRIN experiment with the final TRISTAN detector and read-out system.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2018

Cosmology and Dark Matter

This lecture course covers cosmology from the particle physicist perspective. Therefore, the emphasis will be on the evidence for the new physics in cosmological and astrophysical data together with minimal theoretical frameworks needed to understand and appreciate the evidence. I review the case for non-baryonic dark matter and describe popular models which incorporate it. In parallel, the story of dark energy will be developed, which includes accelerated expansion of the Universe today, the Universe origin in the Big Bang, and support for the Inflationary theory in CMBR data.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2016

Tidal streams from axion miniclusters and direct axion searches

In some axion dark matter models a dominant fraction of axions resides in dense small-scale substructures, axion miniclusters. A fraction of these substructures is disrupted and forms tidal streams where the axion density may still be an order of magnitude larger than the average. We discuss implications of these streams for the direct axion searches. We estimate the fraction of disrupted miniclusters and the parameters of the resulting streams, and find that stream-crossing events would occur at a rate of about $1/(20 {\rm yr})$ for 2-3 days, during which the signal in axion detectors would be amplified by a factor $\sim 10$. These estimates suggest that the effect of the tidal disruption of axion miniclusters may be important for direct axion searches and deserves a more thorough study.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

Neutrinos in IceCube from AGN's

Recently IceCube collaboration has reported first evidence for the astrophysical neutrinos. Observation corresponds to the total astrophysical neutrino flux of the order of $3 \cdot 10^{-8}$ $GeV/cm^2/s/sr$ in a PeV energy range. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are natural candidate sources for such neutrinos. To model the neutrino creation in AGNs we study photopion production processes on the radiation field of the Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disks in the black hole vicinity. We show that this model can explain detected neutrino flux and avoids, at the same time, existing constraints from the gamma-ray and cosmic ray observations.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2013

BBN with light dark matter

Effects of light millicharged dark matter particles on primordial nucleosynthesis are considered. It is shown that if the mass of such particles is much smaller than the electron mass, they lead to strong overproduction of Helium-4. An agreement with observations can be achieved by non-vanishing lepton asymmetry. Baryon-to-photon ratio at BBN and neutrino- to-photon ratio both at BBN and at recombination are noticeably different as compared to the standard cosmological model. The latter ratio and possible lepton asymmetry could be checked by Planck. For higher mass of new particles the effect is much less pronounced and may even have opposite sign.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2010

Universal properties of Dark Matter halos

We discuss the universal relation between density and size of observed Dark Matter halos that was recently shown to hold on a wide range of scales, from dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters. Predictions of LambdaCDM N-body simulations are consistent with this relation. We demonstrate that this property of LambdaCDM can be understood analytically in the secondary infall model. Qualitative understanding given by this model provides a new way to predict which deviations from LambdaCDM or large-scale modifications of gravity can affect universal behavior and, therefore, to constrain them observationally.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2009

Signatures of a Graviton Mass in the Cosmic Microwave Background

There exist consistent low energy effective field theories describing gravity in the Higgs phase that allow the coexistence of massive gravitons and the conventional 1/r potential of gravity. In an effort to constrain the value of the graviton mass in these theories, we study the tensor contribution to the CMB temperature anisotropy and polarization spectra in the presence of a non-vanishing graviton mass. We find that the observation of a B-mode signal consistent with the spectrum predicted by inflationary models would provide the strongest limit yet on the mass of an elementary particle -- a graviton -- at a level of m\lesssim 10^(-30) eV\approx(10 Mpc)^(-1). We also find that a graviton mass in the range between (10 Mpc)^(-1) and (10 kpc)^(-1) leads to interesting modifications of the polarization spectrum. The characteristic signature of a graviton mass in this range would be a plateau in the B-mode spectrum up to angular multipoles of l\sim 100. For even larger values of the graviton mass the tensor contribution to the CMB spectra becomes strongly suppressed.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2006

The $ν$MSM, Inflation, and Dark Matter

We show how to enlarge the $ν$MSM (the minimal extension of the standard model by three right-handed neutrinos) to incorporate inflation and provide a common source for electroweak symmetry breaking and for right-handed neutrino masses. In addition to inflation, the resulting theory can explain simultaneously dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe; it is consistent with experiments on neutrino oscillations and with all astrophysical and cosmological constraints on sterile neutrino as a dark matter candidate. The mass of inflaton can be much smaller than the electroweak scale.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Constrained Simulations of the Magnetic Field in the Local Universe and the Propagation of UHECRs

We use simulations of LSS formation to study the build-up of magnetic fields (MFs) in the ICM. Our basic assumption is that cosmological MFs grow in a MHD amplification process driven by structure formation out of a seed MF present at high z. Our LCDM initial conditions for the density fluctuations have been statistically constrained by the observed galaxies, based on the IRAS 1.2-Jy all-sky redshift survey. As a result, prominent galaxy clusters in our simulation coincide closely with their real counterparts. We find excellent agreement between RMs of our simulated clusters and observational data. The improved resolution compared to previous work also allows us to study the MF in large-scale filaments, sheets and voids. By tracing the propagation of UHE protons in the simulated MF we construct full-sky maps of expected deflection angles of protons with arrival energies E=1e20eV and 4e19eV, respectively. Strong deflections are only produced if UHE protons cross clusters, however covering only a small area on the sky. Multiple crossings of sheets and filaments over larger distances may give rise to noticeable deflections, depending on the model adopted for the magnetic seed field. Based on our results we argue that over a large fraction of the sky the deflections are likely to remain smaller than the present experimental angular sensitivity. Therefore, we conclude that forthcoming air shower experiments should be able to locate sources of UHE protons and shed more light on the nature of cosmological MFs.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Mapping deflections of extragalactic Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays in magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Local Universe

We construct a map of deflections of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by extragalactic magnetic fields using a magneto-hydrodynamical simulation of cosmic structure formation that realistically reproduces the positions of known galaxy clusters in the Local Universe. Large deflection angles occur in cluster regions, which however cover only an insignificant fraction of the sky. More typical deflections of order $\lsim 1^\circ$ are caused by crossings of filaments. For protons with energies $E \geq 4 \times 10^{19} {\rm eV}$, deflections do not exceed a few degrees over most of the sky up to a propagation distance of 500 Mpc. Given that the field strength of our simulated intergalactic magnetic field forms a plausible upper limit, we conclude that charged particle astronomy is in principle possible.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2000

Dynamics of Symmetry Breaking and Tachyonic Preheating

We reconsider the old problem of the dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking using 3d lattice simulations, and develop a theory of tachyonic preheating, which occurs due to the spinodal instability of the scalar field. Tachyonic preheating is so efficient that symmetry breaking typically completes within a single oscillation of the field distribution as it rolls towards the minimum of its effective potential. As an application of this theory we consider preheating in the hybrid inflation scenario, including SUSY-motivated F-term and D-term inflationary models. We show that preheating in hybrid inflation is typically tachyonic and the stage of oscillations of a homogeneous component of the scalar fields driving inflation ends after a single oscillation. Our results may also be relevant for the theory of the formation of disoriented chiral condensates in heavy ion collisions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

LATTICEEASY: A Program for Lattice Simulations of Scalar Fields in an Expanding Universe

We describe a C++ program that we have written and made available for calculating the evolution of interacting scalar fields in an expanding universe. The program is particularly useful for the study of reheating and thermalization after inflation. The program and its full documentation are available on the Web at http://physics.stanford.edu/gfelder/latticeeasy/ . In this paper we provide a brief overview of what the program does and what it is useful for.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

What if Dark matter is Bosonic and self-interacting

Recently the problem of singular galactic cores and over-abundant formation of dwarf galaxies, inherent to the standard cold dark matter model, had attracted a great deal of attention. One scenario which may be free of these problems invokes a self-interacting Bose-field. We find the limiting core density in this model due to the self-annihilation of the scalar field into its own relativistic quanta. The limiting density may correspond to the observable one if there is only one dark matter component. Alternatively, there may be more than one dark matter species and the annihilation of one species may be very efficient with subsequent expansion of the other, thus avoiding the problem of singular cores.

astro-ph↗