Munch

We propose an economical model of nonthermal leptogenesis following inflation during ``instant'' preheating. The model involves only the inflaton field, the standard model Higgs, and the heavy ``right-handed'' neutrino.

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Discussion postponed until August 29 when authors return

Reduced Shear Power Spectrum

Authors: Scott Dodelson Charles Shapiro Martin White
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures

Measurements of ellipticities of background galaxies are sensitive to the reduced shear, the cosmic shear divided by $(1-\kappa)$ where $\kappa$ is the projected density field. We compute the difference between shear and reduced shear both analytically and with simulations. The difference becomes more important on smaller scales, and will impact cosmological parameter estimation from upcoming experiments. A simple recipe is presented to carry out the required correction.

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The First Dark Microhalos

Authors: HongSheng Zhao, James E. Taylor, Joseph Silk, Dan Hooper
Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures
Report-no: FERMILAB-PUB-05-357-A

Earth-mass dark matter halos are likely to have been the first bound structures to form in the Universe. Whether such objects have survived to the present day in galaxies depends on, among other factors, the rate of encounters with normal stars. In this letter, we estimate the amount of tidal heating and mass loss in microhalos as a result of stellar encounters. We find that while microhalos are only mildly heated in dwarf galaxies of low stellar density, and they should have been completely destroyed in bulge or M32-like regions of high stellar density. In disk galaxies, such as the Milky Way, the disruption rate depends strongly on the orbital parameters of the microhalo; while stochastic radial orbits in triaxial Galactic potential are destroyed first, systems on non-planar retrograde orbits with large pericenters survive the longest. Since many microhalos lose a significant fraction of their material to unbound tidal streams, the final dark matter distribution in the solar neighborhood is better described as a superposition of microstreams rather than as a set of discrete spherical clumps in an otherwise homogeneous medium. Different morphologies of microhalos have implications for direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments.

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T-Duality and the Spectrum of Gravitational Waves

Authors: Paul Robert Chouha, Robert H. Brandenberger (McGill University)
Comments: 11 pages, 1 figure

In the inflationary universe scenario, the physical wavelength of cosmological fluctuation modes which are currently probed in observations was shorter than the Hubble radius, and in fact shorter than the Planck and string lengths, at the beginning of the period of inflation. Thus, during the early stages of evolution, the fluctuations are subject to Planck scale physics. In the context of an inflationary cosmological background, we examine the signatures of a specific modified dispersion relation motivated by the T-duality symmetry of string theory on the power spectrum of gravitational waves. The modified dispersion relation is extracted from the asymptotic limit of the string center of mass propagator.

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Separating out the Alcock-Paczynski Effect on 21cm Fluctuations

Authors: Rennan Barkana (Tel Aviv University)
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS, submitted

We reconsider the Alcock-Paczynski effect on 21cm fluctuations from high redshift, focusing on the 21cm power spectrum. We show that at each accessible redshift both the angular diameter distance and the Hubble constant can be determined from the power spectrum. Furthermore, this is possible using anisotropies that depend only on linear density perturbations and not on astrophysical sources of 21cm fluctuations. We show that measuring these quantities at high redshift would not just confirm results from the cosmic microwave background but provide appreciable additional sensitivity to cosmological parameters and dark energy.

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Hiding cosmic strings in supergravity D-term inflation

Authors: Osamu Seto, Jun'ichi Yokoyama
Comments: 15 pages, 4 figures
Report-no: RESCEU-35/05

The influence of higher-order terms in the K\"{a}hler potential of the supergravity D-term inflation model on the density perturbation is studied. We show that these terms can make the inflaton potential flatter, which lowers the energy scale of inflation under the COBE/WMAP normalization. As a result, the mass per unit length of cosmic strings, which are produced at the end of inflation, can be reduced to a harmless but detectable level without introducing a tiny Yukawa coupling. Our scenario can naturally be implemented in models with a low cut-off as in Type I or Type IIB orientifold models.

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Dynamics of the Inflationary Flow Equations

Authors: Sirichai Chongchitnan, George Efstathiou
Comments: 9 pages 4 figures, submitted to PRD

We present a dynamical analysis of the inflationary flow equations. Our technique uses the Hubble `jerk' parameter as a discriminant of stability of fixed points. The results of the analysis are used to explain qualitatively the distribution of various observable parameters (e.g. the tensor-scalar ratio, r, and scalar spectral index, n_s) seen in numerical solutions of the flow equations using stochastic initial conditions. Finally, we give a physical interpretation of the flow in phase-space in terms of slow-roll motion of the inflaton.

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An indirect dark matter search with diffuse gamma rays from the Galactic Centre: prospects for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Authors: A.Jacholkowska, G.Lamanna, E.Nuss, C.Adloff, J.Alcaraz, R.Battiston, J.Bolmont, P.Brun, W.J.Burger, V.Choutko, G.Coignet, A.Falvard, E.Flandrini, L.Girard, C.Goy, K.Jedamzik, R.Kossakowski, G.Moultaka, S.Natale, J.Pochon, M.Pohl, S.Rosier-Lees, M.Sapinski, I.Sevilla Noarbe, JP.Vialle
Comments: 15 pages, 7 figures

The detection of non-baryonic dark matter through its gamma-ray annihilation in the centre of our galaxy has been studied. The gamma fluxes according to different models have been simulated and compared to those expected to be observed with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), during a long-term mission on board of the International Space Station. Under the assumption that the dark matter halo is composed of the lightest, stable supersymmetric particle, the neutralino, the results of the simulations in the framework of mSUGRA models, show that with a cuspy dark matter halo or a clumpy halo, the annihilation gamma-ray signal would be detected by AMS. More optimistic perspectives are obtained with the Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking (AMSB) model. The latter leads also to a cosmologically important 6Li abundance. Finally, the discovery potential for the massive Kaluza-Klein dark matter candidates has been evaluated and their detection looks feasible.

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Curved Space or Curved Vacuum?

Authors: Eric V. Linder
Comments: 7 pages, 6 figures

While the simple picture of a spatially flat, matter plus cosmological constant universe fits current observation of the accelerated expansion, strong consideration has also been given to models with dynamical vacuum energy. We examine the tradeoff of ``curving'' the vacuum but retaining spatial flatness, vs. curving space but retaining the cosmological constant. These different breakdowns in the simple picture could readily be distinguished by combined high accuracy supernovae and cosmic microwave background distance measurements. If we allow the uneasy situation of both breakdowns, the curvature can still be measured to 1%, but at the price of degrading estimation of the equation of state time variation by 60% or more, unless additional information (such as weak lensing data or a tight matter density prior) is included.

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MSLED, Neutrino Oscillations and the Cosmological Constant

Authors: J. Matias, C.P. Burgess
Comments: 38 pages, 1 figure

We explore the implications for neutrino masses and mixings within the minimal version of the supersymmetric large-extra-dimensions scenario (MSLED). This model was proposed in {\tt hep-ph/0404135} to extract the phenomenological implications of the promising recent attempt (in {\tt hep-th/0304256}) to address the cosmological constant problem. Remarkably, we find that the simplest couplings between brane and bulk fermions within this approach can lead to a phenomenologically-viable pattern of neutrino masses and mixings that is also consistent with the supernova bounds which are usually the bane of extra-dimensional neutrino models. Under certain circumstances the MSLED scenario can lead to a lepton mixing (PMNS) matrix close to the so-called bi-maximal or the tri-bimaximal forms (which are known to provide a good description of the neutrino oscillation data). We discuss the implications of MSLED models for neutrino phenomenology.

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Supersymmetric Benchmarks with Non-Universal Scalar Masses or Gravitino Dark Matter

Authors: A. De Roeck, J. Ellis, F. Gianotti, F. Moortgat, K.A. Olive, L. Pape
Comments: 52 pages LaTeX, 13 figures
Report-no: CERN-PH-TH/2005-111, UMN-TH-2404/05, FTPI-MINN-05/19

We propose and examine a new set of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios, some of which have non-universal Higgs scalar masses (NUHM) and others have gravitino dark matter (GDM). The scalar masses in these models are either considerably larger or smaller than the narrow range allowed for the same gaugino mass m_{1/2} in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal scalar masses m_0 and neutralino dark matter. The NUHM and GDM models with larger m_0 may have large branching ratios for Higgs and/or $Z$ production in the cascade decays of heavier sparticles, whose detection we discuss. The phenomenology of the GDM models depends on the nature of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), which has a lifetime exceeding 10^4 seconds in the proposed benchmark scenarios. In one GDM scenario the NLSP is the lightest neutralino \chi, and the supersymmetric collider signatures are similar to those in previous CMSSM benchmarks, but with a distinctive spectrum. In the other GDM scenarios based on minimal supergravity (mSUGRA), the NLSP is the lighter stau slepton {\tilde \tau}_1, with a lifetime between ~ 10^4 and 3 X 10^6 seconds. Every supersymmetric cascade would end in a {\tilde \tau}_1, which would have a distinctive time-of-flight signature. Slow-moving {\tilde \tau}_1's might be trapped in a collider detector or outside it, and the preferred detection strategy would depend on the {\tilde \tau}_1 lifetime. We discuss the extent to which these mSUGRA GDM scenarios could be distinguished from gauge-mediated models.

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