arXiv subjects

Jun'ichi Yokoyama

Publications and source records attributed to Jun'ichi Yokoyama.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Galilean Creation of the Inflationary Universe

It has been pointed out that the null energy condition can be violated stably in some non-canonical scalar-field theories. This allows us to consider the Galilean Genesis scenario in which the universe starts expanding from Minkowski spacetime and hence is free from the initial singularity. We use this scenario to study the early-time completion of inflation, pushing forward the recent idea of Pirtskhalava et al. We present a generic form of the Lagrangian governing the background and perturbation dynamics in the Genesis phase, the subsequent inflationary phase, and the graceful exit from inflation, as opposed to employing the effective field theory approach. Our Lagrangian belongs to a more general class of scalar-tensor theories than the Horndeski theory and Gleyzes-Langlois-Piazza-Vernizzi generalization, but still has the same number of the propagating degrees of freedom, and thus can avoid Ostrogradski instabilities. We investigate the generation and evolution of primordial perturbations in this scenario and show that one can indeed construct a stable model of inflation preceded by (generalized) Galilean Genesis.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Equation of state of dark energy in f(R) gravity

f(R) gravity is one of the simplest generalizations of general relativity, which may explain the accelerated cosmic expansion without introducing a cosmological constant. Transformed into the Einstein frame, a new scalar degree of freedom appears and it couples with matter fields. In order for f(R) theories to pass the local tests of general relativity, it has been known that the chameleon mechanism with a so-called thin-shell solution must operate. If the thin-shell constraint is applied to a cosmological situation, it has been claimed that the equation-of-state parameter of dark energy w must be extremely close to -1. We argue this is due to the incorrect use of the Poisson equation which is valid only in the static case. By solving the correct Klein-Gordon equation perturbatively, we show that a thin-shell solution exists even if w deviates appreciably from -1.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Reheating processes after Starobinsky inflation in old-minimal supergravity

We study reheating processes and its cosmological consequences in the Starobinsky model embedded in the old-minimal supergravity. First, we consider minimal coupling between the gravity and matter sectors in the higher curvature theory, and transform it to the equivalent standard supergravity coupled to additional matter superfields. We then discuss characteristic decay modes of the inflaton and the reheating temperature $T_{\rm R}$. Considering a simple model of supersymmetry breaking sector, we estimate gravitino abundance from inflaton decay, and obtain limits on the masses of gravitino and supersymmetry breaking field. We find $T_{\rm R}\simeq 1.0\times10^9$ GeV and the allowed range of gravitino mass as $10^4$ GeV $\lesssim m_{3/2} \lesssim 10^5$ GeV, assuming anomaly-induced decay into the gauge sector as the dominant decay channel.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Topological inflation from the Starobinsky model in supergravity

We consider the ghost-free higher order corrections to the Starobinsky model in the old minimal supergravity. In general, higher order corrections cannot be forbidden by symmetries, which likely violate the flatness of the scalaron potential and makes inflation difficult to explain the present Universe. We find a severe constraint on the dimensionless coupling of the $R^4$ correction as $-5.5 \times 10^{-8}<s<9.1 \times 10^{-8}$ from the recent results of the Planck observation. If we start from the chaotic initial condition, the constraint becomes much severer. However, in the case where the coupling of the $R^4$ correction is positive, the scalaron potential has a local maximum with two local minimum at the origin and infinity, which admits topological inflation. In this case, inflation can take place naturally if the coupling satisfies the observational constraints.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Effects of thermal fluctuations on thermal inflation

The mechanism of thermal inflation, a relatively short period of accelerated expansion after primordial inflation, is a desirable ingredient for a certain class of particle physics models if they are not to be in contention with the cosmology of the early Universe. Though thermal inflation is most simply described in terms of a thermal effective potential, a thermal environment also gives rise to thermal fluctuations that must be taken into account. We numerically study the effects of these thermal fluctuations using lattice simulations. We conclude that though they do not ruin the thermal inflation scenario, the phase transition at the end of thermal inflation proceeds through phase mixing and is therefore not accompanied by the formations of bubbles nor appreciable amplitude of gravitational waves.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Prospects of determination of reheating temperature after inflation by DECIGO

If the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ of cosmological perturbations takes a large value $r\sim 0.1$, which may be inferred by recent BICEP2 result, we can hope to determine thermal history, in particular, the reheating temperature, $T_R$, after inflation by space-based laser interferometers. It is shown that upgraded and upshifted versions of DECIGO may be able to determine $T_R$ if it lies in the range $6\times 10^6< T_R < 5\times 10^7$GeV and $3\times 10^7<T_R<2\times 10^8$GeV, respectively. Although these ranges include predictions of some currently plausible inflation models, since each specification can probe $T_R$ of at most a decade range, we should determine the specifications of DECIGO with full account of constraints on inflation models to be obtained by near-future observations of temperature anisotropy and B-model polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Can a spectator scalar field enhance inflationary tensor mode?

We consider the possibility of enhancing the inflationary tensor mode by introducing a spectator scalar field with a small sound speed which induces gravitational waves as a second order effect. We analytically obtain the power spectra of gravitational waves and curvature perturbation induced by the spectator scalar field. We found that the small sound speed amplifies the curvature perturbation much more than the tensor mode and the current observational constraint forces the induced gravitational waves to be negligible compared with those from the vacuum fluctuation during inflation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Effects of cosmic strings with delayed scaling on CMB anisotropy

The network of cosmic strings generated in a phase transition during inflation enters the scaling regime later than that of usual strings. If it occurs after the recombination, temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at high multipole moments are significantly reduced. In this paper, we study such effects qualitatively and show that the constraint on the cosmic string tension from the CMB temperature anisotropies and B-mode polarizations can be relaxed. It is shown to be difficult to explain the recent BICEP2 and POLARBEAR results in terms of signals induced by cosmic strings alone even if we take into account the delayed scaling. However, the inflationary tensor-to-scalar ratio required to explain the observed B-mode signals can be slightly reduced to be consistent with the Planck constraint.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Reheating the Universe Once More: The Dissipation of Acoustic Waves as a Novel Probe of Primordial Inhomogeneities on Even Smaller Scales

We provide a simple but robust bound on the primordial curvature perturbation in the range $10^4 {\rm Mpc}^{-1} < k < 10^5 {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, which has not been constrained so far unlike low wavenumber modes. Perturbations on these scales dissipate the energy of their acoustic oscillations by the Silk damping after primordial nucleosynthesis but before the redshift $z \sim 2 \times 10^6$ and reheat the photon bath without invoking CMB distortions. This {\it acoustic reheating} results in the decrease of the baryon-photon ratio. By combining independent measurements probing the nucleosynthesis era and around the recombination epoch, we find an upper bound on the amplitude of the curvature perturbation over the above wavenumber range as ${\cal P}_ζ< 0.06$. Implications for super massive black holes are also discussed.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Primordial black holes from temporally enhanced curvature perturbation

Scalar field with generalized kinetic interactions metamorphoses depending on its field value, ranging from cosmological constant to stiff matter. We show that such a scalar field can give rise to temporal enhancement of the curvature perturbation in the primordial Universe, leading to efficient production of primordial black holes while the enhancement persists. If the inflation energy scale is high, those mini-black holes evaporate by the Hawking radiation much before Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the effective reheating of the Universe is achieved by the black hole evaporation. Dominance of PBHs and the reheating by their evaporation modify the expansion history of the primordial Universe. This results in a characteristic feature of the spectrum of primordial tensor modes in the DECIGO frequency band, opening an interesting possibility of testing PBH reheating scenario by measuring the primordial tensor modes. If the inflation energy scale is low, the PBH mass can be much larger than the solar mass. In this case, PBH is an interesting candidate for seeds for supermassive black holes residing in present galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Investigating formation condition of primordial black holes for generalized initial perturbation profiles

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Identifying the most crucial parameters of the initial curvature profile for primordial black hole formation

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are an important tool in cosmology to probe the primordial spectrum of small-scale curvature perturbations that reenter the cosmological horizon during radiation domination epoch. We numerically solve the evolution of spherically symmetric highly perturbed configurations to clarify the criteria of PBHs formation using an extremely wide class of curvature profiles characterized by five parameters, (in contrast to only two parameters used in all previous papers) which specify the curvature profiles not only at the central region but also at the outer boundary of configurations. It is shown that formation or non-formation of PBHs is determined entirely by only two master parameters one of which can be presented as an integral of curvature over initial configurations and the other is presented in terms of the position of the boundary and the edge of the core.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Graceful exit from Higgs G-inflation

Higgs G-inflation is a Higgs inflation model with a generalized Galileon term added to the standard model Higgs field, which realizes inflation compatible with observations. Recently, it was claimed that the generalized Galileon term induces instabilities during the oscillation phase, and that the simplest Higgs G-inflation model inevitably suffers from this problem. In this paper, we extend the original Higgs G-inflation Lagrangian to a more general form, namely introducing a higher-order kinetic term and generalizing the form of the Galileon term, so that the Higgs field can oscillate after inflation without encountering instabilities. Moreover, it accommodates a large region of the n_s - r plane, most of which is consistent with current observations, leading us to expect the detection of B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background in the near future.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Langevin description of gauged scalar fields in a thermal bath

We study the dynamics of the oscillating gauged scalar field in a thermal bath. A Langevin type equation of motion of the scalar field, which contains both dissipation and fluctuation terms, is derived by using the real-time finite temperature effective action approach. The existence of the quantum fluctuation-dissipation relation between the non-local dissipation term and the Gaussian stochastic noise terms is verified. We find the noise variables are anti-correlated at equal-time. The dissipation rate for the each mode is also studied, which turns out to depend on the wavenumber.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Primordial Spikes from Wrapped Brane Inflation

Cosmic inflation driven by branes wrapping the extra dimensions involves Kaluza-Klein (KK) degrees of freedom in addition to the zero-mode position of the brane which plays the role of the inflaton. As the wrapped brane passes by localized sources or features along its inflationary trajectory in the extra dimensional space, the KK modes along the wrapped direction are excited and start to oscillate during inflation. We show that the oscillating KK modes induce parametric resonance for the curvature perturbations, generating sharp signals in the perturbation spectrum. The effective four dimensional picture is a theory where the inflaton couples to the heavy KK modes. The Nambu-Goto action of the brane sources couplings between the inflaton kinetic terms and the KK modes, which trigger significant resonant amplification of the curvature perturbations. We find that the strong resonant effects are localized to narrow wave number ranges, producing spikes in the perturbation spectrum. Investigation of such resonant signals opens up the possibility of probing the extra dimensional space through cosmological observations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Gravitational modulated reheating and non-Gaussianity in Supergravity R^2 inflation

Reheating after R^2 inflation proceeds through gravitational particle production of conformally noninvariant fields. We argue that the nonvanishing expectation value of flat directions generic in supersymmetric theories break conformal invariance of the fields coupled to them in a position-dependent manner due to quantum fluctuations. As a result modulated reheating can occur after the supergravity R^2-inflation. The resultant curvature fluctuation is a mixture of the one produced during inflation and that produced by modulated reheating. The spectral index takes a value between n_s=0.960 and 0.983, the nonlinearity parameter of the local-type non-Gaussianity can be f_nl\sim \pm 10, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio is r \le 4\times 10^{-3}.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Cosmology Based on f(R) Gravity Admits 1 eV Sterile Neutrinos

It is shown that the tension between recent neutrino oscillation experiments, favoring sterile neutrinos with masses of the order of 1 eV, and cosmological data which impose stringent constraints on neutrino masses from the free streaming suppression of density fluctuations, can be resolved in models of the present accelerated expansion of the Universe based on f(R) gravity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Full bispectra from primordial scalar and tensor perturbations in the most general single-field inflation model

We compute the full bispectra, namely both auto- and cross- bispectra, of primordial curvature and tensor perturbations in the most general single-field inflation model whose scalar and gravitational equations of motion are of second order. The formulae in the limits of k-inflation and potential-driven inflation are also given. These expressions are useful for estimating the full bispectra of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

astro-ph.CO↗