C. van de Bruck

Cosmology with massive neutrinos coupled to dark energy

Cosmological consequences of a coupling between massive neutrinos and dark energy are investigated. In such models, the neutrino mass is a function of a scalar field, which plays the role of dark energy. The evolution of the background and cosmological perturbations are discussed. We find that mass-varying neutrinos can leave a significant imprint on the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and even lead to a reduction of power on large angular scales.

Is the radion a chameleon

The chameleon mechanism is a way to give an effective mass to a light scalar field via field self-interaction and interaction with matter. We study this mechanism in models in which the couplings are field dependent and find that the properties are very different from the case of constant couplings. The consequences of a runaway potential for the radion field in brane world scenarios and whether the radion can play the role of dark energy is investigated. The cosmological evolution during the inflationary epoch, the radiation and the matter dominated epochs are discussed as is the compatibility of the radion field with local tests of gravity.

Chameleon Dark Energy

Chameleons are scalar fields whose mass depends on the environment, specifically on the ambient matter density. While nearly massless in the cosmos, where the matter density is tiny, their mass is of order of an inverse millimeter on Earth, where the density is high. In this note, we review how chameleons can satisfy current experimental constraints on deviations from General Relativity (GR). Moreover, we study the cosmological evolution with a chameleon field and show the existence of an attractor solution, akin to the tracker solution in quintessence models. We discuss how chameleons can naturally drive the observed acceleration of the universe.

Disformal couplings and the dark sector of the universe

Interactions between dark matter and dark energy, allowing both conformal and and disformal couplings, are studied in detail. We discuss the background evolution, anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and large scale structures. One of our main findings is that a large conformal coupling is not necessarily disallowed in the presence of a general disformal term. On the other hand, we find that negative disformal couplings very often lead to instabilities in the scalar field. Studying the background evolution and linear perturbations only, our results show that it is observationally challenging to disentangle disformal from purely conformal couplings.

Small scale structure formation in chameleon cosmology

Abstract Chameleon fields are scalar fields whose mass depends on the ambient matter density. We investigate the effects of these fields on the growth of density perturbations on sub-galactic scales and the formation of the first dark matter halos. Density perturbations on comoving scales R 1 pc go non-linear and collapse to form structure much earlier than in standard ΛCDM cosmology. The resulting mini-halos are hence more dense and resilient to disruption. We therefore expect (provided that the density perturbations on these scales have not been erased by damping processes) that the dark matter distribution on small scales would be more clumpy in chameleon cosmology than in the ΛCDM model.

Modified Gravity and the Radiation Dominated Epoch

In this paper we consider scalar-tensor theories, allowing for both conformal and disformal couplings to a fluid with a general equation of state. We derive the effective coupling for both background cosmology and for perturbations in that fluid. As an application we consider the scalar degree of freedom to be coupled to baryons and study the dynamics of the tightly coupled photon-baryon fluid in the early Universe. We derive an expression for the effective speed of sound, which differs from its value in General Relativity. We apply our findings to the μ-distortion of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which depends on the effective sound-speed of the photon-baryon fluid, and show that the predictions differ from General Relativity. Thus, the μ-distortion provides further information about gravity in the very early Universe well before decoupling.

Cosmic D-strings and vortons in supergravity

Abstract Recent developments in string inspired models of inflation suggest that D-strings are formed at the end of inflation. Within the supergravity model of D-strings there are 2 ( n − 1 ) chiral fermion zero modes for a D-string of winding n. Using the bounds on the relic vorton density, we show that D-strings with winding number n > 1 are more strongly constrained than cosmic strings arising in cosmological phase transitions. The D-string tension of such vortons, if they survive until the present, has to satisfy 8 π G N μ ≲ p × 10 −26 where p is the intercommutation probability. Similarly, D-strings coupled with spectator fermions carry currents and also need to respect the above bound. D-strings with n = 1 do not carry currents and evade the bound. We discuss the coupling of D-strings to supersymmetry breaking. When a single U ( 1 ) gauge group is present, we show that there is an incompatibility between spontaneous supersymmetry breaking and cosmic D-strings. We propose an alternative mechanism for supersymmetry breaking, which includes an additional U ( 1 ) , and might alleviate the problem. We conjecture what effect this would have on the fermion zero modes.

Cosmic acceleration in massive half-maximal supergravity

Abstract We consider massive half-maximal supergravity in d + 3 dimensions and compactify it on a symmetric three-space. We find that the static configurations of Minkowski d × S 3 obtained by balancing the positive scalar potential for the dilaton and the flux of a three-form through the three-sphere are unstable. The resulting cosmological evolution breaks supersymmetry and leads to an accelerated expansion in d dimensions.

Cosmological perturbations during radion stabilization

We consider the evolution of cosmological perturbations during radion stabilization, which we assume to happen after a period of inflation in the early universe. Concentrating on the Randall-Sundrum brane world scenario, we find that, if matter is present both on the positive and negative tension branes, the coupling of the radion to matter fields could have significant impact on the evolution of the curvature perturbation and on the production of entropy perturbations. We investigate both the case of a long-lived and a short-lived radion and outline similarities and differences to the curvaton scenario.

Racetrack inflation with matter fields and cosmic strings

We consider the coupling of racetrack inflation to matter fields as realized in the D3/D7 brane system. In particular, we investigate the possibility of cosmic string formation in this system. We find that strings can form before or at the onset of racetrack inflation is possible, but they are then inflated away. Furthermore, string formation at the end of inflation is prevented by the presence of the moduli sector. As a consequence, no strings survive racetrack inflation.We consider the coupling of racetrack inflation to matter fields as realised in the D3/D7 brane system. In particular, we investigate the possibility of cosmic string formation in this system. We find that string formation before or at the onset of racetrack inflation is possible, but they are then inflated away. Furthermore, string formation at the end of inflation is prevented by the presence of the moduli sector. As a consequence, no strings survive racetrack inflation.