非微扰的极早期宇宙现象学: 共振的原初扰动与非高斯尾巴

在精确宇宙学的时代, 多信使、高精度、小尺度的宇宙学观测在帮助人们从更加深刻的层面理解宇宙极早期的同时, 也给基于线性近似和微扰展开宇宙学扰动理论带来了新的挑战. 近年来, 对原初引力波和原初黑洞的搜寻使得研究人员们对早期宇宙在小尺度上的非线性非微扰过程产生了浓厚的研究兴趣. 综述了在宇宙学小尺度上关于原初黑洞产生以及引力波研究取得的诸多进展, 重点关注了使用Mathieu方程的共振效应来研究小尺度功率谱放大以及诱导产生可观测的原初引力波的方法. 此外, 还尝试探讨了非高斯尾巴对原初黑洞形成的影响. 发现Mathieu方程所具备的共振效应可以提供一种有效的方法来刻画原初宇宙中小尺度的非微扰动力学过程, 从而能够更好地理解原初黑洞的形成以及相关的引力波产生机制. 同时, 非微扰的非高斯性在原初黑洞形成中可能会产生不可忽视的影响.     

The transparency of the Universe limited by Lyα clouds

The brightnesses of supernovae are commonly understood to indicate that cosmological expansion is accelerating due to dark energy. However the entire discussion presumes a perfectly transparent universe because no effects of reddening associated with the interstellar extinction law are seen. We note that with two kinds of dark matter (baryonic and nonbaryonic) strongly dominating the known mass of the universe, it is seriously premature to assume that these dark matter components have not reduced the transmission of the universe for cosmological sources. We show that the long‐known Lyα clouds, if nucleated by the population of baryonic dark matter primordial planetoids indicated by quasar microlensing, would act as spherical lenses and achromatically fade cosmologically distant sources. We attempt to estimate the amount of this cosmological fading, but ultimately the calculation is limited by lack of a satisfactory model for the tenuous outer parts of a primordial planetoid. We also consider the effects of such cosmological fading on the light of quasars. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A primordial cosmological scenario with two scalar fields and matter

The presence of matter in its different forms in a hexadimensional space-time, where gravitation is coupled to a conformal field, generates a class of cosmological solutions with very peculiar features: the initial proper distance between any two points of the space-time is infinite, following successive contraction and expansion phases in the evolution of the Universe. This behaviour defines a Anti-Big Bang Singular Cosmology. In this article we analyze this primordial cosmological scenario considering different matter forms and the effects of a Conformal Transformation on the metric.     

Black Hole in a Radiation-Dominated Universe

We study a black hole in an expanding Universe during the radiation-dominated stage. In particular, such a black hole may be of the primordial origin. In the case when the black hole radius is much smaller than the cosmological horizon, we found a self-consistent solution for the metric and the matter distribution and its velocity far from the black hole. At distances much smaller than the cosmological horizon our solution coincides with the previously obtained solution for quasi-stationary accretion. Our results can be applied, in particular, for the formation of dark matter density spikes around primordial black holes, and for the evolution of dark matter clumps during the radiation-dominated stage.     

Cluster magnetic fields from galactic outflows

We performed cosmological, magnetohydrodynamical simulations to follow the evolution of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, exploring the possibility that the origin of the magnetic seed fields is galactic outflows during the starburst phase of galactic evolution. To do this, we coupled a semi-analytical model for magnetized galactic winds as suggested by Bertone, Vogt & Enßlin to our cosmological simulation. We find that the strength and structure of magnetic fields observed in galaxy clusters are well reproduced for a wide range of model parameters for the magnetized, galactic winds and do only weakly depend on the exact magnetic structure within the assumed galactic outflows. Although the evolution of a primordial magnetic seed field shows no significant differences to that of galaxy cluster fields from previous studies, we find that the magnetic field pollution in the diffuse medium within filaments is below the level predicted by scenarios with pure primordial magnetic seed field. We therefore conclude that magnetized galactic outflows and their subsequent evolution within the intracluster medium can fully account for the observed magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. Our findings also suggest that measuring cosmological magnetic fields in low-density environments such as filaments is much more useful than observing cluster magnetic fields to infer their possible origin.     

The search for primordial quark nuggets among near Earth asteroids

Primordial Quark Nuggets, remnants of the quark-hadron phase transition, may be hiding most of the baryon number in superdense chunks have been discussed for years always from the theoretical point of view. While they seemed originally fragile at intermediate cosmological temperatures, it became increasingly clear that they may survive due to a variety of effects affecting their evaporation (surface and volume) rates. A search of these objects have never been attempted to elucidate their existence. We discuss in this note how to search directly for cosmological fossil nuggets among the small asteroids approaching Earth. ‘Asteroids’ with a high visible-to-infrared flux ratio, constant lightcurves and devoid of spectral features are signals of an actual possible nugget nature. A viable search of very definite primordial quark nugget features can be conducted as a spinoff of the ongoing/forthcoming NEAs observation programmes.     

Neutrinos in the early universe

The neutrinos from the Big Bang or the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) carry precious information from the early epoch when our universe was only 1 s old. Although not yet directly detected, CNB may be revealed indirectly through cosmological observations due to neutrino important cosmological influence.We review the cosmological role of neutrinos and the cosmological constraints on neutrino characteristics. Namely, we discuss the impact of neutrinos in the early universe: the cosmic expansion, neutrino decoupling, the role of neutrinos in the primordial production of light elements, leptogenesis, etc. We briefly discuss the role of neutrino at later stages of the universe.Due to the considerable cosmological influence of neutrinos, cosmological bounds on neutrino properties from observational data exist. We review the cosmological constraints on the effective number of neutrino species, neutrino mass and mixing parameters, lepton number of the universe, presence of sterile neutrino, etc.     

Primordial black holes

Primordial black holes(PBHs) are a profound signature of primordial cosmological structures and provide a theoretical tool to study nontrivial physics of the early Universe.The mechanisms of PBH formation are discussed and observational constraints on the PBH spectrum,or effects of PBH evaporation,are shown to restrict a wide range of particle physics models,predicting an enhancement of the ultraviolet part of the spectrum of density perturbations,early dust-like stages,first order phase transitions and stages of superheavy metastable particle dominance in the early Universe.The mechanism of closed wall contraction can lead,in the inflationary Universe,to a new approach to galaxy formation,involving primordial clouds of massive BHs created around the intermediate mass or supermassive BH and playing the role of galactic seeds.     

Turbulence in cosmology

On the basis of the theory set out in Papers I and II (Marochniket al., 1975a, b), the kinetic equations for the spectra of classical and quantum short-wave turbulences have been obtained, taking account of the influence of the latter on the process of cosmological expansion of a homogeneous and, on average, isotropic Universe. The equilibrium and stationary spectra of the turbulence do not change the form of the cosmological solution found in II. The latter change if the spectra are non-stationary, or if the dissipation is taken into account. It is possible that a situation exists in which the primordial short-wave turbulence, having had a significant influence on the early metric, would not be observable at the present time. Quantum turbulence has been studied. Its influence on the metric may be significant only near the Planckian timet _g.     

Can non-linear structure form at the era of decoupling?

The effects of large-scale fluctuations on small-scale isothermal modes at the epoch of recombination are analysed. We find the following. (a) Albeit the fact that primordial fluctuations were at this epoch still well in the linear regime, a significant non-linear radiation hydrodynamic interaction could have taken place. (b) Short-wavelength isothermal fluctuations are unstable. Their growth rate is an exponential function of the amplitude of the large-scale fluctuations and is therefore very sensitive to the initial conditions. (c) The observed cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) fluctuations are of order of the limit above which the effect should be significant. Thus, depending on their exact value, the effect may be negligible or lead to structure formation out of the isothermal fluctuations within the period of recombination. (d) If the cosmological parameters are within the prescribed regime, the effect should be detectable through induced deviations in the Planck spectrum. (e) The sensitivity of the effect to the initial conditions provides a tool to set limits on various cosmological parameters with emphasis on the type and amplitude of the primordial fluctuation spectrum. (f) Under proper conditions, the effect may be responsible for the formation of sub-globular-cluster sized objects at particularly high redshifts. (g) Under certain circumstances, it can also affect horizon-sized large-scale structure.     

Dark matter density spikes around primordial black holes

We show that density spikes begin to form from dark matter particles around primordial black holes immediately after their formation at the radiation-dominated cosmological stage. This stems from the fact that in the thermal velocity distribution of particles there are particles with low velocities that remain in finite orbits around black holes and are not involved in the cosmological expansion. The accumulation of such particles near black holes gives rise to density spikes. These spikes are considerably denser than those that are formed later by the mechanism of secondary accretion. The density spikes must be bright gamma-ray sources. Comparison of the calculated signal from particle annihilation with the Fermi-LAT data constrains the present-day cosmological density parameter for primordial black holes with masses M _BH ≥ 10^?8 M _⊙ from above by values from Ω_BH ≤ 1 to Ω_BH ≤ 10?8, depending on MBH. These constraints are several orders of magnitude more stringent than other known constraints.     

Cosmic microwave background constraints on the epoch of reionization

We use a compilation of cosmic microwave anisotropy data to constrain the epoch of reionization in the Universe, as a function of cosmological parameters. We consider spatially flat cosmologies, varying the matter density Ω₀ (the flatness being restored by a cosmological constant), the Hubble parameter h and the spectral index n of the primordial power spectrum. Our results are quoted both in terms of the maximum permitted optical depth to the last-scattering surface, and in terms of the highest allowed reionization redshift assuming instantaneous reionization. For critical-density models, significantly tilted power spectra are excluded as they cannot fit the current data for any amount of reionization, and even scale-invariant models must have an optical depth to last scattering of below 0.3. For the currently favoured low-density model with Ω₀=0.3 and a cosmological constant, the earliest reionization permitted to occur is at around redshift 35, which roughly coincides with the highest estimate in the literature. We provide general fitting functions for the maximum permitted optical depth, as a function of cosmological parameters. We do not consider the inclusion of tensor perturbations, but if present they would strengthen the upper limits that we quote.     

Two populations of metal-free stars in the early Universe

We construct star formation histories at redshifts z ≳ 5 for two physically distinct populations of primordial, metal-free stars, motivated by theoretical and observational arguments that have hinted towards the existence of an intermediate stellar generation between Population III and Population I/II. Taking into account the cosmological parameters as recently revised by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe after three years of operation, we determine self-consistent reionization histories and discuss the resulting chemical enrichment from these early stellar generations. We find that the bulk of ionizing photons and heavy elements produced at high redshifts must have originated in Population II.5 stars, which formed out of primordial gas in haloes with virial temperatures ≳10⁴ K, and had typical masses ≳10 M_⊙. Classical Population III stars, formed in minihaloes and having masses ≳100 M_⊙, on the other hand, had only a minor impact on reionization and early metal enrichment. Specifically, we conclude that only ≃10 per cent by mass of metal-free star formation went into Population III.     

The clustering of galaxy clusters in cosmological models with non-Gaussian initial conditions: predictions for future surveys

We predict the biasing and clustering properties of galaxy clusters that are expected to be observed in the catalogues produced by two forthcoming X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect surveys. We study a set of flat cosmological models where the primordial density probability distribution shows deviations from Gaussianity in agreement with current observational bounds form the background radiation. We consider both local and equilateral shapes for the primordial bispectrum in non-Gaussian models. The two catalogues investigated are those produced by the e ROSITA wide survey and from a survey based on South Pole Telescope observations. It turns out that both the bias and observed power spectrum of galaxy clusters are severely affected in non-Gaussian models with local shape of the primordial bispectrum, especially at large scales. On the other hand, models with equilateral shape of the primordial bispectrum show only a mild effect at all scales, that is difficult to be detected with clustering observations. Between the two catalogues, the one performing better is the e ROSITA one, since it contains only the largest masses that are more sensitive to primordial non-Gaussianity.     

Cosmological magnetic fields: their generation,evolution and observation

We review the possible mechanisms for the generation of cosmological magnetic fields, discuss their evolution in an expanding Universe filled with the cosmic plasma and provide a critical review of the literature on the subject. We put special emphasis on the prospects for observational tests of the proposed cosmological magnetogenesis scenarios using radio and gamma-ray astronomy and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. We argue that primordial magnetic fields are observationally testable. They lead to magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium with magnetic field strength and correlation length in a well defined range.We also state the unsolved questions in this fascinating open problem of cosmology and propose future observations to address them.     

What helicity can tell us about solar magnetic fields

Concept of magnetic/current helicity was introduced to solar physics about 15 years ago. Earlier studies led to discovery of such fundamental properties as hemispheric helicity rule, and role of helicity in magnetic reconnection and solar eruptions. Later, the concept was successfully applied in studies of different solar processes from solar dynamo to flare and CME phenomena. Although no silver bullet, helicity has proven to be a very useful “tool” in answering many still-puzzling questions about origin and evolution of solar magnetic fields. I present an overview of some helicity studies and briefly analyze their findings.     

Magnetized chameleonic Brans-Dicke cosmology and phase space analysis

This paper deals with the study of dynamical or phase space analysis of Bianchi I universe in Brans-Dicke gravity with chameleon scalar field. For this purpose, the matter contents are taken to be perfect fluid with magnetic field effects described by the non-linear Maxwell Lagrangian density. By taking some ansatz for the field potential and the interaction function in chameleon cosmology, we discuss three cases: Bianchi I universe with perfect fluid, FRW universe with magnetized perfect fluid and Bianchi I universe with magnetized perfect fluid. In all cases, we calculate fixed or critical points and discuss stability of the respective configuration for radiation as well as matter dominated eras. We also evaluate some cosmological parameters in each case for matter dominated era only and investigate their cosmological implications.     

Particle creation in pre-big-bang cosmology

We present some phenomenological aspects of the pre-big-bang cosmological model inspired by the duality properties of string theory. In particular, assuming the spatial sections of the homogeneous background geometry to be isotropic, we discuss the quantum production of perturbations of the background fields (gravitons, dilatons, moduli fields), as well as the production of particles which do not contribute to the background, which we call “seeds”. As such we consider the cases of electromagnetic and axionic seeds. We also discuss their possible observational consequences, for example, we study whether they can provide the origin of primordial galactic magnetic fields, and whether they can generate the initial fluctuations leading to the formation of large-scale structure and the measured cosmic microwave background anisotropies. We finally analyze axion and photon production in four dimensional anisotropic pre-big-bang cosmological models.     

Two-photon 2s ↔ 1s transitions during hydrogen recombination in the universe

Based on the standard cosmological model, we calculate the correction to the rate of two-photon 2s ? 1s transitions in the hydrogen atom under primordial hydrogen plasma recombination conditions that arises when the induced transitions under equilibrium background radiation with a blackbody spectrum and plasma recombination radiation are taken into account.