Cosmology Meeting 2005

Program and Abstracts

Program

We remind the participants that the short talks are intended to be 25 + 5 minute talks.

The meeting will start on Tuesday 5th with a welcome by the vice-chancellor on research at 9h45 in the Carmen de la Victoria

 

Tuesday 5 April
Wednesday 6 April
Thursday 7 April
  Friday 8 April
10h00 - 11h00
Julien Lesgourgues Enrique Gaztañaga Vicent Quilis Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente
11h00 - 11h45
COFFEE
11h45 - 12h15
Eduardo Battaner Andrés Balaguera Mariam Bouhmadi
Elie Chachoua
12h15 - 12h45
Erandy Ramírez Valeria Kagramanova
 Shahram Jalalzadeh
Inma Domínguez
12h45 - 13h15
María Beltrán Matteo Viel Diego N. Pelliccia José A. Jiménez
13h15 - 15h30
LUNCH
15h30 - 16h00
David Lyth Viviana Acquaviva Germán Olivares
16h00 - 16h30
Yeinzon Rodríguez Irit Maor Arjun Berera
16h30 - 17h00
COFFEE
17h00 - 17h30
Marc Manera Alvaro Domínguez Osamu Seto
17h30 - 18h00
HEP seminar at 18h00
Welcome drink at 19h15
José Gaite Antonio Seguí

 
High Energy Physics group Seminar:
On Tuesday  5th of April at 18h00, there is a seminar of the  High Energy Group by Prof. Harald Fritzsch (Univ. Muenchen) on
"Fundamental Constants- Do they depend on time?"
 Using the information from astrophysics that alpha depends on time we calculate within grand unification that the QCD scale should also depend on time. The effect could be tested in experiments done in quantum optics. The results of the Munich experiment are also discussed

The seminar is held at the Science Faculty, in the seminar room of the Theoretical Physics Departments  (first floor) . Participants to the Cosmology Meeting are all cordially invited.


Welcome Drink:
On Tuesday  5th of April from 19h15 onwards, all participants of the Cosmology Meeting are invited to the Welcome Drink, offered by the Dean of the Faculty of Science, in the Faculty building in the Campus de Fuentenueva, in front of the Hotel Granada Center. (For directions on how to get to the faculty, we refer to the main page).


Talks and Abstracts

Viviana Acquaviva: Weak lensing and cosmic acceleration
The nature of the observed cosmic acceleration is one of the most puzzling and fascinating issues of cosmology. We have chosen to investigate the nature of dark energy through the weak lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which we regard as a most suitable tool due to its being especially sensitive to the dynamics at the onset of the acceleration. We have extended the theory of weak lensing to a wide class of models beyond the concordance \Lambda CDM one, thus including as sources of acceleration both quintessence scalar fields, modifications of Einstein-Hilbert gravity or a combinations of the two, and we have set up a numerical code generating the fully lensed spectra of the CMB in all these scenarios. We show how these models give raise to different lensed spectra, with particular regard to the B-modes spectrum, which is almost entirely due to the lensing process at intermediate and high multipoles,and is therefore the best candidate for discriminating among different models.

Andrés Balaguera Antolinez: Equilibrium of astrophysical structures in expanding universe
The actual acceleration of the universe can be understood in principle through the inclusion of a positive cosmological constant. The virialization of large astrophysical structures takes place under different conditions depending on the cosmological model used. Once a system is virialized, we can write down the virial conditions for gravitational equilibrium not only in terms of the cosmological constant, but also in terms of the parameters involved in models that mimic the cosmological constant at the present time, such as the Chaplygin gas. We show that the angular velocity of flat astrophysical rotating objects gets affected considerably in gravitational equilibrium if the universe is accelerated. We also study the stability criteria under small perturbations about the equilibrium configuration. The inclusion of a positive cosmological in this analysis constrains the equation of state in a stringent way if the astrophysical object under consideration is not too dense.

Eduardo Battaner: The PLANCK mission
PLANCK is mainly designed to measure CMB, though other astrophysical objectives will be also covered. The high sensitivity, spectral coverage, spatial resolution and polarization renders PLANCK a unique opportunity for observational Cosmology.

María Beltrán:
Cosmological Parameter determination and Model Selection
Recent measurements of the CMB and LSS have made it possible to put stringent bounds on cosmological parameters. Not much attention has been directed however to the higher-level inference problem of model selection in cosmology. We use a data set comprised of WMAP and other CMB data, the 2dF and SDSS power spectra, and Type Ia supernovae data to constrain isocurvature parameters as well as to perform model selection using Bayesian techniques.

Arjun Berera:
Warm inflation in supersymmetric models
Recent, detailed, quantum field theory calculations have shown that many generic inflation models, including hybrid inflation, which were believed only to have cold inflation regimes, in fact have regimes of both warm and cold inflation. These results dispel many foregone assumptions generally made up to now about inflation models and bring to the fore various elementary issues that must be addressed to do reliable calculations from inflation models. In this talk I discuss these results and issues. I then show that warm inflation has intrinsic model independent features that makes it natural or equivalently have no ``eta problem''. I apply these results to show warm inflation regimes in well known supersymmetric models.
 
Mariam Bouhmadi López: On Brane-World Induced Gravity
We investigate non-minimal coupling to the Ricci curvature of a scalar field on a four-dimensional (4D) brane and the effect this may have on the scalar field dynamics and cosmological evolution. We deduce the gravitational equations of a 4D brane with an induced gravity term coupled to a scalar field, in a 5D bulk with a cosmological constant. On the other hand, we study the gravitational waves in the setup of brane-world inflation with induced gravity, where the inflaton is confined on the 4D brane and is minimally coupled to the Ricci curvature of the 4D brane.

Elie Chachoua: Rigidity and Stability of cold dark solid universe model
This talk describes recent progress on the solid universe model consisting of a foam like distribution of cosmic membranes. Since such a model is characterised by a negative pressure to density ratio, w=-2/3, it has been suggested by Bucher and Spergel that it may account for the observed cosmological acceleration. However in order to be stable such a system must have a sufficiently high rigidity. Until recently it was not clear whether this condition would be satisfied. The new work presented here provides an exact numerical evaluation of the rigidity modulus and the confirmation that it is indeed sufficiently large for the model to be viable.

Alvaro Domínguez: Modelling subresolution scales in N-body simulations
N-body simulations of large-scale structure formation suffer from the intrinsic problem of a finite resolution. We present a model of the dynamical influence of subresolution degrees of freedom and the result of two simulations incorporating them. The morphological and kinematical properties of the matter distribution are quantified and compared to those of two standard simulations (cold DM and warm DM). A preliminary conclusion is that the subresolution corrections favor the formation of more low-mass clusters and the gain of angular momentum.

Inmaculada Domínguez:  Accuracy of Type Ia Supernovae as standard candles
Observational hints indicate a dependence of the SN Ia properties with the populations from which they come from. This may imply the existence of evolutionary effects, which is the main concern for a standard candle.  Based on our detailed 1D models of progenitor evolution, explosions and light curves, we have analyzed the influence of the mass and metallicity of progenitors and of the white dwarf rotational properties on the SN light curves. Our results do not question the existence of the dark energy. The obtained differences at maximum light (0.2 mag) are within the dispersion of the maximum-decline relation (0.17 mag) used to infer the luminosity  at maximum and, hence, the distances.  However, a precision of 0.05 to 0.1 mag is required to identify the nature of the dark energy. In this case, rotation and evolutionary effect should be taken into account to increase the accuracy in the distance determinations. A complete understanding of thermonuclear supernovae is fundamental for their use as cosmological standard candles. In this context, we revise the current situation of the numerical simulations of the various phases.

José Gaite: Haloes and clustering in cosmological simulations: multifractal methods
We study N-body cosmological simulations to compare the halo model of large-scale structure with fractal models.  We show that both models can be combined in a model consisting of a fractal distribution of haloes. Furthermore,  we show that the multifractal analysis of N-body simulations supports this model.

Enrique Gaztañaga: Large scale structure with wide field galaxy surveys
I will review recent and future results on large scale structure using wide field galaxy redshift and photometric surveys, such as SDSS, 2dFGRS and the future DES (Dark Energy Survey). The combination of 2-point and 3-point correlation functions have been used to study at the same time the nature of the initial conditions and the subsequent process of gravitational instability and galaxy formation. The data can be use to estimate dark matter and dark energy. Current results are alredy precise enough to constraint some of the degeneracies in the models, such as the value of sigma8, the rms linear normalizacion for the amplitude dark matter fluctuations, and the bias parameter "b". Cross-correlation of these galaxy catalogues with WMAP (and future wide field CMB maps, such as Planck) also brings new light in the dark cosmos

Shahram Jalalzadeh:  On extra forces from large extra dimensions
The motion of a classical test particle moving on a 4-dimensional brane embedded in an $n$-dimensional bulk is studied in which the brane is allowed to fluctuate along the extra dimensions. It is shown that these fluctuations produce three different forces acting on the particle, all stemming from the effects of extra dimensions. Interpretations are offered to describe the origin of these forces and a relationship between the 4 and $n$-dimensional mass of the particle is obtained by introducing charges associated with large extra dimensions.

José A. Jiménez Madrid: Scaping the Big Rip?
We discuss dark energy models which might describe effectively the actual acceleration of the universe. More precisely, for a 4-dimensional Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe we consider two situations: First of them, we model dark energy by phantom energy described by a perfect fluid satisfying the equation of state $P=(\beta-1)\rho$ (with $\beta<0$ and constant). In this case the universe reaches a ``Big Rip'' independently of the spatial geometry of the FLRW universe. In the second situation, the dark energy is described by a phantom (generalized) Chaplygin gas which violates the dominant energy condition. Contrary to the previous case, for this material content a FLRW universe would never reach a ``big rip'' singularity (indeed, the geometry is asymptotically de Sitter). We also show how this dark energy model can be described in terms of scalar fields, corresponding to a minimally coupled scalar field, a Born-Infeld scalar field and a  generalized Born-Infeld scalar field.

Valeria Kagramanova: Particles motion in the vicinity of slowly rotating star with nonzero gravitomagnetic charge
Investigation of some general relativistic properties of the spacetime structure outside central axial-symmetric slowly rotating massive body with nonzero gravitomagnetic charge has been presented. A mass M endowed with a gravitomagnetic monopole with strength l (NUT parameter or magnetic mass) was considered. The gravitomagnetic effects on a test particle nonrelativistically moving along an equatorial circular geodesic orbit in a plane containing the proper angular momentum a of the central source of gravitomagnetic origin was elucidated. Driven by the gravitomagnetic analogues it was asked whether the NUT parameter could act on the moving test particles in the vicinity of the massive body. For this purpose the equations of motion and the effective potential for particles motion were investigated. It was shown the qualitative difference in the motion of the particles in the presence of NUT parameter with compare to the motion of the particles in the Kerr metric (when l=0). The effect of NUT parameter on the trajectories of the test particles may play an important role near the surface of the compact object.
 
Julien Lesgourgues  A short review on inflation: theory and constraints
I will present a very broad introduction to the theory of inflation, and review the current constrains derived from CMB anisotropies and large scale stucture.

David Lyth: Non-gaussianity made easy
I explain how the Sasaki-Stewart delta N formula may be used to calculate the curvature perturbation to any order of perturbation theory, using only the properties of a family of unperturbed universes. The only assumption is that the evolution of this family is determined by the values, soon after horizon exit, of some light fields with gaussian perturbations. Non-gaussianity generated subsequently is fully described, and is free of inverse Laplacians, ie. is purely local. The case of un-correlated non-gaussianity is described for the first time.

Marc Manera:
Constraining cosmological parameters by CMB-galaxy cross-correlations thomography
Recent studies by a number of independent collaborations find a systematically positive cross-correlation between the CMB temperatures mesured by WMAP satellite and diferent galaxy surveys that trace the matter distribution. Combining data with diferent redshifts allow us to constrain cosmological parametres, thus finding new evidence for dark energy content. For a flat universe with fixed matter content one can also start constraining the equation of state. (see astroph/0407022)

Irit Maor: On virialization with dark energy
A primary question in today's cosmology is whether dark energy is a cosmological constant, or is it dynamical. In order to use inhomogeneity studies to probe dark energy, it is essential that we understand how the presence of dark energy affects the evolution of overdensities. The spherical collapse formalism is a simple model which describes how the initial overdensities in the matter evolve into bound structures. I will review the inclusion of an additional energy source (different than matter) to the formalism of spherical collapse.

Germán Olivares:  Observational constraints on interacting quintessence models
We determine the range of parameter space of Interacting Quintessence Models that best fits the recent WMAP measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies. We only consider cosmological models with zero spatial curvature. We show that if the quintessence scalar field decays into cold dark matter at a rate that brings the ratio of matter to dark energy constant at late times,the cosmological parameters required to fit the CMB data are: \Omega_x = 0.43 \pm 0.12, baryon fraction \Omega_b = 0.08 \pm 0.01, slope of the matter power spectrum at large scals n_s = 0.98 \pm 0.02 and Hubble constant H_0 = 56 \pm 4 km/s/Mpc. The data prefers a dark energy component with a dimensionless decay parameter c^2 =0.005 and non-interacting models are consistent with the data only at the 99% confidence level. Using the Bayesian Information Criteria we show that this exra parameter fits the data better than models with no interaction. The quintessence equation of state parameter is less constrained; i.e., the data set an upper limit w_x \leq -0.86 at the same level of significance. When the WMAP anisotropy data are combined with supernovae data, the density parameter of dark energy increases to \Omega_x \simeq 0.68 while c^2 augments to 6.3 \times 10^{-3}. Models with quintessence decaying into dark matter provide a clean explanation for the coincidence problem and are a viable cosmological model, compatible with observations of the CMB, with testable predictions. Accurate measurements of baryon fraction and/or of matter density independent of the CMB data, would support/disprove these models.

Diego Nicola Pelliccia:  Scalar field instability in de Sitter space-time
Starting from the equation of motion of the quantum operator of a real scalar field in de Sitter space-time, a simple differential equation is derived which describes the evolution of quantum fluctuations of this field. Full de Sitter invariance is assumed and no ad hoc infrared cutoff is introduced. This equation is solved explicitly and in massive case the result agrees with the standard one. In massless case the large time behavior of the solution differs by sign from the expression found in the literature. Possible causes of discrepancy may be spontaneous breaking of de Sitter invariance or quantum anomalies.

Vicent Quilis:
The Universe within a Supercomputer
This talk will be focused on the field of Numerical Cosmology, and how the numerical simulations have help us to understand the formation and evolution of the structures in the Universe. I will start by reviewing the basic theoretical concepts and numerical techniques used in cosmological simulations. Then, I will describe some of the most important results from the simulations and their influence on the actual cosmological paradigm. Regardless of the undoubtable success of the previous generation of cosmological simulations, recent observations have shown severe problems in the model. I will describe the new generation of simulations and some of promising ideas, which coupled, are expected to solve the still open problems.

Erandy Ramírez: Stochastic approaches to inflation model building
Typically models of inflation are motivated either by fundamental physics considerations or by simplicity. An alternative is to generate large numbers of models via a random generation process such as the flow equations approach. We consider a different implementation of the flow equations using an analytic solution found previously, and then consider alternative stochastic methods of generating large number of inflation models with the aim of testing whether the structures generated by the flow equations are robust. We find that there remains some concentration of points in the observable plane under the different methods but there is significant variation in the predictions amongst the methods considered.

Yeinzon Rodríguez García: Non-gaussianity from the second-order perturbation
Several conserved and/or gauge invariant quantities described as the second-order curvature perturbation have been given in the literature. We review each of these quantities showing how to interpret one in terms of the others and analyzing the respective expected level of primordial non-gaussianity in single models of inflation of the slow-roll variety. The importance of the knowledge of the initial conditions is highlighted but, nevertheless, some useful information about the time evolution of the second-order curvature perturbation may be obtained without them.

Pilar Ruíz-Lapuente: Dark energy and supernovae
This is an overview of the progress in the determination of the nature of dark energy from supernovae. Current surveys and methods of analysis are reviewed. Future prospects will be discussed.

Antonio Seguí: Causal structure and observables in cosmology
We analyze the causal structure for different cosmological models. It allows us to study the properties of the observables that in an operative way admit an asymptotic description. We find restrictions to the observables when we take into account the entropic limits as well as the thermal properties of the studied models. We cojecture on the nature of the restrictions in the context of quantum gravity.

Osamu Seto: Solving gravitino problem by a brane world effect
We investigate the thermal production of gravitinos in brane world cosmology. Since the expansion law is modified from that in the standard cosmology, the Boltzmann equation for the gravitino production is also changed. We find that the late-time gravitino abundance is proportional to the ``transition temperature'', at which the modified expansion law in the brane world cosmology is connecting with the standard one, rather than the reheating temperature after inflation as in the standard cosmology. This means that, even though the reheating temperature is very high, we can avoid the overproduction of gravitinos by taking the transition temperature low enough.

Mateo VielThe Lyman-alpha forest as a cosmological probe
By using high resolution quasar spectra I will recover the linear dark matter power spectrum at scales of 1-40 comoving Mpc. These scales cannot probed by any other observable. When combined with Cosmic Microwave Background data we get tight constraints on: cosmological parameters (sigma_8, scalar spectral index and its running), slow-roll inflationary models, mass of a warm dark matter particle (such as sterile neutrinos or light gravitinos).


Webpage created and maintained by: M. Bastero-Gil and B. Janssen
Last change made: 31 March 2005.