Coleman-Weinberg linear inflation: metric vs. Palatini formulation [CEA]

It has been previously shown that the linear inflation appears naturally as a solution of Coleman-Weinberg inflation, provided that the inflaton has a non-minimal coupling to gravity and the Planck scale is dynamically generated. We revisit the previous study by improving the discussion of reheating and by comparing the results of the metric and the Palatini formulations of non-minimal gravity. We find that both formulations predict linear inflation but a different number of $e$-folds. If the non-minimal coupling is larger than one, future experimental sensitivity can discriminate between the two realizations.

A. Racioppi
Mon, 16 Oct 17
51/59

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Deepest view of AGN X-ray variability with the 7 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South survey [GA]

We systematically analyze X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 7~Ms \textit{Chandra} Deep Field-South survey. On the longest timescale ($\approx~17$ years), we find only weak (if any) dependence of X-ray variability amplitudes on energy bands or obscuration. We use four different power spectral density (PSD) models to fit the anti-correlation between normalized excess variance ($\sigma^2_{\rm nxv}$) and luminosity, and obtain a best-fit power law index $\beta=1.16^{+0.05}{-0.05}$ for the low-frequency part of AGN PSD. We also divide the whole light curves into 4 epochs in order to inspect the dependence of $\sigma^2{\rm nxv}$ on these timescales, finding an overall increasing trend. The analysis of these shorter light curves also infers a $\beta$ of $\sim 1.3$ that is consistent with the above-derived $\beta$, which is larger than the frequently-assumed value of $\beta=1$. We then investigate the evolution of $\sigma^2_{\rm nxv}$. No definitive conclusion is reached due to limited source statistics but, if present, the observed trend goes in the direction of decreasing AGN variability at fixed luminosity toward large redshifts. We also search for transient events and find 6 notable candidate events with our considered criteria. Two of them may be a new type of fast transient events, one of which is reported here for the first time. We therefore estimate a rate of fast outbursts $\langle\dot{N}\rangle = 1.0^{+1.1}{-0.7}\times 10^{-3}~\rm galaxy^{-1}~yr^{-1}$ and a tidal disruption event~(TDE) rate $\langle\dot{N}{\rm TDE}\rangle=8.6^{+8.5}_{-4.9}\times 10^{-5}~\rm galaxy^{-1}~yr^{-1}$ assuming the other four long outbursts to be TDEs.

X. Zheng, Y. Xue, W. Brandt, et. al.
Fri, 13 Oct 17
1/56

Comments: 20 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Stellar Winds and Coronae of Low-mass Pop. II/III Stars [SSA]

We investigated stellar winds from zero/low-metallicity low-mass stars by magnetohydrodynamical simulations for stellar winds driven by Alfv\'{e}n waves from stars with mass $M_{\star}=(0.6-0.8)M_{\odot}$ and metallicity $Z=(0-1)Z_{\odot}$, where $M_{\odot}$ and $Z_{\odot}$ are the solar mass and metallicity, respectively. Alfv\'{e}nic waves, which are excited by the surface convection, travel upward from the photosphere and heat up the corona by their dissipation. For lower $Z$, denser gas can be heated up to the coronal temperature because of the inefficient radiation cooling. The coronal density of Pop.II/III stars with $Z\le 0.01Z_{\odot}$ is 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than that of the solar-metallicity star with the same mass, and as a result, the mass loss rate, $\dot{M}$, is $(4.5-20)$ times larger. The soft X-ray flux [erg cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$] of the Pop.II/III stars is also expected to be $\approx (1-30)$ times larger than that of the solar-metallicity counterpart owing to the larger coronal density, even though the radiation cooling efficiency [erg cm$^{3}$s$^{-1}$] is smaller. A larger fraction of the input Alfv\'{e}nic wave energy is transmitted to the corona in low $Z$ stars because they avoid severe reflection owing to the smaller density difference between the photosphere and the corona. Therefore, a larger fraction is converted to the thermal energy of the corona and the kinetic energy of the stellar wind. From this energetics argument, we finally derived a scaling of $\dot{M}$ as $\dot{M}\propto L R_{\star}^{11/9}M_{\star}^{-10/9}T_{\rm eff}^{11/2}\left[\max (Z/Z_{\odot},0.01)\right]^{-1/5}$, where $L$, $R_{\star}$, and $T_{\rm eff}$ are stellar luminosity, radius, and effective temperature, respectively.

T. Suzuki
Fri, 13 Oct 17
7/56

On the problem of initial conditions for inflation [CL]

I review the present status of the problem of initial conditions for inflation and describe several ways to solve this problem for many popular inflationary models, including the recent generation of the models with plateau potentials favored by cosmological observations.

A. Linde
Fri, 13 Oct 17
11/56

Comments: 15 pages, 5 figures, a talk at the conference “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Spacetime Singularities,” Specola Vaticana 9-12 May 2017

Modeling the HeII Transverse Proximity Effect: Constraints on Quasar Lifetime and Obscuration [GA]

The HeII transverse proximity effect – enhanced HeII Ly{\alpha} transmission in a background sightline caused by the ionizing radiation of a foreground quasar – offers a unique opportunity to probe the emission properties of quasars, in particular the emission geometry (obscuration, beaming) and the quasar lifetime. Building on the foreground quasar survey published in Schmidt+2017, we present a detailed model of the HeII transverse proximity effect, specifically designed to include light travel time effects, finite quasar ages, and quasar obscuration. We post-process outputs from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation with a fluctuating HeII UV background model, plus the added effect of the radiation from a single bright foreground quasar. We vary the age $t_\mathrm{age}$ and obscured sky fractions $\Omega_\mathrm{obsc}$ of the foreground quasar, and explore the resulting effect on the HeII transverse proximity effect signal. Fluctuations in IGM density and the UV background, as well as the unknown orientation of the foreground quasar, result in a large variance of the HeII Ly{\alpha} transmission along the background sightline. We develop a fully Bayesian statistical formalism to compare far UV HeII Ly{\alpha} transmission spectra of the background quasars to our models, and extract joint constraints on $t_\mathrm{age}$ and $\Omega_\mathrm{obsc}$ for the six Schmidt+2017 foreground quasars with the highest implied HeII photoionization rates. Our analysis suggests a bimodal distribution of quasar emission properties, whereby one foreground quasar, associated with a strong HeII transmission spike, is relatively old $(22\,\mathrm{Myr})$ and unobscured $\Omega_\mathrm{obsc}<35\%$, whereas three others are either younger than $(10\,\mathrm{Myr})$ or highly obscured $(\Omega_\mathrm{obsc}>70\%)$.

T. Schmidt, J. Hennawi, G. Worseck, et. al.
Fri, 13 Oct 17
14/56

Comments: 19 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ

Beyond Lovelock: on higher derivative metric theories [CL]

We consider theories describing the dynamics of a four-dimensional metric, whose Lagrangian is diffeomorphism invariant and depends at most on second derivatives of the metric. Imposing degeneracy conditions we find a set of Lagrangians that, apart form the Einstein-Hilbert one, are either trivial or contain more than two degrees of freedom. Among the partially degenerate theories, we recover Chern-Simons gravity, endowed with constraints whose structure suggests the presence of instabilities. Then, we enlarge the class of parity violating theories of gravity by introducing new “chiral scalar-tensor theories”. Although they all raise the same concern as Chern-Simons gravity, they can nevertheless make sense as low energy effective field theories or, by restricting them to the unitary gauge (where the scalar field is uniform), as Lorentz breaking theories with a parity violating sector.

M. Crisostomi, K. Noui, C. Charmousis, et. al.
Fri, 13 Oct 17
18/56

We analyze the stability of self-gravitating systems which dynamics is investigated using the collisionless Boltzmann equation, and the modified Poisson equation of Eddington-inspired Born-Infield gravity. These equations provide a description of the Jeans paradigm used to determine the critical scale above which such systems collapse. At equilibrium, the systems are described using the time-independent Maxwell- Boltzmann distribution function $f_0(v)$. Considering small perturbations to this equilibrium state, we obtain a modified dispersion relation, and we find a new characteristic scale length. Our results indicate that the dynamics of the self-gravitating astrophysical systems can be fully addressed in the Eddington-inspired Born-Infield gravity. The latter modifies the Jeans instability in high densities environments while its effects become negligible in the star formation regions.