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Ioannis Dalianis

Publications and source records attributed to Ioannis Dalianis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

High-Energy Neutrinos from Black Hole Evaporation in Neutron Stars

We investigate the production of high-energy neutrinos from microscopic black holes formed through the gravitational collapse of asymmetric dark matter accumulated inside neutron stars. When Hawking evaporation dominates over accretion, long-lived, feebly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model escape the neutron star and subsequently decay into high-energy neutrinos. We analyze the repeated cycle of dark matter capture, black hole formation, and evaporation, identifying two distinct regimes determined by the competition between the dark matter thermalization time and the collapse cycle. In particular, we identify a partially thermalized regime in which the dark matter cloud evolves toward a quasi-stationary state with a temperature significantly exceeding that of the neutron star core. We derive the time-integrated Hawking emission, the resulting secondary neutrino spectra, and the expected Galactic and diffuse extragalactic neutrino fluxes. The predicted signal exhibits two distinctive signatures: a broad neutrino spectrum with a characteristic energy scale set by the initial Hawking temperature of the evaporating black hole, whose spectral peak naturally lies above $\mathcal{O}(10)$ TeV, and an extended Galactic component strongly concentrated toward the Galactic Center. Although the predicted event rates are generally small, the resulting signal may contribute at the percent level to the observed Galactic high-energy neutrino flux under favorable microscopic and astrophysical conditions. The proposed mechanism provides a new observational window on Hawking evaporation through microscopic black holes continuously produced inside neutron stars, linking dark matter, compact objects, black hole thermodynamics and high-energy neutrino astronomy.

hep-ph

Reheating in runaway inflation models via the evaporation of mini primordial black holes

We investigate the cosmology of mini Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) produced by large density perturbations that collapse during a stiff fluid domination phase. Such a phase can be realized by a runaway-inflaton model that crosses an inflection point or a sharp feature at the last stage of inflation. Mini PBHs evaporate promptly and reheat the early universe. In addition, we examine two notable implications of this scenario: the possible presence of PBH evaporation remnants in galaxies and a non-zero residual potential energy density for the runaway inflaton that might play the role of the dark energy. We specify the parameter space that this scenario can be realized and we find that a transit PBH domination phase is necessary due to gravitational wave (GW) constraints. A distinct prediction of the scenario is a compound GW signal that might be probed by current and future experiments. We also demonstrate our results employing an explicit inflation model.

astro-ph.CO

Features in the Inflaton Potential and the Spectrum of Cosmological Perturbations

Cosmological perturbations, originating in the quantum fluctuations of the fields that drive inflation, are observed to be nearly scale invariant at the largest scales. At smaller scales, however, perturbations are not severely constrained and might be of particular importance if their amplitude is large. They can trigger the creation of primordial black holes (PBHs) or stochastic gravitational waves (GWs). Small-scale perturbations are generated during the later stages of inflation, when possible strong features in the inflaton potential can break scale invariance and leave characteristic imprints on the spectrum. We focus on and review three types of features: inflection points and steep steps in the potential, as well as sharp turns in the inflationary trajectory in field space. We show that such features induce a strong enhancement of the curvature spectrum within a certain wavenumber range. In particular cases, they also generate characteristic oscillatory patterns that are transferred in the spectrum of secondary GWs, which are potentially observable by operating or designed experiments. We demonstrate these effects through the calculation of the primordial power spectrum and the PBH abundance in the context of $α$-attractors and supergravity (SUGRA) models of inflation.

astro-ph.CO

Gravitational Waves from Collapse of Pressureless Matter in the Early Universe

If an early matter phase of the Universe existed after inflation with the proper power spectrum, enhanced density perturbations can decouple from the Hubble flow, turn around and collapse. In contrast to what happens in a radiation dominated Universe where pressure nullifies deviations from sphericity in these perturbations, in a matter dominated Universe, the lack of pressure although on the one hand facilitates the gravitational collapse, it allows small deviations from sphericity to grow substantially as the collapse takes place. The subsequent collapse is complicated: initially as non-spherical deviations grow, the collapsing cloud takes the form of a ``Zel'dovich pancake". After that, the more chaotic and nonlinear stage of violent relaxation begins where shells of the cloud cross and the matter is redistributed within a factor of a few of the free fall timescale, reaching a spherical virialized state. During the whole process, strong gravitational waves are emitted due to the anisotropy of the collapse and the small time interval that the effect takes place. The emission of gravitational waves during the stage of the violent relaxation cannot be easily estimated with an analytical model. We perform an $N$-body simulation to capture the behaviour of matter during this stage in order to estimate the precise spectrum of gravitational waves produced in this scenario.

astro-ph.CO

Is Gauge Mediation in the Swampland?

We note that the typical gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking is in tension with the global limit of the festina lente swampland bound. The alternatives are mediation/breaking schemes that decouple together with gravity, as for example gravity mediation, for which we highlight some basic phenomenological properties. Gauge mediation remains instead a viable mechanism only in models where supersymmetry is restored in the global limit, as for example in no-scale supergravity.

hep-th

Freeze-in baryogenesis and early matter domination

The freeze-in mechanism has been shown to allow the simultaneous generation of cosmic dark matter and a viable matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. When the underlying interactions are described by higher-dimensional, non-renormalizable operators, the relevant freeze-in processes take place close to the highest considered cosmic temperatures. In this paper we study how the presence of a fluid that temporarily dominates the energy content of the early universe affects the predictions of this ``Ultraviolet Freeze-In Baryogenesis'' scenario. We find that this additional cosmic component has a significant impact on the predictions of concrete microscopic models, allowing for reheating temperatures which are much lower than those required in the simplest cosmological scenario. Moreover, we show that inflationary observables can constrain the parameter space of such models, once the latter are examined in conjunction with concrete models of inflation.

hep-ph

On the Vacuum Structure of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ Conformal Supergravity

We consider ${\cal N}=4$ conformal supergravity with an arbitrary holomorphic function of the complex scalar $S$ which parametrizes the $SU(1,1)/U(1)$ coset. Assuming non-vanishings vevs for $S$ and the scalars in a symmetric matrix $E_{ij}$ of the $\overline{\bf 10}$ of $SU(4)$ R-symmetry group, we determine the vacuum structure of the theory. We find that the possible vacua are classified by the number of zero eigenvalues of the scalar matrix and the spacetime is either Minkowski, de Sitter or anti-de Sitter. We determine the spectrum of the scalar fluctuations and we find that it contains tachyonic states which however can be removed by appropriate choice of the unspecified at the supergravity level holomorphic function. Finally, we also establish that $S$-supersymmetry is always broken whereas $Q$-supersymmetry exists only on flat Minkowski spacetime.

hep-th

Gravitational Waves from Density Perturbations in an Early Matter Domination Era

We calculate the gravitational wave background produced from density perturbations in an early matter domination era where primordial black holes form. The formation of black holes requires perturbations out of the linear regime. Space with such perturbations reach a maximum expansion before it collapses asymmetrically forming a Zel'dovich pancake which depending on the parameters can either lead to a black hole or a virialized halo. In both cases and due to the asymmetry of the collapsing matter, a quadrupole moment generates gravitational waves which leave an imprint in the form of a stochastic background that can be detectable by near future gravitational interferometers.

astro-ph.CO

Constraints on the curvature power spectrum from primordial black hole evaporation

We estimate the maximum allowed amplitude for the power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbations, ${\cal P_R}(k)$, on all scales from the absence of any detection signals of sub-solar mass black holes. In particular we analyze the constraints on the PBHs and we focus on the low mass limit where the Hawking radiation is expected to significantly influence the big bang observables, considering also different early cosmic histories. We derive the upper bounds for the variance of density perturbations, $σ(M)$, for any possible reheating temperature as well as for the cosmological scenario of a scalar condensate domination. We expect our results to have considerable implications for models designed to generate PBHs, especially in the low mass range, and provide additional constraints to a large class of inflationary models.

astro-ph.CO

Exploring the Spectral Shape of Gravitational Waves Induced by Primordial Scalar Perturbations and Connection with the Primordial Black Hole Scenarios

There is a growing expectation that the gravitational wave detectors will start probing the stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds in the following years. We explore the spectral shapes of gravitational waves induced to second order by scalar perturbations and presumably have been produced in the early universe. We calculate the gravitational wave spectra generated during radiation and kination eras together with the associated primordial black hole counterpart. We employ power spectra for the primordial curvature perturbation generated by $α$-attractors and nonminimal derivative coupling inflation models as well as Gaussian and delta-type shapes. We demonstrate the ability of the tensor modes to constrain the spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbations and discriminate among inflationary models. Gravitational wave production during kination and radiation era can also be distinguished by their spectral shapes and amplitudes.

astro-ph.CO

Generalized Non-Minimal Derivative Coupling: Application to Inflation and Primordial Black Hole Production

We introduce inflationary models where the inflaton features a field dependent non-minimal derivative coupling to the Einstein tensor, that we name GNMDC. This Horndeski term gives new and distinguishable inflationary predictions in a framework that ameliorates possible problems related with gradient instabilities during the reheating stage. We examine the inflationary phenomenology using power law monomial and exponential potentials. We further elaborate on the implications of the inflaton-modulated GNMDC and construct GNMDC terms that can amplify the power spectrum of primordial perturbations at small scales, triggering PBH production. An attractive feature of the GNMDC is that inflation, as well as PBH production, can be implemented utilizing the Higgs potential.

astro-ph.CO

PBH remnants as dark matter produced in thermal, matter and runaway-quintessence post-inflationary scenarios

We investigate the cosmology of mini Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) produced by large density perturbations. The mini PBHs evaporate promptly in the early universe and we assume that a stable remnant is left behind. The PBHs remnants can constitute the entire dark matter of the universe for a wide range of remnant masses. We build inflationary models, in the framework of $α$-attractors utilizing exponential functions, in which the PBHs are produced during matter, radiation and kination domination eras. The advantage of these inflationary models is that the spectral index takes values favorable by the Planck 2018 data. The PBH production from runaway inflaton models has the unique and very attractive feature to automatically reheat the universe. In these models the PBHs are produced during the kination stage and their prompt evaporation efficiently produces the required entropy. Such runaway models are remarkably economic having interesting implications for the early universe cosmology, possibly giving rise to a wCDM late time cosmology as well.

astro-ph.CO

Primordial Black Holes from $α$-attractors

We consider primordial black hole (PBH) production in inflationary $α$-attractors. We discuss two classes of models, namely models with a minimal polynomial superpotential as well as modulated chaotic ones that admit PBHs. We find that a significant amplification of the curvature power spectrum ${\cal P_R}$ can be realized in this class of models with a moderate tuning of the potential parameters. We consistently examine the PBH formation during radiation and additionally during reheating eras where the background pressure is negligible. It is shown that basic features of the curvature power spectrum are explicitly related with the postinflationary cosmic evolution and that the PBH mass and abundance expressions are accordingly modified. PBHs in the mass range $10^{-16}-10^{-14} \, M_{\odot}$ can form with a cosmologically relevant abundance for a power spectrum peak ${\cal P_R} \sim 10^{-2}$ and large reheating temperature and, furthermore, for a moderate peak ${\cal P_R} \sim 10^{-5}$ and reheating temperature $T_\text{rh}\sim 10^7$ GeV, characteristic of the position of the power spectrum peak. Regarding the CMB observables, the $α$-attractor models utilized here to generate PBH in the low-mass region predict in general a smaller $n_s$ and larger $r$ and $α_s$ parameter values compared to the conventional inflationary $α$-attractor models.

astro-ph.CO

Probing the BSM physics with CMB precision cosmology: an application to supersymmetry

The cosmic history before the BBN is highly determined by the physics that operates beyond the Standard Model (BSM) of particle physics and it is poorly constrained observationally. Ongoing and future precision measurements of the CMB observables can provide us with significant information about the pre-BBN era and hence possibly test the cosmological predictions of different BSM scenarios. Supersymmetry is a particularly motivated BSM theory and it is often the case that different superymmetry breaking schemes require different cosmic histories with specific reheating temperatures or low entropy production in order to be cosmologically viable. In this paper we quantify the effects of the possible alternative cosmic histories on the $n_s$ and $r$ CMB observables assuming a generic non-thermal stage after cosmic inflation. We analyze TeV and especially multi-TeV supersymmetry breaking schemes assuming the neutralino and gravitino dark matter scenarios. We complement our analysis considering the Starobinsky $R^2$ inflation model to exemplify the improved CMB predictions that a unified description of the early universe cosmic evolution yields. Our analysis underlines the importance of the CMB precision measurements that can be viewed, to some extend, as complementary to the laboratory experimental searches for supersymmetry or other BSM theories.

hep-ph

Constrained superfields from inflation to reheating

We construct effective supergravity theories from customized constrained superfields which provide a setup consistent both for the description of inflation and the subsequent reheating processes. These theories contain the minimum degrees of freedom in the bosonic sector required for single-field inflation.

hep-th

Reheating predictions in Gravity Theories with Derivative Coupling

We investigate the inflationary predictions of a simple Horndeski theory where the inflaton scalar field has a non-minimal derivative coupling (NMDC) to the Einstein tensor. The NMDC is very motivated for the construction of successful models for inflation, nevertheless its inflationary predictions are not observationally distinct. We show that it is possible to probe the effects of the NMDC on the CMB observables by taking into account both the dynamics of the inflationary slow-roll phase and the subsequent reheating. We perform a comparative study between representative inflationary models with canonical fields minimally coupled to gravity and models with NMDC. We find that the inflation models with dominant NMDC generically predict a higher reheating temperature and a different range for the tilt of the scalar perturbation spectrum $n_s$ and scalar-to-tensor ratio $r$, potentially testable by current and future CMB experiments.

gr-qc

Features and implications of the plateau inflationary potentials

After the last PLANCK CMB data the plateau inflationary potentials are favored. I give some examples of such inflationary models emphasizing particularly on the Starobinsky model and its supergravity embedding. I discuss the crucial implications, regarding the initial conditions problem, of this new sort of potentials for the standard picture of the inflationary theory.

hep-th

Suppressing gravitino thermal production with a temperature-dependent messenger coupling

We show that the constraints on GMSB theories from the gravitino cosmology can be significantly relaxed if the messenger-spurion coupling is temperature dependent. We demonstrate this novel mechanism in a scenario in which this coupling depends on the VEV of an extra singlet field $S$ that interacts with the thermalized plasma which can result in a significantly suppressed gravitino production rate. In such a scenario the relic gravitino abundance is determined by the thermal dynamics of the $S$ field and it is easy to fit the observed dark matter abundance evading the stringent constraints on the reheating temperature, thus making gravitino dark matter consistent with thermal leptogenesis.

hep-ph