arXiv subjects

Masahiro Kawasaki

Publications and source records attributed to Masahiro Kawasaki.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

CMB constraint on non-Gaussianity in isocurvature perturbations

We study the CMB constraint on non-Gaussianity in CDM isocurvature perturbations. Non-Gaussian isocurvature perturbations can be produced in various models at the very early stage of the Universe. Since the isocurvature perturbations little affect the structure formation at late times, CMB is the best probe of isocurvature non-Gaussianity at least in the near future. In this paper, we focus on uncorrelated isocurvature perturbations and constrain their non-Gaussianity. For this purpose, we employ several state-of-art techniques for the analysis of CMB data and simulation. We use the WMAP 7 year data of temperature anisotropy. When the adiabatic perturbations are assumed to be Gaussian, we obtained a constraint on the isocurvature non-Gaussianity alpha^2 f_{NL}^{(ISO)}=40+-66 for the scale invariant isocurvature power spectrum, where alpha is the ratio of the power spectrum of isocurvature perturbations to that of the adiabatic ones. When we assume that the adiabatic perturbations can also be non-Gaussian, we obtain f_{NL}=38+-24 and alpha^2 f_{NL}^{(ISO)}=-8+-72. We also discuss implications our results for the axion CDM isocurvature model.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Hubble-induced mass from MSSM plasma

We evaluate the effective mass of a scalar field phi coupled to thermal plasma through Planck-suppressed interactions. We find it useful to rescale the coupled fields so that all the phi-dependences are absorbed into the yukawa and gauge couplings, which allows us to read off the leading order contributions to the effective mass \tilde m_{phi} from the 2-loop free energy calculated with the rescaled couplings. We give an analytical expression for \tilde m_{phi} at a sufficiently high temperature in the case where phi is coupled to the MSSM chiral superfields through non-minimal Kahler potential. We find that \tilde m_{phi}^2 is about 10^{-3} H^2 \sim 10^{-2} H^2 for typical parameter sets, where H is the Hubble expansion rate in the radiation-dominated era.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Primordial black hole formation from an axion-like curvaton model

We argue that the existence of the cold dark matter is explained by primordial black holes.We show that a significant number of primordial black holes can be formed in an axion-like curvaton model, in which the highly blue-tilted power spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations is achieved.It is found that the produced black holes with masses $\sim 10^{20} -10^{38} \mathrm{g}$ account for the present cold dark matter.We also argue the possibility of forming the primordial black holes with mass $\sim 10^5 M_{\odot}$ as seeds of the supermassive black holes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Production of 9Be through alpha-fusion reaction of metal-poor cosmic ray and stellar flare

Spectroscopic observations of metal-poor stars have indicated possible 6Li abundances that are much larger than the primordial abundance predicted in the standard big bang nucleosynthesis model. Possible mechanisms of 6Li production in metal-poor stars include pregalactic and cosmological cosmic ray (CR) nucleosynthesis and nucleosynthesis by flare-accelerated nuclides. We study 9Be production via two-step alpha-fusion reactions of CR or flare-accelerated 3,4He through 6He and 6,7Li, in pregalactic structure, intergalactic medium, and stellar surfaces. We solve transfer equations of CR or flare particles and calculate nuclear yields of 6He, 6,7Li, and 9Be taking account of probabilities of processing 6He and 6,7Li into 9Be via fusions with alpha particles. Yield ratios, i.e., 9Be/6Li, are then calculated for the CR and flare nucleosynthesis models. We suggest that the future observations of 9Be in metal-poor stars may find enhanced abundances originating from metal-poor CR or flare activities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Non-Gaussianity from Axionic Curvaton

We study non-Gaussianity of density perturbations generated by an axionic curvaton, focusing on the case that the curvaton sits near the hilltop of the potential during inflation. Such hilltop curvatons can generate a red-tilted density perturbation spectrum without invoking large-field inflation. We show that, even when the curvaton dominates the Universe, the non-Gaussianity parameter fNL is positive and mildly increases towards the hilltop of the curvaton potential, and that fNL = O(10) is a general and robust prediction of such hilltop axionic curvatons. In particular, we find that the non-Gaussianity parameter is bounded as fNL <~ 30 - 40 for a range of the scalar spectral index, ns = 0.94 - 0.99, and that fNL = 20 - 40 is realized for the curvaton mass m_σ= 10 - 10^6 GeV and the decay constant f = 10^{12} - 10^{17} GeV. One of the plausible candidates for the axionic curvaton is an imaginary component of a modulus field with mass of order 10 - 100 TeV and decay constant of 10^{16} - 10^{17} GeV. We also discuss extreme cases where the curvaton drives a second inflation and find that fNL is typically smaller compared to non-inflating cases.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Axion cosmology with long-lived domain walls

We investigate the cosmological constraints on axion models where the domain wall number is greater than one. In these models, multiple domain walls attached to strings are formed, and they survive for a long time. Their annihilation occurs due to the effects of explicit symmetry breaking term which might be raised by Planck-scale physics. We perform three-dimensional lattice simulations and compute the spectra of axions and gravitational waves produced by long-lived domain walls. Using the numerical results, we estimated relic density of axions and gravitational waves. We find that the existence of long-lived domain walls leads to the overproduction of cold dark matter axions, while the density of gravitational waves is too small to observe at the present time. Combining the results with other observational constraints, we find that the whole parameter region of models are excluded unless an unacceptable fine-tuning exists.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Smooth hybrid inflation in a supersymmetric axion model

We show that the smooth hybrid inflation is naturally realized in a framework of supersymmetric axion model. Identifying the Peccei-Quinn scalar fields as a part of the infaton sector, successful inflation takes place reproducing the amplitude and spectral index of the curvature perturbation observed by WMAP. A relatively large axion isocurvature perturbation and its non-Gaussianity are predicted in our model. The saxion coherent oscillation has a large amplitude and dominates the Universe. The subsequent decay of the saxion produces huge amount of entropy, which dilutes unwanted relics. Winos, the lightest supersymmetric particles in this scenario, are produced non-thermally in the decay and account for dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Revisiting the cosmological coherent oscillation

It is often the case that scalar fields are produced in the early Universe in the form of coherent oscillation. These scalar fields may have huge abundances and affect the evolution of the Universe. In particular, if the lifetime is long enough, they may cause cosmological disasters. We revisit the issue of coherent oscillation of the scalar field when it couples with another oscillating scalar field, and find a situation that the abundance, or the amplitude of the oscillation, is significantly reduced by a variant type of the adiabatic suppression mechanism. As a concrete example, it is applied to the saxion, a flat direction in the supersymmetric axion model, and we show that the cosmological saxion problem is solved in a particular setup.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Axions : Theory and Cosmological Role

We review recent developments on axion cosmology. Topics include : axion cold dark matter, axions from topological defects, axion isocurvature perturbation and its non-Gaussianity and axino/saxion cosmology in supersymmetric axion model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Extended analysis of CMB constraints on non-Gaussianity in isocurvature perturbations

We study CMB constraints on non-Gaussianity from isocurvature perturbations of general types. Specifically, we study CDM/neutrino isocurvature perturbations which are uncorrelated or totally correlated with adiabatic ones. Using the data from the WMAP 7-year observation at V and W bands, we obtained optimal constraints on the nonlinearity parameters of adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations. Our result shows that primordial perturbations are consistent with Gaussian ones at around 2 sigma level for above mentioned isocurvature modes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Non-Gaussianity from Attractor Curvaton

We propose a curvaton model in which the initial condition of the curvaton oscillation is determined by its attractor behavior during inflation. Assuming a chaotic inflation model, we find that the initial condition determined by the attractor behavior is appropriate to generate a sizable non-Gaussianity contribution to the curvature perturbation, which will be tested in the foreseeable future. Implications on the thermal history of the universe and on particle physics models are also discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

High Scale SUSY Breaking From Topological Inflation

The recently observed mass ~ 125 GeV for the Higgs boson suggests a high-energy scale SUSY breaking, above O(10) TeV. It is, however, very puzzling why nature chooses such a high energy scale for the SUSY breaking, if the SUSY is a solution to the hierarchy problem. We show that the pure gravity mediation provides us with a possible solution to this puzzle if the topological inflation is the last inflation in the early universe. We briefly discuss a chaotic inflation model in which a similar solution can be obtained.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Remarks on Hubble Induced Mass from Fermion Kinetic Term

We evaluate the effective mass of a scalar field which interacts with visible sector via Planck-suppressed coupling in supergravity framework. We focus on the radiation-dominated (RD) era after inflation and the contribution from a fermionic field in the thermal bath. We find that, in RD era, the fermion kinetic term gives the effective mass of the order of Hubble scale to the scalar field.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Production of dark matter axions from collapse of string-wall systems

We analyze the spectrum of axions radiated from collapse of domain walls, which have received less attention in the literature. The evolution of topological defects related to the axion models is investigated by performing field-theoretic lattice simulations. We simulate the whole process of evolution of the defects, including the formation of global strings, the formation of domain walls and the annihilation of the defects due to the tension of walls. The spectrum of radiated axions has a peak at the low frequency, which implies that axions produced by the collapse of domain walls are not highly relativistic. We revisit the relic abundance of cold dark matter axions and find that the contribution from the decay of defects can be comparable with the contribution from strings. This result leads to a more severe upper bound on the axion decay constant.

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arXiv2012

Q ball Decay Rates into Gravitinos and Quarks

The Affleck-Dine mechanism, which is one of the most attractive candidates for the baryogenesis in supersymmetric theories, often predicts the existence of baryonic Q balls in the early universe. In this scenario, there is a possibility to explain the observed baryon-to-dark matter ratio because Q balls decay into supersymmetric particles as well as into quarks. If the gravitino mass is small compared to the typical interaction energy, the longitudinal component of the gravitino behaves like the massless goldstino. We numerically calculate the goldstino production rates from Q balls in the leading semi-classical approximation without using large radius limit or effective coupling. We also calculate the quark production rates from Q balls in the Yukawa theory with a massive fermion. In deriving the decay rate we also take into account the scalar field configuration of the Q ball. These results are applied to a realistic model in the gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking and yield the branching ratio of the Q ball decay into the gravitino. We obtain the branching ratio much smaller than the one estimated in the previous analysis.

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arXiv2012

Stochastic Approach to Flat Direction during Inflation

We revisit the time evolution of a flat and non-flat direction system during inflation. In order to take into account quantum noises in the analysis, we base on stochastic formalism and solve coupled Langevin equations numerically. We focus on a class of models in which tree-level Hubble-induced mass is not generated. Although the non-flat directions can block the growth of the flat direction's variance in principle, the blocking effects are suppressed by the effective masses of the non-flat directions. We find that the fate of the flat direction during inflation is determined by one-loop radiative corrections and non-renormalizable terms as usually considered, if we remove the zero-point fluctuation from the noise terms.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Non-Gaussian isocurvature perturbations in dark radiation

We study non-Gaussian properties of the isocurvature perturbations in the dark radiation, which consists of the active neutrinos and extra light species, if exist. We first derive expressions for the bispectra of primordial perturbations which are mixtures of curvature and dark radiation isocurvature perturbations. We also discuss CMB bispectra produced in our model and forecast CMB constraints on the nonlinearity parameters based on the Fisher matrix analysis. Some concrete particle physics motivated models are presented in which large isocurvature perturbations in extra light species and/or the neutrino density isocurvature perturbations as well as their non-Gaussianities may be generated. Thus detections of non-Gaussianity in the dark radiation isocurvature perturbation will give us an opportunity to identify the origin of extra light species and lepton asymmetry.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Updated constraint on a primordial magnetic field during big bang nucleosynthesis and a formulation of field effects

A new upper limit on the amplitude of primordial magnetic field (PMF) is derived by a comparison between a calculation of elemental abundances in big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) model and the latest observational constraints on the abundances. Updated nuclear reaction rates are adopted in the calculation. Effects of PMF on the abundances are consistently taken into account in the numerical calculation with the precise formulation of changes in physical variables. We find that abundances of 3He and 6Li increase while that of 7Li decreases when the PMF amplitude increases, in the case of the baryon-to-photon ratio determined from the measurement of cosmic microwave background radiation. We derive a constraint on the present amplitude of PMF, i.e., B(0)<1.5 micro G [corresponding to the amplitude less than 2.0x10^{11} G at BBN temperature of T=10^9 K] based on the rigorous calculation.

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