Toshifumi Noumi

Effective field theory approach to quasi-single field inflation and effects of heavy fields

A bstractWe apply the effective field theory approach to quasi-single field inflation, which contains an additional scalar field with Hubble scale mass other than inflaton. Based on the time-dependent spatial diffeomorphism, which is not broken by the time-dependent background evolution, the most generic action of quasi-single field inflation is constructed up to third order fluctuations. Using the obtained action, the effects of the additional massive scalar field on the primordial curvature perturbations are discussed. In particular, we calculate the power spectrum and discuss the momentum-dependence of three point functions in the squeezed limit for general settings of quasi-single field inflation. Our framework can be also applied to inflation models with heavy particles. We make a qualitative discussion on the effects of heavy particles during inflation and that of sudden turning trajectory in our framework.

750 GeV diphoton resonance and inflation

We study the possibility of a heavy scalar or pseudoscalar in TeV-scale beyond the Standard Model scenarios being the inflaton of the early universe in light of the recent O(750) GeV diphoton excess at the LHC. We consider a scenario in which the new scalar or pseudoscalar couples to the Standard Model gauge bosons at the loop level through new massive Standard Model charged vectorlike fermions with or without dark fermions. We calculate the renormalization group running of both the Standard Model and the new scalar couplings, and present two different models that are perturbative and with a stabilized vacuum up to near the Planck scale. Thus, the Standard Model Higgs and this possible new resonance may still preserve the minimalist features of Higgs inflation.

Primordial spectra from sudden turning trajectory

Effects of heavy fields on primordial spectra of curvature perturbations are discussed in inflationary models with a sudden turning trajectory. When heavy fields are excited after the sudden turn and oscillate around the bottom of the potential, the following two effects are generically induced: deformation of the inflationary background spacetime and conversion interactions between adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations, both of which can affect the primordial density perturbations. In this paper, we calculate primordial spectra in inflationary models with sudden turning potentials taking into account both of the two effects appropriately. We find that there are some non-trivial correlations between the two effects in the power spectrum and, as a consequence, the primordial scalar power spectrum has a peak around the scale exiting the horizon at the turn. Though both effects can induce parametric resonance amplifications, they are shown to be canceled out for the case with the canonical kinetic terms. The peak feature and the scale dependence of bispectra are also discussed.

Constraints on a class of classical solutions in open string field theory

A bstractWe calculate boundary states for general string fields in the KBc subalgebra under some regularity conditions based on the construction by Kiermaier, Okawa, and Zwiebach. The resulting boundary states are always proportional to that for the perturbative vacuum |B〉. In this framework, the equation of motion implies that boundary states are independent of the auxiliary parameter s associated with the length of the boundary. By requiring the s-independence, we show that the boundary states for classical solutions in our class are restricted to ±|B〉 and 0. In particular, there exist no string fields which reproduce boundary states for multiple D-brane backgrounds. While we know that the boundary states |B〉 and 0 are reproduced by solutions for the perturbative vacuum and the tachyon vacuum, respectively, no solutions reproducing −|B〉 have been constructed. In this paper we also propose a candidate for such a solution, which may describe the ghost D-brane.

Relativistic hydrodynamics from quantum field theory on the basis of the generalized Gibbs ensemble method

We derive relativistic hydrodynamics from quantum field theories by assuming that the density operator is given by a local Gibbs distribution at initial time. We decompose the energy-momentum tensor and particle current into nondissipative and dissipative parts, and analyze their time evolution in detail. Performing the path-integral formulation of the local Gibbs distribution, we microscopically derive the generating functional for the nondissipative hydrodynamics.We also construct a basis to study dissipative corrections. In particular, we derive the first-order dissipative hydrodynamic equations without a choice of frame such as the Landau-Lifshitz or Eckart frame.

Phonons, pions and quasi-long-range order in spatially modulated chiral condensates

We investigate low-energy fluctuations in the real kink crystal phase of dense quark matter within the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The modulated chiral condensate breaks both the translational symmetry and chiral symmetry spontaneously, which leads to the appearance of phonons and pions that are dominant degrees of freedom in the infrared. Using the Ginzburg-Landau expansion near the Lifshitz point, we derive elastic free energies for phonons and pions in dependence on the temperature and chemical potential. We show that the one-dimensional modulation is destroyed by thermal fluctuations of phonons at nonzero temperature, and compute the exponent that characterizes the anisotropic algebraic decay of quasicondensate correlations at long distance. We also estimate finite-volume effects on the stability of the real kink crystal and briefly discuss the possibility of its existence in neutron stars.

Dynamical breaking of shift-symmetry in supergravity-based inflation

Shift-symmetry is essential to protect the flatness of the potential, even beyond the super-Planckian vacuum expectation value (VEV) for an inflaton field. The breaking of the shift-symmetry can yield potentials suitable for super-Planckian excursion of the inflaton. The aim of this paper is to illustrate that it is indeed possible to break the shift-symmetry dynamically within 4 dimensional supergravity prior to a long phase of inflation. Thanks to the shift-symmetry, the leading contribution to the inflaton potential is free from the dangerous exponential factor even after its breaking, which is the main obstacle to realizing the super-Planckian inflation in supergravity. But, unfortunately, in a simple model, the potential obtained for the inflaton would be cosine type potential rather than power-law one and it is difficult to realize a super-Planckian breaking scale.

Effective gravitational interactions of dark matter axions

We investigate the structure of gravitational self-interactions of coherently oscillating axions in the general relativistic framework. A generic action for a massive scalar field in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background is first introduced based on the effective field theory approach to cosmological perturbations. Using the obtained setup, we evaluate the effective gravitational interaction of the massive scalar field, i.e. scalar quartic interactions mediated by metric perturbations. Applying the results to the system of dark matter axions, we estimate their self-interaction rate and discuss its implications for the axion Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter scenario. Leading contributions for the gravitational interactions of axions are given by the process mediated by the dynamical graviton field, which is essentially the Newtonian potential induced by fluctuations of the background fluids. We find that it leads to the same order of magnitude for the interaction rate of dark matter axions in the condensed regime, compared with the results of previous studies using the Newtonian approximation.

Effective field theory for spacetime symmetry breaking

We discuss the effective field theory for spacetime symmetry breaking from the local symmetry point of view. By gauging spacetime symmetries, the identification of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) fields and the construction of the effective action are performed based on the breaking pattern of diffeomorphism, local Lorentz, and (an)isotropic Weyl symmetries as well as the internal symmetries including possible central extensions in nonrelativistic systems. Such a local picture distinguishes, e.g., whether the symmetry breaking condensations have spins and provides a correct identification of the physical NG fields, while the standard coset construction based on global symmetry breaking does not. We illustrate that the local picture becomes important in particular when we take into account massive modes associated with symmetry breaking, whose masses are not necessarily high. We also revisit the coset construction for spacetime symmetry breaking. Based on the relation between the Maurer-Cartan one form and connections for spacetime symmetries, we classify the physical meanings of the inverse Higgs constraints by the coordinate dimension of broken symmetries. Inverse Higgs constraints for spacetime symmetries with a higher dimension remove the redundant NG fields, whereas those for dimensionless symmetries can be further classified by the local symmetry breaking pattern.

A Tower Weak Gravity Conjecture from Infrared Consistency

We analyze infrared consistency conditions of 3D and 4D effective field theories with massive scalars or fermions charged under multiple