arXiv subjects

Mingzhe Li

Publications and source records attributed to Mingzhe Li.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Resonance Beyond Frequency-Matching

Resonance, defined as the oscillation of a system when the temporal frequency of an external stimulus matches a natural frequency of the system, is important in both fundamental physics and applied disciplines. However, the spatial character of oscillation is not considered in the definition of resonance. In this work, we reveal the creation of spatial resonance when the stimulus matches the space pattern of a normal mode in an oscillating system. The complete resonance, which we call multidimensional resonance, is a combination of both the spatial and the conventionally defined (temporal) resonance and can be several orders of magnitude stronger than the temporal resonance alone. We further elucidate that the spin wave produced by multidimensional resonance drives considerably faster reversal of the vortex core in a magnetic nanodisk. Our findings provide insight into the nature of wave dynamics and open the door to novel applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Conformal invariant cosmological perturbations via the covariant approach

It is known that some cosmological perturbations are conformal invariant. This facilitates the studies of perturbations within some gravitational theories alternative to general relativity, for example the scalar-tensor theory, because it is possible to do equivalent analysis in a certain frame in which the perturbation equations are simpler. In this paper we revisit the problem of conformal invariances of cosmological perturbations in terms of the covariant approach in which the perturbation variables have clear geometric and physical meanings. We show that with this approach the conformal invariant perturbations are easily identified.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

An efficient probe of the cosmological CPT violation

We develop an efficient method based on the linear regression algorithm to probe the cosmological CPT violation using the CMB polarisation data. We validate this method using simulated CMB data and apply it to recent CMB observations. We find that a combined data sample of BICEP1 and BOOMERanG 2003 favours a nonzero isotropic rotation angle at $2.3σ$ confidence level, ie, $Δα=-3.3 \pm1.4$ deg (68% CL) with systematics included.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Primordial Gravitational Waves Measurements and Anisotropies of CMB Polarization Rotation

Searching for the signal of primordial gravitational waves in the B-modes (BB) power spectrum is one of the key scientific aims of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments. However, this could be easily contaminated by several foreground issues, such as the thermal dust emission. In this paper we study another mechanism, the cosmic birefringence, which can be introduced by a CPT-violating interaction between CMB photons and an external scalar field. Such kind of interaction could give rise to the rotation of the linear polarization state of CMB photons, and consequently induce the CMB BB power spectrum, which could mimic the signal of primordial gravitational waves at large scales. With the recent polarization data of BICEP2 and the joint analysis data of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck, we perform a global fitting analysis on constraining the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ by considering the polarization rotation angle which can be separated into a background isotropic part and a small anisotropic part. Since the data of BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments have already been corrected by using the "self-calibration" method, here we mainly focus on the effects from the anisotropies of CMB polarization rotation angle. We find that including the anisotropies in the analysis could slightly weaken the constraints on $r$, when using current CMB polarization measurements. We also simulate the mock CMB data with the BICEP3-like sensitivity. Very interestingly, we find that if the effects of the anisotropic polarization rotation angle can not be taken into account properly in the analysis, the constraints on $r$ will be dramatically biased. This implies that we need to break the degeneracy between the anisotropies of the CMB polarization rotation angle and the CMB primordial tensor perturbations, in order to measure the signal of primordial gravitational waves accurately.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Generating scale-invariant tensor perturbations in the non-inflationary universe

It is believed that the recent detection of large tensor perturbations strongly favors the inflation scenario in the early universe. This common sense depends on the assumption that Einstein's general relativity is valid at the early universe. In this paper we show that nearly scale-invariant primordial tensor perturbations can be generated during a contracting phase before the radiation dominated epoch if the theory of gravity is modified by the scalar-tensor theory at that time. The scale-invariance protects the tensor perturbations from suppressing at large scales and they may have significant amplitudes to fit BICEP2's result. We construct a model to achieve this purpose and show that the universe can bounce to the hot big bang after long time contraction, and at almost the same time the theory of gravity approaches to general relativity through stabilizing the scalar field. Theoretically, such models are dual to inflation models if we change to the frame in which the theory of gravity is general relativity. Dual models are related by the conformal transformations. With this study we reinforce the point that only the conformal invariant quantities such as the scalar and tensor perturbations are physical. How did the background evolve before the radiation time depends on the frame and has no physical meaning. It is impossible to distinguish different pictures by later time cosmological probes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Entropic mechanisms with generalized scalar fields in the Ekpyrotic universe

For the Ekpyrotic universe, the entropic mechanisms with minimal couplings, which have been used to generate nearly scale invariant primordial perturbations, was proved to be unstable. To overcome this difficulty, some non-minimal coupling entropic models were proposed. In this paper we extend these studies to the cases where all the scalar fields have non-standard kinetic terms. We first prove that in these general cases, without non-minimal couplings the entropic models are still unstable. The condition for the stability conflicts with the requirement for achieving scale invariant perturbations. Then we study the non-minimal coupling models and show that at least for some simple cases these models are stable and able to generate the primordial perturbations consistent with current observations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Testing CPT Symmetry with Current and Future CMB Measurements

In this paper we use the current and future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments to test the Charge-Parity-Time Reversal (CPT) symmetry. We consider a CPT-violating interaction in the photon sector $\mathcal{L}_{\rm cs}\sim p_μA_ν\tilde{F}^{μν}$ which gives rise to a rotation of the polarization vectors of the propagating CMB photons. By combining the nine-year WMAP, BOOMERanG 2003 and BICEP1 observations, we obtain the current constraint on the isotropic rotation angle $\barα = -2.12 \pm 1.14$ ($1σ$), indicating an about $2σ$ significance of the CPT violation. Here, we particularly take the systematic errors of CMB measurements into account. Then, we study the effects of the anisotropies of the rotation angle [$Δα({\bf \hat{n}})$] on the CMB polarization power spectra in detail. Due to the small effects, the current CMB polarization data can not constrain the related parameters very well. We obtain the 95\% C.L. upper limit of the variance of the anisotropies of the rotation angle $C^α(0) < 0.035$ from all the CMB datasets. More interestingly, including the anisotropies of rotation angle could lower the best fit value of $r$ and relax the tension on the constraints of $r$ between BICEP2 and Planck. Finally, we investigate the capabilities of future Planck polarization measurements on $\barα$ and $Δα({\bf \hat{n}})$. Benefited from the high precision of Planck data, the constraints of the rotation angle can be significantly improved.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Multiscale quantum-defect theory and its application to atomic spectrum

We present a multiscale quantum-defect theory based on the first analytic solution for a two-scale long range potential consisting of a Coulomb potential and a polarization potential. In its application to atomic structure, the theory extends the systematic understanding of atomic Rydberg states, as afforded by the standard single-scale quantum-defect theory, to a much greater range of energies to include the first few excited states and even the ground state. Such a level of understanding has important implications not only on atomic structure, but also on the electronic structure of molecules and on atomic and molecular interactions and reactions. We demonstrate the theory by showing that it provides an analytic description of the energy variations of the standard Coulomb quantum defects for alkali-metal atoms.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2014

Detecting relic gravitational waves in the CMB: The contamination caused by the cosmological birefringence

The B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is an excellent information channel for the detection of relic gravitational waves. However, the detection is contaminated by the B-mode polarization generated by some other effects. In this paper, we discuss the contaminations caused by the cosmological birefringence, which converts the CMB E-mode to the B-mode, and forms the effective noise for the detection of gravitational waves. We find that this contamination is significant, if the rotation angle is large. However, this kind of B-mode can be properly de-rotated, and the effective noises can be greatly reduced. We find that, comparing with the contaminations caused by cosmic weak lensing, the residual polarization generated by the cosmological birefringence is negligible for the detection of relic gravitational waves in the CMB.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Constraints on Dark Energy from New Observations including Pan-STARRS

In this paper, we set the new limits on the equation of state parameter (EoS) of dark energy with the observations of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) from Planck satellite, the type Ia supernovae from Pan-STARRS and the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO). We consider two parametrization forms of EoS: a constant $w$ and time evolving $w(a)=w_0+w_a(1-a)$. The results show that with a constant EoS, $w=-1.141\pm{0.075}$ ($68\%~C.L.$), which is consistent with $Λ$CDM at about $2σ$ confidence level. For a time evolving $w(a)$ model, we get $w_0=-1.09^{+0.16}_{-0.18}$ ($1σ~C.L.$), $w_a=-0.34^{+0.87}_{-0.51}$ ($1σ~C.L.$), and in this case $Λ$CDM can be comparable with our observational data at $1σ$ confidence level. In order to do the parametrization independent analysis, additionally we adopt the so called principal component analysis (PCA) method, in which we divide redshift range into several bins and assume $w$ as a constant in each redshift bin (bin-w). In such bin-w scenario, we find that for most of the bins cosmological constant can be comparable with the data, however, there exists few bins which give $w$ deviating from $Λ$CDM at more than $2σ$ confidence level, which shows a weak hint for the time evolving behavior of dark energy. To further confirm this hint, we need more data with higher precision.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Understanding the gravitational and cosmological redshifts as Doppler shifts by gravitational phase factors

From the viewpoint of gauge gravitational theories, the path dependent gravitational phase factors define the Lorentz transformations between the local inertial coordinate systems of different positions. With this point we show that the spectral shifts in the curved spacetime, such as the gravitational and cosmological redshifts, can be understood as Doppler shifts. All these shifts are interpreted in a unified way as being originated from the relative motion of the free falling observers instantaneously static with the wave source and the receiver respectively. The gravitational phase factor of quantum systems in the curved spacetime is also discussed.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2014

Single field inflation with modulated potential in light of the Planck and BICEP2

The recently released BICEP2 data detected the primordial B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map which strongly supports for a large tensor-to-scalar ratio, and thus, is found to be in tension with the Planck experiment with no evidence of primordial gravitational waves. Such an observational tension, if confirmed by forthcoming measurements, would bring a theoretical challenge for the very early universe models. To address this issue, we in the present paper revisit a single field inflation model, which includes a modulated potential. We show that this inflation model can give rise to a sizable negative running behavior for the spectral index of primordial curvature perturbation and a large tensor-to-scalar ratio. Applying these properties, our model can nicely explain the combined Planck and BICEP2 observations. To examine the validity of analytic calculations, we numerically confront the predicted temperature and B-mode power spectra with the latest CMB observations and explicitly show that our model is consistent with the current data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Fluctuations of cosmological birefringence and the effect on CMB B-mode polarization

The cosmological birefringence caused by the coupling between the cosmic scalar field and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons through the Chern-Simons term can rotate the polarization planes of the photons, and mix the CMB E-mode and B-mode polarizations. The rotation angle induced by the dynamical scalar field can be separated into the isotropic background part and the anisotropic fluctuations. The effect of the background part has been be studied in the previous work (Zhao & Li, arXiv:1402.4324). In this paper, we focus on the influence of the anisotropies of the rotation angle. We first assume that the cosmic scalar field is massless, consistent with other works, we find that the rotation spectrum can be quite large, which may be detected by the potential CMB observations. However, if the scalar field is identified as the quintessence field, by detailed discussing both the entropy and adiabatic perturbation modes for the first time, we find that the anisotropies of the rotation angle are always too small to be detectable.In addition, as the main goal of this paper, we investigate the effect of rotated polarization power spectrum on the detection of relic gravitational waves. we find that, the rotated B-mode polarization could be fairly large, and comparable with those generated by the gravitational waves. This forms a new contamination for the detection of relic gravitational waves in the CMB. In particular, we also propose the method to reconstruct and subtract the rotated B-mode polarization, by which the residuals become negligible for the gravitational-wave detection.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Constraints on Cosmological Models from Hubble Parameters Measurements

In this paper, we study the cosmological constraints from the measurements of Hubble parameters---$H(z)$ data. Here, we consider two kinds of $H(z)$ data: the direct $H_0$ probe from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of Cepheid variables with $H_0=73.8\pm2.4$ ${\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$ and several measurements on the Hubble parameter at high redshifts $H(z)$. Employing Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we also combine the WMAP nine-year data (WMAP9), the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and type Ia supernovae (SNIa) "Union2.1" compilation to determine the cosmological parameters, such as the equation of state (EoS) of dark energy $w$, the curvature of the universe $Ω_k$, the total neutrino mass $\sum{m_ν}$, the effective number of neutrinos $N_{\rm eff}$, and the parameters associated with the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations. These $H(z)$ data provide extra information on the accelerate rate of our Universe at high redshifts. Therefore, adding these $H(z)$ data significantly improves the constraints on cosmological parameters, such as the number of relativistic species. Moreover, we find that direct prior on $H_0$ from HST can also give good constraints on some parameters, due to the degeneracies between these parameters and $H_0$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Note on the production of scale-invariant entropy perturbation in the Ekpyrotic universe

In the standard entropic mechanism adopted in the simple Ekpyrotic models to generate the nearly scale-invariant and Gaussian primordial perturbation, the entropy direction is tachyonically unstable. In this paper, we consider the stable production of the scale-invariant entropy perturbation in the Ekpyrotic universe via non-minimal couplings. In this model the non-minimally coupled massless scalar field serves as a spectator and is stabilized by the introduced non-minimal couplings. It always corresponds to the entropy field during the contraction and with appropriate couplings can obtain a scale-invariant spectrum. This scenario requires additional mechanisms such as curvaton or modulated preheating to convert the entropy perturbation to the curvature perturbation after the bounce.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

New Constraints on Anisotropic Rotation of CMB Polarization

The coupling of a scalar field to electromagnetic field via the Chern-Simons term will rotate the polarization directions of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The rotation angle which relies on the distribution of the scalar field on the CMB sky is direction dependent. Such anisotropies will give rise to new distortions to the power spectra of CMB polarization and it can be used to probe the detailed physics of the scalar field. In this paper we use the updated observational data to constrain the anisotropic rotation angle in a model independent way. We find that the dominant effect of the anisotropic rotation on CMB comes from its variance and it is constrained tightly by the current data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Emergent Universe Scenario via Quintom Matter

The emergent universe scenario provides a possible alternative to bouncing cosmology to avoid the Big Bang singularity problem. In this paper we study the realization of the emergent universe scenario by making use of Quintom matter with an equation of state across the cosmological constant boundary. We will show explicitly the analytic and numerical solutions of emergent universe in two Quintom models, which are a phenomenological fluid and a nonconventional spinor field, respectively.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Metric-Affine Formalism of Higher Derivative Scalar Fields in Cosmology

Higher derivative scalar field theories have received considerable attention for the potentially explanations of the initial state of the universe or the current cosmic acceleration which they might offer. They have also attracted many interests in the phenomenological studies of infrared modifications of gravity. These theories are mostly studied by the metric variational approach in which only the metric is the fundamental field to account for the gravitation. In this paper we study the higher derivative scalar fields with the metric-affine formalism where the connections are treated arbitrarily at the beginning. Because the higher derivative scalar fields couple to the connections directly in a covariant theory these two formalisms will lead to different results. These differences are suppressed by the powers of the Planck mass and are usually expected to have small effects. But in some cases they may cause non-negligible deviations. We show by a higher derivative dark energy model that the two formalisms lead to significantly different pictures of the future universe.

gr-qc↗