Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology - CP3

The first measurements of acoustic peaks in the CMB anisotropies have confirmed that the birth of fluctuations may have taken place during an early inflationary era of the universe. In this domain, our activities deal with the construction of explicit models of inflation as well as the extraction of their observable consequences. Our fields of expertise comprise some actively debated subjects as the trans-Planckian problem, inflation with non-minimally coupled scalar fields, DBI- and brane inflation as in the context of String Theory (KKLMMT models). For all these systems, we are maintaining various numerical tools to compute the relevant observables required for comparison with CMB data.

Special attention is devoted to the class of multi-field inflationary models. The hybrid mechanism is expected to be realized within high energy particle physics models whereas Higgs inflation is a candidate of choice for TeV scale inflation.

External collaborators: Jérôme Martin (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France), Sébastien Clesse (Cambridge University, U.K.).

Our expertise on inflation and cosmic strings is involved in the CMB data analysis of the PLANCK satellite.

Another direction concerns the 21cm cosmological radiation. This radiation is emitted by neutral hydrogen atoms and should shed light into the so-called "dark ages": from the recombination to the reionisation of the universe by the first stars. This new observable is expected to be sensitive to the nature of dark matter as well as to some properties of the inflationary era.

External collaborators: Michel Tytgat (Brussels University, Belgium), Jérôme Martin (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France), Roberto Trotta (Imperial College London, U.K.).

Although the undergoing cosmic acceleration may be explained by a non-vanishing cosmological constant in Einstein gravity, various dynamical effects could very well explain current observations, all dubbed as dark energy.

Quintessence, as a light scalar field minimally coupled to gravity, is a dark energy candidate to explain the recent acceleration of the Universe expansion. The Ratra-Peebles potential and its corrected form in supergravity are under study. Using a modified version of CAMB, including perturbations of the scalar field, we use the latest SNIa and CMB observations to select acceptable points in the parameter space. Starting with the associated matter power spectrum, in collaboration with the LUTh (Paris-Meudon Obs., France) we run N-body simulations of growth of large scale structures where the background evolution is modified by quintessence. We are involved in the Dark Energy Universe Simulation Series (DEUSS) collaboration.

Another dark energy candiate involves cosmic inflation, currently the best explanation of the origin of large scale structures and CMB anisotropies. Similarly, if dark energy is a light scalar field, the current acceleration can be the consequence of quantum fluctuations during cosmic inflation, provided this one occurs at TeV scale.

External collaborators: Jean-Michel Alimi, Yann Rasera, Pier Stefano Corasaniti (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France). Teruaki Suyama (The University of Tokyo, Japan), Tomo Takahashi (Saga University, Japan), Masahide Yamaguchi (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan), Shuichiro Yokoyama (Nagoya University, Japan).

It is possible to construct classical models of extra-dimensions based on Field Theory and General Relativity. The goal is to gain deeper understanding into these systems based on tractable and well known theories. In particular, the so-called Randall-Sundrum (RS) models in various dimensions can be modelised as hyper-dimensional topological defects. Our present studies concern the realisation of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati mechanism inside hyper-dimensional monopoles, in which four-dimensional gravity can be obtained by trapping gravitons.

External collaborators: Antonio De Felice (The University of Tokyo, Japan).

The forthcoming cosmological experiments should provide new insights on the amount of non-Gaussianity eventually present in the Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations and large scale structures surveys. We study various early universe models that could potentially let some imprints in these observables and especially cosmic strings.

External collaborators: Teruaki Suyama (The University of Tokyo, Japan), Mark Hindmarsh (Sussex University, U.K.), Stéphane Colombi, François Bouchet (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France).

Observations show that magnetic fields are present everywhere in the universe. Planets, galaxies, clusters carry magnetic fields of varying strength and coherence size. There are evidences of their presence also in the intergalactic medium and this strongly suggests that their origin might be primordial. A promising candidate for the generation of primordial magnetic fields is inflation. Our work concerns the construction of efficient inflationary mechanisms which could produce the large-scale magnetic fields observed today and it deals in particular with the possible effects that such mechanisms have on the physics of the universe after inflation.

External collaborators: Chiara Caprini (CEA Saclay, France).

The strong equivalence principle (SEP) does not hold anymore in various extensions of General Relativity. Its violations can be revealed by the non-universality of free-falling for compact objects and we have developed a generic and effective way to test the SEP in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). A violation of the SEP indeed alters the amplitude of the acoustic oscillations in the primeval plasma. Using the WMAP data, we have contrained a possible SEP violation for the baryons.

Our interests are also focused on the scalar-tensor theories of gravitation and their cosmologies. In a more specific way, we are currently studying a model where the scalar sector is conformally invariant. The effective fluid related to the non-minimally coupled scalar field differs from the other cosmological fluids of radiation by its very particular anisotropic pressure and we are studying its impact on the CMB anisotropies by modifying the CAMB code.

Based on our knowledge of particle physics at very high energy, these objects are a natural consequence of the symmetry breaking mechanism and are expected to be formed during the cooling of the universe. However, they have not been observed yet and our research is concentrated into the various effects they may have in cosmology. The technical difficulties to deal with such systems are overcome using super-computer numerical simulations. We are focusing our present work to the effects induced in the CMB and in other astrophysical observables, by the cosmic strings, a string-like class of these defects.

External collaborators: Mairi Sakellariadou (King's College London, U.K.), Patrick Peter, François Bouchet (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France), Aurélien Fraisse, David Spergel (Princeton University, U.S.A.), Daniele Steer (Astroparticules et Cosmologie, France).