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The simple assumption of an instantaneous reionization of the Universe may bias estimates of cosmological parameters. In this paper a model-independent principal component method for the reionization history is applied to give constraints on the cosmological parameters from recent Planck 2015 data. We find that the Universe is not completely reionized at redshifts z≥8.5 at 95% C.L. Both the reionization optical depth and matter fluctuation amplitude are higher than but consistent with those obtained in the standard instantaneous reionization scheme. The high estimated value of the matter fluctuation amplitude strengthens the tension between Planck cosmic microwave background observations and some astrophysical data, such as cluster counts and weak lensing. The tension can be significantly relieved if the neutrino masses are allowed to vary. Thanks to a high scalar spectral index, the low-scale spontaneously broken supersymmetry inflationary model can fit the data well, which is marginally disfavored at 95% C.L. in the Planck analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measured masses of the Higgs boson and top quark indicate that the effective potential of the standard model either develops an unstable electroweak vacuum or stands stable all the way up to the Planck scale. In the latter case in which the top quark mass is about 2σ below its present central value, the Higgs boson can be the inflaton with the help of a large nonminimal coupling to curvature in four dimensions. We propose a scenario in which the Higgs boson can be the inflaton in a five-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet braneworld model to solve both the unitarity and stability problems which usually plague Higgs inflation. We find that in order for Higgs inflation to happen successfully in the Gauss-Bonnet regime, the extra dimension scale must appear roughly in the range between the TeV scale and the instability scale of standard model. At the tree level, our model can give rise to a naturally small nonminimal coupling ξ ∼ O(1) for the Higgs quartic coupling λ ∼ O (0.1) if the extra dimension scale lies at the TeV scale. At the loop level, the inflationary predictions at the tree level are preserved. Our model can be confronted with future experiments and observations from both particle physics and cosmology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the influence on the inflationary predictions from the reheating processes characterized by the e-folding number Nreh and the effective equation-of-state parameter wreh during the reheating phase. For the first time, reheating processes can be constrained in the Nreh - wreh plane from Planck 2015. We find that for Higgs inflation with a nonminimal coupling to gravity, the predictions are insensitive to the reheating phase for current CMB measurements. We alsofind that the spontaneously broken SUSY inflation and axion monodromy inflation with ϕ2/3 potential, which with instantaneous reheating lie outside or at the edge of the 95% confidence region in the ns - r plane from Planck 2015 TT, TE, EE + lowP, can well fit the data with the help of reheating processes. Future CMB experiments would put strong constraints on reheating processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a nonparametric approach to reconstruct the interaction between dark energy and dark matter directly from SNIa Union 2.1 data using Gaussian processes, which is a fully Bayesian approach for smoothing data. In this method, once the equation of state (w) of dark energy is specified, the interaction can be reconstructed as a function of redshift. For the decaying vacuum energy case with w = - 1, the reconstructed interaction is consistent with the standard ΛCDM model, namely, there is no evidence for the interaction. This also holds for the constant w cases from - 0 . 9 to - 1 . 1 and for the Chevallier-Polarski- Linder (CPL) parametrization case. If the equation of state deviates obviously from - 1, the reconstructed interaction exists at 95% confidence level. This shows the degeneracy between the interaction and the equation of state of dark energy when they get constraints from the observational data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider an inflection point inflationary model in supergravity with a single chiral superfield and show that the predicted values of the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the Planck 2015 results. In this model supersymmetry is strongly broken after inflation, which results in a non-supersymmetry de Sitter vacuum responsible for the recent accelerated expansion of the Universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently released Planck data favor a lower value of the Hubble constant and a higher value of the fraction matter density in the standard ACDM model, which are discrepant with some of the low-redshift measurements. Within the context of this cosmology, we examine the consistency of the estimated values for the Hubble constant and fraction matter density with redshift tomography. Using the type la supernovae, Hubble parameter, baryon acoustic oscillation, and reduced cosmic microwave background data, which are divided into three bins, we find no statistical evidence for any tension in the three redshift bins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent Planck data show the anomalies of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations on large angular scales, which confirms the early observations by WMAP. We continue studying an inflationary model, in which before the slow-roll inflation the universe is in a contracting phase, and fit the model with the Planck data. We show that this model may generate not only the power deficit at low I, but also a large hemispherical power asymmetry in the CMB. We also discuss the implication of the result to the eternal inflation scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the nucleosynthesis constraint on Lorentz invariance violation in the neutrino sector, which influences the formation of light elements by altering the energy density of the Universe and weak reaction rates prior to and during the big bang nucleosynthesis epoch. We derive the weak reaction rates in the Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model. Using measurements of the primordial helium-4 and deuterium abundances, we give a tighter constraint on the deformed parameter than that derived from measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive the Boltzmann equation in the synchronous gauge for massive neutrinos with a deformed dispersion relation. Combining the 7-year WMAP data with lower-redshift measurements of the expansion rate, we give constraints on the deformation parameter and find that the deformation parameter is strongly degenerate with the physical dark matter density rather than the neutrino mass. Our results show that there is no evidence for Lorentz invariant violation in the neutrino sector. The ongoing Planck experiment could provide improved constraints on the deformation parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconstruct the shape of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations in extended cosmological models, including addition of massive neutrinos, extra relativistic species, or varying primordial helium abundance, from the latest cosmic microwave background data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, and the South Pole Telescope. We find that a scale-invariant primordial spectrum is disfavored by the data at 95% confidence level even in the presence of massive neutrinos, however it can lie within the 95% confidence region if the effective number of relativistic species or the primordial helium abundance is allowed to vary freely. The constraints on the extension parameters from WMAP7 + ACT + H0 + BAO are the total mass of neutrinos &Sgr; m&ngr; < 0.48 eV (95% C.L.), the effective number of relativistic species Neff = 4.50 ± 0.81, and the primordial helium abundance Yp = 0.303 ± 0.075. The constraints from WMAP7 + SPT + H0 + BAO are &Sgr;m&ngr; < 0.45 eV (95% C.L.), Neff = 3.86 ± 0.63, and Yp = 0.277 ± 0.050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the energy scale of inflation is crucial to understand the nature of inflation in the early universe. Assuming a power-law power spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations, we place observational constraints on the energy scale of the observable part of the inflaton potential by combining the 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data with distance measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillations in the distribution of galaxies and the Hubble constant measurement. Our analysis provides an upper limit on this energy scale, 2.3 × 1016 GeV at 95% confidence level. Moreover, we forecast the sensitivity and constraints achievable by the Planck experiment by performing Monte Carlo studies on simulated data. Planck could significantly improve the constraints on the energy scale of inflation and on the shape of the inflaton potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hubble tension, if not caused by any systematics, could be relieved or even resolved from modifying either the early-time or late-time Universe. The early-time modifications are usually in tension with either galaxy clustering or galaxy lensing constraints. The late-time modifications are also in conflict with the constraint from the inverse distance ladder, which, however, is weakened by the dependence on a sound-horizon prior and some particular approximation for the late-time expansion history. To achieve a more general no-go argument for the late-time scenarios, we propose to use a global parametrization based on the cosmic age to consistently use the cosmic chronometers data beyond the Taylor expansion domain and without the input of a sound-horizon prior. Both the early-time and late-time scenarios are therefore largely ruled out, indicating the possible ways out of the Hubble tension from either exotic modifications of our concordance Universe or some unaccounted for systematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values of the Hubble constant between the direct measurements from various independent local observations and that inferred from the cosmic microwave background with the Λ-cold-dark-matter model are in tension with persistent significance. We propose a late-time inhomogeneous resolution suggesting that a chameleon field coupled to a local overdensity of matter could be trapped at a higher potential energy density as an effective cosmological constant driving the local expansion rate faster than that of the background with lower matter density. We illustrate this mechanism in a toy model in which a region with only 20% overdensity of matter is sufficient to resolve the Hubble tension, and the Hubble constant measured by the local distance ladders could be accommodated by the chameleon coupled to the observed overdensities from the large-scale structure surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider gravitational radiation and electromagnetic radiation from point mass binary with electric charges in a Keplerian orbit, and calculate the merger rate distribution of primordial black hole binaries with charges and a general mass function by taking into account gravitational torque and electromagnetic torque by the nearest primordial black hole. We apply the formalism to the extremal charged case and find that α=-(mi+mj)²∂²lnR(mi,mj)/∂mi∂mj=12/11, which is independent of the mass function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultraslow-roll (USR) inflationary models predict large-amplitude scalar perturbations at small scales which can lead to the primordial black hole production and scalar-induced gravitational waves. In general, scalar perturbations in the USR models can only be obtained using a numerical method because the usual slow-roll approximation breaks. In this work, we propose an analytical approach to estimate the scalar spectrum which is consistent with the numerical result. We find that the USR inflationary models predict a peak with power-law slopes in the scalar spectrum and energy spectrum of gravitational waves, and we derive the expression of the spectral indexes in terms of the inflationary potential. In turn, the inflationary potential near the USR regime can be reconstructed from the negative spectral index of the gravitational wave energy spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs) from the collapse of spherically symmetric domain wall bubbles, which spontaneously nucleate via quantum tunneling during inflation. Since the tension of domain walls changes with time and so domain walls nucleate in a short time interval, the mass function of PBHs in general has a spikelike structure. In contrast to models in which PBHs are produced from overdense regions, our model avoids the uncertainties of the PBHs production mechanism. PBHs from domain walls with mass around 1020 g may constitute all dark matter, and those with mass around 1034 g can explain the merger events of binary black holes detected by LIGO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of the cuspiness of scalar potentials on the production of gravitational waves during oscillon formation after inflation. We consider a more general form of potentials with a mass parameter M, which reproduce cuspy potentials for fields much larger than M and smooth potentials in the opposite limit. For cuspy potentials, nonsmooth oscillations of the inflaton induce an amplification of the inflaton fluctuations at the bottom of the potential, so that oscillons copiously form, which leads to a significant stochastic gravitational wave background with a double-peak spectrum. By varying the parameter M, we find that cuspy potentials yield stronger signals of gravitational waves and the generation of gravitational waves disappears for smooth potentials. Moreover, we calculate the equation of state after inflation and find the presence of a quasimatter-dominated stage right before the transition to the radiation-dominated stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an analytic formalism for computing the merger rate of primordial black hole binaries with a general mass function by taking into account the torques by the surrounding primordial black holes and linear density perturbations. We find that α=-(mi+mj)²∂²lnR(mi,mj)/∂mi∂mj=36/37 is independent of the mass function. Moreover, the ratio of the merger rate density of primordial black hole binaries by taking into account the torques by the surrounding primordial black holes to the nearest primordial black hole is independent of the masses of binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a double inflection points inflationary model in supergravity with a single chiral superfield. Such a model allows for the generation of primordial black holes (PBHs) at small scales, which can account for a significant fraction of dark matter. Moreover, in vacuum it is possible to give a small and adjustable supersymmetry breaking with a tiny cosmological constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we simulate Super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) as the candles to probe cosmology for the first time. SEAMBHs have been demonstrated to be able to provide a new tool for estimating cosmological distance. Thus, we create a series of mock data sets of SEAMBHs, especially in the high redshift region, to check their abilities to probe the cosmology. To fulfill the potential of the SEAMBHs on the cosmology, we apply the simulated data to three projects. The first is the exploration of their abilities to constrain the cosmological parameters, in which we combine different data sets of current observations such as the cosmic microwave background from Planck and type Ia supernovae from Joint Light-curve Analysis (JLA). We find that the high redshift SEAMBHs can help to break the degeneracies of the background cosmological parameters constrained by Planck and JLA, thus giving much tighter constraints of the cosmological parameters. The second uses the high redshift SEAMBHs as the complements of the low redshift JLA to constrain the early expansion rate and the dark energy density evolution in the cold dark matter frame. Our results show that these high redshift SEAMBHs are very powerful on constraining the early Hubble rate and the evolution of the dark energy density; thus they can give us more information about the expansion history of our Universe, which is also crucial for testing the ΛCDM model in the high redshift region. Finally, we check the SEAMBH candles' abilities to reconstruct the equation of state for dark energy at high redshift. In summary, our results show that the SEAMBHs, as the rare candles in the high redshift region, can provide us a new and independent observation to probe cosmology in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent Planck data show the anomalies of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations on large angular scales, which confirms the early observations by WMAP. We continue studying an inflationary model, in which before the slow-roll inflation the universe is in a contracting phase, and fit the model with the Planck data. We show that this model may generate not only the power deficit at low l, but also a large hemispherical power asymmetry in the CMB. We also discuss the implication of the result to the eternal inflation scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using the cubic spline interpolation method, we reconstruct the shape of the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra from the recently released Planck temperature and BICEP2 polarization cosmic microwave background data. We find that the vanishing scalar index running (dns/d ln k) model is strongly disfavored at more than 3σ confidence level on the k=0.0002 Mpc-1 scale. Furthermore, the power-law parametrization gives a blue-tilt tensor spectrum, no matter using only the first five bandpowers nt=1.20-0.64+0.56(95% C.L.) or the full nine bandpowers nt=1.24-0.58+0.51(95% C.L.) of BICEP2 data sets. Unlike the large tensor-to-scalar ratio value (r~0.20) under the scale-invariant tensor spectrum assumption, our interpolation approach gives r0.002<0.060(95% C.L.) by using the first five bandpowers of BICEP2 data. After comparing the results with/without BICEP2 data, we find that Planck temperature with small tensor amplitude signals and BICEP2 polarization data with large tensor amplitude signals dominate the tensor spectrum reconstruction on the large and small scales, respectively. Hence, the resulting blue tensor tilt actually reflects the tension between Planck and BICEP2 data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly released Planck cosmic microwave background data place tight constraints on slow-roll inflationary models. Some commonly discussed inflationary potentials are disfavored due mainly to the large tensor-to-scalar ratio. In this paper we show that these potentials may be in good agreement with the Planck data when the inflaton has a nonminimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. Moreover, such a coupling violates the consistency relation between the tensor spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio. If the tensor spectral index is allowed to vary freely, the Planck constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are slightly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds receive increasing attention and provide a new possibility to directly probe the early Universe. In the preheating process at the end of inflation, parametric resonance can generate large energy density perturbations and efficiently produce gravitational waves (GWs) which carry unique information about inflation. Since the peak frequency of such GWs is approximately proportional to the inflationary energy scale, Λinf, GWs from preheating are expected to be observed by interferometer GW detectors in low-scale inflationary models. We investigate a class of preheating models where the effective potential has a quadratic minimum, and the dependence of the amplitude of such GWs on Λinf, then find that the present energy spectrum of these GWs does not depend on Λinf except in the case where Λinf is above a critical value Λc--a parameter depending on the resonance strength. We numerically obtain Λc in terms of the model parameters in a linear approximation and then conduct lattice simulations to verify this result. For Λinf≲Λc, the amplitude of GWs quickly decreases with Λinf and becomes challenging to observe. In turn, observing such GWs in interferometer detectors also helps to determine Λinf and the resonance strength during the preheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing tension between the different local direct measurements of the Hubble expansion rate and that inferred from the cosmic microwave background observation by the Λ-cold-dark-matter model could be a smoking gun of new physics, if not caused by either observational systematics or local bias. We generalize previous investigation on the local bias from a local void by globally fitting the Pantheon sample over all parameters in the radial profile function of a local void described by an inhomogeneous but isotropic Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi metric with a cosmological constant. Our conclusion strengthens the previous studies that the current tension on Hubble constant cannot be saved by a local void alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space-based gravitational-wave detectors consist of a triangle of three spacecraft, which makes it possible to detect polarization modes of gravitational waves due to the motion of the detectors in space. In this paper we explore the ability of Taiji to detect the polarization modes in the parametrized post-Einsteinian framework. Assuming massive black hole binaries with the total mass of M=4×105 M⊙ at redshift of z=1, we find that Taiji can measure the dipole and quadruple emission (ΔαD/αD and ΔαQ/αQ) with the accuracy of up to ~0.04%, with the fiducial value of αD=0.001, the scalar transverse and longitudinal modes (ΔαB and ΔαL) up to ~0.01, and the vector modes (ΔαV) up to ~0.0005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive the equations of motion of dyonic black hole binaries with electric and magnetic charges and explore features of static orbits. By using a Newtonian method with the inclusion of radiation reaction, we calculate the total emission rate of energy and angular momentum due to gravitational radiation and electromagnetic radiation for circular orbits. Moreover, we obtain the evolutions of orbits and calculate merger times of dyonic binaries. We show that electric and magnetic charges significantly suppress the merger times of dyonic binaries. Our results provide rich information about dyonic binaries and can be used to test black holes with magnetic charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the constraints on the reionization history of the Universe from a joint analysis of the cosmic microwave background and neutral hydrogen fraction data. The tanh parametrization and principal component analysis methods are applied to the reionization history respectively. The commonly used tanh parametrization is oversimplistic when the neutral hydrogen fraction data are taken into account. Using the principal component analysis method, the reconstructed reionization history is consistent with the neutral hydrogen fraction data. With the principal component analysis method, we reconstruct the neutral hydrogen fraction at z=9.75 as xHI=0.69+0.30-0.32 for 6

In this paper we study the non-Gaussian features of the primordial fluctuations in loop quantum cosmology with the inverse volume corrections. The detailed analysis is performed in the single field slow-roll inflationary models. However, our results reflect the universal characteristics of bispectrum in loop quantum cosmology. The main corrections to the scalar bispectrum come from two aspects: one is the modifications to the standard Bunch-Davies vacuum, and the other is the corrections to the background dependent variables, such as slow-roll parameters. Our calculations show that the loop quantum corrections make fNL of the inflationary models increase 0.1%. Moreover, we find that two new shapes of non-Gaussian signal arise, which we name F1 and F2. The former gives a unique loop quantum feature, which is less correlated with the local, equilateral, and single types, while the latter is highly correlated with the local one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel mechanism for the primordial black hole (PBH) production is proposed as a natural and inevitable consequence of general first-order phase transitions without reference to specific underlying particle physics models. We obtain mutual predictions and constraints between primordial black holes and gravitational waves from phase transitions in the general case. For particular interest, our PBHs generated during a PeV-scale phase transition could make up all the dark matter, while PBHs generated during a MeV-scale phase transition could simultaneously account for LIGO-Virgo coalescence events and NANOGrav 12.5-yr result for the corresponding gravitational waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the production of gravitational waves from primordial scalar perturbations in double-inflection-point inflation, in which one of the inflection points leads to a primordial power spectrum consistent with CMB observations at large scales and the other generates a large peak in the power spectrum of scalar perturbations at small scales. We calculate the energy spectrum of the reduced gravitational waves and find that the gravitational-wave signal can be detected by future space-based laser interferometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the process of magnetogenesis in the context of nonsingular bounce cosmology. We show that large primordial magnetic fields can be generated during contraction without encountering strong coupling and backreaction issues. The fields may seed large-scale magnetic fields with observationally interesting strengths. This result leads to a theoretical constraint on the relation of the energy scale of the bounce cosmology to the number of effective e-foldings of the contracting phase in the case of scale invariance for the power spectrum of primordial magnetic fields. We show that this constraint can be satisfied in a sizable region of the parameter space for the nonsingular bounce cosmology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]