arXiv subjects

Matteo Califano

Publications and source records attributed to Matteo Califano.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Joint estimation of the cosmological model and the mass and redshift distributions of the binary black hole population with the Einstein Telescope

We investigate the capability of constraining the mass and redshift distributions of binary black hole systems jointly with the underlying cosmological model using one year of observations of the Einstein Telescope. To this aim, we fixed the underlying cosmological model to a flat $\Lambda$CDM model, then we considered the mass distribution given by a smoothed power law, and the redshift distributions given by the Madau-Dickinson model. We built mock catalogs with different SNR thresholds, and finally inferred astrophysical and cosmological parameters jointly adopting a hierarchical Bayesian framework. We found that as the SNR threshold decreases, the precision on the matter density parameter $\Omega_{m,0}$ and the Hubble constant $H_0$, improves significantly due to the increased number of detectable events at high redshift. However, degeneracies between cosmological and astrophysical parameters exist and evolve with the SNR threshold. Finally, we showed that one year of observations will serve to reconstruct the mass distribution with its features. Conversely, the redshift distribution will be poorly constrained and will need more observations to improve.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Probing Interacting Dark Sector with the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors

We have probed the capability of third-generation Gravitational Waves (GW) interferometers, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, to constrain a cosmological model with an interacting dark sector. We focused on GW events with a detected electromagnetic counterpart being the $\gamma$ or X emission of Gamma-Ray Burst, and a Kilonova emission. We assume the first one to be detected by the THESEUS satellite, while the second one to be detected by the Vera Rubin Observatory. We probed three different interaction kernels and found that the posterior estimation of the cosmological parameters is biased due to the existing degeneracies between the dark and matter sectors. We also found that introducing an external prior on the matter density parameter breaks the degeneracy, removes the bias results, and improves the accuracy on the dark sector parameters.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

New limits on warm inflation from pulsar timing arrays

In this paper, we investigate scalar-induced gravitational waves (GWs) generated in the post-inflationary universe to infer new limits on warm inflation. We specifically examine the evolution of primordial GWs by scalar perturbations produced during the radiation-dominated epoch. For this purpose, we assume a weak regime of warm inflation under the slow-roll approximation, with a dissipation coefficient linearly dependent on the temperature of the radiation bath. We then derive analytical expressions for the curvature power spectrum and the scalar index, in the cases of chaotic and exponential potentials of the inflationary field. Subsequently, we compare the theoretical predictions regarding the relic energy density of GWs with the stochastic GW background signal recently detected by the NANOGrav collaboration through the use of pulsar timing array measurements. In so doing, we obtain numerical constraints on the free parameters of the inflationary models under study. Finally, we conduct a model selection analysis through the Bayesian inference method to measure the statistical performance of the different theoretical scenarios.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Can the NANOGrav observations constrain the geometry of the universe?

The theory of inflation provides an elegant explanation for the nearly flat universe observed today, which represents one of the pillars of the standard cosmological model. However, recent studies have reported some deviations from a flat geometry, arguing that a closed universe would be instead favored by observations. Given its central role played in the cosmological context, this paper revisits the issue of spatial curvature in light of the stochastic gravitational wave background signal recently detected by the NANOGrav collaboration. For this purpose, we investigate the primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation and their propagation in the post-inflationary universe. We propose a new parametrization of the gravitational wave power spectrum, taking into account spatial curvature, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the spectral index of tensor perturbations. Therefore, we compare the theoretical predictions with NANOGrav data to possibly constrain the geometry of the universe. We find that the choice of the priors has a significant effect on the computed posterior distributions. In particular, using flat uniform priors results in $\Omega_{\mathcal{K},0}= 0.00 \pm 0.67$ at the 68\% confidence level. On the other hand, imposing a Planck prior, we obtain $\Omega_{\mathcal{K},0}= -0.05 \pm 0.17$ at the 68\% confidence level. This result aligns with the analysis of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and no deviations from a flat universe are found.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Parity violation in gravitational waves and observational bounds from third-generation detectors

In this paper, we analyze parity-violating effects in the propagation of gravitational waves (GWs). For this purpose, we adopt a newly proposed parametrized post-Einstenian (PPE) formalism, which encodes modified gravity corrections to the phase and amplitude of GW waveforms. In particular, we focus our study on three well-known examples of parity-violating theories, namely Chern-Simons, Symmetric Teleparallel and Hor\v ava-Lishitz gravity. For each model, we identify the PPE parameters emerging from the inclusion of parity-violating terms in the gravitational Lagrangian. Thus, we use the simulated sensitivities of third-generation GW interferometers, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, to obtain numerical bounds on the PPE coefficients and the physical parameters of binary systems. In so doing, we find that deviations from General Relativity cannot be excluded within given confidence limits. Moreover, our results show an improvement of one order of magnitude in the relative accuracy of the GW parameters compared to the values inferred from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network. In this respect, the present work demonstrates the power of next-generation GW detectors to probe fundamental physics with unprecedented precision.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Role of spatial curvature in the primordial gravitational wave power spectrum

This paper investigates the effects of nonvanishing spatial curvature on the propagation of primordial gravitational waves produced during inflation. In particular, we consider tensor perturbations over a homogeneous and isotropic background, and describe the propagation of gravitational waves in the de Sitter phase with spatially curved geometries. We thus derive the expression of the primordial power spectrum at the horizon crossing, in the case of open and closed universes. Then, we analyze how tensor modes propagate in the post-inflationary era, showing the evolution of transfer functions in the radiation and matter epochs, as well as the matching conditions in the intermediate regime. To account for the intrinsic nature of different relativistic species, we also explore the corrections to the standard behavior of the radiation energy density. For this purpose, we introduce the effective number of degrees of freedom of relativistic particles contributing to the primordial energy and entropy densities. Under the subhorizon approximation, we obtain the spectral energy density of relic gravitational waves in terms of the curvature density parameter. Finally, we discuss the capability of present and future experiments to detect the primordial gravitational wave signal at different frequency regimes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Exploiting the Einstein Telescope to solve the Hubble tension

We probe four cosmological models which, potentially, can solve the Hubble tension according to the dark energy equation of state. In this context, we demonstrate that the Einstein Telescope is capable of achieving a relative accuracy below $1\%$ on the Hubble constant independently of the specific dark energy model. We firstly build mock catalogs containing gravitational wave events for one, five and ten years of observations, and above Signal-to-Noise Ratio equal to nine. From these catalogs, we extract the events which are most likely associated with possible electromagnetic counterpart detected by THESEUS. Finally, we select four dark energy models, namely a non-flat $\omega$CDM, an interacting dark energy, an emergent dark energy, and a time varying gravitational constant model, to forecast the precision down to which the Einstein Telescope can bound the corresponding cosmological parameters. We foresee that the Hubble constant is always constrained with less than $1\%$ uncertainty, thereby offering a potential solution to the Hubble tension. The accuracy on the other cosmological parameters is at most comparable with the one currently obtained using multiple probes, except for the emergent dark energy model for which the Einstein Telescope alone will be able to improve the current limits by more than one order of magnitude.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Constraining $\Lambda$CDM cosmological parameters with Einstein Telescope mock data

We investigate the capability of Einstein Telescope to constrain the cosmological parameters of the non-flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model. Two types of mock datasets are considered depending on whether or not a short Gamma-Ray Burst is detected and associated with the gravitational wave emitted by binary neutron stars merger using the THESEUS satellite. Depending on the mock dataset, two statistical estimators are applied: one assumes that the redshift is known, while the other marginalizes over it assuming a specific redshift prior distribution. We demonstrate that {\em (i)} using mock catalogs collecting gravitational wave signals emitted by binary neutron stars systems to which a short Gamma-Ray Burst has been associated, Einstein Telescope may achieve an accuracy on the cosmological parameters of $\sigma_{H_0}\approx 0.40$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $\sigma_{\Omega_{k,0}}\approx 0.09$, and $\sigma_{\Omega_{\Lambda,0}}\approx 0.07$; while {\em (ii)} using mock catalogs collecting all gravitational wave signals emitted by binary neutron stars systems for which an electromagnetic counterpart has not been detected, Einstein Telescope may achieve an accuracy on the cosmological parameters of $\sigma_{H_0}\approx 0.04$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $\sigma_{\Omega_{k,0}}\approx 0.01$, and $\sigma_{\Omega_{\Lambda,0}}\approx 0.01$, once the redshift probability distribution of GW events is known from population synthesis simulations and/or the measure of the tidal deformability parameter. These results show an improvement of a factor 2-75 with respect to earlier results using complementary datasets.

astro-ph.CO↗