Universe — Open Access Journal

We suggest the phenomenological model of emergence of the dynamic aether as a result of decay of the SU(N) symmetric field configuration containing the multiplet of vector fields. The scenario of the transition to the dynamic aether, which is characterized by one unit timelike vector field that is associated with the aether velocity, is based on the idea of spontaneous color polarization analogous to the spontaneous electric polarization in ferroelectric materials. The mechanism of spontaneous color polarization is described in the framework of anisotropic cosmological model of the Bianchi-I type; it involves consideration of the idea of critical behavior of the eigenvalues of the tensor of color polarization in the course of the Universe accelerated expansion. The interim stage of transition from the color aether to the canonic dynamic aether takes the finite period of time, the duration of which is predetermined by the phenomenologically introduced critical value of the expansion scalar. Full article

Spectra of unbound electron–positron pairs (dielectrons, in brief) and photons from decays of parapositronia produced in ultraperipheral collisions of electrically charged objects are calculated. Their shapes at energies of the NICA collider are demonstrated. Soft dielectrons and photons are abundantly produced. The relevance of these processes to the astrophysical problem of cooling electron–positron pairs and the intense emission of 511 keV photons from the Galactic center is discussed. Full article

We compute the two-dimensional correlation functions of the binary black hole coalescence detections in LIGO-Virgo’s first and second observation runs. The sky distribution of binary black hole coalescence events is tested for correlations at different angular scales by comparing the observed correlation function to two reference functions that are obtained from mock datasets of localization error regions uniformly distributed in the sky. No excess correlation at any angular scale is found. The power-law slope of the correlation function is estimated to be $\gamma =2.24\pm 0.33$ at the three- $\sigma$ confidence level, a value consistent with the measured distribution of galaxies. Full article

Power spectra play an important role in the theory of inflation, and their ability to reproduce current observational data to high accuracy is often considered a triumph of inflation, largely because of a lack of credible alternatives. In previous work we introduced an alternative picture for the cosmological power spectra based on the nonperturbative features of the quantum version of Einstein’s gravity, instead of currently popular inflation models based on scalar fields. The key ingredients in this new picture are the appearance of a nontrivial gravitational vacuum condensate (directly related to the observed cosmological constant), and a calculable renormalization group running of Newton’s G on cosmological scales. More importantly, one notes the absence of any fundamental scalar fields in this approach. Results obtained previously were largely based on a semi-analytical treatment, and thus, while generally transparent in their implementation, often suffered from the limitations of various approximations and simplifying assumptions. In this work, we extend and refine our previous calculations by laying out an updated and extended analysis, which now utilizes a set of suitably modified state-of-the-art numerical programs (ISiTGR, MGCAMB and MGCLASS) developed for observational cosmology. As a result, we are able to remove some of the approximations employed in our previous studies, leading to a number of novel and detailed physical predictions. These should help in potentially distinguishing the vacuum condensate picture of quantum gravity from that of other models such as scalar field inflation. Here, besides the matter power spectrum $P_m\left(k\right)$ , we work out, in detail, predictions for what are referred to as the TT, TE, EE, BB angular spectra, as well as their closely related lensing spectra. However, the current limited precision of observational data today (especially on large angular scales) does not allow us yet to clearly prove or disprove either set of ideas. Nevertheless, by exploring in more details the relationship between gravity and cosmological matter and radiation both analytically and numerically, together with an expected future influx of increasingly accurate observational data, one can hope that the new quantum gravitational picture can be subjected to further stringent tests in the near future. Full article

It was conjectured by Maldacena, Shenker and Stanford that the classical chaos can be diagnosed in thermal quantum systems by using an out-of-time-order correlation function. The Artin dynamical system defined on the fundamental region of the modular group SL(2,Z) represents a well defined example of a highly chaotic dynamical system in its classical regime. We investigated the influence of the classical chaotic behaviour on the quantum–mechanical properties of the Artin system calculating the corresponding out-of-time-order thermal quantum–mechanical correlation functions. We demonstrated that the two- and four-point correlation functions of the Liouiville-like operators decay exponentially with temperature dependent exponents and that the square of the commutator of the Liouiville-like operators separated in time grows exponentially. Full article

The WKB approximation plays an essential role in the development of quantum mechanics and various important results have been obtained from it. In this paper, we introduce another method, the so-called uniform asymptotic approximations, which is an analytical approximation method to calculate the wave functions of the Schrödinger-like equations, and it is applicable to various problems, including cases with poles (singularities) and multiple turning points. A distinguished feature of the method is that in each order of the approximations the upper bounds of the errors are given explicitly. By properly choosing the freedom introduced in the method, the errors can be minimized, which significantly improves the accuracy of the calculations. A byproduct of the method is to provide a very clear explanation of the Langer modification encountered in the studies of the hydrogen atom and harmonic oscillator. To further test our method, we calculate (analytically) the wave functions for several exactly solvable potentials of the Schrödinger equation, and then obtain the transmission coefficients of particles over potential barriers, as well as the quantization conditions for bound states. We find that such obtained results agree with the exact ones extremely well. Possible applications of the method to other fields are also discussed. Full article

Axion dark matter is interesting as it allows a natural coupling to the gravitational Chern–Simons term. In the presence of an axion background, the gravitational Chern–Simons term produces parity violating effects in the gravitational sector, in particular on the propagation of gravitational waves. Previously, it has been shown that the coherent oscillation of the axion field leads to a parametric amplification of gravitational waves with a specific frequency. In this paper, we focus on the parity violating effects of the Chern–Simons coupling and show the occurrence of gravitational birefringence. We also find deviation from the speed of light of the velocity of the gravitational waves. We give constraints on the axion-Chern–Simons coupling constant and the abundance of axion dark matter from the observation of GW170817 and GRB170817A. Full article

One of the most important issues in an inflationary theory as standard or quintessential inflation is the mechanism to reheat the universe after the end of the inflationary period in order to match with the Hot Big Bang universe. In quintessential inflation two mechanisms are frequently used, namely the reheating via gravitational particle production which is, as we will see, very efficient when the phase transition from the end of inflation to a kinetic regime (all the energy of the inflaton field is kinetic) is very abrupt, and the so-called instant preheating which is used for a very smooth phase transition because in that case the gravitational particle production is very inefficient. In the present work, a detailed study of these mechanisms is done, obtaining bounds for the reheating temperature and the range of the parameters involved in each reheating mechanism in order that the Gravitational Waves (GWs) produced at the beginning of kination do not disturb the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) success. Full article

We study the ${\mathsf{\Lambda }}_b{\left(6146\right)}^0$ and ${\mathsf{\Lambda }}_b{\left(6152\right)}^0$ recently observed by LHCb using the method of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) sum rules within the framework of heavy quark effective theory. Our results suggest that they can be interpreted as D-wave bottom baryons of $J^P=3/2^{+}$ and $5/2^{+}$ respectively, both of which contain two $\lambda$ -mode excitations. We also investigate other possible assignments containing $\rho$ -mode excitations. We extract all the parameters that are necessary to study their decay properties when using the method of light-cone sum rules. We predict masses of their strangeness partners to be $m_{{\Xi }_b(3/2^{+})}={6.26}_{-0.14}^{+0.11}$ GeV and $m_{{\Xi }_b(5/2^{+})}={6.26}_{-0.14}^{+0.11}$ GeV with the mass splitting $\Delta M=m_{{\Xi }_b(5/2^{+})}-m_{{\Xi }_b(3/2^{+})}={4.5}_{-1.5}^{+1.9}$ MeV, and propose to search for them in future CMS, EIC, and LHCb experiments. Full article

We perform a full analytical and numerical treatment, to the first post-Newtonian (1pN) order, of the general relativistic long-term spin precession of an orbiting gyroscope due to the mass quadrupole moment $J_2$ of its primary without any restriction on either the gyro’s orbital configuration and the orientation in space of the symmetry axis $\widehat{\mathit{k}}$ of the central body. We apply our results to the past spaceborne Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission by finding a secular rate of its spin’s declination $\delta$ which may be as large as ≲30–40 $\mathrm{milliarcseconds}\mathrm{per}\mathrm{year}\left(\mathrm{mas}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}\right)$ , depending on the initial orbital phase $f_0$ . Both our analytical calculation and our simultaneous integration of the equations for the parallel transport of the spin 4-vector S and of the geodesic equations of motion of the gyroscope confirm such a finding. For GP-B, the reported mean error in measuring the spin’s declination rate amounts to ${\sigma }_{\dot{\delta }}^{\mathrm{GP}-\mathrm{B}}=18.3\mathrm{mas}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ . We also calculate the general analytical expressions of the gravitomagnetic spin precession induced by the primary’s angular momentum $\mathit{J}$ . In view of their generality, our results can be extended also to other astronomical and astrophysical scenarios of interest like, e.g., stars orbiting galactic supermassive black holes, exoplanets close to their parent stars, tight binaries hosting compact stellar corpses. Full article

We consider the structure of excited states and low-energy interaction of hadronic dark matter with photons, leptons, and nucleons. Description of the lowest excited levels is fulfilled in an analogy with the standard heavy-light mesons. Using the effective vertex of new heavy hadrons interaction with W-boson, we calculate cross-section of the lepton scattering on the dark matter particle. Analysis of strong low-energy interaction of new hadrons was carried out within the effective meson-exchange model based on dynamical realization of SU(3)-symmetry. A cross-section of nucleon scattering on the hadronic dark matter was also calculated using this model. The most essential phenomenological consequences of the low-energy dark matter interaction with leptons and nucleons are discussed. Full article

Neutron stars, and magnetars in particular, are known to host the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe. The origin of these strong fields is a matter of controversy. In this preliminary work, via numerical simulations, we study, for the first time in non-ideal general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) regime, the growth of the magnetic field due to the action of the mean-field dynamo due to sub-scale, unresolved turbulence. The dynamo process, combined with the differential rotation of the (proto-)star, is able to produce an exponential growth of any initial magnetic seed field up to the values required to explain the observations. By varying the dynamo coefficient we obtain different growth rates. We find a quasi-linear dependence of the growth rates on the intensity of the dynamo. Furthermore, the time interval in which exponential growth occurs and the growth rates also seems to depend on the initial configuration of the magnetic field. Full article

We analyse the original cosmology of P. Jordan through his 1939 key paper entitled “Bemerkungen zur Kosmologie” or “Comments on cosmology”. In this almost forgotten work, the author introduced a model of dynamical cosmology with spontaneous creation of matter, based on the Large Numbers study, initiated by Eddington and further developed by Dirac. Jordan’s will to explore heuristically all possible cosmological models in order to be prepared in case of surprising future astronomical data is very compelling in this article. Since we think it is wise to learn from our predecessors and from the unsuccessful theories that were later left behind, the present article also offers an overview of Jordan’s work during the 1930s through the analysis of a series of some of his other original pieces. An English translation of Jordan’s key paper can be found in the appendix. Full article

We investigate the possibility that GW170817 was not the merger of two conventional neutron stars (NS), but involved at least one if not two hybrid stars with a quark matter core that might even belong to a third family of compact stars. To this end, we develop a Bayesian analysis method for selecting the most probable equation of state (EoS) under a set of constraints from compact star physics, which now also include the tidal deformability from GW170817 and the first result for the mass and radius determination for PSR J0030+0451 by the NICER Collaboration. We apply this method for the first time to a two-parameter family of hybrid EoS based on the DD2 model with nucleonic excluded volume for hadronic matter and the color superconducting generalized nlNJL model for quark matter. The model has a variable onset density for deconfinement and can mimic the effects of pasta phases with the possibility of producing a third family of hybrid stars in the mass-radius diagram. The main findings of this study are that: (1) the presence of multiple configurations for a given mass (twins or even triples) corresponds to a set of disconnected lines in the ${\mathsf{\Lambda }}_1$ – ${\mathsf{\Lambda }}_2$ diagram of tidal deformabilities for binary mergers, so that merger events from the same mass range may result in a probability landscape with different peak positions; (2) the Bayesian analysis with the above observational constraints favors an early onset of the deconfinement transition, at masses of $M_{\mathrm{onset}}\le 0.8M_{\odot }$ with an M–R relationship that in the range of observed neutron star masses is almost indistinguishable from that of a soft hadronic Akmal, Pandharipande, and Ravenhall (APR) EoS; (3) a few, yet fictitious measurements of the NICER experiment two times more accurate than the present value and a different mass and radius that would change the posterior likelihood so that hybrid EoS with a phase transition onset in the range $M_{\mathrm{onset}}$ = 1.1–1.6 $M_{\odot }$ would be favored. Full article

In 1998, the Super-Kamiokande discovered neutrino oscillation using atmospheric neutrino anomalies. It was the first direct evidence of neutrino mass and the first phenomenon to be discovered beyond the standard model of particle physics. Recently, more precise measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters using atmospheric neutrinos have been achieved by several detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande, IceCube, and ANTARES. In addition, precise predictions and measurements of atmospheric neutrino flux have been performed. This paper presents the history, current status, and future prospects of the atmospheric neutrino observation. Full article

In this work, we study the impact of quantum entanglement on the two-point correlation function and the associated primordial power spectrum of mean square vacuum fluctuation in a bipartite quantum field theoretic system. The field theory that we consider is the effective theory of axion field arising from Type IIB string theory compacted to four dimensions. We compute the expression for the power spectrum of vacuum fluctuation in three different approaches, namely (1) field operator expansion (FOE) technique with the quantum entangled state, (2) reduced density matrix (RDM) formalism with mixed quantum state and (3) the method of non-entangled state (NES). For a massless axion field, in all three formalisms, we reproduce, at the leading order, the exact scale invariant power spectrum which is well known in the literature. We observe that due to quantum entanglement, the sub-leading terms for these thee formalisms are different. Thus, such correction terms break the degeneracy among the analysis of the FOE, RDM and NES formalisms in the super-horizon limit. On the other hand, for massive axion field we get a slight deviation from scale invariance and exactly quantify the spectral tilt of the power spectrum in small scales. Apart from that, for massless and massive axion field, we find distinguishable features of the power spectrum for the FOE, RDM, and NES on the large scales, which is the result of quantum entanglement. We also find that such large-scale effects are comparable to or greater than the curvature radius of the de Sitter space. Most importantly, in near future if experiments probe for early universe phenomena, one can detect such small quantum effects. In such a scenario, it is possible to test the implications of quantum entanglement in primordial cosmology. Full article

The generalized hybrid metric-Palatini theory of gravity admits a scalar-tensor representation in terms of two interacting scalar fields. We show that, upon an appropriate choice of the interaction potential, one of the scalar fields behaves like dark energy, inducing a late-time accelerated expansion of the universe, while the other scalar field behaves like pressureless dark matter that, together with ordinary baryonic matter, dominates the intermediate phases of cosmic evolution. This unified description of dark energy and dark matter gives rise to viable cosmological solutions, which reproduce the main features of the evolution of the universe. Full article

We describe 4D evaporating black holes as quantum field configurations by solving the semi-classical Einstein equation $G_{\mu \nu }=8\pi G⟨\psi |T_{\mu \nu }|\psi ⟩$ and quantum matter fields in a self-consistent manner. As the matter fields, we consider N massless free scalar fields (N is large). We find a spherically symmetric self-consistent solution of the metric $g_{\mu \nu }$ and the state $|\psi ⟩$ . Here, $g_{\mu \nu }$ is locally $Ad{S}_2\times S^2$ geometry, and $|\psi ⟩$ provides $⟨\psi |T_{\mu \nu }|\psi ⟩=⟨0|T_{\mu \nu }|0⟩+T_{\mu \nu }^{\left(\psi \right)}$ , where $|0⟩$ is the ground state of the matter fields in the metric and $T_{\mu \nu }^{\left(\psi \right)}$ consists of the excitation of s-waves that describe the collapsing matter and Hawking radiation with the ingoing negative energy flow. This object is supported by a large tangential pressure $⟨0\left|{T^{\theta }}_{\theta }\right|0⟩$ due to the vacuum fluctuation of the bound modes with large angular momenta $l\gg 1$ . This describes the interior of the black hole when the back reaction of the evaporation is taken into account. In this picture, the black hole is a compact object with a surface (instead of horizon) that looks like a conventional black hole from the outside and eventually evaporates without a singularity. If we count the number of configurations $\left\{\right|\psi ⟩\}$ that satisfy the self-consistent equation, we reproduce the area law of the entropy. This tells that the information is carried by the s-waves inside the black hole. $|\psi ⟩$ also describes the process that the negative ingoing energy flow created with Hawking radiation is superposed on the collapsing matter to decrease the total energy while the total energy density remains positive. Finally, as a special case, we consider conformal matter fields and show that the interior metric is determined by the matter content of the theory, which leads to a new constraint to the matter contents for the black hole to evaporate. Full article