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Tomo Takahashi

Publications and source records attributed to Tomo Takahashi.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Spectator field models in light of spectral index after Planck

We revisit spectator field models including curvaton and modulated reheating scenarios, specifically focusing on their viability in the new Planck era, based on the derived expression for the spectral index in general spectator field models. Importantly, the recent Planck observations give strong preference to a red-tilted power spectrum, while the spectator field models tend to predict a scale-invariant one. This implies that, during inflation, either (i) the Hubble parameter varies significantly as in chaotic inflation, or (ii) a scalar potential for the spectator field has a relatively large negative curvature. Combined with the tight constraint on the non-Gaussianity, the Planck data provides us with rich implications for various spectator field models.

astro-ph.CO↗

Large Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Small-Field Inflation

We show that density perturbations seeded by the inflaton can be suppressed when having additional light degrees of freedom contributing to the production of perturbations. The inflaton fluctuations affect the light field dynamics by modulating the length of the inflationary period, hence produce additional density perturbations in the post-inflationary era. Such perturbations can cancel those generated during inflation as both originate from the same inflaton fluctuations. This allows production of large gravitational waves from small-field inflation, which is normally forbidden by the Lyth bound on the inflaton field excursion. We also find that the field bound is taken over by the light scalar when the inflaton-induced perturbations are suppressed, thus present a generalized form of the Lyth bound that applies to the total field space.

astro-ph.CO↗

Mixed Inflaton and Spectator Field Models after Planck

We investigate the possibility that the primordial perturbation has two sources: the inflaton and a spectator field, which is not dynamically important during inflation but which after inflation can contribute to the curvature perturbation. The recent Planck results on the power spectrum and non-Gaussianity allow us to put constraints on such mixed models. In the generic case, where no specific model for the inflaton or the spectator is assumed, one finds that in the mixed scenario it is possible to have a large trispectrum with tau_NL >> (f_NL)^2. The constraints on inflation models in the plane of the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio are modified by the presence of a spectator and depend also on the ratio of the spectator-to-inflaton power R. If one chooses the spectator to be the curvaton with a quadratic potential, non-Gaussianities can be computed and imply restrictions on possible values of R. We also consider a mixed curvaton and chaotic inflation model and show that even quartic chaotic inflation is still feasible in the context of mixed models.

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Early Universe Tomography with CMB and Gravitational Waves

We discuss how one can reconstruct the thermal history of the Universe by combining cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and gravitational wave (GW) direct detection experiments. Assuming various expansion eras to take place after the inflationary reheating and before Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), we show how measurements of the GW spectrum can be used to break the degeneracies associated with CMB data, the latter being sensitive to the total amount of cosmic expansion only. In this context, we argue that the expected constraints from future CMB and GW experiments can probe a scenario in which there exists late-time entropy production in addition to the standard reheating. We show that, for some cases, combining data from future CMB and GW direct detection experiments allows the determination of the reheating temperature, the amount of entropy produced and the temperature at which the standard radiation era started.

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Implications of Planck results for models with local type non-Gaussianity

We discuss implications of Planck results for models with local type non-Gaussianity. In light of the recent results of the Planck satellite, we constrain model parameters of several representative models and give the prediction of trispectrum, in particular, gNL. We also consider interesting possibilities that trispectrum appears as the first signature of the non-Gaussianities of the curvature perturbations, that is, fNL is small while gNL can be significantly large.

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CMB constraint on non-Gaussianity in isocurvature perturbations

We study the CMB constraint on non-Gaussianity in CDM isocurvature perturbations. Non-Gaussian isocurvature perturbations can be produced in various models at the very early stage of the Universe. Since the isocurvature perturbations little affect the structure formation at late times, CMB is the best probe of isocurvature non-Gaussianity at least in the near future. In this paper, we focus on uncorrelated isocurvature perturbations and constrain their non-Gaussianity. For this purpose, we employ several state-of-art techniques for the analysis of CMB data and simulation. We use the WMAP 7 year data of temperature anisotropy. When the adiabatic perturbations are assumed to be Gaussian, we obtained a constraint on the isocurvature non-Gaussianity alpha^2 f_{NL}^{(ISO)}=40+-66 for the scale invariant isocurvature power spectrum, where alpha is the ratio of the power spectrum of isocurvature perturbations to that of the adiabatic ones. When we assume that the adiabatic perturbations can also be non-Gaussian, we obtain f_{NL}=38+-24 and alpha^2 f_{NL}^{(ISO)}=-8+-72. We also discuss implications our results for the axion CDM isocurvature model.

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Density Perturbations from Modulated Decay of the Curvaton

We study density perturbations, including their non-Gaussianity, in models in which the decay rate of the curvaton depends on another light scalar field, denoted the modulaton. Although this model shares some similarities with the standard curvaton and modulated reheating scenarios, it exhibits interesting predictions for f_NL and g_NL that are specific to this model. We also discuss the possibility that both modulaton and curvaton fluctuations contribute to the final curvature perturbation. Our results naturally include the standard curvaton and modulated reheating scenarios as specific limits and are thus useful to present a unified treatment of these models and their variants.

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Structure of Dark Matter Halos in Warm Dark Matter models and in models with Long-Lived Charged Massive Particles

We study the formation of non-linear structures in Warm Dark Matter (WDM) models and in a Long-Lived Charged Massive Particle (CHAMP) model. CHAMPs with a decay lifetime of about 1 yr induce characteristic suppression in the matter power spectrum at subgalactic scales through acoustic oscillations in the thermal background. We explore structure formation in such a model. We also study three WDM models, where the dark matter particles are produced through the following mechanisms: i) WDM particles are produced in the thermal background and then kinematically decoupled; ii) WDM particles are fermions produced by the decay of thermal heavy bosons; and iii) WDM particles are produced by the decay of non-relativistic heavy particles. We show that the linear matter power spectra for the three models are all characterised by the comoving Jeans scale at the matter-radiation equality. Furthermore, we can also describe the linear matter power spectrum for the Long-Lived CHAMP model in terms of a suitably defined characteristic cut-off scale k_{Ch}, similarly to the WDM models. We perform large cosmological N-body simulations to study the non-linear growth of structures in these four models. We compare the halo mass functions, the subhalo mass functions, and the radial distributions of subhalos in simulated Milky Way-size halos. We study the models with k_{cut}=51, 410, 820 h/Mpc, and confirm that these statistics are indeed similar between the different WDM models and the Long-Lived CHAMP model. The result suggests that the cut-off scale k_{cut} not only characterises the linear power spectra but also can be used to predict the non-linear clustering properties. The radial distribution of subhalos in Milky Way-size halos is consistent with the observed distribution for k_{cut}~50-800 h/Mpc; such models resolve the so-called "missing satellite problem".

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Extended analysis of CMB constraints on non-Gaussianity in isocurvature perturbations

We study CMB constraints on non-Gaussianity from isocurvature perturbations of general types. Specifically, we study CDM/neutrino isocurvature perturbations which are uncorrelated or totally correlated with adiabatic ones. Using the data from the WMAP 7-year observation at V and W bands, we obtained optimal constraints on the nonlinearity parameters of adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations. Our result shows that primordial perturbations are consistent with Gaussian ones at around 2 sigma level for above mentioned isocurvature modes.

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Generalized Higgs inflation

We study Higgs inflation in the context of generalized G-inflation, i.e. the most general single-field inflation model with second-order field equations. The four variants of Higgs inflation proposed so far in the literature can be accommodated at one time in our framework. We also propose yet another class of Higgs inflation, the running Einstein inflation model, that can naturally arise from the generalized G-inflation framework. As a result, five Higgs inflation models in all should be discussed on an equal footing. Concise formulas for primordial fluctuations in these generalized Higgs inflation models are provided, which will be helpful to determine which model is favored from the future experiments and observations such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Planck satellite.

hep-ph↗

Runnings in the Curvaton

We investigate the scale-dependence, or the runnings, of linear and second order density perturbations generated in various curvaton scenarios. We argue that the second order perturbations, i.e. non-Gaussianity, can strongly depend on the scale, even when the linear perturbations are nearly scale-invariant. We present analytic formulae for the runnings from curvatons with general energy potentials, and clarify the conditions under which fNL becomes strongly scale-dependent. From the point of view of the fNL running, curvaton potentials can be classified into roughly two categories by whether the potential flattens or steepens compared to a quadratic one. As such examples, we study pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone curvatons, and self-interacting curvatons, respectively. The dynamics of non-quadratic curvatons and the behaviors of the resulting density perturbations are clarified by analytical methods. Then we also study models where multiple source can be responsible for density perturbations such as the multi-curvaton, and mixed curvaton and inflaton models where the running of fNL can also be large due to their multi-source nature. We make quantitative analysis for each curvaton scenario and discuss in what cases the scale-dependence, in particular, of fNL can be large enough to be probed with future CMB experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗

Dark Radiation from Modulated Reheating

We show that the modulated reheating mechanism can naturally account for dark radiation, whose existence is hinted by recent observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the primordial Helium abundance. In this mechanism, the inflaton decay rate depends on a light modulus which acquires almost scale-invariant quantum fluctuations during inflation. We find that the light modulus is generically produced by the inflaton decay and therefore a prime candidate for the dark radiation. Interestingly, an almost scale-invariant power spectrum predicted in the modulated reheating mechanism gives a better fit to the observation in the presence of the extra radiation. We discuss the production mechanism of the light modulus in detail taking account of its associated isocurvature fluctuations. We also consider a case where the modulus becomes the dominant component of dark matter.

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Strongly scale-dependent polyspectra from curvaton self-interactions

We study the scale dependence of the non-linearity parameters f_NL and g_NL in curvaton models with self-interactions. We show that the spectral indices n_fNL=d ln|f_NL|/(d ln k) and n_gNL=d ln |g_NL|/(d ln k) can take values much greater than the slow--roll parameters and the spectral index of the power spectrum. This means that the scale--dependence of the bi and trispectrum could be easily observable in this scenario with Planck, which would lead to tight additional constraints on the model. Inspite of the highly non-trivial behaviour of f_NL and g_NL in the curvaton models with self-interactions, we find that the model can be falsified if g_NL(k) is also observed.

astro-ph.CO↗

Differentiating CDM and Baryon Isocurvature Models with 21 cm Fluctuations

We discuss how one can discriminate models with cold dark matter (CDM) and baryon isocurvature fluctuations. Although current observations such as cosmic microwave background (CMB) can severely constrain the fraction of such isocurvature modes in the total density fluctuations, CMB cannot differentiate CDM and baryon modes by the shape of its power spectra. However, the evolution of CDM and baryon density fluctuations are different for each model, thus it would be possible to discriminate those isocurvature modes by extracting information on the fluctuations of CDM/baryon itself. We discuss that observations of 21 cm fluctuations can in principle differentiate these modes and demonstrate to what extent we can distinguish them with future 21 cm surveys. We show that, when the isocurvature mode has a large blue-tilted initial spectrum, 21 cm survey can clearly probe the difference.

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Higher Order Corrections to the Primordial Gravitational Wave Spectrum and its Impact on Parameter Estimates for Inflation

We study the impact of the use of the power series expression for the primordial tensor spectrum on parameter estimation from future direct detection gravitational wave experiments. The spectrum approximated by the power series expansion may give large deviation from the true (fiducial) value when it is normalized at CMB scale because of the large separation between CMB and direct detection scales. We derive the coefficients of the higher order terms of the expansion up to the sixth order within the framework of the slow-roll approximation and investigate how well the inclusion of higher order terms improves the analytic prediction of the spectrum amplitude by comparing with numerical results. Using the power series expression, we consider future constraints on inflationary parameters expected from direct detection experiments of the inflationary gravitational wave background and show that the truncation of the higher order terms can lead to incorrect evaluation of the parameters. We present two example models; a quadratic chaotic inflation model and mixed inflaton and curvaton model with a quartic inflaton potential.

astro-ph.CO↗

Scale-dependence of Non-Gaussianity in the Curvaton Model

We investigate the scale-dependence of f_NL in the self-interacting curvaton model. We show that the scale-dependence, encoded in the spectral index n_{f_NL}, can be observable by future cosmic microwave background observations, such as CMBpol, in a significant part of the parameter space of the model. We point out that together with information about the trispectrum g_NL, the self-interacting curvaton model parameters could be completely fixed by observations. We also discuss the scale-dependence of g_NL and its implications for the curvaton model, arguing that it could provide a complementary probe in cases where the theoretical value of n_{f_NL} is below observational sensitivity.

astro-ph.CO↗

Primordial Trispectrum from Isocurvature Fluctuations

We study non-Gaussianity generated by adiabatic and isocurvature primordial perturbations. We first obtain, in a very general setting, the non-linear perturbations, up to third order, for an arbitrary number of cosmological fluids, going through one or several decay transitions. We then apply this formalism to the mixed curvaton and inflaton model, allowing for several decay channels. We compute the various contributions to the bispectrum and trispectrum resulting from adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations, which are correlated in general. By investigating some hybrid decay scenario, we show that significant non-Gaussianity of adiabatic and isocurvature types can be generated without conflicting with the present isocurvature constraints from the power spectrum. In particular, we find cases where non-Gaussianity of isocurvature origin can dominate its adiabatic counterpart, both in the bispectrum and in the trispectrum.

astro-ph.CO↗

On Classification of Models of Large Local-Type Non-Gaussianity

We classify models generating large local-type non-Gaussianity into some categories by using some "consistency relations" among the non-linearity parameters f_{NL}^{local}, τ_{NL}^{local} and g_{NL}^{local}, which characterize the size of bispectrum for the former and trispectrum for the later two. Then we discuss how one can discriminate models of large local-type non-Gaussianity with such relations. We first classify the models by using the ratio of τ_{NL}^{local}/(6f_{NL}^{local}/5)^2, which is unity for "single-source" models and deviates from unity for "multi-source" ones. We can make a further classification of models in each category by utilizing the relation between f_{NL}^{local} and g_{NL}^{local}. Our classification suggests that observations of trispectrum would be very helpful to distinguish models of large non-Gaussianity and may reveal the generation mechanism of primordial fluctuations.

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