1,720,985 research outputs found
What can the observation of nonzero curvature tell us?
No full textThe eternally inflating multiverse provides a consistent framework to understand coincidences and fine-tuning in the Universe. As such, it provides the possibility of finding another coincidence: if the amount of slow-roll inflation in our past was only slightly more than the anthropic threshold, then spatial curvature might be measurable. We study this issue in detail, particularly focusing on the question: “If future observations reveal nonzero curvature, what can we conclude?” We find that whether an observable signal arises or not depends crucially on three issues: the cosmic history just before the observable inflation, the measure adopted to define probabilities in the eternally inflating spacetime, and the sign and strength of the correlation between the tunneling and slow-roll parts of the potential. We find that if future measurements find positive curvature at the level Ω[subscript k]≲-10[superscript -4], then the framework of the eternally inflating multiverse, as currently understood, is excluded with high significance. If the measurements instead reveal negative curvature at the level Ω[subscript k]≲-10[superscript -4], then we can conclude that (1) diffusive (new or chaotic type) eternal inflation did not occur in our immediate past; (2) our pocket universe was born by a bubble nucleation; (3) the probability measure does not reward volume increase; and (4) the origin of the observed slow-roll inflation is an accidental feature of the potential, presumably selected by anthropic conditions, and not due to a theoretical mechanism ensuring the flatness of the potential. Discovery of Ω[subscript k]≲-10[superscript -4] would also give us nontrivial information about the correlation between the tunneling and slow-roll parts of the potential; for example, a strong correlation favoring large N would be ruled out in certain measures. We also address the question of whether the current constraint on Ωk is consistent with multiverse expectations; we find the answer to be yes, except that current observations, for many choices of measure, rule out the possibility of strong correlations in the potential which favor small values of N. In the course of this work we were led to consider vacuum decay branching ratios, and found that it is more likely than one might guess that the decays are dominated by a single channel. Planned future measurements of spatial curvature provide a valuable opportunity to explore the structure of the multiverse as well as the cosmic history just before the observable inflation.United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract DEFG02- 05ER41360
QCD axion window and low-scale inflation
Get PDFWe show that the upper bound of the classical QCD axion window can be significantly relaxed for low-scale inflation. If the Gibbons-Hawking temperature during inflation is lower than the QCD scale, the initial QCD axion misalignment angle follows the Bunch-Davies distribution. The distribution is peaked at the strong CP conserving minimum if there is no other light degree of freedom contributing to the strong CP phase. As a result, the axion overproduction problem is significantly relaxed even for an axion decay constant larger than 10¹² GeV. We also provide concrete hilltop inflation models where the Hubble parameter during inflation is comparable to or much smaller than the QCD scale, with successful reheating taking place via perturbative decays or dissipation processes
Inflationary paradigm after Planck 2013
Get PDFModels of cosmic inflation posit an early phase of accelerated expansion of the universe, driven by the dynamics of one or more scalar fields in curved spacetime. Though detailed assumptions about fields and couplings vary across models, inflation makes specific, quantitative predictions for several observable quantities, such as the flatness parameter (Ωk=1−Ω) and the spectral tilt of primordial curvature perturbations (ns−1=dlnP[subscript R]/dlnk), among others—predictions that match the latest observations from the Planck satellite to very good precision. In the light of data from Planck as well as recent theoretical developments in the study of eternal inflation and the multiverse, we address recent criticisms of inflation by Ijjas, Steinhardt, and Loeb. We argue that their conclusions rest on several problematic assumptions, and we conclude that cosmic inflation is on a stronger footing than ever before.United States. Dept. of Energy (Cooperative Research Agreement DE-FG02-05ER41360
Relativistic corrections to nonrelativistic effective field theories
Get PDFIn this paper we develop a formalism for studying the nonrelativistic limit of relativistic field theories in a systematic way. By introducing a simple, nonlocal field redefinition, we transform a given relativistic theory, describing a real, self-interacting scalar field, into an equivalent theory, describing a complex scalar field that encodes at each time both the original field and its conjugate momentum. Our low-energy effective theory incorporates relativistic corrections to the kinetic energy as well as the backreaction of fast-oscillating terms on the behavior of the dominant, slowly varying component of the field. Possible applications of our new approach include axion dark matter, though the methods developed here should be applicable to the low-energy limits of other field theories as well.United States. Department of Energy (Contract DE-SC0012567
Relaxed Bell inequalities with arbitrary measurement dependence for each observer
Get PDFBell's inequality was originally derived under the assumption that experimenters are free to select detector settings independently of any local “hidden variables” that might affect the outcomes of measurements on entangled particles. This assumption has come to be known as “measurement independence” (also referred to as “freedom of choice” or “settings independence”). For a two-setting, two-outcome Bell test, we derive modified Bell inequalities that relax measurement independence, for either or both observers, while remaining locally causal. We describe the loss of measurement independence for each observer using the parameters M[subscript 1] and M[subscript 2], as defined by Hall in 2010, and also by a more complete description that adds two new parameters, which we call M[subscript 1][over ̂] and M[subscript 2][over ̂], deriving a modified Bell inequality for each description. These “relaxed” inequalities subsume those considered in previous work as special cases, and quantify how much the assumption of measurement independence needs to be relaxed in order for a locally causal model to produce a given violation of the standard Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) inequality. We show that both relaxed Bell inequalities are tight bounds on the CHSH parameter by constructing locally causal models that saturate them. For any given Bell inequality violation, the new two-parameter and four-parameter models each require significantly less mutual information between the hidden variables and measurement settings than previous models. We conjecture that the new models, with optimal parameters, require the minimum possible mutual information for a given Bell violation. We further argue that, contrary to various claims in the literature, relaxing freedom of choice need not imply superdeterminism
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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