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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

String melting in a photon bath

We compute the decay rate of a metastable cosmic string in contact with a thermal bath by finding the instanton solution. The new feature is that this decay rate is found in the context of non thermal scalar fields in contact with a thermal bath of photons. In general, to make topologically unstable strings stable, one can couple them to such a bath. The resulting plasma effect creates metastable configurations which can decay from the false vacuum to the true vacuum. In our specific set-up, the instanton computation is realized for the case of two out-of-equilibrium complex scalar fields: one is charged and coupled to the photon field, and the other is neutral. New effects coming from the thermal bath of photons make the radius of the nucleated bubble and most of the relevant physical quantities temperature-dependent. However, the temperature appears in a different way than in the purely thermal case, where all scalar fields are in thermal equilibrium. As a result of the tunneling, the core of the initial string melts while bubbles of true vacuum expand at the speed of light.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Orbifold line topology and the cosmic microwave background

We extend our study of a universe with a non-classical stringy topology, and consider an orbifold line topology, R × R{sup 2}/Z{sub p}. This topology has a fixed line and identifies each point in space with p−1 other points. An observable imprint of an orbifold line on the CMB is the appearance of up to (p−1)/2 pairs of matching circles. Searching the WMAP data for matching circles, we can rule out an orbifold line topology with p up to 10, except for p = 8. While the significance of the peak at p = 8 varies between data releases of WMAP, it does not appear in Planck data, enabling us to rule out p = 8 as well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Bounce universe from string-inspired Gauss-Bonnet gravity

We explore cosmology with a bounce in Gauss-Bonnet gravity where the Gauss-Bonnet invariant couples to a dynamical scalar field. In particular, the potential and and Gauss-Bonnet coupling function of the scalar field are reconstructed so that the cosmological bounce can be realized in the case that the scale factor has hyperbolic and exponential forms. Furthermore, we examine the relation between the bounce in the string (Jordan) and Einstein frames by using the conformal transformation between these conformal frames. It is shown that in general, the property of the bounce point in the string frame changes after the frame is moved to the Einstein frame. Moreover, it is found that at the point in the Einstein frame corresponding to the point of the cosmological bounce in the string frame, the second derivative of the scale factor has an extreme value. In addition, it is demonstrated that at the time of the cosmological bounce in the Einstein frame, there is the Gauss-Bonnet coupling function of the scalar field, although it does not exist in the string frame.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A note on trans-Planckian tail effects

We study the proposal by Mersini et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.64.043508 that the observed dark energy might be explained by the back-reaction of the set of tail modes in a theory with a dispersion relation in which the mode frequency decays exponentially in the trans-Planckian regime. The matter tail modes are frozen out, however they induce metric fluctuations. The energy-momentum tensor with which the tail modes effect the background geometry obtains contributions from both metric and matter fluctuations. We calculate the equation of state induced by the tail modes taking into account the gravitational contribution. We find that, in contrast to the case of frozen super-Hubble cosmological fluctuations, in this case the matter perturbations dominate, and they yield an equation of state which to leading order takes the form of a positive cosmological constant.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Fermionic dark matter in a simple t-channel model

We consider a fermionic dark matter (DM) particle in renormalizable Standard Model (SM) gauge interactions in a simple t-channel model. The DM particle interactions with SM fermions is through the exchange of scalar and vector mediators which carry colour or lepton number. In the case of coloured mediators considered in this study, we find that if the DM is thermally produced and accounts for the observed relic density almost the entire parameter space is ruled out by the direct detection observations. The bounds from the monojet plus missing energy searches at the Large Hadron Collider are less stringent in this case. In contrast for the case of Majorana DM, we obtain strong bounds from the monojet searches which rule out DM particles of mass less than about a few hundred GeV for both the scalar and vector mediators.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Improved calculation of the gravitational wave spectrum from kinks on infinite cosmic strings

Gravitational wave observations provide unique opportunities to search for cosmic strings. One of the strongest sources of gravitational waves is discontinuities of cosmic strings, called kinks, which are generated at points of intersection. Kinks on infinite strings are known to generate a gravitational wave background over a wide range of frequencies. In this paper, we calculate the spectrum of the gravitational wave background by numerically solving the evolution equation for the distribution function of the kink sharpness. We find that the number of kinks for small sharpness is larger than the analytical estimate used in a previous work, which makes a difference in the spectral shape. Our numerical approach enables us to make a more precise prediction on the spectral amplitude for future gravitational wave experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Fireballs from superconducting cosmic strings

Thermalized fireballs should be created by cusp events on superconducting cosmic strings. This simple notion allows to reliably estimate particle emission from the cusps in a given background magnetic field. With plausible assumptions about intergalactic magnetic fields, the cusp events can produce observable fluxes of high-energy photons and neutrinos with unique signatures.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Constraints on the production of primordial magnetic seeds in pre-big bang cosmology

We study the amplification of the electromagnetic fluctuations, and the production of 'seeds' for the cosmic magnetic fields, in a class of string cosmology models whose scalar and tensor perturbations reproduce current observations and satisfy known phenomenological constraints. We find that the condition of efficient seeds production can be satisfied and compatible with all constraints only in a restricted region of parameter space, but we show that such a region has significant intersections with the portions of parameter space where the produced background of relic gravitational waves is strong enough to be detectable by aLIGO/Virgo and/or by eLISA.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A Bayesian framework for cosmic string searches in CMB maps

There exists various proposals to detect cosmic strings from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) or 21 cm temperature maps. Current proposals do not aim to find the location of strings on sky maps, all of these approaches can be thought of as a statistic on a sky map. We propose a Bayesian interpretation of cosmic string detection and within that framework, we derive a connection between estimates of cosmic string locations and cosmic string tension G μ. We use this Bayesian framework to develop a machine learning framework for detecting strings from sky maps and outline how to implement this framework with neural networks. The neural network we trained was able to detect and locate cosmic strings on noiseless CMB temperature map down to a string tension of G μ=5 ×10{sup −9} and when analyzing a CMB temperature map that does not contain strings, the neural network gives a 0.95 probability that G μ≤2.3×10{sup −9}.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Superstring-inspired particle cosmology: inflation, neutrino masses, leptogenesis, dark matter & the SUSY scale

We develop a string-inspired model for particle cosmology, based on a flipped SU(5)×U(1) gauge group formulated in a no-scale supergravity framework. The model realizes Starobinsky-like inflation, which we assume to be followed by strong reheating, with the GUT symmetry being broken subsequently by a light ‘flaton’ field whose decay generates a second stage of reheating. We discuss the production of gravitinos and the non-thermal contribution made by their decays to the density of cold dark matter, which is assumed to be provided by the lightest neutralino. We also discuss the masses of light and heavy neutrinos and leptogenesis. As discussed previously, a key rôle is played by a superpotential coupling between the inflaton, matter and GUT Higgs fields, called λ 6 . We scan over possible values of λ 6 , exploring the correlations between the possible values of observables. We emphasize that the release of entropy during the GUT transition allows large regions of supersymmetry-breaking parameter space that would otherwise lead to severe overdensity of dark matter. Furthermore, we find that the Big Bang nucleosynthesis lower limit on the reheating temperature of ~ 1 MeV restricts the supersymmetry-breaking scale to a range O(10) TeV that is consistent with the absence of supersymmetric particles at the LHC.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Universal tripartite entanglement signature of ungappable edge states

Gapped two-dimensional topological phases can feature ungappable edge states which are robust even in the absence of protecting symmetries. In this Letter we argue that a multipartite entanglement measure recently proposed in the context of holography, the Markov gap, provides a universal diagnostic of ungappable edge states. Defined as a difference of the reflected entropy and mutual information h(A:B)=S R (A:B)-I(A:B) between two parties, we argue that for A,B being adjacent subregions in the bulk h=$\frac{c+}{3}$ ln 2, where c + is the minimal total central charge of the boundary theory. As evidence, we prove that h=0 for string-net models and numerically verify that h=$\frac{|C|}{3}$ ln 2 for a Chern-C insulator. Our Letter establishes a unique bulk entanglement criteria for the presence of a conformal field theory on the boundary.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Search for vectorlike leptons in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV

A search for vector-like leptons in multilepton final states is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 77.4 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016 and 2017. Events are categorized by the multiplicity of electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying $\tau$ leptons. The missing transverse momentum and the scalar sum of the lepton transverse momenta are used to distinguish the signal from background. The observed results are consistent with the expectations from the standard model hypothesis. The existence of a vector-like lepton doublet, coupling to the third generation standard model leptons in the mass range of 120-790 GeV, is excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the most stringent limits yet on the production of a vector-like lepton doublet, coupling to the third generation standard model leptons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Moduli axions, stabilizing moduli, and the large field swampland conjecture in heterotic M-theory

We compute the F- and D-term potential energy for the dilaton, complex structure, and Kähler moduli of realistic vacua of heterotic M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds where, for simplicity, we choose ℎ 1,1 = ℎ 2,1 = 1. However, the formalism is immediately applicable to the “universal” moduli of Calabi-Yau threefolds with ℎ 1,1 = ℎ 1,2 > 1 as well. The F-term potential is computed using the nonperturbative complex structure, gaugino condensate and “world sheet instanton” superpotentials in theories in which the hidden sector contains an anomalous U⁡(1) structure group. The Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation induces inhomogeneous “axion” transformations for the imaginary components of the dilaton and Kähler modulus—which then produce a D-term potential. V D is a function of the real components of the dilaton and Kähler modulus (s and t) that is minimized and precisely vanishes along a unique line in the s–t plane. Excitations transverse to this line have a mass m anom which is an explicit function of t. The F-term potential energy is then evaluated along the V D = 0 line. For values of t small enough that m anom ≳ M U —where M U is the compactification scale—we plot V F for a realistic choice of coefficients as a function of the Pfaffian parameter p. We find values of p for which V F has a global minimum at negative or zero vacuum density or a metastable minimum with positive vacuum density. In all three cases, the s, t, and associated “axion” moduli are completely stabilized. Finally, we show that, for any of these vacua, the large t behavior of the potential energy satisfies the “large scalar field” Swampland conjecture.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Charge-Dependent Directed Flow in Cu + Au Collisions at s N N = 200 GeV

Here we present the first measurement of charge-dependent directed flow in Cu + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$ = 200 GeV . The results are presented as a function of the particle transverse momentum and pseudorapidity for different centralities. A finite difference between the directed flow of positive and negative charged particles is observed that qualitatively agrees with the expectations from the effects of the initial strong electric field between two colliding ions with different nuclear charges. The measured difference in directed flow is much smaller than that obtained from the parton-hadron-string-dynamics model, which suggests that most of the electric charges, i.e., quarks and antiquarks, have not yet been created during the lifetime of the strong electric field, which is of the order of, or less than, 1fm / c .

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Electromagnetic plane waves with negative phase velocity in charged black strings

We investigate the propagation regions of electromagnetic plane waves with negative phase velocity in the ergosphere of static charged black strings. For such a propagation, some conditions for negative phase velocity are established that depend on the metric components and the choice of the octant. We conclude that these conditions remain unaffected by the negative values of the cosmological constant.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Flux tube spectra from approximate integrability at low energies

We provide a detailed introduction to a method we recently proposed for calculating the spectrum of excitations of effective strings such as QCD flux tubes. The method relies on the approximate integrability of the low-energy effective theory describing the flux tube excitations and is based on the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz. The approximate integrability is a consequence of the Lorentz symmetry of QCD. For excited states, the convergence of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz technique is significantly better than that of the traditional perturbative approach. We apply the new technique to the lattice spectra for fundamental flux tubes in gluodynamics in D = 3 + 1 and D = 2 + 1, and to k-strings in gluodynamics in D = 2 + 1. We identify a massive pseudoscalar resonance on the worldsheet of the confining strings in SU(3) gluodynamics in D = 3 + 1, and massive scalar resonances on the worldsheet of k = 2.3 strings in SU(6) gluodynamics in D = 2 + 1.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗