arXiv subjects

Neil Turok

Publications and source records attributed to Neil Turok.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Complete Set of Homogeneous Isotropic Analytic Solutions in Scalar-Tensor Cosmology with Radiation and Curvature

We study a model of a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity, with a specific potential energy for the scalar field, and include curvature and radiation as two additional parameters. Our goal is to obtain analytically the complete set of configurations of a homogeneous and isotropic universe as a function of time. This leads to a geodesically complete description of the universe, including the passage through the cosmological singularities, at the classical level. We give all the solutions analytically without any restrictions on the parameter space of the model or initial values of the fields. We find that for generic solutions the universe goes through a singular (zero-size) bounce by entering a period of antigravity at each big crunch and exiting from it at the following big bang. This happens cyclically again and again without violating the null energy condition. There is a special subset of geodesically complete non-generic solutions which perform zero-size bounces without ever entering the antigravity regime in all cycles. For these, initial values of the fields are synchronized and quantized but the parameters of the model are not restricted. There is also a subset of spatial curvature-induced solutions that have finite-size bounces in the gravity regime and never enter the antigravity phase. These exist only within a small continuous domain of parameter space without fine tuning initial conditions. To obtain these results, we identified 25 regions of a 6-parameter space in which the complete set of analytic solutions are explicitly obtained.

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arXiv2012

On the Quantum Resolution of Cosmological Singularities using AdS/CFT

The AdS/CFT correspondence allows us to map a dynamical cosmology to a dual quantum field theory living on the boundary of spacetime. Specifically, we study a five-dimensional model cosmology in type IIB supergravity, where the dual theory is an unstable deformation of $\N=4$ supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theory on $\Rbar\times S^3$. A one-loop computation shows that the coupling governing the instability is asymptotically free, so quantum corrections cannot turn the potential around. The big crunch singularity in the bulk occurs when a boundary scalar field runs to infinity, in finite time. Consistent quantum evolution requires that we impose boundary conditions at infinite scalar field, i.e. a self-adjoint extension of the system. We find that quantum spreading of the homogeneous mode of the boundary scalar leads to a natural UV cutoff in particle production as the wavefunction for the homogeneous mode bounces back from infinity. However a perturbative calculation indicates that despite this, the logarithmic running of the boundary coupling governing the instability generally leads to significant particle production across the bounce. This prevents the wave packet of the homogeneous boundary scalar to return close to its initial form. Translating back to the bulk theory, we conclude that a quantum transition from a big crunch to a big bang is an improbable outcome of cosmological evolution in this class of five-dimensional models.

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arXiv2011

Antigravity and the big crunch/big bang transition

We point out a new phenomenon which seems to be generic in 4d effective theories of scalar fields coupled to Einstein gravity, when applied to cosmology. A lift of such theories to a Weyl-invariant extension allows one to define classical evolution through cosmological singularities unambiguously, and hence construct geodesically complete background spacetimes. An attractor mechanism ensures that, at the level of the effective theory, generic solutions undergo a big crunch/big bang transition by contracting to zero size, passing through a brief antigravity phase, shrinking to zero size again, and re-emerging into an expanding normal gravity phase. The result may be useful for the construction of complete bouncing cosmologies like the cyclic model.

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arXiv2011

Geodesically Complete Analytic Solutions for a Cyclic Universe

We present analytic solutions to a class of cosmological models described by a canonical scalar field minimally coupled to gravity and experiencing self interactions through a hyperbolic potential. Using models and methods inspired by 2T-physics, we show how analytic solutions can be obtained in flat/open/closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes. Among the analytic solutions, there are many interesting geodesically complete cyclic solutions in which the universe bounces at either zero or finite sizes. When geodesic completeness is imposed, it restricts models and their parameters to a certain parameter subspace, including some quantization conditions on initial conditions in the case of zero-size bounces, but no conditions on initial conditions for the case of finite-size bounces. We will explain the theoretical origin of our model from the point of view of 2T-gravity as well as from the point of view of the colliding branes scenario in the context of M-theory. We will indicate how to associate solutions of the quantum Wheeler-deWitt equation with our classical analytic solutions, mention some physical aspects of the cyclic solutions, and outline future directions.

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arXiv2010

The string wave function across a Kasner singularity

A collision of orbifold planes in eleven dimensions has been proposed as an explanation of the hot big bang. When the two planes are close to each other, the winding membranes become the lightest modes of the theory, and can be effectively described in terms of fundamental strings in a ten dimensional background. Near the brane collision, the eleven-dimensional metric is an Euclidean space times a 1+1-dimensional Milne universe. However, one may expect small perturbations to lead into a more general Kasner background. In this paper we extend the previous classical analysis of winding membranes to Kasner backgrounds, and using the Hamiltonian equations, solve for the wave function of loops with circular symmetry. The evolution across the singularity is regular, and explained in terms of the excitement of higher oscillation modes. We also show there is finite particle production and unitarity is preserved.

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arXiv2009

The Return of the Phoenix Universe

Georges Lemaitre introduced the term "phoenix universe" to describe an oscillatory cosmology with alternating periods of gravitational collapse and expansion. This model is ruled out observationally because it requires a supercritical mass density and cannot accommodate dark energy. However, a new cyclic theory of the universe has been proposed that evades these problems. In a recent elaboration of this picture, almost the entire universe observed today is fated to become entrapped inside black holes, but a tiny region will emerge from these ashes like a phoenix to form an even larger smooth, flat universe filled with galaxies, stars, planets, and, presumably, life. Survival depends crucially on dark energy and suggests a reason why its density is small and positive today.

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arXiv2009

A multitrace deformation of ABJM theory

Motivated by the study of big crunch singularities in asymptotically $AdS_4$ spacetimes, we consider a marginal triple trace deformation of ABJM theory. The deformation corresponds to adding a potential which is unbounded below. In a 't Hooft large N limit, the beta function for the triple trace deformation vanishes, which is consistent with the near-boundary behavior of the bulk fields. At the next order in the 1/N expansion, the triple trace couplings exhibit non-trivial running, which we analyze explicitly in the limit of zero 't Hooft coupling, in which the model reduces to an $O(N)\times O(N)$ vector model with large N. In this limit, we establish the existence of a perturbative UV fixed point, and we comment on possible non-perturbative effects. We also show that the bulk analysis leading to big crunch singularities extends to the $\Zbar_k$ orbifold models dual to ABJM theory.

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arXiv2009

Naturalness of CP Violation in the Standard Model

We construct a natural measure on the space of CKM matrices in the standard model, assuming the fermion mass matrices are randomly selected from a distribution which fits the observed quark mass hierarchy. This measure allows us to assess the likelihood of Jarlskog's CP violation parameter J taking its observed value J $\approx$ 3 x 10^{-5}. While well below the mathematically allowed maximum, we find that this value is in fact typical, once the observed quark masses are assumed.

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arXiv2009

Measures on Mixing Angles

We address the problem of the apparently very small magnitude of CP violation in the standard model, measured by the Jarlskog invariant J. In order to make statements about probabilities for certain values of J, we seek to find a natural measure on the space of Kobayashi-Maskawa matrices, the double quotient U(1)^2\SU(3)/U(1)^2. We review several possible, geometrically motivated choices of the measure, and compute expectation values for powers of J for these measures. We find that different choices of the measure generically make the observed magnitude of CP violation appear finely tuned. Since the quark masses and the mixing angles are determined by the same set of Yukawa couplings, we then do a second calculation in which we take the known quark mass hierarchy into account. We construct the simplest measure on the space of 3 x 3 Hermitian matrices which reproduces this known hierarchy. Calculating expectation values for powers of J in this second approach, we find that values of J close to the observed value are now rather likely, and there does not seem to be any fine tuning. Our results suggest that the choice of Kobayashi-Maskawa angles is closely linked to the observed mass hierarchy. We close by discussing the corresponding case of neutrinos.

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arXiv2008

Bouncing Negative-Tension Branes

Braneworlds, understood here as double domain wall spacetimes, can be described in terms of a linear harmonic function, with kinks at the locations of the boundary branes. In a dynamical setting, there is therefore the risk that the boundary brane of negative tension, at whose location the value of the harmonic function is always lowest, can encounter a zero of this harmonic function, corresponding to the formation of a singularity. We show that for certain types of brane-bound matter this singularity can be avoided, and the negative-tension brane can shield the bulk spacetime from the singularity by bouncing back smoothly before reaching the singularity. In our analysis we compare the 5- and 4-dimensional descriptions of this phenomenon in order to determine the validity of the moduli space approximation.

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arXiv2007

From Big Crunch to Big Bang with AdS/CFT

The AdS/CFT correspondence is used to describe five-dimensional cosmology with a big crunch singularity in terms of super-Yang-Mills theory on R times S^3 deformed by a potential which is unbounded below. Classically, a Higgs field in the dual theory rolls to infinity in finite time. But since the S^3 is finite, the unstable mode spreads quantum mechanically and the singularity is resolved when self-adjoint boundary conditions are imposed at infinity. Asymptotic freedom of the coupling governing the instability gives us computational control and the quantum spreading provides a UV cutoff on particle creation. The bulk interpretation of our result is a quantum transition from a big crunch to a big bang. An intriguing consequence of the near scale-invariance of the dual theory is that a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of stress-energy perturbations is automatically generated in the boundary theory. We comment on implications for more realistic cosmologies.

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arXiv2007

Horizons and Tunneling in the Euclidean False Vacuum

In the thin-wall approximation, the decay of a gravitating false vacuum to a lower-energy state is affected by the cosmological horizon structure in both spaces. The nucleation radius of a bubble of true vacuum depends on the surface tension of its boundary and equals the false vacuum cosmological horizon at a critical tension. We argue that there is no tunneling instanton solution beyond the critical tension and argue that there is therefore a bound on allowed membrane tension in theories which rely on semiclassical tunneling to relax the cosmological constant.

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arXiv2007

Effective Actions for Heterotic M-Theory

We discuss the moduli space approximation for heterotic M-theory, both for the minimal case of two boundary branes only, and when a bulk brane is included. The resulting effective actions may be used to describe the cosmological dynamics in the regime where the branes are moving slowly, away from singularities. We make use of the recently derived colliding branes solution to determine the global structure of moduli space, finding a boundary at which the trajectories undergo a hard wall reflection. This has important consequences for the allowed moduli space trajectories, and for the behaviour of cosmological perturbations in the model.

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arXiv2007

Stringy corrections to a time-dependent background solution of string and M-Theory

We consider one of the simplest time-dependent backgrounds in M-theory, describing the shrinking away of the M-theory dimension with the other spatial dimensions static. As the M-theory dimension becomes small, the situation becomes well-described by string theory in a singular cosmological background where the string coupling tends to zero but the $α'$-corrections become large, near the cosmic singularity. We compute these $α'$-corrections, both for the background and for linearized perturbations, in heterotic string theory, and show they may be reproduced by a map from eleven-dimensional M-theory.

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arXiv2007

Primordial Black Hole Baryogenesis

We reconsider the possibility that the observed baryon asymmetry was generated by the evaporation of primordial black holes that dominated the early universe. We present a simple derivation showing that the baryon asymmetry is insensitive to the initial black hole density and the cosmological model but is sensitive to the temperature-dependence of the CP and baryon-violating (or lepton-violating) interactions. We also consider the possibility that black holes stop evaporating and form Planck-mass remnants that act as dark matter. We show that primordial black holes cannot simultaneously account for both the observed baryon asymmetry and the (remnant) dark matter density unless the magnitude of CP violation is much greater than expected from most particle physics models. Finally, we apply these results to ekpyrotic/cyclic models, in which primordial black holes may form when branes collide. We find that obtaining the observed baryon asymmetry is compatible with the other known constraints on parameters.

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arXiv2007

Generating Ekpyrotic Curvature Perturbations Before the Big Bang

We analyze a general mechanism for producing a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological curvature perturbations during a contracting phase preceding a big bang, that can be entirely described using 4d effective field theory. The mechanism, based on first producing entropic perturbations and then converting them to curvature perturbations, can be naturally incorporated in cyclic and ekpyrotic models in which the big bang is modelled as a brane collision, as well as other types of cosmological models with a pre-big bang phase. We show that the correct perturbation amplitude can be obtained and that the scalar spectral tilt n tends to range from slightly blue to red, with 0.97 < n < 1.02 for the simplest models, a range compatible with current observations but shifted by a few per cent towards the blue compared to the prediction of the simplest, large-field inflationary models.

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arXiv2007

Colliding Branes in Heterotic M-theory

We study the collision of two flat, parallel end-of-the-world branes in heterotic M-theory. By insisting that there is no divergence in the Riemann curvature as the collision approaches, we are able to single out a unique solution possessing the local geometry of (2d compactified Milne)/Z_2 x R_3, times a finite-volume Calabi-Yau manifold in the vicinity of the collision. At a finite time before and after the collision, a second type of singularity appears momentarily on the negative-tension brane, representing its bouncing off a zero of the bulk warp factor. We find this singularity to be remarkably mild and easily regularised. The various different cosmological solutions to heterotic M-theory previously found by other authors are shown to merely represent different portions of a unique flat cosmological solution to heterotic M-theory.

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arXiv2007

The Measure Problem in Cosmology

The Hamiltonian structure of general relativity provides a natural canonical measure on the space of all classical universes, i.e., the multiverse. We review this construction and show how one can visualize the measure in terms of a "magnetic flux" of solutions through phase space. Previous studies identified a divergence in the measure, which we observe to be due to the dilatation invariance of flat FRW universes. We show that the divergence is removed if we identify universes which are so flat they cannot be observationally distinguished. The resulting measure is independent of time and of the choice of coordinates on the space of fields. We further show that, for some quantities of interest, the measure is very insensitive to the details of how the identification is made. One such quantity is the probability of inflation in simple scalar field models. We find that, according to our implementation of the canonical measure, the probability for N e-folds of inflation in single-field, slow-roll models is suppressed by of order exp(-3N) and we discuss the implications of this result.

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