arXiv subjects

Ming-Jian Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Ming-Jian Zhang.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Electron dynamics and particle transport in capacitively coupled Ar/O2 discharges driven by sawtooth up voltage waveforms

One dimensional fluid/electron Monte Carlo simulations of capacitively coupled Ar/O2 discharges driven by sawtooth up voltage waveforms are performed as a function of the number of consecutive harmonics driving frequencies of 13.56 MHz, N (1-3), pressure (200-500 mTorr) and gas mixture (10-90 % admixture of O2 to Ar). The effects of these external parameters on the electron dynamics, and the transport of ions and neutrals are revealed at constant peak-to-peak driving voltage. The electronegativity is found to decline as the number of consecutive harmonics increases and the DC self-bias voltage decreases. Increasing the pressure also leads to a decrease in electronegativity. The combination of a decrease in the mean free path of electrons and the presence of the Electrical Asymmetry Effect (EAE) result in different spatio-temporal distributions of the ionization rate, which lead to a reduction in the amplitude of the DC self-bias at higher pressure. As the admixture of electronegative O2 increases, the electronegativity is enhanced, and the discharge mode changes from an α-Drift Ambipolar (DA) hybrid to DA mode. This work focuses on linking these fundamental changes of the plasma physics induced by changing external parameters to process relevant charged particle and neutral fluxes to the electrodes. Particular attention is paid to O(1D) flux, because it is a precursor of deposition. In discharges driven by sawtooth up voltage waveforms, placing the substrate on the grounded electrode and increasing the number of consecutive harmonics, N, can facilitate the deposition process, since the O(1D) flux to the substrate is higher in these scenarios. Moreover, at an O2 admixture of 20%, the O(1D) flux is nearly as high as that at an O2 admixture of 90%, indicating that a higher O(1D) flux can be achieved without excessively increasing the O2 admixture.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Observational constraint on the dark energy scalar field

In the present paper, we investigate three scalar fields, \qu field, phantom field and tachyon field, to explore the source of dark energy, using the Gaussian processes method from the background data and perturbation growth rate data. The corresponding reconstructions all suggest that the dark energy should be dynamical. Moreover, the quintom field, a combination between \qu field and phantom field, is powerfully favored by the data within 68\% confidence level. Using the mean values of scalar field $ϕ$ and potential $V$, we fit the function $V(ϕ)$ in different fields. The fitted results imply that potential $V(ϕ)$ in each scalar field may be a double exponential function or Gaussian function. The Gaussian processes reconstructions also indicate that the tachyon scalar field cannot be convincingly favored by the data and is at a disadvantage to describe the dark energy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Gaussian processes reconstruction of dark energy from observational data

In the present paper, we investigate the dark energy equation of state using the Gaussian processes analysis method, without confining a particular parametrization. The reconstruction is carried out by adopting the background data including supernova and Hubble parameter, and perturbation data from the growth rate. It suggests that the background and perturbation data both present a hint of dynamical dark energy. However, the perturbation data have a more promising potential to distinguish non-evolution dark energy including the cosmological constant model. We also test the influence of some parameters on the reconstruction. We find that the matter density parameter $Ω_{m0}$ has a slight effect on the background data reconstruction, but has a notable influence on the perturbation data reconstruction. While the Hubble constant presents a significant influence on the reconstruction from background data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

What do we know about cosmography

In the present paper, we investigate the cosmographic problem using the bias-variance trade-off. We find that both the z-redshift and the $y=z/(1+z)$-redshift can present a small bias estimation. It means that the cosmography can describe the supernova data more accurately. Minimizing risk, it suggests that cosmography up to the second order is the best approximation. Forecasting the constraint from future measurements, we find that future supernova and redshift drift can significantly improve the constraint, thus having the potential to solve the cosmographic problem. We also exploit the values of cosmography on the deceleration parameter and equation of state of dark energy $w(z)$. We find that supernova cosmography cannot give stable estimations on them. However, much useful information was obtained, such as that the cosmography favors a complicated dark energy with varying $w(z)$, and the derivative $dw/dz<0$ for low redshift. The cosmography is helpful to model the dark energy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Physical condition for the slowing down of cosmic acceleration

The possible slowing down of cosmic acceleration was widely studied. However, the imposition of dark energy parametrization brought some tensions. In our recent paper, we test this possibility using a model-independent method, Gaussian processes. However, the reason of generating these tensions is still closed. In the present paper, we analyse the derivative of deceleration parameter to solve the problems. The reconstruction of the derivative again suggests that no slowing down of acceleration is presented within 95\% C.L. from current observational data. We then deduce its constraint on dark energy. The corresponding constraint clearly reveals the reason of tension between different models in previous work. We also study the essential reason of why current data cannot convincingly measure the slowing down of acceleration. The constraints indicate that most of current data are not in the allowed region.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Test of the cosmic evolution using Gaussian processes

Much focus was on the possible slowing down of cosmic acceleration under the dark energy parametrization. In the present paper, we investigate this subject using the Gaussian processes (GP), without resorting to a particular template of dark energy. The reconstruction is carried out by abundant data including luminosity distance from Union2, Union2.1 compilation and gamma-ray burst, and dynamical Hubble parameter. It suggests that slowing down of cosmic acceleration cannot be presented within 95\% C.L., in considering the influence of spatial curvature and Hubble constant. In order to reveal the reason of tension between our reconstruction and previous parametrization constraint for Union2 data, we compare them and find that slowing down of acceleration in some parametrization is only a "mirage". Although these parameterizations fits well with the observational data, their tension can be revealed by high order derivative of distance $D$. Instead, GP method is able to faithfully model the cosmic expansion history.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical evolution of quintessence cosmology in a physical phase space

The phase space analysis of cosmological parameters $Ω_ϕ$ and $γ_ϕ$ is given. Based on this, the well-known quintessence cosmology is studied with an exponential potential $V(ϕ)=V_{0}\exp(-λϕ)$. Given observational data, the current state of universe could be pinpointed in the phase diagrams, thus making the diagrams more informative. The scaling solution of quintessence usually is not supposed to give the cosmic accelerating expansion, but we prove it could educe the transient acceleration. We also find that the differential equations of system used widely in study of scalar field are incomplete, and then a numerical method is used to figure out the range of application.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Testing dark energy models with $H(z)$ data

$Om(z)$ is a diagnostic approach to distinguish dark energy models. However, there are few articles to discuss what is the distinguishing criterion. In this paper, firstly we smooth the latest observational $H(z)$ data using a model-independent method -- Gaussian processes, and then reconstruct the $Om(z)$ and its fist order derivative $\mathcal{L}^{(1)}_m$. Such reconstructions not only could be the distinguishing criteria, but also could be used to estimate the authenticity of models. We choose some popular models to study, such as $Λ$CDM, generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model, Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parametrization and Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan (JBP) parametrization. We plot the trajectories of $Om(z)$ and $\mathcal{L}^{(1)}_m$ with $1 σ$ confidence level of these models, and compare them to the reconstruction from $H(z)$ data set. The result indicates that the $H(z)$ data does not favor the CPL and JBP models at $1 σ$ confidence level. Strangely, in high redshift range, the reconstructed $\mathcal{L}^{(1)}_m$ has a tendency of deviation from theoretical value, which demonstrates these models are disagreeable with high redshift $H(z)$ data. This result supports the conclusions of Sahni et al. \citep{sahni2014model} and Ding et al. \citep{ding2015there} that the $Λ$CDM may not be the best description of our universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Transient acceleration in $f(T)$ gravity

Recently a $f(T)$ gravity based on the modification of the teleparallel gravity was proposed to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe without the need of dark energy. We use observational data from Type Ia Supernovae, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and Cosmic Microwave Background to constrain this $f(T)$ theory and reconstruct the effective equation of state and the deceleration parameter. We obtain the best-fit values of parameters and find an interesting result that the $f(T)$ theory considered here allows for the accelerated Hubble expansion to be a transient effect.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Observational constraint on the varying speed of light theory

The varying speed of light (VSL) theory is controversial. It succeeds in explaining some cosmological problems, but on the other hand it is excluded by mainstream physics because it will shake the foundation of physics. In the present paper, we devote ourselves to test whether the speed of light is varying from the observational data of the type Ia Supernova, Baryon Acoustic Oscillation, Observational $H(z)$ data and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We select the common form $c(t)=c_0a^n(t)$ with the contribution of dark energy and matter, where $c_0$ is the current value of speed of light, $n$ is a constant, and consequently construct a varying speed of light dark energy model (VSLDE). The combined observational data show a much trivial constraint $n=-0.0033 \pm 0.0045$ at 68.3\% confidence level, which indicates that the speed of light may be a constant with high significance. By reconstructing the time-variable $c(t)$, we find that the speed of light almost has no variation for redshift $z < 10^{-1}$. For high-$z$ observations, they are more sensitive to the VSLDE model, but the variation of speed of light is only in order of $10^{-2}$. We also introduce the geometrical diagnostic $Om (z)$ to show the difference between the VSLDE and $Λ$CDM model. The result shows that the current data are difficult to differentiate them. All the results show that the observational data favor the constant speed of light.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Observational constraint on the interacting dark energy models including the Sandage-Loeb test

Two types of interacting dark energy models are investigated using the type Ia supernova (SNIa), observational $H(z)$ data (OHD), cosmic microwave background (CMB) shift parameter and the secular Sandage-Loeb (SL) test. We find that the inclusion of SL test can obviously provide more stringent constraint on the parameters in both models. For the constant coupling model, the interaction term including the SL test is estimated at $δ=-0.01 \pm 0.01 (1σ) \pm 0.02 (2σ)$, which has been improved to be only a half of original scale on corresponding errors. Comparing with the combination of SNIa and OHD, we find that the inclusion of SL test directly reduces the best-fit of interaction from 0.39 to 0.10, which indicates that the higher-redshift observation including the SL test is necessary to track the evolution of interaction. For the varying coupling model, we reconstruct the interaction $δ(z)$, and find that the interaction is also negative similar as the constant coupling model. However, for high redshift, the interaction generally vanishes at infinity. The constraint result also shows that the $Λ$CDM model still behaves a good fit to the observational data, and the coincidence problem is still quite severe. However, the phantom-like dark energy with $w_X<-1$ is slightly favored over the $Λ$CDM model.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Power of the redshift drift on cosmological models and expansion history

We investigate the power of the velocity drift ($Δv$) on cosmological parameters and expansion history with observational Hubble data (OHD), type Ia supernova (SNIa). We estimate the constraints of $Δv$ using the Fisher information matrix based on the model by \citet{pasquini2005codex,whitelock2006scientific}. We find that $Δv$ with 20 years can reduce the uncertainty of $Ω_m$ by more than 42% than available observations. Based on the statistical figures of merit (FoM), we find that in order to match the constraint power of OHD and SNIa, we need 21 and 26 future measurements, respectively. We also quantitatively estimate for the first time the number of years required for the velocity drift to become comparable with current observations on the equation of state $w$. The statistical FoM indicate that we need at least 12 years to cover current observations. Physically, we could monitor 30 quasars for 30 years to obtain the same accuracy of $w$. Considering two parameterized deceleration factor $q(z)$, we find that the available observations give an estimation on current value $-0.9 \lesssim q_0 \lesssim -0.3$. Difference between the two types of $q(z)$ is the precise determination of variation rate $dq/dz$. For the first model with constant $dq/dz$, $Δv$ with only 10 years provides a much better constraint on it, especially when compared with SNIa. However, we need $Δv$ for more years in the variable $dq/dz$ model. We find that $Δv$ with 30 years reduces the uncertainty of transition redshift to approximately three times better than those of OHD and SNIa.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Reconstruction and constraining of the jerk parameter from OHD and SNe Ia observations

Compared with the plentiful researches of the Hubble parameter and deceleration factor, the third time derivative of the scale factor $a(t)$ in the FRW cosmology, namely, the jerk parameter $j$ still lacks attention. In order to study the properties of $j$, we propose several kinds of parameterizations of $j(z)$ as a function of the redshift $z$. By setting the standard $Λ$CDM model as the fiducial model, we constrain the jerk models with the observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) and Type Ia Supernovae (SNe) observations. We find that the perturbation of $j(z)$ favors a value of nearly zero and the $Λ$CDM is well accommodated by the jerk reconstruction. We also compare the powers of OHD and SNe in constraining the jerk models in detail, and find that the newly released OHD measurement at $z=2.3$ can improve the constraint significantly, even tighter than the SNe one. Furthermore, we analyze the jerk models by calculating the Hubble parameter, equation of state, the deceleration factor and $Om(z)$ diagnostic. Our results show that the universe is indeed undergoing an accelerated expansion phase following the matter-dominated one, which is consistent with the standard model by observations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Cosmological constraints on holographic dark energy models under the energy conditions

We study the holographic and agegraphic dark energy models without interaction using the latest observational Hubble parameter data (OHD), the Union2.1 compilation of type Ia supernovae (SNIa), and the energy conditions. Scenarios of dark energy are distinguished by the cut-off of cosmic age, conformal time, and event horizon. The best-fit value of matter density for the three scenarios almost steadily located at $Ω_{m0}=0.26$ by the joint constraint. For the agegraphic models, they can be recovered to the standard cosmological model when the constant $c$ which presents the fraction of dark energy approaches to infinity. Absence of upper limit of $c$ by the joint constraint demonstrates the recovery possibility. Using the fitted result, we also reconstruct the current equation of state of dark energy at different scenarios, respectively. Employing the model criteria $χ^2_{\textrm{min}}/dof$, we find that conformal time model is the worst, but they can not be distinguished clearly. Comparing with the observational constraints, we find that SEC is fulfilled at redshift $0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.3$ with $1σ$ confidence level. We also find that NEC gives a meaningful constraint for the event horizon cut-off model, especially compared with OHD only. We note that the energy condition maybe could play an important role in the interacting models because of different degeneracy between $Ω_m$ and constant $c$.

astro-ph.CO↗