Sugumi Kanno

Inflationary Universe with Anisotropic Hair

We study an inflationary scenario with a vector field coupled with an inflaton field and show that the inflationary Universe is endowed with anisotropy for a wide range of coupling functions. This anisotropic inflation is a tracking solution where the energy density of the vector field follows that of the inflaton field irrespective of initial conditions. We find a universal relation between the anisotropy and a slow-roll parameter of inflation. Our finding has observational implications and gives a counterexample to the cosmic no-hair conjecture.

The Nature of Primordial Fluctuations from Anisotropic Inflation

We study the statistical nature of primordial fluctuations from an anisotropic inflation which is realized by a vector field coupled to an inflaton. We find a suitable gauge, which we call the canonical gauge, for anisotropic inflation by generalizing the flat slicing gauge in conventional isotropic inflation. Using the canonical gauge, we reveal the structure of the couplings between curvature perturbations, vector waves, and gravitational waves. We identify two sources of anisotropy, i.e. the anisotropy due to the anisotropic expansion of the universe and that due to the anisotropic couplings among variables. It turns out that the latter effect is dominant. Since the coupling between the curvature perturbations and vector waves is the strongest one, the statistical anisotropy in the curvature perturbations is larger than that in gravitational waves. We find the cross correlation between the curvature perturbations and gravitational waves which never occurs in conventional inflation. We also find the linear polarization of gravitational waves. Finally, we discuss cosmological implication of our results.

Cosmological magnetic fields from inflation and backreaction

We study the backreaction problem in a mechanism of magnetogenesis from inflation. In usual analysis, it has been assumed that the backreaction due to electromagnetic fields spoils inflation once it becomes important. However, there exists no justification for this assumption. Hence, we analyze magnetogenesis from inflation by taking into account the backreaction. On the contrary to the naive expectation, we show that inflation still continues even after the backreaction begins to work. Nevertheless, it turns out that creation of primordial magnetic fields is significantly suppressed due to the backreaction.

Radion and holographic brane gravity

The low energy effective theory for the Randall-Sundrum two brane system is investigated with an emphasis on the role of the non-linear radion in the brane world. The equations of motion in the bulk is solved using a low energy expansion method. This allows us, through the junction conditions, to deduce the effective equations of motion for the gravity on the brane. It is shown that the gravity on the brane world is described by a quasi-scalar-tensor theory with a specific coupling function omega(Psi) = 3 Psi / 2(1-Psi) on the positive tension brane and omega(Phi) = -3 Phi / 2(1+Phi) on the negative tension brane, where Psi and Phi are non-linear realizations of the radion on the positive and negative tension branes, respectively. In contrast to the usual scalar-tensor gravity, the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity couples with two kinds of matter, namely, the matters on both positive and negative tension branes, with different effective gravitational coupling constants. In particular, the radion disguised as the scalar fields Psi and Phi couples with the sum of the traces of the energy momentum tensor on both branes. In the course of the derivation, it has been revealed that the radion plays an essential role to convert the non-local Einstein gravity with the generalized dark radiation to the local quasi-scalar-tensor gravity. For completeness, we also derive the effective action for our theory by substituting the bulk solution into the original action. It is also shown that the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity works as holograms at the low energy in the sense that the bulk geometry can be reconstructed from the solution of the quasi-scalar-tensor gravity.

More on the spectrum of perturbations in string gas cosmology

String gas cosmology is rewritten in the Einstein frame. In an effective theory in which a gas of closed strings is coupled to a dilaton gravity background without any potential for the dilaton, the Hagedorn phase which is quasi-static in the string frame corresponds to an expanding, non-accelerating phase from the point of view of the Einstein frame. The Einstein frame curvature singularity which appears in this toy model is related to the blowing up of the dilaton in the string frame. However, for large values of the dilaton, the toy model clearly is inapplicable. Thus, there must be a new string phase which is likely to be static with frozen dilaton. With such a phase, the horizon problem can be successfully addressed in string gas cosmology. The generation of cosmological perturbations in the Hagedorn phase seeded by a gas of long strings in thermal equilibrium is reconsidered, from both the point of view of the string frame (in which it is easier to understand the generation of fluctuations) and that of the Einstein frame (in which the evolution equations are well known). It is shown that fixing the dilaton at some early stage is important for obtaining a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations in string gas cosmology.

Anisotropic power-law inflation

We study an inflationary scenario in supergravity model with a gauge kinetic function. We find exact anisotropic power-law inflationary solutions when both the potential function for an inflaton and the gauge kinetic function are exponential type. The dynamical system analysis tells us that the anisotropic power-law inflation is an attractor for a large parameter region.

Imprints of the anisotropic inflation on the cosmic microwave background

We study the imprints of the anisotropic inflation on the CMB temperature fluctuations and polarizations. The statistical anisotropy stems not only from the direction dependence of curvature and tensor perturbations, but also from the cross-correlation between curvature and tensor perturbations, and the linear polarization of tensor perturbations. We show that off-diagonal TB and EB spectra as well as on- and off-diagonal TT, EE, BB and TE spectra are induced from the anisotropic inflation. We emphasize that the off-diagonal spectra induced by the cross-correlation could be a characteristic signature of the anisotropic inflation.

Anisotropic Inflation from Vector Impurity

We study an inflationary scenario with a vector impurity. We show that the universe undergoes anisotropic inflationary expansion due to a preferred direction determined by the vector. Using the slow roll approximation, we find a formula for determining the anisotropy of the inflationary universe. We discuss possible observable predictions of this scenario. In particular, it is stressed that primordial gravitational waves can be induced from curvature perturbations. Hence, even in low scale inflation, a sizable amount of primordial gravitational waves may be produced during inflation.

Gauss-Bonnet Holographic Superconductors

We study holographic superconductors in five dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity both numerically and analytically. We find the critical temperature of the superconductor decreases as backreaction is increased, although the effect of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling is more subtle: the critical temperature first decreases then increases as the coupling tends towards the Chern-Simons value in a backreaction dependent fashion. We compute the conductivity of the system, finding the energy gap, and show that the effect of both backreaction and higher curvature is to increase the gap ratio ωg/Tc, thus there is no universal relation for these superconductors.

Brane world effective action at low energies and AdS/CFT correspondence

A low energy iteration scheme to study nonlinear gravity in the brane world is developed. As a result, we obtain the brane world effective action at low energies. The relation between the geometrical approach and the approach using the AdS/CFT correspondence is also clarified. In particular, we find generalized dark radiation as homogeneous solutions in our iteration scheme. Moreover, the precise correspondence between the bulk geometry and the brane effective action is established, which gives a holographic view of the brane world.