Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 15750

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Interests: gravity; cosmology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, and Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Applications, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Interests: quantum field theory; classical and quantum black holes; holographic superconductivity; relativistic quantum information

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Guest Editor
Physics Department, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97316, Waco, TX 76798-7316, USA
Interests: inflationary universe and cosmological perturbations; gravitational waves; dark energy; dark matter; black hole thermodynamics and their formations; general relativity and alternative theories of gravity; quantization of gravity

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Guest Editor
1. Center for Gravitation and Cosmology, College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 180 Siwangting Road, Yangzhou 225009, China
2. School of Aeronautics and astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: general Relativity; black hole physics; cosmology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Inflation not only solves the horizon, flatness, and magnetic monopole problems, but it also provides the seeds for the large-scale structure by the quantum fluctuations of the inflations. The primordial density perturbation and gravitational waves leave imprints on the cosmic microwave background radiation, which can be used to test the inflationary scenario. Furthermore, inflation may be used to probe the effect of quantum gravity. In some inflationary models, large density perturbations at small scales may be generated to produce primordial black holes as the dark matter candidate. At the same time, the large density perturbations might generate secondary gravitational waves through scalar tensor mixing. Primordial black holes and secondary gravitational waves may be detected by the current and future gravitational wave detectors, although binary black holes are currently mainly detected by LIGO/Virgo detectors. Of course, the detections of gravitational waves by LIGO/Virgo scientific collaboration will start a new era of multi-messenger astronomy and open a new window to probing black hole physics and the nature of gravity.

Thus, in the Special Issue, “Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves”, we would like to focus on inflationary models, quantum gravity effects in inflationary observables, the production of primordial black hole dark matter and secondary gravitational waves, black hole physics, gravitational waves in modified gravity and the constraints on modified gravity by gravitational waves, gravitational wave cosmology, and gravitational wave physics.

It is our great pleasure to serve as the Guest Editors of this Special Issue, and we invite our colleagues to submit their works to this Special Issue. In the following, we give a series of topics which we hope our colleagues will be greatly interested in:

  1. Inflationary models and quantum gravity effects in inflationary observables;
  2. The production of primordial black hole dark matter and secondary gravitational waves;
  3. Gravitational waves in modified gravity and the constraints on modified gravity by gravitational waves;
  4. Gravitational waves as standard sirens to measure the cosmological parameters and study cosmology;
  5. Gravitational wave lensing;
  6. Gravitational wave astronomy.

Prof. Dr. Yungui Gong
Prof. Dr. Jiliang Jing
Prof. Dr. Anzhong Wang
Prof. Dr. Bin Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • inflation
  • black holes
  • primordial black hole dark matter
  • quantum gravity effects
  • modified gravity
  • gravitational waves
  • gravitational wave lensing
  • cosmological parameters

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 174 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial to the Special Issue “Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves”
by Yungui Gong
Universe 2022, 8(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8010021 - 30 Dec 2021
Viewed by 967
Abstract
This Special Issue concerns inflation, black holes and gravitational waves [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

24 pages, 384 KiB  
Article
Spherically Symmetric Exact Vacuum Solutions in Einstein-Aether Theory
by Jacob Oost, Shinji Mukohyama and Anzhong Wang
Universe 2021, 7(8), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7080272 - 28 Jul 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2490
Abstract
We study spherically symmetric spacetimes in Einstein-aether theory in three different coordinate systems, the isotropic, Painlevè-Gullstrand, and Schwarzschild coordinates, in which the aether is always comoving, and present both time-dependent and time-independent exact vacuum solutions. In particular, in the isotropic coordinates we find [...] Read more.
We study spherically symmetric spacetimes in Einstein-aether theory in three different coordinate systems, the isotropic, Painlevè-Gullstrand, and Schwarzschild coordinates, in which the aether is always comoving, and present both time-dependent and time-independent exact vacuum solutions. In particular, in the isotropic coordinates we find a class of exact static solutions characterized by a single parameter c14 in closed forms, which satisfies all the current observational constraints of the theory, and reduces to the Schwarzschild vacuum black hole solution in the decoupling limit (c14=0). However, as long as c140, a marginally trapped throat with a finite non-zero radius always exists, and on one side of it the spacetime is asymptotically flat, while on the other side the spacetime becomes singular within a finite proper distance from the throat, although the geometric area is infinitely large at the singularity. Moreover, the singularity is a strong and spacetime curvature singularity, at which both of the Ricci and Kretschmann scalars become infinitely large. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)
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12 pages, 1333 KiB  
Communication
The Reconstruction of Non-Minimal Derivative Coupling Inflationary Potentials
by Qin Fei, Zhu Yi and Yingjie Yang
Universe 2020, 6(11), 213; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe6110213 - 19 Nov 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2631
Abstract
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 [...] Read more.
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=8α/(N+β)γ, which is a general form of the α-attractor. The reconstructed potential has the same asymptotic behavior as the T- and E-model if we choose γ=2 and α1. We also discuss the constraints from the reheating phase by assuming the parameter wre of state equation during reheating is a constant. The scale of big-bang nucleosynthesis could put an upper limit on ns if wre=2/3 and a low limit on ns if wre=1/6. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)
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15 pages, 420 KiB  
Article
Towards a Fisher-Information Description of Complexity in de Sitter Universe
by Chong-Bin Chen and Fu-Wen Shu
Universe 2019, 5(12), 221; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe5120221 - 29 Nov 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2830
Abstract
Recent developments on holography and quantum information physics suggest that quantum information theory has come to play a fundamental role in understanding quantum gravity. Cosmology, on the other hand, plays a significant role in testing quantum gravity effects. How to apply this idea [...] Read more.
Recent developments on holography and quantum information physics suggest that quantum information theory has come to play a fundamental role in understanding quantum gravity. Cosmology, on the other hand, plays a significant role in testing quantum gravity effects. How to apply this idea to a realistic universe is still unknown. Here, we show that some concepts in quantum information theory have cosmological descriptions. Particularly, we show that the complexity of a tensor network can be regarded as a Fisher information measure (FIM) of a dS universe, followed by several observations: (i) the holographic entanglement entropy has a tensor-network description and admits a information-theoretical interpretation, (ii) on-shell action of dS spacetime has a same description of FIM, (iii) complexity/action(CA) duality holds for dS spacetime. Our result is also valid for f ( R ) gravity, whose FIM exhibits the same features of a recent proposed L n norm complexity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)
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11 pages, 1720 KiB  
Article
On the Constant-Roll Inflation with Large and Small ηH
by Qing Gao, Yungui Gong and Zhu Yi
Universe 2019, 5(11), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe5110215 - 25 Oct 2019
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 2682
Abstract
We study the apparent duality between large and small η H for the constant-roll inflation with the second slow-roll parameter η H being a constant. In the previous studies, only the constant-roll inflationary models with small η H are found to be consistent [...] Read more.
We study the apparent duality between large and small η H for the constant-roll inflation with the second slow-roll parameter η H being a constant. In the previous studies, only the constant-roll inflationary models with small η H are found to be consistent with the observations. The apparent duality suggests that the constant-roll inflationary models with large η H may be also consistent with the observations. We find that the duality between the constant-roll inflation with large and small η H does not exist, because both the background and scalar perturbation evolutions are very different. By fitting the constant-roll inflationary models to the observations, we get 0.016 η H 0.0078 at the 95% C.L if we take N = 60 for the models with increasing ϵ H , in which inflation ends when ϵ H = 1 . For the models with decreasing ϵ H , we obtain 3.0135 η H 3.021 at the 68% C.L. and 3.0115 η H 3.024 at the 95% C.L. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)
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9 pages, 284 KiB  
Article
Gauss–Bonnet Inflation and the String Swampland
by Zhu Yi and Yungui Gong
Universe 2019, 5(9), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe5090200 - 15 Sep 2019
Cited by 77 | Viewed by 3001
Abstract
The swampland criteria are generically in tension with single-field slow-roll inflation because the first swampland criterion requires small tensor-to-scalar ratio while the second swampland criterion requires either large tensor-to-scalar ratio or large scalar spectral tilt. The challenge to single-field slow-roll inflation imposed by [...] Read more.
The swampland criteria are generically in tension with single-field slow-roll inflation because the first swampland criterion requires small tensor-to-scalar ratio while the second swampland criterion requires either large tensor-to-scalar ratio or large scalar spectral tilt. The challenge to single-field slow-roll inflation imposed by the swampland criteria can be avoided by modifying the relationship between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the slow-roll parameter. We show that the Gauss–Bonnet inflation with the coupling function inversely proportional to the potential overcomes the challenge by adding a constant factor in the relationship between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the slow-roll parameter. For the Gauss–Bonnet inflation, while the swampland criteria are satisfied, the slow-roll conditions are also fulfilled, so the scalar spectral tilt and the tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the observations. We use the potentials for chaotic inflation and the E-model as examples to show that the models pass all the constraints. The Gauss–Bonnet coupling seems a way out of the swampland issue for single-field inflationary models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflation, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves)
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