arXiv subjects

Robert H. Brandenberger

Publications and source records attributed to Robert H. Brandenberger.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Stabilizing moduli with thermal matter and nonperturbative effects

Even with recent progress, it is still very much an open question to understand how all compactification moduli are stabilized, since there are several mechanisms. For example, it is possible to generate a scalar potential either classically or through nonperturbative effects, such as gaugino condensation. Such a potential can stabilize certain of the moduli fields, for example the dilaton. On the other hand, a background of thermal matter with moduli-dependent masses can also stabilize certain of the moduli, e.g., the radion. It is important to understand whether these two distinct mechanisms are compatible with each other, that is, that there are no interference terms that could spoil the moduli stabilization. In this paper, we study heterotic string theory on an N=1 orbifold near an enhanced symmetry point. We then consider both a nonperturbatively generated potential and a gas of strings with moduli-dependent masses to stabilize the dilaton and radial modulus, respectively. We conclude that, given certain approximations, these two moduli stabilization mechanisms are compatible.

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arXiv2008

Detecting Cosmic Strings in the CMB with the Canny Algorithm

Line discontinuities in cosmic microwave background anisotropy maps are a distinctive prediction of models with cosmic strings. These signatures are visible in anisotropy maps with good angular resolution and should be identifiable using edge detection algorithms. One such algorithm is the Canny algorithm. We study the potential of this algorithm to pick out the line discontinuities generated by cosmic strings. By applying the algorithm to small-scale microwave anisotropy maps generated from theoretical models with and without cosmic strings, we find that, given an angular resolution of several minutes of arc, cosmic strings can be detected down to a limit of the mass per unit length of the string which is one order of magnitude lower than the current upper bounds.

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arXiv2007

Cosmic Strings and Weak Gravitational Lensing

We study the deflection of light in the background of a "wiggly" cosmic string, and investigate whether it is possible to detect cosmic strings by means of weak gravitational lensing. For straight strings without small-scale structure there are no signals. In the case of strings with small-scale structure leading to a local gravitational attractive force towards the string, there is a small signal, namely a preferential elliptical distortion of the shape of background galaxies in the direction corresponding to the projection of the string onto the sky. The signal can be statistically distinguished from the signal produced by a linear distribution of black holes by employing an ellipticity axis distribution statistic.

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arXiv2007

Emergence of Fluctuations from a Tachyonic Big Bang

It has recently been speculated that the end state of a collapsing universe is a tachyonic big crunch. The time reversal of this process would be the emergence of an expanding universe from a tachyonic big bang. In this framework, we study the emergence of cosmological fluctuations. In particular, we compare the amplitude of the perturbations at tne end of the tachyon phase with what would be obtained assuming the usual vacuum initial conditions. We find that cosmological fluctuations emerge in a thermal state. We comment on the relation to the trans-Planckian problem of inflationary cosmology.

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arXiv2007

Evolution of Gravitational Perturbations in Non-Commutative Inflation

We consider the non-commutative inflation model of [3] in which it is the unconventional dispersion relation for regular radiation which drives the accelerated expansion of space. In this model, we study the evolution of linear cosmological perturbations through the transition between the phase of accelerated expansion and the regular radiation-dominated phase of Standard Cosmology, the transition which is analogous to the reheating period in scalar field-driven models of inflation. If matter consists of only a single non-commutative radiation fluid, then the curvature perturbations are constant on super-Hubble scales. On the other hand, if we include additional matter fields which oscillate during the transition period, e.g. scalar moduli fields, then there can be parametric amplification of the amplitude of the curvature perturbations. We demonstrate this explicitly by numerically solving the full system of perturbation equations in the case where matter consists of both the non-commutative radiation field and a light scalar field which undergoes oscillations. Our model is an example where the parametric resonance of the curvature fluctuations is driven by the oscillations not of the inflaton field, but of the entropy mode

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arXiv2007

Towards A Nonsingular Tachyonic Big Crunch

We discuss an effective field theory background containing the gravitational field, the dilaton and a closed string tachyon, and couple this background to a gas of fundamental strings and D strings. Allowing for the possibility of a non-vanishing dilaton potential of Casimir type, we demonstrate the possibility of obtaining a nonsingular, static tachyon condensate phase with fixed dilaton. The time reversal of our solution provides a candidate effective field theory description of a Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology with fixed dilaton.

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arXiv2007

Electroweak Baryogenesis with Embedded Domain Walls

We consider electroweak baryogenesis mediated by embedded domain walls. Embedded domain walls originating from a symmetry breaking phase transition are stabilized by thermal plasma effects, so that the electroweak symmetry is unbroken in their cores. For this reason, the cosmological evolution of such domain walls can generate a sufficiently large baryon asymmetry, irrespective of the order of the electroweak phase transition. For embedded domain walls, the condition that the energy of the universe not be dominated by the energy of the domain walls is relaxed significantly, and it is shown to be compatible with our scenario of electroweak baryogenesis.

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arXiv2007

Cosmological Perturbations in Non-Commutative Inflation

We compute the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in a scenario in which inflation is driven by radiation in a non-commutative space-time. In this scenario, the non-commutativity of space and time leads to a modified dispersion relation for radiation with two branches, which allows for inflation. The initial conditions for the cosmological fluctuations are thermal. This is to be contrasted with the situation in models of inflation in which the accelerated expansion of space is driven by the potential energy of a scalar field, and in which the fluctuations are of quantum vacuum type. We find that, in the limit that the expansion of space is almost exponential, the spectrum of fluctuations is scale-invariant with a slight red tilt. The magnitude of the tilt is different from what is obtained in a usual inflationary model with the same expansion rate during the period of inflation. The amplitude also differs, and can easily be adjusted to agree with observations.

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arXiv2007

Conceptual Problems of Inflationary Cosmology and a New Approach to Cosmological Structure Formation

In spite of its great phenomenological success, current models of scalar field-driven inflation suffer from important unresolved conceptual issues. New fundamental physics will be required to address these questions. String theory is a candidate for a unified quantum theory of all four forces of nature. As will be shown, string theory may lead to a cosmological background quite different from an inflationary cosmology, and may admit a new stringy mechanism for the origin of a roughly scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations.

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arXiv2006

More on the Spectrum of Perturbations in String Gas Cosmology

String gas cosmology is rewritten in the Einstein frame. In an effective theory in which a gas of closed strings is coupled to a dilaton gravity background without any potential for the dilaton, the Hagedorn phase which is quasi-static in the string frame corresponds to an expanding, non-accelerating phase from the point of view of the Einstein frame. The Einstein frame curvature singularity which appears in this toy model is related to the blowing up of the dilaton in the string frame. However, for large values of the dilaton, the toy model clearly is inapplicable. Thus, there must be a new string phase which is likely to be static with frozen dilaton. With such a phase, the horizon problem can be successfully addressed in string gas cosmology. The generation of cosmological perturbations in the Hagedorn phase seeded by a gas of long strings in thermal equilibrium is reconsidered, both from the point of view of the string frame (in which it is easier to understand the generation of fluctuations) and the Einstein frame (in which the evolution equations are well known). It is shown that fixing the dilaton at some early stage is important in order to obtain a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations in string gas cosmology.

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arXiv2006

String Gas Cosmology and Structure Formation

It has recently been shown that a Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology may provide a causal mechanism for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of scalar metric fluctuations, without the need for an intervening period of de Sitter expansion. A distinctive signature of this structure formation scenario would be a slight blue tilt of the spectrum of gravitational waves. In this paper we give more details of the computations leading to these results.

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arXiv2006

Tensor Modes from a Primordial Hagedorn Phase of String Cosmology

It has recently been shown that a Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology can provide a causal mechanism for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of scalar metric fluctuations, without the need for an intervening period of de Sitter expansion. In this paper we compute the spectrum of tensor metric fluctuations (gravitational waves) in this scenario, and show that it is also nearly scale-invariant. However, whereas the spectrum of scalar modes has a small red-tilt, the spectrum of tensor modes has a small blue tilt, unlike what occurs in slow-roll inflation. This provides a possible observational way to distinguish between our cosmological scenario and conventional slow-roll inflation.

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arXiv2005

Producing a Scale-Invariant Spectrum of Perturbations in a Hagedorn Phase of String Cosmology

We study the generation of cosmological perturbations during the Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology. Using tools of string thermodynamics we provide indications that it may be possible to obtain a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations on scales which are of cosmological interest today. In our cosmological scenario, the early Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology goes over smoothly into the radiation-dominated phase of standard cosmology, without having a period of cosmological inflation.

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arXiv2005

The Cosmology of Massless String Modes

We consider the spacetime dynamics of a gas of closed strings in the context of General Relativity in a background of arbitrary spatial dimensions. Our motivation is primarily late time String Gas Cosmology, where such a spacetime picture has to emerge after the dilaton has stabilized. We find that after accounting for the thermodynamics of a gas of strings, only string modes which are massless at the self-dual radius are relevant, and that they lead to a dynamics which is qualitatively different from that induced by the modes usually considered in the literature. In the context of an ansatz with three large spatial dimensions and an arbitrary number of small extra dimensions, we obtain isotropic stabilization of these extra dimensions at the self-dual radius. This stabilization occurs for fixed dilaton, and is induced by the special string states we focus on. The three large dimensions undergo a regular Friedmann-Robertson-Walker expansion. We also show that this framework for late-time cosmology is consistent with observational bounds.

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arXiv2005

Challenges for String Gas Cosmology

In spite of the phenomenological successes of the inflationary universe scenario, the current realizations of inflation making use of scalar fields lead to serious conceptual problems which are reviewed in this lecture. String theory may provide an avenue towards addressing these problems. One particular approach to combining string theory and cosmology is String Gas Cosmology. The basic principles of this approach are summarized.

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arXiv2005

Looking Beyond Inflationary Cosmology

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arXiv2005

Moduli Stabilization in String Gas Cosmology

String gas cosmology is an approach towards studying the effects of superstring theory on early universe cosmology which is based on new symmetries and new degrees of freedom of string theory. Within this context, it appears possible to stabilize the moduli which describe the size and shape of the extra spatial dimensions without the need of introducing many extra tools such as warping and fluxes. In this lecture, the recent progress towards moduli stabilization in string gas cosmology is reviewed, and outstanding problems for the scenario are discussed.

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arXiv2005

T-Duality and the Spectrum of Gravitational Waves

In the inflationary universe scenario, the physical wavelength of cosmological fluctuation modes which are currently probed in observations was shorter than the Hubble radius, and in fact shorter than the Planck and string lengths, at the beginning of the period of inflation. Thus, during the early stages of evolution, the fluctuations are subject to Planck scale physics. In the context of an inflationary cosmological background, we examine the signatures of a specific modified dispersion relation motivated by the T-duality symmetry of string theory on the power spectrum of gravitational waves. The modified dispersion relation is extracted from the asymptotic limit of the string center of mass propagator.

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