Universe

The stage of a super-early (primordial) scale-invariant Universe is considered on the basis of the Poincaré–Weyl gauge theory of gravity in a Cartan–Weyl space-time. An approximate solution has been found that demonstrates an inflationary behavior of the scale factor and, at the same time, a sharp exponential decrease in the effective cosmological constant from a huge value at the beginning of the Big Bang to an extremely small (but not zero) value in the modern era, which solves the well-known “cosmological constant problem.” Full article

We revisit acceleration-induced nonlocal electrodynamics and the phenomenon of photon spin-rotation coupling. The kernel of the theory for the electromagnetic field tensor involves parity violation under the assumption of linearity of the field kernel in the acceleration tensor. However, we show that parity conservation can be maintained by extending the field kernel to include quadratic terms in the acceleration tensor. The field kernel must vanish in the absence of acceleration; otherwise, a general dependence of the kernel on the acceleration tensor cannot be theoretically excluded. The physical implications of the quadratic kernel are briefly discussed. Full article

We suggest two new scenarios of high-energy particle collisions in the background of a wormhole. In scenario 1, the novelty consists of the fact that the effect does not require two particles coming from different mouths. Instead, all such scenarios of high energy collisions develop, when an experimenter sends particles towards a wormhole from the same side of the throat. For static wormholes, this approach leads to indefinitely large energy in the center of mass. For rotating wormholes, it makes possible the super-Penrose process (unbounded energies measured at infinity). In scenario 2, one of colliding particles oscillates near the wormhole throat from the very beginning. In this sense, scenario 2 is intermediate between the standard one and scenario 1 since the particle under discussion does not come from infinity at all. Full article

We study the Jeans instability of an infinite homogeneous dissipative self-gravitating Bose–Einstein condensate described by generalized Gross–Pitaevskii–Poisson equations [Chavanis, P.H. Eur. Phys. J. Plus2017, 132, 248]. This problem has applications in relation to the formation of dark matter halos in cosmology. We consider the case of a static and an expanding universe. We take into account an arbitrary form of repulsive or attractive self-interaction between the bosons (an attractive self-interaction being particularly relevant for the axion). We consider both gravitational and hydrodynamical (tachyonic) instabilities and determine the maximum growth rate of the instability and the corresponding wave number. We study how they depend on the scattering length of the bosons (or more generally on the squared speed of sound) and on the friction coefficient. Previously obtained results (notably in the dissipationless case) are recovered in particular limits of our study. Full article

Neutrinoless double beta decay (DBD) is a useful probe to study neutrino properties such as the Majorana nature, the absolute neutrino mass, the CP phase and the others, which are beyond the standard model. The nuclear matrix element (NME) for DBD is crucial to extract the neutrino properties from the experimental transition rate. The neutrino-mass sensitivity, i.e., the minimum neutrino-mass to be measured by the DBD experiment, is very sensitive to the DBD NME. Actually, the NME is one of the key elements for designing the DBD experiment. Theoretical evaluation for the DBD NME, however, is very hard. Recently experimental studies of charge-exchange nuclear and leptonic reactions have shown to be used to get single-$\beta$ NMEs associated with the DBD NME. Critical discussions are made on the neutrino-mass sensitivity and the NME for the DBD neutrino-mass study and on the experimental studies of the single-$\beta$ NMEs and nuclear structures associated with DBD NMEs. Full article

We explore the potential offered by the incoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, to study the stars evolving through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase. To this aim we compare data of AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken with the IRS spectrograph, with the results from modelling of AGB evolution and dust formation in the wind. We find that the best diagrams to study M- and C-stars are, respectively, ([F770W]−[F2500W], [F770W]) and ([F770W]−[F1800W], [F1800W]). ([F770W]−[F2500W], [F770W]) turns out to be the best way of studying the AGB population in its entirely. Full article

Neutron stars change their structure with accumulation of dark matter. We study how their mass is influenced from the environment. Close to the sun, the dark matter accretion from the neutron star does not have any effect on it. Moving towards the galactic center, the density increase in dark matter results in increased accretion. At distances of some fraction of a parsec, the neutron star acquire enough dark matter to have its structure changed. We show that the neutron star mass decreases going towards the galactic centre, and that dark matter accumulation beyond a critical value collapses the neutron star into a black hole. Calculations cover cases varying the dark matter particle mass, self-interaction strength, and ratio between the pressure of dark matter and ordinary matter. This allow us to constrain the interaction cross section, ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{dm}}$, between nucleons and dark matter particles, as well as the dark matter self-interaction cross section. Full article

In the Einstein–Cartan gravitational theory with the chameleon field, while changing its mass independently of the density of its environment, we analyze the Friedmann–Einstein equations for the Universe’s evolution with the expansion parameter a being dependent on time only. We analyze the problem of an identification of the chameleon field with quintessence, i.e., a canonical scalar field responsible for dark energy dynamics, and for the acceleration of the Universe’s expansion. We show that since the cosmological constant related to the relic dark energy density is induced by torsion (Astrophys. J.2016, 829, 47), the chameleon field may, in principle, possess some properties of quintessence, such as an influence on the dark energy dynamics and the acceleration of the Universe’s expansion, even in the late-time acceleration, but it cannot be identified with quintessence to the full extent in the classical Einstein–Cartan gravitational theory. Full article

The impact of the equation of state (EoS) crust-core matching procedure on neutron star (NS) properties is analyzed within a meta-modeling approach. Using a Taylor expansion to parametrize the core equation of state (EoS) and the SLy4 crust EoS, we create two distinct EoS datasets employing two matching procedures. Each EoS describes cold NS matter in a $\beta$ equilibrium that is thermodynamically stable and causal. It is shown that the crust-core matching procedure affects not only the crust-core transition but also the nuclear matter parameter space of the core EoS, and thus the most probable nuclear matter properties. An uncertainty of as much as 5% (8%) on the determination of low mass NS radii (tidal deformability) is attributed to the complete matching procedure, including the effect on core EoS. By restricting the analysis, imposing that the same set of core EoS is retained in both matching procedures, the uncertainty on the NS radius drops to 3.5% and below 1.5% for $1.9M_{\odot }$. Moreover, under these conditions, the crust-core matching procedure has a strong impact on the Love number $k_2$, of almost 20% for $1.0M_{\odot }$ stars and 7% for $1.9M_{\odot }$ stars, but it shows a very small impact on the tidal deformability $\mathrm{\Lambda }$, below 1%. Full article

3C111 is BLRG with signatures of both FSRQ and Sy1 in X-ray spectrum. The significant X-ray observational dataset was collected for it by INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton, SWIFT, Suzaku and others. The overall X-ray spectrum of 3C 111 shows signs of a peculiarity with the large value of the high-energy cut-off typical rather for RQ AGN, probably due to the jet contamination. Separating the jet counterpart in the X-ray spectrum of 3C 111 from the primary nuclear counterpart can answer the question is this nucleus truly peculiar or this is a fake “peculiarity” due to a significant jet contribution. In view of this question, our aim is to estimate separately the accretion disk/corona and non-thermal jet emission in the 3C 111 X-ray spectra within different observational periods. To separate the disk/corona and jet contributions in total continuum, we use the idea that radio and X-ray spectra of jet emission can be described by a simple power-law model with the same photon index. This additional information allows us to derive rather accurate values of these contributions. In order to test these results, we also consider relations between the nuclear continuum and the line emission. Full article

We elaborate further on the compatibility of the “vacuumon potential” that characterises the inflationary phase of the running vacuum model (RVM) with the swampland criteria. The work is motivated by the fact that, as demonstrated recently by the authors, the RVM framework can be derived as an effective gravitational field theory stemming from underlying microscopic (critical) string theory models with gravitational anomalies, involving condensation of primordial gravitational waves. Although believed to be a classical scalar field description, not representing a fully fledged quantum field, we show here that the vacuumon potential satisfies certain swampland criteria for the relevant regime of parameters and field range. We link the criteria to the Gibbons–Hawking entropy that has been argued to characterise the RVM during the de Sitter phase. These results imply that the vacuumon may, after all, admit under certain conditions, a rôle as a quantum field during the inflationary (almost de Sitter) phase of the running vacuum. The conventional slow-roll interpretation of this field, however, fails just because it satisfies the swampland criteria. The RVM effective theory derived from the low-energy effective action of string theory does, however, successfully describe inflation thanks to the $\sim H^4$ terms induced by the gravitational anomalous condensates. In addition, the stringy version of the RVM involves the Kalb–Ramond (KR) axion field, which, in contrast to the vacuumon, does perfectly satisfy the slow-roll condition. We conclude that the vacuumon description is not fully equivalent to the stringy formulation of the RVM. Our study provides a particularly interesting example of a successful phenomenological theory beyond the $\Lambda$CDM, such as the RVM, in which the fulfilment of the swampland criteria by the associated scalar field potential, along with its compatibility with (an appropriate form of) the weak gravity conjecture, prove to be insufficient conditions for warranting consistency of the scalar vacuum field representation as a faithful ultraviolet complete representation of the RVM at the quantum gravity level. Full article

One of the key ingredients needed to extract quantitative information on neutrino absolute mass scale from the possible measurement of the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay half-lives is the nuclear matrix element (NME) characterizing such transitions. NMEs are not physical observables and can only be deduced by theoretical calculations. However, since the atomic nuclei involved in the decay are many-body systems, only approximated values are available to date. In addition, the value of the coupling constants to be used for the weak interaction vertices is still an open question, which introduces a further indetermination in the calculations of NMEs. Several experimental approaches were developed in the years with the aim of providing useful information to further constrain the theory. Here we give an overview of the role of charge exchange reactions in this scenario, focusing on second-order processes, namely the double charge exchange (DCE) reactions. Full article

We formulate a statistical wave-mechanical approach to describe dissipation and instabilities in two-dimensional turbulent flows of magnetized plasmas and atmospheric fluids, such as drift and Rossby waves. This is made possible by the existence of Hilbert space, associated with the electric potential of plasma or stream function of atmospheric fluid. We therefore regard such turbulent flows as macroscopic wave-mechanical phenomena, driven by the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian operator we derive, whose anti-Hermitian component is attributed to an effect of the environment. Introducing a wave-mechanical density operator for the statistical ensembles of waves, we formulate master equations and define observables: such as the enstrophy and energy of both the waves and zonal flow as statistical averages. We establish that our open system can generally follow two types of time evolution, depending on whether the environment hinders or assists the system’s stability and integrity. We also consider a phase-space formulation of the theory, including the geometrical-optic limit and beyond, and study the conservation laws of physical observables. It is thus shown that the approach predicts various mechanisms of energy and enstrophy exchange between drift waves and zonal flow, which were hitherto overlooked in models based on wave kinetic equations. Full article

New observations of high-redshift objects are crucial for the improvement of the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model and our understanding of the Universe. One of the main directions of modern observational cosmology is the analysis of the large-scale structure of Universe, in particular, in deep fields. We study the large-scale structure of the Universe along the line of sight using the latest version of the COSMOS2015 catalogue, which contains 518,404 high quality photometric redshifts of galaxies selected in the optical range of the COSMOS field ($2\times 2$ deg${}^2$), with depth up to the redshift $z\sim 6$. We analyze large-scale fluctuations in the number of galaxies along the line of sight and provide an estimate of the average linear sizes of the self-correlating fluctuations (structures) in independent redshift bins of $\Delta z=0.1$ along with the estimate of the standard deviation from homogeneity (the observed cosmic variance). We suggest a new method of the line-of-sight analysis based on previous works and formulate further prospects of method development. For the case of the theoretical form of approximation of homogeneity in the $\Lambda$CDM framework, the average standard deviation of detected structures from homogeneity is ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{mean}}^{\Lambda \mathrm{CDM}}=0.09\pm 0.02$, and the average characteristic size of structures is $R_{\mathrm{mean}}^{\Lambda \mathrm{CDM}}=790\pm 150$ Mpc. For the case of the empirical approximation of homogeneity, the average standard deviation of detected structures from homogeneity is ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{mean}}^{\mathrm{empiric}}=0.08\pm 0.01$, and the average characteristic size of structures is $R_{\mathrm{mean}}^{\mathrm{empiric}}=640\pm 140$ Mpc. Full article

We derive the reconstruction formulae for the inflation model with the non-minimal derivative coupling term. If reconstructing the potential from the tensor-to-scalar ratio r, we could obtain the potential without using the high friction limit. As an example, we reconstruct the potential from the parameterization $r=8\alpha /{(N+\beta )}^{\gamma }$, which is a general form of the $\alpha$-attractor. The reconstructed potential has the same asymptotic behavior as the T- and E-model if we choose $\gamma =2$ and $\alpha \ll 1$. We also discuss the constraints from the reheating phase by assuming the parameter $w_{re}$ of state equation during reheating is a constant. The scale of big-bang nucleosynthesis could put an upper limit on $n_s$ if $w_{re}=2/3$ and a low limit on $n_s$ if $w_{re}=1/6$. Full article

Modern multimessenger astronomy delivers unique opportunity for performing crucial observations that allow for testing the physics of the gravitational interaction. These tests include detection of gravitational waves by advanced LIGO-Virgo antennas, Event Horizon Telescope observations of central relativistic compact objects (RCO) in active galactic nuclei (AGN), X-ray spectroscopic observations of Fe $K_{\alpha }$ line in AGN, Galactic X-ray sources measurement of masses and radiuses of neutron stars, quark stars, and other RCO. A very important task of observational cosmology is to perform large surveys of galactic distances independent on cosmological redshifts for testing the nature of the Hubble law and peculiar velocities. Forthcoming multimessenger astronomy, while using such facilities as advanced LIGO-Virgo, Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), ALMA, WALLABY, JWST, EUCLID, and THESEUS, can elucidate the relation between Einstein’s geometrical and Feynman’s quantum-field approaches to gravity physics and deliver a new possibilities for unification of gravitation with other fundamental quantum physical interactions. Full article