按提交时间
按主题分类
按作者
按机构
  • The measure for the multiverse and the probability for inflation

    分类: 物理学 >> 基本粒子与场物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-08

    摘要: We investigate the measure problem in the framework of inflationary cosmology. The measure of the history space is constructed and applied to inflationmodels. Using this measure, it is shown that the probability for the generalized single-field slow roll inflation to last for N e-folds is suppressed by a factor exp(-3N), and the probability for the generalized n-field slow roll inflation is suppressed by a much larger factor, exp(-3nN). Some non-inflationary models such as the cyclic model do not suffer from this difficulty.

  • A stochastic measure for eternal inflation

    分类: 物理学 >> 基本粒子与场物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-08

    摘要: We use the stochastic approach to investigate a measure for slow roll eternal inflation. The probability for the universe to have a given Hubble radius can be calculated in this framework. In a solvable model, it is shown that the probability for the universe to evolve from a state with a smaller Hubble radius to one with a larger Hubble radius is dominated by the classical probability without the stochastic source, while the probability for the universe to evolve from a state with a larger Hubble radius to one with a smaller one is suppressed by exp(-Delta S), where the de Sitter entropy S arises naturally in this stochasticapproach.

  • One-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited scalar field during inflation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We present a consistent one-loop calculation for the inflationary tensor power spectrum in the presence of an excited spectator scalar field using the in-in formalism. We find that the super-horizon primordial power spectrum of the tensor mode can be scale-invariantly enhanced or reduced by the loop effects of a subhorizon scalar field. Our calculation also includes the scalar-induced gravitational wave spectrum classically computed in the previous literature, which is significant only near the scales where the scalar field is amplified. The super-horizon enhancement is a higher-order effect of the interaction Hamiltonian, which can be understood as a Bogoliubov transformation introduced by nonlinear interactions. On the other hand, the scale-invariant reduction of the tensor power spectrum may occur due to the fourth-order scalar-scalar-tensor-tensor coupling. This phenomenon can be understood as the evolution of an anisotropic Bianchi type-I background in the separate universe approach. Our result suggests that large-scale measurements may indirectly test the dramatic effects of small-scale cosmological perturbations through loop corrections. This possibility opens a new ground in probing the small-scale physics of the primordial Universe through gravitational wave detectors of cosmological scales.

  • Reconciling cosmic dipolar tensions with a gigaparsec void

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Recent observations indicate a $4.9\sigma$ tension between the CMB and quasar dipoles. This tension challenges the cosmological principle. We propose that if we live in a gigaparsec scale void, the CMB and quasar dipolar tension can be reconciled. This is because we are unlikely to live at the center of the void. And a 15% offset from the center will impact the quasars and CMB differently in their dipolar anisotropies. As we consider a large and thick void, our setup can also ease the Hubble tension.

  • Scale-invariant enhancement of gravitational waves during inflation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The inflationary 1-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited spectator scalar field is calculated. Recent studies on primordial black holes suggest that the inflationary curvature perturbation may be huge on small scales. An enhanced curvature perturbation may arise from a drastic enhancement of spectator scalar field fluctuations. In this letter, using the in-in formalism, we calculate 1-loop quantum corrections to primordial gravitational waves by such an excited spectator field with a sharp peak in momentum space. We find scale-invariant loop corrections in this full quantum setup, in contrast to the sharply peaked corrections in the previously calculated scalar-induced tensor modes. Especially, on super Hubble scales, the primordial gravitational waves are also amplified, which can be understood as a Bogolyubov transformation of the vacuum due to the excited scalar field. This mechanism allows us to probe the scalar field properties on extremely short-distance scales with the current and future cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave experiments, opening a novel window for inflationary cosmology.

  • Cutting Rule for Cosmological Collider Signals: A Bulk Evolution Perspective

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We show that the evolution of interacting massive particles in the de Sitter bulk can be understood at leading order as a series of resonant decay and production events. From this perspective, we classify the cosmological collider signals into local and nonlocal categories with drastically different physical origins. This further allows us to derive a cutting rule for efficiently extracting these cosmological collider signals in an analytical fashion. Our cutting rule is a practical way for extracting cosmological collider signals in model building, and can be readily implemented as symbolic computational packages in the future.

  • Lattice Simulation of Multi-Stream Inflation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We present the first lattice simulation to investigate the nature of multi-stream inflation. The simulation confirms the physical picture of multi-stream inflation, and with new findings in parameter space and field behaviors. Our simulation shows that gradient energy plays a significant role in multi-stream inflation. For a double field potential with a shifted Gaussian barrier, bifurcation probability is controlled by the shift distance with an error function relation. The bubbles created by bifurcation tend to be more spherical as bifurcation probability decreases. Also, the bifurcation is more likely to introduce oscillations of field values inside the bubbles than outside.

  • Reconciling cosmic dipolar tensions with a gigaparsec void

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Recent observations indicate a $4.9\sigma$ tension between the CMB and quasar dipoles. This tension challenges the cosmological principle. We propose that if we live in a gigaparsec scale void, the CMB and quasar dipolar tension can be reconciled. This is because we are unlikely to live at the center of the void. And a 15% offset from the center will impact the quasars and CMB differently in their dipolar anisotropies. As we consider a large and thick void, our setup can also ease the Hubble tension.

  • One-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited scalar field during inflation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We present a consistent one-loop calculation for the inflationary tensor power spectrum in the presence of an excited spectator scalar field using the in-in formalism. We find that the super-horizon primordial power spectrum of the tensor mode can be scale-invariantly enhanced or reduced by the loop effects of a subhorizon scalar field. Our calculation also includes the scalar-induced gravitational wave spectrum classically computed in the previous literature, which is significant only near the scales where the scalar field is amplified. The super-horizon enhancement is a higher-order effect of the interaction Hamiltonian, which can be understood as a Bogoliubov transformation introduced by nonlinear interactions. On the other hand, the scale-invariant reduction of the tensor power spectrum may occur due to the fourth-order scalar-scalar-tensor-tensor coupling. This phenomenon can be understood as the evolution of an anisotropic Bianchi type-I background in the separate universe approach. Our result suggests that large-scale measurements may indirectly test the dramatic effects of small-scale cosmological perturbations through loop corrections. This possibility opens a new ground in probing the small-scale physics of the primordial Universe through gravitational wave detectors of cosmological scales.

  • Scale-invariant enhancement of gravitational waves during inflation

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The inflationary 1-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited spectator scalar field is calculated. Recent studies on primordial black holes suggest that the inflationary curvature perturbation may be huge on small scales. An enhanced curvature perturbation may arise from a drastic enhancement of spectator scalar field fluctuations. In this letter, using the in-in formalism, we calculate 1-loop quantum corrections to primordial gravitational waves by such an excited spectator field with a sharp peak in momentum space. We find scale-invariant loop corrections in this full quantum setup, in contrast to the sharply peaked corrections in the previously calculated scalar-induced tensor modes. Especially, on super Hubble scales, the primordial gravitational waves are also amplified, which can be understood as a Bogolyubov transformation of the vacuum due to the excited scalar field. This mechanism allows us to probe the scalar field properties on extremely short-distance scales with the current and future cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave experiments, opening a novel window for inflationary cosmology.

  • Chemical-Potential-Assisted Particle Production in FRW Spacetimes

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We analyze gravitational particle production assisted by chemical potential. By utilizing the uniformly smoothed Stokes-line method and Borel summation, we gain insight into the fine-grained history of enhanced particle production. Analytic/semi-analytic formulae describing the production amount, time and width are obtained for both spin-1 and spin-1/2 particles in various FRW spacetimes. Our work also serves as a concrete demonstration of the uniformly smoothed Stokes-line method applied to cosmology.

  • Decoherence of Cosmological Perturbations from Boundary Terms and the Non-Classicality of Gravity

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We note that the decoherence of inflationary curvature perturbation $\zeta$ is dominated by a boundary term of the gravity action. Although this boundary term cannot affect cosmological correlators $\left\langle \zeta^n \right\rangle$, it induces much faster decoherence for $\zeta$ than that of previous calculations. The gravitational origin of inflationary decoherence sheds light on the quantum (or non-classical) nature of gravity. By comparing with a Schr\"odinger-Newton toy model of classical gravity, we show that gravity theories of classical or quantum origins can be distinguished by comparing their different impacts on decoherence rate of $\zeta$. Our calculation also indicates that density fluctuation $\delta\rho$ better preserves quantum information than $\zeta$ for the purpose of constructing cosmological Bell-like experiments.

  • Amoeba formulation of the non-Hermitian skin effect in higher dimensions

    分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The non-Hermitian skin effect dramatically reshapes the energy bands of non-Hermitian systems, meaning that the usual Bloch band theory is fundamentally inadequate as their characterization. The non-Bloch band theory, in which the concept of Brillouin zone is generalized, has been widely applied to investigate non-Hermitian systems in one spatial dimension. However, its generalization to higher dimensions has been challenging. Here, we develop a formulation of the non-Hermitian skin effect and non-Bloch band theory in arbitrary spatial dimensions, which is based on a natural geometrical object known as the amoeba. Our theory provides a general framework for studying non-Hermitian bands beyond one dimension. Key quantities of non-Hermitian bands, including the energy spectrum, eigenstates profiles, and the generalized Brillouin zone, can be efficiently obtained from this approach.

  • Homologous Coronal Mass Ejections Caused by Recurring Formation and Disruption of Current Sheet within a Sheared Magnetic Arcade

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The Sun often produces coronal mass ejections with similar structure repeatedly from the same source region, and how these homologous eruptions are initiated remains an open question. Here, by using a new magnetohydrodynamic simulation, we show that homologous solar eruptions can be efficiently produced by recurring formation and disruption of coronal current sheet as driven by continuously shearing of the same polarity inversion line within a single bipolar configuration. These eruptions are initiated by the same mechanism, in which an internal current sheet forms slowly in a gradually sheared bipolar field and reconnection of the current sheet triggers and drives the eruption. Each of the eruptions does not release all the free energy but with a large amount left in the post-flare arcade below the erupting flux rope. Thus, a new current sheet can be more easily formed by further shearing of the post-flare arcade than by shearing a potential field arcade, and this is favorable for producing the next eruption. Furthermore, it is found that the new eruption is stronger since the newly formed current sheet has a larger current density and a lower height. In addition, our results also indicate the existence of a magnetic energy threshold for a given flux distribution, and eruption occurs once this threshold is approached.

  • Numerical Simulation of Solar Magnetic Flux Emergence Using the AMR--CESE--MHD Code

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Magnetic flux emergence from the solar interior to the atmosphere is believed to be a key process of formation of solar active regions and driving solar eruptions. Due to the limited capability of observation, the flux emergence process is commonly studied using numerical simulations. In this paper, we developed a numerical model to simulate the emergence of a twisted magnetic flux tube from the convection zone to the corona using the AMR--CESE--MHD code, which is based on the conservation-element solution-element method with adaptive mesh refinement. The result of our simulation agrees with that of many previous ones with similar initial conditions but using different numerical codes. In the early stage, the flux tube rises from the convection zone as driven by the magnetic buoyancy until it reaches close to the photosphere. The emergence is decelerated there and with piling-up of the magnetic flux, the magnetic buoyancy instability is triggered, which allows the magnetic field to partially enter into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, two gradually separated polarity concentration zones appear in the photospheric layer, transporting the magnetic field and energy into the atmosphere through their vortical and shearing motions. Correspondingly, the coronal magnetic field has also been reshaped to a sigmoid configuration containing a thin current layer, which resembles the typical pre-eruptive magnetic configuration of an active region. Such a numerical framework of magnetic flux emergence as established will be applied in future investigations of how solar eruptions are initiated in flux emergence active regions.

  • Numerical Simulation of Solar Magnetic Flux Emergence Using the AMR--CESE--MHD Code

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Magnetic flux emergence from the solar interior to the atmosphere is believed to be a key process of formation of solar active regions and driving solar eruptions. Due to the limited capability of observation, the flux emergence process is commonly studied using numerical simulations. In this paper, we developed a numerical model to simulate the emergence of a twisted magnetic flux tube from the convection zone to the corona using the AMR--CESE--MHD code, which is based on the conservation-element solution-element method with adaptive mesh refinement. The result of our simulation agrees with that of many previous ones with similar initial conditions but using different numerical codes. In the early stage, the flux tube rises from the convection zone as driven by the magnetic buoyancy until it reaches close to the photosphere. The emergence is decelerated there and with piling-up of the magnetic flux, the magnetic buoyancy instability is triggered, which allows the magnetic field to partially enter into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, two gradually separated polarity concentration zones appear in the photospheric layer, transporting the magnetic field and energy into the atmosphere through their vortical and shearing motions. Correspondingly, the coronal magnetic field has also been reshaped to a sigmoid configuration containing a thin current layer, which resembles the typical pre-eruptive magnetic configuration of an active region. Such a numerical framework of magnetic flux emergence as established will be applied in future investigations of how solar eruptions are initiated in flux emergence active regions.

  • Ultrahigh-energy Gamma Rays and Gravitational Waves from Primordial Exotic Stellar Bubbles

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We put forward a novel class of exotic celestial objects that can be produced through phase transitions occurred in the primordial Universe. These objects appear as bubbles of stellar sizes and can be dominated by primordial black holes (PBHs). We report that, due to the processes of Hawking radiation and binary evolution of PBHs inside these stellar bubbles, both electromagnetic and gravitational radiations can be emitted that are featured on the gamma-ray spectra and stochastic gravitational waves (GWs). Our results reveal that, depending on the mass distribution, the exotic stellar bubbles consisting of PBHs provide not only a decent fit for the ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray spectrum reported by the recent LHAASO experiment, but also predict GW signals that are expected to be tested by the forthcoming GW surveys.

  • Cosmological Standard Timers from Unstable Primordial Relics

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this article we study a hypothetical possibility of tracking the evolution of our Universe by introducing a series of the so-called standard timers. Any unstable primordial relics generated in the very early Universe may serve as the standard timers, as they can evolve through the whole cosmological background until their end while their certain time-varying properties could be a possible timer by recording the amount of physical time elapsed since the very early moments. Accordingly, if one could observe these quantities at different redshifts, then a redshift-time relation of the cosmic history can be attained. To illustrate such a hypothetical possibility, we consider the primordial black hole bubbles as a concrete example and analyze the mass function inside a redshifted bubble by investigating the inverse problem of Hawking radiation. To complete the analyses theoretically, the mass distribution can serve as a calibration of the standard timers.

  • Numerical Simulation of a Fundamental Mechanism of Solar Eruption with Different Magnetic Flux Distributions

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Solar eruptions are explosive release of coronal magnetic field energy as manifested in solar flares and coronal mass ejection. Observations have shown that the core of eruption-productive regions are often a sheared magnetic arcade, i.e., a single bipolar configuration, and, particularly, the corresponding magnetic polarities at the photosphere are elongated along a strong-gradient polarity inversion line (PIL). It remains unclear what mechanism triggers the eruption in a single bipolar field and why the one with a strong PIL is eruption-productive. Recently, using high accuracy simulations, we have established a fundamental mechanism of solar eruption initiation that a bipolar field as driven by quasi-static shearing motion at the photosphere can form an internal current sheet, and then fast magnetic reconnection triggers and drives the eruption. Here we investigate the behavior of the fundamental mechanism with different photospheric magnetic flux distributions, i.e., magnetograms, by combining theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Our study shows that the bipolar fields of different magnetograms, as sheared continually, all exhibit similar evolutions from the slow storage to fast release of magnetic energy in accordance with the fundamental mechanism, which demonstrates the robustness of the mechanism. We further found that the magnetograms with stronger PIL produce larger eruptions, and the key reason is that the sheared bipolar fields with stronger PIL can achieve more non-potentiality, and their internal current sheet can form at a lower height and with a larger current density, by which the reconnection can be more efficient. This also provides a viable trigger mechanism for the observed eruptions in active region with strong PIL.

  • Geometric Origin of Non-Bloch PT Symmetry Breaking

    分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The parity-time (PT) symmetry of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian leads to real (complex) energy spectrum when the non-Hermiticity is below (above) a threshold. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the non-Hermitian skin effect generates a new type of PT symmetry, dubbed the non-Bloch PT symmetry, featuring unique properties such as high sensitivity to the boundary condition. Despite its relevance to a wide range of non-Hermitian lattice systems, a general theory is still lacking for this generic phenomenon even in one spatial dimension. Here, we uncover the geometric mechanism of non-Bloch PT symmetry and its breaking. We find that non-Bloch PT symmetry breaking occurs by the formation of cusps in the generalized Brillouin zone (GBZ). Based on this geometric understanding, we propose an exact formula that efficiently determines the breaking threshold. Finally, we predict a new type of spectral singularities associated with the symmetry breaking, dubbed non-Bloch van Hove singularities, whose physical mechanism fundamentally differs from their Hermitian counterparts.