arXiv subjects

S. Carneiro

Publications and source records attributed to S. Carneiro.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Gravitational waves from binary axionic black holes

In a recent paper we have shown that a minimally coupled, self-interacting scalar field of mass $m$ can form black holes of mass $M=\sqrt{3}/(4m)$ (in Planck units). If dark matter is composed by axions, they can form miniclusters that for QCD axions have masses below this value. In this work it is shown that for a scenario in which the axion mass depends on the temperature as $m \propto T^{-6}$, minicluster masses above $0.32\,M_\odot$, corresponding to an axion mass of $3\times 10^{-10}$ eV, exceed $M$ and can collapse into black holes. If a fraction of these black holes is in binary systems, gravitational waves emitted during the inspiral phase could be detected by advanced interferometers like LIGO or VIRGO and by the planned Einstein Telescope. For a detection rate of one event per year, the lower limits on the binary fraction are $10^{-4}$ and $10^{-6}$ for LIGO and Einstein Telescope respectively.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Scalar field black holes

With a suitable decomposition of its energy-momentum tensor into pressureless matter and a vacuum type term, we investigate the spherical gravitational collapse of a minimally coupled, self-interacting scalar field, showing that it collapses to a singularity. The formed blackhole has a mass $M \sim 1/m$ (in Planck units), where $m$ is the mass of the scalar field. If the latter has the axion mass, $m \sim 10^{-5}$ eV, the former has a mass $M \sim 10^{-5} M_{\odot}$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Interaction in the dark sector: a Bayesian analysis with latest observations

By combining cosmological probes at low, intermediate and high redshifts, we investigate the observational viability of a class of models with interaction in the dark sector. We perform a Bayesian analysis using the latest data sets of type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, the angular acoustic scale of the cosmic microwave background, and measurements of the expansion rate. When combined with the current measurement of the local expansion rate obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, we find that these observations provide evidence in favour of interacting models with respect to the standard cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Dynamical system analysis of interacting models

We perform a dynamical system analysis of a cosmological model with linear dependence between the vacuum density and the Hubble parameter, with constant-rate creation of dark matter. We show that the de Sitter spacetime is an asymptotically stable critical point, future limit of any expanding solution. Our analysis also shows that the Minkowski spacetime is an unstable critical point, which eventually collapses to a singularity. In this way, such a prescription for the vacuum decay not only predicts the correct future de Sitter limit, but also forbids the existence of a stable Minkowski universe. We also study the effect of matter creation on the growth of structures and their peculiar velocities, showing that it is inside the current errors of redshift space distortions observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Galaxy properties from J-PAS narrow-band photometry

We study the consistency of the physical properties of galaxies retrieved from SED-fitting as a function of spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Using a selection of physically motivated star formation histories, we set up a control sample of mock galaxy spectra representing observations of the local universe in high-resolution spectroscopy, and in 56 narrow-band and 5 broad-band photometry. We fit the SEDs at these spectral resolutions and compute their corresponding the stellar mass, the mass- and luminosity-weighted age and metallicity, and the dust extinction. We study the biases, correlations, and degeneracies affecting the retrieved parameters and explore the rôle of the spectral resolution and the SNR in regulating these degeneracies. We find that narrow-band photometry and spectroscopy yield similar trends in the physical properties derived, the former being considerably more precise. Using a galaxy sample from the SDSS, we compare more realistically the results obtained from high-resolution and narrow-band SEDs (synthesized from the same SDSS spectra) following the same spectral fitting procedures. We use results from the literature as a benchmark to our spectroscopic estimates and show that the prior PDFs, commonly adopted in parametric methods, may introduce biases not accounted for in a Bayesian framework. We conclude that narrow-band photometry yields the same trend in the age-metallicity relation in the literature, provided it is affected by the same biases as spectroscopy; albeit the precision achieved with the latter is generally twice as large as with the narrow-band, at SNR values typical of the different kinds of data.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Testing cosmic isotropy with galaxies position angles distribution

We analyse the distribution of position angles of 1 million galaxies from the Hyperleda catalogue, a sample that presents the galaxies coordinates in the celestial sphere, information that allows us to look for a possible privileged direction. Our analysis involves different tests and statistical methods, from which it is possible to infer with high probability ($p$-value extremely low) that the galactic planes are not randomly oriented in the sky. Whether this is an evidence of a cosmological anisotropy or an observational bias due to local effects is something deserving further studies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Evidence for cosmological particle creation?

A joint analysis of the linear matter power spectrum, distance measurements from type Ia supernovae and the position of the first peak in the anisotropy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background indicates a cosmological, late-time dark matter creation at 95% confidence level.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Large scale structure and ISW effect in decaying vacuum cosmology

The concordance particle creation model - a class of $Λ(t)$CDM cosmologies - is studied using large scale structure (LSS) formation, with particular attention to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. The evolution of the gravitational potential and the amplitude of the cross-correlation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal with LSS surveys are calculated in detail. We properly include in our analysis the peculiarities involving the baryonic dynamics of the $Λ(t)$CDM model which were not included in previous works. Although both the $Λ(t)$CDM and the standard cosmology are in agreement with available data for the CMB-LSS correlation, the former presents a slightly higher signal which can be identified with future data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Number Counts and Dynamical Vacuum Cosmologies

We study non-linear structure formation in an interacting model of the dark sector of the Universe in which the dark energy density decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, $ρ_Λ \propto H$, leading to a constant-rate creation of cold dark matter. We derive all relevant expressions to calculate the mass function and the cluster number density using the Sheth-Torman formalism and show that the effect of the interaction process is to increase the number of bound structures of large masses ($M \gtrsim 10^{14} M_{\odot}h^{-1}$) when compared to the standard $Λ$CDM model. Since these models are not reducible to each other, this number counts signature can in principle be tested in future surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Observational tests of non-adiabatic Chaplygin gas

In a previous paper it was shown that any dark sector model can be mapped into a non-adiabatic fluid formed by two interacting components, one with zero pressure and the other with equation-of-state parameter $ω= -1$. It was also shown that the latter does not cluster and, hence, the former is identified as the observed clustering matter. This guarantees that the dark matter power spectrum does not suffer from oscillations or instabilities. It applies in particular to the generalised Chaplygin gas, which was shown to be equivalent to interacting models at both background and perturbation levels. In the present paper we test the non-adiabatic Chaplygin gas against the Hubble diagram of type Ia supernovae, the position of the first acoustic peak in the anisotropy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background and the linear power spectrum of large scale structures. We consider two different samples of SNe Ia, namely the Constitution and SDSS compilations, both calibrated with the MLCS2k2 fitter, and for the power spectrum we use the 2dFGRS catalogue. The model parameters to be adjusted are the present Hubble parameter, the present matter density and the Chaplygin gas parameter $α$. The joint analysis best fit gives $α\approx - 0.5$, which corresponds to a constant-rate energy flux from dark energy to dark matter, with the dark energy density decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter. The $Λ$CDM model, equivalent to $α= 0$, stands outside the $3σ$ confidence interval. This result is still valid if we use, as supernovae samples, the SDSS and Union2.1 compilations calibrated with the SALT2 fitter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

SNe Ia Tests of Quintessence Tracker Cosmology in an Anisotropic Background

We investigate the observational effects of a quintessence model in an anisotropic spacetime. The anisotropic metric is a non-rotating particular case of a generalized Godel's metric and is classified as Bianchi III. This metric is an exact solution of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon field equations with an anisotropic scalar field, which is responsible for the anisotropy of the spacetime geometry. We test the model against observations of type Ia supernovae, analyzing the SDSS dataset calibrated with the MLCS2k2 fitter, and the results are compared to standard quintessence models with Ratra-Peebles potentials. We obtain a good agreement with observations, with best values for the matter and curvature density parameters $Ω_M = 0.29$ and $Ω_k= 0.01$ respectively. We conclude that present SNe Ia observations cannot, alone, distinguish a possible anisotropic axis in the cosmos.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

On dark degeneracy and interacting models

Cosmological background observations cannot fix the dark energy equation of state, which is related to a degeneracy in the definition of the dark sector components. Here we show that this degeneracy can be broken at perturbation level by imposing two observational properties on dark matter. First, dark matter is defined as the clustering component we observe in large scale structures. This definition is meaningful only if dark energy is unperturbed, which is achieved if we additionally assume, as a second condition, that dark matter is cold, i.e. non-relativistic. As a consequence, dark energy models with equation-of-state parameter $-1 \leω< 0$ are reduced to two observationally distinguishable classes with $ω= -1$, equally competitive when tested against observations. The first comprises the $Λ$CDM model with constant dark energy density. The second consists of interacting models with an energy flux from dark energy to dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Interacting vacuum energy in the dark sector

We analyse three cosmological scenarios with interaction in the dark sector, which are particular cases of a general expression for the energy flux from vacuum to matter. In the first case the interaction leads to a transition from an unstable de Sitter phase to a radiation dominated universe, avoiding in this way the initial singularity. In the second case the interaction gives rise to a slow-roll power-law inflation. Finally, the third scenario is a concordance model for the late-time universe, with the vacuum term decaying into cold dark matter. We identify the physics behind these forms of interaction and show that they can be described as particular types of the modified Chaplygin gas.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

J-PAS: The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) is a narrow band, very wide field Cosmological Survey to be carried out from the Javalambre Observatory in Spain with a purpose-built, dedicated 2.5m telescope and a 4.7 sq.deg. camera with 1.2Gpix. Starting in late 2015, J-PAS will observe 8500sq.deg. of Northern Sky and measure $0.003(1+z)$ photo-z for $9\times10^7$ LRG and ELG galaxies plus several million QSOs, sampling an effective volume of $\sim 14$ Gpc$^3$ up to $z=1.3$ and becoming the first radial BAO experiment to reach Stage IV. J-PAS will detect $7\times 10^5$ galaxy clusters and groups, setting constrains on Dark Energy which rival those obtained from its BAO measurements. Thanks to the superb characteristics of the site (seeing ~0.7 arcsec), J-PAS is expected to obtain a deep, sub-arcsec image of the Northern sky, which combined with its unique photo-z precision will produce one of the most powerful cosmological lensing surveys before the arrival of Euclid. J-PAS unprecedented spectral time domain information will enable a self-contained SN survey that, without the need for external spectroscopic follow-up, will detect, classify and measure $σ_z\sim 0.5\%$ redshifts for $\sim 4000$ SNeIa and $\sim 900$ core-collapse SNe. The key to the J-PAS potential is its innovative approach: a contiguous system of 54 filters with $145Å$ width, placed $100Å$ apart over a multi-degree FoV is a powerful "redshift machine", with the survey speed of a 4000 multiplexing low resolution spectrograph, but many times cheaper and much faster to build. The J-PAS camera is equivalent to a 4.7 sq.deg. "IFU" and it will produce a time-resolved, 3D image of the Northern Sky with a very wide range of Astrophysical applications in Galaxy Evolution, the nearby Universe and the study of resolved stellar populations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Non-adiabatic Chaplygin gas

The split of a generalised Chaplygin gas with an equation of state p = -A/ρ^α into an interacting mixture of pressureless matter and a dark-energy component with equation of state p_Λ = - ρ_Λ implies the existence of non-adiabatic pressure perturbations. We demonstrate that the square of the effective (non-adiabatic) sound speed c_s of the medium is proportional to the ratio of the perturbations of the dark energy to those of the dark matter. Since, as demonstrated explicitly for the particular case α= -1/2, dark-energy perturbations are negligible compared with dark-matter perturbations on scales that are relevant for structure formation, we find |c_s^2| << 1. Consequently, there are no oscillations or instabilities which have plagued previous adiabatic Chaplygin-gas models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Distance-Redshift Relations in an Anisotropic Cosmological Model

In this paper we study an anisotropic model generated from a particular Bianchi type-III metric, which is a generalization of Gödel's metric and an exact solution of Einstein's field equations. We analyse type Ia supernova data, namely the SDSS sample calibrated with the MLCS2k2 fitter, and we verify in which ranges of distances and redshifts the anisotropy could be observed. We also consider, in a joint analysis, the position of the first peak in the CMB anisotropy spectrum, as well as current observational constraints on the Hubble constant. We conclude that a small anisotropy is permitted by the data, and that more accurate measurements of supernova distances above z = 2 might indicate the existence of such anisotropy in the universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

A cosmological concordance model with dynamical vacuum term

We demonstrate that creation of dark-matter particles at a constant rate implies the existence of a cosmological term that decays linearly with the Hubble rate. We discuss the cosmological model that arises in this context and test it against observations of the first acoustic peak in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum, the Hubble diagram for supernovas of type Ia (SNIa), the distance scale of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the distribution of large scale structures (LSS). We show that a good concordance is obtained, albeit with a higher value of the present matter abundance than in the ΛCDM model. We also comment on general features of the CMB anisotropy spectrum and on the cosmic coincidence problem.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Observational tests for Λ(t)CDM cosmology

We investigate the observational viability of a class of cosmological models in which the vacuum energy density decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, resulting in a production of cold dark matter particles at late times. Similarly to the flat ΛCDM case, there is only one free parameter to be adjusted by the data in this class of Λ(t)CDM scenarios, namely, the matter density parameter. To perform our analysis we use three of the most recent SNe Ia compilation sets (Union2, SDSS and Constitution) along with the current measurements of distance to the BAO peaks at z = 0.2 and z = 0.35 and the position of the first acoustic peak of the CMB power spectrum. We show that in terms of $χ^2$ statistics both models provide good fits to the data and similar results. A quantitative analysis discussing the differences in parameter estimation due to SNe light-curve fitting methods (SALT2 and MLCS2k2) is studied using the current SDSS and Constitution SNe Ia compilations. A matter power spectrum analysis using the 2dFGRS is also performed, providing a very good concordance with the constraints from the SDSS and Constitution MLCS2k2 data.

astro-ph.CO↗