Related papers: Running with BICEP2: Implications for Small-Scale …
The recent discovery of B-modes in the polarization pattern of the Cosmic Microwave Background by the BICEP2 experiment has important implications for neutrino physics. We revisit cosmological bounds on light sterile neutrinos and show that…
The form of the primordial power spectrum (PPS) of cosmological scalar (matter density) perturbations is not yet constrained satisfactorily in spite of the tremendous amount of information from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data.…
Rates for detection of weakly-interacting massive-particle (WIMP) dark matter are usually carried out assuming the Milky Way halo is an isothermal sphere. However, it is possible that our halo is not precisely spherical; it may have some…
The dynamics of expansion and large scale structure formation of the Universe are analyzed for models with dark energy in the form of a phantom scalar field which initially mimics a $\Lambda$-term and evolves slowly to the Big Rip…
$\Lambda$CDM cosmology predicts the hierarchical formation of galaxies which build up mass by merger events and accreting smaller systems. The stellar halo of the Milky Way has proven to be useful a tool for tracing this accretion history.…
If the B-mode signal in the CMB polarization seen by the BICEP2 experiment is confirmed, it has dramatic implications for models of inflation. The result is also in tension with Planck limits on standard inflationary models. It is therefore…
The recent detection of the primordial gravitational waves from the BICEP2 observation seems to be in tension with the upper bound on the amplitude of tensor perturbations from the PLANCK data. We consider a phenomenological model of…
BICEP1 is a millimeter-wavelength telescope designed specifically to measure the inflationary B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at degree angular scales. We present results from an analysis of the data acquired…
Dark Matter (DM) properties at small scales remain uncertain. Recent theoretical and observational advances have provided the tools to narrow them down. Here, we show for the first time that the correlation between internal velocities and…
Due to poor observational constraints on the low-mass end of the subhalo mass function, the detection of dark matter (DM) subhalos on sub-galactic scales would provide valuable information about the nature of DM. Stellar wakes, induced by…
The BICEP experiment was designed specifically to search for the signature of inflationary gravitational waves in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Using a novel small-aperture refractor and 49 pairs of…
The dynamics of density and metric perturbations is investigated for the previously developed model where the decay of the vacuum energy into matter (or vice versa) is due to the renormalization group (RG) running of the cosmological…
Cosmological models with a positive cosmological constant and $\Omega_0<1$ have a number of attractive features. A larger Hubble constant, which can be compatible with the recent HST estimate, and a large fraction of baryon density in…
We explore the impact of a LWDM cosmological scenario on the clustering properties of large-scale structure in the Universe. We do this by extending the halo model. The new development is that we consider two components to the mass density:…
The first objects to arise in a cold dark matter universe present a daunting challenge for models of structure formation. In the ultra small-scale limit, CDM structures form nearly simultaneously across a wide range of scales. Hierarchical…
Recently is has been suggested that the dearth of small halos around the Milky Way arises due to a modification of the primordial power spectrum of fluctuations from inflation. Such modifications would be expected to alter the formation of…
We explore a chameleon type of interacting dark matter-dark energy scenario in which a scalar field adiabatically traces the minimum of an effective potential sourced by the dark matter density. We discuss extensively the effect of this…
Single-field slow-roll inflation predicts a nearly scale-free power spectrum of perturbations, as observed at the scales accessible to current cosmological experiments. This spectrum is slightly red, showing a tilt $(1-n_s)\sim 0.04$. A…
The remarkable progress in cosmic microwave background (CMB) studies over past decade has led to the era of precision cosmology in striking agreement with the $\Lambda$CDM model. However, the lack of power in the CMB temperature…
We present a unified dark energy framework capable of generating a continuous spectrum of cosmological ``rip'' scenarios -- including the Big Rip, Grand Rip, Mild Rip, Little Rip, Little Sibling of the Big Rip, and the newly found Dollhouse…