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A critical challenge to the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm is that there are fewer satellites observed around the Milky Way than found in simulations of dark matter substructure. We show that there is a match between the observed satellite counts corrected by the detection efficiency of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (for luminosities $L \gtrsim$ 340 L$_\odot$) and the number of luminous satellites predicted by CDM, assuming an empirical relation between stellar mass and halo mass. The "issing satellites problem", cast in terms of number counts, is thus solved, and imply that luminous satellites inhabit subhalos as small as 10$^7-$10$^8$ M$_\odot$. The total number of Milky Way satellites depends sensitively on the spatial distribution of satellites. We also show that warm dark matter (WDM) models with a thermal relic mass smaller than 4 keV are robustly ruled out, and that limits of $m_\text{WDM} \gtrsim 8$ keV from the Milky Way are probable in the near future. Similarly stringent constraints can be placed on any dark matter model that leads to a suppression of the matter power spectrum on $\sim$10$^7$ M$_\odot$ scales. Measurements of completely dark halos below $10^8$ M$_\odot$, achievable with substructure lensing, are the next frontier for tests of CDM.
Correlations measured in 3D in the Lyman-alpha forest are contaminated by the presence of the damping wings of high column density (HCD) absorbing systems of neutral hydrogen (HI; having column densities $N(\mathrm{HI}) > 1.6 \times 10^{17}\,\mathrm{atoms}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$), which extend significantly beyond the redshift-space location of the absorber. We measure this effect as a function of the column density of the HCD absorbers and redshift by measuring 3D flux power spectra in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations from the Illustris project. Survey pipelines exclude regions containing the largest damping wings. We find that, even after this procedure, there is a scale-dependent correction to the 3D Lyman-alpha forest flux power spectrum from residual contamination. We model this residual using a simple physical model of the HCD absorbers as linearly biased tracers of the matter density distribution, convolved with their Voigt profiles and integrated over the column density distribution function. We recommend the use of this model over existing models used in data analysis, which approximate the damping wings as top-hats and so miss shape information in the extended wings. The simple linear Voigt model is statistically consistent with our simulation results for a mock residual contamination up to small scales ($k < 1\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$), even though it cannot account for the effect of the highest column density absorbers (which are in any case preferentially removed from survey data) on the smallest scales (e.g., $k > 0.4\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for small DLAs; $N(\mathrm{HI}) \sim 10^{21}\,\mathrm{atoms}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$). Our model is appropriate for an accurate analysis of the baryon acoustic oscillations feature and it is additionally essential for reconstructing the full shape of the 3D flux power spectrum, assuming that the highest column density absorbers are removed.
Recent observations of the gravitational wave by LIGO motivates investigations for the existence of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) as a candidate for the dark matter. We propose quasar gravitational microlensing observations in Infrared to the sub-millimeter wavelengths by sub-lunar PBHs as lenses. The advantage of observations in the longer wavelengths is that the Schwarzschild radius of the lens is of the order of the wavelength (i.e. $R_{\rm sch}\simeq \lambda$), so the wave optics features of gravitational lensing can be seen on the cosmological scales. In the wave optics regime, the magnification has a periodic profile rather than monotonic one in the geometric case. This observation can break the degeneracy between the lens parameters and determine uniquely the lens mass as well as its distance from the observer. We estimate the wave optics optical-depth and number of detectable events for sub-lunar lenses and propose a long-term survey of quasars with cadence $\sim$ hour to probe possible fraction of dark matter in form of sub-lunar PBHs.
Gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the mass distribution of galaxy clusters and cosmology. However, accurate measurements of the cluster mass profiles is limited by the still poorly understood cluster astrophysics. In this work, we present a physically motivated model of baryonic effects on the cluster mass profiles, which self-consistently takes into account the impact of baryons on the concentration as well as mass accretion histories of galaxy clusters. We calibrate this model using the Omega500 hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with varying baryonic physics. Our model will enable us to simultaneously constrain cluster mass, concentration, and cosmological parameters using stacked weak lensing measurements from upcoming optical cluster surveys.
In the previous work, a new kind of inflation model was proposed, which has the interesting property that its perturbation equation of motion gets a correction of k^4, due to the non-linearity of the kinetic term. Nonetheless, the scale-invariance of the power spectrum remains valid, both in large-k and small-k limits. In this paper, we investigate in detail the spectral index, the index running and the tensor/scalar ratio in this model, especially on the potential-driven case, and compare the results to the current PLANCK/BICEP observational data. We also discuss the tensor spectrum in this case, which is expected to be tested by the future observations on primordial gravitational waves.
Based on thermodynamics, we discuss the galactic clustering of expanding Universe by assuming the gravitational interaction through the modified Newton's potential given by $f(R)$ gravity. We compute the corrected $N$-particle partition function analytically. The corrected partition function leads to more exact equations of states of the system. By assuming that system follows quasi-equilibrium, we derive the exact distribution function which exhibits the $f(R)$ correction. Moreover, we evaluate the critical temperature and discuss the stability of the system. We observe the effects of correction of $f(R)$ gravity on the power law behavior of particle-particle correlation function also. In order to check feasibility of an $f(R)$ gravity approach to the clustering of galaxies, we compare our results with an observational galaxy cluster catalog.
The almost simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and a short gamma-ray burst from a neutron star merger has put a tight constraint on the difference between the speed of gravity and light. In the four-dimensional scalar-tensor theory with second order equations of motion, the Horndeski theory, this translates into a significant reduction of the viable parameter space of the theory. Recently, extensions of Horndeski theory, which are free from Ostrogradsky ghosts despite the presence of higher order derivatives in the equations of motion, have been identified and classified exploiting the degeneracy criterium. In these new theories, the fifth force mediated by the scalar field must be suppressed in order to evade the stringent Solar System constraints. We study the Vainshtein mechanism in the most general degenerate higher order scalar-tensor theory in which light and gravity propagate at the same speed. We find that the Vainshtein mechanism generally works outside a matter source but it is broken inside matter, similarly to beyond Horndeski theories. This leaves interesting possibilities to test these theories that are compatible with gravitational wave observations using astrophysical objects.
The tight inter-band correlation and the lag-wavelength relation among UV/optical continuum of active galactic nuclei have been firmly established. They are usually understood within the widespread reprocessing scenario, however, the implied inter-band lags are generally too small. Furthermore, it is challenged by new evidences, such as too much high frequency power existing in the reprocessed UV/optical continuum as well as the failure in reproducing the observed timescale-dependent color variations among Swift lightcurves of NGC 5548. In a different manner, we demonstrate that an upgraded inhomogeneous accretion disk model, whose local independent temperature fluctuations are subject to a speculated common temperature fluctuation, can intrinsically generate the tight inter-band correlation and lag across UV/optical, and be in nice agreement with several observational properties of NGC 5548, including the timescale-dependent color variation. The emerging of lag is a result of the differential returning capability of local temperature fluctuation when responding to the common fluctuation. The averaged propagation speed of this common fluctuation is estimated to be ~ 15% of the speed of light, and several potential physical mechanisms are discussed. Our interesting phenomenological scenario may shed new light on comprehending the UV/optical continuum variations.
We study a dark matter (DM) model offering a very natural explanation of two (naively unrelated) problems in cosmology: the observed relation $\Omega_{\rm DM}\sim\Omega_{\rm visible}$ and the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe, known as the "baryogenesis" problem. In this framework, both types of matter (dark and visible) have the same QCD origin, form at the same QCD epoch, and both proportional to one and the same dimensional parameter of the system, $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$, which explains how these two, naively distinct, problems could be intimately related, and could be solved simultaneously within the same framework. More specifically, the DM in this model is composed by two different ingredients: the (well- studied) DM axions and (less-studied) the quark nuggets made of matter or antimatter. The focus of the present work is the quantitative analysis of the relation between these two distinct components contributing to the dark sector of the theory determined by $\Omega_{\rm DM}\equiv [\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm nuggets)+ \Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm axion)]$. We argue that the nugget's DM component always traces the visible matter density, i.e. $\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm nuggets)\sim\Omega_{\rm visible}$ and this feature is not sensitive to the parameters of the system such as the axion mass $m_a$ or the misalignment angle $\theta_0$. It should be contrasted with conventional axion production mechanism due to the misalignment when $\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm axion)$ is highly sensitive to the axion mass $m_a$ and the initial misalignment angle $\theta_0$. We also discuss the constraints on this model related to the inflationary scale $H_I$, non-observation of the isocurvature perturbations, $r_T < 0.12$, and also, varies axions search experiments.
We present $\texttt{ENIGMA}$, a time domain, inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model that describes non-spinning binary black holes systems that evolve on moderately eccentric orbits. The inspiral evolution is described using a consistent combination of post-Newtonian theory, self-force and black hole perturbation theory. Assuming moderately eccentric binaries that circularize prior to coalescence, we smoothly match the eccentric inspiral with a stand-alone, quasi-circular merger, which is constructed using machine learning algorithms that are trained with quasi-circular numerical relativity waveforms. We show that $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ reproduces with excellent accuracy the dynamics of quasi-circular compact binaries. We validate $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ using a set of $\texttt{Einstein Toolkit}$ eccentric numerical relativity waveforms, which describe eccentric binary black hole mergers with mass-ratios between $1 \leq q \leq 5.5$, and eccentricities $e_0 \lesssim 0.2$ ten orbits before merger. We use this model to explore in detail the physics that can be extracted with moderately eccentric, non-spinning binary black hole mergers. In particular, we use $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ to show that the gravitational wave transients GW150914, GW151226, GW170104 and GW170814 can be effectively recovered with spinning, quasi-circular templates if the eccentricity of these events at a gravitational wave frequency of 10Hz satisfies $e_0\leq \{0.175,\, 0.125,\,0.175,\,0.175\}$, respectively. We show that if these systems have eccentricities $e_0\sim 0.1$ at a gravitational wave frequency of 10Hz, they can be misclassified as quasi-circular binaries due to parameter space degeneracies between eccentricity and spin corrections.
We determine the stellar population properties - age, metallicity, dust reddening, stellar mass and the star formation history - for all spectra classified as galaxies that were published by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS data release 14) and by the DEEP2 (data release 4) galaxy surveys. We perform full spectral fitting on individual spectra, making use of high spectral resolution stellar population models. Calculations are carried out for several choices of the model input, including three stellar initial mass functions and three input stellar libraries to the models. We study the accuracy of parameter derivation, in particular the stellar mass, as a function of the signal-to-noise of the galaxy spectra. We find that signal to noise ratio per pixel around 20 (5) allow a statistical accuracy on $\log_{10}(M^{*}/M_{\odot})$ of 0.2 (0.4) dex, for the Chabrier IMF. We obtain the galaxy stellar mass function probed by SDSS, eBOSS and DEEP2 for galaxies with $0.2<z<0.8$. We study DEEP2 galaxies selected by their \OII luminosity in the redshift range $0.83<z<1.03$, finding that they have stellar masses with a flat number density in the range $10^9<M/M_{\odot}<10^{11.5}$. We publish all catalogs of properties as well as model spectra of the continuum for these galaxies as a value added catalog of the fourteenth data release of the SDSS. This catalog is about twice as large as its predecessors (DR12) and will hopefully aid a variety of studies on galaxy evolution and cosmology.
We study cosmological evolution of the QCD axion coupled to hidden photons. For a moderately strong coupling, the motion of the axion field leads to explosive production of hidden photons by tachyonic instability. We use lattice simulations to evaluate the cosmological abundance of the QCD axion. In doing so we incorporate the backreaction of the produced hidden photons on the axion dynamics, which becomes significant in the non-linear regime. We find that the axion abundance is suppressed by at most ${\cal O}(10^{3})$ for the decay constant $f_a = 10^{16}$ GeV, compared to the case without the coupling. For a sufficiently large coupling, the motion of the QCD axion becomes strongly damped, and as a result the axion abundance is enhanced. Our results show that the cosmological upper bound on the axion decay constant can be relaxed by a few hundred for a certain range of the coupling to hidden photons.
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A critical challenge to the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm is that there are fewer satellites observed around the Milky Way than found in simulations of dark matter substructure. We show that there is a match between the observed satellite counts corrected by the detection efficiency of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (for luminosities $L \gtrsim$ 340 L$_\odot$) and the number of luminous satellites predicted by CDM, assuming an empirical relation between stellar mass and halo mass. The "issing satellites problem", cast in terms of number counts, is thus solved, and imply that luminous satellites inhabit subhalos as small as 10$^7-$10$^8$ M$_\odot$. The total number of Milky Way satellites depends sensitively on the spatial distribution of satellites. We also show that warm dark matter (WDM) models with a thermal relic mass smaller than 4 keV are robustly ruled out, and that limits of $m_\text{WDM} \gtrsim 8$ keV from the Milky Way are probable in the near future. Similarly stringent constraints can be placed on any dark matter model that leads to a suppression of the matter power spectrum on $\sim$10$^7$ M$_\odot$ scales. Measurements of completely dark halos below $10^8$ M$_\odot$, achievable with substructure lensing, are the next frontier for tests of CDM.
Correlations measured in 3D in the Lyman-alpha forest are contaminated by the presence of the damping wings of high column density (HCD) absorbing systems of neutral hydrogen (HI; having column densities $N(\mathrm{HI}) > 1.6 \times 10^{17}\,\mathrm{atoms}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$), which extend significantly beyond the redshift-space location of the absorber. We measure this effect as a function of the column density of the HCD absorbers and redshift by measuring 3D flux power spectra in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations from the Illustris project. Survey pipelines exclude regions containing the largest damping wings. We find that, even after this procedure, there is a scale-dependent correction to the 3D Lyman-alpha forest flux power spectrum from residual contamination. We model this residual using a simple physical model of the HCD absorbers as linearly biased tracers of the matter density distribution, convolved with their Voigt profiles and integrated over the column density distribution function. We recommend the use of this model over existing models used in data analysis, which approximate the damping wings as top-hats and so miss shape information in the extended wings. The simple linear Voigt model is statistically consistent with our simulation results for a mock residual contamination up to small scales ($k < 1\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$), even though it cannot account for the effect of the highest column density absorbers (which are in any case preferentially removed from survey data) on the smallest scales (e.g., $k > 0.4\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for small DLAs; $N(\mathrm{HI}) \sim 10^{21}\,\mathrm{atoms}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$). Our model is appropriate for an accurate analysis of the baryon acoustic oscillations feature and it is additionally essential for reconstructing the full shape of the 3D flux power spectrum, assuming that the highest column density absorbers are removed.
Recent observations of the gravitational wave by LIGO motivates investigations for the existence of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) as a candidate for the dark matter. We propose quasar gravitational microlensing observations in Infrared to the sub-millimeter wavelengths by sub-lunar PBHs as lenses. The advantage of observations in the longer wavelengths is that the Schwarzschild radius of the lens is of the order of the wavelength (i.e. $R_{\rm sch}\simeq \lambda$), so the wave optics features of gravitational lensing can be seen on the cosmological scales. In the wave optics regime, the magnification has a periodic profile rather than monotonic one in the geometric case. This observation can break the degeneracy between the lens parameters and determine uniquely the lens mass as well as its distance from the observer. We estimate the wave optics optical-depth and number of detectable events for sub-lunar lenses and propose a long-term survey of quasars with cadence $\sim$ hour to probe possible fraction of dark matter in form of sub-lunar PBHs.
Gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the mass distribution of galaxy clusters and cosmology. However, accurate measurements of the cluster mass profiles is limited by the still poorly understood cluster astrophysics. In this work, we present a physically motivated model of baryonic effects on the cluster mass profiles, which self-consistently takes into account the impact of baryons on the concentration as well as mass accretion histories of galaxy clusters. We calibrate this model using the Omega500 hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters with varying baryonic physics. Our model will enable us to simultaneously constrain cluster mass, concentration, and cosmological parameters using stacked weak lensing measurements from upcoming optical cluster surveys.
In the previous work, a new kind of inflation model was proposed, which has the interesting property that its perturbation equation of motion gets a correction of k^4, due to the non-linearity of the kinetic term. Nonetheless, the scale-invariance of the power spectrum remains valid, both in large-k and small-k limits. In this paper, we investigate in detail the spectral index, the index running and the tensor/scalar ratio in this model, especially on the potential-driven case, and compare the results to the current PLANCK/BICEP observational data. We also discuss the tensor spectrum in this case, which is expected to be tested by the future observations on primordial gravitational waves.
Based on thermodynamics, we discuss the galactic clustering of expanding Universe by assuming the gravitational interaction through the modified Newton's potential given by $f(R)$ gravity. We compute the corrected $N$-particle partition function analytically. The corrected partition function leads to more exact equations of states of the system. By assuming that system follows quasi-equilibrium, we derive the exact distribution function which exhibits the $f(R)$ correction. Moreover, we evaluate the critical temperature and discuss the stability of the system. We observe the effects of correction of $f(R)$ gravity on the power law behavior of particle-particle correlation function also. In order to check feasibility of an $f(R)$ gravity approach to the clustering of galaxies, we compare our results with an observational galaxy cluster catalog.
The almost simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and a short gamma-ray burst from a neutron star merger has put a tight constraint on the difference between the speed of gravity and light. In the four-dimensional scalar-tensor theory with second order equations of motion, the Horndeski theory, this translates into a significant reduction of the viable parameter space of the theory. Recently, extensions of Horndeski theory, which are free from Ostrogradsky ghosts despite the presence of higher order derivatives in the equations of motion, have been identified and classified exploiting the degeneracy criterium. In these new theories, the fifth force mediated by the scalar field must be suppressed in order to evade the stringent Solar System constraints. We study the Vainshtein mechanism in the most general degenerate higher order scalar-tensor theory in which light and gravity propagate at the same speed. We find that the Vainshtein mechanism generally works outside a matter source but it is broken inside matter, similarly to beyond Horndeski theories. This leaves interesting possibilities to test these theories that are compatible with gravitational wave observations using astrophysical objects.
The tight inter-band correlation and the lag-wavelength relation among UV/optical continuum of active galactic nuclei have been firmly established. They are usually understood within the widespread reprocessing scenario, however, the implied inter-band lags are generally too small. Furthermore, it is challenged by new evidences, such as too much high frequency power existing in the reprocessed UV/optical continuum as well as the failure in reproducing the observed timescale-dependent color variations among Swift lightcurves of NGC 5548. In a different manner, we demonstrate that an upgraded inhomogeneous accretion disk model, whose local independent temperature fluctuations are subject to a speculated common temperature fluctuation, can intrinsically generate the tight inter-band correlation and lag across UV/optical, and be in nice agreement with several observational properties of NGC 5548, including the timescale-dependent color variation. The emerging of lag is a result of the differential returning capability of local temperature fluctuation when responding to the common fluctuation. The averaged propagation speed of this common fluctuation is estimated to be ~ 15% of the speed of light, and several potential physical mechanisms are discussed. Our interesting phenomenological scenario may shed new light on comprehending the UV/optical continuum variations.
We study a dark matter (DM) model offering a very natural explanation of two (naively unrelated) problems in cosmology: the observed relation $\Omega_{\rm DM}\sim\Omega_{\rm visible}$ and the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe, known as the "baryogenesis" problem. In this framework, both types of matter (dark and visible) have the same QCD origin, form at the same QCD epoch, and both proportional to one and the same dimensional parameter of the system, $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$, which explains how these two, naively distinct, problems could be intimately related, and could be solved simultaneously within the same framework. More specifically, the DM in this model is composed by two different ingredients: the (well- studied) DM axions and (less-studied) the quark nuggets made of matter or antimatter. The focus of the present work is the quantitative analysis of the relation between these two distinct components contributing to the dark sector of the theory determined by $\Omega_{\rm DM}\equiv [\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm nuggets)+ \Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm axion)]$. We argue that the nugget's DM component always traces the visible matter density, i.e. $\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm nuggets)\sim\Omega_{\rm visible}$ and this feature is not sensitive to the parameters of the system such as the axion mass $m_a$ or the misalignment angle $\theta_0$. It should be contrasted with conventional axion production mechanism due to the misalignment when $\Omega_{\rm DM}(\rm axion)$ is highly sensitive to the axion mass $m_a$ and the initial misalignment angle $\theta_0$. We also discuss the constraints on this model related to the inflationary scale $H_I$, non-observation of the isocurvature perturbations, $r_T < 0.12$, and also, varies axions search experiments.
We present $\texttt{ENIGMA}$, a time domain, inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model that describes non-spinning binary black holes systems that evolve on moderately eccentric orbits. The inspiral evolution is described using a consistent combination of post-Newtonian theory, self-force and black hole perturbation theory. Assuming moderately eccentric binaries that circularize prior to coalescence, we smoothly match the eccentric inspiral with a stand-alone, quasi-circular merger, which is constructed using machine learning algorithms that are trained with quasi-circular numerical relativity waveforms. We show that $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ reproduces with excellent accuracy the dynamics of quasi-circular compact binaries. We validate $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ using a set of $\texttt{Einstein Toolkit}$ eccentric numerical relativity waveforms, which describe eccentric binary black hole mergers with mass-ratios between $1 \leq q \leq 5.5$, and eccentricities $e_0 \lesssim 0.2$ ten orbits before merger. We use this model to explore in detail the physics that can be extracted with moderately eccentric, non-spinning binary black hole mergers. In particular, we use $\texttt{ENIGMA}$ to show that the gravitational wave transients GW150914, GW151226, GW170104 and GW170814 can be effectively recovered with spinning, quasi-circular templates if the eccentricity of these events at a gravitational wave frequency of 10Hz satisfies $e_0\leq \{0.175,\, 0.125,\,0.175,\,0.175\}$, respectively. We show that if these systems have eccentricities $e_0\sim 0.1$ at a gravitational wave frequency of 10Hz, they can be misclassified as quasi-circular binaries due to parameter space degeneracies between eccentricity and spin corrections.
We determine the stellar population properties - age, metallicity, dust reddening, stellar mass and the star formation history - for all spectra classified as galaxies that were published by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS data release 14) and by the DEEP2 (data release 4) galaxy surveys. We perform full spectral fitting on individual spectra, making use of high spectral resolution stellar population models. Calculations are carried out for several choices of the model input, including three stellar initial mass functions and three input stellar libraries to the models. We study the accuracy of parameter derivation, in particular the stellar mass, as a function of the signal-to-noise of the galaxy spectra. We find that signal to noise ratio per pixel around 20 (5) allow a statistical accuracy on $\log_{10}(M^{*}/M_{\odot})$ of 0.2 (0.4) dex, for the Chabrier IMF. We obtain the galaxy stellar mass function probed by SDSS, eBOSS and DEEP2 for galaxies with $0.2<z<0.8$. We study DEEP2 galaxies selected by their \OII luminosity in the redshift range $0.83<z<1.03$, finding that they have stellar masses with a flat number density in the range $10^9<M/M_{\odot}<10^{11.5}$. We publish all catalogs of properties as well as model spectra of the continuum for these galaxies as a value added catalog of the fourteenth data release of the SDSS. This catalog is about twice as large as its predecessors (DR12) and will hopefully aid a variety of studies on galaxy evolution and cosmology.
We study cosmological evolution of the QCD axion coupled to hidden photons. For a moderately strong coupling, the motion of the axion field leads to explosive production of hidden photons by tachyonic instability. We use lattice simulations to evaluate the cosmological abundance of the QCD axion. In doing so we incorporate the backreaction of the produced hidden photons on the axion dynamics, which becomes significant in the non-linear regime. We find that the axion abundance is suppressed by at most ${\cal O}(10^{3})$ for the decay constant $f_a = 10^{16}$ GeV, compared to the case without the coupling. For a sufficiently large coupling, the motion of the QCD axion becomes strongly damped, and as a result the axion abundance is enhanced. Our results show that the cosmological upper bound on the axion decay constant can be relaxed by a few hundred for a certain range of the coupling to hidden photons.
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A safe way to reheat the universe, in models of natural and quadratic inflation, is through shift symmetric couplings between the inflaton $\phi$ and the Standard Model (SM), since they do not generate loop corrections to the potential $V(\phi)$. We consider such a coupling to SM gauge fields, of the form $\phi F\tilde{F}/f$, with sub-Planckian $f$. In this case gauge fields can be exponentially produced already {\it during inflation} and thermalize via interactions with charged particles, as pointed out in previous work. This can lead to a plasma of temperature $T$ during inflation and the thermal masses $gT$ of the gauge bosons can equilibrate the system. In addition, inflaton perturbations $\delta \phi$ can also have a thermal spectrum if they have sufficiently large cross sections with the plasma. In this case inflationary predictions are strongly modified: (1) scalar perturbations are thermal, and so enhanced over the vacuum, leading to a generic way to {\it suppress} the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$; (2) the spectral index is $n_s-1=\eta-4\epsilon$. After presenting the relevant conditions for thermalization, we show that thermalized natural and monomial models of inflation agree with present observations and have $r\approx 10^{-3} - 10^{-2}$, which is within reach of next generation CMB experiments.
We report on discovery results from a quasar lens search in the ATLAS public footprint, extending quasar lens searches to a regime without $u-$band or fiber-spectroscopic information, using a combination of data mining techniques on multi-band catalog magnitudes and image-cutout modelling. Spectroscopic follow-up campaigns, conducted at the 2.6m Nordic Optical Telescope (La Palma) and 3.6m New Technology Telescope (La Silla) in 2016, yielded seven pairs of quasars exhibiting the same lines at the same redshift and monotonic flux-ratios with wavelength (hereafter NIQs, Nearly Identical Quasar pairs). The quasar redshifts range between $\approx1.2$ and $\approx 2.7;$ contaminants are typically pairs of bright blue stars, quasar-star alignments along the line of sight, and narrow-line galaxies at $0.3<z<0.7.$ Magellan data of A0140-1152 (01$^h$40$^m$03.0$^s$-11$^d$52$^m$19.0$^s$, $z_{s}=1.807$) confirm it as a lens with deflector at $z_{l}=0.277$ and Einstein radius $\theta_{\rm E}=(0.73\pm0.02)^\ase$. We show the use of spatial resolution from the Gaia mission to select lenses and list additional systems from a WISE-Gaia-ATLAS search, yielding three additional lenses (02$^h$35$^m$27.4$^s$-24$^d$33$^m$13.2$^s$, 02$^h$59$^m$33.$^s$-23$^d$38$^m$01.8$^s$, 01$^h$46$^m$32.9$^s$-11$^d$33$^m$39.0$^s$). The overall sample consists of 11 lenses/NIQs, plus three lenses known before 2016, over the ATLAS-DR3 footprint ($\approx3500$~deg$^2$). Finally, we discuss future prospects for objective classification of pair/NIQ/contaminant spectra.
The CRESST experiment, located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, searches for dark matter particles via their elastic scattering off nuclei in a target material. The CRESST target consists of scintillating CaWO$_4$ crystals, which are operated as cryogenic calorimeters at millikelvin temperatures. Each interaction in the CaWO$_4$ target crystal produces a phonon signal and a light signal that is measured by a second cryogenic calorimeter. Since the CRESST-II result in 2015, the experiment is leading the field of direct dark matter search for dark matter masses below 1.7\,GeV/$c^2$, extending the reach of direct searches to the sub-GeV/$c^2$ mass region. For CRESST-III, whose Phase 1 started in July 2016, detectors have been optimized to reach the performance required to further probe the low-mass region with unprecedented sensitivity. In this contribution the achievements of the CRESST-III detectors will be discussed together with preliminary results and perspectives of Phase 1.
Cosmology has entered an era where the experimental limitations are not due to instrumental sensitivity but instead due to inherent systematic uncertainties in the instrumentation and data analysis methods. The field of HI intensity mapping (IM) is still maturing, however early attempts are already systematics limited. One such systematic limitation is 1/f noise, which largely originates within the instrumentation and manifests as multiplicative gain fluctuations. To date there has been little discussion about the possible impact of 1/f noise on upcoming single-dish HI IM experiments such as BINGO, FAST or SKA. Presented in this work are Monte-Carlo end-to-end simulations of a 30 day HI IM survey using the SKA-MID array covering a bandwidth of 950 and 1410 MHz. These simulations extend 1/f noise models to include not just temporal fluctuations but also correlated gain fluctuations across the receiver bandpass. The power spectral density of the spectral gain fluctuations are modelled as a power-law, and characterised by a parameter $\beta$. It is found that the degree of 1/f noise frequency correlation will be critical to the success of HI IM experiments. Small values of $\beta$ ($\beta$ < 0.25) or high correlation is preferred as this is more easily removed using current component separation techniques. The spectral index of temporal fluctuations ($\alpha$) is also found to have a large impact on signal-to-noise. Telescope slew speed has a smaller impact, and a scan speed of 1 deg s$^{-1}$ should be sufficient for a HI IM survey with the SKA.
Most secondary sources of cosmic microwave background anisotropy (radio sources, dusty galaxies, thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich distortions from hot gas, and gravitational lensing) are highly non-Gaussian. Statistics beyond the power spectrum are therefore potentially important sources of information about the physics of these processes. We use data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Planck satellite to constrain the amplitudes of a set of theoretical bispectrum templates from the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), gravitational lensing, and radio galaxies. We make a strong detection of radio galaxies (13$\sigma$) and have hints of non-Gaussianity arising from the tSZ effect (3.2$\sigma$), DSFGs (3.8$\sigma$), from cross-correlations between the tSZ effect and DSFGs (4.2$\sigma$) and from cross-correlations among the tSZ effect, DSFGs and radio galaxies (4.6$\sigma$). These results suggest that the same halos host radio sources, DSFGs, and have tSZ signal. At current noise levels, strong degeneracies exist between the various sources; upcoming data from Advanced ACT, SPT-3G, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4 will be able to separate the components. With these caveats, we use the tSZ bispectrum measurement to constrain the amplitude of matter fluctuations to be $\sigma_8=0.79 \pm0.07$.
We investigate the flux ratio anomalies between macro-model predictions and the observed brightness of the supernova iPTF16geu, as published in a recent paper by More et al., 2017. This group suggested that these discrepancies are, qualitatively, likely due to microlensing. We analyze the plausibility of attributing this discrepancy to microlensing, and find that the discrepancy is too large to be due to microlensing alone. This is true whether one assumes knowledge of the luminosity of the supernova or allows the luminosity to be a free parameter. Varying the dark/stellar ratio likewise doesn't help. In addition, other macro-models with quadruplicity from external shear or ellipticity do not significantly improve to model. Finally, microlensing also makes it difficult to accurately determine the standard candle brightness of the supernova, as the likelihood plot for the intrinsic magnitude of the source (for a perfect macro-model) has a full width half maximum of 0.73 magnitudes. As such, the error for the standard candle brightness is quite large. This reduces the utility of the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae.
In this paper we present a cosmological model arising from a non-conservative gravitational theory proposed in [PRD 95, 101501(R) (2017)]. The novel feature where comparing with previous implementations of dissipative effects in gravity is the possible arising of such phenomena from a least action principle, so they are of a purely geometric nature. We derive the dynamical equations describing the behaviour of the cosmic background, considering a single fluid model composed by pressureles matter, whereas the dark energy is conceived as an outcome of the "geometric" dissipative process emerging in the model. Besides, adopting the synchronous gauge we obtain the first-order perturbative equations which shall describe the evolution of the matter perturbations within the linear regime.
Among the various possibilities to probe the theory behind the recent accelerated expansion of the universe, the energy conditions (ECs) are of particular interest, since it is possible to confront and constrain the many models, including different theories of gravity, with observational data. In this context, we use the ECs to probe any alternative theory whose extra term acts as a cosmological constant. For this purpose, we apply a model-independent approach to reconstruct the recent expansion of the universe. Using Type Ia supernova, baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmic-chronometer data, we perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to put constraints on the effective cosmological constant $\Omega^0_{\rm eff}$. By imposing that the cosmological constant is the only component that possibly violates the ECs, we derive lower and upper bounds for its value. For instance, we obtain that $0.59 < \Omega^0_{\rm eff} < 0.91$ and $0.40 < \Omega^0_{\rm eff} < 0.93$ within, respectively, $1\sigma$ and $3\sigma$ confidence levels. In addition, about 30\% of the posterior distribution is incompatible with a cosmological constant, showing that this method can potentially rule it out as a mechanism for the accelerated expansion. We also study the consequence of these constraints for two particular formulations of the bimetric massive gravity. Namely, we consider the Visser's theory and the Hassan and Roses's massive gravity by choosing a background metric such that both theories mimic General Relativity with a cosmological constant. Using the $\Omega^0_{\rm eff}$ observational bounds along with the upper bounds on the graviton mass we obtain constraints on the parameter spaces of both theories.
Theories of dark energy and modified gravity can be strongly constrained by astrophysical or cosmological observations, as illustrated by the recent observation of the gravitational wave event GW170817 and of its electromagnetic counterpart GRB 170817A, which shows that the speed of gravitational waves, $c_g$, is the same as the speed of light, within deviations of order $10^{-15}$. This observation implies very severe restrictions on scalar-tensor theories, in particular theories whose action depends on second derivatives of a scalar field. Working in the very general framework of Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories, which encompass Horndeski and Beyond Horndeski theories, we present the DHOST theories that satisfy $c_g=c$. We then examine, for these theories, the screening mechanism that suppresses scalar interactions on small scales, namely the Vainshtein mechanism, and compute the corresponding gravitational laws for a non-relativistic spherical body. We show that it can lead to a deviation from standard gravity inside matter, parametrized by three coefficients which satisfy a consistency relation and can be constrained by present and future astrophysical observations.
We study the behaviour of a light quartically self-interacting scalar field $\phi$ on curved backgrounds that may be described with the cosmological equation state parameter $w$. At leading order in the non-perturbative 2PI expansion we find a general formula for the variance $\langle\hat{\phi}^2\rangle$ and show for several previously unexplored cases, including matter domination and kination, that the curvature of space can induce a significant excitation of the field. We discuss how the generation of a non-zero variance for $w\neq-1$ can be understood as a process of self-regulation of the infrared divergences very similarly to what is known to occur in de Sitter space. We furthermore provide a generalization of the Bunch-Davies vacuum for beyond de Sitter backgrounds. To conclude, the appearance of an effective mass due to self-interaction is generic for a light scalar in curved space and can have important implications for reheating, vacuum stability and dark matter generation.
In the type-I seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses, there exists a $B-L$ symmetry, whose breaking leads to the lepton number violating mass of the heavy Majorana neutrinos. This would imply the existence of a new neutral scalar associated with the $B-L$ symmetry breaking, analogous to the Higgs boson of the Standard Model. If in such models, the heavy neutrino decays are also responsible for the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe via the leptogenesis mechanism, the new seesaw scalar interactions with the heavy neutrinos will induce additional dilution terms for the heavy neutrino and lepton number densities. We make a detailed study of this dilution effect on the lepton asymmetry in three generic classes of seesaw models with TeV-scale $B-L$ symmetry breaking, namely, in an effective theory framework and in scenarios with global or local $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry. We find that requiring successful leptogenesis imposes stringent constraints on the mass and couplings of the new scalar in all three cases, especially when it is lighter than the heavy neutrinos. We also discuss the implications of these new constraints and prospects of testing leptogenesis in presence of seesaw scalars at colliders.
We study galaxy populations and search for possible merging substructures in the rich galaxy cluster A2142. Normal mixture modelling revealed in A2142 several infalling galaxy groups and subclusters. The projected phase space diagram was used to analyse the dynamics of the cluster and study the distribution of various galaxy populations in the cluster and subclusters. The cluster, supercluster, BCGs, and one infalling subcluster are aligned. Their orientation is correlated with the alignment of the radio and X-ray haloes of the cluster. Galaxies in the centre of the main cluster at the clustercentric distances $0.5~h^{-1}Mpc$ have older stellar populations (with the median age of $10 - 11$~Gyrs) than galaxies at larger clustercentric distances. Star-forming and recently quenched galaxies are located mostly in the infall region at the clustercentric distances $D_{\mathrm{c}} \approx 1.8~h^{-1}Mpc$, where the median age of stellar populations of galaxies is about $2$~Gyrs. Galaxies in A2142 have higher stellar masses, lower star formation rates, and redder colours than galaxies in other rich groups. The total mass in infalling groups and subclusters is $M \approx 6\times10^{14}h^{-1}M_\odot$, approximately half of the mass of the cluster, sufficient for the mass growth of the cluster from redshift $z = 0.5$ (half-mass epoch) to the present. The cluster A2142 may have formed as a result of past and present mergers and infallen groups, predominantly along the supercluster axis. Mergers cause complex radio and X-ray structure of the cluster and affect the properties of galaxies in the cluster, especially in the infall region. Explaining the differences between galaxy populations, mass, and richness of A2142, and other groups and clusters may lead to better insight about the formation and evolution of rich galaxy clusters.
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An interesting test on the nature of the Universe is to measure the global spatial curvature of the metric in a model independent way, at a level of $|\Omega_k|<10^{-4}$, or, if possible, at the cosmic variance level of the amplitude of the CMB fluctuations $|\Omega_k|\approx10^{-5}$. A limit of $|\Omega_k|<10^{-4}$ would yield stringent tests on several models of inflation. Further, improving the constraint by an order of magnitude would help in reducing "model confusion" in standard parameter estimation. Moreover, if the curvature is measured to be at the value of the amplitude of the CMB fluctuations, it would offer a powerful test on the inflationary paradigm and would indicate that our Universe must be significantly larger than the current horizon. On the contrary, in the context of standard inflation, measuring a value above CMB fluctuations will lead us to conclude that the Universe is not much larger than the current observed horizon; this can also be interpreted as the presence of large fluctuations outside the horizon. However, it has proven difficult, so far, to find observables that can achieve such level of accuracy, and, most of all, be model-independent. Here we propose a method that can in principle achieve that; this is done by making minimal assumptions and using distance probes that are cosmology-independent: gravitational waves, redshift drift and cosmic chronometers. We discuss what kind of observations are needed in principle to achieve the desired accuracy.
We present results of the study of peculiar motions of 57 clusters and groups of galaxies in the regions of the Corona Borealis (CrB), Bootes (Boo), Z5029/A1424, A1190, A1750/A1809 superclusters of galaxies and 20 galaxy clusters located beyond massive structures ($0.05<z<0.10$). Using the SDSS (Data Release 8) data, a sample of early-type galaxies was compiled in the systems under study, their fundamental planes were built, and relative distances and peculiar velocities were determined. Within the galaxy superclusters, significant peculiar motions along the line of sight are observed with rms deviations of $652\pm50$~km s$^{-1}$---in CrB, $757\pm70$~km s$^{-1}$---in Boo. For the most massive A2065 cluster in the CrB supercluster, no peculiar velocity was found. Peculiar motions of other galaxy clusters can be caused by their gravitational interaction both with A\,2065 and with the A2142 supercluster. It has been found that there are two superclusters projected onto each other in the region of the Bootes supercluster with a radial velocity difference of about 4000~km s$^{-1}$. In the Z5029/A1424 supercluster near the rich Z5029 cluster, the most considerable peculiar motions with a rms deviation of $1366\pm170$~km s$^{-1}$ are observed. The rms deviation of peculiar velocities of 20 clusters that do not belong to large-scale structures is equal to $0\pm20$~km s$^{-1}$. The whole sample of the clusters under study has the mean peculiar velocity equal to $83\pm130$~km s$^{-1}$ relative to the cosmic microwave background.
We develop a complete set of tools for CMB forecasting, simulation and estimation of primordial running bispectra, arising from a variety of curvaton and single-field (DBI) models of Inflation. We validate our pipeline using mock CMB running non-Gaussianity realizations and test it on real data by obtaining experimental constraints on the $f_{\rm NL}$ running spectral index, $n_{\rm NG}$, using WMAP 9-year data. Our final bounds (68\% C.L.) read $-0.3< n_{\rm NG}<1.7$, $-0.3< n_{\rm NG}<1.3$, $-0.9<n_{\rm NG}<1.0$ for the single-field curvaton, two-field curvaton and DBI scenarios, respectively. We show forecasts and discuss potential improvements on these bounds, using Planck and future CMB surveys.
Recent high-energy data from Fermi-LAT on the diffuse gamma-background (DGRB) have been used to set among the best constraints on annihilating TeV cold dark matter (DM) candidates. In order to assess the robustness of these limits, we revisit and update the calculation of the isotropic extragalactic gamma-ray intensity from DM annihilation. The emission from halos with masses $\geq10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$ provides a robust lower bound on the predicted intensity. The intensity including smaller halos whose properties are extrapolated from their higher mass counterparts is typically 5 times higher, and boost from subhalos yields an additional factor ~1.5. We also rank the uncertainties from all ingredients and provide a detailed error budget in table 1. Overall, our fiducial intensity is a factor 5 lower than the one derived by the Fermi-LAT collaboration for their latest analysis. This indicates that the limits set on extragalactic DM annihilations could be relaxed by the same factor. We also calculate the expected intensity for self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) in massive halos and find the emission reduced by a factor 3 compared to the collisionless counterpart. The next release of the CLUMPY code will provide all the tools necessary to reproduce and ease future improvements of this prediction.
Cosmological measurements of structure are placing increasingly strong constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses, $\Sigma m_\nu$, through Bayesian inference. Because these constraints depend on the choice for the prior probability $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$, we argue that this prior should be motivated by fundamental physical principles rather than the ad hoc choices that are common in the literature. The first step in this direction is to specify the prior directly at the level of the neutrino mass matrix $M_\nu$, since this is the parameter appearing in the Lagrangian of the particle physics theory. Thus by specifying a probability distribution over $M_\nu$, and by including the known squared mass splittings, we predict a theoretical probability distribution over $\Sigma m_\nu$ that we interpret as a Bayesian prior probability $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$. We find that $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$ peaks close to the smallest $\Sigma m_\nu$ allowed by the measured mass splittings, roughly $0.06 \, {\rm eV}$ ($0.1 \, {\rm eV}$) for normal (inverted) ordering, due to the phenomenon of eigenvalue repulsion in random matrices. We consider three models for neutrino mass generation: Dirac, Majorana, and Majorana via the seesaw mechanism; differences in the predicted priors $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$ allow for the possibility of having indications about the physical origin of neutrino masses once sufficient experimental sensitivity is achieved. We present fitting functions for $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$, which provide a simple means for applying these priors to cosmological constraints on the neutrino masses or marginalizing over their impact on other cosmological parameters.
The massive galaxy cluster "El Gordo" (ACT-CL J0102--4915) is a rare merging system with a high collision speed suggested by multi-wavelength observations and the theoretical modeling. Zhang et al. (2015) propose two types of mergers, a nearly head-on merger and an off-axis merger with a large impact parameter, to reproduce most of the observational features of the cluster, by using numerical simulations. The different merger configurations of the two models result in different gas motion in the simulated clusters. In this paper, we predict the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect, the relativistic correction of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect, and the X-ray spectrum of this cluster, based on the two proposed models. We find that (1) the amplitudes of the kSZ effect resulting from the two models are both on the order of $\Delta T/T\sim10^{-5}$; but their morphologies are different, which trace the different line-of-sight velocity distributions of the systems; (2) the relativistic correction of the tSZ effect around $240 {\rm\,GHz}$ can be possibly used to constrain the temperature of the hot electrons heated by the shocks; and (3) the shift between the X-ray spectral lines emitted from different regions of the cluster can be significantly different in the two models. The shift and the line broadening can be up to $\sim 25{\rm\,eV}$ and $50{\rm\,eV}$, respectively. We expect that future observations of the kSZ effect and the X-ray spectral lines (e.g., by ALMA, XARM) will provide a strong constraint on the gas motion and the merger configuration of ACT-CL J0102--4915.
We consider the possibility that the primordial curvature perturbation is direction-dependent. To first order this is parameterised by a quadrupolar modulation of the power spectrum and results in statistical anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, which can be quantified using the bipolar spherical harmonic representation. We compute these for the Planck Release 2 SMICA map and use them to infer the quadrupole modulation of the primordial power spectrum which, going beyond previous work, we allow to be scale-dependent. Uncertainties are estimated from Planck FFP9 simulations. Consistent with the Planck collaboration's findings, we find no evidence for a constant quadrupole modulation, nor one scaling with wave number as a power law. However our non-parametric reconstruction suggests several spectral features. When a constant quadrupole modulation is fitted to data limited to the wave number range $0.005 \leq k/\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1} \leq 0.008$, we find that its preferred direction is aligned with the cosmic hemispherical asymmetry. To determine the statistical significance we construct two different test statistics and test them on our reconstructions from data, against reconstructions of realisations of noise only. With a test statistic sensitive only to the amplitude of the modulation, the reconstructions are unusual at $2.5\sigma$ significance in the full wave number range, but at $2.2\sigma$ when limited to the intermediate wave number range $0.008 \leq k/\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1} \leq 0.074$. With the second test statistic, sensitive also to direction, the reconstructions are unusual with $4.6\sigma$ significance, dropping to $2.7 \sigma$ for the intermediate wave number range. Our approach is easily generalised to include other data sets such as polarisation, large-scale structure and forthcoming 21-cm line observations which will enable these anomalies to be investigated further.
The search for extra dimensions is a challenging endeavor to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The joint detection of gravity waves (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) signals from the merging of a binary system of compact objects like a neutron star (NS) can help constrain the geometry of extra dimensions. In particular, if our observable Universe is a 3+1 hypersurface or brane embedded in a higher 4+1 Anti-de Sitter (AdS$_5$) spacetime, in which gravity is the only field that propagates through the infinite bulk space while any other field is confined on the brane, then GW and EM signals between two points on the brane would in general travel different paths. This would result in a time lag between the detection of GW and EM signals emitted simultaneously from the same source, with the apparent measurement of a "superluminous" GW speed. Assuming the standard $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) scenario, we set a bound on the AdS$_5$ radius of curvature $\ell \lesssim 140\,$kpc, using the time lag $\delta t < 1.7\,$s between the measurement of the event GW170817 by the LIGO/VIRGO collaborations and the GRB170817A signal detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor collaboration, both associated with a binary NS-NS infall.
We study formation and evolution of solitons within a model with two real scalar fields with the potential having a saddle point. The set of these configurations can be split into disjoint equivalence classes. We give a simple expression for the winding number of an arbitrary closed loop in the field space and discuss the evolution scenarios that change the winding number. These non-trivial field configurations lead to formation of the domain walls in the three-dimensional physical space.
In this work an update of the cosmological role and place of the chiral tensor particles in the Universe history is provided. We discuss an extended model with chiral tensor particles. The influence of these particles on the early Universe evolution is studied. Namely, the increase of the Universe expansion rate caused by the additional particles in this extended model is calculated, their characteristic interactions with the particles of the hot Universe plasma are studied and the corresponding times of their creation, scattering, annihilation and decay are estimated for accepted values of their masses and couplings, based on the recent experimental constraints. The period of abundant presence of these particles in the Universe evolution is determined.
We carry out a systematic investigation of the total mass density profile of massive (Mstar~3e11 Msun) early-type galaxies and its dependence on redshift, specifically in the range 0<z<1. We start from a large sample of SDSS early-type galaxies with stellar masses and effective radii measured assuming two different profiles, de Vaucouleurs and S\'{e}rsic. We assign dark matter haloes to galaxies via abundance matching relations with standard LCDM profiles and concentrations. We then compute the total, mass-weighted density slope at the effective radius gamma', and study its redshift dependence at fixed stellar mass. We find that a necessary condition to induce an increasingly flatter gamma' at higher redshifts, as suggested by current strong lensing data, is to allow the intrinsic stellar profile of massive galaxies to be S\'{e}rsic and the input S\'{e}rsic index n to vary with redshift approximately as n(z)~(1+z)^(-1). This conclusion holds irrespective of the input Mstar-Mhalo relation, the assumed stellar initial mass function, or even the chosen level of adiabatic contraction in the model. Secondary contributors to the observed redshift evolution of gamma' may come from an increased contribution at higher redshifts of adiabatic contraction and/or bottom-light stellar initial mass functions. The strong lensing selection effects we have simulated seem not to contribute to this effect. A steadily increasing S\'{e}rsic index with cosmic time is supported by independent observations, though it is not yet clear whether cosmological hierarchical models (e.g., mergers) are capable of reproducing such a fast and sharp evolution.
We analyze the evolution of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime within the framework of $f(R)$ metric gravity using an exponential model. We show that $f(R)$ gravity may lead to a vanishing effective cosmological constant in the far future (i.e. $R\rightarrow 0$) and yet produce a transient accelerated expansion at present time with a potentially viable cosmological history. This is in contrast with several $f(R)$ models which, while viable, produce in general a non-vanishing effective cosmological constant asymptotically in time ($R\rightarrow 4\Lambda_{\rm eff}$). We also show that relativistic {stars in asymptotically flat spacetimes can be supported within this framework without encountering any singularity, notably in the Ricci scalar $R$.
The rare case of changing-look (CL) AGNs, with the appearance or disappearance of broad Balmer emission lines within a few years, challenges our understanding of the AGN unified model. We present a sample of 21 new CL AGNs at $0.08<z<0.58$. The new sample doubles the number of such objects known to date. These new CL AGNs were discovered by several ways, from repeat spectra in the SDSS, repeat spectra in the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and SDSS, and from photometric variability and new spectroscopic observations. The estimated upper limits of transition timescale of the CL AGNs in this sample span from 0.9 to 13 years in rest-frame. The continuum flux in the optical and mid-infrared becomes brighter when the CL AGNs turn on, or vice versa. Variations of more than 0.2 mag in the mid-infrared $W1$ band, from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), were detected in 15 CL AGNs during the transition. The optical and mid-infrared variability is not consistent with the scenario of variable obscuration in 10 CL AGNs at higher than $3\sigma$ confidence level. We confirm a bluer-when-brighter trend in the optical. However, the mid-infrared colors $W1-W2$ become redder when the objects become brighter in the $W1$ band, possibly due to a stronger hot dust contribution in the $W2$ band when the AGN activity becomes stronger. The physical mechanism of type transition is important for understanding the evolution of AGNs.
As the first step to extend our understanding of higher-derivative theories, within the framework of analytic mechanics of interacting particles, we construct a ghost-free theory involving third-order time derivative in Lagrangian. We clarify that there is a crucial difference in construction from up-to-second-order-derivative theories. While eliminating linear momentum terms in the Hamiltonian is necessary and sufficient to kill the ghosts associated with the higher derivatives for the Lagrangian with up to second-order derivatives, this is necessary but not sufficient for the Lagrangian with higher than second-order derivatives. We demonstrate that even after eliminating the linear momentum terms ghosts are still lurking and they need to be removed appropriately to make Lagrangian free from the ghosts. We clarify a set of ghost-free conditions under which we show that the Hamiltonian is bounded, and that equations of motion are reducible into a second-order system.
In this paper, we study the luminosity function and formation rate of short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Firstly, we derive the $E_p-L_p$ correlation using 16 sGRBs with redshift measurements and determine the pseudo redshifts of 284 Fermi sGRBs. Then, we use the Lynden-Bell c$^-$ method to study the luminosity function and formation rate of sGRBs without any assumptions. A strong evolution of luminosity $L(z)\propto (1+z)^{4.47}$ is found. After removing this evolution, the luminosity function is $ \Psi (L) \propto L_0 ^ {- 0.29 \pm 0.01} $ for dim sGRBs and $ \psi (L) \propto L_0 ^ {- 1.07 \pm 0.01} $ for bright sGRBs, with the break point $8.26 \times 10^{50} $ erg s$^{-1}$. We also find that the formation rate decreases rapidly at $z<1.0$, which is different with previous works. The local formation rate of sGRBs is 7.53 events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. Considering the beaming effect, the local formation rate of sGRBs including off-axis sGRBs is $ 203.31^{+1152.09}_{-135.54} $ events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. We also estimate that the event rate of sGRBs detected by the advanced LIGO and Virgo is $0.85^{+4.82}_{-0.56} $ events yr$^{-1}$ for NS-NS binary.
We propose a novel scenario of inflation, in which the inflaton is identified as the lightest mode of an angular field in a compactified fifth dimension. The periodic effective potential exhibits exponentially flat plateaus, so that a sub-Planckian field excursion without hilltop initial conditions is naturally realized. We can obtain consistent predictions with observations on the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio.
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in a non-singular bouncing cosmology with a bounce phase which has superimposed oscillations of the scale factor. We identify length scales for which the final spectrum of fluctuations obtains imprints of the non-trivial bounce dynamics. These imprints in the spectrum are manifested in the form of damped oscillation features at scales smaller than a characteristic value and an increased reddening of the spectrum at all the scales as the number of small bounces increases.
We consider Kaluza-Klein models where internal spaces are compact flat or curved Einstein spaces. This background is perturbed by a compact gravitating body with the dust-like equation of state (EoS) in the external/our space and an arbitrary EoS parameter $\Omega$ in the internal space. Without imposing any restrictions on the form of the perturbed metric and the distribution of the perturbed energy densities, we perform the general analysis of the Einstein and conservation equations in the weak-field limit. All conclusions follow from this analysis. For example, we demonstrate that the perturbed model is static and perturbed metric preserves the block-diagonal form. In a particular case $\Omega=-1/2$, the found solution corresponds to the weak-field limit of the black strings/branes. The black strings/branes are compact gravitating objects which have the topology (four-dimensional Schwarzschild spacetime)$\times$ ($d$-dimensional internal space) with $d\geq 1$. We present the arguments in favour of these objects. First, they satisfy the gravitational tests for the parameterized post-Newtonian parameter $\gamma$ at the same level of accuracy as General Relativity. Second, they are preferable from the thermodynamical point of view. Third, averaging over the Universe, they do not destroy the stabilization of the internal space. These are the astrophysical and cosmological aspects of the black strings/branes.
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An interesting test on the nature of the Universe is to measure the global spatial curvature of the metric in a model independent way, at a level of $|\Omega_k|<10^{-4}$, or, if possible, at the cosmic variance level of the amplitude of the CMB fluctuations $|\Omega_k|\approx10^{-5}$. A limit of $|\Omega_k|<10^{-4}$ would yield stringent tests on several models of inflation. Further, improving the constraint by an order of magnitude would help in reducing "model confusion" in standard parameter estimation. Moreover, if the curvature is measured to be at the value of the amplitude of the CMB fluctuations, it would offer a powerful test on the inflationary paradigm and would indicate that our Universe must be significantly larger than the current horizon. On the contrary, in the context of standard inflation, measuring a value above CMB fluctuations will lead us to conclude that the Universe is not much larger than the current observed horizon; this can also be interpreted as the presence of large fluctuations outside the horizon. However, it has proven difficult, so far, to find observables that can achieve such level of accuracy, and, most of all, be model-independent. Here we propose a method that can in principle achieve that; this is done by making minimal assumptions and using distance probes that are cosmology-independent: gravitational waves, redshift drift and cosmic chronometers. We discuss what kind of observations are needed in principle to achieve the desired accuracy.
We present results of the study of peculiar motions of 57 clusters and groups of galaxies in the regions of the Corona Borealis (CrB), Bootes (Boo), Z5029/A1424, A1190, A1750/A1809 superclusters of galaxies and 20 galaxy clusters located beyond massive structures ($0.05<z<0.10$). Using the SDSS (Data Release 8) data, a sample of early-type galaxies was compiled in the systems under study, their fundamental planes were built, and relative distances and peculiar velocities were determined. Within the galaxy superclusters, significant peculiar motions along the line of sight are observed with rms deviations of $652\pm50$~km s$^{-1}$---in CrB, $757\pm70$~km s$^{-1}$---in Boo. For the most massive A2065 cluster in the CrB supercluster, no peculiar velocity was found. Peculiar motions of other galaxy clusters can be caused by their gravitational interaction both with A\,2065 and with the A2142 supercluster. It has been found that there are two superclusters projected onto each other in the region of the Bootes supercluster with a radial velocity difference of about 4000~km s$^{-1}$. In the Z5029/A1424 supercluster near the rich Z5029 cluster, the most considerable peculiar motions with a rms deviation of $1366\pm170$~km s$^{-1}$ are observed. The rms deviation of peculiar velocities of 20 clusters that do not belong to large-scale structures is equal to $0\pm20$~km s$^{-1}$. The whole sample of the clusters under study has the mean peculiar velocity equal to $83\pm130$~km s$^{-1}$ relative to the cosmic microwave background.
We develop a complete set of tools for CMB forecasting, simulation and estimation of primordial running bispectra, arising from a variety of curvaton and single-field (DBI) models of Inflation. We validate our pipeline using mock CMB running non-Gaussianity realizations and test it on real data by obtaining experimental constraints on the $f_{\rm NL}$ running spectral index, $n_{\rm NG}$, using WMAP 9-year data. Our final bounds (68\% C.L.) read $-0.3< n_{\rm NG}<1.7$, $-0.3< n_{\rm NG}<1.3$, $-0.9<n_{\rm NG}<1.0$ for the single-field curvaton, two-field curvaton and DBI scenarios, respectively. We show forecasts and discuss potential improvements on these bounds, using Planck and future CMB surveys.
Recent high-energy data from Fermi-LAT on the diffuse gamma-background (DGRB) have been used to set among the best constraints on annihilating TeV cold dark matter (DM) candidates. In order to assess the robustness of these limits, we revisit and update the calculation of the isotropic extragalactic gamma-ray intensity from DM annihilation. The emission from halos with masses $\geq10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$ provides a robust lower bound on the predicted intensity. The intensity including smaller halos whose properties are extrapolated from their higher mass counterparts is typically 5 times higher, and boost from subhalos yields an additional factor ~1.5. We also rank the uncertainties from all ingredients and provide a detailed error budget in table 1. Overall, our fiducial intensity is a factor 5 lower than the one derived by the Fermi-LAT collaboration for their latest analysis. This indicates that the limits set on extragalactic DM annihilations could be relaxed by the same factor. We also calculate the expected intensity for self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) in massive halos and find the emission reduced by a factor 3 compared to the collisionless counterpart. The next release of the CLUMPY code will provide all the tools necessary to reproduce and ease future improvements of this prediction.
Cosmological measurements of structure are placing increasingly strong constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses, $\Sigma m_\nu$, through Bayesian inference. Because these constraints depend on the choice for the prior probability $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$, we argue that this prior should be motivated by fundamental physical principles rather than the ad hoc choices that are common in the literature. The first step in this direction is to specify the prior directly at the level of the neutrino mass matrix $M_\nu$, since this is the parameter appearing in the Lagrangian of the particle physics theory. Thus by specifying a probability distribution over $M_\nu$, and by including the known squared mass splittings, we predict a theoretical probability distribution over $\Sigma m_\nu$ that we interpret as a Bayesian prior probability $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$. We find that $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$ peaks close to the smallest $\Sigma m_\nu$ allowed by the measured mass splittings, roughly $0.06 \, {\rm eV}$ ($0.1 \, {\rm eV}$) for normal (inverted) ordering, due to the phenomenon of eigenvalue repulsion in random matrices. We consider three models for neutrino mass generation: Dirac, Majorana, and Majorana via the seesaw mechanism; differences in the predicted priors $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$ allow for the possibility of having indications about the physical origin of neutrino masses once sufficient experimental sensitivity is achieved. We present fitting functions for $\pi(\Sigma m_\nu)$, which provide a simple means for applying these priors to cosmological constraints on the neutrino masses or marginalizing over their impact on other cosmological parameters.
The massive galaxy cluster "El Gordo" (ACT-CL J0102--4915) is a rare merging system with a high collision speed suggested by multi-wavelength observations and the theoretical modeling. Zhang et al. (2015) propose two types of mergers, a nearly head-on merger and an off-axis merger with a large impact parameter, to reproduce most of the observational features of the cluster, by using numerical simulations. The different merger configurations of the two models result in different gas motion in the simulated clusters. In this paper, we predict the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect, the relativistic correction of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect, and the X-ray spectrum of this cluster, based on the two proposed models. We find that (1) the amplitudes of the kSZ effect resulting from the two models are both on the order of $\Delta T/T\sim10^{-5}$; but their morphologies are different, which trace the different line-of-sight velocity distributions of the systems; (2) the relativistic correction of the tSZ effect around $240 {\rm\,GHz}$ can be possibly used to constrain the temperature of the hot electrons heated by the shocks; and (3) the shift between the X-ray spectral lines emitted from different regions of the cluster can be significantly different in the two models. The shift and the line broadening can be up to $\sim 25{\rm\,eV}$ and $50{\rm\,eV}$, respectively. We expect that future observations of the kSZ effect and the X-ray spectral lines (e.g., by ALMA, XARM) will provide a strong constraint on the gas motion and the merger configuration of ACT-CL J0102--4915.
We consider the possibility that the primordial curvature perturbation is direction-dependent. To first order this is parameterised by a quadrupolar modulation of the power spectrum and results in statistical anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, which can be quantified using the bipolar spherical harmonic representation. We compute these for the Planck Release 2 SMICA map and use them to infer the quadrupole modulation of the primordial power spectrum which, going beyond previous work, we allow to be scale-dependent. Uncertainties are estimated from Planck FFP9 simulations. Consistent with the Planck collaboration's findings, we find no evidence for a constant quadrupole modulation, nor one scaling with wave number as a power law. However our non-parametric reconstruction suggests several spectral features. When a constant quadrupole modulation is fitted to data limited to the wave number range $0.005 \leq k/\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1} \leq 0.008$, we find that its preferred direction is aligned with the cosmic hemispherical asymmetry. To determine the statistical significance we construct two different test statistics and test them on our reconstructions from data, against reconstructions of realisations of noise only. With a test statistic sensitive only to the amplitude of the modulation, the reconstructions are unusual at $2.5\sigma$ significance in the full wave number range, but at $2.2\sigma$ when limited to the intermediate wave number range $0.008 \leq k/\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1} \leq 0.074$. With the second test statistic, sensitive also to direction, the reconstructions are unusual with $4.6\sigma$ significance, dropping to $2.7 \sigma$ for the intermediate wave number range. Our approach is easily generalised to include other data sets such as polarisation, large-scale structure and forthcoming 21-cm line observations which will enable these anomalies to be investigated further.
The search for extra dimensions is a challenging endeavor to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The joint detection of gravity waves (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) signals from the merging of a binary system of compact objects like a neutron star (NS) can help constrain the geometry of extra dimensions. In particular, if our observable Universe is a 3+1 hypersurface or brane embedded in a higher 4+1 Anti-de Sitter (AdS$_5$) spacetime, in which gravity is the only field that propagates through the infinite bulk space while any other field is confined on the brane, then GW and EM signals between two points on the brane would in general travel different paths. This would result in a time lag between the detection of GW and EM signals emitted simultaneously from the same source, with the apparent measurement of a "superluminous" GW speed. Assuming the standard $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) scenario, we set a bound on the AdS$_5$ radius of curvature $\ell \lesssim 140\,$kpc, using the time lag $\delta t < 1.7\,$s between the measurement of the event GW170817 by the LIGO/VIRGO collaborations and the GRB170817A signal detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor collaboration, both associated with a binary NS-NS infall.
We study formation and evolution of solitons within a model with two real scalar fields with the potential having a saddle point. The set of these configurations can be split into disjoint equivalence classes. We give a simple expression for the winding number of an arbitrary closed loop in the field space and discuss the evolution scenarios that change the winding number. These non-trivial field configurations lead to formation of the domain walls in the three-dimensional physical space.
In this work an update of the cosmological role and place of the chiral tensor particles in the Universe history is provided. We discuss an extended model with chiral tensor particles. The influence of these particles on the early Universe evolution is studied. Namely, the increase of the Universe expansion rate caused by the additional particles in this extended model is calculated, their characteristic interactions with the particles of the hot Universe plasma are studied and the corresponding times of their creation, scattering, annihilation and decay are estimated for accepted values of their masses and couplings, based on the recent experimental constraints. The period of abundant presence of these particles in the Universe evolution is determined.
We carry out a systematic investigation of the total mass density profile of massive (Mstar~3e11 Msun) early-type galaxies and its dependence on redshift, specifically in the range 0<z<1. We start from a large sample of SDSS early-type galaxies with stellar masses and effective radii measured assuming two different profiles, de Vaucouleurs and S\'{e}rsic. We assign dark matter haloes to galaxies via abundance matching relations with standard LCDM profiles and concentrations. We then compute the total, mass-weighted density slope at the effective radius gamma', and study its redshift dependence at fixed stellar mass. We find that a necessary condition to induce an increasingly flatter gamma' at higher redshifts, as suggested by current strong lensing data, is to allow the intrinsic stellar profile of massive galaxies to be S\'{e}rsic and the input S\'{e}rsic index n to vary with redshift approximately as n(z)~(1+z)^(-1). This conclusion holds irrespective of the input Mstar-Mhalo relation, the assumed stellar initial mass function, or even the chosen level of adiabatic contraction in the model. Secondary contributors to the observed redshift evolution of gamma' may come from an increased contribution at higher redshifts of adiabatic contraction and/or bottom-light stellar initial mass functions. The strong lensing selection effects we have simulated seem not to contribute to this effect. A steadily increasing S\'{e}rsic index with cosmic time is supported by independent observations, though it is not yet clear whether cosmological hierarchical models (e.g., mergers) are capable of reproducing such a fast and sharp evolution.
We analyze the evolution of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime within the framework of $f(R)$ metric gravity using an exponential model. We show that $f(R)$ gravity may lead to a vanishing effective cosmological constant in the far future (i.e. $R\rightarrow 0$) and yet produce a transient accelerated expansion at present time with a potentially viable cosmological history. This is in contrast with several $f(R)$ models which, while viable, produce in general a non-vanishing effective cosmological constant asymptotically in time ($R\rightarrow 4\Lambda_{\rm eff}$). We also show that relativistic {stars in asymptotically flat spacetimes can be supported within this framework without encountering any singularity, notably in the Ricci scalar $R$.
The rare case of changing-look (CL) AGNs, with the appearance or disappearance of broad Balmer emission lines within a few years, challenges our understanding of the AGN unified model. We present a sample of 21 new CL AGNs at $0.08<z<0.58$. The new sample doubles the number of such objects known to date. These new CL AGNs were discovered by several ways, from repeat spectra in the SDSS, repeat spectra in the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and SDSS, and from photometric variability and new spectroscopic observations. The estimated upper limits of transition timescale of the CL AGNs in this sample span from 0.9 to 13 years in rest-frame. The continuum flux in the optical and mid-infrared becomes brighter when the CL AGNs turn on, or vice versa. Variations of more than 0.2 mag in the mid-infrared $W1$ band, from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), were detected in 15 CL AGNs during the transition. The optical and mid-infrared variability is not consistent with the scenario of variable obscuration in 10 CL AGNs at higher than $3\sigma$ confidence level. We confirm a bluer-when-brighter trend in the optical. However, the mid-infrared colors $W1-W2$ become redder when the objects become brighter in the $W1$ band, possibly due to a stronger hot dust contribution in the $W2$ band when the AGN activity becomes stronger. The physical mechanism of type transition is important for understanding the evolution of AGNs.
As the first step to extend our understanding of higher-derivative theories, within the framework of analytic mechanics of interacting particles, we construct a ghost-free theory involving third-order time derivative in Lagrangian. We clarify that there is a crucial difference in construction from up-to-second-order-derivative theories. While eliminating linear momentum terms in the Hamiltonian is necessary and sufficient to kill the ghosts associated with the higher derivatives for the Lagrangian with up to second-order derivatives, this is necessary but not sufficient for the Lagrangian with higher than second-order derivatives. We demonstrate that even after eliminating the linear momentum terms ghosts are still lurking and they need to be removed appropriately to make Lagrangian free from the ghosts. We clarify a set of ghost-free conditions under which we show that the Hamiltonian is bounded, and that equations of motion are reducible into a second-order system.
In this paper, we study the luminosity function and formation rate of short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Firstly, we derive the $E_p-L_p$ correlation using 16 sGRBs with redshift measurements and determine the pseudo redshifts of 284 Fermi sGRBs. Then, we use the Lynden-Bell c$^-$ method to study the luminosity function and formation rate of sGRBs without any assumptions. A strong evolution of luminosity $L(z)\propto (1+z)^{4.47}$ is found. After removing this evolution, the luminosity function is $ \Psi (L) \propto L_0 ^ {- 0.29 \pm 0.01} $ for dim sGRBs and $ \psi (L) \propto L_0 ^ {- 1.07 \pm 0.01} $ for bright sGRBs, with the break point $8.26 \times 10^{50} $ erg s$^{-1}$. We also find that the formation rate decreases rapidly at $z<1.0$, which is different with previous works. The local formation rate of sGRBs is 7.53 events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. Considering the beaming effect, the local formation rate of sGRBs including off-axis sGRBs is $ 203.31^{+1152.09}_{-135.54} $ events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. We also estimate that the event rate of sGRBs detected by the advanced LIGO and Virgo is $0.85^{+4.82}_{-0.56} $ events yr$^{-1}$ for NS-NS binary.
We propose a novel scenario of inflation, in which the inflaton is identified as the lightest mode of an angular field in a compactified fifth dimension. The periodic effective potential exhibits exponentially flat plateaus, so that a sub-Planckian field excursion without hilltop initial conditions is naturally realized. We can obtain consistent predictions with observations on the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio.
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in a non-singular bouncing cosmology with a bounce phase which has superimposed oscillations of the scale factor. We identify length scales for which the final spectrum of fluctuations obtains imprints of the non-trivial bounce dynamics. These imprints in the spectrum are manifested in the form of damped oscillation features at scales smaller than a characteristic value and an increased reddening of the spectrum at all the scales as the number of small bounces increases.
We consider Kaluza-Klein models where internal spaces are compact flat or curved Einstein spaces. This background is perturbed by a compact gravitating body with the dust-like equation of state (EoS) in the external/our space and an arbitrary EoS parameter $\Omega$ in the internal space. Without imposing any restrictions on the form of the perturbed metric and the distribution of the perturbed energy densities, we perform the general analysis of the Einstein and conservation equations in the weak-field limit. All conclusions follow from this analysis. For example, we demonstrate that the perturbed model is static and perturbed metric preserves the block-diagonal form. In a particular case $\Omega=-1/2$, the found solution corresponds to the weak-field limit of the black strings/branes. The black strings/branes are compact gravitating objects which have the topology (four-dimensional Schwarzschild spacetime)$\times$ ($d$-dimensional internal space) with $d\geq 1$. We present the arguments in favour of these objects. First, they satisfy the gravitational tests for the parameterized post-Newtonian parameter $\gamma$ at the same level of accuracy as General Relativity. Second, they are preferable from the thermodynamical point of view. Third, averaging over the Universe, they do not destroy the stabilization of the internal space. These are the astrophysical and cosmological aspects of the black strings/branes.
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