Alejandro Gangui

Single field inflation and non-Gaussianity

We study non-Gaussian signatures on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation predicted within inflationary models with non-vacuum initial states for cosmological perturbations. The model incorporates a privileged scale, which implies the existence of a feature in the primordial power spectrum. This broken-scale-invariant model predicts a vanishing three-point correlation function for the CMB temperature anisotropies (or any other odd-numbered-point correlation function) whilst an intrinsic non-Gaussian signature arises for any even-numbered-point correlation function. We thus focus on the first non-vanishing moment, the CMB four-point function at zero lag, namely the kurtosis, and compute its expected value for different locations of the primordial feature in the spectrum, as suggested in the literature to conform with observations of large scale structure. The excess kurtosis is found to be negative and the signal to noise ratio for the dimensionless excess kurtosis parameter is equal to

Best unbiased estimators for the three point correlators of the cosmic microwave background radiation

|S/N|ensuremath{simeq}4ifmmodetimeselsetexttimesfi{}{10}^{ensuremath{-}4},

Cosmic Microwave background bispectrum from Active Models of Structure Formation

almost independently of the free parameters of the model. This signature turns out to be undetectable. We conclude that, subject to current tests, Gaussianity is a generic property of single field inflationary models. The only uncertainty concerning this prediction is that the effect of back reaction has not yet been properly incorporated. The implications for the trans-Planckian problem of inflation are also briefly discussed.

Doppler peaks in the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background : a fingerprint of topological defects

Measuring the three-point correlators of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies could help to get a handle on the level of non-Gaussianity present in the observational data sets and therefore would strongly constrain models of the early Universe. However, typically, the expected non-Gaussian signal is very small. Therefore, one has to face the problem of extracting it from the noise, in particular from the ``cosmic variance noise. For this purpose, one has to construct the best unbiased estimators for the three-point correlators that are needed for concrete detection of non-Gaussian features. In this article, we study this problem for both the CMB third moment and the CMB angular bispectrum. We emphasize that knowledge of the best estimator for the former does not permit one to infer the best estimator for the latter and vice versa. We present the corresponding best unbiased estimators in both cases and compute their corresponding cosmic variances.

Avoidance of collapse by circular current-carrying cosmic string loops

We propose a new method for a numerical computation of the angular bispectrum of the CMB anisotropies arising from active models such as cosmic topological defects, using a modified Boltzmann code based on CMBFAST. The method does not use CMB sky maps and requires moderate computational power. As a first implementation, we apply our method to a recently proposed model of simulated cosmic strings and estimate the observability of the non-Gaussian bispectrum signal. A comparison with the cosmic variance of the bispectrum estimator shows that the bispectrum for the simulated string model we used is not observable.

Could electromagnetic corrections solve the vorton excess problem

The Doppler peaks (Sacharov peaks) in the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies are due mainly to coherent oscillations in the baryon radiation plasma before recombination. Here we present a calculation of the Doppler peaks for perturbations induced by global textures and cold dark matter. We find that the height of the first Doppler peak is smaller than in standard cold dark matter models, and that its position is shifted to l∼350. We believe that our analysis can be easily extended to other types of global topological defects and general global scalar fields.

Diurnal Astronomy: Using Sticks and Threads to Find Our Latitude on Earth

Earlier attempts to calculate the nonlinear dynamical evolution of Witten type superconducting vacuum vortex defects relied on the use of approximate conducting string models that were too simple to take proper account of the effect of current saturation. This effect is however allowed for adequately in a newly developed class of rather more complicated, though still conveniently analytic, conducting string models. These more realistic models have recently been employed by Larsen and Axenides for investigating the collapse of circular string loops in the case for which angular momentum is absent. The present work extends this investigation to the generic case of circular string loops for which angular momentum is present, so that there will be a centrifugal potential barrier. This barrier will prevent collapse unless the initial conditions are such that the relevant current saturation limit is attained, in which case the string description of the vortex defect will break down, so that its subsequent fate is hard to foresee. On the other hand if saturation is avoided one would expect that the loop will eventually radiate away its excess energy and settle down into a vorton type equilibrium state.

Whither Does the Sun Rove

The modifications of circular cosmic string loop dynamics due to the electromagnetic self-interaction are calculated and shown to reduce the available phase space for reaching classical vorton states, thereby decreasing their remnant abundance. Use is made of the duality between master-function and Lagrangian formalisms on an explicit model.

Cosmology from Topological Defects

It is well known that the length and orientation of a shadow cast by a vertical gnomon depends on the time of the day and on the season of the year. But it also depends on the latitude of the site of observation. During the equinoxes, the temporal sequence of the shadows cast by each of the points that form any object follows a straight line from west to east. A simple construction using sticks and threads can be used to materialize the plane of the celestial equators local projection, giving us a way to calculate our astronomical latitude during daytime with high precision.

Cosmic string signatures in anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background

If one asked some friends where on the horizon they should expect to see the sunrise, half of the answers would be in the east. Of course, something analogous would happen with the sunset and the west. However, sunrise and sunset virtually never occur at these cardinal points. In fact, those answers correctly describe observations only during the equinoxes, when either autumn or spring begin. Once we recall this, the next natural question to ask ourselves is: how far from the east (or from the west) the rising (or setting) Sun is located for a given latitude of the observer and for a given day of the year. In this paper we supply some simple tools to easily visualize the angular (southward or northward) departure of the rising and setting Sun on the horizon from the east-west direction in a pictorial way, without the need of mathematics. These tools have proven a valuable resource in teaching introductory physics and astronomy courses.