arXiv subjects

R. Durrer

Publications and source records attributed to R. Durrer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Acoustic peaks and dips in the CMB power spectrum: observational data and cosmological constraints

The locations and amplitudes of three acoustic peaks and two dips in the last releases of the Boomerang, MAXIMA and DASI measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy power spectra as well as their statistical confidence levels are determined in a model-independent way. It is shown that the Boomerang-2001 data (Netterfield et al. 2001) fixes the location and amplitude of the first acoustic peak at more than 3σconfidence level. The next two peaks and dips are determined at a confidence level above 1σbut below 2σ. The locations and amplitudes of the first three peaks and two dips are 212+/-17, 5426+/-1218μK^2, 544+/-56, 2266+/-607μK^2, 843+/-35, 2077+/-876μK^2, 413+/-50, 1960+/-503μK^2, 746+/-89, 1605+/-650μK^2 respectively (1σerrors include statistical and systematic errors). The MAXIMA and DASI experiments give similar values for the extrema which they determine. The determined cosmological parameters from the CMB acoustic extrema data show good agreement with other determinations, especially with the baryon content as deduced from standard nucleosynthesis constraints. These data supplemented by the constraints from direct measurements of some cosmological parameters and data on large scale structure lead to a best-fit model which agrees with practically all the used experimental data within 1σ. The best-fit parameters are: Ω_Λ=0.64^{+0.14}_{-0.27}, Ω_{m}= 0.36^{+0.21}_{-0.11}, Ω_b=0.047^{+0.093}_{-0.024}, n_s=1.0^{+0.59}_{-0.17}, h=0.65^{+0.35}_{-0.27} and τ_c=0.15^{+0.95}_{-0.15} (plus/minus values show 1σupper/lower limits obtained by marginalization over all other model parameters). The best-fit values of Ω_ν and T/S are close to zero, their 1σupper limits are 0.17 and 1.7 respectively.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Particle Creation in Pre-Big-Bang Cosmology: theory and observational consequences

We present some phenomenological aspects of the pre-big-bang cosmological model inspired by the duality properties of string theory. In particular, assuming the spatial sections of the homogeneous background geometry to be isotropic, we discuss the quantum production of perturbations of the background fields (gravitons, dilatons, moduli fields), as well as the production of particles which do not contribute to the background, which we call ``seeds''. As such we consider the cases of electromagnetic and axionic seeds. We also discuss their possible observational consequences, for example, we study whether they can provide the origin of primordial galactic magnetic fields, and whether they can generate the initial fluctuations leading to the formation of large-scale structure and the measured cosmic microwave background anisotropies. We finally analyze axion and photon production in four dimensional anisotropic pre-big-bang cosmological models.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Adiabatic perturbations in pre big bang models: matching conditions and scale invariance

At low energy, the four-dimensional effective action of the ekpyrotic model of the universe is equivalent to a slightly modified version of the pre big bang model. We discuss cosmological perturbations in these models. In particular we address the issue of matching the perturbations from a collapsing to an expanding phase in full generality. We show that, generically, one obtains $n=0$ for the spectrum of scalar perturbations in the original pre big model (with vanishing potential). When an exponential potential for the dilaton is included, a scale invariant spectrum ($n=1$) of adiabatic scalar perturbations is produced under very generic matching conditions, both in a modified pre big bang and ekpyrotic scenario. We also derive general results valid for power law scale factors matched to a radiation dominated era.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Cosmic Structure Formation with Topological Defects

Topological defects are ubiquitous in physics. Whenever a symmetry breaking phase transition occurs, topological defects may form. The best known examples are vortex lines in type II super conductors or in liquid Helium, and declination lines in liquid crystals. In an adiabatically expanding universe which cools down from a very hot initial state, it is quite natural to postulate that topological defects may have emerged during a phase transition in the early universe and that they may have played the role of initial inhomogeneities seeding the formation of cosmic structure. This basic idea goes back to Kibble (1976). In this report we summarize the progress made in the investigation of Kibble's idea during the last 25 years. Our understanding of the formation and evolution of topological defects is reported almost completely in the beautiful book by Vilenkin & Shellard or the excellent Review by Hindmarsh & Kibble, and we shall hence be rather short on that topic. Nevertheless, in order to be self contained, we have included a short chapter on spontaneous symmetry breaking and defect formation. Our main topic is however the calculation of structure formation with defects, results which are not included in the above references.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Reproducing Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies with mixed isocurvature perturbations

Recently high quality data of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies have been published. In this work we study to which extent the cosmological parameters determined by using this data depend on assumptions about the initial conditions. We show that for generic initial conditions, not only the best fit values are very different but, and this is our main result, the allowed parameter range enlarges dramatically.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

CMB anisotropies from pre-big bang cosmology

We present an alternative scenario for cosmic structure formation where initial fluctuations are due to Kalb-Ramond axions produced during a pre-big bang phase of inflation. We investigate whether this scenario, where the fluctuations are induced by seeds and therefore are of isocurvature nature, can be brought in agreement with present observations by a suitable choice of cosmological parameters. We also discuss several observational signatures which can distinguish axion seeds from standard inflationary models. We finally discuss the gravitational wave background induced in this model and we show that it may be well within the range of future observations.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Cosmological parameters from complementary observations of the Universe

We use observational data on the large scale structure (LSS) of the Universe measured over a wide range of scales from sub-galactic up to horizon scale and on the cosmic microwave background anisotropies to determine cosmological parameters within the class of adiabatic inflationary models. We show that a mixed dark matter model with cosmological constant ($Λ$MDM model) and parameters $Ω_m=0.37^{+0.25}_{-0.15}$, $Ω_Λ=0.69^{+0.15}_{-0.20}$, $Ω_ν=0.03^{+0.07}_{-0.03}$, $N_ν=1$, $Ω_b=0.037^{+0.033}_{-0.018}$, $n_s=1.02^{+0.09}_{-0.10}$, $h=0.71^{+0.22}_{-0.19}$, $b_{cl}=2.4^{+0.7}_{-0.7}$ (1$σ$ confidence limits) matches observational data on LSS, the nucleosynthesis constraint, direct measurements of Hubble constant, the high redshift supernova type Ia results and the recent measurements of the location and amplitude of the first acoustic peak in the CMB anisotropy power spectrum. The best model is $Λ$ dominated (65% of the total energy density) and has slightly positive curvature, $Ω=1.06$. The clustered matter consists in 8% massive neutrinos, 10% baryons and 82% cold dark matter (CDM). The upper 2$σ$ limit on the neutrino content can be expressed in the form $Ω_νh^2/N_ν^{0.64}\le0.042$ or, via the neutrino mass, $m_ν\le4.0$eV. The upper 1(2)$σ$ limit for the contribution of a tensor mode to the COBE DMR data is T/S$<1(1.5)$. Furthermore, it is shown that the LSS observations together with the Boomerang (+MAXIMA-1) data on the first acoustic peak rule out zero-$Λ$ models at more than $2σ$ confidence limit.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Reproducing the observed Cosmic microwave background anisotropies with causal scaling seeds

During the last years it has become clear that global O(N) defects and U(1) cosmic strings do not lead to the pronounced first acoustic peak in the power spectrum of anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background which has recently been observed to high accuracy. Inflationary models cannot easily accommodate the low second peak indicated by the data. Here we construct causal scaling seed models which reproduce the first and second peak. Future, more precise CMB anisotropy and polarization experiments will however be able to distinguish them from the ordinary adiabatic models.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Constraints on the tensor mode from large scale structure observations

Observational data on the large scale structure (LSS) of the Universe are used to establish an upper limit for the amplitude of the tensor mode marginalized over all other cosmological parameters within the class of adiabatic inflationary models. It is shown that the upper 1$σ$ limit for the contribution of a tensor mode to the COBE DMR data is T/S$<1$.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Constraints on the neutrino mass and the cosmological constant from large scale structure observations

The observational data on the large scale structure (LSS) of the Universe are used to establish the upper limit on the neutrino content marginalized over all other cosmological parameters within the class of adiabatic inflationary models. It is shown that the upper 2$σ$ limit on the neutrino content can be expressed in the form $Ω_νh^2/N_ν^{0.64}\le0.042$ or, via the neutrino mass, $m_ν\le4.0$eV.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Cosmological parameters from observational data on the large scale structure of the Universe

The observational data on the large scale structure (LSS) of the Universe are used to determine cosmological parameters within the class of adiabatic inflationary models. We show that a mixed dark matter model with cosmological constant ($Λ$MDM model) and parameters $Ω_m=0.37^{+0.25}_{-0.15}$, $Ω_Λ=0.69^{+0.15}_{-0.20}$, $Ω_ν=0.03^{+0.07}_{-0.03}$, $N_ν=1$, $Ω_b=0.037^{+0.033}_{-0.018}$, $n_s=1.02^{+0.09}_{-0.10}$, $h=0.71^{+0.22}_{-0.19}$, $b_{cl}=2.4^{+0.7}_{-0.7}$ (1$σ$ confidence limits) matches observational data on LSS, the nucleosynthesis constraint, direct measurements of the Hubble constant, the high redshift supernova type Ia results and the recent measurements of the location and amplitude of the first acoustic peak in the CMB anisotropy power spectrum. The best model is $Λ$ dominated (65% of the total energy density) and has slightly positive curvature, $Ω=1.06$. The clustered matter consists in 8% massive neutrinos, 10% baryons and 82% cold dark matter (CDM). It is shown that the LSS observations together with the Boomerang (+MAXIMA-1) data on the first acoustic peak rule out zero-$Λ$ models at more than $2σ$ confidence level.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Determination of cosmological parameters from large scale structure observations

The possibility of determining cosmological parameters on the basis of a wide set of observational data including the Abell-ACO cluster power spectrum and mass function, peculiar velocities of galaxies, the distribution of Ly-$α$ clouds and CMB temperature fluctuations is analyzed. Using a $χ^2$ minimization method, assuming $Ω_Λ+Ω_m =1$ and no contribution from gravity waves, we found that a tilted $Λ$MDM model with one sort of massive neutrinos and the parameters $n\approx 1.12$, $Ω_m\approx 0.4$ ($Ω_Λ\approx 0.6$), $Ω_{cdm}\approx 0.3$, $Ω_ν\approx 0.06$, $Ω_b\approx 0.04$ and $h\approx 0.7$ matches observational data best. $Ω_ν$ is higher for more species of massive neutrinos, $\sim 0.1$ for two and $\sim 0.13$ for three species. $Ω_m$ raises by $\sim 0.08$ and $\sim 0.15$ respectively. Varying only a subset of parameters and fixing the others shows also that the observational data set used here rules out pure CDM models with $h\ge 0.5$, scale invariant primordial power spectrum, zero cosmological constant and spatial curvature at a very high confidence level, $>99.99%$. The corresponding class of MDM models are ruled out at $\sim 95%$ C.L. It is notable also that this data set determines the amplitude of scalar fluctuations approximately at the same level as COBE four-year data. It indicates that a possible tensor component in the COBE data cannot be very substantial.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Cosmological parameters from large scale structure observations

The possibility of determining cosmological parameters on the basis of a wide set of observational data including the Abell-ACO cluster power spectrum and mass function, peculiar velocities of galaxies, the distribution of Ly-$α$ clouds and CMB temperature fluctuations is analyzed. Using a $χ^2$ minimization method, assuming $Ω_Λ+Ω_{\rm{matter}} =1 $ and no contribution from gravity waves, we found that a tilted $Λ$MDM model with one sort of massive neutrinos and the parameters $n=1.12\pm 0.10$, $Ω_m=0.41\pm 0.11$ ($Ω_Λ=0.59\pm0.11$), $Ω_{cdm}=0.31\pm 0.15$, $Ω_ν=0.059\pm 0.028$, $Ω_b=0.039\pm 0.014$ and $h=0.70\pm 0.12$ matches observational data best. The 1$σ$ (68.3%) confidence limits on each cosmological parameter, which are obtained by marginalizing over the other parameters, are $0.82\le n\le1.39$, $0.19\leΩ_m\le 1$ ($0\leΩ_Λ\le 0.81$), $0\leΩ_ν\le 0.17$, $0.021\le Ω_b\le 0.13$ and $0.38\le h\le 0.85$ $1.5\le b_{cl}\le 3.5$. Here $b_{cl}$ is the cluster bias parameter. The best-fit parameters for 31 models which are inside of $1σ$ range of the best model are presented. It is shown also that observational data set used here rules out the class of CDM models with $h\ge 0.5$, scale invariant primordial power spectrum, zero cosmological constant and spatial curvature at very high confidence level, $>99.99%$. The corresponding class of MDM models are ruled out at $\sim 95%$ C.L.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies and extra dimensions in String Cosmology

A recently proposed mechanism for large-scale structure in string cosmology --based on massless axionic seeds-- is further analyzed and extended to the acoustic-peak region. Existence, structure, and normalization of the peaks turn out to depend crucially on the overall evolution of extra dimensions during the pre-big bang phase: conversely, precise cosmic microwave background anisotropy data in the acoustic-peak region will provide, within the next decade, a window on string-theory's extra dimensions before their eventual compactification.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Tensor Microwave Anisotropies from a Stochastic Magnetic Field

We derive an expression for the angular power spectrum of cosmic microwave background anisotropies due to gravity waves generated by a stochastic magnetic field and compare the result with current observations; we take into account the non-linear nature of the stress energy tensor of the magnetic field. For almost scale invariant spectra, the amplitude of the magnetic field at galactic scales is constrained to be of order 10^{-9} Gauss. If we assume that the magnetic field is damped below the Alfven damping scale, we find that its amplitude at 0.1 h^{-1}Mpc, B_λ, is constrained to be B_λ<7.9 x10^{-6} e^{3n} Gauss, for n<-3/2, and B_λ<9.5x10^{-8} e^{0.37n} Gauss, for n>-3/2, where n is the spectral index of the magnetic field and H_0=100h km s^{-1}Mpc^{-1} is the Hubble constant today.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

An analytic approximation of MDM power spectra in four dimensional parameter space

An accurate analytic approximation of the transfer function for the power spectra of primordial density perturbations in mixed dark matter models is presented. The fitting formula in a matter-dominated Universe ($Ω_0=Ω_M=1$) is a function of wavenumber $k$, redshift $z$ and four cosmological parameters: the density of massive neutrinos, $Ω_ν$, the number of massive neutrino species, $N_ν$, the baryon density, $Ω_{b}$ and the dimensionless Hubble constant, $h$. Our formula is accurate in a broad range of parameters: $k\le 100 h/Mpc$, $z\le 30$, $Ω_ν\le 0.5$, $N_ν\le 3$, $Ω_{b}\le 0.3$, $0.3\le h\le 0.7$. The deviation of the variance of density fluctuations calculated with our formula from numerical results obtained with CMBfast is less than 6% for the entire range of parameters. It increases with $Ω_bh^{2}$ and is less than $\le 3%$ for $Ω_bh^{2}\le 0.05$. The performance of the analytic approximation of MDM power spectra proposed here is compared with other approximations found in the literature. Our approximation turns out to be closest to numerical results in the parameter space considered here.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Massless (pseudo-)scalar seeds of CMB anisotropy

A primordial stochastic background of very weakly coupled massless (pseudo-)scalars can seed CMB anisotropy, when large-scale fluctuations of their stress-tensor re-enter the horizon during the matter-dominated era. A general relation between multipole coefficients of the CMB anisotropy and the seed's energy spectrum is derived. Magnitude and tilt of the observed anisotropies can be reproduced for the nearly scale-invariant axion spectra that are predicted in a particularly symmetric class of string cosmology backgrounds.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Seeds of large-scale anisotropy in string cosmology

Pre-big bang cosmology predicts tiny first-order dilaton and metric perturbations at very large scales. Here we discuss the possibility that other -- more copiously generated -- perturbations may act, at second order, as scalar seeds of large-scale structure and CMB anisotropies. We study, in particular, the cases of electromagnetic and axionic seeds. We compute the stochastic fluctuations of their energy-momentum tensor and determine the resulting contributions to the multipole expansion of the temperature anisotropy. In the axion case it is possible to obtain a flat or slightly tilted blue spectrum that fits present data consistently, both for massless and for massive (but very light) axions.

gr-qc↗