Gennaro Miele

Primordial nucleosynthesis: From precision cosmology to fundamental physics

We present an up-to-date review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We discuss the main improvements which have been achieved in the past two decades on the overall theoretical framework, summarize the impact of new experimental results on nuclear reaction rates, and critically re-examine the astrophysical determinations of light nuclei abundances. We report then on how BBN can be used as a powerful test of new physics, constraining a wide range of ideas and theoretical models of fundamental interactions beyond the standard model of strong and electroweak forces and Einstein’s general relativity.

Cosmological perturbations and short distance physics from Noncommutative Geometry

We investigate the possible effects on the evolution of perturbations in the inflationary epoch due to short distance physics. We introduce a suitable non local action for the inflaton field, suggested by Noncommutative Geometry, and obtained by adopting a generalized star product on a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. In particular, we study how the presence of a length scale where spacetime becomes noncommutative affects the gaussianity and isotropy properties of fluctuations, and the corresponding effects on the Cosmic Microwave Background spectrum.

The footprint of large scale cosmic structure on the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray distribution

Current experiments collecting high statistics in ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are opening a new window on the universe. In this work we discuss a large scale structure model for the UHECR origin which evaluates the expected anisotropy in the UHECR arrival distribution starting from a given astronomical catalogue of the local universe. The model takes into account the main selection effects in the catalogue and the UHECR propagation effects. By applying this method to the IRAS PSCz catalogue, we derive the minimum statistics needed for significatively rejecting the hypothesis that UHECRs trace the baryonic distribution in the universe, in particular providing a forecast for the Auger experiment.

Radio constraints on dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo and its substructures

Annihilation of Dark Matter usually produces together with gamma rays comparable amounts of electrons and positrons. The e+e-; gyrating in the galactic magnetic field then produce secondary synchrotron radiation which thus provides an indirect mean to constrain the DM signal itself. To this purpose, we calculate the radio emission from the galactic halo as well as from its expected substructures and we then compare it with the measured diffuse radio background. We employ a multi-frequency approach using data in the relevant frequency range 100 MHz-100 GHz, as well as the WMAP haze at 23 GHz. The derived constraints are of the order = 10^{-24} cm^3s^{-1} for a DM mass m = 100 GeV sensibly depending however on the astrophysical uncertainties, in particular on the assumption on the galactic magnetic field model. The signal from single bright clumps is instead largely attenuated by diffusion effects and offers only poor prospects of detection.

Angular Signatures of Annihilating Dark Matter in the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background

The extragalactic cosmic gamma-ray background (CGB) is an interesting channel to look for signatures of dark matter annihilation. In particular, besides the imprint in the energy spectrum, peculiar anisotropy patterns are expected compared to the case of a pure astrophysical origin of the CGB. We take into account the uncertainties in the dark matter clustering properties on subgalactic scales, deriving two possible anisotropy scenarios. A clear dark matter angular signature is achieved when the annihilation signal receives only a moderate contribution from subgalactic clumps and/or cuspy haloes. Experimentally, if galactic foreground systematics are efficiently kept under control, the angular differences are detectable with the forthcoming GLAST observatory, provided that the annihilation signal contributes to the CGB for a fraction

The Signature of Large Scale Structures on the Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky

\ensuremath{\gtrsim}10\char21{}20%

Chances for SUSY-GUT in the LHC Epoch

. If, instead, subgalactic structures have a more prominent role, the astrophysical and dark matter anisotropies become degenerate, correspondingly diluting the dark matter signature. As complementary observables we also introduce the cross correlation between surveys of galaxies and the CGB and the cross correlation between different energy bands of the CGB, and we find that they provide a further sensitive tool to detect the dark matter angular signatures.

Radio Signal by Galactic Dark Matter

If the diffuse extragalactic gamma ray emission traces the large scale structures of the universe, peculiar anisotropy patterns are expected in the gamma ray sky. In particular, because of the cutoff distance introduced by the absorption of 0.1-10 TeV photons on the infrared/optical background, prominent correlations with the local structures within a range of few hundreds Mpc should be present. We provide detailed predictions of the signal based on the PSCz map of the local universe. We also use mock N-body catalogues complemented with the halo model of structures to study some statistical features of the expected signatures. The results are largely independent from cosmological details, and depend mostly on the index of correlation (or bias) of the sources with respect to the large scale distribution of galaxies. For instance, the predicted signal in the case of a quadratic correlation (as it may happen for a dark matter annihilation contribution to the diffuse gamma flux) differs substantially from a linear correlation case, providing a complementary tool to unveil the nature of the sources of the diffuse gamma ray emission. The chances of the present and future space and ground based observatories to measure these features are discussed.

Sensitivity on earth core and mantle densities using atmospheric neutrinos

A bstractThe magic couple of SUSY and GUT still appears the most elegant and predictive physics concept beyond the Standard Model. Since up to now LHC found no evidence for supersymmetric particles it becomes of particular relevance to determine an upper bound of the energy scale they have to show up. In particular, we have analyzed a generic SUSY-GUT model assuming one step unification like in SU(5), and adopting naturalness principles, we have obtained general bounds on the mass spectrum of SUSY particles. We claim that if a SUSY gauge coupling unification takes place, the lightest gluino or Higgsino cannot have a mass larger than ∼ 20 TeV. Such a limit is of interest for planning new accelerator machines.

Astrophysical interpretation of the medium scale clustering in the ultrahigh energy sky

An interesting strategy for indirect detection of Dark Matter comes through the amounts of electrons and positrons usually emitted by DM pair annihilation. The e + e − gyrating in the galactic magnetic field then produce secondary synchrotron radiation. The radio emission from the galactic halo as well as from its expected substructures if compared with the measured diffuse radio background can provide constraints on the physics of WIMPs. In particular one gets the bound of 〈 σ A v 〉 = 10 − 24 cm 3 s − 1 for a DM mass m χ = 100 GeV even though sensibly depending on the astrophysical uncertainties.