arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Masahiro Kawasaki.
We discuss cosmic microwave background anisotropies in models with an unconventional primordial power spectrum. In particular, we consider an initial power spectrum with some ``spiky'' corrections. Interestingly, such a primordial power spectrum generates ``wavy'' structure in the CMB angular power spectrum.
We discuss the effects of the gravitino on the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), paying particular attention to the hadronic decay mode of the gravitino. We will see that the hadronic decay of the gravitino significantly affect the BBN and, for the case where the hadronic branching ratio is sizable, very stringent upper bound on the reheating temperature after inflation is obtained.
We study the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) scenario with late-decaying exotic particles with lifetime longer than $\sim 1$ sec. With a late-decaying particle in the early universe, predictions of the standard BBN scenario can be significantly altered. Therefore, we derive constraints on its primordial abundance. We pay particular attention to hadronic decay modes of such particles. We see that the non-thermal production process of D, ${\rm ^{3}He}$ and ${\rm ^6Li}$ provides a stringent upper bound on the primordial abundance oflate-decaying particles with hadronic branching ratio.
Within the standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) framework, the baryon density measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) or the primordial D abundance is much higher than the one measured by the $^4$He or $^7$Li abundances. To solve the discrepancy, we propose a scenario in which additional baryons appear after BBN. We show that simply adding the baryons can not be a solution but the existence of a large lepton asymmetry before BBN makes the scenario successful. These extra baryons and leptons, in addition to the initial baryons which exist before the BBN, can be all produced from $Q$-balls.
We study dynamics of flat directions in the minimal supersymmetric standard model taking account of its constituent fields. It is found that there exist new instabilities due to the D-term potential and the nature of these instabilities depends on the eccentricity of the orbit. For a roughly circular orbit, it is similar to narrow-band resonance described by the Mathieu equation. For an elliptic orbit, the instabilities exhibit tachyonic nature. In the narrow-band regime, we show that the existence of the instabilities is crucial to the formation of $Q$-balls. The $Q$-ball formation proceeds through quasi-stable state called ``$I$-ball''. The transition from $I$-balls to $Q$-balls is made efficient by the $D$-term instability and during this process some fraction of the charge of the $Q$-ball is emitted. This discovery may revive the scenario which relates the baryon number and dark matter density of the universe. Furthermore, the tachyonic $D$-term instability causes the drastic decay of the flat direction moving in an orbit with relatively large eccentricity. Thus the evolution of flat directions is completely altered by the appearance of this instability.
We consider spherical collapse in the Randall-Sundrum type II model and estimate the critical over density for black hole formation in the radiation dominated era. It is found that when (density)$^{2}$-term is dominant in the modified Friedmann equation the critical density is smaller than in the standard cosmology, which implies that PBHs are more easily produced in the Randall-Sundrum model.
Flat directions in the minimal supersymmetric standard model are known to deform into non-topological solitons, Q-balls, which generally possess both baryon and lepton asymmetries. We investigate how Q-balls evolve if some of the constituent fields of the flat direction decay into light species. It is found that the Q-balls takes a new configuration whose energy per charge slightly increases due to the decay. Specifically, we show that all the stable Q-balls eventually transform into pure B-balls via the decay into neutrinos.
We calculate primordial abundances of light elements produced during big bang nucleosynthesis when the fine structure constant and/or the cosmic expansion rate take non-standard values. We compare them with the recent values of observed D, He4 and Li7 abundances, which show slight inconsistency among themselves in the standard big bang nucleosynthesis scenario. This inconsistency is not solved by considering either a varying fine structure constant or a non-standard expansion rate separately but solutions are found by their simultaneous existence.
We study the curvaton scenario in supersymmetric framework paying particular attention to the fact that scalar fields are inevitably complex in supersymmetric theories. If there are more than one scalar fields associated with the curvaton mechanism, isocurvature (entropy) fluctuations between those fields in general arise, which may significantly affect the properties of the cosmic density fluctuations. We examine several candidates for the curvaton in the supersymmetric framework, such as moduli fields, Affleck-Dine field, $F$- and $D$-flat directions, and right-handed sneutrino. We estimate how the isocurvature fluctuations generated in each case affect the cosmic microwave background angular power spectrum. With the use of the recent observational result of the WMAP, stringent constraints on the models are derived and, in particular, it is seen that large fraction of the parameter space is excluded if the Affleck-Dine field plays the role of the curvaton field. Natural and well-motivated candidates of the curvaton are also listed.
The recent observation of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy by the WMAP confirmed that the lower multipoles are considerably suppressed. From the standpoint of the cosmic variance, it is nothing but a statistical accident. Alternatively, one can attribute the deficit of fluctuation on the large scale to the cosmic history, which might be explained in the context of the inflationary physics. In this paper, we show that it is possible to explain the suppressed lower multipoles in the hybrid new inflation model.
We reconsider the evolution of strongly degenerate neutrinos in the early universe. Our chief concern is the validity of the entropy conservation after the neutrino annihilation process has frozen out (so that the establishment of chemical equilibrium is not trivial). We argue that the entropy indeed conserves because elastic scattering keeps the neutrino and antineutrino distribution functions in the equilibrium form and the sum of their chemical potential keeps zero even after the neutrino annihilation freeze-out. We also simulate the evolution of the degenerate neutrino spectrum to support the argument. We conclude that the change in the neutrino degeneracy parameter when the relativistic degrees of freedom in the universe decreases is calculated using the entropy conservation and the lepton number conservation without worrying about at what temperature the neutrino annihilation process freezes out.
We study effects of the cosmic string in the D-term inflation model on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. In the D-term inflation model, gauged cosmic string is usually formed, which may significantly affect the CMB anisotropy. We see that its study imposes important constraint. In order to realize the minimal model of D-term inflation, we see that the coupling constant λin the superpotential generating the inflaton potential should be significantly small, λ\lesssim O(10^{-4}-10^{-5}). We also discuss that a consistent scenario of the D-term inflation with λ\sim 1 can be constructed by adopting the curvaton mechanism where the cosmic density fluctuations are generated by a primordial fluctuation of a late-decaying scalar field other than the inflaton.
We consider effects of the isocurvature perturbation in the framework of the tracker-type quintessence models. During the inflation, fluctuations in the amplitude of the quintessence field are generated, which provide isocurvature component of the cosmic density perturbation. Contrary to the conventional notion, it is shown that effects of the isocurvature fluctuation may become sizable in some cases, and in particular, the cosmic microwave background angular power spectrum may be significantly enhanced due to the effect of the isocurvature mode. Such an enhancement may be detectable in on-going and future experiments.
We present the results of X-ray spatial and spectral studies of the ``mixed-morphology'' supernova remnant IC 443 using ASCA. IC 443 has a center-filled image in X-ray band, contrasting with the shell-like appearance in radio and optical bands. The overall X-ray emission is thermal, not from a synchrotron nebula. ASCA observed IC 443 three times, covering the whole remnant. From the image analysis, we found that the softness-ratio map reveals a shell-like structure. At the same time, its spectra require two (1.0 keV and 0.2 keV) plasma components; the emission of the 0.2 keV plasma is stronger in the region near the shell than the center. These results can be explained by a simple model that IC 443 has a hot (1.0 keV) interior surrounded by a cool (0.2 keV) outer shell. From the emission measures, we infer that the 0.2 keV plasma is denser than the 1.0 keV plasma, suggesting pressure equilibrium between the two. In addition, we found that the ionization temperature of sulfur, obtained from H-like K$α$ to He-like K$α$ intensity ratio, is 1.5 keV, significantly higher than the gas temperature of 1.0 keV suggested from the continuum spectrum. The same can be concluded for silicon. Neither an additional, hotter plasma component nor a multi-temperature plasma successfully accounts for this ratio, and we conclude that the 1.0 keV plasma is overionized. This is the first time that overionized gas has been detected in a SNR. For the gas to become overionized in the absence of a photoionizing flux, it must cool faster than the ions recombine. Thermal conduction from the 1.0 keV plasma to the 0.2 keV one could cause the 1.0 keV plasma to become overionized, which is plausible within an old (3$\times10^4$ yr) SNR.
We investigate whether the Affleck-Dine mechanism can produce sufficient baryon number of the universe in the gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, while evading the cosmological moduli problem by late-time entropy production. We find that the Q-ball formation makes the scenario difficult, irrespective of the detail mechanism of the entropy production.
We reconsider fluctuations of Affleck-Dine (AD) field in a D-term inflation model. Contrary to the previous analysis, we find that the spectrum of the adiabatic fluctuations is almost scale invariant even if the AD field has a large initial value. Furthermore, we study the isocurvature fluctuations of the AD field and estimate the ratio of the isocurvature to adiabatic power spectrum. The dynamics of the inflaton and AD fields sets the upper bound for the value of the AD field, leading to a lower limit for isocurvature perturbation. It is shown that the recent Cosmic Microwave Background data give a constraint on the D-term inflation and the AD field.
We study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies produced by cosine-type quintessence models. In our analysis, effects of the adiabatic and isocurvature fluctuations are both taken into account. For purely adiabatic fluctuations with scale invariant spectrum, we obtain a stringent constraint on the model parameters using the CMB data from COBE, BOOMERanG and MAXIMA. Furthermore, it is shown that isocurvature fluctuations have significant effects on the CMB angular power spectrum at low multipoles in some parameter space, which may be detectable in future satellite experiments. Such a signal may be used to test the cosine-type quintessence models.
We study the vacuum stability in the anomaly mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking models with massive neutrinos. It is shown that, because of the seesaw-induced mass terms for neutrinos, the true vacuum has a large negative cosmological constant provided that the vacuum where we now live has an (almost) vanishing cosmological constant. Although the quantum transition into the true vacuum from our false vacuum is highly suppressed, the thermal transition at high temperatures may not be neglected because of the thermal excitations. However, we find that the thermal transition is, in fact, negligibly small and hence the anomaly mediation models are cosmologically safe. Thus, we conclude that the reheating temperature T_R could be very high (e.g. T_R >> 10^10 GeV) in the anomaly mediation models even with the seesaw-induced mass terms for neutrinos.