arXiv subjects

Nicola Bartolo

Publications and source records attributed to Nicola Bartolo.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Tilt and Running of Cosmological Observables in Generalized Single-Field Inflation

Employing an effective field theory approach to inflationary perturbations, we analyze in detail the effect of curvature-generated Lagrangian operators on various observables, focusing on their running with scales. At quadratic order, we solve the equation of motion at next-to-leading leading order in a generalized slow-roll approximation for a very general theory of single-field inflation. We derive the resulting power spectrum, its tilt and running. We then focus on the contribution to the primordial non-Gaussianity amplitude f_{NL} sourced by a specific interaction term. We show that the running of f_{NL} can be substantially larger than what dictated by the slow-roll parameters.

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arXiv2010

Large non-Gaussianities in the Effective Field Theory Approach to Single-Field Inflation: the Bispectrum

The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field and to perform a general analysis of the associated non-Gaussianities. We investigate the amplitudes and shapes of the various generic three-point correlators, the bispectra, which may be generated by different classes of single-field inflationary models. Besides the well-known results for the DBI-like models and the ghost inflationary theories, we point out that curvature-related interactions may give rise to large non-Gaussianities in the form of bispectra characterized by a flat shape which, quite interestingly, is independently produced by several interaction terms. In a subsequent work, we will perform a similar general analysis for the non-Gaussianities generated by the generic four-point correlator, the trispectrum.

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arXiv2010

The Herschel-SPIRE Legacy Survey (HSLS): the scientific goals of a shallow and wide submillimeter imaging survey with SPIRE

A large sub-mm survey with Herschel will enable many exciting science opportunities, especially in an era of wide-field optical and radio surveys and high resolution cosmic microwave background experiments. The Herschel-SPIRE Legacy Survey (HSLS), will lead to imaging data over 4000 sq. degrees at 250, 350, and 500 micron. Major Goals of HSLS are: (a) produce a catalog of 2.5 to 3 million galaxies down to 26, 27 and 33 mJy (50% completeness; 5 sigma confusion noise) at 250, 350 and 500 micron, respectively, in the southern hemisphere (3000 sq. degrees) and in an equatorial strip (1000 sq. degrees), areas which have extensive multi-wavelength coverage and are easily accessible from ALMA. Two thirds of the of the sources are expected to be at z > 1, one third at z > 2 and about a 1000 at z > 5. (b) Remove point source confusion in secondary anisotropy studies with Planck and ground-based CMB data. (c) Find at least 1200 strongly lensed bright sub-mm sources leading to a 2% test of general relativity. (d) Identify 200 proto-cluster regions at z of 2 and perform an unbiased study of the environmental dependence of star formation. (e) Perform an unbiased survey for star formation and dust at high Galactic latitude and make a census of debris disks and dust around AGB stars and white dwarfs.

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arXiv2010

Large non-Gaussianities in the Effective Field Theory Approach to Single-Field Inflation: the Trispectrum

We perform the analysis of the trispectrum of curvature perturbations generated by the interactions characterizing a general theory of single-field inflation obtained by effective field theory methods. We find that curvature-generated interaction terms, which can in general give an important contribution to the amplitude of the four-point function, show some new distinctive features in the form of their trispectrum shape-function. These interesting interactions are invariant under some recently proposed symmetries of the general theory and, as shown explicitly, do allow for a large value of the trispectrum.

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arXiv2010

Signatures of Primordial non-Gaussianities in the Matter Power-Spectrum and Bispectrum: the Time-RG Approach

We apply the time-renormalization group approach to study the effect of primordial non-Gaussianities in the non-linear evolution of cosmological dark matter density perturbations. This method improves the standard perturbation approach by solving renormalization group-like equations governing the dynamics of gravitational instability. The primordial bispectra constructed from the dark matter density contrast and the velocity fields represent initial conditions for the renormalization group flow. We consider local, equilateral and folded shapes for the initial non-Gaussianity and analyze as well the case in which the non-linear parameter f_{NL} parametrizing the strength of the non-Gaussianity depends on the momenta in Fourier space through a power-law relation, the so-called running non-Gaussianity. For the local model of non-Gaussianity we compare our findings for the power-spectrum with those of recent N-body simulations and find that they accurately fit the N-body data up to wave-numbers k \sim 0.25 h/Mpc at z=0. We also present predictions for the (reduced) matter bispectra for the various shapes of non-Gaussianity.

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arXiv2010

Non-Gaussianity and statistical anisotropy from vector field populated inflationary models

We present a review of vector field models of inflation and, in particular, of the statistical anisotropy and non-Gaussianity predictions of models with SU(2) vector multiplets. Non-Abelian gauge groups introduce a richer amount of predictions compared to the Abelian ones, mostly because of the presence of vector fields self-interactions. Primordial vector fields can violate isotropy leaving their imprint in the comoving curvature fluctuations zeta at late times. We provide the analytic expressions of the correlation functions of zeta up to fourth order and an analysis of their amplitudes and shapes. The statistical anisotropy signatures expected in these models are important and, potentially, the anisotropic contributions to the bispectrum and the trispectrum can overcome the isotropic parts.

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arXiv2010

Anisotropic Trispectrum of Curvature Perturbations Induced by Primordial Non-Abelian Vector Fields

Motivated by the interest in models of the early universe where statistical isotropy is broken and can be revealed in cosmological observations, we consider an SU(2) theory of gauge interactions in a single scalar field inflationary scenario. We calculate the trispectrum of curvature perturbations, as a natural follow up to a previous paper of ours, where we studied the bispectrum in the same kind of models. The choice of a non-Abelian set-up turns out to be very convenient: on one hand, gauge boson self-interactions can be very interesting being responsible for extra non-trivial terms (naturally absent in the Abelian case) appearing in the cosmological correlation functions; on the other hand, its results can be easily reduced to the U(1) case. As expected from the presence of the vector bosons, preferred spatial directions arise and the trispectrum reveals anisotropic signatures. We evaluate its amplitude tau_{NL}, which receives contributions both from scalar and vector fields, and verify that, in a large subset of its parameter space, the latter contributions can be larger than the former. We carry out a shape analysis of the trispectrum; in particular we discuss, with some examples, how the anisotropy parameters appearing in the analytic expression of the trispectrum can modulate its profile and we show that the amplitude of the anisotropic part of the trispectrum can be of the same order of magnitude as the isotropic part.

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arXiv2009

Anisotropic bispectrum of curvature perturbations from primordial non-Abelian vector fields

We consider a primordial SU(2) vector multiplet during inflation in models where quantum fluctuations of vector fields are involved in producing the curvature perturbation. Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to models populated by vector fields, given the interesting possibility of generating some level of statistical anisotropy in the cosmological perturbations. The scenario we propose is strongly motivated by the fact that, for non-Abelian gauge fields, self-interactions are responsible for generating extra terms in the cosmological correlation functions, which are naturally absent in the Abelian case. We compute these extra contributions to the bispectrum of the curvature perturbation, using the delta N formula and the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. The primordial violation of rotational invariance (due to the introduction of the SU(2) gauge multiplet) leaves its imprint on the correlation functions introducing, as expected, some degree of statistical anisotropy in our results. We calculate the non-Gaussianity parameter f_{NL}, proving that the new contributions derived from gauge bosons self-interactions can be important, and in some cases the dominat ones. We study the shape of the bispectrum and we find that it turns out to peak in the local configuration, with an amplitude that is modulated by the preferred directions that break statistical isotropy.

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arXiv2009

Weak lensing signal in Unified Dark Matter models

Weak gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for studying both the geometry and the dynamics of the Universe. Its power spectrum contains information on the sources emitting photons and on the large--scale structures that these hotons cross. We calculate the weak lensing cosmic convergence and shear power spectra, in linear theory and Limber's approximation, for two different classes of cosmological models: the standard \LambdaCDM and Unified Dark Matter (UDM) models. The latter models attempt to solve the problems of the dark matter in the dynamics of galaxies and galaxy clusters and of the late-time acceleration of the Universe expansion by introducing a scalar field that mimics both dark matter and dark energy. A crucial feature of the UDM models is the speed of sound c_\infty, that is the value of the sound speed at late times, on which structure formation depends. In this paper, we provide the predictions of the UDM models for the weak lensing signal,with various values of c_\infty. We consider both the Cosmic Microwave Background and background galaxies at different redshifts as sources for the weak lensing power spectra. We find that the power spectra in UDM models are more sensitive to the variations of c_\infty for sources located at low redshifts. Moreover, we find that for c_\infty>10^{-3} (in units of the speed of light), the UDM weak lensing convergence power spectrum C^{κκ}(l) for background galaxies is strongly suppressed with respect to the \LambdaCDM spectrum, particularly at small angular scales l\gtrsim100.

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arXiv2009

CMB anisotropies at second order III: bispectrum from products of the first-order perturbations

We calculate the bispectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies induced by the second-order fluctuations in the Boltzmann equation. In this paper, which is one of a series of papers on the numerical calculation of the bispectrum from the second-order fluctuations, we consider the terms that are products of the first-order perturbations, and leave intrinsically second-order terms and perturbations in the recombination history to the subsequent papers. We show that the bispectrum has the maximum signal in the squeezed triangles, similar to the local-type primordial bispectrum, as both types generate non-linearities via products of the first-order terms in position space. However, detailed calculations show that their shapes are sufficiently different: the cross-correlation coefficient reaches 0.5 at the maximum multipole of l_{max}~ 200, and then weakens to 0.3 at l_{max}~ 2000. The differences in shape arise from (i) the way the acoustic oscillations affect the bispectrum, and (ii) the second-order effects not being scale-invariant. This implies that the contamination of the primordial bispectrum due to the second-order effects (from the products of the first-order terms) is small. The expected signal-to-noise ratio of the products of the first-order terms is ~ 0.4 at l_{max}~ 2000 for a full-sky, cosmic variance limited experiment. We therefore conclude that the products of the first-order terms may be safely ignored in the analysis of the future CMB experiments. The expected contamination of the local-form f_{NL} is f^{local}_{NL}~ 0.9 at l_{max}~ 200, and f^{local}_{NL}~ 0.5 at l_{max}~ 2000.

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arXiv2009

CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization

We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In particular, a detection of primordial B-mode polarization would demonstrate that inflation occurred at a very high energy scale, and that the inflaton traversed a super-Planckian distance in field space. We explain how such a detection or constraint would illuminate aspects of physics at the Planck scale. Moreover, CMB measurements can constrain the scale-dependence and non-Gaussianity of the primordial fluctuations and limit the possibility of a significant isocurvature contribution. Each such limit provides crucial information on the underlying inflationary dynamics. Finally, we quantify these considerations by presenting forecasts for the sensitivities of a future satellite experiment to the inflationary parameters.

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arXiv2009

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.

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arXiv2009

On the non-Gaussianity from Recombination

The non-linear effects operating at the recombination epoch generate a non-Gaussian signal in the CMB anisotropies. Such a contribution is relevant because it represents a major part of the second-order radiation transfer function which must be determined in order to have a complete control of both the primordial and non-primordial part of non-Gaussianity in the CMB anisotropies. We provide an estimate of the level of non-Gaussianity in the CMB arising from the recombination epoch which shows up mainly in the equilateral configuration. We find that it causes a contamination to the possible measurement of the equilateral primordial bispectrum shifting the minimum detectable value of the non-Gaussian parameter f^equil_NL by Delta f^equil_NL= O(10) for an experiment like Planck.

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arXiv2008

One-loop graviton corrections to the curvature perturbation from inflation

We compute one-loop corrections to the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation in single-field slow-roll inflation arising from gravitons and inflaton interactions. The quantum corrections due to gravitons to the power spectrum of the inflaton field are computed around the time of horizon crossing and their effect on the curvature perturbation is obtained on superhorizon scales through the delta-N formalism. We point out that one-loop corrections from the tensor modes are of the same magnitude as those coming from scalar self-interactions, therefore they cannot be neglected in a self-consistent calculation.

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arXiv2008

How the Scalar Field of Unified Dark Matter Models Can Cluster

We use scalar-field Lagrangians with a non-canonical kinetic term to obtain unified dark matter models where both the dark matter and the dark energy, the latter mimicking a cosmological constant, are described by the scalar field itself. In this framework, we propose a technique to reconstruct models where the effective speed of sound is small enough that the scalar field can cluster. These models avoid the strong time evolution of the gravitational potential and the large Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect which have been a serious drawback of previously considered models. Moreover, these unified dark matter scalar field models can be easily generalized to behave as dark matter plus a dark energy component behaving like any type of quintessence fluid.

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arXiv2008

ISW effect in Unified Dark Matter Scalar Field Cosmologies: an analytical approach

We perform an analytical study of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect within the framework of Unified Dark Matter models based on a scalar field which aim at a unified description of dark energy and dark matter. Computing the temperature power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies we are able to isolate those contributions that can potentially lead to strong deviations from the usual ISW effect occurring in a $Λ$CDM universe. This helps to highlight the crucial role played by the sound speed in the Unified Dark Matter models. Our treatment is completely general in that all the results depend only on the speed of sound of the dark component and thus it can be applied to a variety of unified models, including those which are not described by a scalar field but relies on a single dark fluid.

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arXiv2007

Halos of Unified Dark Matter Scalar Field

We investigate the static and spherically symmetric solutions of Einstein's equations for a scalar field with non-canonical kinetic term, assumed to provide both the dark matter and dark energy components of the Universe. In particular, we give a prescription to obtain solutions (dark halos) whose rotation curve v_c(r) is in good agreement with observational data. We show that there exist suitable scalar field Lagrangians that allow to describe the cosmological background evolution and the static solutions with a single dark fluid.

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arXiv2007

Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies up to Second Order

These lecture notes present the computation of the full system of Boltzmann equations describing the evolution of the photon, baryon and cold dark matter fluids up to second order in perturbation theory, as recently studied in (Bartolo, Matarrese & Riotto 2006, 2007). These equations allow to follow the time evolution of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies at all angular scales from the early epoch, when the cosmological perturbations were generated, to the present, through the recombination era. The inclusion of second-order contributions is mandatory when one is interested in studying possible deviations from Gaussianity of cosmological perturbations, either of primordial (e.g. inflationary) origin or due to their subsequent evolution. Most of the emphasis in these lectures notes will be given to the derivation of the relevant equations for the study of cosmic microwave background anisotropies and to their analytical solutions.

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