Search Publications
Breaking Be: a sterile neutrino solution to the cosmological lithium problem
Lattanzi, M.; Melchiorri, A.; Pagano, L. +2 more
The possibility that the so-called ``lithium problem'', i.e., the disagreement between the theoretical abundance predicted for primordial 7Li assuming standard nucleosynthesis and the value inferred from astrophysical measurements, can be solved through a non-thermal Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) mechanism has been investigated by seve…
Red, Straight, no bends: primordial power spectrum reconstruction from CMB and large-scale structure
Verde, Licia; Cuesta, Antonio J.; Ravenni, Andrea
We present a minimally parametric, model independent reconstruction of the shape of the primordial power spectrum. Our smoothing spline technique is well-suited to search for smooth features such as deviations from scale invariance, and deviations from a power law such as running of the spectral index or small-scale power suppression. We use a com…
DBI Galileon inflation in the light of Planck 2015
Sravan Kumar, K.; Bueno Sánchez, Juan C.; Escamilla-Rivera, Celia +2 more
In this work we consider a DBI Galileon (DBIG) inflationary model and constrain its parameter space with the Planck 2015 and BICEP2/Keck array and Planck (BKP) joint analysis data by means of a potential independent analysis. We focus our attention on inflationary solutions characterized by a constant or varying sound speed as well as warp factor.…
Realization of power law inflation & variants via variation of the strong coupling constant
AlHallak, M.; Chamoun, N.
We present a model of power law inflation generated by variation of the strong coupling constant. We then extend the model to two varying coupling constants which leads to a potential consisting of a linear combination of exponential terms. Some variants of the latter may be self-consistent and can accommodate the experimental data of the Planck 2…
Limits on entanglement effects in the string landscape from Planck and BICEP/Keck data
Kinney, William H.
We consider observational limits on a proposed model of the string landscape in inflation. In this scenario, effects from the decoherence of entangled quantum states in long-wavelength modes in the universe result in modifications to the Friedmann Equation and a corresponding modification to inflationary dynamics. Previous work [1, 2] suggested th…
Mixed inflaton and spectator field models: CMB constraints and µ distortion
Takahashi, Tomo; Sekiguchi, Toyokazu; Enqvist, Kari
We discuss mixed inflaton and spectator field models where both the fields are responsible for the observed density fluctuations. We combine the angular power spectrum of the CMB temperature anisotropy from the Planck 2013 result and other ground-based CMB observations in order to constrain both the general mixed model as well as some specific rep…
Isotropy-violation diagnostics for B-mode polarization foregrounds to the Cosmic Microwave Background
Huffenberger, Kevin; Rotti, Aditya
Isotropy-violation statistics can highlight polarized galactic foregrounds that contaminate primordial B-modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We propose a particular isotropy-violation test and apply it to polarized Planck 353 GHz data, constructing a map that indicates B-mode foreground dust power over the sky. We build our main isotro…
Consistency relation and non-Gaussianity in a Galileon inflation
Asadi, Kosar; Nozari, Kourosh
We study a particular Galileon inflation in the light of Planck2015 observational data in order to constraint the model parameter space. We study the spectrum of the primordial modes of the density perturbations by expanding the action up to the second order in perturbations. Then we pursue by expanding the action up to the third order and find th…
The comptonization parameter from simulations of single-frequency, single-dish, dual-beam, cm-wave observations of galaxy clusters and mitigating CMB confusion using the Planck sky survey
Lew, Bartosz; Roukema, Boudewijn F.
Systematic effects in dual-beam, differential, radio observations of extended objects are discussed in the context of the One Centimeter Receiver Array (OCRA). We use simulated samples of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) galaxy clusters at low (z < 0.4) and intermediate (0.4 < z < 1.0) redshifts to study the implications of operating at a single f…
Reheating predictions in single field inflation
Krauss, Lawrence M.; Easson, Damien A.; Cook, Jessica L. +1 more
Reheating is a transition era after the end of inflation, during which the inflaton is converted into the particles that populate the Universe at later times. No direct cosmological observables are normally traceable to this period of reheating. Indirect bounds can however be derived. One possibility is to consider cosmological evolution for obser…