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Jose Navarro-Salas

Publications and source records attributed to Jose Navarro-Salas.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Revising the observable consequences of slow-roll inflation

We study the generation of primordial perturbations in a (single-field) slow-roll inflationary universe. In momentum space, these (Gaussian) perturbations are characterized by a zero mean and a non-zero variance $Δ^2(k, t)$. However, in position space the variance diverges in the ultraviolet. The requirement of a finite variance in position space forces one to regularize $Δ^2(k, t)$. This can (and should) be achieved by proper renormalization in an expanding universe in a unique way. This affects the predicted scalar and tensorial power spectra (evaluated when the modes acquire classical properties) for wavelengths that today are at observable scales. As a consequence, the imprint of slow-roll inflation on the CMB anisotropies is significantly altered. We find a non-trivial change in the consistency condition that relates the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ to the spectral indices. For instance, an exact scale-invariant tensorial power spectrum, $n_t=0$, is now compatible with a non-zero ratio $r\approx 0.12\pm0.06$, which is forbidden by the standard prediction ($r=-8n_t$). The influence of relic gravitational waves on the CMB may soon come within the range of planned measurements, offering a non-trivial test of the new predictions.

hep-th↗

Inflation, quantum fields, and CMB anisotropies

Inflationary cosmology has proved to be the most successful at predicting the properties of the anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this essay we show that quantum field renormalization significantly influences the generation of primordial perturbations and hence the expected measurable imprint of cosmological inflation on the CMB. However, the new predictions remain in agreement with observation, and in fact favor the simplest forms of inflation. In the near future, observations of the influence of gravitational waves from the early universe on the CMB will test our new predictions.

gr-qc↗

Revising the predictions of inflation for the cosmic microwave background anisotropies

We point out that if quantum field renormalization is taken into account, and the counterterms are evaluated at the Hubble-radius crossing time or few e-foldings after it, the predictions of slow-roll inflation for both the scalar and tensorial power spectrum change significantly. This leads to a change in the consistency condition that relates the tensor-to-scalar amplitude ratio with spectral indices. A reexamination of the potentials $\bf{ϕ^2, ϕ^4}$, shows that both are compatible with five-year WMAP data. Only when the counterterms are evaluated at much larger times beyond the end of inflation one recovers the standard predictions. The alternative predictions presented here may soon come within the range of measurement of near-future experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗

Insensitivity of Hawking radiation to an invariant Planck-scale cutoff

A disturbing aspect of Hawking's derivation of black hole radiance is the need to invoke extreme conditions for the quantum field that originates the emitted quanta. It is widely argued that the derivation requires the validity of the conventional relativistic field theory to arbitrarily high, trans-Planckian scales. We stress in this note that this is not necessarily the case if the question is presented in a covariant way. We point out that Hawking radiation is immediately robust against an invariant Planck-scale cutoff. This important feature of Hawking radiation is relevant for a quantum gravity theory that preserves, in some way, the Lorentz symmetry.

gr-qc↗

The Power Spectrum in de Sitter Inflation, Revisited

We find that the amplitude of quantum fluctuations of the invariant de Sitter vacuum coincides exactly with that of the vacuum of a comoving observer for a massless scalar (inflaton) field. We propose redefining the actual physical power spectrum as the difference between the amplitudes of the above vacua. An inertial particle detector continues to observe the Gibbons-Hawking temperature. However, although the resulting power spectrum is still scale-free, its amplitude can be drastically reduced since now, instead of the Hubble's scale at the inflationary period, it is determined by the square of the mass of the inflaton fluctuation field.

gr-qc↗

Two-point functions with an invariant Planck scale and thermal effects

Nonlinear deformations of relativistic symmetries at the Planck scale are usually addressed in terms of modified dispersion relations. We explore here an alternative route by directly deforming the two-point functions of an underlying field theory. The proposed deformations depend on a length parameter (Planck length) and preserve the basic symmetries of the corresponding theory. We also study the physical consequences implied by these modifications at the Planck scale by analyzing the response function of an accelerated detector in Minkowski space, an inertial one in de Sitter space, and also in a black hole spacetime.

hep-th↗

Black hole radiance, short distances, and TeV gravity

Using a derivation of black hole radiance in terms of two-point functions one can provide a quantitative estimate of the contribution of short distances to the spectrum. Thermality is preserved for black holes with $κl_P <<1$. However, deviations from the Planckian spectrum can be found for mini black holes in TeV gravity scenarios, even before reaching the Planck phase.

hep-th↗

Einstein-Planck Formula, Equivalence Principle and Black Hole Radiance

The presence of gravity implies corrections to the Einstein-Planck formula $E=h ν$. This gives hope that the divergent blueshift in frequency, associated to the presence of a black hole horizon, could be smoothed out for the energy. Using simple arguments based on Einstein's equivalence principle we show that this is only possible if a black hole emits, in first approximation, not just a single particle, but thermal radiation.

gr-qc↗

Exact late time Hawking radiation and the information loss problem for evaporating near-extremal black holes

In this paper we investigate the effects of gravitational backreaction for the late time Hawking radiation of evaporating near-extremal black holes. This problem can be studied within the framework of an effective one-loop solvable model on AdS_2. We find that the Hawking flux goes down exponentially and it is proportional to a parameter which depends on details of the collapsing matter. This result seems to suggest that the information of the initial state is not lost and that the boundary of AdS_2 acts, at least at late times, as a sort of stretched horizon in the Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime.

hep-th↗

Evaporation of near-extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black holes

The formation of near-extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black holes in the S-wave approximation can be described, near the event horizon, by an effective solvable model. The corresponding one-loop quantum theory remains solvable and allows to follow analytically the evaporation process which is shown to require an infinite amount of time.

hep-th↗

Holography, degenerate horizons and entropy

We show that a realization of the correspondence AdS_2/CFT_1 for near extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black holes in arbitrary dimensional Einstein-Maxwell gravity exactly reproduces, via Cardy's formula, the deviation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy from extremality. We also show that this mechanism is valid for Schwarzschild-de Sitter black holes around the degenerate solution dS_2xS^n. These results reinforce the idea that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy can be derived from symmetry principles.

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