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Tina Kahniashvili

Publications and source records attributed to Tina Kahniashvili.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

Circular Polarization of Gravitational Waves from Early-Universe Helical Turbulence

We perform direct numerical simulations to compute the net circular polarization of gravitational waves from helical (chiral) turbulent sources in the early Universe for a variety of initial conditions, including driven (stationary) and decaying turbulence. We investigate the resulting gravitational wave signal assuming different turbulent geneses such as magnetically or kinetically driven cases. Under realistic physical conditions in the early Universe we compute numerically the wave number-dependent polarization degree of the gravitational waves. We find that the spectral polarization degree strongly depends on the initial conditions. The peak of the spectral polarization degree occurs at twice the typical wavenumber of the source, as expected, and for fully helical decaying turbulence, it reaches its maximum of nearly 100\% {\it only} at the peak. We determine the temporal evolution of the turbulent sources as well as the resulting gravitational waves, showing that the dominant contribution to their spectral energy density happens shortly after the activation of the source. Only through an artificially prolonged decay of the turbulence can further increase of the gravitational wave amplitude be achieved. We estimate the detection prospects for the net polarization, arguing that its detection contains {\it clean} information (including the generation mechanisms, time, and strength) about the sources of possible parity violations in the early Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2020

Primordial magnetic helicity evolution with a homogeneous magnetic field from inflation

Motivated by a scenario of magnetogenesis in which a homogeneous magnetic field is generated during inflation, we study the magnetohydrodynamic evolution of the primordial plasma motions for two kinds of initial conditions -- (i) a spatially homogeneous field with an unlimited correlation length, and (ii) a zero flux scale-invariant statistically homogeneous magnetic field. In both cases, we apply, for a short initial time interval, monochromatic forcing at a certain wave number so that the correlation length is finite, but much smaller than the typical length scale of turbulence. In particular, we investigate the decay of nonhelical and helical hydromagnetic turbulence. We show that, in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field, the decay of helical and nonhelical small-scale fields can occur rapidly. This is a special property of a system with a perfectly homogeneous magnetic field, which is sometimes considered as a local approximation to a slowly varying background field. It can never change and acts as an imposed magnetic field. This is in a sharp contrast to the case of a statistically homogeneous magnetic field, where we recover familiar decay properties: a much slower decay of magnetic energy and a faster growth of the correlation length, especially in the case with magnetic felicity. The result suggests that a homogeneous magnetic field, if generated during inflation, should persist under the influence of small-scale fields and could be the origin of the large-scale magnetic field in the Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2019

Cosmic Expansion in Extended Quasidilaton Massive Gravity

Quasidilaton massive gravity offers a physically well-defined gravitational theory with non-zero graviton mass. We present the full set of dynamical equations governing the expansion history of the universe, valid during radiation domination, matter domination, and a late-time self-accelerating epoch related to the graviton mass. The existence of self-consistent solutions constrains the amplitude of the quasi-dilaton field and the graviton mass, as well as other model parameters. We point out that the effective mass of gravitational waves can be significantly larger than the graviton mass, opening the possibility that a single theory can explain both the late-time acceleration of the cosmic expansion and modifications of structure growth leading to the suppression of large-angle correlations observed in the cosmic microwave background.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2019

The dynamo effect in decaying helical turbulence

We show that in decaying hydromagnetic turbulence with initial kinetic helicity, a weak magnetic field eventually becomes fully helical. The sign of magnetic helicity is opposite to that of the kinetic helicity - regardless of whether or not the initial magnetic field was helical. The magnetic field undergoes inverse cascading with the magnetic energy decaying approximately like t^{-1/2}. This is even slower than in the fully helical case, where it decays like t^{-2/3}. In this parameter range, the product of magnetic energy and correlation length raised to a certain power slightly larger than unity, is approximately constant. This scaling of magnetic energy persists over long time scales. At very late times and for domain sizes large enough to accommodate the growing spatial scales, we expect a cross-over to the t^{-2/3} decay law that is commonly observed for fully helical magnetic fields. Regardless of the presence or absence of initial kinetic helicity, the magnetic field experiences exponential growth during the first few turnover times, which is suggestive of small-scale dynamo action. Our results have applications to a wide range of experimental dynamos and astrophysical time-dependent plasmas, including primordial turbulence in the early universe.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2018

The observational constraints on the flat $ϕ$CDM models

Most dark energy models have the $Λ$CDM as their limit, and if future observations constrain our universe to be close to $Λ$CDM Bayesian arguments about the evidence and the fine-tuning will have to be employed to discriminate between the models. Assuming a baseline $Λ$CDM model we investigate a number of quintessence and phantom dark energy models, and we study how they would perform when compared to observational data, such as the expansion rate, the angular distance, and the growth rate measurements, from the upcoming Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. We sample posterior likelihood surfaces of these dark energy models with Monte Carlo Markov Chains while using central values consistent with the Planck $Λ$CDM universe and covariance matrices estimated with Fisher information matrix techniques. We find that for this setup the Bayes factor provides a substantial evidence in favor of the $Λ$CDM model over most of the alternatives. We also investigated how well the CPL parametrization approximates various scalar field dark energy models, and identified the location for each dark energy model in the CPL parameter space.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2018

E and B polarizations from inhomogeneous and solar surface turbulence

Gradient- and curl-type or E- and B-type polarizations have been routinely analyzed to study the physics contributing to the cosmic microwave background polarization and galactic foregrounds. They characterize the parity-even and parity-odd properties of the underlying physical mechanisms, for example hydromagnetic turbulence in the case of dust polarization. Here we study spectral correlation functions characterizing the parity-even and parity-odd parts of linear polarization for homogeneous and inhomogeneous turbulence to show that only the inhomogeneous helical case can give rise to a parity-odd polarization signal. We also study nonhelical turbulence and suggest that a strong nonvanishing (here negative) skewness of the E polarization is responsible for an enhanced ratio of the EE to the BB (quadratic) correlation in both helical and nonhelical cases. This could explain the enhanced EE/BB ratio observed recently for dust polarization. We close with a preliminary assessment of using linear polarization of the Sun to characterize its helical turbulence without being subjected to the pi ambiguity that magnetic inversion techniques have to address.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2018

Magnetism in the Early Universe

Blazar observations point toward the possible presence of magnetic fields over intergalactic scales of the order of up to $\sim1\,$Mpc, with strengths of at least $\sim10^{-16}\,$G. Understanding the origin of these large-scale magnetic fields is a challenge for modern astrophysics. Here we discuss the cosmological scenario, focussing on the following questions: (i) How and when was this magnetic field generated? (ii) How does it evolve during the expansion of the universe? (iii) Are the amplitude and statistical properties of this field such that they can explain the strengths and correlation lengths of observed magnetic fields? We also discuss the possibility of observing primordial turbulence through direct detection of stochastic gravitational waves in the mHz range accessible to LISA.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2018

Statistical Properties of Scale-Invariant Helical Magnetic Fields and Applications to Cosmology

We investigate the statistical properties of isotropic, stochastic, Gaussian distributed, helical magnetic fields characterized by different shapes of the energy spectra at large length scales and study the associated realizability condition. We discuss smoothed magnetic fields that are commonly used when the primordial magnetic field is constrained by observational data. We are particularly interested in scale-invariant magnetic fields that can be generated during the inflationary stage by quantum fluctuations. We determine the correlation length of such magnetic fields and relate it to the infrared cutoff of perturbations produced during inflation. We show that this scale determines the observational signatures of the inflationary magnetic fields on the cosmic microwave background. At smaller scales, the scale-invariant spectrum changes with time. It becomes a steeper weak-turbulence spectrum at progressively larger scales. We show numerically that the critical length scale where this happens is the turbulent-diffusive scale, which increases with the square root of time.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2017

Scale-invariant helical magnetic field evolution and the duration of inflation

We consider a scale-invariant helical magnetic field generated during inflation. We show that, if the mean magnetic helicity density of such a field is measured, it can be used to determine a lower bound on the duration of inflation. Upper bounds can be used to derive constraints on the minimal duration of inflation if one assumes that the magnetic field generated during inflation is helical. Using three-dimensional simulations, we show that an initially scale-invariant field develops, which is similar both with and without magnetic helicity. In the fully helical case, however, the magnetic field appears to have a more pronounced folded structure.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2017

Evolution of hydromagnetic turbulence from the electroweak phase transition

We present new simulations of decaying hydromagnetic turbulence for a relativistic equation of state relevant to the early universe. We compare helical and nonhelical cases either with kinetically or magnetically dominated initial fields. Both kinetic and magnetic initial helicities lead to maximally helical magnetic fields after some time, but with different temporal decay laws. Both are relevant to the early universe, although no mechanisms have yet been identified that produce magnetic helicity with strengths comparable to the big bang nucleosynthesis limit at scales comparable to the Hubble horizon at the electroweak phase transition. Nonhelical magnetically dominated fields could still produce picoGauss magnetic fields under most optimistic conditions. Only helical magnetic fields can potentially have nanoGauss strengths at scales up to 30 kpc today.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2017

The turbulent chiral-magnetic cascade in the early universe

The presence of asymmetry between fermions of opposite handedness in plasmas of relativistic particles can lead to exponential growth of a helical magnetic field via a small-scale chiral dynamo instability known as the chiral magnetic effect. Here, we show, using dimensional arguments and numerical simulations, that this process produces through the Lorentz force chiral magnetically driven turbulence. A k^{-2} magnetic energy spectrum emerges via inverse transfer over a certain range of wavenumbers k. The total chirality (magnetic helicity plus normalized chiral chemical potential) is conserved in this system. Therefore, as the helical magnetic field grows, most of the total chirality gets transferred into magnetic helicity until the chiral magnetic effect terminates. Quantitative results for height, slope, and extent of the spectrum are obtained. Consequences of this effect for cosmic magnetic fields are discussed.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2017

Classes of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulent decay

We perform numerical simulations of decaying hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We classify our time-dependent solutions by their evolutionary tracks in parametric plots between instantaneous scaling exponents. We find distinct classes of solutions evolving along specific trajectories toward points on a line of self-similar solutions. These trajectories are determined by the underlying physics governing individual cases, while the infrared slope of the initial conditions plays only a limited role. In the helical case, even for a scale-invariant initial spectrum (inversely proportional to wavenumber k), the solution evolves along the same trajectory as for a Batchelor spectrum (proportional to k^4.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2016

The evolution of primordial magnetic field since its generation

We study the evolution of primordial magnetic fields in an expanding cosmic plasma. For this purpose we present a comprehensive theoretical model to consider the evolution of MHD turbulence that can be used over a wide range of physical conditions, including cosmological and astrophysical applications. We model different types of decaying cosmic MHD turbulence in the expanding universe and characterize the large-scale magnetic fields in such a medium. Direct numerical simulations of freely decaying MHD turbulence are performed for different magnetogenesis scenarios: magnetic fields generated during cosmic inflation as well as electroweak and QCD phase transitions in the early universe. Magnetic fields and fluid motions are strongly coupled due to the high Reynolds number in the early universe. Hence, we abandon the simple adiabatic dilution model to estimate magnetic field amplitudes in the expanding universe and include turbulent mixing effects on the large-scale magnetic field evolution. Numerical simulations have been carried out for non-helical and helical magnetic field configurations. The numerical results show the possibility of inverse transfer of energy in magnetically dominated non-helical MHD turbulence. On the other hand, decay properties of helical turbulence depend on whether the turbulent magnetic field is in a weakly or a fully helical state. Our results show that primordial magnetic fields can be considered as a seed for the observed large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies and clusters. Bounds on the magnetic field strength are obtained and are consistent with the upper and lower limits set by observations of extragalactic magnetic fields.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2015

Testing Dark Energy Models through Large Scale Structure

We explore the scalar field quintessence freezing model of dark energy with the inverse Ratra-Peebles potential. We study the cosmic expansion and the large scale structure growth rate. We use recent measurements of the growth rate and the baryon acoustic oscillation peak positions to constrain the matter density $Ω_\mathrm{m}$ parameter and the model parameter $α$ that describes the steepness of the scalar field potential. We solve jointly the equations for the background expansion and for the growth rate of matter perturbations. The obtained theoretical results are compared with the observational data. We perform the Baysian data analysis to derive constraints on the model parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2015

Microwave Background Correlations from Dipole Anisotropy Modulation

Full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature reveal a 7% asymmetry of fluctuation power between two halves of the sky. A common phenomenological model for this asymmetry is an overall dipole modulation of statistically isotropic fluctuations, which produces particular off-diagonal correlations between multipole coefficients. We compute these correlations and construct corresponding estimators for the amplitude and direction of the dipole modulation. Applying these estimators to various cut-sky temperature maps from Planck and WMAP data shows consistency with a dipole modulation, differing from a null signal at 2.5$σ$, with an amplitude and direction consistent with previous fits based on the temperature fluctuation power. The signal is scale dependent, with a statistically significant amplitude at angular scales larger than 2 degrees. Future measurements of microwave background polarization and gravitational lensing can increase the significance of the signal. If the signal is not a statistical fluke in an isotropic Universe, it requires new physics beyond the standard model of cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

Nonhelical inverse transfer of a decaying turbulent magnetic field

In the presence of magnetic helicity, inverse transfer from small to large scales is well known in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and has applications in astrophysics, cosmology, and fusion plasmas. Using high resolution direct numerical simulations of magnetically dominated self-similarly decaying MHD turbulence, we report a similar inverse transfer even in the absence of magnetic helicity. We compute for the first time spectral energy transfer rates to show that this inverse transfer is about half as strong as with helicity, but in both cases the magnetic gain at large scales results from velocity at similar scales interacting with smaller-scale magnetic fields. This suggests that both inverse transfers are a consequence of a universal mechanisms for magnetically dominated turbulence. Possible explanations include inverse cascading of the mean squared vector potential associated with local near two-dimensionality and the shallower $k^2$ subinertial range spectrum of kinetic energy forcing the magnetic field with a $k^4$ subinertial range to attain larger-scale coherence. The inertial range shows a clear $k^{-2}$ spectrum and is the first example of fully isotropic magnetically dominated MHD turbulence exhibiting weak turbulence scaling.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

Primordial Magnetic Helicity Constraints from WMAP Nine-Year Data

If a primordial magnetic field in the universe has non-zero helicity, the violation of parity symmetry results in non-zero correlations between cosmic microwave background temperature and B-mode polarization. In this paper we derive approximations to the relevant microwave background power spectra arising from a helical magnetic field. Using the cross-power spectrum between temperature and B-mode polarization from the WMAP nine-year data, we set a 95\% confidence level upper limit on the helicity amplitude to be 10 nG$^2$ Gpc for helicity spectral index $n_H = -1.9$, for a cosmological magnetic field with effective field strength of 3 nG and a power-law index $n_B = -2.9$ near the scale-invariant value. Future microwave background polarization maps with greater sensitivity will be able to detect the helicity of an inflationary magnetic field well below the maximum value allowed by microwave background constraints on the magnetic field amplitude.

astro-ph.CO↗