arXiv subjects

Jun'ichi Yokoyama

Publications and source records attributed to Jun'ichi Yokoyama.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Inflation with a constant rate of roll

We consider an inflationary scenario where the rate of inflaton roll defined by $\ddotϕ/H\dot ϕ$ remains constant. The rate of roll is small for slow-roll inflation, while a generic rate of roll leads to the interesting case of `constant-roll' inflation. We find a general exact solution for the inflaton potential required for such inflaton behaviour. In this model, due to non-slow evolution of background, the would-be decaying mode of linear scalar (curvature) perturbations may not be neglected. It can even grow for some values of the model parameter, while the other mode always remains constant. However, this always occurs for unstable solutions which are not attractors for the given potential. The most interesting particular cases of constant-roll inflation remaining viable with the most recent observational data are quadratic hilltop inflation (with cutoff) and natural inflation (with an additional negative cosmological constant). In these cases even-order slow-roll parameters approach non-negligible constants while the odd ones are asymptotically vanishing in the quasi-de Sitter regime.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Inflation in the Mixed Higgs-$R^2$ Model

We analyze a two-field inflationary model consisting of the Ricci scalar squared ($R^2$) term and the standard Higgs field non-minimally coupled to gravity in addition to the Einstein $R$ term. Detailed analysis of the power spectrum of this model with mass hierarchy is presented, and we find that one can describe this model as an effective single-field model in the slow-roll regime with a modified sound speed. The scalar spectral index predicted by this model coincides with those given by the $R^2$ inflation and the Higgs inflation implying that there is a close relation between this model and the $R^2$ inflation already in the original (Jordan) frame. For a typical value of the self-coupling of the standard Higgs field at the high energy scale of inflation, the role of the Higgs field in parameter space involved is to modify the scalaron mass, so that the original mass parameter in the $R^2$ inflation can deviate from its standard value when non-minimal coupling between the Ricci scalar and the Higgs field is large enough.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Revisiting the oscillations in the CMB angular power spectra at $\ell\sim120$ in the Planck2015 data

While the observed nearly scale-invariant initial power spectrum is regarded as one of the favorable evidence of the standard inflationary cosmology, precision observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies also suggest possible existence of nontrivial features such as those observed around multipoles $\ell\sim120$ by WMAP. Here, we examine the Planck data and investigate the effects of these features on the cosmological parameter estimation performing the Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) analysis. We find that the features exist in the Planck data at the same position as the case of the WMAP data but they do not affect the cosmological parameter estimation significantly.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

CMB B-mode auto-bispectrum produced by primordial gravitational waves

Gravitational waves from inflation induce polarization patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It is known that there are only two types of non-Gaussianities of the gravitaional waves in the most general scalar field theories having second-order field equations. One originates from the inherent non-Gaussianity in general relativity, and the other from a derivative coupling between the Einstein tensor and a kinetic term of the scalar field. We calculate polarization bispectra induced by these non-Gaussianities by transforming them into separable forms by virtue of the Laplace transformation. It is shown that future experiments can detect only the new one if the latter coupling parameter takes an extremely large value, which, however, does not cotradict the current observational data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Note on Reheating in G-inflation

We study particle production at the end of inflation in kinetically driven G-inflation model and show that, in spite of the fact that there are no inflaton oscillations and hence no parametric resonance instabilities, the production of matter particles due to a coupling to the evolving inflaton field can be more efficient than pure gravitational Parker particle production.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Supermassive black holes formed by direct collapse of inflationary perturbations

We propose a mechanism of producing a new type of primordial perturbations that collapse to primordial black holes whose mass can be as large as necessary for them to grow to the supermassive black holes observed at high redshifts, without contradicting COBE/FIRAS upper limits on cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions. In our model, the observable Universe consists of two kinds of many small patches which experienced different expansion histories during inflation. Primordial perturbations large enough to form primordial black holes are realized on patches that experienced more Hubble expansion than the others. By making these patches the minor component, the rarity of supermassive black holes can be explained. On the other hand, most regions of the Universe experienced the standard history and, hence, only have standard almost-scale-invariant adiabatic perturbations confirmed by observations of CMB or large-scale structures of the Universe. Thus, our mechanism can evade the constraint from the nondetection of the CMB distortion set by the COBE/FIRAS measurement. Our model predicts the existence of supermassive black holes even at redshifts much higher than those observed. Hence, our model can be tested by future observations peeking into the higher-redshift Universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Toward the detection of gravitational waves under non-Gaussian noises II. Independent Component Analysis

We introduce a new analysis method to deal with stationary non-Gaussian noises in gravitational wave detectors in terms of the independent component analysis. First, we consider the simplest case where the detector outputs are linear combinations of the inputs, consisting of signals and various noises, and show that this method may be helpful to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Next, we take into account the time delay between the inputs and the outputs. Finally, we extend our method to nonlinearly correlated noises and show that our method can identify the coupling coefficients and remove non-Gaussian noises. Although we focus on gravitational wave data analysis, our methods are applicable to the detection of any signals under non-Gaussian noises.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Constraints on primordial black holes from Galactic gamma-ray background

The fraction of the Universe going into primordial black holes (PBHs) with initial mass M_* \approx 5 \times 10^{14} g, such that they are evaporating at the present epoch, is strongly constrained by observations of both the extragalactic and Galactic gamma-ray backgrounds. However, while the dominant contribution to the extragalactic background comes from the time-integrated emission of PBHs with initial mass M_*, the Galactic background is dominated by the instantaneous emission of those with initial mass slightly larger than M_* and current mass below M_*. Also, the instantaneous emission of PBHs smaller than 0.4 M_* mostly comprises secondary particles produced by the decay of directly emitted quark and gluon jets. These points were missed in the earlier analysis by Lehoucq et al. using EGRET data. For a monochromatic PBH mass function, with initial mass (1+μ) M_* and μ<< 1, the current mass is (3μ)^{1/3} M_* and the Galactic background constrains the fraction of the Universe going into PBHs as a function of μ. However, the initial mass function cannot be precisely monochromatic and even a tiny spread of mass around M_* would generate a current low-mass tail of PBHs below M_*. This tail would be the main contributor to the Galactic background, so we consider its form and the associated constraints for a variety of scenarios with both extended and nearly-monochromatic initial mass functions. In particular, we consider a scenario in which the PBHs form from critical collapse and have a mass function which peaks well above M_*. In this case, the largest PBHs could provide the dark matter without the M_* ones exceeding the gamma-ray background limits.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Fermionic Schwinger effect and induced current in de Sitter space

We explore Schwinger effect of spin 1/2 charged particles with static electric field in 1+3 dimensional de Sitter spacetime. We analytically calculate the vacuum expectation value of the spinor current which is induced by the produced particles in the electric field. The renormalization is performed with the adiabatic subtraction scheme. We find that the current becomes negative, namely it flows in the direction opposite to the electric field, if the electric field is weaker than a certain threshold value depending on the fermion mass, which is also known to happen in the case of scalar charged particles in 1+3 de Sitter spacetime. Contrary to the scalar case, however, the IR hyperconductivity is absent in the spinor case.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Point splitting renormalization of Schwinger induced current in de Sitter spacetime

The covariant and gauge invariant calculation of the current expectation value in the homogeneous electric field in 1+3 dimensional de Sitter spacetime is shown. The result accords with previous work obtained by using adiabatic subtraction scheme. We therefore conclude the counterintuitive behaviors of the current in the infrared (IR) regime such as IR hyperconductivity and negative current are not artifacts of the renormalization scheme, but are real IR effects of the spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Entropic interpretation of the Hawking-Moss bounce

We revisit the derivation of the Hawking-Moss transition rate. Using the static coordinates, we show that the Euclidean action is entirely determined by the contribution of the entropy of de Sitter space which is proportional to the surface area of the horizon. This holographic feature is common to any static spacetime with a horizon on which the shift vector vanishes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Large scale CMB anomalies from thawing cosmic strings

Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings imprint their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies after recombination. Being almost frozen in the Hubble flow, these strings are quasi static and evade almost all of the previously derived constraints on their tension while being able to source large scale anisotropies in the CMB sky. Using a local variance estimator on thousand of numerically simulated Nambu-Goto all sky maps, we compute the expected signal and show that it can mimic a dipole modulation at large angular scales while being negligible at small angles. Interestingly, such a scenario generically produces one cold spot from the thawing of a cosmic string loop. Mixed with anisotropies of inflationary origin, we find that a few strings of tension GU = O(1) x 10^(-6) match the amplitude of the dipole modulation reported in the Planck satellite measurements and could be at the origin of other large scale anomalies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Spatially covariant theories of gravity: disformal transformation, cosmological perturbations and the Einstein frame

We investigate the cosmological background evolution and perturbations in a general class of spatially covariant theories of gravity, which propagates two tensor modes and one scalar mode. We show that the structure of the theory is preserved under the disformal transformation. We also evaluate the primordial spectra for both the gravitational waves and the curvature perturbation, which are invariant under the disformal transformation. Due to the existence of higher spatial derivatives, the quadratic Lagrangian for the tensor modes itself cannot be transformed to the form in the Einstein frame. Nevertheless, there exists a one-parameter family of frames in which the spectrum of the gravitational waves takes the standard form in the Einstein frame.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Possible resolution of the domain wall problem in the NMSSM

We discuss a possibility that the domain wall problem in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model is alleviated without introducing a small explicit $Z_3$ breaking term by analyzing the evolution of the singlet scalar field within an inflationary paradigm. The singlet scalar field which explains the $μ$-term tracks a time-varying minimum of the effective potential after inflation and slowly rolls down to its global minimum if there exist sufficiently large negative Hubble-induced corrections on the effective potential for the singlet field, which arise through supergravity. As a consequence, the whole Universe is confined within a single domain during and after inflation, which prevents the formation of domain walls. This will further constrain the history of the early Universe along with the Higgs-singlet coupling.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cosmic strings with twisted magnetic flux lines and wound-strings in extra dimensions

We consider a generalization of the Nielsen-Olesen ansatz, in an abelian-Higgs model with externally coupled charge, which describes strings with twisted magnetic flux lines in the vortex core. The solution does not possess cylindrical symmetry, which leads to the existence of components of conserved momentum, both around the core-axis and along the length of the string. In addition, we consider a model of F-strings with rotating, geodesic windings in the compact space of the Klebanov-Strassler geometry and determine matching conditions which ensure energy and momentum conservation when loops chop off from the long-string network. We find that the expressions for the constants of motion, which determine the macroscopic string dynamics, can be made to coincide with those for the twisted flux line string, suggesting that extra-dimensional effects for F-strings may be mimicked by field- theoretic structure in topological defects.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Reheating signature in the gravitational wave spectrum from self-ordering scalar fields

We investigate the imprint of reheating on the gravitational wave spectrum produced by self-ordering of multi-component scalar fields after a global phase transition. The equation of state of the Universe during reheating, which usually has different behaviour from that of a radiation-dominated Universe, affects the evolution of gravitational waves through the Hubble expansion term in the equations of motion. This gives rise to a different power-law behavior of frequency in the gravitational wave spectrum. The reheating history is therefore imprinted in the shape of the spectrum. We perform $512^3$ lattice simulations to investigate how the ordering scalar field reacts to the change of the Hubble expansion and how the reheating effect arises in the spectrum. We also compare the result with inflation-produced gravitational waves, which has a similar spectral shape, and discuss whether it is possible to distinguish the origin between inflation and global phase transition by detecting the shape with future direct detection gravitational wave experiments such as DECIGO.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Large tensor mode, field range bound and consistency in generalized G-inflation

We systematically show that in potential driven generalized G-inflation models, quantum corrections coming from new physics at the strong coupling scale can be avoided, while producing observable tensor modes. The effective action can be approximated by the tree level action, and as a result, these models are internally consistent, despite the fact that we introduced new mass scales below the energy scale of inflation. Although observable tensor modes are produced with sub-strong coupling scale field excursions, this is not an evasion of the Lyth bound, since the models include higher-derivative non-canonical kinetic terms, and effective rescaling of the field would result in super-Planckian field excursions. We argue that the enhanced kinetic term of the inflaton screens the interactions with other fields, keeping the system weakly coupled during inflation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Spontaneous scalarization: asymmetron as dark matter

We propose a new scalar-tensor model which induces significant deviation from general relativity inside dense objects like neutron stars, while passing solar-system and terrestrial experiments, extending a model proposed by Damour and Esposito-Farese. Unlike their model, we employ a massive scalar field dubbed asymmetron so that it not only realizes proper cosmic evolution but also can account for the cold dark matter. In our model, asymmetron undergoes spontaneous scalarization inside dense objects, which results in reduction of the gravitational constant by a factor of order unity. This suggests that observational tests of constancy of the gravitational constant in high density phase are the effective ways to look into the asymmetron model.

gr-qc↗