arXiv subjects

Rong-Gen Cai

Publications and source records attributed to Rong-Gen Cai.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

No-go guide for late-time solutions to the Hubble tension: Matter perturbations

The Hubble tension seems to be a crisis with $\sim5σ$ discrepancy between the most recent local distance ladder measurement from type Ia supernovae calibrated by Cepheids and the global fitting constraint from the cosmic microwave background data. To narrow down the possible late-time solutions to the Hubble tension, we have used in a recent study [Phys. Rev. D 105, L021301 (2022)] an improved inverse distance ladder method calibrated by the absolute measurements of the Hubble expansion rate at high redshifts from the cosmic chronometer data, and found no appealing evidence for new physics at the late time beyond the $Λ$CDM model characterized by a parametrization based on the cosmic age. In this paper, we further investigate the perspective of this improved inverse distance ladder method by including the late-time matter perturbation growth data. Independent of the dataset choices, model parametrizations, and diagnostic quantities ($S_8$ and $S_{12}$), the new physics at the late time beyond the $Λ$CDM model is strongly disfavored so that the previous late-time no-go guide for the Hubble tension is further strengthened.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Constraining first-order phase transitions with curvature perturbations

We investigate the curvature perturbations induced by the randomness of the quantum tunneling process during cosmological first-order phase transitions (PTs) and for the first time ultilize curvature perturbations to constrain the PT parameters. We find that the observations of the cosmic microwave background spectrum distortion and the ultracompact minihalo abundance can give strict constraints on the PTs below 100GeV, especially for the low-scale PTs and the weak PTs. The current constraint on the PT parameters is largely extended by the results in this work.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

On the energy of gravitational waves

The energy of gravitational waves is a fundamental problem in gravity theory. The existing descriptions for the energy of gravitational waves, such as the well-known Isaacson energy-momentum tensor, suffer from several defects. Due to the equivalence principle, the gravitational energy-momentum can only be defined quasilocally, being associated with a closed spacelike 2-surface bounding a region. We propose a new approach to derive the energy of gravitational waves $directly$ from the quasilocal gravitational energy. Such an approach is natural and consistent with the quasilocality of gravitational energy-momentum.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

When null energy condition meets ADM mass

We give a conjecture on the lower bound of the ADM mass $M$ by using the null energy condition. The conjecture includes a Penrose-like inequality $3M\geqκ\mathcal{A}/(4π)+\sqrt{\mathcal{A}/4π}$ and the Penrose inequality $ 2M\geq\sqrt{\mathcal{A}/{4π}}$ with $\mathcal{A}$ the event horizon area and $κ$ the surface gravity. Both the conjecture in the static spherically symmetric case and the Penrose inequality for a dynamical spacetime with spherical symmetry are proved by imposing the null energy condition. We then generalize the conjecture to a general dynamical spacetime. Our results raise a new challenge for the famous unsettled question in general relativity: in what general case can the null energy condition replace other energy conditions to ensure the Penrose inequality?

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Cosmic inflation from broken conformal symmetry

A period of rapidly accelerating expansion is expected in the early Universe implemented by a scalar field slowly rolling down along an asymptotically flat potential preferred by the current data. In this paper, we point out that this picture of the cosmic inflation with an asymptotically flat potential could emerge from the Palatini quadratic gravity by adding the matter field in such a way to break the local gauged conformal symmetry in both kinetic and potential terms.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Probing the electroweak symmetry breaking history with Gravitational waves

We perform a three dimensional lattice simulation of the electroweak symmetry breaking process through a two-step phase transition, where one of the two steps is a first order phase transition. Our results show that: 1) when the electroweak symmetry breaking is driven by the beyond Standard Model sector around $\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{2-3})$ GeV, the gravitational wave spectra produced from the phase transitions are of broken power-law double-peak shapes; 2) when the electroweak symmetry breaking is induced by a first-order phase transition of a high-scale global U(1) theory, cosmic strings can form and then disappear through particle radiation, and the yielded gravitational wave spectra are of plateau shapes. The two scenarios can be distinguished through probing gravitational wave spectra. Our study suggests that the stochastic gravitational waves provide an alternative way to probe the beyond Standard Model sector relevant to the electroweak symmetry breaking pattern in the early Universe.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Dark Fluxes from Accreting Black Holes and Direct Detections

We discuss the possibility that accreting black hole systems can be sources for dark matter flux through several different mechanisms. We firstly discuss two types of systems: coronal thermal plasmas around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and accretion disks of stellar-mass X-ray black hole binaries (BHBs). We explore how these black hole systems may produce keV light dark matter fluxes and find that the dark fluxes from those sources might be too weak to account for the current XENON1T excess. On the other hand, black holes can be good accelerators to accrete and boost heavy dark matter particles. If considering collisions or dark electromagnetism, those particles can then escape and reach the benchmark speed of 0.1c at the detector. We also extend the black hole mass region to primordial black holes (PBHs) and discuss the possibility of contributing to keV light dark flux via superradiance of PBHs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Instability in charged Gauss-Bonnet-de Sitter black holes

We study the instability of the charged Gauss-Bonnet de Sitter black holes under gravito-electromagnetic perturbations. We adopt two criteria to search for an instability of the scalar type perturbations, including the local instability criterion based on the $AdS_2$ Breitenlöhner-Freedman (BF) bound at extremality and the dynamical instability via quasinormal modes by full numerical analysis. We uncover the gravitational instability in five spacetime dimensions and above, and construct the complete parameter space in terms of the ratio of event and cosmological horizons and the Gauss-Bonnet coupling. We show that the BF bound violation is a sufficient but not necessary condition for the presence of dynamical instability. While the physical origin of the instability without the Gauss-Bonnet term has been argued to be from the $AdS_2$ BF bound violation, our analysis suggests that the BF bound violation can not account for all physical origin of the instability for the charged Gauss-Bonnet black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Inside Anisotropic Black Hole with Vector Hair

We study the internal structure of anisotropic black holes with charged vector hairs. Taking advantage of the scaling symmetries of the system, some radially conserved charges are found via the extension of the Noether theorem. Then, a general proof of no inner horizon of these black holes is presented and the geometry ends at a spacelike singularity. Before reaching the singularity, we find several intermediate regimes both analytically and numerically. In addition to the Einstein-Rosen bridge contracting towards the singularity, the instability triggered by the vector hair results in the oscillations of vector condensate and the anisotropy of spatial geometry. Moreover, the latter oscillates at twice the frequency of the condensate. Then, the geometry enters into Kasner epochs with spatial anisotropy. Due to the effects from vector condensate and U(1) gauge potential, there is generically a never-ending alternation of Kasner epochs towards the singularity. The character of evolution on approaching the singularity is found to be described by the Kasner epoch alternation with flipping of powers of the Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz type.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Constraining the number of horizons with energy conditions

We show that the number of horizons of static black holes can be strongly constrained by energy conditions of matter fields. After a careful clarification on the "interior" of a black hole, we prove that if the interior of a static black hole satisfies strong energy condition or null energy condition, there is at most one non-degenerated inner Killing horizon behind the non-degenerated event horizon. Our result offers some universal restrictions on the number of horizons. Interestingly and importantly, it also suggests that matter not only promotes the formation of event horizon but also prevents the appearance of multiple horizons inside black holes. Furthermore, using the geometrical construction, we obtain a radially conserved quantity which is valid for general static spacetimes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Space-borne atom interferometric gravitational wave detections. Part II. Dark sirens and finding the one

In this paper, we investigate the potential of dark sirens by the space-borne atom interferometric gravitational-wave detectors to probe the Hubble constant. In the mid-frequency band, the sources live a long time. The motion of a detector around the Sun as well as in Earth orbit would induce large Doppler and reorientation effects, providing a precise angular resolution. Such precise localization for the GW sources makes it possible to observe the dark sirens with only one potential host galaxy, which are dubbed "golden dark sirens". We construct the catalogs of golden dark sirens and estimate that there are around 79 and 35 golden dark sirens of binary neutron stars (BNS) and binary black holes (BBH) that would be pass the detection threshold of AEDGE in 5 years. Our results show that with 5, 10, and all 79 golden dark BNS tracked by AEDGE one can constrain $H_0$ at 5.5\%, 4.1\%, and 1.8\% precision levels. With 5, 10, and all 35 golden dark BBH one can constrain $H_0$ at 2.2\%, 1.8\%, and 1.5\% precision levels, respectively. It suggests that only 5-10 golden dark BBH by AEDGE are sufficient to arbitrate the current tension between local and high-$z$ measurements of $H_0$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Primordial black hole production during first-order phase transitions

Primordial black holes (PBHs) produced in the early Universe have attracted wide interest for their ability to constitute dark matter and explain the compact binary coalescence. We propose a new mechanism of PBH production during first-order phase transitions (PTs) and find that PBHs are naturally produced during PTs model-independently. Because of the randomness of the quantum tunneling, there always exists some probability that the vacuum decay is postponed in a whole Hubble volume. Since the vacuum energy density remains constant while radiation is quickly redshifted in the expanding Universe, the postponed vacuum decay then results in overdense regions, which finally collapse into PBHs as indicated by numerical simulations. Utilizing this result one can obtain mutual predictions and constraints between PBHs and GWs from PTs. The predicted mass function of PBHs is nearly monochromatic. We investigate two typical cases and find that 1) PBHs from a PT constitute all dark matter and GWs peak at $1$Hz, 2) PBHs from a PT can explain the coalescence events observed by LIGO-Virgo collaboration, and meanwhile GWs can explain the common-spectrum process detected by NANOGrav collaboration.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Dependence of the amplitude of gravitational waves from preheating on the inflationary energy scale

Stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (SGWBs) receive increasing attention and provide a new possibility to directly probe the early Universe. In the preheating process at the end of inflation, parametric resonance can generate large energy density perturbations and efficiently produce gravitational waves (GWs) which carry unique information about inflation. Since the peak frequency of such GWs is approximately proportional to the inflationary energy scale, $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$, GWs from preheating are expected to be observed by interferometer GW detectors in low-scale inflationary models. We investigate the dependence of the amplitude of such GWs on $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$, and find that the present energy spectrum of these GWs does not depend on $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$ only in the case of $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$ is above a critical value $Λ_{c}$, a parameter depending on the resonance strength. We numerically obtain $Λ_{c}$ in terms of the model parameters in linear approximation and then conduct lattice simulations to verify this result. For $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}\lesssimΛ_{c}$, the amplitude of GWs quickly decreases with $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$ and becomes challenging to observe. In turn, observing such GWs in interferometer detectors also helps to determine $Λ_{\mathrm{inf}}$ and the resonance strength during the preheating.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

No-go guide for the Hubble tension : Late-time solutions

The Hubble tension, if not caused by any systematics, could be relieved or even resolved from modifying either the early-time or late-time Universe. The early-time modifications are usually in tension with either galaxy clustering or galaxy lensing constraints. The late-time modifications are also in conflict with the constraint from the inverse distance ladder, which, however, is weakened by the dependence on a sound-horizon prior and some particular approximation for the late-time expansion history. To achieve a more general no-go argument for the late-time scenarios, we propose to use a global parametrizationbased on the cosmic age (PAge) to consistently use the cosmic chronometers data beyond the Taylor expansion domain and without the input of a sound-horizon prior. Both the early-time and late-time scenarios are therefore largely ruled out, indicating the possible ways out of the Hubble tension from either exotic modifications of our concordance Universe or some unaccounted systematics.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

A New Picture of Cosmic String Evolution and Anisotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background

We investigate the anisotropies of the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) produced by cosmic strings associated with the spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking of Grand Unified Theory, which happens at the onset of inflation. The string network evolution is determined by primordial fluctuations and never reaches the scaling regime. The string loops are inhomogeneously distributed in large scale regions, resulting in large anisotropies in the SGWB. We find that the angular power spectrum of SGWB anisotropies depends on frequency, which is testable in multiband observations of GWs. In particular, GWs from the cosmic strings can appropriately interpret the common-spectrum process reported by NANOGrav collaboration, and the angular power spectrum in the nanohertz band, $\mathtt{l}(\mathtt{l}+1)C_{\mathtt{l}}=5.6\times 10^{-2}$ at large scales, is expected to be detectable by pulsar timing array experiments in the near future.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Parity violation in stochastic gravitational wave background from inflation

We study the inflationary implications of a novel parity-violating gravity model, which modifies the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity by introducing the Nieh-Yan term coupled to an axion-like field. The parity-violating Nieh-Yan term results in the velocity birefringence of gravitational waves (GWs) and triggers the tachyonic instability only for one of the two circular polarization states. We consider that the inflaton is identified as the coupled axion-like field with a wiggly potential characterized by steep cliffs connected by smooth plateaus. During inflation, the temporary fast roll of axion on the cliff-like region leads to the significant enhancement of the tensor perturbations in one polarization state with the wave numbers that exit the horizon around this period. In this setup, the resulting energy spectrum for GWs presents a sizable localized bump involving the contribution of only one polarization state. This chiral GW background is detectable by LISA and Taiji, and its chirality can be determined by correlating two detectors, which provide an opportunity to probe the inflation and test the gravity model.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Space-borne atom interferometric gravitational wave detections. Part I. The forecast of bright sirens on cosmology

Atom interferometers (AIs) as gravitational-wave (GW) detectors have been proposed a decade ago. Both ground and space-based projects will be in construction and preparation in the near future. In this paper, for the first time, we investigate the potential of the space-borne AIs on detecting GW standard sirens and hence the applications on cosmology. We consider AEDGE as our fiducial AI GW detector and estimate the number of bright sirens that would be obtained within a 5-years data-taking period of GW and with the follow-up observation of electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. We then construct the mock catalogue of bright sirens and predict their ability on constraining cosmological parameters such as the Hubble constant, dynamics of dark energy, and modified gravity theory. Our preliminary results show around order $\mathcal{O} (30)$ bright sirens can be obtained from a 5-years operation time of AEDGE and the follow-up observation of EM counterparts. The bright sirens alone can measure $H_0$ with a precision of 2.1\%, which is sufficient to arbitrate the Hubble tension. Combining current most precise electromagnetic experiments, the inclusion of AEDGE bright sirens can improve the measurement of the equation of state of dark energy, though marginally. Moreover, by modifying GW propagation on cosmological scales, the deviations from general relativity (modified gravity theory effects) can be constrained at 5.7\% precision level.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Gravitational and electromagnetic radiation from binary black holes with electric and magnetic charges: Elliptical orbits on a cone

Extending the electromagnetic and gravitational radiations from binary black holes with electric and magnetic charges in circular orbits in Phys. Rev. D {\bf 102}, 103520 (2020), we calculate the total emission rates of energy and angular momentum due to gravitational and electromagnetic radiations from dyonic binary black holes in precessing elliptical orbits. It is shown that the emission rates of energy and angular momentum due to gravitational and electromagnetic radiations have the same dependence on the conic angle for different orbits. Moreover, we obtain the evolutions of orbits and find that a circular orbit remains circular while an elliptic orbit becomes quasi-circular due to electromagnetic and gravitational radiations. Using the evolution of orbits, we derive the waveform models for dyonic binary black hole inspirals and show the amplitudes of the gravitational waves for dyonic binary black hole inspirals differ from those for Schwarzschild binary black hole inspirals, which can be used to test electric and magnetic charges of black holes.

gr-qc↗