arXiv subjects

M. -C. Chu

Publications and source records attributed to M. -C. Chu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

New Anomalies in Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy: Violation of the Isotropic Gaussian Hypothesis in Low-$l$ Modes

In the standard framework of cosmology, primordial density fluctuations are assumed to have an isotropic Gaussian distribution. We search for deviations from this assumption in the WMAP data for the low $l$ modes of Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies (CMBA), by studying the directions of the z-axis that maximize the $l=m$ modes and the resulting amplitudes of these modes. We find a general alignment of the directions for $l=2$ to 10 modes to within 1/4 of the northern hemisphere. This alignment can be regarded as a generalization of the recently discovered alignment of the $l=2$ and 3 modes - the so-called `Axis of Evil'. Furthermore, we find abnormally high (low) powers in the $l=m=6$, 12 - 17 ($l=m=5$) modes; the probabilities for having the anomalous amplitudes of the $l=m=5$, 6, 17 modes are about 0.1%, 1% and 1% respectively according to the Gaussian conjecture. The alignment and anomalous amplitudes for these low $l$ modes are very robust against foreground contamination or different cleaning strategies, suggesting a cosmological origin and possibly supporting a non-standard inflation.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Cosmological Constraints on Radion Evolution in the Universal Extra Dimension Model

The constraints on the radion evolution in the Universal Extra Dimension (UED) model from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data are studied. In the UED model, where both the gravity and standard model fields can propagate in the extra dimensions, the evolution of the extra dimensional volume, the radion, induces variation of fundamental constants. We discuss the effects of variation of the relevant constants in the context of UED for CMB power spectrum and SNe Ia data. We then use the three-year WMAP data to constrain the radion evolution at z \sim 1100, and the 2 σconstraint on \dotρ / ρ_0 (ρis a function of the radion, to be defined in the text) is [ -8.8, 6.6] \times 10 ^{-13} yr^-1. The SNe Ia gold sample yields a constraint on \dotρ / ρ_0, for redshift between 0 and 1, to be [-4.7, 14] \times 10^{-13} yr^-1. Furthermore, the constraints from SNe Ia can be interpreted as bounds on the evolution QCD scale parameter, \dotΛ_{QCD} / Λ_{QCD, 0}, [-1.4, 2.8] \times 10^{-11} yr^-1, without reference to the UED model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Entanglement of Uniformly Accelerating Schrodinger, Dirac, and Scalar Particles

We study how the entanglement of an entangled pair of particles is affected when one or both of the pair is uniformly accelerated, while the detector remains in an inertial frame. We find that the entanglement is unchanged if all degrees of freedom are considered. However, particle pairs are produced when a relativistic particle is accelerated, and more bipartite systems emerge, the entanglements of some of which may change as the acceleration. In particular, the entanglement of a pair of accelerating fermions is transferred preferentially to the produced antiparticles when the acceleration is large, and the entanglement transfer is complete when the acceleration approaches infinity. However, no such entanglement transfer to the antiparticles is observed for scalar particles.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Entanglement of Accelerating Particles

We study how the entanglement of a maximally entangled pair of particles is affected when one or both of the pair are uniformly accelerated, while the detector remains in an inertial frame. We find that the entanglement is unchanged if all degrees of freedom are considered. However, particle pairs are produced, and the entanglements of different bipartite systems may change with the acceleration. In particular, the entanglement between accelerating fermions is transferred preferentially to the produced antiparticles when the acceleration is large, and the entanglement transfer is complete when the acceleration approaches infinity. However, for scalar particles, no entanglement transfer to the antiparticles is observed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

CMB Constraint on Radion Evolution in the Brane World Scenario

In many versions of brane model, the modulus field of extra dimensions, the radion, could have cosmological evolution, which induces variation of the Higgs vacuum expectation value, $ $, resulting in cosmological variation of the electron mass $m_e$. The formation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies is thus affected, causing changes both in the peaks positions and amplitudes in the CMB power spectra. Using the three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropies Probe (WMAP) CMB data, with the Hubble parameter $H_0$ fixed to be the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) result 72 km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, we obtain a constraint on $ρ$, the ratio of the value of $ $ at CMB recombination to its present value, to be [0.97, 1.02].

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Constraints on f(R) Cosmology in the Palatini Formalism

In this work we derive the covariant and gauge invariant perturbation equations in general theories of $f(R)$ gravity in the Palatini formalism to linear order and calculate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and matter power spectra for an extensively discussed model, $f(R) = R + α(-R)^β$, which is a possible candidate for the late-time cosmic accelerating expansion found recently. These spectra are discussed and found to be sensitively dependent on the value of $β$. We are thus able to make stringent constraints on $β$ from cosmological data on CMB and matter power spectra: The three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data alone gives a constraint $|β| \lesssim \mathcal{O}(10^{-3})$ while the joint WMAP, Supernova Lagacy Survey (SNLS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data sets tightens this to $β\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{-6})$, about an order of magnitude more stringent than the constraint from SDSS data alone, which makes this model practically indistinguishable from the standard $Λ\mathrm{CDM}$ paradigm.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Constraining the Variation of G by Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies

We use the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies (CMBA) power spectra to constrain the cosmological variation of gravitational constant G. It is found that the sensitivity of CMBA to the variation of G is enhanced when G is required to converge to its present value. The variations of G from the CMB decoupling epoch z ~ 1000 to the present time are modelled by a step function and a linear function of scale factor $a$ respectively, and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals for G/G_0 are [0.95, 1.05] and [0.89, 1.13], G_0 being the present value. The CMBA constraint is unique in the sense that it entails the range of redshift from z \approx 1000 to 0.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Formation of Neutrino Stars from Cosmological Background Neutrinos

We study hydrodynamic evolution of cosmological background neutrinos. By using a spherically symmetric Newtonian hydrodynamic code, we calculate the time evolution of the density profiles of neutrino matter in cluster and galactic scales. We discuss the possible observational consequences of such evolution and the resulting density profiles of the degenerate neutrino `stars' in galaxies and clusters.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Heating the intergalactic medium by radiative decay of neutrinos

Assuming that there exists a species of heavy sterile neutrinos($m_ν>1$ keV) and their decays can serve as a heating source of the hot gas in galaxy clusters, we study how the observational constraints on cooling flow limit the mass of these sterile neutrinos. We predict a relation among the luminosity, total mass and the redshift of a cluster, and we compare this relation with data from 12 clusters to obtain an estimate of the decay rate of the sterile neutrino.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Gravitational Waves from Phase-Transition Induced Collapse of Neutron Stars

(Abridged) We study the gravitational radiation from gravitational collapses of rapidly rotating neutron stars induced by a phase-transition from normal nuclear matter to a mixed phase of quark and nuclear matter in the core of the stars. The study is based on self-consistent three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations with Newtonian gravity and a high resolution shock capturing scheme, and the quadrupole formula of gravitational radiation. The quark matter of the mixed phase is described by the MIT bag model and the normal nuclear matter is described by an ideal fluid equation of state (EOS). 1. We determined the magnitudes of the emitted gravitational waves for several collapse scenarios. 2. We determined the types and frequencies of the fluid oscillation modes excited by the process. In particular, we find that the gravitational wave signals produced by the collapses are dominated by the fundamental quadrupole and quasi-radial modes of the final equilibrium configurations. In some collapse scenarios, we find that the oscillations are damped out within a few dynamical timescales due to the growth of differential rotations and the formation of strong shock waves. 3. We showed that the spectrum of the gravitational wave signals is sensitive to the EOS, implying that the detection of such gravitational waves could provide useful constraints on the EOS of newly born quark stars. 4. For the range of rotation periods we have studied, we found no sign of the development of nonaxisymmetric dynamical instabilities in the collapse process.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Loss of purity by wave packet scattering at low energies

We study the quantum entanglement produced by a head-on collision between two gaussian wave packets in three-dimensional space. By deriving the two-particle wave function modified by s-wave scattering amplitudes, we obtain an approximate analytic expression of the purity of an individual particle. The loss of purity provides an indicator of the degree of entanglement. In the case the wave packets are narrow in momentum space, we show that the loss of purity is solely controlled by the ratio of the scattering cross section to the transverse area of the wave packets.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

S-wave quantum entanglement in a harmonic trap

We analyze the quantum entanglement between two interacting atoms trapped in a spherical harmonic potential. At ultra-cold temperature, ground state entanglement is generated by the dominated s-wave interaction. Based on a regularized pseudo-potential Hamiltonian, we examine the quantum entanglement by performing the Schmidt decomposition of low-energy eigenfunctions. We indicate how the atoms are paired and quantify the entanglement as a function of a modified s-wave scattering length inside the trap.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

The Quantum Geometric Phase between Orthogonal States

We show that the geometric phase between any two states, including orthogonal states, can be computed and measured using the notion of projective measurement, and we show that a topological number can be extracted in the geometric phase change in an infinitesimal loop near an orthogonal state. Also, the Pancharatnam phase change during the passage through an orthogonal state is shown to be either $π$ or zero (mod $2π$). All the off-diagonal geometric phases can be obtained from the projective geometric phase calculated with our generalized connection.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Cooling of a New Born Compact Star with QCD Phase Transition

We study the cooling behaviour of an isolated strange quark star, using an equation of state derived from perturbative QCD up to second order in strong coupling constant, and we compare it with that of a neutron star. After an initial rapid cooling, a quark star may undergo the QCD phase transition to become a neutron star. We propose several signatures for such a scenario: a large amount of energy can be released due to latent heat, a long duration $γ$-ray source, and a second neutrino burst after a supernova explosion.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Signatures of QCD Phase Transition in a Newborn Compact Star

We study the scenario that a new born strange quark star cools to the Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD) phase transition temperature and converts to a neutron star, and we calculate the evolution of temperature and luminosity of the compact star. We argue that the conversion energy released can be of the order $10^{53}$ erg. We also propose that a second neutrino burst will be emitted at the completion of this phase transition.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

The quantum mechanical geometric phase of a particle in a resonant vibrating cavity

We study the general-setting quantum geometric phase acquired by a particle in a vibrating cavity. Solving the two-level theory with the rotating-wave approximation and the SU(2) method, we obtain analytic formulae that give excellent descriptions of the geometric phase, energy, and wavefunction of the resonating system. In particular, we observe a sudden $π$-jump in the geometric phase when the system is in resonance. We found similar behaviors in the geometric phase of a spin-1/2 particle in a rotating magnetic field, for which we developed a geometrical model to help visualize its evolution.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2001

Quantum fluctuations in coupled dark solitons in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that the quantum fluctuations associated with the Bogoliubov quasiparticle vacuum can be strongly concentrated inside dark solitons in a trapped Bose Einstein condensate. We identify a finite number of anomalous modes that are responsible for such quantum phenomena. The fluctuations in these anomalous modes correspond to the `zero-point' oscillations in coupled dark solitons.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Analytical solution of the dynamical spherical MIT bag

We prove that when the bag surface is allowed to move radially, the equations of motion derived from the MIT bag Lagrangian with massless quarks and a spherical boundary admit only one solution, which corresponds to a bag expanding at the speed of light. This result implies that some new physics ingredients, such as coupling to meson fields, are needed to make the dynamical bag a consistent model of hadrons.

nucl-th↗