arXiv subjects

Richard Easther

Publications and source records attributed to Richard Easther.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Multiple Inflation, Cosmic String Networks and the String Landscape

Motivated by the string landscape we examine scenarios for which inflation is a two-step process, with a comparatively short inflationary epoch near the string scale and a longer period at a much lower energy (like the TeV scale). We quantify the number of $e$-foldings of inflation which are required to yield successful inflation within this picture. The constraints are very sensitive to the equation of state during the epoch between the two inflationary periods, as the extra-horizon modes can come back inside the horizon and become reprocessed. We find that the number of $e$-foldings during the first inflationary epoch can be as small as 12, but only if the inter-inflationary period is dominated by a network of cosmic strings (such as might be produced if the initial inflationary period is due to the brane-antibrane mechanism). In this case a further 20 $e$-foldings of inflation would be required at lower energies to solve the late universe's flatness and horizon problems.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Observing Trans-Planckian Signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background

We examine the constraints cosmological observations can place on any trans-Planckian corrections to the primordial spectrum of perturbations underlying the anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background. We focus on models of trans-Planckian physics which lead to a modulated primordial spectrum. Rather than looking at a generic modulated spectrum, our calculations are based on a specific model, and are intended as a case study for the sort of constraints one could hope to apply on a well-motivated model of trans-Planckian physics. We present results for three different approaches -- a grid search in a subset of the overall parameter space, a Fisher matrix estimate of the likely error ellipses, and a Monte Carlo Markov Chain fit to a simulated CMB sky. As was seen in previous analyses, the likelihood space has multiple peaks, and we show that their distribution can be reproduced via a simple semi-analytic argument. All three methods lead to broadly similar results. We vary 10 cosmological parameters (including two related to the trans-Planckian terms) and show that the amplitude of the tensor perturbations is directly correlated with the detectability of any trans-Planckian modulation. We argue that this is likely to be true for any trans-Planckian modulation in the paradigm of slow-roll inflation. For the specific case we consider, we conclude that if the tensor to scalar ratio, $r \sim 0.15$, the ratio between the inflationary Hubble scale $H$, and the scale of new physics $M$ has to be on the order of 0.004 if the modulation is detectable at the 2$σ$ level. For a lower value of $r$, the bound on $H/M$ becomes looser.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Folded Inflation, Primordial Tensors, and the Running of the Scalar Spectral Index

I discuss folded inflation, an inflationary model embedded in a multi-dimensional scalar potential, such as the stringy landscape. During folded inflation, the field point evolves along a path that turns several corners in the potential. Folded inflation can lead to a relatively large tensor contribution to the Cosmic Microwave Background, while keeping all fields smaller than the Planck scale. I conjecture that if folded inflation generates a significant primordial tensor amplitude, this will generically be associated with non-trivial scale dependence in the spectrum of primordial scalar perturbations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

String windings in the early universe

We study string dynamics in the early universe. Our motivation is the proposal of Brandenberger and Vafa, that string winding modes may play a key role in decompactifying three spatial dimensions. We model the universe as a homogeneous but anisotropic 9-torus filled with a gas of excited strings. We adopt initial conditions which fix the dilaton and the volume of the torus, but otherwise assume all states are equally likely. We study the evolution of the system both analytically and numerically to determine the late-time behavior. We find that, although dynamical evolution can indeed lead to three large spatial dimensions, such an outcome is not statistically favored.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Tuning Locked Inflation: Supergravity versus Phenomenology

We analyze the cosmological consequences of locked inflation, a model recently proposed by Dvali and Kachru that can produce significant amounts of inflation without requiring slow-roll. We pay particular attention to the end of inflation in this model, showing that a secondary phase of saddle inflation can follow the locked inflationary era. However, this subsequent period of inflation results in a strongly scale dependent spectrum that can lead to massive black hole formation in the primordial universe. Avoiding this disastrous outcome puts strong constraints on the parameter space open to models of locked inflation.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Evolution of gravitational waves in Randall-Sundrum cosmology

We investigate the evolution of gravitational wave perturbations about a brane cosmology embedded in a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter bulk. During slow-roll inflation in a Randall-Sundrum brane-world, the zero mode of the 5-dimensional graviton is generated, while the massive modes remain in their vacuum state. When the zero mode re-enters the Hubble radius during radiation domination, massive modes are generated. We show that modes decouple in the low-energy/near-brane limit and develop perturbative techniques to calculate the mode-mixing at finite energy.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Do We Live in a Vanilla Universe? Theoretical Perspectives on WMAP

I discuss the theoretical implications of the WMAP results, stressing WMAP's detection of a correlation between the E-mode polarization and temperature anisotropies, which provides strong support for the overall inflationary paradigm. I point out that almost all inflationary models have a ``vanilla limit,'' where their parameters cannot be distinguished from a genuinely de Sitter inflationary phase. Because its findings are consistent with vanilla inflation, WMAP cannot exclude entire classes of inflationary models. Finally, I summarize hints in the current dataset that the CMB contains relics of new physics, and the possibility that we can use observational data to reconstruct the inflaton potential.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Brane gases in the early universe: thermodynamics and cosmology

We consider the thermodynamic and cosmological properties of brane gases in the early universe. Working in the low energy limit of M-theory we assume the universe is a homogeneous but anisotropic 10-torus containing wrapped 2-branes and a supergravity gas. We describe the thermodynamics of this system and estimate a Hagedorn temperature associated with excitations on the branes. We investigate the cross-section for production of branes from the thermal bath and derive Boltzmann equations governing the number of wrapped branes. A brane gas may lead to decompactification of three spatial dimensions. To investigate this possibility we adopt initial conditions in which we fix the volume of the torus but otherwise assume all states are equally likely. We solve the Einstein-Boltzmann equations numerically, to determine the number of dimensions with no wrapped branes at late times; these unwrapped dimensions are expected to decompactify. Finally we consider holographic bounds on the initial volume, and find that for allowed initial volumes all branes typically annihilate before freeze-out can occur.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Brane gas cosmology in M-theory: late time behavior

We investigate the late-time behavior of a universe containing a supergravity gas and wrapped 2-branes in the context of M-theory compactified on T^10. The supergravity gas tends to drive uniform expansion, while the branes impede the expansion of the directions about which they are wrapped. Assuming spatial homogeneity, we study the dynamics both numerically and analytically. At late times the radii obey power laws which are determined by the brane wrapping numbers, leading to interesting hierarchies of scale between the wrapped and unwrapped dimensions. The biggest hierarchy that could evolve from an initial thermal fluctuation produces three large unwrapped dimensions. We also study configurations corresponding to string winding, in which the M2-branes are all wrapped around the (small) 11th dimension, and show that this recovers the scenario discussed by Brandenberger and Vafa.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Monte Carlo reconstruction of the inflationary potential

We present Monte Carlo reconstruction, a new method for ``inverting'' observational data to constrain the form of the scalar field potential responsible for inflation. This stochastic technique is based on the flow equation formalism and has distinct advantages over reconstruction methods based on a Taylor expansion of the potential. The primary ansatz required for Monte Carlo reconstruction is simply that inflation is driven by a single scalar field. We also require a very mild slow roll constraint, which can be made arbitrarily weak since Monte Carlo reconstruction is implemented at arbitrary order in the slow roll expansion. While our method cannot evade fundamental limits on the accuracy of reconstruction, it can be simply and consistently applied to poor data sets, and it takes advantage of the attractor properties of single-field inflation models to constrain the potential outside the small region directly probed by observations. We show examples of Monte Carlo reconstruction for data sets similar to that expected from the Planck satellite, and for a hypothetical measurement with a factor of five better parameter discrimination than Planck.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Cosmological String Gas on Orbifolds

It has long been known that strings wound around incontractible cycles can play a vital role in cosmology. In particular, in a spacetime with toroidal spatial hypersurfaces, the dynamics of the winding modes may help yield three large spatial dimensions. However, toroidal compactifications are phenomenologically unrealistic. In this paper we therefore take a first step toward extending these cosmological considerations to $D$-dimensional toroidal orbifolds. We use numerical simulation to study the timescales over which "pseudo-wound" strings unwind on these orbifolds with trivial fundamental group. We show that pseudo-wound strings can persist for many ``Hubble times'' in some of these spaces, suggesting that they may affect the dynamics in the same way as genuinely wound strings. We also outline some possible extensions that include higher-dimensional wrapped branes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

A generic estimate of trans-Planckian modifications to the primordial power spectrum in inflation

We derive a general expression for the power spectra of scalar and tensor fluctuations generated during inflation given an arbitrary choice of boundary condition for the mode function at a short distance. We assume that the boundary condition is specified at a short-distance cutoff at a scale $M$ which is independent of time. Using a particular prescription for the boundary condition at momentum $p = M$, we find that the modulation to the power spectra of density and gravitational wave fluctuations is of order $(H/M)$, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter during inflation, and we argue that this behavior is generic, although by no means inevitable. With fixed boundary condition, we find that the shape of the modulation to the power spectra is determined entirely by the deviation of the background spacetime from the de Sitter limit.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Imprints of Short Distance Physics On Inflationary Cosmology

We analyze the impact of certain modifications to short distance physics on the inflationary perturbation spectrum. For the specific case of power-law inflation, we find distinctive -- and possibly observable -- effects on the spectrum of density perturbations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Inhomogeneity and Nonlinear Preheating

We investigated the possibility that nonlinear gravitational effects influence the preheating era after inflation, using numerical solutions of the inhomogeneous Einstein field equations. We compared our results to perturbative calculations and to solutions of the nonlinear field equations in a rigid (unperturbed) spacetime, in order to isolate gravitational phenomena. We confirm the broad picture of preheating obtained from the nonlinear field equations in a rigid background, but find gravitational effects have a measurable impact on the dynamics. The longest modes in the simulation grow much more rapidly in the relativistic calculation than with a rigid background. We used the Weyl tensor to quantify the departure from homogeneity in the universe. We saw no evidence for the sort of gravitational collapse that leads to the formation of primordial black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2001

Inflation as a Probe of Short Distance Physics

We show that a string-inspired Planck scale modification of general relativity can have observable cosmological effects. Specifically, we present a complete analysis of the inflationary perturbation spectrum produced by a phenomenological Lagrangian that has a standard form on large scales but incorporates a string-inspired short distance cutoff, and find a deviation from the standard result. We use the de Sitter calculation as the basis of a qualitative analysis of other inflationary backgrounds, arguing that in these cases the cutoff could have a more pronounced effect, changing the shape of the spectrum. Moreover, the computational approach developed here can be used to provide unambiguous calculations of the perturbation spectrum in other heuristic models that modify trans-Planckian physics and thereby determine their impact on the inflationary perturbation spectrum. Finally, we argue that this model may provide an exception to constraints, recently proposed by Tanaka and Starobinsky, on the ability of Planck-scale physics to modify the cosmological spectrum.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Inflationary perturbations from a potential with a step

We use a numerical code to compute the density perturbations generated during an inflationary epoch which includes a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition. A sharp step in the inflaton potential generates $k$ dependent oscillations in the spectrum of primordial density perturbations. The amplitude and extent in wavenumber of these oscillations depends on both the magnitude and gradient of the step in the inflaton potential. We show that observations of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy place strong constraints on the step parameters.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Fermions, Gauge Theories, and the Sinc Function Representation for Feynman Diagrams

We extend our new approach for numeric evaluation of Feynman diagrams to integrals that include fermionic and vector propagators. In this initial discussion we begin by deriving the Sinc function representation for the propagators of spin-1/2 and spin-1 fields and exploring their properties. We show that the attributes of the spin-0 propagator which allowed us to derive the Sinc function representation for scalar field Feynman integrals are shared by fields with non-zero spin. We then investigate the application of the Sinc function representation to simple QED diagrams, including first order corrections to the propagators and the vertex.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Attractive Forces Between Global Monopoles and Domain Walls

We study the interaction between stable monopoles and domain walls in a $SO(3) \times Z(2)$ scalar field theory. Numerical simulations reveal that there is an attractive force between the monopole and the wall, but that after the monopole and the wall collide, the monopole does not unwind. We present an analytic explanation for the origin of the attractive force, and conclude that this is a generic feature of monopole-wall interactions which does not depend on the detailed structure of the model. The existence of the attractive force supports the hypothesis of Dvali {\em et al.} (hep-ph/9710301), who proposed that monopoles can be ``swept up'' by domain walls, thereby alleviating or solving the monopole problem associated with phase transitions occurring after or in the absence of inflation.

hep-ph↗