Ghazal Geshnizjani

Back reaction and local cosmological expansion rate

We calculate the back reaction of cosmological perturbations on a general relativistic variable which measures the local expansion rate of the Universe. Specifically, we consider a cosmological model in which matter is described by a single field. We analyze back reaction both in a matter-dominated Universe and in a phase of scalar field-driven chaotic inflation. In both cases, we find that the leading infrared terms contributing to the back reaction vanish when the local expansion rate is measured at a fixed value of the matter field which is used as a clock, whereas they do not appear to vanish if the expansion rate is evaluated at a fixed value of the background time. We discuss possible implications for more realistic models with a more complicated matter sector.

Back-reaction of perturbations in two scalar field inflationary models

We calculate the back-reaction of long wavelength cosmological perturbations on a general relativistic measure of the local expansion rate of the universe. Specifically, we consider a cosmological model in which matter is described by two scalar matter fields, one being the inflaton and the other one representing a matter field which is used as a clock. We analyse back-reaction in a phase of inflaton-driven slow-roll inflation, and find that the leading infrared back-reaction terms contributing to the evolution of the expansion rate do not vanish when measured at a fixed value of the clock field. We also analyse the back-reaction of entropy modes in a specific cosmological model with negative square mass for the entropy field and find that back-reaction can become significant. Our work provides evidence that, in general, the back-reaction of infrared fluctuations could be locally observable.

Cuscuton: A Causal Field Theory with an Infinite Speed of Sound

We introduce a model of scalar field dark energy, Cuscuton, which can be realized as the incompressible (or infinite speed of sound) limit of a scalar field theory with a noncanonical kinetic term (or k-essence). Even though perturbations of Cuscuton propagate superluminally, we show that they have a locally degenerate phase space volume (or zero entropy), implying that they cannot carry any microscopic information, and thus the theory is causal. Even coupling to ordinary scalar fields cannot lead to superluminal signal propagation. Furthermore, we show that the family of constant field hypersurfaces is the family of constant mean curvature hypersurfaces, which are the analogs of soap films (or soap bubbles) in Euclidian space. This enables us to find the most general solution in 1+1 dimensions, whose properties motivate conjectures for global degeneracy of the phase space in higher dimensions. Finally, we show that the Cuscuton action can model the continuum limit of the evolution of a field with discrete degrees of freedom and argue why it is protected against quantum corrections at low energies. While this paper mainly focuses on interesting features of Cuscuton in a Minkowski space-time, a companion paper examines cosmology with Cuscuton dark energy.

Do observations offer evidence for cosmological-scale extra dimensions?

We present a case that current observations may already indicate new gravitational physics on cosmological scales. The excess of power seen in the Lyman-α forest and small-scale CMB experiments, the anomalously large bulk flows seen both in peculiar velocity surveys and in kinetic SZ, and the higher ISW cross-correlation all indicate that structure may be more evolved than expected from ΛCDM. While these anomalies may constitute a statistical fluke or may eventually disappear as systematic effects are better understood, we argue that they can be explained in models with infinite-volume (or, at least, cosmological-size) extra dimensions, where the graviton is a resonance with a tiny width. The longitudinal mode of the graviton mediates an extra scalar force which speeds up structure formation at late times, thereby accounting for the above anomalies. The required graviton Compton wavelength is relatively small compared to the present Hubble radius, of order 300-600 Mpc. Moreover, with certain assumptions about the behavior of the longitudinal mode on super-Hubble scales, our modified gravity framework can also alleviate the tension with the low quadrupole and the peculiar vanishing of the CMB correlation function on large angular scales, seen both in COBE and WMAP. This relies on a novel mechanism that cancels a late-time ISW contribution against the primordial Sachs-Wolfe amplitude.

Do large-scale inhomogeneities explain away dark energy?

Recently, new arguments [E. Barausse, S. Matarrese, and A. Riotto, Phys. Rev. D 71, 063537 (2005).][E. W. Kolb, S. Matarrese, A. Notari, and A. Riotto, hep-th/0503117 [Phys. Rev. Lett. (to be published)].] for how corrections from super-Hubble modes can explain the present-day acceleration of the universe have appeared in the literature. However, in this paper, we argue that, to second order in spatial gradients, these corrections only amount to a renormalization of local spatial curvature, and thus cannot account for the negative deceleration. Moreover, cosmological observations already put severe bounds on such corrections, at the level of a few percent, while in the context of inflationary models, these corrections are typically limited to {approx}10{sup -5}. Currently there is no general constraint on the possible correction from higher order gradient terms, but we argue that such corrections are even more constrained in the context of inflationary models.

Reconstructing a general inflationary action

If inflation is to be considered in an unbiased way, as possibly originating from one of a wide range of underlying theories, then observations need not be simply applied to reconstructing the inflaton potential V({phi}) or a specific kinetic term, as in Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation, but rather to reconstruct the inflationary action in its entirety. We discuss the constraints that can be placed on a general single field action from measurements of the primordial scalar and tensor fluctuation power spectra and non-Gaussianities. The analytic form of the action that is consistent with data turns out to be surprisingly simple and easy to categorize. We also present the flow equation formalism for reconstructing a general inflationary Lagrangian L(X,{phi}), with X=(1/2){partial_derivative}{sub {mu}}{phi}{partial_derivative}{sup {mu}}{phi}, in a general gauge, that reduces to canonical and DBI inflation in the specific gauge L{sub X}=c{sub s}{sup -1}.

The effect of extra dimensions on gravity wave bursts from cosmic string cusps

We explore the kinematical effect of having extra dimensions on the gravitational wave emission from cosmic strings. Additional dimensions both round off cusps, and reduce the probability of their formation. We recompute the gravitational wave burst, taking into account these two factors, and find a potentially significant damping on the gravitational waves of the strings.

Cuscuton Cosmology: Dark Energy meets Modified Gravity

In a companion paper, we have introduced a model of scalar field dark energy, Cuscuton, which can be realized as the incompressible (or infinite speed of sound) limit of a

Effect of extra dimensions on gravitational waves from cosmic strings.

k

Comment on perturbations during a regular bounce

-essence fluid. In this paper, we study how Cuscuton modifies the constraint sector of Einstein gravity. In particular, we study Cuscuton cosmology and show that even though Cuscuton can have an arbitrary equation of state, or time dependence, and is thus inhomogeneous, its perturbations do not introduce any additional dynamical degree of freedom and only satisfy a constraint equation, amounting to an effective modification of gravity on large scales. Therefore, Cuscuton can be considered to be a minimal theory of evolving dark energy, or a minimal modification of a cosmological constant, as it has no internal dynamics. Moreover, this is the only modification of Einstein gravity to our knowledge, that does not introduce any additional degrees of freedom (and is not conformally equivalent to the Einstein gravity). We then study two simple Cuscuton models, with quadratic and exponential potentials. The quadratic model has the exact same expansion history as