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### Publications

Here is an (incomplete) list of some of the most recent publications of members of the UK Cosmology community, for your perusal.

Distinguishing standard and modified gravity cosmologies with machine learning
arXiv: 1810.1103
Austin Peel, Florian Lalande, Jean-Luc Starck, et al.

We present a convolutional neural network to identify distinct cosmological scenarios based on the weak-lensing maps they produce. Modified gravity models with massive neutrinos can mimic the standard concordance model in terms of Gaussian weak-lensing observables, limiting a deeper understanding of what causes cosmic acceleration. We demonstrate that a network trained on simulated clean convergence maps, condensed into a novel representation, can discriminate between such degenerate models with 83%-100% accuracy. Our method outperforms conventional statistics by up to 40% and is more robust to noise.

On the dissection of degenerate cosmologies with machine learning
arXiv: 1810.1102
Julian Merten, Carlo Giocoli, Marco Baldi, et al.

Based on the DUSTGRAIN-pathfinder suite of simulations, we investigate observational degeneracies between nine models of modified gravity and massive neutrinos. Three types of machine learning techniques are tested for their ability to discriminate lensing convergence maps by extracting dimensional reduced representations of the data. Classical map descriptors such as the power spectrum, peak counts and Minkowski functionals are combined into a joint feature vector and compared to the descriptors and statistics that are common to the field of digital image processing. To learn new features directly from the data we use a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). For the mapping between feature vectors and the predictions of their underlying model, we implement two different classifiers; one based on a nearest-neighbour search and one that is based on a fully connected neural network. We find that the neural network provides a much more robust classification than the nearest-neighbour approach and that the CNN provides the most discriminating representation of the data. It achieves the cleanest separation between the different models and the highest classification success rate of 59% for a single source redshift. Once we perform a tomographic CNN analysis, the total classification accuracy increases significantly to 76% with no observational degeneracies remaining. Visualising the filter responses of the CNN at different network depths provides us with the unique opportunity to learn from very complex models and to understand better why they perform so well.

Search for Multi-messenger Sources of Gravitational Waves and High-energy Neutrinos with Advanced LIGO during its first Observing Run, ANTARES and IceCube
arXiv: 1810.1069
ANTARES, IceCube, LIGO, et al.

Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, such as binary neutron star and black hole mergers or core-collapse supernovae, can drive relativistic outflows, giving rise to non-thermal high-energy emission. High-energy neutrinos are signatures of such outflows. The detection of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from common sources could help establish the connection between the dynamics of the progenitor and the properties of the outflow. We searched for associated emission of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical transients with minimal assumptions using data from Advanced LIGO from its first observing run O1, and data from the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino observatories from the same time period. We focused on candidate events whose astrophysical origin could not be determined from a single messenger. We found no significant coincident candidate, which we used to constrain the rate density of astrophysical sources dependent on their gravitational wave and neutrino emission processes.

Isolated zeros in the spectral function as signature of a quantum critical continuum
arXiv: 1810.1042
Nikolay Gnezdilov, Alexander Krikun, Koenraad Schalm, Jan Zaanen

We study the observable properties of quantum systems which involve a quantum critical continuum as a subpart. We show in a very general way that in any system, which consists of at least two isolated states coupled to a continuum, the spectral function of one of the states exhibits an isolated zero at the energy of the other state. Several examples of systems exhibiting such isolated zeros are discussed and we propose that this phenomenon can be used as a detection tool for lab realizations of the systems that possess quantum critical behaviour.

Dynamical Analysis of Three Distant Trans-Neptunian Objects with Similar Orbits
arXiv: 1810.1008
T. Khain, J. C. Becker, F. C. Adams, et al.

This paper reports the discovery and orbital characterization of two extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs), 2016 QV$_{89}$ and 2016 QU$_{89}$, which have orbits that appear similar to that of a previously known object, 2013 UH$_{15}$. All three ETNOs have semi-major axes $a\approx 172$ AU and eccentricities $e\approx0.77$. The angular elements $(i,\omega,\Omega)$ vary by 6, 15, and 49 deg, respectively between the three objects. The two new objects add to the small number of TNOs currently known to have semi-major axes between 150 and 250 AU, and serve as an interesting dynamical laboratory to study the outer realm of our Solar System. Using a large ensemble of numerical integrations, we find that the orbits are expected to reside in close proximity in the $(a,e)$ phase plane for roughly 100 Myr before diffusing to more separated values. We then explore other scenarios that could influence their orbits. With aphelion distances over 300 AU, the orbits of these ETNOs extend far beyond the classical Kuiper Belt, and an order of magnitude beyond Neptune. As a result, their orbital dynamics can be affected by the proposed new Solar System member, referred to as Planet Nine in this work. With perihelion distances of 35-40 AU, these orbits are also influenced by resonant interactions with Neptune. A full assessment of any possible, new Solar System planets must thus take into account this emerging class of TNOs.

The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and Design
arXiv: 1810.0999
GRAND Collaboration, Jaime Alvarez-Muniz, Rafael Alves Batista, et al.

The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) is a planned large-scale observatory of ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic particles, with energies exceeding 10^8 GeV. Its goal is to solve the long-standing mystery of the origin of UHE cosmic rays. To do this, GRAND will detect an unprecedented number of UHE cosmic rays and search for the undiscovered UHE neutrinos and gamma rays associated to them with unmatched sensitivity. GRAND will use large arrays of antennas to detect the radio emission coming from extensive air showers initiated by UHE particles in the atmosphere. Its design is modular: 20 separate, independent sub-arrays, each of 10 000 radio antennas deployed over 10 000 km^2. A staged construction plan will validate key detection techniques while achieving important science goals early. Here we present the science goals, detection strategy, preliminary design, performance goals, and construction plans for GRAND.

Inflation and Early Dark Energy with a Stage II Hydrogen Intensity Mapping experiment
arXiv: 1810.0957
Cosmic Visions 21 cm Collaboration, Réza Ansari, Evan J. Arena, et al.

This white paper envisions a revolutionary post-DESI, post-LSST dark energy program based on intensity mapping of the redshifted 21 cm emission line from neutral hydrogen out to redshift z ~ 6 at radio frequencies. The proposed intensity mapping survey has the unique capability to quadruple the volume of the Universe surveyed by optical programs, provide a percent-level measurement of the expansion history to z ~ 6, open a window to explore physics beyond the concordance {\\Lambda}CDM model, and to significantly improve the precision on standard cosmological parameters. In addition, characterization of dark energy and new physics will be powerfully enhanced by cross-correlations with optical surveys and cosmic microwave background measurements. The rich dataset obtained by the proposed intensity mapping instrument will be simultaneously useful in exploring the time-domain physics of fast radio transients and pulsars, potentially in live "multi-messenger" coincidence with other observatories. The core Dark Energy/Inflation science advances enabled by this program are the following: i) Measure the expansion history of the universe in the pre-acceleration era at the same precision as at lower redshifts, providing an unexplored window for new physics. ii) Observe, or constrain, the presence of inflationary relics in the primordial power spectrum, improving existing constraints by an order of magnitude; iii) Observe, or constrain, primordial non-Gaussianity with unprecedented precision, improving constraints on several key numbers by an order of magnitude. Detailed mapping of the enormous, and still largely unexplored, volume of space observable in the mid-redshift (z ~ 2 - 6) range will thus provide unprecedented information on fundamental questions of vacuum energy and early-universe physics.

Sensitivity of dark matter haloes to their accretion histories
arXiv: 1810.0947
Martin Rey, Andrew Pontzen, Amélie Saintonge

We apply our recently proposed "quadratic genetic modification" approach to generating and testing the effects of alternative mass accretion histories for a single $\Lambda$CDM halo. The goal of the technique is to construct different formation histories, varying the overall contribution of mergers to the fixed final mass. This enables targeted studies of galaxy and dark matter halo formation's sensitivity to the smoothness of mass accretion. Here, we focus on two dark matter haloes, each with four different mass accretion histories. We find that the concentration of both haloes systematically decreases as their merger history becomes smoother. This causal trend tracks the known correlation between formation time and concentration parameters in the overall halo population. At fixed formation time, we further establish that halo concentrations are sensitive to the order in which mergers happen. This ability to study an individual halo's response to variations in its history is highly complementary to traditional methods based on emergent correlations from an extended halo population.

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Methods for Cluster Cosmology and Application to the SDSS
arXiv: 1810.0945
M. Costanzi, E. Rozo, M. Simet, et al.

We perform the first blind analysis of cluster abundance data. Specifically, we derive cosmological constraints from the abundance and weak-lensing signal of \redmapper\ clusters of richness $\lambda\geq 20$ in the redshift range $z\in[0.1,0.3]$ as measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We simultaneously fit for cosmological parameters and the richness--mass relation of the clusters. For a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model with massive neutrinos, we find $S_8 \equiv \sigma_{8}(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.5}=0.79^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$. This value is both consistent and competitive with that derived from cluster catalogues selected in different wavelengths. Our result is also consistent with the combined probes analyses by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), and with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies as measured by \planck. We demonstrate that the cosmological posteriors are robust against variation of the richness--mass relation model and to systematics associated with the calibration of the selection function. In combination with Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) data, we constrain the Hubble rate to be $h=0.66\pm 0.02$, independent of the CMB. Future work aimed at improving our understanding of the scatter of the richness--mass relation has the potential to significantly improve the precision of our cosmological posteriors. The methods described in this work were developed for use in the forthcoming analysis of cluster abundances in the DES. Our SDSS analysis constitutes the first part of a staged-unblinding analysis of the full DES data set.

Tensor non-Gaussianities from Non-minimal Coupling to the Inflaton
arXiv: 1810.0886
Emanuela Dimastrogiovanni, Matteo Fasiello, Gianmassimo Tasinato, David Wands

Tensor non-Gaussianity represents an important future probe of the physics of inflation. Inspired by recent works, we elaborate further on the possibility of significant primordial tensor non-Gaussianities sourced by extra fields during inflation. Unitarity constraints limit the impact of extra (spinning) particle content by means of a lower bound on the corresponding mass spectrum. For spin-2 particles, this takes the form of the well-known Higuchi bound. Massive ($m\gtrsim H$) particles will typically decay during inflation unless they are non-minimally coupled to the inflaton sector: the inflating field "lifts" the dynamics of the extra field(s), effectively getting around the limits imposed by unitarity. There exist several models that realize such a mechanism, but we focus here on the set-up of [1] where, through an EFT approach, one is able to capture the essential features common to an entire class of theories. In the presence of an extra massive spin-2 particle, the interactions in the tensor sector mimic very closely those in the scalar sector of quasi-single-field inflationary models. We calculate the tensor bispectrum in different configurations and extract its dependence on the extra tensor sound speed. We show in detail how one may obtain significant tensor non-Gaussianities whose shape-function interpolates between local and equilateral, depending on the mass of the extra field. We also estimate for the first time the LISA response functions to a tensor bispectrum supporting the intermediate-type shapes we find.

Dark energy after GW170817, revisited
arXiv: 1810.0823
Edmund J. Copeland, Michael Kopp, Antonio Padilla, et al.

We revisit the status of scalar-tensor theories with applications to dark energy in the aftermath of the gravitational wave signal GW170817 and its optical counterpart GRB170817A. We identify a class of theories, previously declared unviable, whose anomalous gravitational wave speed is proportional to the scalar equation of motion. As long as the scalar field is assumed not to couple directly to matter, this guarantees compatibility with the gravitational wave data, for any cosmological sources, thanks to the scalar dynamics. This newly rescued class of theories includes examples of generalised quintic galileons from Horndeski theories. This result survives to a sufficiently good approximation even when we include the effect of large scale inhomogeneities to linear order.

Collisionless shock acceleration of narrow energy spread ion beams from mixed species plasmas using 1 $μ$m lasers
arXiv: 1810.0819
A. Pak, S. Kerr, N. Lemos, et al.

Collisionless shock acceleration of protons and C$^{6+}$ ions has been achieved by the interaction of a 10$^{20}$ W/cm$^2$, 1 $\mu$m laser with a near-critical density plasma. Ablation of the initially solid density target by a secondary laser allowed for systematic control of the plasma profile. This enabled the production of beams with peaked spectra with energies of 10-18 MeV/a.m.u. and energy spreads of 10-20$\%$ with up to 3x10$^9$ particles within these narrow spectral features. The narrow energy spread and similar velocity of ion species with different charge-to-mass ratio are consistent with acceleration by the moving potential of a shock wave. Particle-in-cell simulations show shock accelerated beams of protons and C$^{6+}$ ions with energy distributions consistent with the experiments. Simulations further indicate the plasma profile determines the trade-off between the beam charge and energy and that with additional target optimization narrow energy spread beams exceeding 100 MeV/a.m.u. can be produced using the same laser conditions.

Parameter discordance in Planck CMB and low-redshift measurements: projection in the primordial power spectrum
arXiv: 1810.0810
Dhiraj Kumar Hazra, Arman Shafieloo, Tarun Souradeep

We discuss the discordance between the estimated values of the cosmological parameters from Planck assuming the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model and low-redshift measurements. In particular, we consider the Hubble constant mismatch between Planck temperature constraint for the $\Lambda$CDM model and the Riess et. al. local measurements as well as the discordance between the estimated value of $S_8$ from Planck and some weak lensing surveys such as Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-450) and Dark Energy Survey (DES) observations. The discordance can come from a wide range of non-standard cosmological or astrophysical processes as well as from some particular systematics of the observations. In this paper, without considering any particular astrophysical process or extension to the standard model at the background level, we seek solely to project the effect of these differences in the values of the key cosmological parameters on to the shape of the primordial power spectrum (PPS). In order to realise this goal, we uncover the shape of the PPS by implementing the Modified Richardson-Lucy algorithm (MRL) that fits the Planck temperature data as acceptably as the case of the standard model of cosmology, but with a Hubble constant consistent with local measurements as well as improving the consistency between the derived $S_8$ and $\sigma_8$ parameters with estimations of the weak lensing surveys.

First measurement of charm production in fixed-target configuration at the LHC
arXiv: 1810.0790
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, B. Adeva, et al.

The first measurement of heavy-flavour production by the LHCb experiment in its fixed-target mode is presented. The production of $J/\psi$ and $D^0$ mesons is studied with beams of protons of different energies colliding with gaseous targets of helium and argon with nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 86.6$ and $110.4$ ${\rm GeV}$, respectively. The $J/\psi$ and $D^0$ production cross-sections in $p{\rm He}$ collisions in the rapidity range $[2,4.6]$ are found to be $\sigma_{J/\psi} = 652 \pm 33$ (stat) $\pm 42$ (syst) nb$/$nucleon and $\sigma_{D^0} = 80.8 \pm 2.4$ (stat) $\pm 6.3$ (syst) $\mu$b$/$nucleon, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. No evidence for a substantial intrinsic charm content of the nucleon is observed in the large Bjorken-$x$ region.

Study of $Υ$ production in $p$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16$ TeV
arXiv: 1810.0765
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al.

The production of $\Upsilon(nS)$ mesons ($n=1,2,3$) in $p$Pb and Pb$p$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16$ TeV is measured by the LHCb experiment, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 31.8 nb$^{-1}$. The $\Upsilon(nS)$ mesons are reconstructed through their decays into two opposite-sign muons. The measurements comprise the differential production cross-sections of the $\Upsilon(1S)$ and $\Upsilon(2S)$ states, their forward-to-backward ratios and nuclear modification factors, performed as a function of the transverse momentum \pt and rapidity in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass frame $y^*$ of the $\Upsilon(nS)$ states, in the kinematic range $p_{\rm{T}}<25$ GeV/$c$ and $1.5<y^*<4.0$ ($-5.0<y^*<-2.5$) for $p$Pb (Pb$p$) collisions. In addition, production cross-sections for $\Upsilon(3S)$ are measured integrated over phase space and the production ratios between all three $\Upsilon(nS)$ states are determined. The measurements are compared to theoretical predictions and suppressions for quarkonium in $p$Pb collisions are observed.

Measurement of the charm-mixing parameter $y_{CP}$
arXiv: 1810.0687
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al.

A measurement of the charm-mixing parameter $y_{CP}$ using $D^0 \to K^+ K^-$, $D^0 \to \pi^+ \pi^-$, and $D^0 \to K^- \pi^+$ decays is reported. The $D^0$ mesons are required to originate from semimuonic decays of $B^-$ and $\overline{B}^0$ mesons. These decays are partially reconstructed in a data set of proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV collected with the LHCb experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$. The $y_{CP}$ parameter is measured to be $(0.57 \pm 0.13(\rm{stat.}) \pm 0.09(\rm{syst.}))\%$, in agreement with, and as precise as, the current world-average value.

Probing $Λ$CDM cosmology with the Evolutionary Map of the Universe survey
arXiv: 1810.0667
José Luis Bernal, Alvise Raccanelli, Ely D. Kovetz, et al.

The Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) is an all-sky survey in radio-continuum which uses the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). Using galaxy angular power spectrum and the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, we study the potential of EMU to constrain models beyond $\Lambda$CDM (i.e., local primordial non-Gaussianity, dynamical dark energy, spatial curvature and deviations from general relativity), for different design sensitivities. We also include a multi-tracer analysis, distinguishing between star-forming galaxies and galaxies with an active galactic nucleus, to further improve EMU's potential. We find that EMU could measure the dark energy equation of state parameters around 35\% more precisely than existing constraints, and that the constraints on $f_{\rm NL}$ and modified gravity parameters will improve up to a factor $\sim2$ with respect to Planck and redshift space distortions measurements. With this work we demonstrate the promising potential of EMU to contribute to our understanding of the Universe.

Displaced $B_c^-$ mesons as an inclusive signature of weakly decaying double beauty hadrons
arXiv: 1810.0665
T. Gershon, A. Poluektov

The recent discovery, by the LHCb collaboration, of the $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$ doubly charmed baryon, has renewed interest in the spectroscopy of doubly heavy hadrons. Experimentally, however, searches for such states appear highly challenging. The reconstructed final states tend to involve multiple heavy flavoured (beauty or charm) hadrons, so the yield for any exclusive decay mode will be suppressed to unobservably low levels by the product of several branching fractions, each of which is typically $10^{-3}$--$10^{-2}$. Noting that decays of double beauty hadrons are the only possible source of $B_c^-$ mesons that are displaced from the primary vertices of proton-proton collisions at the LHC, a more promising inclusive search strategy is proposed.

SKA and the Cosmic Radio Dipole
arXiv: 1810.0637
Dominik J. Schwarz, Carlos A. P. Bengaly, Roy Maartens, Thilo M. Siewert

We study the prospects to measure the cosmic radio dipole by means of continuum surveys with the Square Kilometre Array. Such a measurement will allow a critical test of the cosmological principle. It will test whether the cosmic rest frame defined by the cosmic microwave background at photon decoupling agrees with the cosmic rest frame of matter at late times.

Observable tests of self-interacting dark matter in galaxy clusters: cosmological simulations with SIDM and baryons
arXiv: 1810.0564
Andrew Robertson, David Harvey, Richard Massey, et al.

We present BAHAMAS-SIDM, the first large-volume, (400/h Mpc)^3, cosmological simulations including both self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) and baryonic physics. These simulations are important for two primary reasons: 1) they include the effects of baryons on the dark matter distribution 2) the baryon particles can be used to make mock observables that can be compared directly with observations. As is well known, SIDM haloes are systematically less dense in their centres, and rounder, than CDM haloes. Here we find that that these changes are not reflected in the distribution of gas or stars within galaxy clusters, or in their X-ray luminosities. However, gravitational lensing observables can discriminate between DM models, and we present a menu of tests that future surveys could use to measure the SIDM interaction strength. We ray-trace our simulated galaxy clusters to produce strong lensing maps. Including baryons boosts the lensing strength of clusters that produce no critical curves in SIDM-only simulations. Comparing the Einstein radii of our simulated clusters with those observed in the CLASH survey, we find that sigma/m < 1 cm^2/g at velocities around 1000 km/s.

Constraining D-foam via the 21-cm Line
arXiv: 1810.0539
John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos, Dimitri V. Nanopoulos

We have suggested earlier that D-particles, which are stringy space-time defects predicted in brane-inspired models of the Universe, might constitute a component of dark matter, and that they might contribute to the masses of singlet fermions that could provide another component. Interactions of the quantum-fluctuating D-particles with matter induce vector forces that are mediated by a massless effective U(1) gauge field, the "D-photon", which is distinct from the ordinary photon and has different properties from dark photons. We discuss the form of interactions of D-matter with conventional matter induced by D-photon exchange and calculate their strength, which depends on the density of D-particles. Observations of the hydrogen 21~cm line at redshifts >= 15 can constrain these interactions and the density of D-matter in the early Universe.

Inflation as an Information Bottleneck - A strategy for identifying universality classes and making robust predictions
arXiv: 1810.0519
Mafalda Dias, Jonathan Frazer, Alexander Westphal

In this work we propose a statistical approach to handling sources of theoretical uncertainty in string theory models of inflation. By viewing a model of inflation as a probabilistic graph, we show that there is an inevitable information bottleneck between the ultraviolet input of the theory and observables, as a simple consequence of the data processing theorem. This information bottleneck can result in strong hierarchies in the sensitivity of observables to the parameters of the underlying model and hence universal predictions with respect to at least some microphysical considerations. We also find other intriguing behaviour, such as sharp transitions in the predictions when certain hyperparameters cross a critical value. We develop a robust numerical approach to studying these behaviours by adapting methods often seen in the context of machine learning. We first test our approach by applying it to well known examples of universality, sharp transitions, and concentration phenomena in random matrix theory. We then apply the method to inflation with axion monodromy. We find universality with respect to a number of model parameters and that consistency with observational constraints implies that with very high probability certain perturbative corrections are non-negligible.

Out-of-the-box Baryogenesis During Relaxation
arXiv: 1810.0515
S. A. Abel, R. S. Gupta, J. Scholtz

We show that spontaneous baryogenesis occurs automatically in relaxion models if the reheating temperature is larger than the weak scale, provided the Standard Model fields are charged under the U(1) of which the relaxion is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. During the slow roll, the relaxion breaks CPT, biasing the thermal equilibrium in favor of baryons, with sphalerons providing the necessary baryon number violation. We calculate the resulting baryon asymmetry, explore the possible constraints on this scheme and show that there is a swath of parameter space in which the current observations are matched. Successful baryogenesis can be achieved for a range of relaxion masses between $10^{-10}$ and $10^{-5}$ eV. The mechanism operates precisely in the region of parameter space where recent work has shown relaxion oscillations to be a dark matter candidate.

Charged scalar-tensor solitons and black holes with (approximate) Anti-de Sitter asymptotics
arXiv: 1810.0510
Yves Brihaye, Betti Hartmann

We discuss charged and static solutions in a shift-symmetric scalar-tensor gravity model including a negative cosmological constant. The solutions are only approximately Anti-de Sitter (AdS) asymptotically, i.e. contain a correction of quadratic order in the scalar-tensor coupling. While spherically symmetric black holes with scalar-tensor hair do exist in our model, the uncharged spherically symmetric scalar-tensor solitons constructed recently cannot be generalised to include charge. We point out that this is due to the divergence of the electric monopole at the origin of the coordinate system, while higher order multipoles are well-behaved. We also demonstrate that black holes with scalar hair exist only for horizon value larger than that of the corresponding extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om-AdS (RNAdS) solution, i.e. that we cannot construct solutions with arbitrarily small horizon radius. We demonstrate that for fixed $Q$ an horizon radius exists at which the specific heat $C_Q$ diverges - signalling a transition from thermodynamically unstable to stable black holes. In contrast to the RNAdS case, however, we have only been able to construct a stable phase of large horizon black holes, while a stable phase of small horizon black holes does not (seem to) exist.

Testing the standard model of cosmology with the SKA: the cosmic radio dipole
arXiv: 1810.0496
Carlos A. P. Bengaly, Thilo M. Siewert, Dominik J. Schwarz, Roy Maartens

The dipole anisotropy seen in the cosmic microwave background radiation is interpreted as due to our peculiar motion. The Cosmological Principle implies that this cosmic dipole signal should also be present, with the same direction, in the large-scale distribution of matter. Measurement of the cosmic matter dipole constitutes a key test of the standard cosmological model. Current measurements of this dipole are barely above the expected noise and unable to provide a robust test. Upcoming radio continuum surveys with the SKA should be able to detect the dipole at high signal to noise. We simulate number count maps for SKA survey specifications in Phases 1 and 2, including all relevant effects. Nonlinear effects from local large-scale structure contaminate the cosmic (kinematic) dipole signal, and we find that removal of radio sources at low redshift ($z\lesssim 0.5$) leads to significantly improved constraints. We forecast that the SKA could determine the dipole direction in Galactic coordinates with an error of $\sim(1^{\circ},3^{\circ}) - (5^{\circ},5^{\circ})$, depending on the sensitivity. The predicted errors on the relative speed are $\sim6 - 10\%$. These measurements would significantly reduce the present uncertainty on the direction of the radio dipole, and thus enable the first critical test of consistency between the matter and CMB dipoles.

Rescuing Single Field Inflation from the Swampland
arXiv: 1810.0400

The difficulty of building metastable vacua in string theory has led some to conjecture that, in the string theory landscape, potentials satisfy $\left What made you do this? Understanding black-box decisions with sufficient input subsets arXiv: 1810.0380 Brandon Carter, Jonas Mueller, Siddhartha Jain, David Gifford Local explanation frameworks aim to rationalize particular decisions made by a black-box prediction model. Existing techniques are often restricted to a specific type of predictor or based on input saliency, which may be undesirably sensitive to factors unrelated to the model's decision making process. We instead propose sufficient input subsets that identify minimal subsets of features whose observed values alone suffice for the same decision to be reached, even if all other input feature values are missing. General principles that globally govern a model's decision-making can also be revealed by searching for clusters of such input patterns across many data points. Our approach is conceptually straightforward, entirely model-agnostic, simply implemented using instance-wise backward selection, and able to produce more concise rationales than existing techniques. We demonstrate the utility of our interpretation method on various neural network models trained on text, image, and genomic data. Steep Eternal Inflation and the Swampland arXiv: 1810.0343 Konstantinos Dimopoulos I investigate whether eternal inflation is possible when the inflaton originally travels upslope the scalar potential and inevitably reaches a turn-around point where its classical kinetic energy momentarily vanishes. This behaviour occurs regardless of the steepness of the potential slope. Such steep eternal inflation, if achieved, would satisfy the recent swampland conjecture and allow eternal inflation in the string landscape. Measurement of the branching fractions of the decays$D^+\rightarrow K^-K ^+K^+$,$D^+\rightarrow π^-π^+K^+$and$D^+_s\rightarrow π^-K^+K^+$arXiv: 1810.0313 LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al. The branching fractions of the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decays$D^+\rightarrow K^-K^+K^+$,$D^+\rightarrow \pi^-\pi^+K^+$and$D^+_s\rightarrow\pi^-K^+K^+$are measured using the decays$D^+\rightarrow K^-\pi^+\pi^+$and$D^+_s\rightarrow K^-K^+\pi^+$as normalisation channels. The measurements are performed using proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb$^{-1}. The results are \begin{align} \frac {\mathcal{B}(D^+\rightarrow K^-K^+K^+)} {\mathcal{B}(D^+\rightarrow K^-\pi^+\pi^+)}& = (6.541 \pm 0.025 \pm 0.042) \times 10^{-4},\nonumber \frac {\mathcal{B}(D^+\rightarrow \pi^-\pi^+K^+)} {\mathcal{B}(D^+\rightarrow K^-\pi^+\pi^+)}& = (5.231 \pm 0.009 \pm 0.023) \times 10^{-3}, \nonumber \frac {\mathcal{B}(D^+_s\rightarrow\pi^-K^+K^+)} {\mathcal{B}(D^+_s\rightarrow K^-K^+\pi^+)}& = (2.372 \pm 0.024 \pm 0.025) \times 10^{-3},\nonumber \end{align} where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These are the most precise measurements up to date. The Santiago-Harvard-Edinburgh-Durham void comparison II: unveiling the Vainshtein screening using weak lensing arXiv: 1810.0286 Enrique Paillas, Marius Cautun, Baojiu Li, et al. We study cosmic voids in the normal-branch Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (nDGP) braneworld models, which are representative of a class of modified gravity theories where deviations from General Relativity are usually hidden by the Vainshtein screening in high-density environments. This screening is less efficient away from these environments, which makes voids ideally suited for testing this class of models. We use N-body simulations of\Lambda$-cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) and nGDP universes, where dark matter haloes are populated with mock galaxies that mimic the clustering and number densities of the BOSS CMASS galaxy sample. We measure the force, density and weak lensing profiles around voids identified with six different algorithms. Compared to$\Lambda$CDM, voids in nDGP are more under-dense due to the action of the fifth force that arises in these models, which leads to a faster evacuation of matter from voids. This leaves an imprint on the weak lensing tangential shear profile around nDGP voids, an effect that is particularly strong for 2D underdensities that are identified in the plane-of-the-sky. We make predictions for the feasibility of distinguishing between nDGP and$\Lambda$CDM using void lensing in upcoming large-scale surveys such as LSST and Euclid. We compare with the analysis of voids in chameleon gravity theories and find that the weak lensing signal for 3D voids is similar to nDGP, whereas for 2D voids the differences with$\Lambda$CDM are much stronger for the chameleon gravity case, a direct consequence of the different screening mechanisms operating in these theories. Fundamental Physics with the Square Kilometer Array arXiv: 1810.0268 P. Bull, S. Camera, K. Kelley, et al. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy and spacetime. Static and Dynamic Signatures of Anisotropic Electronic Phase Separation in La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 Thin Films under Anisotropic Strain arXiv: 1810.0251 Longqian Hu, Liuqi Yu, Peng Xiong, et al. The electronic phase separation (EPS) of optimally doped La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO) thin films under various degrees of anisotropic strain is investigated by static magnetotransport and dynamic relaxation measurements. Three LCMO films were grown simultaneously on (001) NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates by pulsed laser deposition, and then post-growth annealed at 780 oC in O2 for different durations of time. With increasing annealing time, the films developed significant strains of opposite signs along the two orthogonal in-plane directions. The static temperature-dependent resistivity, R(T), was measured simultaneously along the two orthogonal directions. With increasing annealing time, both zero-field-cooled and field-cooled R(T) show significant increases, suggesting strain-triggered EPS and appearance of antiferromagnetic insulating (AFI) phases in a ferromagnetic metallic (FMM) ground state. Meanwhile, R(T) along the tensile-strained [010] direction becomes progressively larger than that along the compressive-strained [100]. The enhanced resistivity anisotropy indicates that the EPS is characterized by phase-separated FMM entities with a preferred orientation along [100], possibly due to the cooperative deformation and rotation/tilting of the MnO6 octahedra under the enhanced anisotropic strain. The anisotropic EPS can also be tuned by an external magnetic field. During a field-cycle at several fixed temperatures, the AFI phases are melted at high fields and recovered at low fields, resulting in sharp resistance changes of the ratio as high as 104. Furthermore, the resistivity was found to exhibit glass-like behavior, relaxing logarithmically in the phase-separated states. Fitting the data to a phenomenological model, the resulting resistive viscosity and characteristic relaxation time are found to evolve with temperature, showing a close correlation with the static measurements in the EPS states. Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Constraints on Extended Cosmological Models from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing arXiv: 1810.0249 DES Collaboration, T. M. C. Abbott, F. B. Abdalla, et al. We present constraints on extensions of the minimal cosmological models dominated by dark matter and dark energy,$\Lambda$CDM and$w$CDM, by using a combined analysis of galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing from the first-year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y1) in combination with external data. We consider four extensions of the minimal dark energy-dominated scenarios: 1) nonzero curvature$\Omega_k$, 2) number of relativistic species$N_{\rm eff}$different from the standard value of 3.046, 3) time-varying equation-of-state of dark energy described by the parameters$w_0$and$w_a$(alternatively quoted by the values at the pivot redshift,$w_p$, and$w_a$), and 4) modified gravity described by the parameters$\mu_0$and$\Sigma_0$that modify the metric potentials. We also consider external information from Planck CMB measurements; BAO measurements from SDSS, 6dF, and BOSS; RSD measurements from BOSS; and SNIa information from the Pantheon compilation. Constraints on curvature and the number of relativistic species are dominated by the external data; when these are combined with DES Y1, we find$\Omega_k=0.0020^{+0.0037}_{-0.0032}$at the 68\% confidence level, and$N_{\rm eff}<3.28\, (3.55)$at 68\% (95\%) confidence. For the time-varying equation-of-state, we find the pivot value$(w_p, w_a)=(-0.91^{+0.19}_{-0.23}, -0.57^{+0.93}_{-1.11})$at pivot redshift$z_p=0.27$from DES alone, and$(w_p, w_a)=(-1.01^{+0.04}_{-0.04}, -0.28^{+0.37}_{-0.48})$at$z_p=0.20$from DES Y1 combined with external data; in either case we find no evidence for the temporal variation of the equation of state. For modified gravity, we find the present-day value of the relevant parameters to be$\Sigma_0= 0.43^{+0.28}_{-0.29}$from DES Y1 alone, and$(\Sigma_0, \mu_0)=(0.06^{+0.08}_{-0.07}, -0.11^{+0.42}_{-0.46})$from DES Y1 combined with external data, consistent with predictions from GR. Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Cross-correlation between DES Y1 galaxy weak lensing and SPT+Planck CMB weak lensing arXiv: 1810.0244 Y. Omori, E. Baxter, C. Chang, et al. We cross-correlate galaxy weak lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year-one (Y1) data with a cosmic microwave background (CMB) weak lensing map derived from South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck data, with an effective overlapping area of 1289 deg$^{2}$. With the combined measurements from four source galaxy redshift bins, we reject the hypothesis of no lensing with a significance of$10.8\sigma$. When employing angular scale cuts, this significance is reduced to$6.8\sigma$, which remains the highest signal-to-noise measurement of its kind to date. We fit the amplitude of the correlation functions while fixing the cosmological parameters to a fiducial$\Lambda$CDM model, finding$A = 0.99 \pm 0.17$. We additionally use the correlation function measurements to constrain shear calibration bias, obtaining constraints that are consistent with previous DES analyses. Finally, when performing a cosmological analysis under the$\Lambda$CDM model, we obtain the marginalized constraints of$\Omega_{\rm m}=0.261^{+0.070}_{-0.051}$and$S_{8}\equiv \sigma_{8}\sqrt{\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3} = 0.660^{+0.085}_{-0.100}$. These measurements are used in a companion work that presents cosmological constraints from the joint analysis of two-point functions among galaxies, galaxy shears, and CMB lensing using DES, SPT and Planck data. Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: tomographic cross-correlations between DES galaxies and CMB lensing from SPT+Planck arXiv: 1810.0234 Y. Omori, T. Giannantonio, A. Porredon, et al. We measure the cross-correlation between redMaGiC galaxies selected from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year-1 data and gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) reconstructed from South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck data over 1289 sq. deg. When combining measurements across multiple galaxy redshift bins spanning the redshift range of$0.15<z<0.90$, we reject the hypothesis of no correlation at 19.9$\sigma$significance. When removing small-scale data points where thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signal and nonlinear galaxy bias could potentially bias our results, the detection significance is reduced to 9.9$\sigma$. We perform a joint analysis of galaxy-CMB lensing cross-correlations and galaxy clustering to constrain cosmology, finding$\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.276^{+0.029}_{-0.030}$and$S_{8}=\sigma_{8}\sqrt{\mathstrut \Omega_{\rm m}/0.3} = 0.800^{+0.090}_{-0.094}$. We also perform two alternate analyses aimed at constraining only the growth rate of cosmic structure as a function of redshift, finding consistency with predictions from the concordance$\Lambda$CDM model. The measurements presented here are part of a joint cosmological analysis that combines galaxy clustering, galaxy lensing and CMB lensing using data from DES, SPT and Planck. Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Joint Analysis of Galaxy Clustering, Galaxy Lensing, and CMB Lensing Two-point Functions arXiv: 1810.0232 T. M. C. Abbott, F. B. Abdalla, A. Alarcon, et al. We perform a joint analysis of the auto and cross-correlations between three cosmic fields: the galaxy density field, the galaxy weak lensing shear field, and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) weak lensing convergence field. These three fields are measured using roughly 1300 sq. deg. of overlapping optical imaging data from first year observations of the Dark Energy Survey and millimeter-wave observations of the CMB from both the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich survey and Planck. We present cosmological constraints from the joint analysis of the two-point correlation functions between galaxy density and galaxy shear with CMB lensing. We test for consistency between these measurements and the DES-only two-point function measurements, finding no evidence for inconsistency in the context of flat$\Lambda$CDM cosmological models. Performing a joint analysis of five of the possible correlation functions between these fields (excluding only the CMB lensing autospectrum) yields$S_{8}\equiv \sigma_8\sqrt{\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3} = 0.782^{+0.019}_{-0.025}$and$\Omega_{\rm m}=0.260^{+0.029}_{-0.019}$. We test for consistency between these five correlation function measurements and the Planck-only measurement of the CMB lensing autospectrum, again finding no evidence for inconsistency in the context of flat$\Lambda$CDM models. Combining constraints from all six two-point functions yields$S_{8}=0.776^{+0.014}_{-0.021}$and$\Omega_{\rm m}= 0.271^{+0.022}_{-0.016}$. These results provide a powerful test and confirmation of the results from the first year DES joint-probes analysis. Cosmological lensing ratios with DES Y1, SPT and Planck arXiv: 1810.0221 J. Prat, E. J. Baxter, T. Shin, et al. Correlations between tracers of the matter density field and gravitational lensing are sensitive to the evolution of the matter power spectrum and the expansion rate across cosmic time. Appropriately defined ratios of such correlation functions, on the other hand, depend only on the angular diameter distances to the tracer objects and to the gravitational lensing source planes. Because of their simple cosmological dependence, such ratios can exploit available signal-to-noise down to small angular scales, even where directly modeling the correlation functions is difficult. We present a measurement of lensing ratios using galaxy position and lensing data from the Dark Energy Survey, and CMB lensing data from the South Pole Telescope and Planck, obtaining the highest precision lensing ratio measurements to date. Relative to the concordance$\Lambda$CDM model, we find a best fit lensing ratio amplitude of$A = 1.1 \pm 0.1$. We use the ratio measurements to generate cosmological constraints, focusing on the curvature parameter. We demonstrate that photometrically selected galaxies can be used to measure lensing ratios, and argue that future lensing ratio measurements with data from a combination of LSST and Stage-4 CMB experiments can be used to place interesting cosmological constraints, even after considering the systematic uncertainties associated with photometric redshift and galaxy shear estimation. Particle level screening of scalar forces arXiv: 1810.0189 Clare Burrage, Benjamin Elder, Peter Millington We investigate how non-linear scalar field theories respond to point sources. Taking the symmetron as a specific example of such a theory, we solve the non-linear equation of motion in one spatial dimension for (i) an isolated point source and (ii) two identical point sources with arbitrary separation. We find that the mass of a single point source can be screened by the symmetron field, provided that its mass is above a critical value. We find that two point sources behave as independent, isolated sources when the separation between them is large, but, when their separation is smaller than the symmetron's Compton wavelength, they behave much like a single point source with the same total mass. Finally, we explore closely related behavior in a toy Higgs-Yukawa model, and find indications that the maximum fermion mass that can be generated consistently via a Yukawa coupling to the Higgs is roughly the mass of the Higgs itself, with potentially intriguing implications for the hierarchy problem. The environmental dependence of the baryon acoustic peak in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS sample arXiv: 1810.0165 Chris Blake, Ixandra Achitouv, Angela Burden, Yann Rasera The environmental dependence of galaxy clustering encodes information about the physical processes governing the growth of cosmic structure. We analyze the baryon acoustic peak as a function of environment in the galaxy correlation function of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS sample. Dividing the sample into three subsets by smoothed local overdensity, we detect acoustic peaks in the six separate auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions of the sub-samples. Fitting models to these correlation functions, calibrated by mock galaxy and dark matter catalogues, we find that the inferred distance scale is independent of environment, and consistent with the result of analyzing the combined sample. The shape of the baryon acoustic feature, and the accuracy of density-field reconstruction in the Zeldovich approximation, varies with environment. By up-weighting underdense regions and down-weighting overdense regions in their contribution to the full-sample correlation function, by up to 50%, we achieve a fractional improvement of a few per cent in the precision of baryon acoustic oscillation fits to the CMASS data and mock catalogues: the scatter in the preferred-scale fits to the ensemble of mocks improves from 1.45% to 1.34% (pre-reconstruction) and 1.03% to 1.00% (post-reconstruction). These results are consistent with the notion that the acoustic peak is sharper in underdense environments. Phenomenology in type-I minimally modified gravity arXiv: 1810.0104 Katsuki Aoki, Antonio De Felice, Chunshan Lin, et al. We study cosmology in a class of minimally modified gravity (MMG) with two local gravitational degrees of freedom. We classify modified gravity theories into type-I and type-II: theories of type-I have an Einstein frame and can be recast by change of variables as general relativity (GR) with a non-minimal matter coupling, while theories of type-II have no Einstein frame. Considering a canonical transformation of the lapse, the 3-dimensional induced metric and their conjugate momenta we generate type-I MMG. We then show that phenomenological deviations from GR, such as the speed of gravitational waves$c_T$and the effective gravitational constant for scalar perturbations$G_{\rm eff}$, are characterized by two functions of an auxiliary variable. We study the phenomenology of several models all having$c_T=1$. We obtain a scenario with$c_T=1$in which the effective equation-of-state parameter of dark energy is different from$-1$even though the cosmic acceleration is caused by a bare cosmological constant, and we find that it is possible to reconstruct the theory on choosing a selected time-evolution for the effective dark energy component. The gravitational and lensing-ISW bispectrum of 21cm radiation arXiv: 1810.0097 Claude J. Schmit, Alan F. Heavens, Jonathan R. Pritchard Cosmic Microwave Background experiments from COBE to Planck, have launched cosmology into an era of precision science, where many cosmological parameters are now determined to the percent level. Next generation telescopes, focussing on the cosmological 21cm signal from neutral hydrogen, will probe enormous volumes in the low-redshift Universe, and have the potential to determine dark energy properties and test modifications of Einstein's gravity. We study the 21cm bispectrum due to gravitational collapse as well as the contribution by line of sight perturbations in the form of the lensing-ISW bispectrum at low-redshifts ($z \sim 0.35-3$), targeted by upcoming neutral hydrogen intensity mapping experiments. We compute the expected bispectrum amplitudes and use a Fisher forecast model to compare power spectrum and bispectrum observations of intensity mapping surveys by CHIME, MeerKAT and SKA-mid. We find that combined power spectrum and bispectrum observations have the potential to decrease errors on the cosmological parameters by an order of magnitude compared to Planck. Finally, we compute the contribution of the lensing-ISW bispectrum, and find that, unlike for the cosmic microwave background analyses, it can safely be ignored for 21cm bispectrum observations. Unitarity Bounds of Astrophysical Neutrinos arXiv: 1810.0089 Markus Ahlers, Mauricio Bustamante, Siqiao Mu The flavor composition of astrophysical neutrinos observed at neutrino telescopes is related to the initial composition at their sources via oscillation-averaged flavor transitions. If the time evolution of the neutrino flavor states is unitary, the probability of neutrinos changing flavor is solely determined by the unitary mixing matrix that relates the neutrino flavor and propagation eigenstates. In this paper we derive general bounds on the flavor composition of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos based on unitarity constraints. These bounds are useful for studying the flavor composition of high-energy neutrinos, where energy-dependent non-standard flavor mixing can dominate over the standard mixing observed in accelerator, reactor, and atmospheric neutrino oscillations. Simple procedures to reduce eccentricity of binary black hole simulations arXiv: 1810.0003 Antoni Ramos-Buades, Sascha Husa, Geraint Pratten We present simple procedures to construct quasi-circular initial data for numerical evolutions of binary black hole spacetimes. Our method consists of using Post-Newtonian theory in three ways: first to provide an initial guess for the initial momenta at 3.5PN order that implies low residual eccentricity, second to measure the resulting eccentricity, and third to calculate corrections to the momenta or initial separation which further reduce the eccentricity. Regarding the initial guess, we compare numerical evolutions in post-Newtonian theory to the post-circular and post-post-circular analytical approximations to quasi-circular data. We discuss a robust fitting procedure to measure eccentricity from numerical simulations using the orbital frequency, and derive from the quasi-Keplerian parametrization at 1PN oder the correction factors for the tangential and radial momentum components required to achieve reduce the measured eccentricity to zero. We first test our procedure integrating PN equations of motion at$3.5PN where low eccentric initial data is easily obtained, and then apply our method to sets of binary black hole numerical relativity simulations with different mass ratios (q=1,2,...,8), spin configurations and separations. Our set of simulations contains non-spinning, spin-aligned and precessing simulations. We observe that the iterative procedure produces low eccentric simulations with eccentricities of the order (10^{-4}) with only one iteration. The simplicity of the procedure allows to obtain low eccentric NR simulations easily and saving computational resources. Moreover, the analytical PN formulas derived in this paper will be useful to generate eccentric hybrid waveforms. No evidence for modifications of gravity from galaxy motions on cosmological scales arXiv: 1809.0901 Jian-hua He, Luigi Guzzo, Baojiu Li, Carlton M. Baugh The recent discovery of gravitational waves marks the culmination of a sequence of successful tests of the general theory of relativity (GR) since its formulation in 1915. Yet these tests remain confined to the scale of stellar systems or the strong gravity regime. A departure from GR on larger, cosmological scales has been advocated by the proponents of modified gravity theories as an alternative to the Cosmological Constant to account for the observed cosmic expansion history. While indistinguishable in these terms by construction, such models on the other hand yield distinct values for the linear growth rate of density perturbations and, as a consequence, for the associated galaxy peculiar velocity field. Measurements of the resulting anisotropy of galaxy clustering, when spectroscopic redshifts are used to derive distances, have thus been proposed as a powerful probe of the validity of GR on cosmological scales. However, despite significant effort in modelling such redshift space distortions, systematic errors remain comparable to current statistical uncertainties. Here, we present the results of a different forward-modelling approach, which fully exploits the sensitivity of the galaxy velocity field to modifications of GR. We use state-of-the-art, high-resolution N-body simulations of a standard GR and a compelling f(R) model, one of GR's simplest variants, to build simulated catalogues of stellar-mass-selected galaxies through a robust match to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey observations. We find that, well within the uncertainty of this technique, f(R) fails to reproduce the observed redshift-space clustering on scales 1-10 Mpc/h. Instead, the standard LCDM GR model agrees impressively well with the data. This result provides a strong confirmation, on cosmological scales, of the robustness of Einstein's general theory of relativity. On the Maximal Strength of a First-Order Electroweak Phase Transition and its Gravitational Wave Signal arXiv: 1809.0824 John Ellis, Marek Lewicki, José Miguel No What is the maximum possible strength of a first-order electroweak phase transition and the resulting gravitational wave (GW) signal? While naively one might expect that supercooling could increase the strength of the transition to very high values, for strong supercooling the Universe is no longer radiation-dominated and the vacuum energy of the unstable minimum of the potential dominates the expansion, which can jeopardize the successful completion of the phase transition. After providing a general treatment for the nucleation, growth and percolation of broken phase bubbles during a first-order phase transition that encompasses the case of significant supercooling, we study the conditions for successful bubble percolation and completion of the electroweak phase transition in various theories beyond the Standard Model. These conditions set a lower bound on the temperature of the transition, which in turn bounds the peak frequency of the GW signal from the phase transition to bef \gtrsim 10^{-4}$Hz. Since the plasma cannot be significantly diluted, the resulting GW signal originates mostly from sound waves and turbulence in the plasma, rather than bubble collisions. We also study the condition for GW production by sound waves to be {\it long-lasting} (GW source active for approximately a Hubble time), showing it is generally not fulfilled in concrete scenarios. Because of this the sound wave GW signal could be weakened, with turbulence setting in earlier, resulting in a smaller overall GW signal as compared to current literature predictions. Reconstructing the baryon acoustic oscillations using biased tracers arXiv: 1809.0813 Jack Birkin, Baojiu Li, Marius Cautun, Yanlong Shi The reconstruction of the initial conditions of the Universe is an important topic in cosmology, particularly in the context of sharpening the measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak. Nonlinear reconstruction algorithms developed in recent years, when applied to late-time matter fields, can recover to a substantial degree the initial density distribution, however, when applied to sparse tracers of the matter field, the performance is poorer. In this paper we investigate the impacts of various factors on nonlinear reconstruction using biased tracers. We find that grid resolution, tracer number density and mass assignment scheme all have a significant impact on the reconstruction performance, with triangular-shaped-cloud (TSC) mass assignment and a grid resolution of${\sim}1{-}2~h^{-1}$Mpc being the optimal choice. We also present a new method for including generic tracer biases up to quadratic order in the reconstruction formalism. Applying this method to halo and galaxy reconstruction with a range of tracer number densities and including biases up to quadratic order, we find that the linear bias is by far the most important bias term, while including nonlocal and nonlinear biases only leads to marginal improvement on the reconstruction performance. Overall, including bias in the reconstruction substantially improves the recovery of BAO wiggles, down to$k\sim0.25~h\text{Mpc}^{-1}$for tracer number densities between$2\times10^{-4}$and$2\times10^{-3}~(h^{-1}\text{Mpc})^{-3}$. The morphology and structure of stellar populations in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy from Dark Energy Survey Data arXiv: 1809.0780 Mei-Yu Wang, T. de Boer, A. Pieres, et al. Using deep wide-field photometry three-year data (Y3) from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we present a panoramic study of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The data presented here -- a small subset of the full survey -- uniformly covers a region of 25 square degrees centered on the galaxy to a depth of g ~ 23.5. We use this data to study the structural properties of Fornax, overall stellar population, and its member stars in different evolutionary phases. We also search for possible signs of tidal disturbance. Fornax is found to be significantly more spatially extended than what early studies suggested. No statistically significant distortions or signs of tidal disturbances were found down to a surface brightness limit of ~32.1 mag/arcsec^2. However, there are hints of shell-like features located ~30' - 40' from the center of Fornax that may be stellar debris from past merger events. We also find that intermediate age and young main-sequence populations show different orientation at the galaxy center and have many substructures. The deep DES Y3 data allows us to characterize the age of those substructures with great accuracy, both those previously known and those newly discovered in this work, on the basis of their color-magnitude diagram morphology. We find that the youngest overdensities are all found on the Eastern side of Fornax, where the Fornax field population itself is slightly younger than in the West. The high quality DES Y3 data reveals that Fornax has many rich structures, and provides insights into its complex formation history. Observation of two resonances in the$Λ_b^0 π^\pm$systems and precise measurement of$Σ_b^\pm$and$Σ_b^{*\pm}$properties arXiv: 1809.0775 LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al. The first observation of two structures consistent with resonances in the final states$\Lambda_b^0 \pi^-$and$\Lambda_b^0 \pi^+$is reported using samples of$pp$collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at$\sqrt{s} = 7$and$8$TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3$\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The ground states$\Sigma_b^\pm$and$\Sigma_b^{*\pm}$are also confirmed and their masses and widths are precisely measured. Oscillons in Higher-Derivative Effective Field Theories arXiv: 1809.0772 Jeremy Sakstein, Mark Trodden We investigate the existence and behavior of oscillons in theories in which higher derivative terms are present in the Lagrangian, such as galileons. Such theories have emerged in a broad range of settings, from higher-dimensional models, to massive gravity, to models for late-time cosmological acceleration. By focusing on the simplest example---massive galileon effective field theories---we demonstrate that higher derivative terms can lead to the existence of completely new oscillons (quasi-breathers). We illustrate our techniques in the artificially simple case of 1 + 1 dimensions, and then present the complete analysis valid in 2 + 1 and 3 + 1 dimensions, exploring precisely how these new solutions are supported entirely by the non-linearities of the quartic galileon. These objects have the novel peculiarity that they are of the differentiability class$C^1$. Probing the High-Redshift Universe with SPICA: Toward the Epoch of Reionization and Beyond arXiv: 1809.0771 E. Egami, S. Gallerani, R. Schneider, et al. With the recent discovery of a dozen dusty star-forming galaxies and around 30 quasars at z>5 that are hyper-luminous in the infrared ($\muL_{\rm IR}>10^{13} L_{\odot}, where \mu is a lensing magnification factor), the possibility has opened up for SPICA, the proposed ESA M5 mid-/far-infrared mission, to extend its spectroscopic studies toward the epoch of reionization and beyond. In this paper, we examine the feasibility and scientific potential of such observations with SPICA's far-infrared spectrometer SAFARI, which will probe a spectral range (35-230 \mum) that will be unexplored by ALMA and JWST. Our simulations show that SAFARI is capable of delivering good-quality spectra for hyper-luminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRGs) at z=5-10, allowing us to sample spectral features in the rest-frame mid-infrared and to investigate a host of key scientific issues, such as the relative importance of star formation versus AGN, the hardness of the radiation field, the level of chemical enrichment, and the properties of the molecular gas. From a broader perspective, SAFARI offers the potential to open up a new frontier in the study of the early Universe, providing access to uniquely powerful spectral features for probing first-generation objects, such as the key cooling lines of low-metallicity or metal-free forming galaxies (fine-structure and H2 lines) and emission features of solid compounds freshly synthesized by Population III supernovae. Ultimately, SAFARI's ability to explore the high-redshift Universe will be determined by the availability of sufficiently bright targets (whether intrinsically luminous or gravitationally lensed). With its launch expected around 2030, SPICA is ideally positioned to take full advantage of upcoming wide-field surveys such as LSST, SKA, Euclid, and WFIRST, which are likely to provide extraordinary targets for SAFARI. Evidence for an η_c(1S) π^- resonance in B^0 \to η_c(1S) K^+π^- decays arXiv: 1809.0741 LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al. A Dalitz plot analysis of B^0 \to \eta_c(1S) K^+\pi^- decays is performed using data samples of pp collisions collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of \sqrt{s}=7,~8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 4.7~\text{fb}^{-1}. A satisfactory description of the data is obtained when including a contribution representing an exotic \eta_c(1S) \pi^- resonant state. The significance of this exotic resonance is more than three standard deviations, while its mass and width are 4096 \pm 20~^{+18}_{-22} MeV and 152 \pm 58~^{+60}_{-35} MeV, respectively. The spin-parity assignments J^P=0^+ and J^{P}=1^- are both consistent with the data. In addition, the first measurement of the B^0 \to \eta_c(1S) K^+\pi^- branching fraction is performed and gives \displaystyle \mathcal{B}(B^0 \to \eta_c(1S) K^+\pi^-) = (5.73 \pm 0.24 \pm 0.13 \pm 0.66) \times 10^{-4}, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third is due to limited knowledge of external branching fractions. The GRIFFIN Facility for Decay-Spectroscopy Studies at TRIUMF-ISAC arXiv: 1809.0718 A. B. Garnsworthy, C. E. Svensson, M. Bowry, et al. Gamma-Ray Infrastructure For Fundamental Investigations of Nuclei, GRIFFIN, is a new high-efficiency \gamma-ray spectrometer designed for use in decay spectroscopy experiments with low-energy radioactive ion beams provided by TRIUMF's Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC-I) facility. GRIFFIN is composed of sixteen Compton-suppressed large-volume clover-type high-purity germanium (HPGe) \gamma-ray detectors combined with a suite of ancillary detection systems and coupled to a custom digital data acquisition system. The infrastructure and detectors of the spectrometer as well as the performance characteristics and the analysis techniques applied to the experimental data are described. Expectations and sensitivity of the scalar field Dark Energy reconstruction from the SNe Ia data arXiv: 1809.0714 Sergey Pavluchenko, Luca Amendola, Arpine Piloyan The current paper is addressing the possibility of the Dark Energy scalar field potential reconstruction from the SNe Ia data and the problems arising during the process. We describe the method and test its limits, stability of the reconstruction with respect to the \Omega_m and H_0 parameters, as well as several issues connected to the errors propagation, with use of synthetic data. After that, we test the method with real Union2.1 and JLA, as well as recent PANTHEON SNe Ia datasets. It worths mentioning that in our approach we assume no {\it Ans\"atzen} on the dynamical variables (e.g., H(z)), which makes our method free of any degeneracies and biases which arise if one assume one or another way to parameterize H(z), or the equation of state, or some other variable. On the other hand, the price we pay for this freedom is immense -- although the scheme demonstrates perfect reconstruction in the case of synthetic data, the reconstruction from the real data seems almost impossible, at least on the current data precision level. The errors of the resulting potential and of the kinetic term are huge; for the Hubble parameter they are smaller but still severalfold larger than those obtained with parameterization. Finally, we test the method with non-SNe H(z) datasets, and the results are also disappointing -- similar to the SNe case, the reconstruction is not possible as the reconstructed kinetic term enters the negative values. This could be treated as a manifestation of the insufficient data precision, or as the overestimation of (H_0, \Omega_m) values -- we discuss both possibilities. Cosmological Aspects of Higgs Vacuum Metastability arXiv: 1809.0692 Tommi Markkanen, Arttu Rajantie, Stephen Stopyra The current central experimental values of the parameters of the Standard Model give rise to a striking conclusion: metastability of the electroweak vacuum is favoured over absolute stability. A metastable vacuum for the Higgs boson implies that it is possible, and in fact inevitable, that a vacuum decay takes place with catastrophic consequences for the Universe. The metastability of the Higgs vacuum is especially significant for cosmology, because there are many mechanisms that could have triggered the decay of the electroweak vacuum in the early Universe. We present a comprehensive review of the implications from Higgs vacuum metastability for cosmology along with a pedagogical discussion of the related theoretical topics, including renormalization group improvement, quantum field theory in curved spacetime and vacuum decay in field theory. Optimally Mapping Large-Scale Structures with Luminous Sources arXiv: 1809.0638 Yun-Ting Cheng, Roland de Putter, Tzu-Ching Chang, Olivier Dore Intensity mapping has emerged as a promising tool to probe the three-dimensional structure of the Universe. The traditional approach of galaxy redshift surveys is based on individual galaxy detection, typically performed by thresholding and digitizing large-scale intensity maps. By contrast, intensity mapping uses the integrated emission from all sources in a 3D pixel (or voxel) as an analog tracer of large-scale structure. In this work, we develop a formalism to quantify the performance of both approaches when measuring large-scale structures. We compute the Fisher information of an arbitrary observable, derive the optimal estimator, and study its performance as a function of source luminosity function, survey resolution, instrument sensitivity, and other survey parameters. We identify regimes where each approach is advantageous and discuss optimal strategies for different scenarios. To determine the best strategy for any given survey, we develop a metric that is easy to compute from the source luminosity function and the survey sensitivity, and we demonstrate the application with several planned intensity mapping survey. Can we detect quantum gravity with compact binary inspirals? arXiv: 1809.0627 Alexander C. Jenkins, Andreas G. A. Pithis, Mairi Sakellariadou Treating general relativity as an effective field theory, we compute the leading-order quantum corrections to the orbits and gravitational-wave emission of astrophysical compact binaries. These corrections are independent of the (unknown) nature of quantum gravity at high energies, and generate a phase shift and amplitude increase in the observed gravitational-wave signal. Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly), these corrections are undetectably small, even in the most optimistic observational scenarios. Bounds on extra dimensions from micro black holes in the context of the metastable Higgs vacuum arXiv: 1809.0508 Katherine J. Mack, Robert McNees We estimate the rate at which collisions between ultra-high energy cosmic rays can form small black holes in models with extra dimensions. If recent conjectures about false vacuum decay catalyzed by black hole evaporation apply, the lack of vacuum decay events in our past light cone places tight bounds on the black hole formation rate and thus on the fundamental scale of gravity in these models. Conservatively, we find that the lower bound on the fundamental scale E_{*} must be within about an order of magnitude of the energy where the cosmic ray spectrum begins to show suppression from the GZK effect, in order to avoid the abundant formation of semiclassical black holes with short lifetimes. Our bound, which assumes a Higgs vacuum instability scale at the low end of the range compatible with experimental data, ranges from E_{*} \geq 10^{18.8}\,\text{eV} for n=1 extra dimension down to E_{*} \geq 10^{18.1}\,\text{eV} for n=6. These bounds are many orders of magnitude higher than the previous most stringent bounds, which derive from collider experiments or from estimates of Kaluza-Klein processes in neutron stars and supernovae. Bubble wall velocities in the Standard Model and beyond arXiv: 1809.0490 Glauber C. Dorsch, Stephan J. Huber, Thomas Konstandin We present results for the bubble wall velocity and bubble wall thickness during a cosmological first-order phase transition in a condensed form. Our results are for minimal extensions of the Standard Model but in principle are applicable to a much broader class of settings. Our first assumption about the model is that only the electroweak Higgs is obtaining a vacuum expectation value during the phase transition. The second is that most of the friction is produced by electroweak gauge bosons and top quarks. Under these assumptions the bubble wall velocity and thickness can be deduced as a function of two equilibrium properties of the plasma: the strength of the phase transition and the pressure difference along the bubble wall. Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: The effect of intra-cluster light on photometric redshifts for weak gravitational lensing arXiv: 1809.0459 D. Gruen, Y. Zhang, A. Palmese, et al. We study the effect of diffuse intra-cluster light on the critical surface mass density estimated from photometric redshifts of lensing source galaxies, and the resulting bias in a weak lensing measurement of galaxy cluster mass. Under conservative assumptions, we find the bias to be negligible for imaging surveys like the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with a recommended scale cut of >=200 kpc distance from cluster centers. For significantly deeper source catalogs from present and future surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) program, more conservative scale and source magnitude cuts or a correction of the effect may be necessary to achieve per-cent level lensing measurement accuracy, especially at the massive end of the cluster population. Collisions of cosmic strings with chiral currents arXiv: 1809.0403 I. Yu. Rybak, A. Avgoustidis, C. J. A. P. Martins We present an analytic study of cosmic superconducting chiral string collisions in Minkowski space, applying the kinematic constraints that arise from the relevant generalization of the Nambu-Goto action. In particular, we revisit the solution for chiral superconducting cosmic strings and demonstrate that Y junction production for such strings is possible. We consider the collision of chiral current-carrying straight strings and obtain the region in angle-velocity space that allows the production of string junctions. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex evolution of chiral superconducting string networks. Update on Testing Isotropic Universe Using Properties of Gamma-Ray Bursts arXiv: 1809.0397 Jakub Ripa, Arman Shafieloo Previously we proposed a novel method to inspect the isotropy of the properties of GRBs such as their duration, fluences and peak fluxes at various energy bands and different time scales. The method was then applied on the Fermi GBM Burst Catalog containing 1591 GRBs and except one particular direction where we noticed some hints of violation from statistical isotropy, the rest of the data showed consistency with isotropy. In this work we apply our method with some minor modifications to the updated Fermi/GBM data sample containing 2266 GRBs, thus \sim 40 % larger. We also test two other major GRB catalogs, the BATSE Current GRB Catalog of the CGRO satellite containing \sim 2000 bursts and the Swift/BAT Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog containing \sim 1200 bursts. The new results using the updated data are consistent with our previous findings while we can discard now any statistically significant anisotropic feature in the data. Digging the population of compact binary mergers out of the noise arXiv: 1809.0381 Sebastian M. Gaebel, John Veitch, Thomas Dent, Will M. Farr Coalescing compact binaries emitting gravitational wave (GW) signals, as recently detected by the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network, constitute a population over the multi-dimensional space of component masses and spins, redshift, and other parameters. Characterizing this population is a major goal of GW observations and may be approached via parametric models. We demonstrate hierarchical inference for such models with a method that accounts for uncertainties in each binary merger's individual parameters, for mass-dependent selection effects, and also for the presence of a second population of candidate events caused by detector noise. Thus, the method is robust to potential biases from a contaminated sample and allows us to extract information from events that have a relatively small probability of astrophysical origin. Scaling in necklaces of monopoles and semipoles arXiv: 1809.0338 Mark Hindmarsh, Anna Kormu, Asier Lopez-Eiguren, David J. Weir Models of symmetry breaking in the early universe can produce networks of cosmic strings threading 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. In certain cases there is a larger global symmetry group and the monopoles split into so-called semipoles. These networks are all known as cosmic necklaces. We carry out large-scale field theory simulations of the simplest model containing these objects, confirming that the energy density of networks of cosmic necklaces approaches scaling, i.e. that it remains a constant fraction of the background energy density. The number of monopoles per unit comoving string length is constant, meaning that the density fraction of monopoles decreases with time. Where the necklaces carry semipoles rather than monopoles, we perform the first simulations large enough to demonstrate that they also maintain a constant number per unit comoving string length. We also compare our results to a number of analytical models of cosmic necklaces, finding that none explains our results. We put forward evidence that annihilation of poles on the strings is controlled by a diffusive process, a possibility not considered before. The observational constraints derived in our previous work for necklaces with monopoles can now be safely applied to those with semipoles as well. Prompt Λ^+_c production in p\mathrm{Pb} collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV arXiv: 1809.0140 LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, B. Adeva, et al. The production of \Lambda^+_c baryons produced directly at the interacting point is studied in proton-lead collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.58\mathrm{nb}^{-1} recorded at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of \sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02 TeV. Measurements of the differential cross-section and the forward-backward production ratio are reported for \Lambda^+_c baryons with transverse momenta in the range 2<p_{T}<10GeV/c and rapidities in the ranges 1.5<y^*<4.0 and -4.5<y^*<-2.5 in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass system. The ratio of cross-sections of \Lambda^+_c baryons and D^0 mesons is also reported. The results are compared with next-to-leading order calculations that use nuclear parton distribution functions. The Causes of the Red Sequence, the Blue Cloud, the Green Valley and the Green Mountain arXiv: 1809.0117 Stephen Eales, Maarten Baes, Nathan Bourne, et al. The galaxies found in optical surveys fall in two distinct regions of a diagram of optical colour versus absolute magnitude: the red sequence and the blue cloud with the green valley in between. We show that the galaxies found in a submillimetre survey have almost the opposite distribution in this diagram, forming a green mountain'. We show that these distinctive distributions follow naturally from a single, continuous, curved Galaxy Sequence in a diagram of specific star-formation rate versus stellar mass without there being the need for a separate star-forming galaxy Main Sequence and region of passive galaxies. The cause of the red sequence and the blue cloud is the geometric mapping between stellar mass/specific star-formation rate and absolute magnitude/colour, which distorts a continuous Galaxy Sequence in the diagram of intrinsic properties into a bimodal distribution in the diagram of observed properties. The cause of the green mountain is Malmquist bias in the submillimetre waveband, with submillimetre surveys tending to select galaxies on the curve of the Galaxy Sequence, which have the highest ratios of submillimetre-to-optical luminosity. This effect, working in reverse, causes galaxies on the curve of the Galaxy Sequence to be underrepresented in optical samples, deepening the green valley. The green valley is therefore not evidence (1) for there being two distinct populations of galaxies, (2) for galaxies in this region evolving more quickly than galaxies in the blue cloud and the red sequence, (c) for rapid quenching processes in the galaxy population. Phenomenology of Large Scale Structure in scalar-tensor theories: joint prior covariance of w_{\textrm{DE}}, Σ and μ in Horndeski arXiv: 1809.0112 Juan Espejo, Simone Peirone, Marco Raveri, et al. Ongoing and upcoming cosmological surveys will significantly improve our ability to probe the equation of state of dark energy, w_{\rm DE}, and the phenomenology of Large Scale Structure. They will allow us to constrain deviations from the \LambdaCDM predictions for the relations between the matter density contrast and the weak lensing and the Newtonian potential, described by the functions \Sigma and \mu, respectively. In this work, we derive the theoretical prior for the joint covariance of w_{\rm DE}, \Sigma and \mu, expected in general scalar-tensor theories with second order equations of motion (Horndeski gravity), focusing on their time-dependence at certain representative scales. We employ Monte-Carlo methods to generate large ensembles of statistically independent Horndeski models, focusing on those that are physically viable and in broad agreement with local tests of gravity, the observed cosmic expansion history and the measurement of the speed of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger. We identify several interesting features and trends in the distribution functions of w_{\rm DE}, \Sigma and \mu, as well as in their covariances; we confirm the high degree of correlation between \Sigma and \mu in scalar-tensor theories. The derived prior covariance matrices will allow us to reconstruct jointly w_{\rm DE}, \Sigma and \mu in a non-parametric way. Cracks in the Sky: Abelian-Higgs Cosmic String Evolution with CUDA arXiv: 1809.0099 J. R. C. C. C. Correia, C. J. A. P. Martins Topological defects form at cosmological phase transitions by the Kibble mechanism, with cosmic strings and superstrings having the most interesting phenomenology. A rigorous analysis of their astrophysical consequences is limited by the availability of accurate numerical simulations, and therefore by hardware resources and computation time. Improving the speed and efficiency of existing codes is therefore essential. All current cosmic string simulations were performed on Central Processing Units. In previous work we presented a General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit implementation of the evolution of cosmological domain wall networks. Here we continue this paradigm shift and discuss an analogous implementation for local Abelian-Higgs strings networks. We discuss the implementation algorithm (including the discretization used and how to calculate network averaged quantities) and then showcase its performance and current bottlenecks. We validate the code by directly comparing our results for the canonical scaling properties of the networks in the radiation and matter eras with those in the literature, finding very good agreement. We finally highlight possible directions for improving the scalability of the code. Measuring our velocity from fluctuations in number counts arXiv: 1808.0974 Nidhi Pant, Aditya Rotti, Carlos A. P. Bengaly, Roy Maartens Our velocity relative to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) generates a dipole from the CMB monopole, which was accurately measured by COBE. The relative velocity also modulates and aberrates the CMB fluctuations, generating a small signature of statistical isotropy violation in the covariance matrix. This signature was first measured by Planck 2013. Galaxy surveys are similarly affected by a Doppler boost. The dipole generated from the number count monopole has been extensively discussed, and measured (at very low accuracy) in the NVSS and TGSS radio continuum surveys. For the first time, we present an analysis of the Doppler imprint on the number count fluctuations, using the bipolar spherical harmonic formalism to quantify these effects. Next-generation wide-area surveys with a high redshift range are needed to detect the small Doppler signature in number count fluctuations. We show that radio continuum surveys with the SKA should enable a detection at \gtrsim 3 \sigma in Phase 2, with marginal detection possible in Phase 1. Wormholes in generalized hybrid metric-Palatini gravity obeying the matter null energy condition everywhere arXiv: 1808.0897 João Luís Rosa, José P. S. Lemos, Francisco S. N. Lobo Wormhole solutions in a generalized hybrid metric-Palatini matter theory, given by a gravitational Lagrangian f\left(R,\cal{R}\right), where R is the metric Ricci scalar, and \mathcal{R} is a Palatini scalar curvature defined in terms of an independent connection, and a matter Lagrangian, are found. The solutions are worked in the scalar-tensor representation of the theory, where the Palatini field is traded for two scalars, \varphi and \psi, and the gravitational term R is maintained. The main interest in the solutions found is that the matter field obeys the null energy condition (NEC) everywhere, including the throat and up to infinity, so that there is no need for exotic matter. The wormhole geometry with its flaring out at the throat is supported by the higher-order curvature terms, or equivalently, by the two fundamental scalar fields, which either way can be interpreted as a gravitational fluid. Thus, in this theory, in building a wormhole, it is possible to exchange the exoticity of matter by the exoticity of the gravitational sector. The specific wormhole displayed, built to obey the matter NEC from the throat to infinity, has three regions, namely, an interior region containing the throat, a thin shell of matter, and a vacuum Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter (AdS) exterior. For hybrid metric-Palatini matter theories this wormhole solution is the first where the NEC for the matter is verified for the entire spacetime keeping the solution under asymptotic control. The existence of this type of solutions is in line with the idea that traversable wormholes bore by additional fundamental gravitational fields, here disguised as scalar fields, can be found without exotic matter. Concomitantly, the somewhat concocted architecture needed to assemble a complete wormhole solution for the whole spacetime may imply that in this class of theories such solutions are scarce. Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era arXiv: 1808.0886 LHCb collaboration, I. Bediaga, M. Cruz Torres, et al. The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to  2 \times 10^{34} \rm cm^{-2}s^{-1}, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. CP-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe b\to s \ell^+\ell^- and b\to d \ell^+\ell^- transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of B(B^0\to\mu^+\mu^-)/B(B_s^0\to \mu^+\mu^-). Probing charm CP violation at the 10^{-5} level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier. Despicable Dark Relics: generated by gravity with unconstrained masses arXiv: 1808.0823 Malcolm Fairbairn, Kimmo Kainulainen, Tommi Markkanen, Sami Nurmi We demonstrate the existence of a generic, efficient and purely gravitational channel producing a significant abundance of dark relics during reheating after the end of inflation. The mechanism is present for any inert scalar with the non-minimal curvature coupling \xi R\chi^2 and the relic production is efficient for natural values \xi = {\cal O}(1). The observed dark matter abundance can be reached for a broad range of relic masses extending from m \sim 1 {\rm k eV} to m \sim 10^{8} {\rm GeV}, depending on the scale of inflation and the dark sector couplings. Frustratingly, such relics escape direct, indirect and collider searches since no non-gravitational couplings to visible matter are needed. The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts arXiv: 1808.0744 The Simons Observatory Collaboration, Peter Ade, James Aguirre, et al. The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes (SATs) and one large-aperture 6-m telescope (LAT), with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The SATs will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ~10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 \muK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, at a target level of \sigma(r)=0.003. The LAT will map ~40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 \muK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the LSST sky region and partially with DESI. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources. X-ray Structure between the Innermost Disk and Optical Broad Line Region in NGC 4151 arXiv: 1808.0743 J. M. Miller, E. Cackett, A. Zoghbi, et al. We present an analysis of the narrow Fe K-alpha line in Chandra/HETGS observations of the Seyfert AGN, NGC 4151. The sensitivity and resolution afforded by the gratings reveal asymmetry in this line. Models including weak Doppler boosting, gravitational red-shifts, and scattering are generally preferred over Gaussians at the 5 sigma level of confidence, and generally measure radii consistent with R ~ 500-1000 GM/c^2. Separate fits to "high/unobscured" and "low/obscured" phases reveal that the line originates at smaller radii in high flux states; model-independent tests indicate that this effect is significant at the 4-5 sigma level. Some models and Delta t ~ 2 E+4 s variations in line flux suggest that the narrow Fe K-alpha line may originate at radii as small as R ~ 50-130 GM/c^2 in high flux states. These results indicate that the narrow Fe K-alpha line in NGC 4151 is primarily excited in the innermost part of the optical broad line region (BLR), or X-ray BLR. Alternatively, a warp could provide the solid angle needed to enhance Fe K-alpha line emission from intermediate radii, and might resolve an apparent discrepancy in the inclination of the innermost and outer disk in NGC 4151. Both warps and the BLR may originate through radiation pressure, so these explanations may be linked. We discuss our results in detail, and consider the potential for future observations with Chandra, XARM, and ATHENA to measure black hole masses and to study the intermediate disk in AGN using narrow Fe K-alpha emission lines. Search for lepton-flavour-violating decays of Higgs-like bosons arXiv: 1808.0713 LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, et al. A search is presented for a Higgs-like boson with mass in the range 45 to 195 GeV/c^2 decaying into a muon and a tau lepton. The dataset consists of proton-proton interactions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb^{-1}. The tau leptons are reconstructed in both leptonic and hadronic decay channels. An upper limit on the production cross-section multiplied by the branching fraction at 95% confidence level is set and ranges from 22 pb for a boson mass of 45 GeV/c^2 to 4 pb for a mass of 195 GeV/c^2. On the Amplitude and Stokes Parameters of a Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background arXiv: 1808.0592 Ciarán Conneely, Andrew H. Jaffe, Chiara M. F. Mingarelli The direct detection of gravitational waves has provided new opportunities for studying the universe, but also new challenges, such as the detection and characterization of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds at different gravitational-wave frequencies. In this paper we examine two different methods for their description, one based on the amplitude of a gravitational-wave signal and one on its Stokes parameters. We find that the Stokes parameters are able to describe anisotropic and correlated backgrounds, whereas the usual power spectra of the amplitudes cannot -- i.e. the Stokes spectra are sensitive to properties such as the spatial distribution of the gravitational-wave sources in a realistic backgrounds. The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign. I. Overview and classification of candidates selected by two techniques arXiv: 1808.0483 T. Treu, A. Agnello, M. A. Baumer, et al. The primary goals of the STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) collaboration are to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter and the free streaming length of dark matter. To this aim, STRIDES is discovering strongly lensed quasars in the imaging data of the Dark Energy Survey and following them up to measure time delays, high resolution imaging, and spectroscopy sufficient to construct accurate lens models. In this paper, we first present forecasts for STRIDES. Then, we describe the STRIDES classification scheme, and give an overview of the Fall 2016 follow-up campaign. We continue by detailing the results of two selection methods, the Outlier Selection Technique and a morphological algorithm, and presenting lens models of a system, which could possibly be a lensed quasar in an unusual configuration. We conclude with the summary statistics of the Fall 2016 campaign. Including searches presented in companion papers (Anguita et al.; Ostrovski et al.), STRIDES followed up 117 targets identifying 7 new strongly lensed systems, and 7 nearly identical quasars (NIQs), which could be confirmed as lenses by the detection of the lens galaxy. 76 candidates were rejected and 27 remain otherwise inconclusive, for a success rate in the range 6-35\%. This rate is comparable to that of previous searches like SQLS even though the parent dataset of STRIDES is purely photometric and our selection of candidates cannot rely on spectroscopic information. X-GANs: Image Reconstruction Made Easy for Extreme Cases arXiv: 1808.0443 Longfei Liu, Sheng Li, Yisong Chen, Guoping Wang Image reconstruction including image restoration and denoising is a challenging problem in the field of image computing. We present a new method, called X-GANs, for reconstruction of arbitrary corrupted resource based on a variant of conditional generative adversarial networks (conditional GANs). In our method, a novel generator and multi-scale discriminators are proposed, as well as the combined adversarial losses, which integrate a VGG perceptual loss, an adversarial perceptual loss, and an elaborate corresponding point loss together based on the analysis of image feature. Our conditional GANs have enabled a variety of applications in image reconstruction, including image denoising, image restoration from quite a sparse sampling, image inpainting, image recovery from the severely polluted block or even color-noise dominated images, which are extreme cases and haven't been addressed in the status quo. We have significantly improved the accuracy and quality of image reconstruction. Extensive perceptual experiments on datasets ranging from human faces to natural scenes demonstrate that images reconstructed by the presented approach are considerably more realistic than alternative work. Our method can also be extended to handle high-ratio image compression. Vacuum polarization on topological black holes arXiv: 1808.0438 Thomas Morley, Peter Taylor, Elizabeth Winstanley We investigate quantum effects on topological black hole space-times within the framework of quantum field theory on curved space-times. Considering a quantum scalar field, we extend a recent mode-sum regularization prescription for the computation of the renormalized vacuum polarization to asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes with nonspherical event horizon topology. In particular, we calculate the vacuum polarization for a massless, conformally-coupled scalar field on a four-dimensional topological Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole background, comparing our results with those for a spherically-symmetric black hole. Analytical estimates of proton acceleration in laser-produced turbulent plasmas arXiv: 1808.0435 Konstantin Beyer, Brian Reville, Archie Bott, et al. With the advent of high power lasers, new opportunities have opened up for simulating astrophysical processes in the laboratory. We show that 2nd-order Fermi acceleration can be directly investigated at the National Ignition Facility, Livermore. This requires measuring the momentum-space diffusion of 3 MeV protons produced within a turbulent plasma generated by a laser. Treating Fermi acceleration as a biased diffusion process, we show analytically that a measurable broadening of the initial proton distribution is then expected for particles exiting the plasma. Chaotic behavior of Eulerian MHD turbulence arXiv: 1808.0363 Richard Ho, Arjun Berera, Daniel Clark We study the chaos of a turbulent conducting fluid using direct numerical simulation in the Eulerian frame. We predict that the Lyapunov exponent, which measures the exponential separation of initially close solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equations, is proportional to the inverse of the Kolmogorov microscale time and also obtain new results for this relation in hydrodynamic turbulence, specifically deriving a previously unknown co-efficient. These predictions agree with simulation results. The simulations also show a diminution of chaos from the introduction of magnetic helicity, which is expected to be eliminated at maximum helicity. Linear growth of the difference between fields was recently found in hydrodynamics and we find here that it extends to the magnetic and velocity fields, with growth rates dependent on the dissipation rate of the relevant field. We infer that the chaos in the system is totally dominated by the velocity field and connect this work to real magnetic systems such as solar weather and confined plasmas. The 21cm bispectrum as a probe of non-Gaussianities due to X-ray heating arXiv: 1808.0237 Catherine A. Watkinson, Sambit K. Giri, Hannah E. Ross, et al. We present analysis of the normalised 21-cm bispectrum from fully-numerical simulations of IGM heating by stellar sources and high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXB) during the cosmic dawn. Wouthuysen-Field coupling is assumed to be saturated and ionizations are negligible, we therefore probe the nature of non-Gaussianities produced by X-ray heating processes. We find the evolution of the normalised bispectrum to be very different from that of the power spectrum. It exhibits a turnover whose peak moves from large to small scales with decreasing redshift, corresponding to the typical separation of emission regions. This characteristic scale reduces as more and more regions move into emission with time. Ultimately, small-scale fluctuations within heated regions come to dominate the normalised bispectrum, which at the end of the simulation is driven by fluctuations in the density field. To establish how generic the qualitative evolution of the normalised bispectrum we see in the stellar + HMXB simulation is, we examine several other simulations - two fully-numerical simulations that include QSO sources, and two with contrasting source properties produced with the semi-numerical simulation 21cmFAST. We find the qualitative evolution of the normalised bispectrum during X-ray heating to be generic, unless the sources of X-rays are, as with QSOs, less numerous and so exhibit more distinct isolated heated profiles. Assuming mitigation of foreground and instrumental effects are ultimately effective, we find that we should be sensitive to the normalised bispectrum during the epoch of heating, so long as the spin temperature has not saturated by z \approx 19. Black holes and stars in the minimal theory of massive gravity arXiv: 1808.0140 Antonio De Felice, François Larrouturou, Shinji Mukohyama, Michele Oliosi In this letter, we show that any solution of general relativity (GR) that can be rendered spatially flat by a coordinate change is also a solution of the self-accelerating branch of the minimal theory of massive gravity (MTMG), with or without matter. We then for the first time obtain black hole and star solutions in a theory of massive gravity that agree with the corresponding solutions in GR and that are free from strong coupling issues. This in particular implies that the parametrized post-Newtonian parameters \beta^{\rm PPN} and \gamma^{\rm PPN} are unity, as in GR. We further show how these solutions can be embedded in a cosmological setting. While cosmological scales have already been considered in previous works, this is the first study of the phenomenology at shorter scales of the self-accelerating branch of MTMG. Gauge invariance and the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanism in non-Hermitian field theories arXiv: 1808.0094 Jean Alexandre, John Ellis, Peter Millington, Dries Seynaeve We discuss the formulation of gauge-invariant PT-symmetric field theories and the extension to such models of the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanism for generating a mass for a vector boson. Gauge transformations relate field theories with different non-Hermitian Lagrangians and actions, but identical spectra and the same partition function, thus defining a unique PT-symmetric theory at the level of the quantum path integral. For suitable values of the model parameters, vacuum expectation values (vev's) for scalar fields develop when the real part of the effective potential is minimised. As we showed in a previous paper, these vev's are accompanied by a massless Nambu-Goldstone boson in a PT-symmetric theory without gauge symmetry, and we show here that in the gauged version this massless boson combines with the gauge field to yield a massive vector boson, thereby generalising the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanism to PT-symmetric field theories. Inferring properties of the local white dwarf population in astrometric and photometric surveys arXiv: 1808.0047 Axel Widmark, Daniel J. Mortlock, Hiranya V. Peiris The Gaia mission will provide precise astrometry for an unprecedented number of white dwarfs (WDs), encoding information on stellar evolution, Type Ia supernovae progenitor scenarios, and the star formation and dynamical history of the Milky Way. With such a large data set, it is possible to infer properties of the WD population using only astrometric and photometric information. We demonstrate a framework to accomplish this using a mock data set with SDSS ugriz photometry and Gaia astrometric information. Our technique utilises a Bayesian hierarchical model for inferring properties of a WD population while also taking into account all observational errors of individual objects, as well as selection and incompleteness effects. We demonstrate that photometry alone can constrain the WD population's distributions of temperature, surface gravity and phenomenological type, and that astrometric information significantly improves determination of the WD surface gravity distribution. We also discuss the possibility of identifying unresolved binary WDs using only photometric and astrometric information. Fifth force constraints from galaxy warps arXiv: 1807.1174 Harry Desmond, Pedro G Ferreira, Guilhem Lavaux, Jens Jasche Intra-galaxy signals contain a wealth of information on fundamental physics, both the dark sector and the nature of gravity. While so far largely unexplored, such probes are set to rise dramatically in importance as upcoming surveys provide data of unprecedented quantity and quality on galaxy structure and dynamics. In this paper, we use warping of stellar disks to test the chameleon- or symmetron-screened fifth forces which generically arise when new fields couple to matter. We take r-band images of mostly late-type galaxies from the Nasa Sloan Atlas and develop an automated algorithm to quantify the degree of U-shaped warping they exhibit. We then forward-model the warp signal as a function of fifth-force strength \Delta G/G_N and range \lambda_C, and the gravitational environments and internal properties of the galaxies, including full propagation of the non-Gaussian uncertainties. Convolving this fifth-force likelihood function with a Gaussian describing astrophysical and observational noise and then constraining \Delta G/G_N and \lambda_C by Markov Chain Monte Carlo, we find the overall likelihood to be significant increased (\Delta\log(\mathcal{L}) \simeq 20) by adding a screened fifth force with \lambda_C \simeq 2 Mpc, \Delta G/G_N \simeq 0.01. The variation of \Delta\log(\mathcal{L}) with \lambda_C is quantitatively as expected from the correlation of the magnitude of the fifth-force field with the force's range, and a similar model without screening achieves no increase in likelihood over the General Relativistic case \Delta G=0. Although these results are in good agreement with a previous analysis of the same model using offsets between galaxies' stellar and gas mass centroids (Desmond et al. 2018), we caution that the effects of confounding baryonic and dark matter physics must be thoroughly investigated for the results of the inference to be unambiguous. Boltzmann equations for preheating arXiv: 1807.1172 William T. Emond, Peter Millington, Paul M. Saffin We derive quantum Boltzmann equations for preheating by means of the density matrix formalism, which account for both the non-adiabatic particle production and the leading collisional processes between the produced particles. In so doing, we illustrate the pivotal role played by pair correlations in mediating the particle production. In addition, by numerically solving the relevant system of Boltzmann equations, we demonstrate that collisional processes lead to a suppression of the growth of the number density even at the very early stages of preheating. Polarization of a stochastic gravitational wave background through diffusion by massive structures arXiv: 1807.1062 Giulia Cusin, Ruth Durrer, Pedro G. Ferreira The geometric optics approximation traditionally used to study the propagation of gravitational waves on a curved background, breaks down in the vicinity of compact and extended astrophysical objects, where wave-like effects like diffusion and generation of polarization occur. We provide a framework to study the generation of polarization of a stochastic background of gravitational waves propagating in an inhomogeneous universe. The framework is general and can be applied to both cosmological and astrophysical gravitational wave backgrounds in any frequency range. We derive an order of magnitude estimate of the amount of polarization generated for cosmological and astrophysical backgrounds, in the frequency range covered by present and planned gravitational wave experiments. For an astrophysical background in the PTA and LISA band, the amount of polarization generated is suppressed by a factor 10^{-4} (10^{-5}) with respect to anisotropies. For a cosmological background we get an additional 10^{-2} suppression. We speculate on using our approach to map the distribution of (unresolvable) structures in the Universe. The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 3: Dual-Phase Module arXiv: 1807.1034 DUNE Collaboration, B. Abi, R. Acciarri, et al. The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 3 describes the dual-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report Volume 1: Physics, Technology and Strategies arXiv: 1807.1033 DUNE Collaboration, B. Abi, R. Acciarri, et al. The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE Far Detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 1 contains an executive summary that describes the general aims of this document. The remainder of this first volume provides a more detailed description of the DUNE physics program that drives the choice of detector technologies. It also includes concise outlines of two overarching systems that have not yet evolved to consortium structures: computing and calibration. Volumes 2 and 3 of this IDR describe, for the single-phase and dual-phase technologies, respectively, each detector module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report, Volume 2: Single-Phase Module arXiv: 1807.1032 DUNE Collaboration, B. Abi, R. Acciarri, et al. The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE far detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 2 describes the single-phase module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. Statistical challenges in the search for dark matter arXiv: 1807.0927 Sara Algeri, Melissa van Beekveld, Nassim Bozorgnia, et al. The search for the particle nature of dark matter has given rise to a number of experimental, theoretical and statistical challenges. Here, we report on a number of these statistical challenges and new techniques to address them, as discussed in the DMStat workshop held Feb 26 - Mar 3 2018 at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) in Banff, Alberta. A Dark Matter Hurricane: Measuring the S1 Stream with Dark Matter Detectors arXiv: 1807.0900 Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Christopher McCabe, N. Wyn Evans, et al. The recently discovered S1 stream passes through the Solar neighbourhood on a low inclination, counter-rotating orbit. The progenitor of S1 is a dwarf galaxy with a total mass comparable to the present-day Fornax dwarf spheroidal, so the stream is expected to have a significant DM component. We compute the effects of the S1 stream on WIMP and axion detectors as a function of the density of its unmeasured dark component. In WIMP detectors the S1 stream supplies more high energy nuclear recoils so will marginally improve DM detection prospects. We find that even if S1 comprises less than 10% of the local density, multi-ton xenon WIMP detectors can distinguish the S1 stream from the bulk halo in the relatively narrow mass range between 5 and 25 GeV. In directional WIMP detectors such as CYGNUS, S1 increases DM detection prospects more substantially since it enhances the anisotropy of the WIMP signal. Finally, we show that axion haloscopes possess by far the greatest potential sensitivity to the S1 stream. Once the axion mass has been discovered, the distinctive velocity distribution of S1 can easily be extracted from the axion power spectrum. Primordial Gravitational Waves and the Swampland arXiv: 1807.0657 Mafalda Dias, Jonathan Frazer, Ander Retolaza, Alexander Westphal The swampland conjectures seek to distinguish effective field theories which can be consistently embedded in a theory of quantum gravity from those which can not (and are hence referred to as being in the swampland). We consider two such conjectures, known as the Swampland Distance and de Sitter Conjectures, showing that taken together they place bounds on the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves generated during single field slow-roll inflation. The bounds depend on two parameters which for reasonable estimates restrict the tensor-to-scalar ratio to be within reach of future surveys. Non-Unitary Evolution in the General Extended EFT of Inflation & Excited Initial States arXiv: 1807.0651 Amjad Ashoorioon I study the "general" case that arises in the Extended Effective Field Theory of Inflation (gEEFToI), in which the coefficients of the sixth order polynomial dispersion relation depend on the physical wavelength of the fluctuation mode, hence they are time-dependent. At arbitrarily short wavelengths the unitarity is lost for each mode. Depending on the values of the gEEFToI parameters in the unitary gauge action, two scenarios can arise: in one, the coefficients of the polynomial become singular, flip signs at some physical wavelength and asymptote to a constant value as the wavelength of the mode is stretched to infinity. Starting from the WKB vacuum, the two-point function is essentially singular in the infinite IR limit. In the other case, the coefficients of the dispersion relation evolve monotonically from zero to a constant value in the infinite IR. In order to have a finite power spectrum starting from the vacuum in this case, the mode function has to be an eigensolution of the Confluent Heun (CH) equation, which leads to a very confined parameter space for gEEFToI. Finally, I look at a solution of the CH equation which is regular in the infinite IR limit and yields a finite power spectrum in either scenario. I demonstrate that this solution asymptotes to an excited state in past infinity in both cases. The result is interpreted in the light of the loss of unitarity for very small wavelengths. The outcome of such a non-unitary phase evolution should prepare each mode in the excited initial state that yields a finite two-point function for all the parameter space. This will be constraining of the new physics that UV completes such scenarios. N-body simulations of structure formation in thermal inflation cosmologies arXiv: 1807.0498 Matteo Leo, Carlton M. Baugh, Baojiu Li, Silvia Pascoli Thermal inflation models (which feature two inflationary stages) can display damped primordial curvature power spectra on small scales which generate damped matter fluctuations. For a reasonable choice of parameters, thermal inflation models naturally predict a suppression of the matter power spectrum on galactic and sub-galactic scales, mimicking the effect of warm or interacting dark matter. Matter power spectra in these models are also characterised by an excess of power (with respect to the standard \LambdaCDM power spectrum) just below the suppression scale. By running a suite of N-body simulations we investigate the non-linear growth of structure in models of thermal inflation. We measure the non-linear matter power spectrum and extract halo statistics, such as the halo mass function, and compare these quantities with those predicted in the standard \LambdaCDM model and in other models with damped matter fluctuations. We find that the thermal inflation models considered produce measurable differences in the matter power spectrum from \LambdaCDM at redshifts z>5, while the halo mass functions are appreciably different even at z=0. We also study the accuracy of the Press-Schechter analytical approach, with different filters, in predicting halo statistics for thermal inflation. We find that the predictions with the smooth-k filter we proposed in a separate paper agree with the simulation results over a wider range of halo masses than is the case with other filters commonly used in the literature. Reports of My Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated: N-subjettiness Taggers Take On Jet Images arXiv: 1807.0476 Liam Moore, Karl Nordström, Sreedevi Varma, Malcolm Fairbairn We compare the performance of a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on jet images with dense neural networks (DNNs) trained on n-subjettiness variables to study the distinguishing power of these two separate techniques applied to boosted hadronic Z boson and top quark decays. We find that they perform almost identically once jet mass information is included in a consistent manner, which suggests they are accessing the same underlying information which can be intuitively understood as being contained in 4-, 5-, and 6-body kinematic phase spaces depending on the sample. This suggests both of these methods are highly useful for heavy object tagging and provides a tentative answer to the question of what the image network is actually learning. Blazar Flares as an Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos? arXiv: 1807.0474 Kohta Murase, Foteini Oikonomou, Maria Petropoulou We consider implications of high-energy neutrino emission from blazar flares, including the recent event IceCube-170922A and the 2014-2015 neutrino flare that could originate from TXS 0506+056. First, we discuss their contribution to the diffuse neutrino intensity taking into account various observational constraints. Blazars are likely to be subdominant in the diffuse neutrino intensity at sub-PeV energies, and we show that blazar flares like those of TXS 0506+056 could make <1-10 percent of the total neutrino intensity. We also argue that the neutrino output of blazars can be dominated by the flares in the standard leptonic scenario for their gamma-ray emission, and energetic flares may still be detected with a rate of <1 per year. Second, we consider multi-messenger constraints on the source modeling. We show that luminous neutrino flares should be accompanied by luminous broadband cascade emission, emerging also in X-rays and gamma-rays. This implies that not only gamma-ray telescopes like Fermi but also X-ray sky monitors such as Swift and MAXI are critical to test the canonical picture based on the single-zone modeling. We also suggest a two-zone model that can naturally satisfy the X-ray constraints while explaining the flaring neutrinos via either photomeson or hadronuclear processes. Parametrizing modified gravities with vector degrees of freedom: anisotropic growth and lensing arXiv: 1807.0464 Miguel Aparicio Resco, Antonio L. Maroto We consider the problem of parametrizing modified gravity theories that include an additional vector field in the sub-Hubble regime within the quasi-static approximation. We start from the most general set of second order equations for metric and vector field perturbations and allow for both temporal and spatial components of the background vector field. We find that in the case in which dark matter obeys standard conservation equations, eight parameters are needed to fully characterize the theory. If dark matter vorticity can be neglected, the number of independent parameters is reduced to four. In addition to the usual scale and redshift dependence, the effective parameters have an additional angular dependence induced by the preferred direction set by the background vector. In the considered sub-Hubble regime, we show that this angular dependence appears only through even multipoles and generates anisotropies in the growth function which translate into anisotropies in the galaxy and lensing convergence power spectra. The angular dependence generated by the preferred direction is different from that induced by redshift space distortions and could be disentangled in the data collected by future galaxy surveys. Dark energy as a remnant of inflation and electroweak symmetry breaking arXiv: 1807.0435 Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Tommi Markkanen It is shown that dark energy can be obtained from the interplay of the Higgs boson and the inflaton. A key element is the realization that electroweak symmetry breaking can trigger a second phase of rolling of the inflaton, which, when provided with the appropriate couplings between the fields, can be sufficiently slow to source accelerated expansion in the late time Universe. The observed dark energy density is obtained without fine-tuning of parameters or initial conditions due to an intricate conspiracy of numbers related to inflation, gravity and electroweak physics. Evolution of dark energy reconstructed from the latest observations arXiv: 1807.0377 Yuting Wang, Levon Pogosian, Gong-Bo Zhao, Alex Zucca We reconstruct evolution of the dark energy (DE) density using a nonparametric Bayesian approach from a combination of latest observational data. We caution against parameterizing DE in terms of its equation of state as it is not always well-defined in modified gravity models and can result in a bias preventing negative effective DE densities. Our results indicate a 3.7\sigma preference for an evolving effective DE density with interesting features. For example, it oscillates around the \LambdaCDM prediction at z\lesssim0.7, and could be negative at z\gtrsim2.3; dark energy can be pressure-less at multiple redshifts during evolution, and a short period of cosmic deceleration is allowed by current data at 0.1 \lesssim z\lesssim 0.2. We perform the reconstruction for several choices of the prior, as well as a Bayesian-weighted reconstruction, and find that some of the dynamical features, such as the oscillatory behaviour of the DE density, are supported by the Bayesian evidence. A new approach to cosmological structure formation with massive neutrinos arXiv: 1807.0370 Christian Fidler, Alexander Kleinjohann, Thomas Tram, et al. We show how Newtonian cosmological simulations can be employed to investigate the non-linear evolution of two particle species in a relativistic context. We discuss the application for massive neutrinos and other multi-species systems such as Cold Dark Matter (CDM) plus baryons or Warm Dark Matter (WDM). We propose a method that allows us to perform simulations including massive neutrinos and general relativistic effects at almost the same computational cost as ordinary CDM only N-body simulations, employing tailor-made initial conditions and a dictionary for the interpretation of the simulation output. Optimising Parameters in Recurrence Quantification Analysis of Smart Energy Systems arXiv: 1807.0289 Georgios Giasemidis, Danica Vukadinovic Greetham Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) can help to detect significant events and phase transitions of a dynamical system, but choosing a suitable set of parameters is crucial for the success. From recurrence plots different RQA variables can be obtained and analysed. Currently, most of the methods for RQA radius optimisation are focusing on a single RQA variable. In this work we are proposing two new methods for radius optimisation that look for an optimum in the higher dimensional space of the RQA variables, therefore synchronously optimising across several variables. We illustrate our approach using two case studies: a well known Lorenz dynamical system, and a time-series obtained from monitoring energy consumption of a small enterprise. Our case studies show that both methods result in plausible values and can be used to analyse energy data. Quiver Theories and Formulae for Slodowy Slices of Classical Algebras arXiv: 1807.0252 Santiago Cabrera, Amihay Hanany, Rudolph Kalveks We utilise SUSY quiver gauge theories to compute properties of Slodowy slices; these are spaces transverse to the nilpotent orbits of a Lie algebra \mathfrak g. We analyse classes of quiver theories, with Classical gauge and flavour groups, whose Higgs branch Hilbert series are the intersections between Slodowy slices and the nilpotent cone \mathcal S\cap \mathcal N of \mathfrak{g}. We calculate refined Hilbert series for Classical algebras up to rank 4 (and A_5), and find descriptions of their representation matrix generators as algebraic varieties encoding the relations of the chiral ring. We also analyse a class of dual quiver theories, whose Coulomb branches are intersections \mathcal S\cap \mathcal N; such dual quiver theories exist for the Slodowy slices of A algebras, but are limited to a subset of the Slodowy slices of BCD algebras. The analysis opens new questions about the extent of 3d mirror symmetry within the class of SCFTs known as T_\sigma^\rho(G) theories. We also give simple group theoretic formulae for the Hilbert series of Slodowy slices; these draw directly on the SU(2) embedding into G of the associated nilpotent orbit, and the Hilbert series of the nilpotent cone. Phenomenological Constraints on Anomaly-Free Dark Matter Models arXiv: 1807.0250 John Ellis, Malcolm Fairbairn, Patrick Tunney We study minimal benchmark models of dark matter with an extra anomaly-free U(1)' gauge boson Z'. We find model parameters that give rise to the correct cosmological dark matter density while evading the latest direct detection searches for dark matter scattering produced by the XENON1T experiment, including the effects of Z-Z' mixing. We also find regions of parameter space that evade the constraints from LHC measurements of dileptons and dijets, precision electroweak measurements, and LHC searches for monojet events with missing transverse energy. We study two benchmark Z' models with Y-sequential couplings to quarks and leptons, one with a vector-like coupling to the dark matter particle and one with an axial dark matter coupling. The vector-like model is extremely tightly constrained, with only a narrow allowed strip where m_\chi \simeq M_{Z'}/2, and the axial model is excluded within the parameter range studied. We also consider two leptophobic Z^\prime benchmark models, finding again narrow allowed strips where m_\chi \simeq M_{Z'}/2 as well as more extended regions where \log_{10} (m_\chi/ {\rm GeV}) \gtrsim 3.2. Gravitationally produced Top Quarks and the Stability of the Electroweak Vacuum During Inflation arXiv: 1807.0245 David Rodriguez-Roman, Malcolm Fairbairn In the standard model the (Brout-Englert-)Higgs quartic coupling becomes negative at high energies rendering our current electroweak vacuum metastable, but with an instability timescale much longer than the age of the Current Universe. During cosmological inflation, unless there is a non-minimal coupling to gravity, the Higgs field is pushed away from the origin of its potential due to quantum fluctuations. It is therefore a mystery how we have remained in our current vacuum if we went through such a period of inflation. In this work we study the effect of top quarks created gravitationally during Inflation and their effect upon the Higgs potential using only General Relativity with minimal couplings and Standard Model particle physics. We show that there are regions of parameter space still compatible with LHC observations where such modifications to the potential would prevent the Higgs from passing over the barrier to the unstable regime during 60 e-folds of Inflation. The effect of the fermions can change the values of r_T which lead to instability by more than 100\% meaning that the Electroweak vacuum during inflation is slightly less unstable than we previously thought. Prospects for axion searches with Advanced LIGO through binary mergers arXiv: 1807.0213 Junwu Huang, Matthew C. Johnson, Laura Sagunski, et al. The observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger by LIGO/VIRGO and the associated electromagnetic counterpart provides a high precision test of orbital dynamics, and therefore a new and sensitive probe of extra forces and new radiative degrees of freedom. Axions are one particularly well-motivated class of extensions to the Standard Model leading to new forces and sources of radiation, which we focus on in this paper. Using an effective field theory (EFT) approach, we calculate the first post-Newtonian corrections to the orbital dynamics, radiated power, and gravitational waveform for binary neutron star mergers in the presence of an axion. This result is applicable to many theories which add an extra massive scalar degree of freedom to General Relativity. We then perform a detailed forecast of the potential for Advanced LIGO to constrain the free parameters of the EFT, and map these to the mass m_a and decay constant f_a of the axion. At design sensitivity, we find that Advanced LIGO can potentially exclude axions with m_a \lesssim 10^{-11} \ {\rm eV} and f_a \sim (10^{14} - 10^{17}) \ {\rm GeV}. There are a variety of complementary observational probes over this region of parameter space, including the orbital decay of binary pulsars, black hole superradiance, and laboratory searches. We comment on the synergies between these various observables. Probing Electroweak Precision Physics via boosted Higgs-strahlung at the LHC arXiv: 1807.0179 Shankha Banerjee, Christoph Englert, Rick S. Gupta, Michael Spannowsky We study the process pp \to Z(\ell^+ \ell^-)h(b\bar b) in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) at high energies using subjet techniques to reconstruct the Higgs boson. We show that at high energies this process probes four directions in the dimension 6 EFT space, namely the operators that contribute to the four contact interactions, hZ_\mu \bar{f}\gamma^\mu f, where f=u_L, u_R,d_L and d_R. These four directions are, however, already constrained by the Z-pole and diboson measurements at LEP. We show that by utilising the energy growth of this process in the SMEFT and the accuracy that can be achieved by using subjet techniques at the High Luminosity LHC, one can obtain bounds on these operators that are an order of magnitude better than existing LEP bounds. Is the Big Rip unreachable? arXiv: 1807.0158 Konstantinos Dimopoulos I investigate the repercussions of particle production when the Universe is dominated by a hypothetical phantom substance. I show that backreaction due to particle production prevents the density from shooting to infinity at a Big Rip, but instead forces it to stabilise at a large constant value. Afterwards there is a period of de-Sitter inflation. I speculate that this might lead to a cyclic Universe. Fifth force constraints from the separation of galaxy mass components arXiv: 1807.0148 Harry Desmond, Pedro G Ferreira, Guilhem Lavaux, Jens Jasche One of the most common consequences of extensions to the standard models of particle physics or cosmology is the emergence of a fifth force. While generic fifth forces are tightly constrained at Solar System scales and below, they may escape detection by means of a screening mechanism which effectively removes them in dense environments. We constrain the strength \Delta G/G_N and range \lambda_C of a chameleon- or symmetron-screened fifth force with Yukawa coupling -- as well as an unscreened fifth force with differential coupling to galactic mass components -- by searching for the displacement it predicts between galaxies' stellar and gas mass centroids. Taking data from the Alfalfa HI survey, identifying galaxies' gravitational environments with the maps of Desmond et al. (2018a) and forward-modelling with a Bayesian likelihood framework, we find 6.6\sigma evidence for \Delta G>0 at \lambda_C \simeq 2 Mpc, with \Delta G/G_N = 0.025 at maximum-likelihood. A similar fifth-force model without screening gives no increase in likelihood over the case \Delta G = 0 for any \lambda_C. Although we validate these results by several methods, we do not claim screened modified gravity to provide the only possible explanation for the signal: this would require knowing that "galaxy formation" physics could not be responsible. We show also the results of a more conservative -- though less well motivated -- noise model which yields only upper limits on \Delta G/G_N, ranging from \sim10^{-1} for \lambda_C \simeq 0.5 Mpc to \sim \: \text{few} \times 10^{-4} at \lambda_C \simeq 50 Mpc. We show how these constraints may be improved by future galaxy surveys and identify the key features of an observational programme for directly constraining fifth forces on galactic scales. This paper provides a complete description of the analysis summarised in Desmond et al. (2018b). Intensity mapping of the 21cm emission: lensing arXiv: 1807.0135 Mona Jalilvand, Elisabetta Majerotto, Ruth Durrer, Martin Kunz In this paper, we study lensing of 21cm intensity mapping (IM). Like in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), there is no first order lensing in intensity mapping. The first effects in the power spectrum are therefore of second and third order. Despite this, lensing of the CMB power spectrum is an important effect that needs to be taken into account, which motivates the study of the impact of lensing on the IM power spectrum. We derive a general formula up to third order in perturbation theory including all the terms with two derivatives of the gravitational potential, i.e. the dominant terms on sub-Hubble scales. We then show that in intensity mapping there is a new lensing term which is not present in the CMB. We obtain that the signal-to-noise of 21 cm lensing for futuristic surveys like SKA2 is about 10. We find that surveys probing only large scales, lmax < 700, can safely neglect the lensing of the intensity mapping power spectrum, but that otherwise this effect should be included. Redshift-space distortions from vector perturbations II: Anisotropic signal arXiv: 1807.0073 Vittorio Tansella, Camille Bonvin, Giulia Cusin, et al. We study the impact on the galaxy correlation function of the presence of a vector component in the tracers' peculiar velocities, in the case in which statistical isotropy is violated. We present a general framework - based on the bipolar spherical harmonics expansion - to study this effect in a model independent way, without any hypothesis on the origin or the properties of these vector modes. We construct six new observables, that can be directly measured in galaxy catalogs in addition to the standard monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole, and we show that they completely describe any deviations from isotropy. We then perform a Fisher analysis in order to quantify the constraining power of future galaxy surveys. As an example, we show that the SKA2 would be able to detect anisotropic rotational velocities with amplitudes as low as 1% of that of the vorticity generated during shell-crossing in standard dark matter scenarios. Late afterglows of GW/GRB 170817A arXiv: 1806.1116 Houri Ziaeepour The gamma-ray burst that followed the first detection of gravitational waves from the merger of a Binary Neutron Stars and its low energy counterparts were in many respects unusual and challenge our understanding of mechanisms involved in their production. In a previous work we used a phenomenological formulation of relativistic shocks and synchrotron emission to analyze the prompt gamma-ray emission of GW/GRB 170817A. Here we use the same model to analyze late afterglows of this event. The main goal is to see whether synchrotron emission alone can explain late afterglows. We find that a collision between a mildly relativistic outflow from the merger, called a cocoon, with the circumburst material can explain observations if synchrotron self-absorption of radio emission and local extinction of optical/IR photons are taken into account. In absence of a significant extinction an additional source of X-ray is necessary. These conclusions are independent of the model used here and can be deduced directly from data. We show that at the time of its encounter with circumburst material the outflow could have been still mildly magnetized. The origin for optical extinction could be a dust rich old faint star cluster surrounding the BNS, which additionally had helped the formation of the BNS and its merger. Such an environment evades present observational constraints and is consistent with our conclusions about properties and evolution of the progenitor neutron stars obtained from analysis of the prompt emission. If the synchrotron emission was produced internally through collisions of density shells in the cocoon, the extinction might have occurred inside the outflow itself rather than externally. The most plausible additional source of X-ray is the decay of medium and heavy nuclides produced by the kilonova and the recombination of electrons after the cooling of ejected disk material. COFFE: a code for the full-sky relativistic galaxy correlation function arXiv: 1806.1109 Vittorio Tansella, Goran Jelic-Cizmek, Camille Bonvin, Ruth Durrer We present a public version of the code COFFE (COrrelation Function Full-sky Estimator) available at https://github.com/JCGoran/coffe. The code computes the galaxy two-point correlation function and its multipoles in linear perturbation theory, including all relativistic and wide angle corrections. COFFE also calculates the covariance matrix for two physically relevant estimators of the correlation function multipoles. We illustrate the usefulness of our code by a simple but relevant example: a forecast of the detectability of the lensing signal in the multipoles of the two-point function. In particular, we show that lensing should be detectable in the multipoles of the two-point function, with a signal-to-noise larger than 10, in future surveys like Euclid or the SKA. Wormhole geometries supported by three-form fields arXiv: 1806.1048 Bruno J. Barros, Francisco S. N. Lobo In this work, we find novel static and spherically symmetric wormhole geometries using a three-form field. By solving the gravitational field equations, we find a variety of analytical and numerical solutions and show that it is possible for the matter fields threading the wormhole to satisfy the null and weak energy conditions throughout the spacetime, when the three-form field is present. In these cases, the form field is responsible for supporting the wormhole and all the exoticity is confined to it. Thus, the three-form curvature terms, which may be interpreted as a gravitational fluid, sustain these non-standard wormhole geometries, fundamentally different from their counterparts in General Relativity. We also show that in the case of a vanishing redshift function the field can display a cosmological constant behavior. Coupling matter in modified Q-gravity arXiv: 1806.1043 Tiberiu Harko, Tomi S. Koivisto, Francisco S. N. Lobo, et al. We present a novel theory of gravity by considering an extension of symmetric teleparallel gravity. This is done by introducing, in the framework of the metric-affine formalism, a new class of theories where the nonmetricity Q is nonminimally coupled to the matter Lagrangian. More specifically, we consider a Lagrangian of the form L \sim f_1(Q) + f_2(Q) L_M, where f_1 and f_2 are generic functions of Q, and L_M is the matter Lagrangian. This nonminimal coupling entails the nonconservation of the energy-momentum tensor, and consequently the appearance of an extra force. The motivation is to verify whether the subtle improvement of the geometrical formulation, when implemented in the matter sector, would allow more universally consistent and viable realisations of the nonminimal curvature-matter coupling theories. Furthermore, we consider several cosmological applications by presenting the evolution equations and imposing specific functional forms of the functions f_1(Q) and f_2(Q), such as power-law and exponential dependencies of the nonminimal couplings. Cosmological solutions are considered in two general classes of models, and found to feature accelerating expansion at late times. Cosmological Constraints from Fourier Phase Statistics arXiv: 1806.1027 Kamran Ali, Danail Obreschkow, Cullan Howlett, et al. Most statistical inference from cosmic large-scale structure relies on two-point statistics, i.e.\ on the galaxy-galaxy correlation function (2PCF) or the power spectrum. These statistics capture the full information encoded in the Fourier amplitudes of the galaxy density field but do not describe the Fourier phases of the field. Here, we quantify the information contained in the line correlation function (LCF), a three-point Fourier phase correlation function. Using cosmological simulations, we estimate the Fisher information (at redshift z=0) of the 2PCF, LCF and their combination, regarding the cosmological parameters of the standard \LambdaCDM model, as well as a Warm Dark Matter (WDM) model and the f(R) and Symmetron modified gravity models. The galaxy bias is accounted for at the level of a linear bias. The relative information of the 2PCF and the LCF depends on the survey volume, sampling density (shot noise) and the bias uncertainty. For a volume of 1h^{-3}\rm Gpc^3, sampled with points of mean density \bar{n} = 2\times10^{-3} h^{3}\ \rm Mpc^{-3} and a bias uncertainty of 13\%, the LCF improves the parameter constraints by about 20\% in the \LambdaCDM cosmology and potentially even more in alternative models. Finally, since a linear bias only affects the Fourier amplitudes (2PCF), but not the phases (LCF), the combination of the 2PCF and the LCF can be used to break the degeneracy between the linear bias and \sigma_8, present in 2-point statistics. Fully-resolved array of simulations investigating the influence of the magnetic Prandtl number arXiv: 1806.1020 Mairi E. McKay, Arjun Berera, Richard D. J. G. Ho We explore the effect of the magnetic Prandtl number Pr_M on energy and dissipation in fully-resolved direct numerical simulations of steady-state, mechanically-forced homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the range Pr_M = 1/32 to 32. We compare the spectra and show that if the simulations are not fully resolved, the steepness of the scaling of the kinetic-to-magnetic dissipation ratio with Pr_M is overestimated. We also present results of decaying turbulence with helical and nonhelical magnetic fields, where we find nonhelical reverse spectral transfer for Pr_M < 1 for the first time. The results of this systematic analysis have applications ranging from tokamak reactors to black hole accretion disks. Tunneling in Stochastic Inflation arXiv: 1806.0963 Mahdiyar Noorbala, Vincent Vennin, Hooshyar Assadullahi, et al. The relative probability to decay towards different vacua during inflation is studied. The calculation is performed in single-field slow-roll potentials using the stochastic inflation formalism. Various situations are investigated, including falling from a local maximum of the potential and escaping from a local minimum. In the latter case, our result is consistent with that of Hawking and Moss, but is applicable to any potential. The decay rates are also computed, and the case of a generic potential with multiple minima and maxima is discussed. The attractive behaviour of ultra-slow-roll inflation arXiv: 1806.0955 Chris Pattison, Vincent Vennin, Hooshyar Assadullahi, David Wands It is often claimed that the ultra-slow-roll regime of inflation, where the dynamics of the inflaton field are friction dominated, is a non-attractor and/or transient. In this work we carry out a phase-space analysis of ultra-slow roll in an arbitrary potential, V(\phi). We show that while standard slow roll is always a dynamical attractor whenever it is a self-consistent approximation, ultra-slow roll is stable for an inflaton field rolling down a convex potential with M_{\scriptscriptstyle{\mathrm{Pl}}} V''> The Hierarchion, a Relaxion Addressing the Standard Model's Hierarchies arXiv: 1806.0879 Oz Davidi, Rick S. Gupta, Gilad Perez, et al. We present a mechanism that addresses the electroweak, the strong CP, and the flavor hierarchies of the Standard Model (including neutrino masses) in a unified way. The naturalness of the electroweak scale is solved together with the strong CP problem by the Nelson-Barr relaxion: the relaxion field is identified with the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of an abelian symmetry with no QCD anomaly. The Nelson-Barr sector generates the "rolling" potential and the relaxion vacuum expectation value at the stopping point is mapped to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase. An abelian symmetry accounts for the Standard Model's mass hierarchies and flavor textures through the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. We show how the "backreaction" potential of the relaxion can be induced by a sterile neutrino sector, without any extra state with electroweak quantum numbers. The same construction successfully explains neutrino masses and mixings. The only light field in our construction is the relaxion, which we call the hierarchion because it is essentially linked to our construct that accounts for all the Standard Model hierarchies. Given its interplay with flavor symmetries, the hierarchion can be probed in flavor-violating decays of the Standard Model fermions, motivating a further experimental effort in looking for new physics in rare decays of leptons and mesons. Bracketing the impact of astrophysical uncertainties on local dark matter searches arXiv: 1806.0871 Alejandro Ibarra, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Andreas Rappelt The theoretical interpretation of dark matter (DM) experiments is hindered by uncertainties on the dark matter density and velocity distribution inside the Solar System. In order to quantify those uncertainties, we present a parameter that characterizes the deviation of the true velocity distribution from the standard Maxwell-Boltzmann form, and we then determine for different values of this parameter the most aggressive and most conservative limits on the dark matter scattering cross section with nuclei. This allows us to bracket, in a model independent way, the impact of astrophysical uncertainties on limits from direct detection experiments and/or neutrino telescopes. We find that current limits assuming the Standard Halo Model are at most a factor of \sim 2 weaker than the most aggressive possible constraints. In addition, combining neutrino telescope and direct detection constraints (in a statistically meaningful way), we show that limits on DM in the mass range \sim 10 - 1000 GeV cannot be weakened by more than around a factor of 10, for all possible velocity distributions. We finally demonstrate that our approach can also be employed in the event of a DM discovery, allowing us to avoid bias in the reconstruction of the DM properties. Overcoming obstacles in nonequilibrium holography arXiv: 1806.0865 Igor Novak, Julian Sonner, Benjamin Withers We study universal spatial features of certain non-equilibrium steady states corresponding to flows of strongly correlated fluids over obstacles. This allows us to predict universal spatial features of far-from-equilibrium systems, which in certain interesting cases depend cleanly on the hydrodynamic transport coefficients of the underlying theory, such as \eta/s, the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio. In this work we give a purely field-theoretical definition of the spatial collective modes identified earlier and proceed to demonstrate their usefulness in a set of examples, drawing on hydrodynamic theory as well as holographic duality. We extend our earlier treatment by adding a finite chemical potential, which introduces a qualitatively new feature, namely damped oscillatory behavior in space. We find interesting transitions between oscillatory and damped regimes and we consider critical exponents associated with these. We explain in detail the numerical method and add a host of new examples, including fully analytical ones. Such a treatment is possible in the large-dimension limit of the bulk theory, as well as in three dimensions, where we also exhibit a fully analytic non-linear example that beautifully illustrates the original proposal of spatial universality. This allows us to explicitly demonstrate how an infinite tower of discrete modes condenses into a branch cut in the zero-temperature limit, converting exponential decay into a power law tail. Generalised matter couplings in general relativity arXiv: 1806.0855 Christian G. Boehmer, Sante Carloni A new class of modified theory of gravity is introduced where the volume form becomes dynamical. This approach is motivated by unimodular gravity and can also be related to Brans-Dicke theory. On the level of the action, the only change made will be through the volume element which is used in the integration. This is achieved by the introduction of a fourth order tensor which connects the spacetime metric to the new volume form. Using dynamical systems techniques, this model is studied in the context of cosmology. The most interesting result is that there exist parameter ranges where this model starts undergoing an epoch of accelerated expansion, followed by a decelerating expansion which evolves to a final epoch of accelerated expansion. A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity arXiv: 1806.0830 Thomas E. Collett, Lindsay J. Oldham, Russell J. Smith, et al. Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, \gamma. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that \gamma = 0.97 \pm 0.09 at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity. Constraining late-time transitions in the dark energy equation of state arXiv: 1806.0765 C. J. A. P. Martins, M. Prat Colomer One of the most compelling goals of observational cosmology is the characterisation of the properties of the dark energy component thought to be responsible for the recent acceleration of the universe, including its possible dynamics. In this work we study phenomenological but physically motivated classes of models in which the dark energy equation of state can undergo a rapid transition at low redshifts, perhaps associated with the onset of the acceleration phase itself. Through a standard statistical analysis we have used low-redshift cosmological data, coming from Type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter measurements, to set constraints on the steepness of these possible transitions as well as on the present-day values of the dark energy equation of state and in the asymptotic past in these models. We have also studied the way in which these constraints depend on the specific parametrisation being used. Our results confirm that such late-time transitions are strongly constrained. If one demands a matter-like pre-transition behaviour, then the transition is constrained to occur at high redshifts (effectively in the matter era), while if the pre-transition equation of state is a free parameter then it is constrained to be close to that of a cosmological constant. In any case, the value of dark energy equation of state near the present day must also be very similar to that of a cosmological constant. The overall conclusion is that any significant deviations from this behaviour can only occur in the deep matter era, so there is no evidence for a transition associated with the onset of acceleration. Observational tools capable of probing the dynamics of the universe in the deep matter era are therefore particularly important. Long-Lived Particles at the Energy Frontier: The MATHUSLA Physics Case arXiv: 1806.0739 David Curtin, Marco Drewes, Matthew McCullough, et al. We examine the theoretical motivations for long-lived particle (LLP) signals at the LHC in a comprehensive survey of Standard Model (SM) extensions. LLPs are a common prediction of a wide range of theories that address unsolved fundamental mysteries such as naturalness, dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino masses, and represent a natural and generic possibility for physics beyond the SM (BSM). In most cases the LLP lifetime can be treated as a free parameter from the \mum scale up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of \sim 10^7m. Neutral LLPs with lifetimes above \sim 100m are particularly difficult to probe, as the sensitivity of the LHC main detectors is limited by challenging backgrounds, triggers, and small acceptances. MATHUSLA is a proposal for a minimally instrumented, large-volume surface detector near ATLAS or CMS. It would search for neutral LLPs produced in HL-LHC collisions by reconstructing displaced vertices (DVs) in a low-background environment, extending the sensitivity of the main detectors by orders of magnitude in the long-lifetime regime. In this white paper we study the LLP physics opportunities afforded by a MATHUSLA-like detector at the HL-LHC. We develop a model-independent approach to describe the sensitivity of MATHUSLA to BSM LLP signals, and compare it to DV and missing energy searches at ATLAS or CMS. We then explore the BSM motivations for LLPs in considerable detail, presenting a large number of new sensitivity studies. While our discussion is especially oriented towards the long-lifetime regime at MATHUSLA, this survey underlines the importance of a varied LLP search program at the LHC in general. By synthesizing these results into a general discussion of the top-down and bottom-up motivations for LLP searches, it is our aim to demonstrate the exceptional strength and breadth of the physics case for the construction of the MATHUSLA detector. Deformed general relativity and scalar-tensor models arXiv: 1806.0679 Rhiannon Cuttell, Mairi Sakellariadou We calculate the most general action for a scalar-tensor model up to quadratic order in derivatives with deformed general covariance and non-minimal coupling. We demonstrate how different choices of the free functions recover specific well known scalar-tensor models. We look at the cosmological dynamics and find the general conditions for either inflation or a big bounce. Using this we present a novel non-minimally coupled scalar model which produces a bounce, and describe how to find similar models. LISA as a probe for particle physics: electroweak scale tests in synergy with ground-based experiments arXiv: 1806.0646 Daniel G. Figueroa, Eugenio Megias, Germano Nardini, et al. We forecast the prospective of detection for a stochastic gravitational wave background sourced by cosmological first-order phase transitions. We focus on first-order phase transitions with negligible plasma effects, and consider the experimental infrastructures built by the end of the LISA mission. We make manifest the synergy among LISA, pulsar time array experiments, and ground-based interferometers. For phase transitions above the TeV scale or below the electroweak scale, LISA can detect the corresponding gravitational wave signal together with Einstein Telescope, SKA or even aLIGO-aVIRGO-KAGRA. For phase transitions at the electroweak scale, instead, LISA can be the only experiment observing the gravitational wave signal. In case of detection, by using a parameter reconstruction method that we anticipate in this work, we show that LISA on its own has the potential to determine when the phase transition occurs and, consequently, the energy scale above which the standard model of particle physics needs to be modified. The result may likely guide the collider community in the post-LHC era. A New Semiclassical Picture of Vacuum Decay arXiv: 1806.0606 Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, et al. We introduce a new picture of vacuum decay which, in contrast to existing semiclassical techniques, provides a real-time description and does not rely on classically-forbidden tunneling paths. Using lattice simulations, we observe vacuum decay via bubble formation by generating realizations of vacuum fluctuations and evolving with the classical equations of motion. The decay rate obtained from an ensemble of simulations is in excellent agreement with existing techniques. Future applications include bubble correlation functions, fast decay rates, and decay of non-vacuum states. CIA-Towards a Unified Marketing Optimization Framework for e-Commerce Sponsored Search arXiv: 1806.0579 Hao Liu, Qinyu Cao, Xinru Liao, et al. As the largest e-commerce platform, Taobao helps advertisers reach billions of search requests each day with its sponsored search service, which has also contributed considerable revenue to the platform. How to design a suit of marketing optimization tool to cater various advertiser demands while balancing platform revenue and consumer experience is significant to a healthy and sustainable marketing ecosystem, among which bidding strategy plays a critical role. Traditional keyword-level bidding optimization only provides a coarse-grained match between advertisement and impression. Meanwhile impression-level expected value bidder is not applicable to various demand optimization of massive advertisers, not to mention its lack of mechanism to balance benefits of three parties. In this paper we propose \emph{Customer Intelligent Agent}, a bidding optimization framework which designs an impression-level bidding strategy to reflect advertiser's conversion willingness and budget control. In this way, with a simplified control ability for advertisers, CIA is capable of fulfilling various e-commerce advertiser demands in different levels, such as GMV optimization, style comparison etc. Additionally, a replay based simulation system is designed to predict the performance of different take-rate. CIA unifies the benefits of three parties in the marketing ecosystem without changing the classic expected Cost Per Mille mechanism. Our extensive offline simulations and large-scale online experiments on \emph{Taobao Search Advertising} platform verify the high effectiveness of the CIA framework. Moreover, CIA has been deployed online as a major bidding tool for advertisers in TSA. A dust-enshrouded tidal disruption event with a resolved radio jet in a galaxy merger arXiv: 1806.0571 S. Mattila, M. Pérez-Torres, A. Efstathiou, et al. Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are transient flares produced when a star is ripped apart by the gravitational field of a supermassive black hole (SMBH). We have observed a transient source in the western nucleus of the merging galaxy pair Arp 299 that radiated >1.5x10^52 erg in the infrared and radio, but was not luminous at optical or X-ray wavelengths. We interpret this as a TDE with much of its emission re-radiated at infrared wavelengths by dust. Efficient reprocessing by dense gas and dust may explain the difference between theoretical predictions and observed luminosities of TDEs. The radio observations resolve an expanding and decelerating jet, probing the jet formation and evolution around a SMBH. Probing Particle Physics with IceCube arXiv: 1806.0569 Markus Ahlers, Klaus Helbing, Carlos Pérez de los Heros The IceCube observatory located at the South Pole is a cubic-kilometre optical Cherenkov telescope primarily designed for the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. IceCube became fully operational in 2010, after a seven-year construction phase, and reached a milestone in 2013 by the first observation of cosmic neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range. This observation does not only mark an important breakthrough in neutrino astronomy, but it also provides a new probe of particle physics related to neutrino production, mixing, and interaction. In this review we give an overview of the various possibilities how IceCube can address fundamental questions related to the phenomena of neutrino oscillations and interactions, the origin of dark matter, and the existence of exotic relic particles, like monopoles. We will summarize recent results and highlight future avenues. Non-Gaussianity from Axion-Gauge Fields Interactions during Inflation arXiv: 1806.0547 Emanuela Dimastrogiovanni, Matteo Fasiello, Robert J. Hardwick, et al. We study the scalar-tensor-tensor non-Gaussian signal in an inflationary model comprising also an axion coupled with SU(2) gauge fields. In this set-up, metric fluctuations are sourced by the gauge fields already at the linear level providing an enhanced chiral gravitational waves spectrum. The same mechanism is at work in generating an amplitude for the three-point function that is parametrically larger than in standard single-field inflation. Reconstructing the Inflationary Landscape with Cosmological Data arXiv: 1806.0520 Xingang Chen, Gonzalo A. Palma, Bruno Scheihing Hitschfeld, Spyros Sypsas We show that the shape of the inflationary landscape potential may be constrained by analyzing cosmological data. The quantum fluctuations of fields orthogonal to the inflationary trajectory may have probed the structure of the local landscape potential, inducing non-Gaussianity (NG) in the primordial distribution of the curvature perturbations responsible for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and our Universe's large-scale structure. The resulting type of NG (tomographic NG) is determined by the shape of the landscape potential, and it cannot be fully characterized by 3- or 4-point correlation functions. Here we deduce an expression for the profile of this probability distribution function in terms of the landscape potential, and we show how this can be inverted in order to reconstruct the potential with the help of CMB observations. While current observations do not allow us to infer a significant level of tomographic NG, future surveys may improve the possibility of constraining this class of primordial signatures. Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap arXiv: 1806.0519 Leor Barack, Vitor Cardoso, Samaya Nissanke, et al. The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics---dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem---all involve gravity as a key component. And of all gravitational phenomena, black holes stand out in their elegant simplicity, while harbouring some of the most remarkable predictions of General Relativity: event horizons, singularities and ergoregions. The hitherto invisible landscape of the gravitational Universe is being unveiled before our eyes: the historical direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration marks the dawn of a new era of scientific exploration. Gravitational-wave astronomy will allow us to test models of black hole formation, growth and evolution, as well as models of gravitational-wave generation and propagation. It will provide evidence for event horizons and ergoregions, test the theory of General Relativity itself, and may reveal the existence of new fundamental fields. The synthesis of these results has the potential to radically reshape our understanding of the cosmos and of the laws of Nature. The purpose of this work is to present a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the relevant fields of research, summarize important open problems, and lay out a roadmap for future progress. JUNO Sensitivity to Resonant Absorption of Galactic Supernova Neutrinos by Dark Matter arXiv: 1806.0501 Tarso Franarin, Malcolm Fairbairn, Jonathan H. Davis Resonant interactions between neutrinos from a Galactic supernova and dark matter particles can lead to a sharp dip in the neutrino energy spectrum. Due to its excellent energy resolution, measurement of this effect with the JUNO experiment can provide evidence for such couplings. We discuss how JUNO may confirm or further constrain a model where scalar dark matter couples to active neutrinos and another fermion. Monodromy inflation and an emergent mechanism for stabilising the cosmological constant arXiv: 1806.0474 Antonio Padilla We show that a pair of field theory monodromies in which the shift symmetry is broken by small, well motivated deformations, naturally incorporates a mechanism for cancelling off radiative corrections to the cosmological constant. The lighter monodromy sector plays the role of inflation as well as providing a rigid degree of freedom that acts as a dynamical counterterm for the cosmological constant. The heavier monodromy sector includes a rigid dilaton that forces a global constraint on the system and the cancellation of vacuum energy loops occurs at low energies via the sequestering mechanism. This suggests that monodromy constructions in string theory could be adapted to incorporate mechanisms to stabilise the cosmological constant in their low energy descriptions. Noncommutative gravity with self-dual variables arXiv: 1806.0466 Marco de Cesare, Mairi Sakellariadou, Patrizia Vitale We build a noncommutative extension of Palatini-Holst theory on a twist-deformed spacetime, generalizing a model that has been previously proposed by Aschieri and Castellani. The twist deformation entails an enlargement of the gauge group, and leads to the introduction of new gravitational degrees of freedom. In particular, the tetrad degrees of freedom must be doubled, thus leading to a bitetrad theory of gravity. The model is shown to exhibit new duality symmetries. The introduction of the Holst term leads to a dramatic simplification of the dynamics, which is achieved when the Barbero-Immirzi parameter takes the value \beta=-i, corresponding to a self-dual action. We study in detail the commutative limit of the model, focusing in particular on the role of torsion and non-metricity. The effects of spacetime noncommutativity are taken into account perturbatively, and are computed explicitly in a simple example. Connections with bimetric theories and the role of local conformal invariance in the commutative limit are also explored. Splashback in galaxy clusters as a probe of cosmic expansion and gravity arXiv: 1806.0430 Susmita Adhikari, Jeremy Sakstein, Bhuvnesh Jain, et al. The splashback radius is a physical scale in dark matter halos that is set by the gravitational dynamics of recently accreted shells. We use analytical models and N-body simulations to study the dependence of splashback on dark energy and screened modified gravity theories. In modified gravity models, the transition from screened to unscreened regions typically occurs in the cluster outskirts, suggesting potentially observable signatures in the splashback feature. We investigate the location of splashback in both chameleon and Vainshtein screened models and find significant differences compared with \LambdaCDM predictions. We also find an interesting interplay between dynamical friction and modified gravity, providing a distinctive signature for modified gravity models in the behavior of the splashback feature as a function of galaxy luminosity. Probing non-Gaussian Stochastic Gravitational Wave Backgrounds with LISA arXiv: 1806.0281 Nicola Bartolo, Valerie Domcke, Daniel G. Figueroa, et al. The stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) contains a wealth of information on astrophysical and cosmological processes. A major challenge of upcoming years will be to extract the information contained in this background and to disentangle the contributions of different sources. In this paper we provide the formalism to extract, from the correlation of three signals in the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), information about the tensor three-point function, which characterizes the non-Gaussian properties of the SGWB. This observable can be crucial to discriminate whether a SGWB has a primordial or astrophysical origin. Compared to the two-point function, the SGWB three-point function has a richer dependence on the gravitational wave momenta and chiralities. It can be used therefore as a powerful discriminator between different models. For the first time we provide the response functions of LISA to a general SGWB three-point function. As examples, we study in full detail the cases of an equilateral and squeezed SGWB bispectra, and provide the explicit form of the response functions, ready to be convoluted with any theoretical prediction of the bispectrum to obtain the observable signal. We further derive the optimal estimator to compute the signal-to-noise ratio. Our formalism covers general shapes of non-Gaussianity, and can be extended straightaway to other detector geometries. Finally, we provide a short overview of models of the early universe that can give rise to a non-Gaussian SGWB. Worldline sphaleron for thermal Schwinger pair production arXiv: 1806.0266 Oliver Gould, Arttu Rajantie, Cheng Xie With increasing temperatures, Schwinger pair production changes from a quantum tunnelling to a classical, thermal process, determined by a worldline sphaleron. We show this and calculate the corresponding rate of pair production for both spinor and scalar quantum electrodynamics, including the semiclassical prefactor. For electron-positron pair production from a thermal bath of photons and in the presence of an electric field, the rate we derive is faster than both perturbative photon fusion and the zero temperature Schwinger process. We work to all-orders in the coupling and hence our results are also relevant to the pair production of (strongly coupled) magnetic monopoles in heavy ion collisions. Statistical properties of paired fixed fields arXiv: 1806.0187 Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, Sigurd Naess, Shy Genel, et al. The initial conditions of cosmological simulations are commonly drawn from a Gaussian ensemble. The limited number of modes inside a simulation volume gives rise to statistical fluctuations known as \textit{sample variance}, limiting the accuracy of simulation predictions. Fixed fields offer an alternative initialization strategy; they have the same power spectrum as standard Gaussian fields but without intrinsic amplitude scatter at linear order. Paired fixed fields consists of two fixed fields with opposite phases that cancel phase correlations which otherwise induce second-order scatter in the non-linear power spectrum. We study the statistical properties of those fields for 19 different quantities at different redshifts through a large set of 600 N-body and 506 state-of-the-art magneto-hydrodynamic simulations covering a wide range of scales, mass and spatial resolutions. We find that paired fixed simulations do not introduce a bias on any of the examined quantities. We quantify the statistical improvement brought by these simulations, over standard ones, on different power spectra such as matter, halos, CDM, gas, stars, black-holes and magnetic fields, finding that they can reduce their variance by factors as large as 10^6. We quantify the improvement achieved by fixing and by pairing, showing that sample variance in some quantities can be highly suppressed by pairing after fixing. Paired fixed simulations do not change the scatter in quantities such as the probability distribution function of matter density, or the halo, void or stellar mass functions. We argue that procedures aiming at reducing the sample variance of those quantities are unlikely to work. Our results show that paired fixed simulations do not affect either mean relations or scatter of galaxy properties, and suggest that the information embedded in 1-pt statistics is highly complementary to that in clustering. Time-domain effective-one-body gravitational waveforms for coalescing compact binaries with nonprecessing spins, tides and self-spin effects arXiv: 1806.0177 Alessandro Nagar, Sebastiano Bernuzzi, Walter Del Pozzo, et al. We present TEOBResumS, a new effective-one-body (EOB) waveform model for nonprecessing (spin-aligned) and tidally interacting compact binaries.Spin-orbit and spin-spin effects are blended together by making use of the concept of centrifugal EOB radius. The point-mass sector through merger and ringdown is informed by numerical relativity (NR) simulations of binary black holes (BBH) computed with the SpEC and BAM codes. An improved, NR-based phenomenological description of the postmerger waveform is developed.The tidal sector of TEOBResumS describes the dynamics of neutron star binaries up to merger and incorporates a resummed attractive potential motivated by recent advances in the post-Newtonian and gravitational self-force description of relativistic tidal interactions. Equation-of-state dependent self-spin interactions (monopole-quadrupole effects) are incorporated in the model using leading-order post-Newtonian results in a new expression of the centrifugal radius. TEOBResumS is compared to 135 SpEC and 19 BAM BBH waveforms. The maximum unfaithfulness to SpEC data \bar{F} -- at design Advanced-LIGO sensitivity and evaluated with total mass M varying between 10M_\odot \leq M \leq 200 M_\odot --is always below 2.5 \times 10^{-3} except for a single outlier that grazes the 7.1 \times 10^{-3} level. When compared to BAM data, \bar{F} is smaller than 0.01 except for a single outlier in one of the corners of the NR-covered parameter space, that reaches the 0.052 level.TEOBResumS is also compatible, up to merger, to high end NR waveforms from binary neutron stars with spin effects and reduced initial eccentricity computed with the BAM and THC codes. The model is designed to generate accurate templates for the analysis of LIGO-Virgo data through merger and ringdown. We demonstrate its use by analyzing the publicly available data for GW150914. Anisotropies in the astrophysical gravitational-wave background: Predictions for the detection of compact binaries by LIGO and Virgo arXiv: 1806.0171 Alexander C. Jenkins, Mairi Sakellariadou, Tania Regimbau, Eric Slezak We develop a detailed anisotropic model for the astrophysical gravitational-wave background, including binary mergers of two stellar-mass black holes, two neutron stars, or one of each, which are expected to be the strongest contributions in the LIGO-Virgo frequency band. The angular spectrum of the anisotropies, quantified by the C_\ell components, is calculated using two complementary approaches: (i) a simple, closed-form analytical expression, and (ii) a detailed numerical study using an all-sky mock light cone galaxy catalogue from the Millennium simulation. The two approaches are in excellent agreement at large angular scales, and differ by a factor of order unity at smaller scales. These anisotropies are considerably larger in amplitude than e.g. those in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background, confirming that it is important to model these anisotropies, and indicating that this is a promising avenue for future theoretical and observational work. Introducing RomulusC: A Cosmological Simulation of a Galaxy Cluster with Unprecedented Resolution arXiv: 1806.0128 Michael Tremmel, Thomas R. Quinn, Angelo Ricarte, et al. We present the first results from RomulusC, the highest resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a galaxy cluster run to date. RomulusC, a zoom-in simulation of a halo with z=0 mass 10^{14} M_{\odot}, is run with the same sub-grid physics and resolution as Romulus25 (Tremmel et al. 2017). With unprecedented mass and spatial resolution, RomulusC represents a unique opportunity to study the evolution of galaxies in dense environments down to dwarf masses. We demonstrate that RomulusC results in an intracluster medium (ICM) consistent with observations. The star formation history and stellar mass of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is consistent with observations and abundance matching results, demonstrating that our sub-grid models, optimized only to reproduce observations of field dwarf and Milky Way mass galaxies, are able to correctly predict galaxy masses and star formation histories at much higher masses. Feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) regulates star formation by driving large-scale, collimated outflows that coexist with a low entropy core. We find that non-BCG cluster member galaxies are substantially quenched compared to the field down to dwarf galaxy masses and, at low masses, quenching is seen to have no dependence on mass or distance from cluster center. This enhanced quenched population extends beyond R_{200} and is in place at high redshift. Similarly, we predict that SMBH activity is significantly suppressed within clusters outside of the BCG, but show how the effect could be lost when only focusing on the brightest AGN in the most massive galaxies. Phenomenology of minimal theory of quasidilaton massive gravity arXiv: 1806.0060 Antonio De Felice, Shinji Mukohyama, Michele Oliosi The minimal theory of quasidilaton massive gravity with or without a Horndeski-type kinetic term for the quasidilaton field propagates only three physical modes: the two massive tensor polarizations and one scalar mode. This reduced number of degrees of freedom is realized by a Lorentz symmetry violation at cosmological scales and the presence of appropriate constraints that remove unwanted modes. Vacuum cosmological solutions have been considered in a previous work, and it has been shown that the late-time de Sitter attractor is stable under inhomogeneous perturbations. In this work, we explore the stability of cosmological solutions in the presence of matter fields. Assuming for simplicity that the quasidilaton scalar is on an attractor at the level of the background, we derive stability conditions in the subhorizon limit, and find the scalar sound speeds, as well as the modification with respect to general relativity to the gravitational potential in the quasistatic approximation. We also find that the speed limit of gravitational waves coincides with the speed of light for any homogeneous and isotropic cosmological background, on or away from the attractor. Large D holography with metric deformations arXiv: 1806.0030 Tomas Andrade, Christiana Pantelidou, Benjamin Withers We consider Einstein gravity in AdS in the presence of a deformed conformal boundary metric, in the limit of large spacetime dimension. At leading order we find a new set of effective near-horizon equations. These can be understood as covariant generalisations of the undeformed equations with new source terms due to the curvature. We show that these equations are given by the conservation of the exact second-order Landau-frame hydrodynamic stress tensor. No derivative expansions are invoked in this identification. We use the new equations to study CFTs with 2d lattice deformations, computing their quasi-normal mode spectra and thermal conductivities, both numerically and analytically to quartic order in small lattice amplitude. Many of our results also apply to asymptotically flat spacetimes. Is the local Hubble flow consistent with concordance cosmology? arXiv: 1805.1245 Carlos A. P. Bengaly, Julien Larena, Roy Maartens Yes. In a perturbed Friedmann model,the difference of the Hubble constants measured in two rest-frames is independent of the source peculiar velocity and depends only on the relative velocity of the observers, to lowest order in velocity. Therefore this difference should be zero when averaging over sufficient sources, which are at large enough distances to suppress local nonlinear inhomogeneity. We use a linear perturbative analysis to predict the Doppler effects on redshifts and distances. Since the observed redshifts encode the effect of local bulk flow due to nonlinear structure, our linear analysis is able to capture aspects of the nonlinear behaviour. Using the largest available distance compilation from CosmicFlows-3, we find that the data is consistent with simulations based on the concordance model, for sources at 20-150\,Mpc. Impact of bias and redshift-space modelling for the halo power spectrum: Testing the effective field theory of large-scale structure arXiv: 1805.1239 Lucía Fonseca de la Bella, Donough Regan, David Seery, David Parkinson We study the impact of different bias and redshift-space models on the halo power spectrum, quantifying their effect by comparing the fit to a subset of realizations taken from the WizCOLA suite. These provide simulated power spectrum measurements between k_{\rm min} = 0.03 h/Mpc and k_{\rm max} = 0.29 h/Mpc, constructed using the comoving Lagrangian acceleration method. For the bias prescription we include (i) simple linear bias; (ii) the McDonald & Roy model and (iii) its coevolution variant introduced by Saito et al.; and (iv) a very general model including all terms up to one-loop and corrections from advection. For the redshift-space modelling we include the Kaiser formula with exponential damping and the power spectrum provided by (i) tree-level perturbation theory and (ii) the Halofit prescription; (iii) one-loop perturbation theory, also with exponential damping; and (iv) an effective field theory description, also at one-loop, with damping represented by the EFT subtractions. We quantify the improvement from each layer of modelling by measuring the typical improvement in chi-square when fitting to a member of the simulation suite. We attempt to detect overfitting by testing for compatibility between the best-fit power spectrum per realization and the best-fit over the entire WizCOLA suite. For both bias and the redshift-space map we find that increasingly permissive models yield improvements in chi-square but with diminishing returns. The most permissive models show modest evidence for overfitting. Accounting for model complexity using the Bayesian Information Criterion, we argue that standard perturbation theory up to one-loop, or a related model such as that of Taruya, Nishimichi & Saito, coupled to the coevolution bias model, is likely to provide a good compromise for near-future galaxy surveys operating with comparable k_{\rm max}. Renormalised CFT 3-point functions of scalars, currents and stress tensors arXiv: 1805.1210 Adam Bzowski, Paul McFadden, Kostas Skenderis We discuss the renormalisation of mixed 3-point functions involving tensorial and scalar operators in conformal field theories of general dimension. In previous work we analysed correlators of either purely scalar or purely tensorial operators, in each case finding new features and new complications: for scalar correlators, renormalisation leads to beta functions, novel conformal anomalies of type B, and unexpected analytic structure in momentum space; for correlators of stress tensors and/or conserved currents, beta functions vanish but anomalies of both type B and type A (associated with a 0/0 structure) are present. Mixed correlators combine all these features: beta functions and anomalies of type B, plus the possibility of new type A anomalies. Following a non-perturbative and general momentum-space analysis, we present explicit results in dimensions d=3,4 for all renormalised 3-point functions of stress tensors, conserved currents and scalars of dimensions \Delta=d and \Delta=d-2. We identify all anomalies and beta functions, and explain the form of the anomalous conformal Ward identities. In d=3, we find a 0/0 structure but the corresponding type A anomaly turns out to be trivial. In addition, the correlators of two currents and a scalar, and of two stress tensors and a scalar, both feature universal tensor structures that are independent of the scalar dimension and vanish for opposite helicities. Dark Matter Interactions, Helium, and the CMB arXiv: 1805.1161 Roland de Putter, Olivier Doré, Jérôme Gleyzes, et al. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) places a variety of model-independent constraints on the strength interactions of the dominant component of dark matter with the Standard Model. Percent-level subcomponents of the dark matter can evade the most stringent CMB bounds by mimicking the behavior of baryons, allowing for larger couplings and novel experimental signatures. However, in this note, we will show that such tightly coupled subcomponents leave a measurable imprint on the CMB that is well approximated by a change to the helium fraction, Y_{\rm He}. Using the existing constraint on Y_{\rm He}, we derive a new upper limit on the fraction of tightly coupled dark matter, f_{\rm TCDM}, of f_{\rm TCDM}<0.006 (95\% C.I.). We show that future CMB experiments can reach f_{\rm TCDM}<0.001 (95\% C.I.) and confirm that the bounds derived in this way agree with the results of a complete analysis. We briefly comment on the implications for model building, including milli-charged dark matter. Opening a New Window onto the Universe with IceCube arXiv: 1805.1111 Markus Ahlers, Francis Halzen Weakly interacting neutrinos are ideal astronomical messengers because they travel through space without deflection by magnetic fields and, essentially, without absorption. Their weak interaction also makes them notoriously difficult to detect, with observation of high-energy neutrinos from distant sources requiring kilometer-scale detectors. The IceCube project transformed a cubic kilometer of natural Antarctic ice at the geographic South Pole into a Cherenkov detector. It discovered a flux of cosmic neutrinos in the energy range from 10 TeV to 10 PeV, predominantly extragalactic in origin. Their corresponding energy density is close to that of high-energy photons detected by gamma-ray satellites and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays observed with large surface detectors. Neutrinos are therefore ubiquitous in the nonthermal universe, suggesting a more significant role of protons (nuclei) relative to electrons than previously anticipated. Thus, anticipating an essential role for multimessenger astronomy, IceCube is planning significant upgrades of the present instrument as well as a next-generation detector. Similar detectors are under construction in the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Baikal. Galaxy rotation curves in modified gravity models arXiv: 1805.1106 Álefe O. F. de Almeida, Luca Amendola, Viviana Niro In this work, we investigate the possibility that the galaxy rotation curves can be explained in the framework of modified gravity models that introduce a Yukawa term in the gravitational potential. We include dark matter and assume that the fifth-force couples differently to dark matter and to baryons. We aim at constraining the modified gravity parameters \beta and \lambda, that is, the strength and the range of the Yukawa fifth force, respectively, using a set of 40 galaxy rotation curves data from the SPARC catalogue. We include baryonic gas, disk and bulge components, along with a NFW halo of dark matter. Each galaxy rotation curve is modeled with three free parameters, beside the two global Yukawa parameter. We find that the inclusion of the Yukawa term improves the \chi^2 from 680.75 to 536.23 for 655 degrees of freedom. As global best-fit we obtain \beta = 0.34\pm0.04 and \lambda = 5.61\pm0.91kpc and a dark matter content on average 20\% smaller than without the Yukawa term. The Bayesian evidence in favor of a NFW profile plus Yukawa term is higher than 8\sigma with respect to the standard gravity parametrization. Identifying complex sources in large astronomical data using a coarse-grained complexity measure arXiv: 1805.1071 Gary Segal, David Parkinson, Ray P. Norris, Jesse Swan The volume of data that will be produced by the next generation of astrophysical instruments represents a significant opportunity for making unplanned and unexpected discoveries. Conversely, finding unexpected objects or phenomena within such large volumes of data presents a challenge that may best be solved using computational and statistical approaches. We present the application of a coarse-grained complexity measure for identifying interesting observations in large datasets. This measure, which has been termed apparent complexity, has been shown to model human intuition and perceptions of complexity. Apparent complexity provides a computationally efficient alternative to supervised learning and traditional outlier detection methods for identifying the most interesting observations in very large datasets. Unlike supervised learning approaches it does not learn features associated with known interesting observations, positioning the approach as a candidate for identifying unknown unknowns. Furthermore, the approach can be implemented at worst case linear time complexity, providing an advantage when processing very large datasets. We show using data from the Australia Telescope Large Area Survey (ATLAS) that the approach can be used to distinguish between images of galaxies which have been classified as having simple and complex morphologies. We also show that the approach generalises well when applied to new data after being calibrated on a smaller dataset. Probing redshift-space distortions with phase correlations arXiv: 1805.1017 Felipe O. Franco, Camille Bonvin, Danail Obreschkow, Kamran Ali Redshift-space distortions are a sensitive probe of the growth of large-scale structure. In the linear regime, redshift-space distortions are fully described by the multipoles of the two-point correlation function. In the non-linear regime, however, higher-order statistics are needed to capture the full information of the galaxy density field. In this paper, we show that the redshift-space line correlation function - which is a measure of Fourier phase correlations - is sensitive to the non-linear growth of the density and velocity fields. We expand the line correlation function in multipoles and we show that almost all of the information is encoded in the monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole. We argue that these multipoles are highly complementary to the multipoles of the two-point correlation function, first because they are directly sensitive to the difference between the density and the velocity coupling kernels, which is a purely non-linear quantity; and second, because the multipoles are proportional to different combinations of f and \sigma_8. Measured in conjunction with the two- point correlation function and the bispectrum, the multipoles of the line correlation function could therefore allow us to disentangle efficiently these two quantities and to test modified theories of gravity. The Interstellar Medium Properties of Heavily Reddened Quasars & Companions at z~2.5 with ALMA & JVLA arXiv: 1805.0982 Manda Banerji, Gareth Jones, Jeff Wagg, et al. We study the interstellar medium (ISM) properties of three heavily reddened quasars at z\sim2.5 as well as three millimetre-bright companion galaxies near these quasars. New JVLA and ALMA observations constrain the CO(1-0), CO(7-6) and [CI]^3P_2-^3P_1 line emission as well as the far infrared to radio continuum. The gas excitation and physical properties of the ISM are constrained by comparing our observations to photo-dissociation region (PDR) models. The ISM in our high-redshift quasars is composed of very high-density, high-temperature gas which is already highly enriched in elements like carbon. One of our quasar hosts is shown to be a close-separation (<2 arcsec) major merger with different line emission properties in the millimeter-bright galaxy and quasar components. Low angular resolution observations of high-redshift quasars used to assess quasar excitation properties should therefore be interpreted with caution as they could potentially be averaging over multiple components with different ISM conditions. Our quasars and their companion galaxies show a range of CO excitation properties spanning the full extent from starburst-like to quasar-like spectral line energy distributions. We compare gas masses based on CO, CI and dust emission, and find that these can disagree when standard assumptions are made regarding the values of \alpha_{\rm{CO}}, the gas-to-dust ratio and the atomic carbon abundances. We conclude that the ISM properties of our quasars and their companion galaxies are diverse and likely vary spatially across the full extent of these complex, merging systems. The Relaxion Measure Problem arXiv: 1805.0931 Rick S. Gupta We examine the necessity of requiring that relaxion dynamics is dominated by classical slow roll and not quantum fluctuations. It has been recently proposed by Nelson and Prescod-Weinstein that abandoning this requirement can lead to a unified solution of the hierarchy and strong CP problems in QCD relaxion models. In more general models this results in a higher value of the allowed cut-off. In this work we find, however, that relaxing this condition and can result in the universe being dominated in physical volume by regions arising from large quantum fluctuations of the relaxion. These regions turn out to be problematic for the relaxion mechanism because either the relaxion does not stabilise at all or it stabilises at vacua which cannot reproduce the observed properties of our universe. The size of these undesirable regions is moreover ambiguous because of the measure problem. For instance, we show that if one chooses to use the scale factor cut-off measure such dangerous regions occupy a negligible volume and these issues do not arise. The observed galaxy bispectrum from single-field inflation in the squeezed limit arXiv: 1805.0918 Kazuya Koyama, Obinna Umeh, Roy Maartens, Daniele Bertacca Using the consistency relation in Fourier space, we derive the observed galaxy bispectrum from single-field inflation in the squeezed limit, in which one of the three modes has a wavelength much longer than the other two. This provides a non-trivial check of the full computation of the bispectrum based on second-order cosmological perturbation theory in this limit. We show that gauge modes need to be carefully removed in the second-order cosmological perturbations in order to calculate the observed galaxy bispectrum in the squeezed limit. We then give an estimate of the effective non-Gaussianity due to general relativistic lightcone effects that could mimic a primordial non-Gaussian signal. Black Holes' Dark Dress: On the merger rate of a subdominant population of primordial black holes arXiv: 1805.0903 Bradley J. Kavanagh, Daniele Gaggero, Gianfranco Bertone The formation of astrophysical and primordial black holes influences the distribution of dark matter surrounding them. Black holes are thus expected to carry a dark matter dress' whose properties depend on their formation mechanism and on the properties of the environment. Here we carry out a numerical and analytical study of the merger of dressed black holes, and show that the distribution of dark matter around them dramatically affects the dynamical evolution of the binaries. Although the final impact on the merger rate of primordial black holes is rather small with respect to the case of naked' black holes, we argue that our analysis places the calculation of this rate on more solid ground, with LIGO-Virgo observations ruling out a dark matter fraction of 10^{-3} for primordial black holes of 100 solar masses, and it paves the way to more detailed analyses of environmental effects induced by dark matter on the gravitational wave emission of binary black holes. Searching for All-Scale Anisotropies in the Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays above the Ankle arXiv: 1805.0822 Markus Ahlers The Pierre Auger Observatory has recently reported the detection of a dipole anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above 8 EeV with a post-trial significance of more than 5.2\sigma. This observation has profound consequences for the distribution and composition of candidate sources of cosmic rays above the ankle (3-5 EeV). In this paper we search for the presence of anisotropies on all angular scales in public Auger data. The analysis follows a likelihood-based reconstruction method that automatically accounts for variations in the observatory's angular acceptance and background rate. Our best-fit dipole anisotropy in the equatorial plane has an amplitude of 5.3 \pm 1.3 percent and right ascension angle of 103 \pm 15 degrees, consistent with the results of the Pierre Auger Collaboration. We do not find evidence for the presence of medium- or small-scale anisotropies. The method outlined in this paper is well-suited for the future analyses of cosmic ray anisotropies below the ankle, where cosmic ray detection in surface arrays is not fully efficient and dominated by systematic uncertainties. Dynamical and observational constraints on the Warm Little Inflaton scenario arXiv: 1805.0718 Mar Bastero-Gil, Arjun Berera, Rafael Hernandez-Jimenez, Joao G. Rosa We explore the dynamics and observational predictions of the Warm Little Inflaton scenario, presently the simplest realization of warm inflation within a concrete quantum field theory construction. We consider three distinct types of scalar potentials for the inflaton, namely chaotic inflation with a quartic monomial potential, a Higgs-like symmetry breaking potential and a non-renormalizable plateau-like potential. In each case, we determine the parametric regimes in which the dynamical evolution is consistent for 50-60 e-folds of inflation, taking into account thermal corrections to the scalar potential and requiring, in particular, that the two fermions coupled directly to the inflaton remain relativistic and close to thermal equilibrium throughout the slow-roll regime and that the temperature is always below the underlying gauge symmetry breaking scale. We then compute the properties of the primordial spectrum of scalar curvature perturbations and the tensor-to-scalar ratio in the allowed parametric regions and compare them with Planck data, showing that this scenario is theoretically and observationally successful for a broad range of parameter values. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Goldstone theorem in non-Hermitian field theories arXiv: 1805.0638 Jean Alexandre, John Ellis, Peter Millington, Dries Seynaeve We demonstrate the extension to PT-symmetric field theories of the Goldstone theorem, confirming that the spontaneous appearance of a field vacuum expectation value via minimisation of the effective potential in a non-Hermitian model is accompanied by a massless scalar boson. Laying a basis for our analysis, we first show how the conventional quantisation of the path-integral formulation of quantum field theory can be extended consistently to a non-Hermitian model by considering PT conjugation instead of Hermitian conjugation. The extension of the Goldstone theorem to a PT-symmetric field theory is made possible by the existence of a conserved current that does not, however, correspond to a symmetry of the non-Hermitian Lagrangian. In addition to extending the proof of the Goldstone theorem to a PT-symmetric theory, we exhibit a specific example in which we verify the existence of a massless boson at the tree and one-loop levels. Superfluids and the Cosmological Constant Problem arXiv: 1805.0593 Justin Khoury, Jeremy Sakstein, Adam R. Solomon We introduce a novel method to circumvent Weinberg's no-go theorem for self-tuning the cosmological vacuum energy: a Lorentz-violating finite-temperature superfluid can counter the effects of an arbitrarily large cosmological constant. Fluctuations of the superfluid result in the graviton acquiring a Lorentz-violating mass and we identify a unique class of theories that are pathology free, phenomenologically viable, and do not suffer from instantaneous modes. This new and hitherto unidentified phase of massive gravity propagates the same degrees of freedom as general relativity with an additional Lorentz-violating scalar that is introduced by higher-derivative operators in a UV insensitive manner. The superfluid is therefore a consistent infrared modification of gravity. We demonstrate how the superfluid can degravitate a cosmological constant and discuss its phenomenology. Fibrations in Non-simply Connected Calabi-Yau Quotients arXiv: 1805.0549 Lara. B. Anderson, James Gray, Brian Hammack In this work we study genus one fibrations in Calabi-Yau three-folds with a non-trivial first fundamental group. The manifolds under consideration are constructed as smooth quotients of complete intersection Calabi-Yau three-folds (CICYs) by a freely acting, discrete automorphism. By probing the compatibility of symmetries with genus one fibrations (that is, discrete group actions which preserve a local decomposition of the manifold into fiber and base) we find fibrations that are inherited from fibrations on the covering spaces. Of the 7,890 CICY three-folds, 195 exhibit known discrete symmetries, leading to a total of 1,695 quotient manifolds. By scanning over 20,700 fiber/symmetry pairs on the covering spaces we find 17,161 fibrations on the quotient Calabi-Yau manifolds. It is found that the vast majority of the non-simply connected manifolds studied exhibit multiple different genus one fibrations - echoing a similar ubiquity of such structures that has been observed in other data sets. The results are available at http://www1.phys.vt.edu/quotientdata/. The possible base manifolds are all singular and are catalogued. These Calabi-Yau fibrations generically exhibit multiple fibers and are of interest in F-theory as backgrounds leading to theories with superconformal loci and discretely charged matter. Stellar kinematics from the symmetron fifth force in the Milky Way disk arXiv: 1805.0522 Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Clare Burrage It has been shown that the presence of non-minimally coupled scalar fields giving rise to a fifth force can noticeably alter dynamics on galactic scales. Such a fifth force must be screened in the Solar System but if unscreened it can have a similar observational effects as a component of non-baryonic matter. We consider this possibility in the context of the vertical motions of local stars in the Milky Way disk by reframing a methodology used to measure the local density of dark matter. By attempting to measure the properties of the symmetron field required to support vertical velocities we can test it as a theory of modified gravity and understand the behaviour of screened scalar fields in galaxies. In particular this relatively simple setup allows the symmetron field profile to be solved for model parameters where the equation of motion becomes highly nonlinear and difficult to solve in other contexts. We update the existing Solar System constraints for this scenario and find a region of parameter space not already excluded that can explain the vertical motions of local stars out to heights of 1 kpc. At larger heights the force due to the symmetron field profile exhibits a characteristic turn over which would allow the model to be distinguished from a dark matter halo. Pitfalls of a power-law parameterization of the primordial power spectrum for Primordial Black Hole formation arXiv: 1805.0517 Anne M. Green Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) can form in the radiation dominated early Universe from the collapse of large density perturbations produced by inflation. A power-law parameterisation of the primordial power spectrum is often used to extrapolate from cosmological scales, where the amplitude of the perturbations is well-measured by Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure observations, down to the small scales on which PBHs may form. We show that this typically leads to large errors in the amplitude of the fluctuations on small scales, and hence extremely inaccurate calculations of the abundance of PBHs formed. Breaking degeneracies in modified gravity with higher (than 2nd) order weak-lensing statistics arXiv: 1805.0514 Austin Peel, Valeria Pettorino, Carlo Giocoli, et al. General relativity (GR) has been well tested up to solar system scales, but it is much less certain that standard gravity remains an accurate description on the largest, that is, cosmological, scales. Many extensions to GR have been studied that are not yet ruled out by the data, including by that of the recent direct gravitational wave detections. Degeneracies among the standard model (\LambdaCDM) and modified gravity (MG) models, as well as among different MG parameters, must be addressed in order to best exploit information from current and future surveys and to unveil the nature of dark energy. We propose various higher-order statistics in the weak-lensing signal as a new set of observables able to break degeneracies between massive neutrinos and MG parameters. We have tested our methodology on so-called f(R) models, which constitute a class of viable models that can explain the accelerated universal expansion by a modification of the fundamental gravitational interaction. We have explored a range of these models that still fit current observations at the background and linear level, and we show using numerical simulations that certain models which include massive neutrinos are able to mimic \LambdaCDM in terms of the 3D power spectrum of matter density fluctuations. We find that depending on the redshift and angular scale of observation, non-Gaussian information accessed by higher-order weak-lensing statistics can be used to break the degeneracy between f(R) models and \LambdaCDM. In particular, peak counts computed in aperture mass maps outperform third- and fourth-order moments. Dark Matter Model or Mass, but Not Both: Assessing Near-Future Direct Searches with Benchmark-free Forecasting arXiv: 1805.0411 Thomas D. P. Edwards, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Christoph Weniger Forecasting the signal discrimination power of dark matter (DM) searches is commonly limited to a set of arbitrary benchmark points. We introduce new methods for benchmark-free forecasting that instead allow an exhaustive exploration and visualization of the phenomenological distinctiveness of DM models, based on standard hypothesis testing. Using this method, we reassess the signal discrimination power of future liquid Xenon and Argon direct DM searches. We quantify the parameter regions where various non-relativistic effective operators, millicharged DM, and magnetic dipole DM can be discriminated, and where upper limits on the DM mass can be found. We find that including an Argon target substantially improves the prospects for reconstructing the DM properties. We also show that only in a small region with DM masses in the range 20-100 GeV and DM-nucleon cross sections a factor of a few below current bounds can near-future Xenon and Argon detectors discriminate both the DM-nucleon interaction and the DM mass simultaneously. In all other regions only one or the other can be obtained. Non-linear Clockwork Gravity arXiv: 1805.0352 Florian Niedermann, Antonio Padilla, Paul M. Saffin We present a higher order generalisation of the clockwork mechanism starting from an underlying non-linear multigravity theory with a single scale and nearest neighbour ghost-free interactions. Without introducing any hierarchies in the underlying potential, this admits a family of Minkowski vacua around which massless graviton fluctuations couple to matter exponentially more weakly than the heavy modes. Although multi-diffeomorphisms are broken to the diagonal subgroup in our theory, an asymmetric distribution of conformal factors in the background vacua translates this diagonal symmetry into an asymmetric shift of the graviton gears. In particular we present a TeV scale multigravity model with {\cal O}(10) sites that contains a massless mode whose coupling to matter is Planckian, and a tower of massive modes starting at a TeV mass range and with TeV strength couplings. This suggests a possible application to the hierarchy problem as well as a candidate for dark matter. The {\it XMM} Cluster Survey: joint modelling of the L_{\rm X}-T scaling relation for clusters and groups of galaxies arXiv: 1805.0346 Leyla Ebrahimpour, Pedro T. P. Viana, Maria Manolopoulou, et al. We characterize the X-ray luminosity--temperature (L_{\rm X}-T) relation using a sample of 353 clusters and groups of galaxies with temperatures in excess of 1 keV, spanning the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.6, the largest ever assembled for this purpose. All systems are part of the {\it XMM-Newton} Cluster Survey (XCS), and have also been independently identified in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data using the redMaPPer algorithm. We allow for redshift evolution of the normalisation and intrinsic scatter of the L_{\rm X}-T relation, as well as, for the first time, the possibility of a temperature-dependent change-point in the exponent of such relation. However, we do not find strong statistical support for deviations from the usual modelling of the L_{\rm X}-T relation as a single power-law, where the normalisation evolves self-similarly and the scatter remains constant with time. Nevertheless, assuming {\it a priori} the existence of the type of deviations considered, then faster evolution than the self-similar expectation for the normalisation of the L_{\rm X}-T relation is favoured, as well as a decrease with redshift in the scatter about the L_{\rm X}-T relation. Further, the preferred location for a change-point is then close to 2 keV, possibly marking the transition between the group and cluster regimes. Our results also indicate an increase in the power-law exponent of the L_{\rm X}-T relation when moving from the group to the cluster regime, and faster evolution in the former with respect to the later, driving the temperature-dependent change-point towards higher values with redshift. Pole N-flation arXiv: 1805.0265 Mafalda Dias, Jonathan Frazer, Ander Retolaza, et al. A second order pole in the scalar kinetic term can lead to a class of inflation models with universal predictions referred to as pole inflation or \alpha-attractors. While this kinetic structure is ubiquitous in supergravity effective field theories, realising a consistent UV complete model in e.g. string theory is a non-trivial task. For one, one expects quantum corrections arising in the vicinity of the pole which may spoil the typical attractor dynamics. As a conservative estimate of the range of validity of supergravity models of pole inflation we employ the weak gravity conjecture (WGC). We find that this constrains the accessible part of the inflationary plateau by limiting the decay constant of the axion partner. For the original single complex field models, the WGC does not even allow the inflaton to reach the inflationary plateau region. We analyze if evoking the assistance of N scalar fields from the open string moduli helps addressing these problems. Pole N-flation improves radiative control by reducing the required range of each individual field. However, the WGC bound prohibiting pole inflation for a single such field persists even for a collective motion of N such scalars if we impose the lattice WGC as its strongest form. Finally, we outline steps towards an embedding of pole N-flation in type IIB string theory on fibred Calabi-Yau manifolds. Finite temperature corrections to the energy-momentum tensor at one-loop in static space-times arXiv: 1805.0232 Franco D. Albareti, Antonio L. Maroto, Francisco Prada Finite temperature corrections to the effective potential and the energy-momentum tensor of a scalar field are computed in a perturbed Minkoswki space-time. We consider the explicit mode decomposition of the field in the perturbed geometry and obtain analytical expressions in the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limits to first order in scalar metric perturbations. In the static case, our results are in agreement with previous calculations based on the Schwinger-De Witt expansion which indicate that thermal effects in a curved space-time can be encoded in the local Tolman temperature at leading order in perturbations and in the adiabatic expansion. We also study the shift of the effective potential minima produced by thermal corrections in the presence of static gravitational fields. Finally we discuss the dependence on the initial conditions set for the mode solutions. The 10d Uplift of the GPPZ Solution arXiv: 1805.0191 Michela Petrini, Henning Samtleben, Stanislav Schmidt, Kostas Skenderis We present the uplift of the GPPZ solution of the five-dimensional maximal supergravity to ten dimensions. The five dimensional solution involves two real scalar fields, with one of them encoding holographically the (norm of the complex) supersymmetric {\mathcal N}=1 mass deformation and the other the real part of the gaugino condensate. We embed this solution in a consistent truncation of D=5 maximal supergravity which involves two complex scalars dual to the complex mass deformations and the complex gaugino condensate, and a U(1) gauge field dual to the U(1)_R current, and uplift it to ten dimensions. The ten dimensional solution is completely explicit, with all fields given in terms of elementary functions. The metric and the axion-dilaton agree with those of a partial uplift of the GPPZ flow by Pilch and Warner. We analyze the asymptotics and the singularity structure of the ten dimensional solution. The uplifted solution is singular, but the singularity is milder than that of the five dimensional solution, and there is conformal frame in which the metric is only singular at one point of S^5. We compare the asymptotics of the 10d solution with that of the Polchinski-Strassler and Freedman-Minahan solutions, and find agreement with Freedman-Minahan and disagreement with Polchinski-Strassler. In particular, we infer that while the Polchinski-Strassler 10d fields satisfy the correct boundary conditions, they do not solve the field equations near the boundary. Black hole interference patterns in flavour oscillations arXiv: 1805.0187 Jean Alexandre, Katy Clough Motivated by neutrino astronomy, we consider a plane wave of coupled and massive flavours, scattered by a static black hole, and describe analytically and numerically the corresponding oscillation probability in the surrounding space. Both the interpretation as particles travelling along geodesics and as scattered waves are studied, and consistently show a non-trivial and potentially long range interference pattern, in contrast to the spatially uniform transition probability in a flat spacetime. We introduce a numerical method for studying the oscillations around black holes, which accounts for the full curved geometry and flavour wave mixing. Whilst limited to the region immediately around the black hole, this numerical approach has the potential to be used in more general contexts, revealing the complex interference patterns which defy analytic methods. Prospects for exploring New Physics in Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering arXiv: 1805.0179 Julien Billard, Joseph Johnston, Bradley J. Kavanagh Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CE\nuNS) is a Standard Model process that, although predicted for decades, has only been detected recently by the COHERENT collaboration. Now that CE\nuNS has been discovered, it provides a new probe for physics beyond the Standard Model. We study the potential to probe New Physics with CE\nuNS through the use of low temperature bolometers at a reactor source. We consider contributions to CE\nuNS due to a neutrino magnetic moment (NMM), Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) that may or may not change flavor, and simplified models containing a massive scalar or vector mediator. Targets consisting of Ge, Zn, Si, CaWO_4, and Al_2O_3 are examined. We show that by reaching a percentage-level precision measurement on the CE\nuNS energy spectrum down to \mathcal{O}(10) eV, forthcoming experiments will improve by two orders of magnitude both the CE\nuNS-based NMM limit and the search for new massive mediators. Additionally, we demonstrate that such dedicated low-threshold CE\nuNS experiments will lead to unprecedented constraints on NSI parameters (particularly when multiple targets are combined) which will have major implications for the global neutrino physics program. Inconsistencies of the New No-Boundary Proposal arXiv: 1805.0160 Job Feldbrugge, Jean-Luc Lehners, Neil Turok In previous works, we have demonstrated that the path integral for {\it real, Lorentzian} four-geometries in Einstein gravity yields sensible results in well-understood physical situations, but leads to uncontrolled fluctuations when the "no boundary" condition proposed by Hartle and Hawking is imposed. In order to circumvent our result, new definitions for the gravitational path integral have been sought, involving specific choices for a class of {\it complex} four-geometries to be included. In their latest proposal, Diaz Dorronsoro {\it et al.}~\cite{DiazDorronsoro:2018wro} advocate integrating the lapse over a complex circular contour enclosing the origin. In this note we show that, like their earlier proposal, this leads to mathematical and physical inconsistencies and thus cannot be regarded as a basis for quantum cosmology. We also comment on Vilenkin and Yamada's recent modification of the "tunneling" proposal, made in order to avoid the same problems. We show that it leads to the breakdown of perturbation theory in a strong coupling regime. The abundances and properties of Dual AGN and their host galaxies in the EAGLE simulations arXiv: 1805.0147 Yetli Rosas-Guevara, Richard Bower, Stuart McAlpine, et al. We look into the abundance of Dual AGN (active galaxy nuclei) in the largest volume hydrodynamical simulation from the EAGLE project. We define a Dual AGN as two active black holes with a separation below 30 kpc. We find that only 1 percent of AGN with L_{\rm HX}\geq 10^{42} erg/s are part of an observable Dual AGN system at z=0.8-1. During the evolution of a typical binary black hole system, the rapid variability of the hard X-ray luminosity on Myr time-scales severely limits the detectability of Dual AGN. To quantify this effect, we calculate a probability of detection, t_{\rm on}/t_{\rm 30}, where t_{\rm 30} is the time in which the two black holes were separated at distances below 30 pkpc and t_{\rm on}, the time that both AGN are visible (e.g. when both AGN have L_{\rm HX}\geq 10^{42} erg/s) in this period. We find that the average fraction of visible Dual systems is 3 percent. The visible Dual AGN distribution as a function of black hole separation increases with small separations and it presents a pronounced peak at 20-25 kpc. This shape can be understood as a result of the rapid orbital decay of the host galaxies after their first encounter. Looking at the merger history of the galaxies hosting a Dual AGN, we find that 75 percent of the host galaxies have recently undergone or are undergoing a merger with stellar mass ratio \geq 0.1. Finally, we find that the fraction of visible Dual AGN with respect to the total AGN increases with redshift as found in observations. Unbiased clustering estimates with the DESI fibre assignment arXiv: 1805.0095 Davide Bianchi, Angela Burden, Will J. Percival, et al. The Emission Line Galaxy survey made by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey will be created from five passes of the instrument on the sky. On each pass, the constrained mobility of the ends of the fibres in the DESI focal plane means that the angular-distribution of targets that can be observed is limited. Thus, the clustering of samples constructed using a limited number of passes will be strongly affected by missing targets. In two recent papers, we showed how the effect of missing galaxies can be corrected when calculating the correlation function using a weighting scheme for pairs. Using mock galaxy catalogues we now show that this method provides an unbiased estimator of the true correlation function for the DESI survey after any number of passes. We use multiple mocks to determine the expected errors given one to four passes, compared to an idealised survey observing an equivalent number of randomly selected targets. On BAO scales, we find that the error is a factor 2 worse after one pass, but that after three or more passes, the errors are very similar. Thus we find that the fibre assignment strategy enforced by the design of DESI will not affect the cosmological measurements to be made by the survey, and can be removed as a potential risk for this experiment. Model-independent reconstruction of the linear anisotropic stress η arXiv: 1805.0002 Ana Marta Pinho, Santiago Casas, Luca Amendola In this work, we use recent data on the Hubble expansion rate H(z), the quantity f\sigma_8(z) from redshift space distortions and the statistic E_g from clustering and lensing observables to constrain in a model-independent way the linear anisotropic stress parameter \eta. This estimate is free of assumptions about initial conditions, bias, the abundance of dark matter and the background expansion. We denote this observable estimator as \eta_{{\rm obs}}. If \eta_{{\rm obs}} turns out to be different from unity, it would imply either a modification of gravity or a non-perfect fluid form of dark energy clustering at sub-horizon scales. Using three different methods to reconstruct the underlying model from data, we report the value of \eta_{{\rm obs}} at three redshift values, z=0.29, 0.58, 0.86. Using the method of polynomial regression, we find \eta_{{\rm obs}}=0.57\pm1.05, \eta_{{\rm obs}}=0.48\pm0.96, and \eta_{{\rm obs}}=-0.11\pm3.21, respectively. Assuming a constant \eta_{{\rm obs}} in this range, we find \eta_{{\rm obs}}=0.49\pm0.69. We consider this method as our fiducial result, for reasons clarified in the text. The other two methods give for a constant anisotropic stress \eta_{{\rm obs}}=0.15\pm0.27 (binning) and \eta_{{\rm obs}}=0.53 \pm 0.19 (Gaussian Process). We find that all three estimates are compatible with each other within their 1\sigma error bars. While the polynomial regression method is compatible with standard gravity, the other two methods are in tension with it. Effects of biases in domain wall network evolution. II. Quantitative analysis arXiv: 1804.1076 J. R. C. C. C. Correia, I. S. C. R. Leite, C. J. A. P. Martins Domain walls form at phase transitions which break discrete symmetries. In a cosmological context they often overclose the universe (contrary to observational evidence), although one may prevent this by introducing biases or forcing anisotropic evolution of the walls. In a previous work [Correia {\it et al.}, Phys.Rev.D90, 023521 (2014)] we numerically studied the evolution of various types of biased domain wall networks in the early universe, confirming that anisotropic networks ultimately reach scaling while those with a biased potential or biased initial conditions decay. We also found that the analytic decay law obtained by Hindmarsh was in good agreement with simulations of biased potentials, but not of biased initial conditions, and suggested that the difference was related to the Gaussian approximation underlying the analytic law. Here we extend our previous work in several ways. For the cases of biased potential and biased initial conditions we study in detail the field distributions in the simulations, confirming that the validity (or not) of the Gaussian approximation is the key difference between the two cases. For anisotropic walls we carry out a more extensive set of numerical simulations and compare them to the canonical velocity-dependent one-scale model for domain walls, finding that the model accurately predicts the linear scaling regime after isotropization. Overall, our analysis provides a quantitative description of the cosmological evolution of these networks. Critical phenomena of charged Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet black holes with charged scalar hair arXiv: 1804.1053 Yves Brihaye, Betti Hartmann Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet-gravity (EGB) coupled minimally to a U(1) gauged, massive scalar field possesses -- for appropriate choices of the U(1) charge -- black hole solutions that carry charged scalar hair if the frequency of the harmonic time-dependence of the scalar field is equal to the upper bound on the superradiant frequency. The existence of these solutions has first been discussed in \cite{Grandi:2017zgz}. In this paper, we demonstrate that the critical value of the scalar charge results from the requirement of non-extremality of the charged black hole solutions and the fact that the scalar field should not escape to infinity. Moreover, we investigate the hairy black holes in more detail and demonstrate that the branch of these solutions joins the branch of the corresponding charged EGB black hole for vanishing scalar field, but is {\it not} connected to the branch of boson stars in the limit of vanishing horizon radius. This indicates that it is unlikely that these black holes appear from the collapse of the corresponding boson stars. Finally, we prove a No-hair theorem for charged scalar fields with harmonic time-dependence for static, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat electro-vacuum black holes in d space-time dimensions and hence demonstrate that the GB term is crucial for the existence of the hairy black holes discussed in this paper. Kinetic theory for classical and quantum many-body chaos arXiv: 1804.0918 Sašo Grozdanov, Koenraad Schalm, Vincenzo Scopelliti For perturbative scalar field theories, the late-time-limit of the out-of-time-ordered correlation function that measures (quantum) chaos is shown to be equal to a Boltzmann-type kinetic equation that measures the total gross (instead of net) particle exchange between phase space cells, weighted by a function of energy. This derivation gives a concrete form to numerous attempts to derive chaotic many-body dynamics from ad hoc kinetic equations. A period of exponential growth in the total gross exchange determines the Lyapunov exponent of the chaotic system. Physically, the exponential growth is a front propagating into an unstable state in phase space. As in conventional Boltzmann transport, which follows from the dynamics of the net particle number density exchange, the kernel of this kinetic integral equation is also set by the 2-to-2 scattering rate. This provides a mathematically precise statement of the known fact that in dilute weakly coupled gases transport and scrambling (or ergodicity) are controlled by the same physics. Quasi-normal modes of black holes in Horndeski gravity arXiv: 1804.0895 Oliver J. Tattersall, Pedro G. Ferreira We study the perturbations to General Relativistic black holes (i.e. those without scalar hair) in Horndeski scalar-tensor gravity. First, we derive the equations of odd and even parity perturbations of both the metric and scalar field in the case of a Schwarzschild black hole, and show that the gravitational waves emitted from such a system contain a mixture of quasi-normal mode frequencies from the usual General Relativistic spectrum and those from the new scalar field spectrum, with the new scalar spectrum characterised by just two free parameters. We then specialise to the sub-family of Horndeski theories in which gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light c on cosmological backgrounds; the scalar quasi-normal mode spectrum of such theories is characterised by just a single parameter \mu acting as an effective mass of the scalar field. Analytical expressions for the quasi-normal mode frequencies of the scalar spectrum in this sub-family of theories are provided for both static and slowly rotating black holes. In both regimes comparisons to quasi-normal modes calculated numerically show good agreement with those calculated analytically in this work. Color-gradient lattice Boltzmann model with nonorthogonal central moments: Hydrodynamic melt-jet breakup simulations arXiv: 1804.0892 Shimpei Saito, Alessandro De Rosis, Alessio Festuccia, et al. We develop a lattice Boltzmann (LB) model for immiscible two-phase flow simulations with central moments (CMs). This successfully combines a three-dimensional nonorthogonal CM-based LB scheme [A. De Rosis, Phys. Rev. E 95, 013310 (2017)] with our previous color-gradient LB model [S. Saito, Y. Abe, and K. Koyama, Phys. Rev. E 96, 013317 (2017)]. Hydrodynamic melt-jet breakup simulations show that the proposed model is significantly more stable, even for flow with extremely high Reynolds numbers, up to O(10^6). This enables us to investigate the phenomena expected under actual reactor conditions. A Cardy formula for off-diagonal three-point coefficients; or, how the geometry behind the horizon gets disentangled arXiv: 1804.0889 Aurelio Romero-Bermúdez, Philippe Sabella-Garnier, Koenraad Schalm In the AdS/CFT correspondence eternal black holes can be viewed as a specific entanglement between two copies of the CFT: the thermofield double. The statistical CFT Wightman function can be computed from a geodesic between the two boundaries of the Kruskal extended black hole and therefore probes the geometry behind the horizon. We construct a kernel for the AdS3/CFT2 Wightman function that is independent of the entanglement. This kernel equals the average off-diagonal matrix element squared of a primary operator. This allows us to compute the Wightman function for an arbitrary entanglement between the double copies and probe the emergent geometry between a left- and right-CFT that are not thermally entangled. Primordial Black Hole Formation During Slow Reheating After Inflation arXiv: 1804.0863 Bernard Carr, Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Charlotte Owen, Tommi Tenkanen We study the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the early Universe during a period of slow reheating after inflation. We demonstrate how the PBH formation mechanism may change even before the end of the matter-dominated phase and calculate the expected PBH mass function. We find that there is a threshold for the variance of the density contrast, \sigma_c \simeq 0.05, below which the transition occurs even before reheating, with this having important consequences for the PBH mass function. We also show that there is a maximum cut-off for the PBH mass at around 100\,M_{\odot}, below which the subdominant radiation bath affects PBH production, making the scenario particularly interesting for the recent LIGO observations of black hole mergers. Landscape tomography through primordial non-Gaussianity arXiv: 1804.0731 Xingang Chen, Gonzalo A. Palma, Walter Riquelme, et al. In this paper, we show how the structure of the landscape potential of the primordial Universe may be probed through the properties of the primordial density perturbations responsible for the origin of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the large-scale structure of our Universe. Isocurvature fields -fields orthogonal to the inflationary trajectory- may have fluctuated across the barriers separating local minima of the landscape potential during inflation. We analyze how this process could have impacted the evolution of the primordial curvature perturbations. If the typical distance separating consecutive minima of the landscape potential and the height of the potential barriers are smaller than the Hubble expansion rate parametrizing inflation, the probability distribution function of isocurvature fields becomes non-Gaussian due to the appearance of bumps and dips associated to the structure of the potential. We show that this non-Gaussianity can be transferred to the statistics of primordial curvature perturbations if the isocurvature fields are coupled to the curvature perturbations. The type of non-Gaussian structure that emerges in the distribution of curvature perturbations cannot be fully probed with the standard methods of polyspectra; instead, the probability distribution function is needed. The latter is obtained by summing all the n-point correlation functions. To substantiate our claims, we offer a concrete model consisting of an axionlike isocurvature perturbation with a sinusoidal potential and a linear derivative coupling between the isocurvature and curvature fields. In this model, the probability distribution function of the curvature perturbations consists of a Gaussian function with small superimposed oscillations reflecting the isocurvature axion potential. Fifth forces, Higgs portals and broken scale invariance arXiv: 1804.0718 Clare Burrage, Edmund J. Copeland, Peter Millington, Michael Spannowsky We study the relationship between the strength of fifth forces and the origin of scale breaking in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. We start with a light scalar field that is conformally coupled to a toy SM matter sector through a Weyl rescaling of the metric. After appropriately normalizing the fields, the conformally coupled scalar only interacts directly with the would-be Higgs field through kinetic-mixing and Higgs-portal terms. Thus, for the first time, we describe the equivalence of conformally coupled scalar-tensor modifications of gravity and Higgs-portal theories, and we find that the usual tree-level fifth forces only emerge if there is mass mixing between the conformally coupled scalar and the Higgs field. The strength of the fifth force, mediated by the light scalar, then depends on whether the mass of the Higgs arises from an explicit symmetry-breaking term or a spontaneous mechanism of scale breaking. Solar System tests of gravity and the non-observation of fifth forces therefore have the potential to provide information about the structure of the Higgs sector and the origin of its symmetry breaking, setting an upper bound on the magnitude of any explicit scale-breaking terms. These results demonstrate the phenomenological importance (both for cosmology and high-energy physics) of considering how scalar-tensor modifications of gravity are embedded within extensions of the SM. Falsifying ΛCDM: Model-independent tests of the concordance model with eBOSS DR14Q and Pantheon arXiv: 1804.0432 Arman Shafieloo, Benjamin L'Huillier, Alexei A. Starobinsky We combine model-independent reconstructions of the expansion history from the latest Pantheon supernovae distance modulus compilation and measurements from baryon acoustic oscillation to test some important aspects of the concordance model of cosmology namely the FLRW metric and flatness of spatial curvature. We then use the reconstructed expansion histories to fit growth measurement from redshift-space distortion and obtain strong constraints on (\Omega_\mathrm{m},\gamma,\sigma_8) in a model independent manner. Our results show consistency with a spatially flat FLRW Universe with general relativity to govern the perturbation in the structure formation and the cosmological constant as dark energy. However, we can also see some hints of tension among different observations within the context of the concordance model related to high redshift observations (z > 1) of the expansion history. This supports earlier findings of Sahni et al. (2014) & Zhao et al. (2017) and highlights the importance of precise measurement of expansion history and growth of structure at high redshifts. Constraining the time variation of Newton's constant G with gravitational-wave standard sirens and supernovae arXiv: 1804.0306 Wen Zhao, Bill S. Wright, Baojiu Li The intrinsic peak luminosity of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) depends on the value of Newton's gravitational constant G, through the Chandrasekhar mass M_{\rm Ch}\propto G^{-3/2}. If the luminosity distance can be independently determined, the SNIa can be treated as a tracker to constrain the possible time variation of G in different redshift ranges. The gravitational-wave (GW) standard sirens, caused by the coalescence of binary neutron stars, provide a model-independent way to measure the distance of GW events, which can be used to determine the luminosity distances of SNIa by interpolation, provided the GW and SNIa samples have similar redshift ranges. We demonstrate that combining the GW observations of third-generation detectors with SNIa data provides a powerful and model-independent way to measure G in a wide redshift range, which can constrain the ratio G/G_0, where G and G_0 are respectively the values in the redshift ranges z>0.1 and z<0.1, at the level of 1.5\%. Short Term Load Forecasts of Low Voltage Demand and the Effects of Weather arXiv: 1804.0295 Stephen Haben, Georgios Giasemidis, Florian Ziel, Siddharth Arora Short term load forecasts will play a key role in the implementation of smart electricity grids. They are required to optimise a wide range of potential network solutions on the low voltage (LV) grid, including integrating low carbon technologies (such as photovoltaics) and utilising battery storage devices. Despite the need for accurate LV level load forecasts, previous studies have mostly focused on forecasting at the individual household or building level using data from smart meters. In this study we provide detailed analysis of a variety of methods in terms of both point and probabilistic forecasting accuracy using data from 100 real LV feeders. Moreover, we investigate the effect of temperature (both actual and forecasts) on the accuracy of load forecasts. We present some important results on the drivers of LV forecasting accuracy that are crucial for the management of LV networks, along with an empirical comparison of forecast measures. The 1-loop effective potential for the Standard Model in curved spacetime arXiv: 1804.0202 Tommi Markkanen, Sami Nurmi, Arttu Rajantie, Stephen Stopyra The renormalisation group improved Standard Model effective potential in an arbitrary curved spacetime is computed to one loop order in perturbation theory. The loop corrections are computed in the ultraviolet limit, which makes them independent of the choice of the vacuum state and allows the derivation of the complete set of \beta-functions. The potential depends on the spacetime curvature through the direct non-minimal Higgs-curvature coupling, curvature contributions to the loop diagrams, and through the curvature dependence of the renormalisation scale. Together, these lead to significant curvature dependence, which needs to be taken into account in cosmological applications, which is demonstrated with the example of vacuum stability in de Sitter space. Particle identification using digital pulse shape discrimination in a nTD silicon detector with a 1 GHz sampling digitizer arXiv: 1804.0198 K. Mahata, A. Shrivastava, J. A. Gore, et al. In beam test experiments have been carried out for particle identification using digital pulse shape analysis in a 500~\mum thick Neutron Transmutation Doped (nTD) silicon detector with an indigenously developed FPGA based 12 bit resolution, 1 GHz sampling digitizer. The nTD Si detector was used in a low-field injection setup to detect light heavy-ions produced in reactions of \sim 5 MeV/A ^{7}Li and ^{12}C beams on different targets. Pulse height, rise time and current maximum have been obtained from the digitized charge output of a high bandwidth charge and current sensitive pre-amplifier. Good isotopic separation have been achieved using only the digitized charge output in case of light heavy-ions. The setup can be used for charged particle spectroscopy in nuclear reactions involving light heavy-ions around the Coulomb barrier energies. Integrated Sachs-Wolfe-galaxy cross-correlation bounds on the two branches of the minimal theory of massive gravity arXiv: 1804.0179 Nadia Bolis, Antonio De Felice, Shinji Mukohyama The minimal theory of massive gravity (MTMG) has two branches of stable cosmological solutions: a self-accelerating branch, which, except for the mass of tensor modes has exactly the same behavior of linear perturbations as \LambdaCDM in general relativity (GR), and a normal branch with nontrivial behavior. We explore the influence of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe-galaxy correlation constraints on the normal branch of MTMG, which, in its simplest implementation, has one free parameter more than \LambdaCDM in GR (or the self-accelerating branch of MTMG): \theta. This parameter is related to the graviton mass and only affects the behavior of the cosmological linear perturbation dynamics. Using 2d-mass and SDSS data, we check which values of \theta lead to a positive or negative cross-correlation. We find that positive cross-correlation is achieved for a large parameter-space interval. Within this allowed region of parameter space, we perform a \chi^2 analysis in terms of the parameter \theta, while keeping the other background parameters fixed to the best-fit values of Planck. We then infer that the normal branch of MTMG fits the data well in a nontrivial portion of the parameter space, and future experiments should be able to distinguish such a model from \LambdaCDM in GR (or the self-accelerating branch of MTMG). Regularised Kalb-Ramond Magnetic Monopole with Finite Energy arXiv: 1804.0170 Nick E Mavromatos, Sarben Sarkar In a previous work we suggested a self-gravitating electromagnetic monopole solution in a string-inspired model involving global spontaneous breaking of a SO(3) internal symmetry and Kalb-Ramond (KR) axions, stemming from an antisymmetric tensor field in the massless string multiplet. These axions carry a charge, which, in our model, also plays the r\^ole of the magnetic charge. The resulting geometry is close to that of a Reissner-Nordstr\"om (RN) black hole with charge proportional to the KR-axion charge. We proposed the existence of a thin shell structure inside a (large) core radius as the dominant mass contribution to the energy functional. The resulting energy was finite, and proportional to the KR-axion charge; however, the size of the shell was not determined and left as a phenomenological parameter. In the current article, we can calculate the mass-shell size, on proposing a regularisation of the black hole singularity via a matching procedure between the RN metric in the outer region and, in the inner region, a de Sitter space with a (positive) cosmological constant proportional to the scale of the spontaneous symmetry breaking of SO(3) . The matching, which involves the Israel junction conditions for the metric and its first derivatives at the inner surface of the shell, determines the inner mass-shell radius. The axion charge plays an important r\^ole in guaranteeing positivity of the "mass coefficient" of the gravitational potential term appearing in the metric component; so the KR electromagnetic monopole shows normal attractive gravitational effects. This is to be contrasted with the global monopole case (in the absence of KR axions) where such a matching is known to yield a negative "mass coefficient" (and, hence, repulsive gravitational effects). The total energy of the monopole within the shell is calculated. Optimised angular power spectra for spectroscopic galaxy surveys arXiv: 1803.1077 Stefano Camera, José Fonseca, Roy Maartens, Mário G. Santos The angular power spectrum is a gauge-independent observable that is in principle the natural tool for analysing galaxy number counts. In practice, the problem is that the computational requirements for next-generation spectroscopic surveys such as Euclid and the Square Kilometre Array are currently unfeasible. We propose a new method to save computational time for spectroscopic angular power spectra. This hybrid method is modelled on the Fourier power spectrum approach of treating relatively thick redshift bins (redshift width ~0.1) as separate surveys. In the hybrid method, each thick bin is further subdivided into thin bins (redshift width ~0.01); all the correlations within each thick bin are computed, while cross-bin correlations beyond the thick bins are neglected. Constraints on cosmological parameters from the hybrid method are comparable to those from the standard galaxy power spectrum analysis - but they have the advantage that cosmic evolution, wide-angle and lensing effects are naturally included, while no Alcock-Paczynski correction is needed. The hybrid method delivers much tighter constraints than a 2D tomographic approach that is typical for photometric surveys, which considers only thick bins and the correlations between them. Furthermore, for standard cosmological parameters our method is not biased by neglecting the effects of lensing on number counts, while the tomographic method is strongly biased. Numerical evaluation of inflationary 3-point functions on curved field space arXiv: 1803.1056 Sean Butchers, David Seery We extend the public CppTransport code to calculate the statistical properties of fluctuations in multiple-field inflationary models with curved field space. Our implementation accounts for all physical effects at tree-level in the 'in-in' diagrammatic expansion. This includes particle production due to time-varying masses, but excludes scenarios where the curvature perturbation is generated by averaging over the decay of more than one particle. We test our implementation by comparing results in Cartesian and polar field-space coordinates, showing excellent numerical agreement and only minor degradation in compute time. We compare our results with the PyTransport 2.0 code, which uses the same computational approach but a different numerical implementation, finding good agreement. Finally, we use our tools to study a class of gelaton-like models which could produce an enhanced non-Gaussian signal on equilateral configurations of the Fourier bispectrum. We show this is difficult to achieve using hyperbolic field-space manifolds and simple inflationary potentials. The decisive future of inflation arXiv: 1803.0949 Robert J. Hardwick, Vincent Vennin, David Wands How much more will we learn about single-field inflationary models in the future? We address this question in the context of Bayesian design and information theory. We develop a novel method to compute the expected utility of deciding between models and apply it to a set of futuristic measurements. This necessarily requires one to evaluate the Bayesian evidence many thousands of times over, which is numerically challenging. We show how this can be done using a number of simplifying assumptions and discuss their validity. We also modify the form of the expected utility, as previously introduced in the literature in different contexts, in order to partition each possible future into either the rejection of models at the level of the maximum likelihood or the decision between models using Bayesian model comparison. We then quantify the ability of future experiments to constrain the reheating temperature and the scalar running. Our approach allows us to discuss possible strategies for maximising information from future cosmological surveys. In particular, our conclusions suggest that, in the context of inflationary model selection, a decrease in the measurement uncertainty of the scalar spectral index would be more decisive than a decrease in the uncertainty in the tensor-to-scalar ratio. We have incorporated our approach into a publicly available python class, foxi (https://sites.google.com/view/foxicode), that can be readily applied to any survey optimisation problem. The Big Bang, CPT, and neutrino dark matter arXiv: 1803.0893 Latham Boyle, Kieran Finn, Neil Turok We investigate the idea that the universe before the Big Bang is the CPT reflection of the universe after the bang, so that the state of the universe does {\it not} spontaneously violate CPT. The universe before the bang and the universe after the bang may be viewed as a universe/anti-universe pair, created from nothing. The early universe is radiation dominated and inflationary energy is not required. We show how CPT selects a preferred vacuum state for quantum fields on such a cosmological spacetime. This, in turn, leads to a new view of the cosmological matter/anti-matter asymmetry, and a novel and economical explanation of the dark matter abundance. If we assume that the matter fields in the universe are described by the standard model of particle physics (including right-handed neutrinos), it is natural for one of the heavy neutrinos to be stable, and we show that in order to match the observed dark matter density, its mass must be 4.8\times10^{8}~{\rm GeV}. We also obtain further predictions, including: (i) that the three light neutrinos are majorana; (ii) that the lightest of these is exactly massless; and (iii) that there are no primordial, long-wavelength gravitational waves. CPT symmetric universe arXiv: 1803.0892 Latham Boyle, Kieran Finn, Neil Turok We propose that the state of the universe does {\it not} spontaneously violate CPT. Instead, the universe before the Big Bang is the CPT reflection of the universe after the bang. Phrased another way, the universe before the bang and the universe after the bang may be re-interpreted as a universe/anti-universe pair, created from nothing. CPT selects a unique vacuum state for the QFT on such a spacetime, which leads to a new perspective on the cosmological baryon asymmetry, and a new explanation for the observed dark matter abundance. In particular, if we assume that the matter fields in the universe are described by the standard model of particle physics (including right-handed neutrinos), we predict that one of the heavy neutrinos is stable, and that its density automatically matches the observed dark matter density if its mass is 4.8\times10^{8}~{\rm GeV}. Among other predictions, we have: (i) that the three light neutrinos are majorana; (ii) that the lightest of these is exactly massless; and (iii) that there are no primordial long-wavelength gravitational waves. We mention connections to the strong CP problem and the arrow of time. Weak lensing by voids in weak lensing maps arXiv: 1803.0871 Christopher T. Davies, Marius Cautun, Baojiu Li Cosmic voids are an important probe of large-scale structure that can constrain cosmological parameters and test cosmological models. We present a new paradigm for void studies: void detection in weak lensing convergence maps. This approach identifies objects that relate directly to our theoretical understanding of voids as underdensities in the total matter field and presents several advantages compared to the customary method of finding voids in the galaxy distribution. We exemplify this approach by identifying voids using the weak lensing peaks as tracers of the large-scale structure. We find self-similarity in the void abundance across a range of peak signal-to-noise selection thresholds. The voids obtained via this approach give a tangential shear signal up to \sim40 times larger than voids identified in the galaxy distribution. Moduli identification methods in Type II compactifications arXiv: 1803.0817 James Gray, Hadi Parsian Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the supergravity data of the background solutions. Such structure is seen both in the case of Calabi-Yau compactifications with non-trivial constraints on moduli arising from the gauge bundle and in the case of some non-Kahler compactifications of the theory. This description of the moduli has allowed the explicit computation of the moduli stabilization effects of a wide range of non-trivial gauge bundles on Calabi-Yau three-folds. In this paper we examine to what extent the ideas and techniques used in this work can be extended to the case of Type IIB string theory. Certain simplifications arise in the Type IIB case in comparison to the heterotic situation. However, complications also arise due to the richer supergravity data of the theory inducing a more involved map structure. We illustrate our discussion with several concrete examples of compactification of Type IIB string theory on conformal CICY three-folds with flux. Inflation with Planck: a survey of some "exotic" inflationary models arXiv: 1803.0808 Cláudio Gomes, Orfeu Bertolami, João G. Rosa We examine some inflationary models based on modifications of gravity in the light of Planck 2015 data, such as the generalised Chaplygin inspired inflation, models based in N=1 supergravity and braneworld scenarios. We also show that, conversely, potentials with a very flat plateau yield a primordial spectrum similar to that of the Starobinsky model with no need to modify general relativity. Short-lived modes from hydrodynamic dispersion relations arXiv: 1803.0805 Benjamin Withers We consider the dispersion relation of the shear-diffusion mode in relativistic hydrodynamics, which we generate to high order as a series in spatial momentum q for a holographic model. We demonstrate that the hydrodynamic series can be summed in a way that extends through branch cuts present in the complex q plane, resulting in the accurate description of multiple sheets. Each additional sheet corresponds to the dispersion relation of a different non-hydrodynamic mode. As an example we extract the frequencies of a pair of oscillatory non-hydrodynamic black hole quasinormal modes from the hydrodynamic series. The analytic structure of this model points to the possibility that the complete spectrum of gravitational quasinormal modes may be accessible from the hydrodynamic derivative expansion. Gravitational waves from asymmetric oscillon dynamics? arXiv: 1803.0804 Mustafa A. Amin, Jonathan Braden, Edmund J. Copeland, et al. It has been recently suggested that oscillons produced in the early universe from certain asymmetric potentials continue to emit gravitational waves for a number of e-folds of expansion after their formation, leading to potentially detectable gravitational wave signals. We revisit this claim by conducting a convergence study using graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated lattice simulations and show that numerical errors accumulated with time are significant in low-resolution scenarios, or in scenarios where the run-time causes the resolution to drop below the relevant scales in the problem. Our study determines that the dominant, growing high frequency peak of the gravitational wave signals in the fiducial "hill-top model" in [arXiv:1607.01314] is a numerical artifact. This finding prompts the need for a more careful analysis of the numerical validity of other similar results related to gravitational waves from oscillon dynamics. Void Lensing as a Test of Gravity arXiv: 1803.0753 Tessa Baker, Joseph Clampitt, Bhuvnesh Jain, Mark Trodden We investigate the potential of weak lensing by voids to test for deviations from General Relativity. We calculate the expected lensing signal of a scalar field with derivative couplings, finding that it has the potential to boost the tangential shear both within and outside the void radius. We use voids traced by Luminous Red Galaxies in SDSS to demonstrate the methodology of testing these predictions. We find that the void central density parameter, as inferred from the lensing signal, can shift from its GR value by up to 20% in some galileon gravity models. Since this parameter can be estimated independently using the galaxy tracer profiles of voids, our method provides a consistency check of the gravity theory. Although galileon gravity is now disfavoured as a source of cosmic acceleration by other datasets, the methods we demonstrate here can be used to test for more general fifth force effects with upcoming void lensing data. The VANDELS ESO public spectroscopic survey arXiv: 1803.0741 R. J. McLure, L. Pentericci, A. Cimatti, et al. VANDELS is a uniquely-deep spectroscopic survey of high-redshift galaxies with the VIMOS spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The survey has obtained ultra-deep optical (0.48 < lambda < 1.0 micron) spectroscopy of ~2100 galaxies within the redshift interval 1.0 < z < 7.0, over a total area of ~0.2 sq. degrees centred on the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields. Based on accurate photometric redshift pre-selection, 85% of the galaxies targeted by VANDELS were selected to be at z>=3. Exploiting the red sensitivity of the refurbished VIMOS spectrograph, the fundamental aim of the survey is to provide the high signal-to-noise ratio spectra necessary to measure key physical properties such as stellar population ages, masses, metallicities and outflow velocities from detailed absorption-line studies. Using integration times calculated to produce an approximately constant signal-to-noise ratio (20 < t_int < 80 hours), the VANDELS survey targeted: a) bright star-forming galaxies at 2.4 < z < 5.5, b) massive quiescent galaxies at 1.0 < z < 2.5, c) fainter star-forming galaxies at 3.0 < z < 7.0 and d) X-ray/Spitzer-selected active galactic nuclei and Herschel-detected galaxies. By targeting two extragalactic survey fields with superb multi-wavelength imaging data, VANDELS will produce a unique legacy data set for exploring the physics underpinning high-redshift galaxy evolution. In this paper we provide an overview of the VANDELS survey designed to support the science exploitation of the first ESO public data release, focusing on the scientific motivation, survey design and target selection. Non-minimal gravitational reheating during kination arXiv: 1803.0739 Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Tommi Markkanen A new mechanism is presented which can reheat the Universe in non-oscillatory models of inflation, where the inflation period is followed by a period dominated by the kinetic density for the inflaton field (kination). The mechanism considers an auxiliary field non-minimally coupled to gravity. The auxiliary field is a spectator during inflation, rendered heavy by the non-minimal coupling to gravity. During kination however, the non-minimal coupling generates a tachyonic mass, which displaces the field, until its bare mass becomes important, leading to coherent oscillations. Then, the field decays into the radiation bath of the hot big bang. The model is generic and predictive, in that the resulting reheating temperature is a function only of the model parameters (masses and couplings) and not of initial conditions. It is shown that reheating can be very efficient also when considering only the Standard Model. The VANDELS ESO public spectroscopic survey: observations and first data release arXiv: 1803.0737 L. Pentericci, R. J. McLure B. Garilli, O. Cucciati, et al. This paper describes the observations and the first data release (DR1) of the ESO public spectroscopic survey "VANDELS, a deep VIMOS survey of the CANDELS CDFS and UDS fields". VANDELS' main targets are star-forming galaxies at 2.4<z<5.5 and massive passive galaxies at 1<z<2.5. By adopting a strategy of ultra-long exposure times, from 20 to 80 hours per source, VANDELS is designed to be the deepest ever spectroscopic survey of the high-redshift Universe. Exploiting the red sensitivity of the VIMOS spectrograph, the survey has obtained ultra-deep spectra covering the wavelength 4800-10000 A with sufficient signal-to-noise to investigate the astrophysics of high-redshift galaxy evolution via detailed absorption line studies. The VANDELS-DR1 is the release of all spectra obtained during the first season of observations and includes data for galaxies for which the total (or half of the total) scheduled integration time was completed. The release contains 879 individual objects with a measured redshift and includes fully wavelength and flux-calibrated 1D spectra, the associated error spectra, sky spectra and wavelength-calibrated 2D spectra. We also provide a catalog with the essential galaxy parameters, including spectroscopic redshifts and redshift quality flags. In this paper we present the survey layout and observations, the data reduction and redshift measurement procedure and the general properties of the VANDELS-DR1 sample. We also discuss the spectroscopic redshift distribution, the accuracy of the photometric redshifts and we provide some examples of data products. All VANDELS-DR1 data are publicly available and can be retrieved from the ESO archive. Two further data releases are foreseen in the next 2 years with a final release scheduled for June 2020 which will include improved re-reduction of the entire spectroscopic data set. (abridged) Simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis: Dependence on the source of CP-violation arXiv: 1803.0734 Zong-Gang Mou, Paul M. Saffin, Anders Tranberg We compute the baryon asymmetry created in a tachyonic electroweak symmetry breaking transition, focusing on the dependence on the source of effective CP-violation. Earlier simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis have almost exclusively considered a very specific CP-violating term explicitly biasing Chern-Simons number. We compare four different dimension six, scalar-gauge CP-violating terms, involving both the Higgs field and another dynamical scalar coupled to SU(2) or U(1) gauge fields. We find that for sensible values of parameters, all implementations can generate a baryon asymmetry consistent with observations, showing that baryogenesis is a generic outcome of a fast tachyonic electroweak transition. Synergies between intensity maps of hydrogen lines arXiv: 1803.0707 José Fonseca, Roy Maartens, Mário G. Santos We study synergies between HI 21cm and H\alpha intensity map observations, focusing on SKA1-like and SPHEREx-like surveys. We forecast how well such a combination can measure features in the angular power spectrum on the largest scales, that arise from primordial non-Gaussianity and from general relativistic effects. For the first time we consider Doppler, Sachs-Wolfe and integrated SW effects separately. We confirm that the single-tracer surveys on their own cannot detect general relativistic effects and can constrain the non-Gaussianity parameter f_{\rm NL} only slightly better than Planck. Using the multi-tracer technique, constraints on f_{\rm NL} can be pushed down to \sim1. Amongst the general relativistic effects, the Doppler term is detectable with the multi-tracer. The Sachs-Wolfe terms and the integrated SW effect are still not detectable. Characterizing the Epoch of Reionization with the small-scale CMB: constraints on the optical depth and physical parameters arXiv: 1803.0703 Simone Ferraro, Kendrick M. Smith Patchy reionization leaves a number of imprints on the small-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations, the largest of which is the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ), the Doppler shift of CMB photons scattering off moving electrons in ionized bubbles. It has long been known that in the CMB power spectrum, this imprint of reionization is largely degenerate with the kSZ signal produced by late-time galaxies and clusters, thus limiting our ability to constrain reionization. Following Smith & Ferraro (2017), it is possible to isolate the reionization contribution in a model independent way, by looking at the large scale modulation of the small scale CMB power spectrum. In this paper we extend the formalism to use the full shape information of the small scale power spectrum (rather than just its broadband average), and argue that this is necessary to break the degeneracy between the optical depth \tau and parameters setting the duration of reionization. In particular, we show that the next generation of CMB experiments could achieve up to a factor of 3 improvement on the optical depth \tau and at the same time, constrain the duration of reionization to \sim 25 %. This can help tighten the constrains on neutrino masses, which will be limited by our knowledge of \tau, and shed light on the physical processes responsible for reionization. Correlations between X-ray properties and Black Hole Mass in AGN: towards a new method to estimate black hole mass from short exposure X-ray observations arXiv: 1803.0689 Julian A. Mayers, Kathy Romer, Arya Fahari, et al. Several investigations of the X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) using the normalised excess variance ({\sigma^2_{\rm NXS}}) parameter have shown that variability has a strong anti-correlation with black hole mass (M_{\rm BH}) and X-ray luminosity (L_{\rm X}). In this study we confirm these previous correlations and find no evidence of a redshift evolution. Using observations from XMM-Newton, we determine the {\sigma^2_{\rm NXS}} and L_{\rm X} for a sample of 1091 AGN drawn from the XMM-Newton Cluster Survey (XCS) - making this the largest study of X-ray spectral properties of AGNs. We created light-curves in three time-scales; 10 ks, 20 ks and 40 ks and used these to derive scaling relations between {\sigma^2_{\rm NXS}}, L_{\rm X} (2.0-10 keV range) and literature estimates of M_{\rm BH} from reverberation mapping. We confirm the anti-correlation between M_{\rm BH} and {\sigma^2_{\rm NXS}} and find a positive correlation between M_{\rm BH} and L_{\rm X}. The use of {\sigma^2_{\rm NXS}} is practical only for pointed observations where the observation time is tens of kiloseconds. For much shorter observations one cannot accurately quantify variability to estimate M_{\rm BH}. Here we describe a method to derive L_{\rm X} from short duration observations and used these results as an estimate for M_{\rm BH}. We find that it is possible to estimate L_{\rm X} from observations of just a few hundred seconds and that when correlated with M_{\rm BH}, the relation is statistically similar to the relation of M_{\rm BH}-L_{\rm X} derived from a spectroscopic analysis of full XMM observations. This method may be particularly useful to the eROSITA mission, an all-sky survey, which will detect >10^{6} AGN. Doppelgänger dark energy: modified gravity with non-universal couplings after GW170817 arXiv: 1803.0636 Luca Amendola, Dario Bettoni, Guillem Domènech, Adalto R. Gomes Gravitational Wave (GW) astronomy severely narrowed down the theoretical space for scalar-tensor theories. We propose a new class of attractor models for Horndeski action in which GWs propagate at the speed of light in the nearby universe but not in the past. To do so we derive new solutions to the interacting dark sector in which the ratio of dark energy and dark matter remains constant, which we refer to as doppelg\"anger dark energy (DDE). We then remove the interaction between dark matter and dark energy by a suitable change of variables. The accelerated expansion that (we) baryons observe is due to a conformal coupling to the dark energy scalar field. We show how in this context it is possible to find a non trivial subset of solutions in which GWs propagate at the speed of light only at low red-shifts. The model is an attractor, thus reaching the limit c_{T}\to1 relatively fast. However, the effect of baryons turns out to be non-negligible and severely constrains the form of the Lagrangian. In passing, we found that in the simplest DDE models the no-ghost conditions for perturbations require a non-universal coupling to gravity. In the end, we comment on possible ways to solve the lack of matter domination stage for DDE models. "Shadowy" modes in Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor theories arXiv: 1803.0624 Antonio De Felice, David Langlois, Shinji Mukohyama, et al. We consider Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor theories which appear degenerate when restricted to the unitary gauge but are not degenerate in an arbitrary gauge. We dub them U-degenerate theories. We provide a full classification of theories that are either DHOST or U-degenerate and that are quadratic in second derivatives of the scalar field, and discuss its extension to cubic and higher order theories. Working with a simple example of U-degenerate theory, we find that, for configurations in which the scalar field gradient is time-like, the apparent extra mode in such a theory can be understood as a generalized instantaneous, or "shadowy" mode, which does not propagate. Appropriate boundary conditions, required by the elliptic nature of part of the equations of motion, lead to the elimination of the apparent instability associated with this extra mode. f(R) gravity modifications: from the action to the data arXiv: 1803.0563 Ruth Lazkoz, María Ortiz-Baños, Vincenzo Salzano It is a very well established matter nowadays that many modified gravity models can offer a sound alternative to General Relativity for the description of the accelerated expansion of the universe. But it is also equally well known that no clear and sharp discrimination between any alternative theory and the classical one has been found so far. In this work, we attempt at formulating a different approach starting from the general class of f(R) theories as test probes: we try to reformulate f(R) Lagrangian terms as explicit functions of the redshift, i.e., as f(z). In this context, the f(R) setting to the consensus cosmological model, the \LambdaCDM model, can be written as a polynomial including just a constant and a third-order term. Starting from this result, we propose various different polynomial parameterizations f(z), including new terms which would allow for deviations from \LambdaCDM, and we thoroughly compare them with observational data. While on the one hand we have found no statistically preference for our proposals (even if some of them are as good as \LambdaCDM by using Bayesian Evidence comparison), we think that our novel approach could provide a different perspective for the development of new and observationally reliable alternative models of gravity. Metric-affine f(R,T) theories of gravity and their applications arXiv: 1803.0552 E. Barrientos, Francisco S. N. Lobo, S. Mendoza, et al. We study f(R,T) theories of gravity, where T is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor T_{\mu\nu}, with independent metric and affine connection (metric-affine theories). We find that the resulting field equations share a close resemblance with their metric-affine f(R) relatives once an effective energy-momentum tensor is introduced. As a result, the metric field equations are second-order and no new propagating degrees of freedom arise as compared to GR, which contrasts with the metric formulation of these theories, where a dynamical scalar degree of freedom is present. Analogously to its metric counterpart, the field equations impose the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor, which implies non-geodesic motion and consequently leads to the appearance of an extra force. The weak field limit leads to a modified Poisson equation formally identical to that found in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. Furthermore, the coupling of these gravity theories to perfect fluids, electromagnetic, and scalar fields, and their potential applications are discussed. Identifying Universality in Warm Inflation arXiv: 1803.0498 Arjun Berera, Joel Mabillard, Mauro Pieroni, Rudnei O. Ramos Ideas borrowed from renormalization group are applied to warm inflation to characterize the inflationary epoch in terms of flows away from the de Sitter regime. In this framework different models of inflation fall into universality classes. Furthermore, for warm inflation this approach also helps to characterise when inflation can smoothly end into the radiation dominated regime. Warm inflation has a second functional dependence compared to cold inflation due to dissipation, yet despite this feature, it is shown that the universality classes defined for cold inflation can be consistently extended to warm inflation. Chern-Weil theorem, Lovelock Lagrangians in critical dimensions and boundary terms in gravity actions arXiv: 1803.0474 Nathalie Deruelle, Nelson Merino, Rodrigo Olea In this paper we show how to translate into tensorial language the Chern-Weil theorem for the Lorentz symmetry, which equates the difference of the Euler densities of two manifolds to the exterior derivative of a transgression form. For doing so we need to introduce an auxiliary, hybrid, manifold whose geometry we construct explicitely. This allows us to find the vector density, constructed out of spacetime quantities only, whose divergence is the exterior derivative of the transgression form. As a consequence we can show how the Einstein-Hilbert, Gauss-Bonnet and, in general, the Euler scalar densities can be written as the divergences of genuine vector densities in the critical dimensions D=2,4, etc. As Lovelock gravity is a dimensional continuation of Euler densities, these results are of relevance for Gauss-Bonnet and, in general, Lovelock gravity. Indeed, these vectors which can be called generalized Katz vectors ensure, in particular, a well-posed Dirichlet variational principle. Nuclear Reactions in the Crusts of Accreting Neutron Stars arXiv: 1803.0381 R. Lau, M. Beard, S. S. Gupta, et al. X-ray observations of transiently accreting neutron stars during quiescence provide information about the structure of neutron star crusts and the properties of dense matter. Interpretation of the observational data requires an understanding of the nuclear reactions that heat and cool the crust during accretion, and define its nonequilibrium composition. We identify here in detail the typical nuclear reaction sequences down to a depth in the inner crust where the mass density is 2E12 g/cm^3 using a full nuclear reaction network for a range of initial compositions. The reaction sequences differ substantially from previous work. We find a robust reduction of crust impurity at the transition to the inner crust regardless of initial composition, though shell effects can delay the formation of a pure crust somewhat to densities beyond 2E12 g/cm^3. This naturally explains the small inner crust impurity inferred from observations of a broad range of systems. The exception are initial compositions with A >= 102 nuclei, where the inner crust remains impure with an impurity parameter of Qimp~20 due to the N = 82 shell closure. In agreement with previous work we find that nuclear heating is relatively robust and independent of initial composition, while cooling via nuclear Urca cycles in the outer crust depends strongly on initial composition. This work forms a basis for future studies of the sensitivity of crust models to nuclear physics and provides profiles of composition for realistic crust models. Unsqueezing of standing waves due to inflationary domain structure arXiv: 1803.0364 Carlo R. Contaldi, Joao Magueijo The so-called "trans-Planckian" problem of inflation may be evaded by positing that modes come into existence only when they became "cis-Planckian" by virtue of expansion. However, this would imply that for any mode a new random realization would have to be drawn every N wavelengths, with N typically of order 1000 (but it could be larger or smaller). Such a re-drawing of realizations leads to a heteroskodastic distribution if the region under observation contains several such independent domains. This has no effect on the sampled power spectrum for a scale-invariant raw spectrum, but at very small scales it leads to a spectral index bias towards scale-invariance and smooths oscillations in the spectrum. The domain structure would also "unsqueeze" some of the propagating waves, i.e., dismantle their standing wave character. By describing standing waves as travelling waves of the same amplitude moving in opposite directions we determine the observational effects of unsqueezing. We find that it would erase the Doppler peaks in the CMB, but only on very small angular scales, where the primordial signal may not be readily accessible. The standing waves in a primordial gravitational wave background would also be turned into travelling waves. This unsqueezing of the gravitational wave background may constitute a detectable phenomenon. Testing the equivalence principle on cosmological scales arXiv: 1803.0277 Camille Bonvin, Pierre Fleury The equivalence principle, that is one of the main pillars of general relativity, is very well tested in the Solar system; however, its validity is more uncertain on cosmological scales, or when dark matter is concerned. This article shows that relativistic effects in the large-scale structure can be used to directly test whether dark matter satisfies Euler's equation, i.e. whether its free fall is characterised by geodesic motion, just like baryons and light. After having proposed a general parametrisation for deviations from Euler's equation, we perform Fisher-matrix forecasts for future surveys like DESI and the SKA, and show that such deviations can be constrained with a precision of order 10%. Deviations from Euler's equation cannot be tested directly with standard methods like redshift-space distortions and gravitational lensing, since these observables are not sensitive to the time component of the metric. Our analysis shows therefore that relativistic effects bring new and complementary constraints to alternative theories of gravity. Limits on the Reconstruction of a Single Dark Energy Scalar Field Potential from SNe Ia Data arXiv: 1803.0187 Arpine Piloyan, Sergey Pavluchenko, Luca Amendola In this paper we perform a reconstruction of the scalar field potential responsible for cosmic acceleration using SNe Ia data. After describing the method, we test it with real SNe Ia data-Union2.1 and JLA SNe datasets. We demonstrate that with the current data precision level, the full reconstruction is not possible. We discuss the problems which arise during the reconstruction process and the ways to overcome them. Cosmological constraints from the redshift dependence of the Alcock-Paczynski effect: Dynamical dark energy arXiv: 1803.0185 Xiao-Dong Li, Cristiano G. Sabiu, Changbom Park, et al. We perform an anisotropic clustering analysis of 1,133,326 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release (DR) 12 covering the redshift range 0.15<z<0.69. The geometrical distortions of the galaxy positions, caused by incorrect cosmological model assumptions, are captured in the anisotropic two-point correlation function on scales 6 -- 40 h^{-1}\rm Mpc. The redshift evolution of this anisotropic clustering is used to place constraints on the cosmological parameters. We improve the methodology of Li et al. 2016, to enable efficient exploration of high dimensional cosmological parameter spaces, and apply it to the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrization of dark energy, w=w_0+w_a{z}/({1+z}). In combination with the CMB, BAO, SNIa and H_0 from Cepheid data, we obtain \Omega_m = 0.301 \pm 0.008,\ w_0 = -1.042 \pm 0.067,\  and w_a = -0.07 \pm 0.29 (68.3\% CL). Adding our new AP measurements to the aforementioned results reduces the error bars by \sim30 -- 40\% and improves the dark energy figure of merit by a factor of \sim2. We check the robustness of the results using realistic mock galaxy catalogues. Precision constraints on radiative neutrino decay with CMB spectral distortion arXiv: 1803.0058 Jelle L. Aalberts, Shin'ichiro Ando, Wouter M. Borg, et al. We investigate the radiative decay of the cosmic neutrino background, and its impact on the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that is known to be a nearly perfect black body. We derive exact formulae for the decay of a heavier neutrino into a lighter neutrino and a photon, \nu_j \to \nu_i + \gamma, and of absorption as its inverse, \nu_i + \gamma \to \nu_j, by accounting for the precise form of the neutrino momentum distribution. Our calculations show that if the neutrinos are heavier than \mathcal O(0.1) eV, the exact formulae give results that differ by \sim50%, compared with approximate ones where neutrinos are assumed to be at rest. We also find that spectral distortion due to absorption is more important for heavy neutrino masses (by a factor of \sim10 going from a neutrino mass of 0.01 eV to 0.1 eV). By analyzing the CMB spectral data measured with COBE-FIRAS, we obtain lower limits on the neutrino lifetime of \tau_{12} \gtrsim 4 \times 10^{21} s (95% C.L.) for the smaller mass splitting and \tau_{13} \sim \tau_{23} \gtrsim 10^{19} s for the larger mass splitting. These represent up to one order of magnitude improvement over previous CMB constraints. With future CMB experiments such as PIXIE, these limits will improve by roughly 4 orders of magnitude. This translates to a projected upper limit on the neutrino magnetic moment (for certain neutrino masses and decay modes) of \mu_\nu < 3 \times 10^{-11}\, \mu_B, where \mu_B is the Bohr magneton. Such constraints would make future precision CMB measurements competitive with lab-based constraints on neutrino magnetic moments. White dwarfs and revelations arXiv: 1803.0054 Ippocratis D. Saltas, Ignacy Sawicki, Ilidio Lopes We use the most recent, complete and independent measurements of masses and radii of white dwarfs in binaries to bound the class of non-trivial modified gravity theories, viable after GW170817/GRB170817, using its effect on the mass-radius relation of the stars. We show that the uncertainty in the latest data is sufficiently small that residual evolutionary effects, most notably the effect of core composition, finite temperature and envelope structure, must now accounted for if correct conclusions about the nature of gravity are to be made. We model corrections resulting from finite temperature and envelopes to a base Hamada-Salpeter cold equation of state and derive consistent bounds on the possible modifications of gravity in the stars' interiors, finding that Y< 0.14 at 95\% confidence, an improvement of a factor of three with respect to previous bounds. Finally, our analysis reveals some fundamental degeneracies between the theory of gravity and the precise chemical makeup of white dwarfs. Horndeski dark matter and beyond arXiv: 1803.0001 Alberto Diez-Tejedor, Francisco Flores, Gustavo Niz Starting from the Gleyzes-Langlois-Piazza-Vernizzi action, we derive the most general effective theory that is invariant under internal shifts and a \mathbb{Z}_2 mirror symmetry in the scalar sector. Contrary to what one may think, this model presents a dark matter tracker previous to the dark energy domination. We show that, in an empty universe and to linear order in perturbations, the scalar mode clusters in exactly the same way as standard nonrelativistic cold dark matter. This also holds for the subsector of the theory where the speed of propagation of gravitational waves equals that of light, in agreement with the recent multimessenger observation. However, the inclusion of standard model particles introduces nontrivial couplings of the gravitational scalar mode to baryons, modifying their clustering properties. We argue that no arrangement of the parameters of the model can reduce the extra scalar to precisely behave as cold dark matter. Electroweak phase transition in the ΣSM - I: Dimensional reduction arXiv: 1802.1050 Lauri Niemi, Hiren H. Patel, Michael J. Ramsey-Musolf, et al. In a series of two papers, we make a comparative analysis of the performance of conventional perturbation theory to analyze electroweak phase transition in the real triplet extension of Standard Model (\SigmaSM). In Part I (this paper), we derive and present the high-T dimensionally reduced effective theory that is suitable for numerical simulation on the lattice. In the sequel (Part II), we will present results of the numerical simulation and benchmark the performance of conventional perturbation theory. Under the assumption that \Sigma is heavy, the resulting effective theory takes the same form as that derived from the minimal standard model. By recasting the existing non-perturbative results, we map out the phase diagram of the model in the plane of triplet mass M_\Sigma and Higgs portal coupling a_2. Contrary to conventional perturbation theory, we find regions of parameter space where the phase transition may be first order, second order, or crossover. We comment on prospects for prospective future colliders to probe the region where the electroweak phase transition is first order by a precise measurement of the h\rightarrow\gamma\gamma partial width. Scale-invariant scalar field dark matter through the Higgs portal arXiv: 1802.0943 Catarina Cosme, João G. Rosa, O. Bertolami We discuss the dynamics and phenomenology of an oscillating scalar field coupled to the Higgs boson that accounts for the dark matter in the Universe. The model assumes an underlying scale invariance such that the scalar field only acquires mass after the electroweak phase transition, behaving as dark radiation before the latter takes place. While for a positive coupling to the Higgs field the dark scalar is stable, for a negative coupling it acquires a vacuum expectation value after the electroweak phase transition and may decay into photon pairs, albeit with a mean lifetime much larger than the age of the Universe. We explore possible astrophysical and laboratory signatures of such a dark matter candidate in both cases, including annihilation and decay into photons, Higgs decay, photon-dark scalar oscillations and induced oscillations of fundamental constants. We find that dark matter within this scenario will be generically difficult to detect in the near future, except for the promising case of a 7 keV dark scalar decaying into photons, which naturally explains the observed galactic and extra-galactic 3.5 keV X-ray line. Coupled quintessence with a ΛCDM background: removing the σ_8 tension arXiv: 1802.0921 Bruno J. Barros, Luca Amendola, Tiago Barreiro, Nelson J. Nunes A well-known problem of the \LambdaCDM model is the tension between the relatively high level of clustering, as quantified by the parameter \sigma_8, found in cosmic microwave background experiments and the smaller one obtained from large-scale observations in the late Universe. In this paper we show that coupled quintessence, i.e. a single dark energy scalar field conformally coupled to dark matter through a constant coupling, can solve this problem if the background is taken to be identical to the \LambdaCDM one. We show that two competing effects arise. On one hand, the additional scalar force is attractive, and is therefore expected to increase the clustering. On the other, in order to obtain the same background as \LambdaCDM, coupled quintessence must have a smaller amount of dark matter near the present epoch. We show that the second effect is dominating today and leads to an overall slower growth. Comparing to redshift distortion data, we find that coupled quintessence with \LambdaCDM background solves the tension between early and late clustering. We find for the coupling \beta and for \sigma_8 the best fit values \beta = \pm 0.079^{+0.016}_{-0.019} and \sigma_8 = 0.818^{+0.028}_{-0.028}. These values also fit the lensing data from the KiDS-450 survey. We also estimate that the future missions SKA and Euclid will constrain \beta with an error of \pm\, 7.2\times10^{-4} and for \sigma_8 of \pm \,8.0\times10^{-4} at 1\sigma level. Inflationary Cosmology, Diffeomorphism Group of the Line and Virasoro Coadjoint Orbits arXiv: 1802.0918 James E. Lidsey The cosmological field equations sourced by a self-interacting scalar field are dynamically equivalent to a closed system of equations obtained by applying the moment method to non-linear Schr\"odinger equations possessing an underlying non-relativistic conformal SL(2,\mathbb{R}) symmetry. We consider the one-dimensional, quintic Schr\"odinger equation relevant to strongly repulsive, dilute Bose gases. The action of the diffeomorphism group on the space of Schr\"odinger operators generates an harmonic trapping potential that can be identified with the kinetic energy of the cosmological scalar field. Inflationary cosmologies are represented by points on the orbit of the de Sitter solution, which is the quotient manifold {\rm Diff}(\mathbb{R})/SL(2,\mathbb{R}). Key roles are played by the Schwarzian derivative of the diffeomorphism and the Ermakov-Pinney equation. The underlying SL(2,\mathbb{R}) symmetry results in a first integral constraint which ensures energy-momentum conservation. When the analysis is restricted to the universal cover group of diffeomorphisms on the circle, the generation of a rolling scalar field can be understood in terms of the Virasoro coadjoint action. The corresponding symplectic two-form and Hamiltonian generator of the coadjoint orbit are determined by the scalar field kinetic energy. Black hole formation from the gravitational collapse of a non-spherical network of structures arXiv: 1802.0912 Ismael Delgado Gaspar, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Roberto A. Sussman, Israel Quiros We examine the gravitational collapse and black hole formation of multiple non--spherical configurations constructed from Szekeres dust models with positive spatial curvature that smoothly match to a Schwarzschild exterior. These configurations are made of an almost spherical central core region surrounded by a network of "pancake-like" overdensities and voids with spatial positions prescribed through standard initial conditions. We show that a full collapse into a focusing singularity, without shell crossings appearing before the formation of an apparent horizon, is not possible unless the full configuration becomes exactly or almost spherical. Seeking for black hole formation, we demand that shell crossings are covered by the apparent horizon. This requires very special fine-tuned initial conditions that impose very strong and unrealistic constraints on the total black hole mass and full collapse time. As a consequence, non-spherical non-rotating dust sources cannot furnish even minimally realistic toy models of black hole formation at astrophysical scales: demanding realistic collapse time scales yields huge unrealistic black hole masses, while simulations of typical astrophysical black hole masses collapse in unrealistically small times. We note, however, that the resulting time--mass constraint is compatible with early Universe models of primordial black hole formation, suitable in early dust-like environments. Finally, we argue that the shell crossings appearing when non-spherical dust structures collapse are an indicator that such structures do not form galactic mass black holes but virialise into stable stationary objects. Speed of gravitational waves and black hole hair arXiv: 1802.0860 Oliver J. Tattersall, Pedro G. Ferreira, Macarena Lagos The recent detection of GRB 170817A and GW170817 constrains the speed of gravity waves c_T to be that of light, which severely restricts the landscape of modified gravity theories that impact the cosmological evolution of the universe. In this work, we investigate the presence of black hole hair in the remaining viable cosmological theories of modified gravity that respect the constraint c_T=1. We focus mainly on scalar-tensor theories of gravity, analyzing static, asymptotically flat black holes in Horndeski, Beyond Horndeski, Einstein-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet, and Chern-Simons theories. We find that in all of the cases considered here, theories that respect c_T=1 do not allow for hair, or have negligible hair. We further comment on vector-tensor theories including Einstein Yang-Mills, Einstein-Aether, and Generalised Proca theories, as well as bimetric theories. The Fifth Force in the Local Cosmic Web arXiv: 1802.0720 Harry Desmond, Pedro G Ferreira, Guilhem Lavaux, Jens Jasche Extensions of the standard models of particle physics and cosmology often lead to long-range fifth forces whose strength and range depend on gravitational environment. Fifth forces on astrophysical scales are best studied in the cosmic web where perturbation theory breaks down. We present constraints on a symmetron- or chameleon-screened fifth force with Yukawa coupling and megaparsec range -- as well as an unscreened fifth force with differential coupling to galactic mass components -- by searching for the displacement it predicts between galaxies' stellar and gas mass centroids. Taking data from the \textit{Alfalfa} HI survey, identifying galaxies' gravitational environments with the maps of~\citet{Desmond:2017ctk} and forward-modelling with a Bayesian likelihood framework, we set upper bounds on the strength of the fifth force relative to Newtonian gravity, \Delta G/G, from \sim \text{few} \: \times 10^{-4} (1\sigma) for range \lambda_C = 50 Mpc to \sim 0.1 for \lambda_C = 500 kpc. In f(R) gravity this requires f_{R0} \lesssim \text{few} \: \times \: 10^{-8}. The analogous bounds without screening are \sim \text{few} \: \times 10^{-4} and \text{few} \times 10^{-3}. These are the tightest and among the only fifth-force constraints on galaxy scales. We show how our results may be strengthened with future survey data and identify the key features of an observational programme for furthering fifth-force tests beyond the Solar System. Wandering Supermassive Black Holes in Milky Way Mass Halos arXiv: 1802.0678 Michael Tremmel, Fabio Governato, Marta Volonteri, et al. We present a self-consistent prediction from a large-scale cosmological simulation for the population of wandering' supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of mass greater than 10^6 M_{\odot} on long-lived, kpc-scale orbits within Milky Way (MW)-mass galaxies. We extract a sample of MW-mass halos from the Romulus25 cosmological simulation (Tremmel et al. 2017), which is uniquely able to capture the orbital evolution of SMBHs during and following galaxy mergers. We predict that such halos, regardless of recent merger history or morphology, host an average of 5.1 \pm 3.3 SMBHs, including their central black hole, within 10 kpc from the galactic center and an average of 12.2 \pm 8.4 SMBHs total within their virial radius, not counting those in satellite halos. Wandering SMBHs exist within their host galaxies for several Gyrs, often accreted by their host halo in the early Universe. We find, with >4\sigma significance, that wandering SMBHs are preferentially found outside of galactic disks. Primordial physics from large-scale structure beyond the power spectrum arXiv: 1802.0676 Roland de Putter We study constraints on primordial mode-coupling from the power spectrum, squeezed-limit bispectrum and collapsed trispectrum of matter and halos. We describe these statistics in terms of long-wavelength 2-point functions involving the matter/halo density and position-dependent power spectrum. This allows us to derive simple, analytic expression for the information content, treating constraints from scale-dependent bias in the halo power spectrum on the same footing as those from higher order statistics. In particular, we include non-Gaussian covariance due to long-short mode-coupling from non-linear evolution, which manifests itself as long-mode cosmic variance in the position-dependent power spectrum. We find that bispectrum forecasts that ignore this cosmic variance may underestimate \sigma(f_{\rm NL}) by up to a factor \sim 3 for the matter density (at z=1) and commonly a factor \sim 2 for the halo bispectrum. Constraints from the bispectrum can be improved by combining it with the power spectrum and trispectrum. The reason is that, in the position-dependent power spectrum picture, the bispectrum and trispectrum intrinsically incorporate multitracer cosmic variance cancellation, which is optimized in a joint analysis. For halo statistics, we discuss the roles of scale-dependent bias, matter mode-coupling, and non-linear, non-Gaussian biasing (b_{11}^{(h)}). While scale-dependent bias in the halo power spectrum is already very constraining, higher order halo statistics are competitive in the regime where stochastic noise in the position-dependent halo power spectrum is low enough for cosmic variance cancellation to be effective, i.e.~for large halo number density and large k_{\rm max}. This motivates exploring this regime observationally. Kaluza-Klein reductions and AdS/Ricci-flat correspondence arXiv: 1802.0608 Marco M. Caldarelli, Kostas Skenderis The AdS/Ricci-flat (AdS/RF) correspondence is a map between families of asymptotically locally AdS solutions on a torus and families of asymptotically flat spacetimes on a sphere. The aim of this work is to perturbatively extend this map to general AdS and asymptotically flat solutions. A prime application for such map would be the development of holography for Minkowski spacetime. In this paper we perform a Kaluza-Klein (KK) reduction of AdS on a torus and of Minkowski on a sphere, keeping all massive KK modes. Such computation is interesting on its own, as there are relatively few examples of such explicit KK reductions in the literature. We perform both KK reductions in parallel to illustrate their similarity. In particular, we show how to construct gauge invariant variables, find the field equations they satisfy, and construct a corresponding effective action. We further diagonalize all equations and find their general solution in closed form. Surprisingly, in the limit of large dimension of the compact manifolds (torus and sphere), the AdS/RF correspondence maps individual KK modes from one side to the other. In a sequel of this paper we will discuss how the AdS/RF maps acts when the dimension of the compact space is finite. Inflation in a scale invariant universe arXiv: 1802.0606 Pedro G. Ferreira, Christopher T. Hill, Johannes Noller, Graham G. Ross A scale-invariant universe can have a period of accelerated expansion at early times: inflation. We use a frame-invariant approach to calculate inflationary observables in a scale invariant theory of gravity involving two scalar fields - the spectral indices, the tensor to scalar ratio, the level of isocurvature modes and non-Gaussianity. We show that scale symmetry leads to an exact cancellation of isocurvature modes and that, in the scale-symmetry broken phase, this theory is well described by a single scalar field theory. We find the predictions of this theory strongly compatible with current observations. Anisotropies in the stochastic gravitational-wave background: Formalism and the cosmic string case arXiv: 1802.0604 Alexander C. Jenkins, Mairi Sakellariadou We develop a powerful analytical formalism for calculating the energy density of the stochastic gravitational wave background, including a full description of its anisotropies. This is completely general, and can be applied to any astrophysical or cosmological source. As an example, we apply these tools to the case of a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings. We find that the angular spectrum of the anisotropies is relatively insensitive to the choice of model for the string network, but very sensitive to the value of the string tension G\mu. Gravitational waves from vacuum first-order phase transitions: from the envelope to the lattice arXiv: 1802.0571 Daniel Cutting, Mark Hindmarsh, David J. Weir We conduct large scale numerical simulations of gravitational wave production at a first order vacuum phase transition. We find a power law for the gravitational wave power spectrum at high wavenumber which falls off as k^{-1.5} rather than the k^{-1} produced by the envelope approximation. The peak of the power spectrum is shifted to slightly lower wave numbers from that of the envelope approximation. The envelope approximation reproduces our results for the peak power less well, agreeing only to within an order of magnitude. After the bubbles finish colliding the scalar field oscillates around the true vacuum. An additional feature is produced in the UV of the gravitational wave power spectrum, and this continues to grow linearly until the end of our simulation. The additional feature peaks at a length scale close to the bubble wall thickness and is shown to have a negligible contribution to the energy in gravitational waves, providing the scalar field mass is much smaller than the Planck mass. Electroweak phase transition and dimensional reduction of the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model arXiv: 1802.0505 Tyler Gorda, Andreas Helset, Lauri Niemi, et al. Reliable analysis of the Electroweak phase transition (EWPT) requires use of non-perturbative methods. We apply the method of finite-temperature dimensional reduction to the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM). This allows us to study the EWPT in this model, in terms of a non-perturbative study of three-dimensional effective theories. We present a detailed derivation of the mapping between the full four-dimensional and the effective three-dimensional theories. In particular, we study the case where the second scalar doublet is so heavy in the vicinity of the phase transition that it can be integrated out. The resulting effective three-dimensional theory is the same as in the case of the Standard Model, and existing non-perturbative results can be recycled. In the alignment limit of the 2HDM, results of our study are presented in the companion paper. Cosmic Curvature Tested Directly from Observations arXiv: 1802.0481 Mikhail Denissenya, Eric V. Linder, Arman Shafieloo Cosmic spatial curvature is a fundamental geometric quantity of the Universe. We investigate a model independent, geometric approach to measure spatial curvature directly from observations, without any derivatives of data. This employs strong lensing time delays and supernova distance measurements to measure the curvature itself, rather than just testing consistency with flatness. We define two curvature estimators, with differing error propagation characteristics, that can crosscheck each other, and also show how they can be used to map the curvature in redshift slices, to test constancy of curvature as required by the Robertson-Walker metric. Simulating realizations of redshift distributions and distance measurements of lenses and sources, we estimate uncertainties on the curvature enabled by next generation measurements. The results indicate that the model independent methods, using only geometry without assuming forms for the energy density constituents, can determine the curvature at the \sim6\times10^{-3} level. High redshift extremely red quasars in X-rays arXiv: 1802.0427 Andy D. Goulding, Nadia L. Zakamska, Rachael M. Alexandroff, et al. Quasars may have played a key role in limiting the stellar mass of massive galaxies. Identifying those quasars in the process of removing star formation fuel from their hosts is an exciting ongoing challenge in extragalactic astronomy. In this paper we present X-ray observations of eleven extremely red quasars (ERQs) with L_{\rm bol}\sim 10^{47} erg s^{-1} at z=1.5-3.2 with evidence for high-velocity (v > 1000 km s^{-1}) [OIII]\lambda5007\AA\ outflows. X-rays allow us to directly probe circumnuclear obscuration and to measure the instantaneous accretion luminosity. We detect ten out of eleven extremely red quasars available in targeted and archival data. Using a combination of X-ray spectral fitting and hardness ratios, we find that all of the ERQs show signs of absorption in the X-rays with inferred column densities of N_{\rm H}\approx 10^{23} cm^{-2}, including four Compton-thick candidates (N_{\rm H} > 10^{24} cm^{-2}). We stack the X-ray emission of the seven weakly detected sources, measuring an average column density of N_{\rm H}\sim 8\times 10^{23} cm^{-2}. The absorption-corrected (intrinsic) 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity of the stack is 2.7\times 10^{45} erg s^{-1}, consistent with X-ray luminosities of type 1 quasars of the same infrared luminosity. Thus, we find that ERQs are a highly obscured, borderline Compton-thick population, and based on optical and infrared data we suggest that these objects are partially hidden by their own equatorial outflows. However, unlike some quasars with known outflows, ERQs do not appear to be intrinsically underluminous in X-rays for their bolometric luminosity. Our observations indicate that low X-rays are not necessary to enable some types of radiatively driven winds. Prospects for resolving the Hubble constant tension with standard sirens arXiv: 1802.0340 Stephen M. Feeney, Hiranya V. Peiris, Andrew R. Williamson, et al. The Hubble constant (H_0) estimated from the local Cepheid-supernova (SN) distance ladder is in 3-\sigma tension with the value extrapolated from cosmic microwave background (CMB) data assuming the standard cosmological model. Whether this tension represents new physics or systematic effects is the subject of intense debate. Here, we investigate how new, independent H_0 estimates can arbitrate this tension, assessing whether the measurements are consistent with being derived from the same model using the posterior predictive distribution (PPD). We show that, with existing data, the inverse distance ladder formed from BOSS baryon acoustic oscillation measurements and the Pantheon SN sample yields an H_0 posterior near-identical to the Planck CMB measurement. The observed local distance ladder value is a very unlikely draw from the resulting PPD. Turning to the future, we find that a sample of \sim50 binary neutron star "standard sirens" (detectable within the next decade) will be able to adjudicate between the local and CMB estimates. Extended Effective Field Theory of Inflation arXiv: 1802.0304 Amjad Ashoorioon, Roberto Casadio, Michele Cicoli, et al. We present a general framework where the effective field theory of single field inflation is extended by the inclusion of operators with mass dimension 3 and 4 in the unitary gauge. These higher dimensional operators introduce quartic and sextic corrections to the dispersion relation. We study the regime of validity of this extended effective field theory of inflation and the effect of these higher dimensional operators on CMB observables associated with scalar perturbations, such as the speed of sound, the amplitude of the power spectrum and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Tensor perturbations remain instead, unaltered. Soliton solutions in geometrically nonlinear Cosserat micropolar elasticity with large deformations arXiv: 1802.0284 Christian G. Boehmer, Yongjo Lee, Patrizio Neff We study the fully nonlinear dynamical Cosserat micropolar elasticity problem in space with three dimensionals with various energy functionals dependent on the microrotation \overline{R} and the deformation gradient tensor F . We derive a set of coupled nonlinear equations of motion from first principles by varying the complete energy functional. We obtain a double sine-Gordon equation and construct soliton solutions. We show how the solutions can determine the overall deformational behaviour and discuss the relations between wave numbers and wave velocities thereby identifying parameter values where the waves cannot propagate. A general framework to test gravity using galaxy clusters I: Modelling the dynamical mass of haloes in  f(R)  gravity arXiv: 1802.0216 Myles A. Mitchell, Jian-hua He, Christian Arnold, Baojiu Li We propose a new framework for testing gravity using cluster observations, which aims to provide an unbiased constraint on modified gravity models from Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) and X-ray cluster counts and the cluster gas fraction, among other possible observables. Focusing on a popular  f(R)  model of gravity, we propose a novel procedure to recalibrate mass scaling relations from  \Lambda CDM to  f(R)  gravity for SZ and X-ray cluster observables. We find that the complicated modified gravity effects can be simply modelled as a dependence on a combination of the background scalar field and redshift,  f_R(z)/(1+z) , regardless of the  f(R)  model parameter. By employing a large suite of N-body simulations, we demonstrate that a theoretically derived tanh fitting formula is in excellent agreement with the dynamical mass enhancement of dark matter haloes for a large range of background field parameters and redshifts. Our framework is sufficiently flexible to allow for tests of other models and inclusion of further observables. The one-parameter description of the dynamical mass enhancement can have important implications on the theoretical modelling of observables and on practical tests of gravity. Towards Precision Constraints on Gravity with the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure arXiv: 1802.0156 Benjamin Bose, Kazuya Koyama, Matthew Lewandowski, et al. We compare analytical computations with numerical simulations for dark-matter clustering, in general relativity and in the normal branch of DGP gravity (nDGP). Our analytical frameword is the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS), which we use to compute the one-loop dark-matter power spectrum, including the resummation of infrared bulk displacement effects. We compare this to a set of 20 COLA simulations at redshifts z = 0, z=0.5, and z =1, and fit the free parameter of the EFTofLSS, called the speed of sound, in both \LambdaCDM and nDGP at each redshift. At one-loop at z = 0, the reach of the EFTofLSS is k_{\rm reach}\approx 0.14 \, h { \rm Mpc^{-1}} for both \LambdaCDM and nDGP. Along the way, we compare two different infrared resummation schemes and two different treatments of the time dependence of the perturbative expansion, concluding that they agree to approximately 1\% over the scales of interest. Finally, we use the ratio of the COLA power spectra to make a precision measurement of the difference between the speeds of sound in \LambdaCDM and nDGP, and verify that this is proportional to the modification of the linear coupling constant of the Poisson equation. H_0 from cosmic chronometers and Type Ia supernovae, with Gaussian Processes and the novel Weighted Polynomial Regression method arXiv: 1802.0150 Adrià Gómez-Valent, Luca Amendola In this paper we present new constraints on the Hubble parameter H_0 using: (i) the available data on H(z) obtained from cosmic chronometers (CCH); (ii) the Hubble rate data points extracted from the supernovae of Type Ia (SnIa) of the Pantheon compilation and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) CANDELS and CLASH Multy-Cycle Treasury (MCT) programs; and (iii) the local HST measurement of H_0 provided by Riess et al. (2018), H_0^{{\rm HST}}=(73.45\pm1.66) km/s/Mpc. Various determinations of H_0 using the Gaussian processes (GPs) method and the most updated list of CCH data have been recently provided by Yu, Ratra and Wang (2018). Using the Gaussian kernel they find H_0=(67.42\pm 4.75) km/s/Mpc. Here we extend their analysis to also include the most released and complete set of SnIa data, which allows us to reduce the uncertainty by a factor \sim 3 with respect to the result found by only considering the CCH information. We obtain H_0=(67.06\pm 1.68) km/s/Mpc, which favors again the lower range of values for H_0 and is in tension with H_0^{{\rm HST}}. The tension reaches the 2.71\sigma level. We round off the GPs determination too by taking also into account the error propagation of the kernel hyperparameters when the CCH with and without H_0^{{\rm HST}} are used in the analysis. In addition, we present a novel method to reconstruct functions from data, which consists in a weighted sum of polynomial regressions (WPR). We apply it from a cosmographic perspective to reconstruct H(z) and estimate H_0 from CCH and SnIa measurements. The result obtained with this method, H_0=(68.90\pm 1.96) km/s/Mpc, is fully compatible with the GPs ones. Finally, a more conservative GPs+WPR value is also provided, H_0=(68.45\pm 2.00) km/s/Mpc, which is still almost 2\sigma away from H_0^{{\rm HST}}. Analysis of scalar and fermion quantum field theory on anti-de Sitter space-time arXiv: 1801.1036 Victor E. Ambrus, Carl Kent, Elizabeth Winstanley We study vacuum and thermal expectation values of quantum scalar and Dirac fermion fields on anti-de Sitter space-time. Anti-de Sitter space-time is maximally symmetric and this enables expressions for the scalar and fermion vacuum Feynman Green's functions to be derived in closed form. We employ Hadamard renormalization to find the vacuum expectation values. The thermal Feynman Green's functions are constructed from the vacuum Feynman Green's functions using the imaginary time periodicity/anti-periodicity property for scalars/fermions. Focussing on massless fields with either conformal or minimal coupling to the space-time curvature (these two cases being the same for fermions) we compute the differences between the thermal and vacuum expectation values. We compare the resulting energy densities, pressures and pressure deviators with the corresponding classical quantities calculated using relativistic kinetic theory. Rotating kinky braneworlds arXiv: 1801.0998 Florian Niedermann, Paul M. Saffin Cylindrical braneworlds have been used in the literature as a convenient way to resolve co-dimension-two branes. They are prevented from collapsing by a massless worldvolume field with non-trivial winding, but here we discuss another way of preventing collapse, which is to rotate the brane. We use a simple microscopic field theory model of a domain wall with a condensate for which rotation is a necessity, not just a nice added extra. This is due to a splitting instability, whereby the effective potential trapping the condensate is not strong enough to hold it on the defect in the presence of winding without charge. We use analytic defect solutions in the field theory (kinky vortons) to construct a thin-wall braneworld model by including gravitational dynamics, and we allow for the rotation required by the microscopic theory. We then discuss the impact rotation has on the bulk and brane geometry, thereby providing an anchor for further cosmological investigations. Our setup naturally leads to worldvolume fields living at slightly different radii, and we speculate on the consequences of this in regard to the fermion mass-hierarchy. Emergent Dark Energy from Dark Matter arXiv: 1801.0965 Takeshi Kobayashi, Pedro G. Ferreira We consider the cosmological dynamics of a scalar field in a potential with multiple troughs and peaks. We show that the dynamics of the scalar field will evolve from light dark matter-like behaviour (such as that of a light axion) to a combination of heavy dark matter-like and dark energy-like behaviour. We discuss the phenomenology of such a model, explaining how it can give rise to the cosmological constant, as well as how it can decouple the dark sector densities between the time of recombination and today, for both the homogeneous background and perturbations. The final form of the dark matter is axion-like, but with abundance and primordial isocurvature modes taking very different values from traditional, axionic, dark matter. Testing modified gravity using a marked correlation function arXiv: 1801.0897 Joaquin Armijo, Yan-Chuan Cai, Nelson Padilla, et al. In theories of modified gravity with the chameleon screening mechanism, the strength of the fifth force depends on environment. This induces an environment dependence of structure formation, which differs from \LambdaCDM. We show that these differences can be captured by the marked correlation function. With the galaxy correlation functions and number densities calibrated to match between f(R) and \LambdaCDM models in simulations, we show that the marked correlation functions from using either the local density or halo mass as the marks encode extra information, which can be used to test these theories. We discuss possible applications of these statistics in observations. Searching for Primordial Magnetic Fields with CMB B-modes arXiv: 1801.0893 Levon Pogosian, Alex Zucca Was the primordial universe magnetized? The answer to this question would help explain the origin of micro-Gauss strength magnetic fields observed in galaxies. It is also of fundamental importance in developing a complete theory of the early universe. While there can be other signatures of cosmological magnetic fields, a signature in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would prove their primordial origin. The B-mode polarization of CMB is particularly promising in this regard because there are relatively few other sources of B-modes, and because the vortical modes sourced by the primordial magnetic field (PMF) survive diffusion damping up to a small fraction of the Silk length. At present, the Planck temperature and polarization spectra combined with the B-mode spectrum measured by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) constrain the PMF strength to be no more than \sim 1 nano-Gauss (nG). Because of the quartic scaling of the CMB anisotropy spectra with the PMF strength, this bound will not change by much even with the significantly better measurements of the B-mode spectrum by the Stage III and Stage IV CMB experiments. On the other hand, tightening the bound well below the 1 nG threshold would rule out the purely primordial origin (requiring no dynamo action) of galactic fields. Considering Faraday rotation, which converts some of the E-modes into B-modes and scales linearly with the field strength, will help to achieve this goal. As we demonstrate, the upcoming experiments, such as SPT-3G and the Simons Observatory, will be sensitive to fields of \sim 0.5 nG strength thanks to the mode-coupling signature induced by Faraday rotation. A future Stage IV ground based experiment or a Space Probe will be capable of probing fields below 0.1 nG, and would detect a scale-invariant PMF of 0.2 nG strength without de-lensing or subtracting the galactic rotation measure. F-theory on Quotient Threefolds with (2,0) Discrete Superconformal Matter arXiv: 1801.0865 Lara B. Anderson, Antonella Grassi, James Gray, Paul-Konstantin Oehlmann We explore 6-dimensional compactifications of F-theory exhibiting (2,0) superconformal theories coupled to gravity that include discretely charged superconformal matter. Beginning with F-theory geometries with Abelian gauge fields and superconformal sectors, we provide examples of Higgsing transitions which break the U(1) gauge symmetry to a discrete remnant in which the matter fields are also non-trivially coupled to a (2,0) SCFT. In the compactification background this corresponds to a geometric transition linking two fibered Calabi-Yau geometries defined over a singular base complex surface. An elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with non-zero Mordell-Weil rank can be connected to a smooth non-simply connected genus one fibered geometry constructed as a Calabi-Yau quotient. These hyperconifold transitions exhibit multiple fibers in co-dimension 2 over the base. Analysis of the Yukawa gravitational potential in f(R) gravity I: semiclassical periastron advance arXiv: 1801.0813 Ivan De Martino, Ruth Lazkoz, Mariafelicia De Laurentis The {\it concordance} cosmological model has been successfully tested throughout the last decades. Despite its successes, the fundamental nature of dark matter and dark energy is still unknown. Modifications of the gravitational action have been proposed as an alternative to these dark components. The straightforward modification of gravity is to generalize the action to a function, f(R), of the scalar curvature. Thus one is able to describe the emergence and the evolution of the Large Scale Structure without any additional (unknown) dark component. In the weak field limit of the f(R)-gravity, a modified Newtonian gravitational potential arises. This gravitational potential accounts for an extra force, generally called fifth force, that produces a precession of the orbital motion even in the classic mechanical approach. We have shown that the orbits in the modified potential can be written as Keplerian orbits under some conditions on the strength and scale length of this extra force. Nevertheless, we have also shown that this extra term gives rise to the precession of the orbit. Thus, comparing our prediction with the measurements of the precession of some planetary motions, we have found that the strength of the fifth force must be in the range [2.70-6.70]\times10^{-9} whit the characteristic scale length to fixed to the fiducial values of \sim 5000 AU. Current and future constraints on extended Bekenstein-type models for a varying fine-structure constant arXiv: 1801.0808 C. S. Alves, A. C. O. Leite, C. J. A. P. Martins, et al. There is a growing interest in astrophysical tests of the stability of dimensionless fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant \alpha, as an optimal probe of new physics. The imminent arrival of the ESPRESSO spectrograph will soon enable significant gains in the precision and accuracy of these tests and widen the range of theoretical models that can be tightly constrained. Here we illustrate this by studying proposed extensions of the Bekenstein-type models for the evolution of \alpha that allow different couplings of the scalar field to both dark matter and dark energy. We use a combination of current astrophysical and local laboratory data (from tests with atomic clocks) to show that these couplings are constrained to parts per million level, with the constraints being dominated by the atomic clocks. We also quantify the expected improvements from ESPRESSO and other future spectrographs, and briefly discuss possible observational strategies, showing that these facilities can improve current constraints by more than an order of magnitude. Inertial Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Quantum Scale Invariance arXiv: 1801.0767 Pedro G. Ferreira, Christopher T. Hill, Graham G. Ross Weyl invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously, initiated by a dynamical process of "inertial spontaneous symmetry breaking" that does not involve a potential. This is dictated by the structure of the Weyl current, K_\mu, and a cosmological phase during which the universe expands and the Einstein-Hilbert effective action is formed. Maintaining exact Weyl invariance in the renormalised quantum theory is straightforward when renormalisation conditions are referred back to the VEV's of fields in the action of the theory, which implies a conserved Weyl current. We do not require scale invariant regulators. We illustrate the computation of a Weyl invariant Coleman-Weinberg potential. Beyond dRGT - a new massive gravity theory? arXiv: 1801.0764 Manuel Wittner, Frank Könnig, Nima Khosravi, Luca Amendola It is commonly believed that the dRGT theory is the unique way to describe a massive spin-2 field without ghosts. While dRGT is arguably the most elegant massive gravity theory, it seems that it may not be the unique ghost-free one if one relaxes the assumption of locality. In this work, we derive a new massive gravity theory by using a disformal transformation of the metric tensor in the dRGT action. Its decoupling limit lives inside the class of beyond-Horndeski Lagrangians as long as the transformation of the metric remains purely disformal. This proves the absence of ghosts in this decoupling limit and hints at their absence in the whole theory. One caveat, however, is the possible nonlocal structure of this new theory. Furthermore, we consider a more general case, in which we allow the conformal factor in the disformal transformation to be different from unity, and discuss the absence of ghosts in this decoupling limit. ALMA observations of lensed Herschel sources : Testing the dark-matter halo paradigm arXiv: 1801.0728 A. Amvrosiadis, S. A. Eales, M. Negrello, et al. With the advent of wide-area submillimeter surveys, a large number of high-redshift gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) has been revealed. Due to the simplicity of the selection criteria for candidate lensed sources in such surveys, identified as those with S_{500\mu m} > 100 mJy, uncertainties associated with the modelling of the selection function are expunged. The combination of these attributes makes submillimeter surveys ideal for the study of strong lens statistics. We carried out a pilot study of the lensing statistics of submillimetre-selected sources by making observations with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) of a sample of strongly-lensed sources selected from surveys carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory. We attempted to reproduce the distribution of image separations for the lensed sources using a halo mass function taken from a numerical simulation which contains both dark matter and baryons. We used three different density distributions, one based on analytical fits to the halos formed in the EAGLE simulation and two density distributions (Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS) and SISSA) that have been used before in lensing studies. We found that we could reproduce the observed distribution with all three density distributions, as long as we imposed an upper mass transition of \sim10^{13} M_{\odot}$for the SIS and SISSA models, above which we assumed that the density distribution could be represented by an NFW profile. We show that we would need a sample of$\sim$500 lensed sources to distinguish between the density distributions, which is practical given the predicted number of lensed sources in the Herschel surveys. Red, redder, reddest: SCUBA-2 imaging of colour-selected \textit{Herschel} sources arXiv: 1801.0726 S. Duivenvoorden, S. Oliver, J. M. Scudder, et al. High-redshift, luminous, dusty star forming galaxies (DSFGs) constrain the extremity of galaxy formation theories. The most extreme are discovered through follow-up on candidates in large area surveys. Here we present 850$\mu$m SCUBA-2 follow-up observations of 188 red DSFG candidates from the \textit{Herschel} Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) Large Mode Survey, covering 274 deg$^2$. We detected 87 per cent with a signal-to-noise ratio$>$3 at 850~$\mu$m. We introduce a new method for incorporating the confusion noise in our spectral energy distribution fitting by sampling correlated flux density fluctuations from a confusion limited map. The new 850~$\mu$m data provide a better constraint on the photometric redshifts of the candidates, with photometric redshift errors decreasing from$\sigma_z/(1+z)\approx0.21$to$0.15$. Comparison spectroscopic redshifts also found little bias ($\langle (z-z_{\rm spec})/(1+z_{\rm spec})\rangle = 0.08 $). The mean photometric redshift is found to be 3.6 with a dispersion of$0.4$and we identify 21 DSFGs with a high probability of lying at$z > 4$. After simulating our selection effects we find number counts are consistent with phenomenological galaxy evolution models. There is a statistically significant excess of WISE-1 and SDSS sources near our red galaxies, giving a strong indication that lensing may explain some of the apparently extreme objects. Nevertheless, our sample should include examples of galaxies with the highest star formation rates in the Universe ($\gg10^3$M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$). Gravitational wave speed: Implications for models without a mass scale arXiv: 1801.0668 Henrik Nersisyan, Nelson A. Lima, Luca Amendola The recent report that the gravitational wave speed equals the light speed puts strong constraints on the anisotropic stress parameter of many modified gravity models, a quantity that is directly observable through large-scale structure. We show here that models without a mass scale completely escape these constraints. We discuss a few relevant cases in detail: Brans-Dicke theory, nonlocal models, and Galileon Lagrangian. Primordial black holes with an accurate QCD equation of state arXiv: 1801.0613 Christian T. Byrnes, Mark Hindmarsh, Sam Young, Michael R. S. Hawkins Making use of definitive new lattice computations of the Standard Model thermodynamics during the quantum chromodynamic (QCD) phase transition, we calculate the enhancement in the mass distribution of primordial black holes (PBHs) due to the softening of the equation of state. We find that the enhancement peaks at approximately$0.7M_\odot$, with the formation rate increasing by at least two orders of magnitude due to the softening of the equation of state at this time, with a range of approximately$0.3M_\odot<M<1.4M_\odot$at full width half-maximum. PBH formation is increased by a smaller amount for PBHs with masses spanning a large range,$10^{-3}M_\odot<M_{\rm PBH}<10^{3}M_\odot, which includes the masses of the BHs that LIGO detected. The most significant source of uncertainty in the number of PBHs formed is now due to unknowns in the formation process, rather than from the phase transition. A near scale-invariant density power spectrum tuned to generate a population with mass and merger rate consistent with that detected by LIGO should also produce a much larger energy density of PBHs with solar mass. The existence of BHs below the Chandresekhar mass limit would be a smoking gun for a primordial origin and they could arguably constitute a significant fraction of the cold dark matter density. They also pose a challenge to inflationary model building which seek to produce the LIGO BHs without overproducing lighter PBHs. Prompt gamma-ray emission of GRB 170817A associated to GW 170817: A consistent picture arXiv: 1801.0612 Houri Ziaeepour The short GRB 170817A associated to the first detection of gravitation waves from a Binary Neutron Star (BNS) merger was in many ways unusual. Possible explanations are emission from a cocoon or cocoon break out, off-axis view of a structured or uniform jet, and on-axis ultra-relativistic jet with reduced density and Lorentz factor. Here we use a phenomenological model of shock evolution and synchrotron/self-Compton emission to simulate the prompt emission of GRB 170817A and to test above proposals. We find that synchrotron emission from a mildly relativistic cocoon with a Lorentz factor of 2-3, as considered in the literature, generates a too soft, too long, and too bright prompt emission. Off-axis view of an structured jet with a Lorentz factor of about 10 can reproduce observations, but needs a very efficient transfer of kinetic energy to electrons in internal shocks, which is disfavored by particle in cell simulations. We also comment on cocoon breakout as a mechanism for generation of the prompt gamma-ray. A relativistic jet with a Lorentz factor of about 100 and a density lower than typical short GRBs seems to be the most plausible model and we conclude that GRB 170817A was intrinsically faint. Based on this result and findings of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of BNS merger in the literature we discuss physical and astronomical conditions, which may lead to such faint short GRBs. We identify small mass difference of progenitor neutron stars, their old age and reduced magnetic field, and anti-alignment of spin-orbit angular momentum induced by environmental gravitational disturbances during the lifetime of the BNS as causes for the faintness of GRB 170817A. We predict that BNS mergers at lower redshifts generate on average fainter GRBs. Mimicking inflation with 2-fluid systems in a strong gradient magnetic field arXiv: 1801.0584 Zack Fifer, Theo Torres, Sebastian Erne, et al. In the standard cosmological picture the Universe underwent a brief period of near-exponential expansion, known as Inflation. This provides an explanation for structure formation through the amplification of perturbations by the rapid expansion of the fabric of space. Although this mech- anism is theoretically well understood, it cannot be directly observed in nature. We propose a novel experiment combining fluid dynamics and strong magnetic field physics to simulate cosmo- logical inflation. Our proposed system consists of two immiscible, weakly magnetised fluids moving through a strong magnetic field in the bore of a superconducting magnet. By precisely controlling the propagation speed of the interface waves, we can capture the essential dynamics of inflation- ary fluctuations: interface perturbations experience a shrinking effective horizon and are shown to transition from oscillatory to squeezed and frozen regimes at horizon crossing. Cosmological Backgrounds of Gravitational Waves arXiv: 1801.0426 Chiara Caprini, Daniel G. Figueroa Gravitational waves (GWs) have a great potential to probe cosmology. We review early universe sources that can lead to cosmological backgrounds of GWs. We begin by presenting definitions of GWs in flat space-time and in a cosmological setting, and discussing the reasons why GW backgrounds from the early universe are of a stochastic nature. We recap current observational constraints on stochastic backgrounds, and discuss some of the characteristics of present and future GW detectors including advanced LIGO, advanced Virgo, the Einstein Telescope, KAGRA, LISA. We then review in detail early universe GW generation mechanisms proposed in the literature, as well as the properties of the GW backgrounds they give rise to. We classify the backgrounds in five categories: GWs from quantum vacuum fluctuations during standard slow-roll inflation, GWs from processes that operate within extensions of the standard inflationary paradigm, GWs from post-inflationary preheating and related non-perturbative phenomena, GWs from first order phase transitions (related or not to the electroweak symmetry breaking), and GWs from topological defects, in particular from cosmic strings. The phenomenology of early universe processes that can generate a stochastic background of GWs is extremely rich, and some backgrounds are within the reach of near-future GW detectors. A future detection of any of these backgrounds will provide crucial information on the underlying high energy theory describing the early universe, probing energy scales well beyond the reach of particle accelerators. Optical Follow-up of Planck Cluster Candidates with Small Instruments arXiv: 1801.0412 Vincent Boucher, Simon de Visscher, Christophe Ringeval We report on the search for optical counterparts of Planck Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) cluster candidates using a 0.6 meter non-professional telescope. Among the observed sources, an unconfirmed candidate, PSZ2 G156.24+22.32, is found to be associated with a region of more than 100 galaxies within a 3 arcminutes radius around the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich maximum signal coordinates. Using 14 hours of cumulated exposure over the Sloan color filters g', r', i', and, z', we estimate the photometric redshift of these galaxies at zphot=0.29 +- 0.08. Using the red-sequence galaxy method gives a photometric redshift of 0.30 +0.03 -0.05. Combined with the Planck SZ proxy mass function, this would favor a cluster of 4.4 x 10^{14} solar masses. This result suggests that a dedicated pool of observatories equipped with such instruments could collectively contribute to optical follow-up programs of massive cluster candidates at moderate redshifts. The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: Anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillations measurements in Fourier-space with optimal redshift weights arXiv: 1801.0307 Dandan Wang, Gong-Bo Zhao, Yuting Wang, et al. We present a measurement of the anisotropic and isotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 14 quasar sample with optimal redshift weights. Applying the redshift weights improves the constraint on the BAO dilation parameter\alpha(z_{\rm eff})$by 17\%. We reconstruct the evolution history of the BAO distance indicators in the redshift range of$0.8<z<2.2$. This paper is part of a set that analyses the eBOSS DR14 quasar sample. The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: a tomographic measurement of cosmic structure growth and expansion rate based on optimal redshift weights arXiv: 1801.0304 Gong-Bo Zhao, Yuting Wang, Shun Saito, et al. We develop a new method, which is based on the optimal redshift weighting scheme, to extract the maximal tomographic information of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and redshift space distortions (RSD) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 14 quasar (DR14Q) survey. We validate our method using the EZ mocks, and apply our pipeline to the eBOSS DR14Q sample in the redshift range of$0.8<z<2.2$. We report a joint measurement of$f\sigma_8$and two-dimensional BAO parameters$D_{\rm A}$and$H$at four effective redshifts of$z_{\rm eff}=0.98, 1.23, 1.52$and$1.94$, and provide the full data covariance matrix. Using our measurement combined with BOSS DR12, MGS and 6dFGS BAO measurements, we find that the existence of dark energy is supported by observations at a$7.4\sigma$significance level. Combining our measurement with BOSS DR12 and Planck observations, we constrain the gravitational growth index to be$\gamma=0.580\pm0.082$, which is fully consistent with the prediction of general relativity. This paper is part of a set that analyses the eBOSS DR14 quasar sample. Non-perturbative$δN$arXiv: 1801.0260 Shailee V. Imrith, David J. Mulryne, Arttu Rajantie We revisit the question of how to calculate correlations of the curvature perturbation,$\zeta$, using the$\delta N$formalism when one cannot employ a truncated Taylor expansion of$N$. This problem arises when one uses lattice simulations to probe the effects of isocurvature modes on models of reheating. Working in real space, we use an expansion in the cross-correlation between fields at different positions, and present simple expressions for observables such as the power spectrum and the reduced bispectrum,$f_{\rm NL}$. These take the same form as those of the usual$\delta N$expressions, but with the derivatives of$N$replaced by non-perturbative$\delta N$coefficients. We test the validity of this expansion and argue that our expressions are particularly well suited for use with simulations. Complete conformal classification of the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker solutions with a linear equation of state arXiv: 1801.0196 Tomohiro Harada, B. J. Carr, Takahisa Igata We completely classify Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker solutions with spatial curvature$K=0,\pm 1$and equation of state$p=w\rho$, according to their conformal structure, singularities and trapping horizons. We do not assume any energy conditions and allow$\rho < 0$, thereby going beyond the usual well-known solutions. For each spatial curvature, there is an initial spacelike big-bang singularity for$w>-1/3$and$\rho>0$, while no big-bang singularity for$w<-1$and$\rho>0$. For$K=0$or$-1$,$-1<w<-1/3$and$\rho>0$, there is an initial null big-bang singularity. For each spatial curvature, there is a final spacelike future big-rip singularity for$w<-1$and$\rho>0$, with null geodesics being future complete for$-5/3\le w<-1$but incomplete for$w<-5/3$. For$w=-1/3$, the expansion speed is constant. For$-1<w<-1/3$and$K=1$, the universe contracts from infinity, then bounces and expands back to infinity. For$K=0$, the past boundary consists of timelike infinity and a regular null hypersurface for$-5/3<w<-1$, while it consists of past timelike and past null infinities for$w\le -5/3$. For$w<-1$and$K=1$, the spacetime contracts from an initial spacelike past big-rip singularity, then bounces and blows up at a final spacelike future big-rip singularity. For$w<-1$and$K=-1$, the past boundary consists of a regular null hypersurface. The trapping horizons are timelike, null and spacelike for$w\in (-1,1/3)$,$w\in \{1/3, -1\}$and$w\in (-\infty,-1)\cup (1/3,\infty)$, respectively. A negative energy density ($\rho <0$) is possible only for$K=-1$. In this case, for$w>-1/3$, the universe contracts from infinity, then bounces and expands to infinity; for$-1<w<-1/3$, it starts from a big-bang singularity and contracts to a big-crunch singularity; for$w<-1$, it expands from a regular null hypersurface and contracts to another regular null hypersurface. A Multi-task Learning Approach for Improving Product Title Compression with User Search Log Data arXiv: 1801.0172 Jingang Wang, Junfeng Tian, Long Qiu, et al. It is a challenging and practical research problem to obtain effective compression of lengthy product titles for E-commerce. This is particularly important as more and more users browse mobile E-commerce apps and more merchants make the original product titles redundant and lengthy for Search Engine Optimization. Traditional text summarization approaches often require a large amount of preprocessing costs and do not capture the important issue of conversion rate in E-commerce. This paper proposes a novel multi-task learning approach for improving product title compression with user search log data. In particular, a pointer network-based sequence-to-sequence approach is utilized for title compression with an attentive mechanism as an extractive method and an attentive encoder-decoder approach is utilized for generating user search queries. The encoding parameters (i.e., semantic embedding of original titles) are shared among the two tasks and the attention distributions are jointly optimized. An extensive set of experiments with both human annotated data and online deployment demonstrate the advantage of the proposed research for both compression qualities and online business values. On the ghost-induced instability on de Sitter background arXiv: 1801.0006 Patrick Peter, Filipe de O. Salles, Ilya L. Shapiro It is known that the perturbative instability of tensor excitations in higher derivative gravity may not take place if the initial frequency of the gravitational waves are below the Planck threshold. One can assume that this is a natural requirement if the cosmological background is sufficiently mild, since in this case the situation is qualitatively close to the free gravitational wave in flat space. Here, we explore the opposite situation and consider the effect of a very far from Minkowski radiation-dominated or de Sitter cosmological background with a large Hubble rate, e.g., typical of an inflationary period. It turns out that, then, for initial Planckian or even trans-Planckian frequencies, the instability is rapidly suppressed by the very fast expansion of the universe. Gravitational waves in a flat radiation-matter universe including anisotropic stress arXiv: 1712.1001 Andrew J. Wren, Jorge L. Fuentes, Karim A. Malik We present novel analytical solutions for linear-order gravitational waves or tensor perturbations in a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe containing two perfect fluids, radiation and pressureless dust, and allowing for neutrino anisotropic stress. One of the results is applicable to any sub-horizon gravitational wave in such a universe. Another result is applicable to gravitational waves of primordial origin, for example produced during inflation, and works both before and after they cross the horizon. These results improve on analytical approximations previously set out in the literature. Comparison with numerical solutions shows that both these approximations are accurate to within$1\%$, or better, for a wide range of wave-numbers relevant for cosmology. Low significance of evidence for black hole echoes in gravitational wave data arXiv: 1712.0996 Julian Westerweck, Alex B. Nielsen, Ofek Fischer-Birnholtz, et al. Recent detections of merging black holes allow observational tests of the nature of these objects. In some proposed models, non-trivial structure at or near the black hole horizon could lead to echo signals in gravitational wave data. Recently, Abedi et al. claimed tentative evidence for repeating damped echo signals following the gravitational-wave signals of the binary black hole merger events recorded in the first observational period of the Advanced LIGO interferometers. We reanalyse the same data, addressing some of the shortcomings of their method using more background data and a modified procedure. We find a reduced statistical significance for the claims of evidence for echoes, calculating increased p-values for the null hypothesis of echo-free noise. The reduced significance is entirely consistent with noise, and so we conclude that the analysis of Abedi et al. does not provide any observational evidence for the existence of Planck-scale structure at black hole horizons. Direct detection of gravitational waves can measure the time variation of the Planck mass arXiv: 1712.0862 Luca Amendola, Ignacy Sawicki, Martin Kunz, Ippocratis D. Saltas The recent discovery of a$\gamma$-ray counterpart to a gravitational wave (GW) event has put extremely stringent constraints on the speed of gravitational waves at the present epoch. In turn, these constraints place strong theoretical pressure on potential modifications of gravity, essentially allowing only the conformal sector to be active in the present Universe. In this paper, we show that direct detection of gravitational waves from optically identified sources can also measure or constrain the conformal sector of modified gravity models through the time variation of the Planck mass. As a first rough estimate, we find that the LISA satellite can measure the dimensionless time variation of the Planck mass (the so-called parameter$\alpha_M$) at redshift around 1.5 with an error of about 0.03 to 0.13, depending on the assumptions concerning future observations. Stronger constraints can be achieved once reliable distance indicators at$z>2$are developed, or with GW detectors that extend the capabilities of LISA, like the proposed Big Bang Observer. We emphasize that, just like the constraints on the gravitational speed, the bound on$\alpha_M$is independent of the cosmological model. Horizon Feedback Inflation arXiv: 1712.0797 Malcolm Fairbairn, Tommi Markkanen, David Rodriguez-Roman We consider the effect of the Gibbons-Hawking radiation on the inflaton in the situation where it is coupled to a large number of spectator fields. We argue that this will lead to two important effects - a thermal contribution to the potential and a gradual change in parameters in the Lagrangian which results from thermodynamic and energy conservation arguments. We present a scenario of hilltop inflation where the field starts trapped at the origin before slowly experiencing a phase transition during which the field extremely slowly moves towards its zero temperature expectation value. We show that it is possible to obtain enough e-folds of expansion as well as the correct spectrum of perturbations without hugely fine-tuned parameters in the potential (albeit with many spectator fields). We also comment on how initial conditions for inflation can arise naturally in this situation. Forecast and analysis of the cosmological redshift drift arXiv: 1712.0755 Ruth Lazkoz, Iker Leanizbarrutia, Vincenzo Salzano The cosmological redshift drift could lead to the next step in high-precision cosmic geometric observations, becoming a direct and irrefutable test for cosmic acceleration. In order to test the viability and possible properties of this effect, also called Sandage-Loeb (SL) test, we generate a model independent mock data set so as to compare its constraining power with that of the future mock data sets of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe) and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). The performance of those data sets is analyzed by testing several cosmological models with the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, both independently and combining all data sets. Final results show that, in general, SL data sets allow for remarkable constraints on the matter density parameter today$\Omega_m$on every tested model, showing also a great complementarity with SNe and BAO data regarding dark energy (DE) parameters. Probing primordial features with next-generation photometric and radio surveys arXiv: 1712.0742 Mario Ballardini, Fabio Finelli, Roy Maartens, Lauro Moscardini We investigate the possibility of using future photometric and radio surveys to constrain the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations that is predicted by inflationary models with a violation of the slow-roll phase. We forecast constraints with a Fisher analysis on the amplitude of the parametrized features on ultra-large scales, in order to assess whether these could be distinguishable over the cosmic variance. We find that the next generation of photometric and radio surveys has the potential to test these models at a sensitivity better than current CMB experiments and that the synergy between galaxy and CMB observations is able to constrain models with many extra parameters. In particular, an SKA continuum survey with a huge sky coverage and a flux threshold of a few$\mu$Jy could confirm the presence of a new phase in the early Universe at more than 3$\sigma$. Candidate high-z proto-clusters among the Planck compact sources, as revealed by Herschel-SPIRE arXiv: 1712.0714 J. Greenslade, D. L. Clements, T. Cheng, et al. By determining the nature of all the Planck compact sources within 808.4 deg^2 of large Herschel surveys, we have identified 27 candidate proto-clusters of dusty star forming galaxies (DSFGs) that are at least 3{\sigma} overdense in either 250, 350 or 500$\mu$mm sources. We find roughly half of all the Planck compact sources are resolved by Herschel into multiple discrete objects, with the other half remaining unresolved by Herschel. We find a significant difference between versions of the Planck catalogues, with earlier releases hosting a larger fraction of candidate proto-clusters and Galactic Cirrus than later releases, which we ascribe to a difference in the filters used in the creation of the three catalogues. We find a surface density of DSFG candidate proto-clusters of (3.3$\pm0.7) x 10^(-2) sources deg^(-2), in good agreement with previous similar studies. We find that a Planck colour selection of S_{857}/S_{545} < 2 works well to select candidate proto-clusters, but can miss proto-clusters at z < 2. The Herschel colours of individual candidate proto-cluster members indicate our candidate proto-clusters all likely all lie at z > 1. Our candidate proto-clusters are a factor of 5 times brighter at 353 GHz than expected from simulations, even in the most conservative estimates. Further observations are needed to confirm whether these candidate proto-clusters are physical clusters, multiple proto-clusters along the line of sight, or chance alignments of unassociated sources. Investigation on the reported superconductivity in intercalated black phosphorus arXiv: 1712.0671 Hanming Yuan, Liangzi Deng, Bing Lv, et al. Superconductivity intrinsic to the intercalated black phosphorus (BP) with a transition temperature Tc of 3.8 K, independent of the intercalant, whether an alkali or an alkaline earth element, has been reported recently by R. Zhang et al. (2017). However, the reported Tc and the field effect on the superconducting (SC) transition both bear great similarities to those for the pure Sn, which is commonly used for BP synthesis under the vapor transport method. We have therefore decided to determine whether a minute amount of Sn is present in the starting high purity BP crystals and whether it is the culprit for the small SC signal detected. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results confirmed the existence of Sn in the starting high purity BP crystals purchased from the same company as in R. Zhang et al. (2017). We have reproduced the SC transition at 3.8 K in Li- and Na-intercalated BP crystals that contain minute amounts of Sn when prepared by the vapor transport method but not in BP crystals that are free of Sn when prepared by the high-pressure method. We have therefore concluded that the SC transition reported by R. Zhang et al. (2017) is associated with the Sn but not intrinsic to the intercalated BP crystals. Self-accelerating universe in scalar-tensor theories after GW170817 arXiv: 1712.0655 Marco Crisostomi, Kazuya Koyama The recent simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and a gamma ray burst from a neutron star merger significantly shrank the space of viable scalar-tensor theories by demanding that the speed of gravity is equal to that of light. The survived theories belong to the class of degenerate higher order scalar-tensor theories. We study whether these theories are suitable as dark energy candidates. We find scaling solutions in the matter dominated universe that lead to de Sitter solutions at late times without the cosmological constant, realising self-acceleration. We evaluate quasi-static perturbations around self-accelerating solutions and show that the stringent constraints coming from astrophysical objects and gravitational waves can be satisfied, leaving interesting possibilities to test these theories by cosmological observations. CNO Neutrino Grand Prix: The race to solve the solar metallicity problem arXiv: 1712.0652 David G. Cerdeno, Jonathan H. Davis, Malcolm Fairbairn, Aaron C. Vincent Several next-generation experiments aim to make the first measurement of the neutrino flux from the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) solar fusion cycle. We calculate how much time these experiments will need to run for in order to measure this flux with enough precision to tell us the metal content of the Sun's core, and thereby help to solve the solar metallicity problem. For experiments looking at neutrino-electron scattering, we find that SNO+ will measure this CNO neutrino flux with enough precision after five years in its pure scintillator mode, provided its^{210}$Bi background is measured to 1% accuracy. By comparison, a 100~ton liquid argon experiment such as Argo will take ten years in Gran Sasso lab, or five years in SNOLAB or Jinping. Borexino could obtain this precision in ten years, but this projection is very sensitive to background assumptions. For experiments looking at neutrino-nucleus scattering, the best prospects are obtained for low-threshold solid state detectors (employing either germanium or silicon). These would require new technologies to lower the experimental threshold close to detection of single electron-hole pairs, and exposures beyond those projected for next-generation dark matter detectors. Cosmology with the pairwise kinematic SZ effect: Calibration and validation using hydrodynamical simulations arXiv: 1712.0571 Bjoern Soergel, Alexandro Saro, Tommaso Giannantonio, et al. We study the potential of the kinematic SZ effect as a probe for cosmology, focusing on the pairwise method. The main challenge is disentangling the cosmologically interesting mean pairwise velocity from the cluster optical depth and the associated uncertainties on the baryonic physics in clusters. Furthermore, the pairwise kSZ signal might be affected by internal cluster motions or correlations between velocity and optical depth. We investigate these effects using the Magneticum cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, one of the largest simulations of this kind performed to date. We produce tSZ and kSZ maps with an area of$\simeq 1600~\mathrm{deg}^2$, and the corresponding cluster catalogues with$M_{500c} \gtrsim 3 \times 10^{13}~h^{-1}M_\odot$and$z \lesssim 2$. From these data sets we calibrate a scaling relation between the average Compton-$y$parameter and optical depth. We show that this relation can be used to recover an accurate estimate of the mean pairwise velocity from the kSZ effect, and that this effect can be used as an important probe of cosmology. We discuss the impact of theoretical and observational systematic effects, and find that further work on feedback models is required to interpret future high-precision measurements of the kSZ effect. Coincident detection significance in multimessenger astronomy arXiv: 1712.0539 Gregory Ashton, Eric Burns, Tito Dal Canton, et al. We derive a Bayesian criterion for assessing whether signals observed in two separate data sets originate from a common source. The Bayes factor for a common vs. unrelated origin of signals includes an overlap integral of the posterior distributions over the common source parameters. Focusing on multimessenger gravitational-wave astronomy, we apply the method to the spatial and temporal association of independent gravitational-wave and electromagnetic (or neutrino) observations. As an example, we consider the coincidence between the recently discovered gravitational-wave signal GW170817 from a binary neutron star merger and the gamma-ray burst GRB 170817A: we find that the common source model is enormously favored over a model describing them as unrelated signals. Measuring the duration of inflation with the curvaton arXiv: 1712.0536 Jesus Torrado, Christian T. Byrnes, Robert J. Hardwick, et al. Simple models of single-field inflation in the very early universe can generate the observed amplitude and scale dependence of the primordial density perturbation, but models with multiple fields can provide an equally good fit to current data. We show how future observations will be able to distinguish between currently favoured models. If a curvaton field generates the primordial perturbations after inflation, we show how the total duration of inflation can be measured. Earth-Scattering of super-heavy Dark Matter: updated constraints from detectors old and new arXiv: 1712.0490 Bradley J. Kavanagh Direct searches for Dark Matter (DM) are continuously improving, probing down to lower and lower DM-nucleon interaction cross sections. For strongly-interacting massive particle (SIMP) Dark Matter, however, the accessible cross section is bounded from above due to the stopping effect of the atmosphere, Earth and detector shielding. We present a careful calculation of the SIMP signal rate, focusing on super-heavy DM ($m_\chi \gtrsim 10^5 \,\,\mathrm{GeV}$) for which the standard nuclear-stopping formalism is applicable, and provide code for implementing this calculation numerically. With recent results from the low-threshold CRESST 2017 surface run, we improve the maximum cross section reach of direct detection searches by a factor of around 5000, for DM masses up to$10^8 \,\,\mathrm{GeV}$. A reanalysis of the longer-exposure, sub-surface CDMS-I results (published in 2002) improves the previous cross section reach by two orders of magnitude, for masses up to$10^{15} \,\,\mathrm{GeV}$. Along with complementary constraints from SIMP capture and annihilation in the Earth and Sun, these improved limits from direct nuclear scattering searches close a number of windows in the SIMP parameter space in the mass range$10^6$GeV to$10^{13}$GeV, of particular interest for heavy DM produced gravitationally at the end of inflation. Model-independent cosmological constraints from growth and expansion arXiv: 1712.0486 Benjamin L'Huillier, Arman Shafieloo, Hyungjin Kim Reconstructing the expansion history of the Universe from type Ia supernovae data, we fit the growth rate measurements and put model-independent constraints on some key cosmological parameters, namely,$\Omega_\mathrm{m},\gamma$, and$\sigma_8$. The constraints are consistent with those from the concordance model within the framework of general relativity, but the current quality of the data is not sufficient to rule out modified gravity models. Adding the condition that dark energy density should be positive at all redshifts, independently of its equation of state, further constrains the parameters and interestingly supports the concordance model. HERUS: The Far-IR/Submm Spectral Energy Distributions of Local ULIRGs & Photometric Atlas arXiv: 1712.0484 D. L. Clements, C. Pearson, D. Farrah, et al. We present the Herschel-SPIRE photometric atlas for a complete flux limited sample of 43 local Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs), selected at 60${\mu}$m by IRAS, as part of the HERschel ULIRG Survey (HERUS). Photometry observations were obtained using the SPIRE instrument at 250, 350 and 500${\mu}$m. We describe these observations, present the results, and combine the new observations with data from IRAS to examine the far-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these sources. We fit the observed SEDs of HERUS objects with a simple parameterised modified black body model where temperature and emissivity$\beta$are free parameters. We compare the fitted values to those of non-ULIRG local galaxies, and find, in agreement with earlier results, that HERUS ULIRGs have warmer dust (median temperature T = 37.9+/-4.7 K compared to 21.3+/-3.4 K) but a similar$\beta$distribution (median$\beta$= 1.7 compared to 1.8) to the Herschel reference sample (HRS, Cortese et al., 2014) galaxies. Dust masses are found to be in the range of 10^7.5 to 10^9 Msun significantly higher than that of Herschel Reference Sample (HRS) sources. We compare our results for local ULIRGs with higher redshift samples selected at 250 and 850${\mu}$m. These latter sources generally have cooler dust and/or redder 100-to-250${\mu}$m colours than our 60${\mu}$m-selected ULIRGs. We show that this difference may in part be the result of the sources being selected at different wavelengths rather than being a simple indication of rapid evolution in the properties of the population. Identifying WIMP dark matter from particle and astroparticle data arXiv: 1712.0479 Gianfranco Bertone, Nassim Bozorgnia, Jong Soo Kim, et al. One of the most promising strategies to identify the nature of dark matter consists in the search for new particles at accelerators and with so-called direct detection experiments. Working within the framework of simplified models, and making use of machine learning tools to speed up statistical inference, we address the question of what we can learn about dark matter from a detection at the LHC and a forthcoming direct detection experiment. We show that with a combination of accelerator and direct detection data, it is possible to identify newly discovered particles as dark matter, by reconstructing their relic density assuming they are weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) thermally produced in the early Universe, and demonstrating that it is consistent with the measured dark matter abundance. An inconsistency between these two quantities would instead point either towards additional physics in the dark sector, or towards a non-standard cosmology, with a thermal history substantially different from that of the standard cosmological model. Superconductivity from site-selective Ru doping studies in Zr$_5$Ge$_3$compound arXiv: 1712.0435 Sheng Li, Xiaoyuan Liu, Varun Anand, Bing Lv Systematical doping studies have been carried out to search for the possible superconductivity in the transition metal doped Zr$_5$Ge$_3$system. Superconductivity up to 5.7K is discovered in the Ru-doped Zr$_5$Ge$_{2.5}$Ru$_{0.5}$sample. Interestingly, with the same Ru-doping, superconductivity is only induced with doping at the Ge site, but remains absent down to 1.8K with doping at the Zr site or interstitial site. Both magnetic and transport studies have revealed the bulk superconductivity nature for Ru-doped Zr$_5$Ge$_{2.5}$Ru$_{0.5}$sample. The high upper critical field, enhanced electron correlation, and extremely small electron-phonon coupling, have indicated possible unconventional superconductivity in this system, which warrants further detailed theoretical and experimental studies. Vainshtein in the UV and a Wilsonian analysis of derivatively coupled scalars arXiv: 1712.0401 Antonio Padilla, Ippocratis D. Saltas In the first part of this paper we critically examine the ultra-violet implications of theories that exhibit Vainshtein screening, taking into account both the standard Wilsonian perspective as well as more exotic possibilities. Aspects of this discussion draw on results from the second part of the paper in which we perform a general study of derivatively coupled scalar theories using non-perturbative exact renormalisation group techniques, which are of interest independently of their application to modified gravity. In this context, we demonstrate the suppression of quantum corrections within the Vainshtein radius and discuss the potential relation with the classicalisation conjecture. We question whether the latter can be considered a realistic candidate for UV completion of large-scale modifications of gravity on account of a dangerously low classicalisation/strong coupling scale. Prospects for detecting eV-scale sterile neutrinos from a galactic supernova arXiv: 1712.0383 Tarso Franarin, Jonathan H. Davis, Malcolm Fairbairn Future neutrino detectors will obtain high-statistics data from a nearby core-collapse supernova. We study the mixing with eV-mass sterile neutrinos in a supernova environment and its effects on the active neutrino fluxes as detected by Hyper-Kamiokande and IceCube. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis, we make projections for how accurately these experiments will measure the active-sterile mixing angle$\theta_s$given that there are substantial uncertainties on the expected luminosity and spectrum of active neutrinos from a galactic supernova burst. We find that Hyper-Kamiokande can reconstruct the sterile neutrino mixing and mass in many different situations, provided the neutrino luminosity of the supernova is known precisely. Crucially, we identify a degeneracy between the mixing angle and the overall neutrino luminosity of the supernova. This means that it will only be possible to determine the luminosity if the presence of sterile neutrinos with$\theta_s \gtrsim 0.1$degrees can be ruled out independently. We discuss ways in which this degeneracy may be broken in the future. Singular lensing from the scattering on special space-time defects arXiv: 1712.0339 Nick E. Mavromatos, Joannis Papavassiliou It is well known that certain special classes of self-gravitating point-like defects, such as global (non gauged) monopoles, give rise to non-asymptotically flat space-times characterized by solid angle deficits, whose size depends on the details of the underlying microscopic models. The scattering of electrically neutral particles on such space-times is described by amplitudes that exhibit resonant behaviour when the scattering and deficit angles coincide. This, in turn, leads to ring-like structures where the cross sections are formally divergent ("singular lensing"). In this work, we revisit this particular phenomenon, with the twofold purpose of placing it in a contemporary and more general context, in view of renewed interest in the theory and general phenomenology of such defects, and, more importantly, of addressing certain subtleties that appear in the particular computation that leads to the aforementioned effect. In particular, by adopting a specific regularization procedure for the formally infinite Legendre series encountered, we manage to ensure the recovery of the Minkowski space-time, and thus the disappearance of the lensing phenomenon, in the no-defect limit, and the validity of the optical theorem for the elastic total cross section. In addition, the singular nature of the phenomenon is confirmed by means of an alternative calculation, which, unlike the original approach, makes no use of the generating function of the Legendre polynomials, but rather exploits the asymptotic properties of the Fresnel integrals. Leptogenesis from Heavy Right-Handed Neutrinos in CPT Violating Backgrounds arXiv: 1712.0331 Thomas Bossingham, Nick E. Mavromatos, Sarben Sarkar We discuss leptogenesis in a model with heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos propagating in a constant but otherwise generic CPT-violating axial time-like background (which could be motivated by string theory considerations). At temperatures much higher than the temperature of the electroweak phase transition we solve analytically but approximately (using Pade approximants) the corresponding Boltzmann equations, which describe lepton asymmetry generation due to the tree-level decays of the heavy neutrinos into standard model leptons. These leptons are effectively massless at such temperatures. The current work completes in a rigorous way a preliminary treatment of the same system, by some of the present authors. In this earlier work, lepton asymmetry was crudely estimated considering the decay of a right-handed neutrino at rest. Our present analysis includes thermal momentum modes for the heavy neutrino and this leads to a total lepton asymmetry which is bigger by a factor of two as compared to the previous estimate. Nevertheless, our current and preliminary results for the freezeout are found to be in agreement (within a 12.5% uncertainty). Our analysis depends on a novel use of Pade approximants to solve the Boltzmann equations and may be more widely useful in cosmology. On Freud's superpotential in General Relativity and in Einstein-Cartan theory arXiv: 1712.0326 Christian G. Boehmer, Friedrich W. Hehl The identification of a suitable gravitational energy in theories of gravity has a long history, and it is well known that a unique answer cannot be given. In the first part of this paper we present a streamlined version of the derivation of Freud's superpotential in general relativity. It is found if we once integrate the gravitational field equation by parts. This allows us to extend these results directly to the Einstein-Cartan theory. Interestingly, Freud's original expression, first stated in 1939, remains valid even when considering gravitational theories in Riemann-Cartan or, more generally, in metric-affine spacetimes. Dynamical systems applied to cosmology: dark energy and modified gravity arXiv: 1712.0310 Sebastian Bahamonde, Christian G. Boehmer, Sante Carloni, et al. The Nobel Prize winning confirmation in 1998 of the accelerated expansion of our Universe put into sharp focus the need of a consistent theoretical model to explain the origin of this acceleration. As a result over the past two decades there has been a huge theoretical and observational effort into improving our understanding of the Universe. The cosmological equations describing the dynamics of a homogeneous and isotropic Universe are systems of ordinary differential equations, and one of the most elegant ways these can be investigated is by casting them into the form of dynamical systems. This allows the use of powerful analytical and numerical methods to gain a quantitative understanding of the cosmological dynamics derived by the models under study. In this review we apply these techniques to cosmology. We begin with a brief introduction to dynamical systems, fixed points, linear stability theory, Lyapunov stability, centre manifold theory and more advanced topics relating to the global structure of the solutions. Using this machinery we then analyse a large number of cosmological models and show how the stability conditions allow them to be tightly constrained and even ruled out on purely theoretical grounds. We are also able to identify those models which deserve further in depth investigation through comparison with observational data. This review is a comprehensive and detailed study of dynamical systems applications to cosmological models focusing on the late-time behaviour of our Universe, and in particular on its accelerated expansion. In self contained sections we present a large number of models ranging from canonical and non-canonical scalar fields, interacting models and non-scalar field models through to modified gravity scenarios. Selected models are discussed in details and interpreted in the context of late-time cosmology. Thermodynamics sheds light on black hole dynamics arXiv: 1712.0267 Marcela Cárdenas, Félix-Louis Julié, Nathalie Deruelle We propose to unify two a priori distinct aspects of black hole physics : their thermodynamics, and their effective dynamics when they are "skeletonized" as point particles (a useful procedure when tackling, for example, their motion in a coalescing binary system). For that purpose, the Einstein- Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) theory, which contains simple examples of asympotically flat, hairy black hole solutions, will serve as a laboratory. We will find that, when reducing a black hole to a point particle endowed with its specific, scalar-field-sensitive, effective mass, one in fact describes a black hole satisfying the first law of thermodynamics, such that its global charges, and hence its entropy, remain constant. This shows that the integration constant entering the scalar-field dependent mass is its entropy. Solitons and black hole in shift symmetric scalar-tensor gravity with cosmological constant arXiv: 1712.0245 Yves Brihaye, Betti Hartmann, Jon Urrestilla We demonstrate the existence of static, spherically symmetric globally regular, i.e. solitonic solutions of a shift-symmetric scalar-tensor gravity model with negative cosmological constant. The norm of the Noether current associated to the shift symmetry is finite in the full space-time. We also discuss the corresponding black hole solutions and demonstrate that the interplay between the scalar-tensor coupling and the cosmological constant leads to the existence of new branches of solutions. To linear order in the scalar-tensor coupling, the asymptotic space-time corresponds to an Anti-de Sitter space-time with a non-trivial scalar field on its conformal boundary. This allows the interpretation of our solutions in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Finally, we demonstrate that - for physically relevant, small values of the scalar-tensor coupling - solutions with positive cosmological constant do not exist in our model. Towards the cold atom analog false vacuum arXiv: 1712.0235 Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Silke Weinfurtner Analog condensed matter systems present an exciting opportunity to simulate early Universe models in table-top experiments. We consider a recent proposal for an analog condensed matter experiment to simulate the relativistic quantum decay of the false vacuum. In the proposed experiment, two ultra-cold condensates are coupled via a time-varying radio-frequency field. The relative phase of the two condensates in this system is approximately described by a relativistic scalar field with a potential possessing a series of false and true vacuum local minima. If the system is set up in a false vacuum, it would then decay to a true vacuum via quantum mechanical tunnelling. Should such an experiment be realized, it would be possible to answer a number of open questions regarding non-perturbative phenomena in quantum field theory and early Universe cosmology. In this paper, we illustrate a possible obstruction: the time-varying coupling that is invoked to create a false vacuum for the long-wavelength modes of the condensate leads to a destabilization of shorter wavelength modes within the system via parametric resonance. We focus on an idealized setup in which the two condensates have identical properties and identical background densities. Describing the system by the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPE), we use the machinery of Floquet theory to perform a linear stability analysis, calculating the wavenumber associated with the first instability band for a variety of experimental parameters. However, we demonstrate that, by tuning the frequency of the time-varying coupling, it may be possible to push the first instability band outside the validity of the GPE, where dissipative effects are expected to damp any instabilities. This provides a viable range of experimental parameters to perform analog experiments of false vacuum decay. Superconductivity in the ternary compound SrPt$_{10}$P$_4$with complex new structure arXiv: 1712.0201 Bing Lv, BenMaan I. Jawdat, Zheng Wu, et al. We report superconductivity at 1.4K in the ternary SrPt$_{10}$P$_4$with a complex new structure. SrPt$_{10}$P$_4$crystallizes in a monoclinic space-group C2/c (\#15) with lattice parameters a= 22.9151(9)$\AA$, b= 13.1664(5)$\AA$, c=13.4131(5)$\AA$, and$\beta$= 90.0270(5)${^\circ}$. Bulk superconductivity in the samples has been demonstrated through resistivity, ac susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. High pressure measurements have shown that the superconducting T$_C$is systematically suppressed upon application of pressure, with a dT$_C$/dP coefficient of -0.016 K/GPa. Testing gravity on cosmological scales with cosmic shear, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, and redshift-space distortions arXiv: 1712.0184 Agnès Ferté, Donnacha Kirk, Andrew R. Liddle, Joe Zuntz We use a range of cosmological data to constrain phenomenological modifications to general relativity on cosmological scales, through modifications to the Poisson and lensing equations. We include cosmic microwave background anisotropies measurements from the Planck satellite, cosmic shear from CFHTLenS and DES-SV, and redshift-space distortions from BOSS data release 12 and the 6dF galaxy survey. We find no evidence of departures from general relativity, with the modified gravity parameters constrained to$\Sigma = -0.01_{-0.04}^{+0.05}$and$\mu = -0.06 \pm 0.18$. We also forecast the sensitivity of the full five-year Dark Energy Survey and of an LSST-like experiment to those parameters, showing a substantial expected improvement in the constraint on$\Sigma$. Instant Preheating in Quintessential Inflation with$α$-Attractors arXiv: 1712.0176 Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Leonora Donaldson Wood, Charlotte Owen We investigate a compelling model of quintessential inflation in the context of$\alpha$-attractors, which naturally result in a scalar potential featuring two flat regions, the inflationary plateau and the quintessential tail. The "asymptotic freedom" of$\alpha$-attractors, near the kinetic poles, suppresses radiative corrections and interactions, which would otherwise threaten to lift the flatness of the quintessential tail and cause a 5th-force problem respectively. Since this is a non-oscillatory inflation model, we reheat the Universe through instant preheating. The parameter space is constrained by both inflation and dark energy requirements. We find an excellent correlation between the inflationary observables and model predictions, in agreement with the$\alpha$-attractors set-up. We also obtain successful quintessence for natural values of the parameters. Our model predicts potentially sizeable tensor perturbations (at the level of 1%) and a slightly varying equation of state for dark energy, to be probed in the near future. New strategy for black phosphorus crystal growth through ternary clathrate arXiv: 1712.0140 Sheng Li, Xiaoyuan Liu, Xing Fan, et al. We are reporting a new synthetic strategy to grow large size black phosphorus (Black-P) crystals through a ternary clathrate Sn$_{24}$P$_{22-x}$I$_8$, under lower synthetic temperature and pressure. The Black-P crystals are found grown in situ at the site where the solid clathrate originally resides, which suggests chemical vapor mineralizer does not play a critical role for the Black-P formation. More detailed systematical studies has indicated the P vacancies in the framework of ternary clathrate Sn$_{24}$P$_{22-x}$I$_8$is important for the subsequent Black-P from phosphorus vapors, and a likely Vapor-Solid-Solid (VSS) model is responsible for the Black-P crystal growth. The obtained room temperature mobility {\mu} is ~ 350$cm^2/Vs$from Hall measurements at mechanically-cleaved flake, where noticeable micro-cracks are visible. The obtained high mobility value further suggest the high quality of the Black-P crystals synthesized through this route. Spitzer Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole arXiv: 1712.0129 H. Nayyeri, N. Ghotbi, A. Cooray, et al. We present a photometric catalog for Spitzer Space Telescope warm mission observations of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP; centered at$\rm R.A.=18^h00^m00^s$,$\rm Decl.=66^d33^m38^s.552$). The observations are conducted with IRAC in 3.6$\mu$m and 4.5$\mu$m bands over an area of 7.04 deg$^2$reaching 1$\sigma$depths of 1.29$\mu$Jy and 0.79$\mu$Jy in the 3.6$\mu$m and 4.5$\mu$m bands respectively. The photometric catalog contains 380,858 sources with 3.6$\mu$m and 4.5$\mu$m band photometry over the full-depth NEP mosaic. Point source completeness simulations show that the catalog is 80% complete down to 19.7 AB. The accompanying catalog can be utilized in constraining the physical properties of extra-galactic objects, studying the AGN population, measuring the infrared colors of stellar objects, and studying the extra-galactic infrared background light. Constraints on cosmic strings using data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run arXiv: 1712.0116 The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, B. P. Abbott, et al. Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in GUT-scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings to lose energy is through the production of loops and the subsequent emission of gravitational waves, thus offering an experimental signature for the existence of cosmic strings. Here we report on the analysis conducted to specifically search for gravitational-wave bursts from cosmic string loops in the data of Advanced LIGO 2015-2016 observing run (O1). No evidence of such signals was found in the data, and as a result we set upper limits on the cosmic string parameters for three recent loop distribution models. In this paper, we initially derive constraints on the string tension$G\mu$and the intercommutation probability, using not only the burst analysis performed on the O1 data set, but also results from the previously published LIGO stochastic O1 analysis, pulsar timing arrays, cosmic microwave background and Big-Bang nucleosynthesis experiments. We show that these data sets are complementary in that they probe gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loops during very different epochs. Finally, we show that the data sets exclude large parts of the parameter space of the three loop distribution models we consider. Large-scale structure phenomenology of viable Horndeski theories arXiv: 1712.0044 Simone Peirone, Kazuya Koyama, Levon Pogosian, et al. Phenomenological functions$\Sigma$and$\mu$, also known as$G_{\rm light}/G$and$G_{\rm matter}/G$, are commonly used to parameterize modifications of the growth of large-scale structure in alternative theories of gravity. We study the values these functions can take in Horndeski theories, i.e. the class of scalar-tensor theories with second order equations of motion. We restrict our attention to models that are in a broad agreement with tests of gravity and the observed cosmic expansion history. In particular, we require the speed of gravity to be equal to the speed of light today, as required by the recent detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic emission from a binary neutron star merger. We examine the correlations between the values of$\Sigma$and$\mu$analytically within the quasi-static approximation, and numerically, by sampling the space of allowed solutions. We confirm that the conjecture made in [Pogosian:2016pwr], that$(\Sigma-1)(\mu -1) \ge 0$in viable Horndeski theories, holds very well. Along with that, we check the validity of the quasi-static approximation within different corners of Horndeski theory. Our results show that, even with the tight bound on the present day speed of gravitational waves, there is room within Horndeski theories for non-trivial signatures of modified gravity at the level of linear perturbations. Redshift-space distortions from vector perturbations arXiv: 1712.0005 Camille Bonvin, Ruth Durrer, Nima Khosravi, et al. We compute a general expression for the contribution of vector perturbations to the redshift-space distortion of galaxy surveys. We show that they contribute to the same multipoles of the correlation function as scalar perturbations and should thus in principle be taken into account in data analysis. We derive constraints for next-generation surveys on the amplitude of two sources of vector perturbations, namely non-linear clustering and topological defects. While topological defects leave a very small imprint on redshift-space distortions, we show that the multipoles of the correlation function are sensitive to vorticity induced by non-linear clustering. Therefore future redshift surveys such as DESI or the SKA should be capable of measuring such vector modes, especially with the hexadecapole which appears to be the most sensitive to the presence of vorticity. Wisdom of the crowd from unsupervised dimension reduction arXiv: 1711.1103 Lingfei Wang, Tom Michoel Wisdom of the crowd, the collective intelligence derived from responses of multiple human or machine individuals to the same questions, can be more accurate than each individual, and improve social decision-making and prediction accuracy. This can also integrate multiple programs or datasets, each as an individual, for the same predictive questions. Crowd wisdom estimates each individual's independent error level arising from their limited knowledge, and finds the crowd consensus that minimizes the overall error. However, previous studies have merely built isolated, problem-specific models with limited generalizability, and mainly for binary (yes/no) responses. Here we show with simulation and real-world data that the crowd wisdom problem is analogous to one-dimensional unsupervised dimension reduction in machine learning. This provides a natural class of crowd wisdom solutions, such as principal component analysis and Isomap, which can handle binary and also continuous responses, like confidence levels, and consequently can be more accurate than existing solutions. They can even outperform supervised-learning-based collective intelligence that is calibrated on historical performance of individuals, e.g. penalized linear regression and random forest. This study unifies crowd wisdom and unsupervised dimension reduction, and thereupon introduces a broad range of highly-performing and widely-applicable crowd wisdom methods. As the costs for data acquisition and processing rapidly decrease, this study will promote and guide crowd wisdom applications in the social and natural sciences, including data fusion, meta-analysis, crowd-sourcing, and committee decision making. The Kibble Zurek Mechanism of Topological Defect Formation in Quantum Field Theory with Matrix Product States arXiv: 1711.1045 Edward Gillman, Arttu Rajantie The Kibble Zurek mechanism in a relativistic$\phi^{4}$scalar field theory in$D = (1 + 1)$is studied using uniform matrix product states. The equal time two point function in momentum space$G_{2}(k)$is approximated as the system is driven through a quantum phase transition at a variety of different quench rates$\tau_{Q}$. We focus on looking for signatures of topological defect formation in the system and demonstrate the consistency of the picture that the two point function$G_{2}(k)$displays two characteristic scales, the defect density$n$and the kink width$d_{K}$. Consequently,$G_{2}(k)$provides a clear signature for the formation of defects and a well defined measure of the defect density in the system. These results provide a benchmark for the use of tensor networks as powerful non-perturbative non-equilibrium methods for relativistic quantum field theory, providing a promising technique for the future study of high energy physics and cosmology. Directly detecting sub-GeV dark matter with electrons from nuclear scattering arXiv: 1711.0990 Matthew J. Dolan, Felix Kahlhoefer, Christopher McCabe Dark matter (DM) particles with mass in the sub-GeV range are an attractive alternative to heavier weakly-interacting massive particles, but direct detection of such light particles is challenging. If however DM-nucleus scattering leads to ionisation of the recoiling atom, the resulting electron may be detected even if the nuclear recoil is unobservable. We demonstrate that including this effect significantly enhances direct detection sensitivity to sub-GeV DM. Existing experiments set world-leading limits, and future experiments may probe the cross sections relevant for thermal freeze-out. A general theory of linear cosmological perturbations: stability conditions, the quasistatic limit and dynamics arXiv: 1711.0989 Macarena Lagos, Emilio Bellini, Johannes Noller, et al. We analyse cosmological perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background for scalar-tensor, vector-tensor and bimetric theories of gravity. Building on previous results, we propose a unified view of the effective parameters of all these theories. Based on this structure, we explore the viable space of parameters for each family of models by imposing the absence of ghosts and gradient instabilities. We then focus on the quasistatic regime and confirm that all these theories can be approximated by the phenomenological two-parameter model described by an effective Newton's constant and the gravitational slip. Within the quasistatic regime we pinpoint signatures which can distinguish between the broad classes of models (scalar-tensor, vector-tensor or bimetric). Finally, we present the equations of motion for our unified approach in such a way that they can be implemented in Einstein-Boltzmann solvers. On the nature of the electroweak phase transition in the two Higgs doublet model arXiv: 1711.0984 Jens O. Andersen, Tyler Gorda, Andreas Helset, et al. We perform a non-perturbative study of the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) in the two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) by deriving a dimensionally-reduced high-temperature effective theory for the model, and matching to known results for the phase diagram of the effective theory. We find regions of the parameter space where the theory exhibits a strong first order phase transition. In particular, our findings are consistent with previous perturbative results suggesting that the primary signature of a strong EWPT in the 2HDM is$m_{A_0} > m_{H_0} + m_Z$. Cross-tests of CMB features in the primordial spectra arXiv: 1711.0967 Spyros Sypsas The recent Planck data on the power spectrum of temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background marginally support deviations from the$\Lambda$CDM model at several multipoles. With a view towards current and forthcoming observational surveys, we trace these features to other observables like the scalar bispectrum and the tensor power spectrum. A possible detection of such bumps in these channels would increase their statistical significance shedding light on the ultra violet mechanisms responsible for their appearance in the data. Renormalised 3-point functions of stress tensors and conserved currents in CFT arXiv: 1711.0910 Adam Bzowski, Paul McFadden, Kostas Skenderis We present a complete momentum-space prescription for the renormalisation of tensorial correlators in conformal field theories. Our discussion covers all 3-point functions of stress tensors and conserved currents in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. In dimensions three and four, we give explicit results for the renormalised correlators, the anomalous Ward identities they obey, and the conformal anomalies. For the stress tensor 3-point function in four dimensions, we identify the specific evanescent tensorial structure responsible for the type A Euler anomaly, and show this anomaly has the form of a double copy of the chiral anomaly. Adiabatic out-of-equilibrium solutions to the Boltzmann equation in warm inflation arXiv: 1711.0902 Mar Bastero-Gil, Arjun Berera, Rudnei O. Ramos, Joao G. Rosa We show that, in warm inflation, the nearly constant Hubble rate and temperature lead to an adiabatic evolution of the number density of particles interacting with the thermal bath, even if thermal equilibrium cannot be maintained. In this case, the number density is suppressed compared to the equilibrium value but the associated phase-space distribution retains approximately an equilibrium form, with a smaller amplitude and a slightly smaller effective temperature. As an application, we explicitly construct a baryogenesis mechanism during warm inflation based on the out-of-equilibrium decay of particles in such an adiabatically evolving state. We show that this generically leads to small baryon isocurvature perturbations, within the bounds set by the Planck satellite. These are correlated with the main adiabatic curvature perturbations but exhibit a distinct spectral index, which may constitute a smoking gun for baryogenesis during warm inflation. Finally, we discuss the prospects for other applications of adiabatically evolving out-of-equilibrium states. Ultra-Red Galaxies Signpost Candidate Proto-Clusters at High Redshift arXiv: 1711.0880 A. J. R. Lewis, R. J. Ivison, P. N. Best, et al. We present images obtained with LABOCA on the APEX telescope of a sample of 22 galaxies selected via their red Herschel SPIRE 250-, 350- and$500\textrm{-}\mu\textrm{m}$colors. We aim to see if these luminous, rare and distant galaxies are signposting dense regions in the early Universe. Our$870\textrm{-}\mu\textrm{m}$survey covers an area of$\approx0.8\,\textrm{deg}^2$down to an average r.m.s. of$3.9\,\textrm{mJy beam}^{-1}$, with our five deepest maps going$\approx2\times$deeper still. We catalog 86 DSFGs around our 'signposts', detected above a significance of$3.5\sigma$. This implies a$100\pm30\%$over-density of$S_{870}>8.5\,\textrm{mJy}$DSFGs, excluding our signposts, when comparing our number counts to those in 'blank fields'. Thus, we are$99.93\%$confident that our signposts are pinpointing over-dense regions in the Universe, and$\approx95\%$confident that these regions are over-dense by a factor of at least$\ge1.5\times$. Using template SEDs and SPIRE/LABOCA photometry we derive a median photometric redshift of$z=3.2\pm0.2$for our signposts, with an interquartile range of$z=2.8\textrm{-}3.6$. We constrain the DSFGs likely responsible for this over-density to within$

Unitarity and predictiveness in new Higgs inflation
arXiv: 1711.0876
Jacopo Fumagalli, Sander Mooij, Marieke Postma

In new Higgs inflation the Higgs kinetic terms are non-minimally coupled to the Einstein tensor, allowing the Higgs field to play the role of the inflaton. The new interaction is non-renormalizable, and the model only describes physics below some cutoff scale. Even if the unknown UV physics does not affect the tree level inflaton potential significantly, it may still enter at loop level and modify the running of the Standard Model (SM) parameters. This is analogous to what happens in the original model for Higgs inflation. A key difference, though, is that in new Higgs inflation the inflationary predictions are sensitive to this running. Thus the boundary conditions at the EW scale as well as the unknown UV completion may leave a signature on the inflationary parameters. However, this dependence can be evaded if the kinetic terms of the SM fermions and gauge fields are non-minimally coupled to gravity as well. Our approach to determine the model's UV dependence and the connection between low and high scale physics can be used in any particle physics model of inflation.

Reconstruction of a direction-dependent primordial power spectrum from Planck CMB data
arXiv: 1711.0844
Amel Durakovic, Paul Hunt, Suvodip Mukherjee, et al.

We consider the possibility that the primordial curvature perturbation is direction-dependent. To first order this is parameterised by a quadrupolar modulation of the power spectrum and results in statistical anisotropy of the CMB, which can be quantified using bipolar spherical harmonics'. We compute these for the Planck DR2-2015 SMICA map and estimate the noise covariance from Planck Full Focal Plane 9 simulations. A constant quadrupolar modulation is detected with 2.2 sigma significance, dropping to 2 sigma when the primordial power is assumed to scale with wave number k as a power law. Going beyond previous work we now allow the spectrum to have arbitrary scale-dependence. Our non-parametric reconstruction then suggests several spectral features, the most prominent at k ~ 0.006/Mpc. When a constant quadrupolar modulation is fitted to data in the range 0.005 < k Mpc < 0.008, its preferred directions are found to be related to the cosmic hemispherical asymmetry and the CMB dipole. To determine the significance we apply two test statistics to our reconstructions of the quadrupolar modulation from data, against reconstructions of realisations of noise only. With a test statistic sensitive only to the amplitude of the modulation, the reconstructions from the multipole range 30 < l < 1200 are unusual with 2.1 sigma significance. With the second test statistic, sensitive also to the direction, the significance rises to 6.9 sigma. Our approach is easily generalised to include other data sets such as polarisation, large-scale structure and forthcoming 21-cm line observations which will enable these anomalies to be investigated further.

CMB constraints on running non-Gaussianity
arXiv: 1711.0828
Filippo Oppizzi, Michele Liguori, Alessandro Renzi, et al.

We develop a complete set of tools for CMB forecasting, simulation and estimation of primordial running bispectra, arising from a variety of curvaton and single-field (DBI) models of Inflation. We validate our pipeline using mock CMB running non-Gaussianity realizations and test it on real data by obtaining experimental constraints on the $f_{\rm NL}$ running spectral index, $n_{\rm NG}$, using WMAP 9-year data. Our final bounds (68\% C.L.) read $-0.6< n_{\rm NG}<1.4$, $-0.3< n_{\rm NG}<1.2$, $-1.1<n_{\rm NG}<0.7$ for the single-field curvaton, two-field curvaton and DBI scenarios, respectively. We show forecasts and discuss potential improvements on these bounds, using {\it Planck} and future CMB surveys.

A novel way to determine the scale of inflation
arXiv: 1711.0734
Kari Enqvist, Robert J. Hardwick, Tommi Tenkanen, et al.

We show that in the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) model of Dark Matter (DM), one may express the inflationary energy scale $H_*$ as a function of three otherwise unrelated quantities, the DM isocurvature perturbation amplitude, its mass and its self-coupling constant, independently of the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The FIMP model assumes that there exists a real scalar particle that alone constitutes the DM content of the Universe and couples to the Standard Model via a Higgs portal. We consider carefully the various astrophysical, cosmological and model constraints, accounting also for variations in inflationary dynamics and the reheating history, to derive a robust estimate for $H_*$ that is confined to a relatively narrow range. We point out that, within the context of the FIMP DM model, one may thus determine $H_*$ reliably even in the absence of observable tensor perturbations.

Theoretical and observational constraints on Tachyon Inflation
arXiv: 1711.0669
Nandinii Barbosa-Cendejas, Josue De-Santiago, Gabriel German, et al.

We constrain several models in Tachyonic Inflation derived from the large-$N$ formalism by considering theoretical aspects as well as the latest observational data. On the theoretical side, we assess the field range of our models by means of the excursion of the equivalent canonical field. On the observational side, we employ BK14+PLANCK+BAO data to perform a parameter estimation analysis as well as a Bayesian model selection to distinguish the most favoured models among all four classes here presented. We observe that the original potential $V \propto \textrm{sech}(T)$ is strongly disfavoured by observations with respect to a reference model with flat priors on inflationary observables. This realisation of Tachyon inflation also presents a large field range which may demand further quantum corrections. We also provide examples of potentials derived from the polynomial and the perturbative classes which are both statistically favoured and theoretically acceptable.

Vainshtein mechanism after GW170817
arXiv: 1711.0666
Marco Crisostomi, Kazuya Koyama

The almost simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and a short gamma-ray burst from a neutron star merger has put a tight constraint on the difference between the speed of gravity and light. In the four-dimensional scalar-tensor theory with second order equations of motion, the Horndeski theory, this translates into a significant reduction of the viable parameter space of the theory. Recently, extensions of Horndeski theory, which are free from Ostrogradsky ghosts despite the presence of higher order derivatives in the equations of motion, have been identified and classified exploiting the degeneracy criterium. In these new theories, the fifth force mediated by the scalar field must be suppressed in order to evade the stringent Solar System constraints. We study the Vainshtein mechanism in the most general degenerate higher order scalar-tensor theory in which light and gravity propagate at the same speed. We find that the Vainshtein mechanism generally works outside a matter source but it is broken inside matter, similarly to beyond Horndeski theories. This leaves interesting possibilities to test these theories that are compatible with gravitational wave observations using astrophysical objects.

Clustering of Galaxies with f(R) gravity
arXiv: 1711.0663
Salvatore Capozziello, Mir Faizal, Mir Hameeda, et al.

Based on thermodynamics, we discuss the galactic clustering of expanding Universe by assuming the gravitational interaction through the modified Newton's potential given by $f(R)$ gravity. We compute the corrected $N$-particle partition function analytically. The corrected partition function leads to more exact equations of states of the system. By assuming that system follows quasi-equilibrium, we derive the exact distribution function which exhibits the $f(R)$ correction. Moreover, we evaluate the critical temperature and discuss the stability of the system. We observe the effects of correction of $f(R)$ gravity on the power law behavior of particle-particle correlation function also. In order to check feasibility of an $f(R)$ gravity approach to the clustering of galaxies, we compare our results with an observational galaxy cluster catalog.

Exploring the brighter fatter effect with the Hyper Suprime-Cam
arXiv: 1711.0627
William R. Coulton, Robert Armstrong, Kendrick M. Smith, et al.

The brighter fatter effect has been postulated to arise due to the build up of a transverse electric field, produced as photo-charges accumulate in the pixels' potential wells. We investigate the brighter fatter effect in Hyper Suprime-Cam by examining flat fields and moments of stars. We observe deviations from the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curve, luminosity dependent correlations between pixels in flat field images and a luminosity dependent point spread function (PSF) in stellar observations. Under the key assumptions of translation invariance and Maxwell's equations in the quasi-static limit, we give a first-principles proof that the effect can be parametrized by a translationally invariant scalar kernel. We describe how this kernel can be estimated from flat fields and discuss how this kernel has been used to remove the brighter fatter distortions in Hyper Suprime-Cam images. We find that our correction restores the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curves and significantly reduces, but does not completely remove, the luminosity dependence of the PSF over a wide range of magnitudes.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Automatic Morphological Classification of Galaxies Using Statistical Learning
arXiv: 1711.0612
Sreevarsha Sreejith, Sergiy Pereverzyev Jr., Lee S. Kelvin, et al.

We apply four statistical learning methods to a sample of $7941$ galaxies ($z<0.06$) from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to test the feasibility of using automated algorithms to classify galaxies. Using $10$ features measured for each galaxy (sizes, colours, shape parameters \& stellar mass) we apply the techniques of Support Vector Machines (SVM), Classification Trees (CT), Classification Trees with Random Forest (CTRF) and Neural Networks (NN), returning True Prediction Ratios (TPRs) of $75.8\%$, $69.0\%$, $76.2\%$ and $76.0\%$ respectively. Those occasions whereby all four algorithms agree with each other yet disagree with the visual classification (unanimous disagreement') serves as a potential indicator of human error in classification, occurring in $\sim9\%$ of ellipticals, $\sim9\%$ of Little Blue Spheroids, $\sim14\%$ of early-type spirals, $\sim21\%$ of intermediate-type spirals and $\sim4\%$ of late-type spirals \& irregulars. We observe that the choice of parameters rather than that of algorithms is more crucial in determining classification accuracy. Due to its simplicity in formulation and implementation, we recommend the CTRF algorithm for classifying future galaxy datasets. Adopting the CTRF algorithm, the TPRs of the 5 galaxy types are : E, $70.1\%$; LBS, $75.6\%$; S0-Sa, $63.6\%$; Sab-Scd, $56.4\%$ and Sd-Irr, $88.9\%$. Further, we train a binary classifier using this CTRF algorithm that divides galaxies into spheroid-dominated (E, LBS \& S0-Sa) and disk-dominated (Sab-Scd \& Sd-Irr), achieving an overall accuracy of $89.8\%$. This translates into an accuracy of $84.9\%$ for spheroid-dominated systems and $92.5\%$ for disk-dominated systems.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Small-scale anisotropic galaxy clustering and the pairwise velocity dispersion of galaxies
arXiv: 1711.0563
J. Loveday, L. Christodoulou, P. Norberg, et al.

The galaxy pairwise velocity dispersion (PVD) can provide important tests of non-standard gravity and galaxy formation models. We describe measurements of the PVD of galaxies in the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey as a function of projected separation and galaxy luminosity. Due to the faint magnitude limit ($r < 19.8$) and highly-complete spectroscopic sampling of the GAMA survey, we are able to reliably measure the PVD to smaller scales ($r_\bot = 0.01$ Mpc/h) than previous work. The measured PVD at projected separations $r_\bot <~ 1$ Mpc/h increases near-monotonically with increasing luminosity from $\sigma \approx 200$ km/s at $M_r = -17$ mag to $\sigma \approx 600$ km/s at $M_r \approx -22$ mag. Analysis of the Gonzalez-Perez (2014) GALFORM semi-analytic model yields no such trend of PVD with luminosity: the model over-predicts the PVD for faint galaxies. This is most likely a result of the model placing too many low-luminosity galaxies in massive halos.

Evidence of Neutrino Enhanced Clustering in a Complete Sample of Sloan Survey Clusters, Implying $\sum m_ν=0.11\pm0.03eV$
arXiv: 1711.0521
Razieh Emami, Tom Broadhurst, Pablo Jimeno, et al.

The clustering amplitude of 7143 clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is found to increase linearly with cluster mass, closely agreeing with the Gaussian random field hypothesis for structure formation. In detail, the observed correlation length exceeds pure cold dark matter (CDM) simulation predictions by $\simeq 6\%$, for the standard Planck-based values of the cosmological parameters. We show this excess is naturally accounted for by free streaming of light neutrinos, which opposes gravitational growth, so that clusters formed at fixed mass are fewer and hence more biased than for a pure CDM density field. An enhancement in the cluster bias by $7\%$ matches the observations, corresponding to a total neutrino mass, $\sum m_{\nu}=(0.11\pm0.03)eV$, for the standard relic neutrino density. If ongoing laboratory experiments favor a normal neutrino mass hierarchy, then we may infer a somewhat larger total mass than the minimum oscillation based value, $\sum m_{\nu} \simeq 0.056eV$, with $95\%$ confidence. Much higher precision can be achieved by applying our method to the more numerous galaxy groups present in the SDSS, for which we predict an appreciable clustering enhancement by neutrinos.

Variable sound speed in interacting dark energy models
arXiv: 1711.0519
Mark S. Linton, Alkistis Pourtsidou, Robert Crittenden, Roy Maartens

We consider a self-consistent and physical approach to interacting dark energy models described by a Lagrangian, and identify a new class of models with variable dark energy sound speed. We show that if the interaction between dark energy in the form of quintessence and cold dark matter is purely momentum exchange this generally leads to a dark energy sound speed that deviates from unity. Choosing a specific sub-case, we study its phenomenology by investigating the effects of the interaction on the cosmic microwave background and linear matter power spectrum. We also perform a global fitting of cosmological parameters using CMB data, and compare our findings to $\Lambda$CDM.

The fate of large-scale structure in modified gravity after GW170817 and GRB170817A
arXiv: 1711.0482
Luca Amendola, Martin Kunz, Ippocratis D. Saltas, Ignacy Sawicki

The coincident detection of gravitational waves (GW) and a gamma-ray burst from a merger of neutron stars has placed an extremely stringent bound on the speed of GW. We showed previously that the presence of gravitational slip ($\eta$) in cosmology is intimately tied to modifications of GW propagation. This new constraint implies that the only remaining viable source of gravitational slip is a conformal coupling to gravity in scalar-tensor theories, while viable vector-tensor theories cannot now generate gravitational slip at all. We discuss structure formation in the remaining viable models, demonstrating that (i) the dark-matter growth rate must now be at least as fast as in GR, with the possible exception of the beyond Horndeski model. (ii) If there is any scale-dependence at all in the slip parameter, it is such that it takes the GR value at large scales. We show a consistency relation which must be violated if gravity is modified.

Concentrated Dark Matter: Enhanced Small-scale Structure from Co-Decaying Dark Matter
arXiv: 1711.0477
Jeff A. Dror, Eric Kuflik, Brandon Melcher, Scott Watson

We study the cosmological consequences of co-decaying dark matter - a recently proposed mechanism for depleting the density of dark matter through the decay of nearly degenerate particles. A generic prediction of this framework is an early dark matter dominated phase in the history of the universe, that results in the enhanced growth of dark matter perturbations on small scales. We compute the duration of the early matter dominated phase and show that the perturbations are robust against washout from free-streaming. The enhanced small scale structure is expected to survive today in the form of compact micro-halos and can lead to significant boost factors for indirect detection experiments, such as FERMI, where dark matter would appear as point sources.

Stable cosmology in chameleon bigravity
arXiv: 1711.0465
Antonio De Felice, Shinji Mukohyama, Michele Oliosi, Yota Watanabe

The recently proposed chameleonic extension of bigravity theory, by including a scalar field dependence in the graviton potential, avoids several fine-tunings found to be necessary in usual massive bigravity. In particular it ensures that the Higuchi bound is satisfied at all scales, that no Vainshtein mechanism is needed to satisfy solar-system experiments, and that the strong coupling scale is always above the scale of cosmological interest all the way up to the early universe. This paper extends the previous work by presenting a stable example of cosmology in the chameleon bigravity model. We find a set of initial conditions and parameters such that the derived stability conditions on general flat Friedmann background are satisfied at all times. The evolution goes through radiation dominated, matter dominated, and de Sitter eras. We argue that the parameter space allowing for such a stable evolution may be large enough to encompass an observationally viable evolution. We also argue that our model satisfies all known constraints due to gravitational wave observations so far and thus can be considered as a unique testing ground of gravitational wave phenomenologies in bimetric theories of gravity.

Electronic Reconstruction Enhanced Tunneling Conductance at Terrace Edges of Ultrathin Oxide Films
arXiv: 1711.0462
Lingfei Wang, Rokyeon Kim, Yoonkoo Kim, et al.

Quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons across ultrathin insulating oxide barriers has been studied extensively for decades due to its great potential in electronic device applications. In the few-nanometer-thick epitaxial oxide films, atomic-scale structural imperfections, such as the ubiquitously existed one-unit-cell-high terrace edges, can dramatically affect the tunneling probability and device performance. However, the underlying physics has not been investigated adequately. Here, taking ultrathin BaTiO3 films as a model system, we report an intrinsic tunneling conductance enhancement near the terrace edges. Scanning probe microscopy results demonstrate the existence of highly-conductive regions (tens of nanometers-wide) near the terrace edges. First-principles calculations suggest that the terrace edge geometry can trigger an electronic reconstruction, which reduces the effective tunneling barrier width locally. Furthermore, such tunneling conductance enhancement can be discovered in other transition-metal-oxides and controlled by surface termination engineering. The controllable electronic reconstruction could facilitate the implementation of oxide electronic devices and discovery of exotic low-dimensional quantum phases.

Simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis: Quench from portal coupling to new singlet field
arXiv: 1711.0452
Zong-Gang Mou, Paul M. Saffin, Anders Tranberg

We compute the baryon asymmetry generated from Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis, when a dynamical Beyond-the-Standard-Model scalar singlet field triggers the spinodal transition. Using a simple potential for this additional field, we match the speed of the quench to earlier simulations with a "by-hand" mass flip. We find that for the parameter subspace most similar to a by-hand transition, the final baryon asymmetry shows a similar dependence on quench time and is of the same magnitude. For more general parameter choices the Higgs-singlet dynamics can be very complicated, resulting in an enhancement of the final baryon asymmetry. Our results validate and generalise results of simulations in the literature and open up the Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis scenario to further model building.

Detecting Fluorescent Dark Matter with X-ray lasers
arXiv: 1711.0433
Francesca Day, Malcolm Fairbairn

Fluorescent Dark Matter has been suggested as a possible explanation of both the 3.5 keV excess in the diffuse emission of the Perseus Cluster and of the deficit at the same energy in the central active galaxy within that cluster, NGC 1275. In this work we point out that such a dark matter candidate can be searched for at the new X-ray laser facilities that are currently being built and starting to operate around the world. We present one possible experimental set up where the laser is passed through a narrow cylinder lined with lead shielding. Flourescent Dark Matter would be excited upon interaction with the laser photons and travel across the lead shielding to decay outside the cylinder, in a region which has been instrumented with X-ray detectors. For an instrumented length of 7cm at the LCLS-II laser we expect $\mathcal{O} (1 - 10)$ such events per week for parameters which explain the astronomical observations.

Spontaneous scalarization of black holes and compact stars from a Gauss-Bonnet coupling
arXiv: 1711.0208
Hector O. Silva, Jeremy Sakstein, Leonardo Gualtieri, et al.

We identify a class of scalar-tensor theories with coupling between the scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant that exhibit spontaneous scalarization for both black holes and compact stars. In particular, these theories formally admit all of the stationary solutions of general relativity, but these are not dynamically preferred if certain conditions are satisfied. Remarkably, black holes exhibit scalarization if their mass lies within one of many narrow bands. We find evidence that scalarization can occur in neutron stars as well.

The shape dependence of chameleon screening
arXiv: 1711.0206
Clare Burrage, Edmund J. Copeland, Adam Moss, James A. Stevenson

Chameleon scalar fields can screen their associated fifth forces from detection by changing their mass with the local density. These models are an archetypal example of a screening mechanism, and have become an important target for both cosmological surveys and terrestrial experiments. In particular there has been much recent interest in searching for chameleon fifth forces in the laboratory. It is known that the chameleon force is less screened around non-spherical sources, but only the field profiles around a few simple shapes are known analytically. In this work we introduce a numerical code that solves for the chameleon field around arbitrary shapes with azimuthal symmetry placed in a spherical vacuum chamber. We find that deviations from spherical symmetry can increase the chameleon acceleration experienced by a test particle by up to a factor of $\sim 3$, and that the least screened objects are those which minimize some internal dimension.

Non-equilibrium evolution of quantum fields during inflation and late accelerating expansion
arXiv: 1711.0192
Houri Ziaeepour

To understand mechanisms leading to inflation and late acceleration of the Universe it is important to see how one or a set of quantum fields may evolve such that the classical energy-momentum tensor behave similar to a cosmological constant. In this work we consider a toy model including 3 scalar fields with very different masses to study the formation of a light axion-like condensate, presumed to be responsible for inflation and/or late accelerating expansion of the Universe. Despite its simplicity, this model reflects hierarchy of masses and couplings of the Standard Model and its candidate extensions. The investigation is performed in the framework of non-equilibrium quantum field theory in a consistently evolved FLRW geometry. We discuss in details how the initial conditions for such a model must be defined in a fully quantum setup and show that in a multi-component model interactions reduce the number of independent initial degrees of freedom. Numerical simulation of this model shows that it can be fully consistent with present cosmological observations. For the chosen range of parameters we find that quantum interactions rather than effective potential of a condensate is the dominant contributor in the energy density of the Universe and triggers both inflation and late accelerating expansion. Nonetheless, despite its small contribution in the energy density, the light scalar field - in both condensate and quasi free particle forms - has a crucial role in controlling the trend of heavier fields. Furthermore, up to precision of our simulations we do not find any IR singularity during inflation. These findings highlight uncertainties in attempts to extract information about physics of the early Universe by naively comparing predictions of local effective classical models with cosmological observations, neglecting inherently non-local nature of quantum processes.

Space dust collisions as a planetary escape mechanism
arXiv: 1711.0189
Arjun Berera

It is observed that hypervelocity space dust, which is continuously bombarding the Earth, creates immense momentum flows in the atmosphere. Some of this fast space dust inevitably will interact with the atmospheric system, transferring energy and moving particles around, with various possible consequences. This paper examines, with supporting estimates, the possibility that through collisions, the Earth-grazing component of space dust can facilitate planetary escape of atmospheric particles, whether they be the atoms and molecules forming the atmosphere or bigger sized particles. As one interesting outcome, floating in the Earth's atmosphere are a variety of particles containing the telltale signs of Earth's organic story, including microbial life and life essential molecules. This paper will assess the ability for this space dust collision mechanism to propel some of these biological constituents into space.

Imprints of local lightcone projection effects on the galaxy bispectrum. III Relativistic corrections from nonlinear dynamical evolution on large-scales
arXiv: 1711.0181
Sheean Jolicoeur, Obinna Umeh, Roy Maartens, Chris Clarkson

The galaxy bispectrum is affected on equality scales and above by relativistic observational effects, at linear and nonlinear order. These lightcone effects include local contributions from Doppler and gravitational potential terms, as well as integrated contributions like lensing, together with all the couplings at nonlinear order. We recently presented the correction to the galaxy bispectrum from all local lightcone effects up to second order in perturbations, using a plane-parallel approximation. Here we update our previous result by including the effects from relativistic nonlinear dynamical evolution. We show that these dynamical effects make a significant contribution to the projection effects.

Accretion of a Symmetry Breaking Scalar Field by a Schwarzschild Black Hole
arXiv: 1711.0085
Dina Traykova, Jonathan Braden, Hiranya V. Peiris

We simulate the behaviour of a Higgs-like field in the vicinity of a Schwarzschild black hole using a highly accurate numerical framework. We consider both the limit of the zero-temperature Higgs potential, and a toy model for the time-dependent evolution of the potential when immersed in a slowly cooling radiation bath. Through these numerical investigations, we aim to improve our understanding of the non-equilibrium dynamics of a symmetry breaking field (such as the Higgs) in the vicinity of a compact object such as a black hole. Understanding this dynamics may suggest new approaches for studying properties of scalar fields using black holes as a laboratory.

Disformal transformations on the CMB
arXiv: 1604.0803
Clare Burrage, Sebastian Cespedes, Anne-Christine Davis

In this work we study the role of disformal transformation on cosmological backgrounds and its relation to the speed of sound for tensor modes. A speed different from one for tensor modes can arise in several contexts, such as Galileons theories or massive gravity, nevertheless the speed is very constrained to be one by observations of gravitational wave emission. It has been shown that in inflation a disformal trans- formation allows to set the speed for tensor modes to one without making changes to the curvature power spectrum. Here we show that this invariance does not hold when considering the CMB anisotropy power spectrum. It turns out that the after doing the transformation there is an imprint on the acoustic peaks and the diffusion damping. This has interesting consequences; here we explore quartic galileon theories which allow a modified speed for tensor modes. For these theories the transformation can be used to constraint the parameter space in different regimes.

Supplement: Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914
arXiv: 1604.0786
B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, et al.

This Supplement provides supporting material for arXiv:1602.08492 . We briefly summarize past electromagnetic follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current electromagnetic follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the electromagnetic follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands.

Substructure and galaxy formation in the Copernicus Complexio warm dark matter simulations
arXiv: 1604.0740
Sownak Bose, Wojciech A. Hellwing, Carlos S. Frenk, et al.

We use the Copernicus Complexio (COCO) high resolution $N$-body simulations to investigate differences in the properties of small-scale structures in the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model and in a model with a cutoff in the initial power spectrum of density fluctuations consistent with both a thermally produced warm dark matter (WDM) particle or a sterile neutrino with mass 7 keV and leptogenesis parameter $L_6=8.7$. The latter corresponds to the "coldest" model with this sterile neutrino mass compatible with the identification of the recently detected 3.5 keV X-ray line as resulting from particle decay. CDM and WDM predict very different number densities of subhaloes with mass $\leq 10^9\,h^{-1}\,M_\odot$ although they predict similar, nearly universal, normalised subhalo radial density distributions. Haloes and subhaloes in both models have cuspy NFW profiles, but WDM subhaloes below the cutoff scale in the power spectrum (corresponding to maximum circular velocities $V_{\mathrm{max}}^{z=0} \leq50~\mathrm{kms}^{-1}$) are less concentrated than their CDM counterparts. We make predictions for observable properties using the GALFORM semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. Both models predict Milky Way satellite luminosity functions consistent with observations, although the WDM model predicts fewer very faint satellites. This model, however, predicts slightly more UV bright galaxies at redshift $z>7$ than CDM, but both are consistent with observations. Gravitational lensing offers the best prospect of distinguishing between the models.

arXiv: 1604.0605
Clare Burrage, Edmund J. Copeland, Peter Millington

We describe a symmetron model in which the screening of fifth forces arises at the one-loop level through the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We show that such a theory can avoid current constraints on the existence of fifth forces, but still has the potential to give rise to observable deviations from general relativity.

Critical Number of Fields in Stochastic Inflation
arXiv: 1604.0601
Vincent Vennin, Hooshyar Assadullahi, Hassan Firouzjahi, et al.

Stochastic effects in generic scenarios of inflation with multiple fields are investigated. First Passage Time techniques are employed to calculate the statistical moments of the number of inflationary $e$-folds, which give rise to all correlation functions of primordial curvature perturbations through the stochastic $\delta N$ formalism. The number of fields is a critical parameter. The probability of exploring arbitrarily large-field regions of the potential becomes non-vanishing when more than two fields are driving inflation. The mean number of $e$-folds can be infinite, depending on the number of fields; for plateau potentials, this occurs even with one field. In such cases, correlation functions of curvature perturbations are infinite. They can however be regularised if a reflecting (or absorbing) wall is added at large energy or field value. The results are found to be independent of the exact location of the wall and this procedure is therefore well-defined for a wide range of cutoffs, above or below the Planck scale. Finally, we show that, contrary to single-field setups, multi-field models can yield large stochastic corrections even at sub-Planckian energy, opening interesting prospects for probing quantum effects on cosmological fluctuations.

Nonlinear Dynamics of Dipoles in Microtubules: Pseudo-Spin Model
arXiv: 1604.0597
Alexander I Nesterov, Mónica F Ramírez, Gennady P Berman, Nick E Mavromatos

We perform a theoretical study of the dynamics of the electric field excitations in a microtubule by taking into consideration the realistic cylindrical geometry, dipole-dipole interactions of the tubulin-based protein heterodimers, the radial electric field produced by the solvent, and a possible degeneracy of energy states of individual heterodimers. The consideration is done in the frames of the classical pseudo-spin model. We derive the system of nonlinear dynamical ordinary differential equations of motion for interacting dipoles, and the continuum version of these equations. We obtain the solutions of these equations in the form of snoidal waves, solitons, kinks, and localized spikes. Our results will help to a better understanding of the functional properties of microtubules including the motor protein dynamics and the information transfer processes. Our considerations are based on classical dynamics. Some speculations on the role of possible quantum effects are also made.

Constraints on primordial black holes from Galactic gamma-ray background
arXiv: 1604.0534
B. J. Carr, Kazunori Kohri, Yuuiti Sendouda, Jun'ichi Yokoyama

The fraction of the Universe going into primordial black holes (PBHs) with initial mass M_* \approx 5 \times 10^{14} g, such that they are evaporating at the present epoch, is strongly constrained by observations of both the extragalactic and Galactic gamma-ray backgrounds. However, while the dominant contribution to the extragalactic background comes from the time-integrated emission of PBHs with initial mass M_*, the Galactic background is dominated by the instantaneous emission of those with initial mass slightly larger than M_* and current mass below M_*. Also, the instantaneous emission of PBHs smaller than 0.4 M_* mostly comprises secondary particles produced by the decay of directly emitted quark and gluon jets. These points were missed in the earlier analysis by Lehoucq et al. using EGRET data. For a monochromatic PBH mass function, with initial mass (1+\mu) M_* and \mu << 1, the current mass is (3\mu)^{1/3} M_* and the Galactic background constrains the fraction of the Universe going into PBHs as a function of \mu. However, the initial mass function cannot be precisely monochromatic and even a tiny spread of mass around M_* would generate a current low-mass tail of PBHs below M_*. This tail would be the main contributor to the Galactic background, so we consider its form and the associated constraints for a variety of scenarios with both extended and nearly-monochromatic initial mass functions. In particular, we consider a scenario in which the PBHs form from critical collapse and have a mass function which peaks well above M_*. In this case, the largest PBHs could provide the dark matter without the M_* ones exceeding the gamma-ray background limits.

The Higgs Portal and Cosmology
arXiv: 1604.0532
Ketevi Assamagan, Chien-Yi Chen, John Paul Chou, et al.

Higgs portal interactions provide a simple mechanism for addressing two open problems in cosmology: dark matter and the baryon asymmetry. In the latter instance, Higgs portal interactions may contain the ingredients for a strong first order electroweak phase transition as well as new CP-violating interactions as needed for electroweak baryogenesis. These interactions may also allow for a viable dark matter candidate. We survey the opportunities for probing the Higgs portal as it relates to these questions in cosmology at the LHC and possible future colliders.

Cosmology with Negative Absolute Temperatures
arXiv: 1604.0509
J. P. P. Vieira, Christian T. Byrnes, Antony Lewis

Negative absolute temperatures (NAT) are an exotic thermodynamical consequence of quantum physics which has been known since the 1950's (having been achieved in the lab on a number of occasions). Recently, the work of Braun et al (2013) has rekindled interest in negative temperatures and hinted at a possibility of using NAT systems in the lab as dark energy analogues. This paper goes one step further, looking into the cosmological consequences of the existence of a NAT component in the Universe. NAT-dominated expanding Universes experience a borderline phantom expansion ($w<-1$) with no Big Rip, and their contracting counterparts are forced to bounce after the energy density becomes sufficiently large. Both scenarios might be used to solve horizon and flatness problems analogously to standard inflation and bouncing cosmologies. We discuss the difficulties in obtaining and ending a NAT-dominated epoch, and possible ways of obtaining density perturbations with an acceptable spectrum.

Multiple Fields in Stochastic Inflation
arXiv: 1604.0450
Hooshyar Assadullahi, Hassan Firouzjahi, Mahdiyar Noorbala, et al.

Stochastic effects in multi-field inflationary scenarios are investigated. A hierarchy of diffusion equations is derived, the solutions of which yield moments of the numbers of inflationary $e$-folds. Solving the resulting partial differential equations in multi-dimensional field space is more challenging than the single-field case. A few tractable examples are discussed, which show that the number of fields is, in general, a critical parameter. When more than two fields are present for instance, the probability to explore arbitrarily large-field regions of the potential, otherwise inaccessible to single-field dynamics, becomes non-zero. In some configurations, this gives rise to an infinite mean number of $e$-folds, regardless of the initial conditions. Another difference with respect to single-field scenarios is that multi-field stochastic effects can be large even at sub-Planckian energy. This opens interesting new possibilities for probing quantum effects in inflationary dynamics, since the moments of the numbers of $e$-folds can be used to calculate the distribution of primordial density perturbations in the stochastic-$\delta N$ formalism.

GAMA/WiggleZ: The 1.4GHz radio luminosity functions of high- and low-excitation radio galaxies and their redshift evolution to z=0.75
arXiv: 1604.0433
Michael Pracy, John Ching, Elaine Sadler, et al.

We present radio Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) luminosity functions over the redshift range 0.005 < z < 0.75. The sample from which the luminosity functions are constructed is an optical spectroscopic survey of radio galaxies, identified from matched Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm survey (FIRST) sources and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) images.The radio AGN are separated into Low Excitation Radio Galaxies (LERGs) and High Excitation Radio Galaxies (HERGs) using the optical spectra. We derive radio luminosity functions for LERGs and HERGs separately in the three redshift bins (0.005 < z < 0.3, 0.3 < z < 0.5 and 0.5 < z <0.75). The radio luminosity functions can be well described by a double power-law. Assuming this double power-law shape the LERG population displays little or no evolution over this redshift range evolving as ~$(1+z)^{0.06}$ assuming pure density evolution or ~ $(1+z)^{0.46}$ assuming pure luminosity evolution. In contrast, the HERG population evolves more rapidly, best fitted by ~$(1+z)^{2.93}$ assuming a double power-law shape and pure density evolution. If a pure luminosity model is assumed the best fitting HERG evolution is parameterised by ~$(1+z)^{7.41}$. The characteristic break in the radio luminosity function occurs at a significantly higher power (~1 dex) for the HERG population in comparison to the LERGs. This is consistent with the two populations representing fundamentally different accretion modes.

LHC Signatures Of Scalar Dark Energy
arXiv: 1604.0429
Philippe Brax, Clare Burrage, Christoph Englert, Michael Spannowsky

Scalar dark energy fields that couple to the Standard Model can give rise to observable signatures at the LHC. In this work we show that $t\bar t+$missing energy and mono-jet searches are suitable probes in the limit where the dark energy scalar is stable on collider distances. We discuss the prospects of distinguishing the dark energy character of new physics signals from dark matter signatures and the possibility of probing the self-interactions of the dark energy sector.

Aller guten Dinge sind drei: Cosmology with three interacting spin-2 fields
arXiv: 1604.0428
Marvin Lüben, Yashar Akrami, Luca Amendola, Adam R. Solomon

Theories of massive gravity with one or two dynamical metrics generically lack stable and observationally-viable cosmological solutions that are distinguishable from $\Lambda$CDM. We consider an extension to trimetric gravity, with three interacting spin-2 fields which are not plagued by the Boulware-Deser ghost. We systematically explore every combination with two free parameters in search of background cosmologies that are competitive with $\Lambda$CDM. For each case we determine whether the expansion history satisfies viability criteria, and whether or not it contains beyond-$\Lambda$CDM phenomenology. Among the many models we consider, there are only three cases that seem to be both viable and distinguishable from standard cosmology. One of the models has only one free parameter and displays a crossing from above to below the phantom divide. The other two provide scaling behavior, although they contain future singularities that need to be studied in more detail. These models possess interesting features that make them compelling targets for a full comparison to observations of both cosmological expansion history and structure formation.

Constraining cosmological ultra-large scale structure using numerical relativity
arXiv: 1604.0400
Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Anthony Aguirre

Cosmic inflation, a period of accelerated expansion in the early universe, can give rise to large amplitude ultra-large scale inhomogeneities on distance scales comparable to or larger than the observable universe. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy on the largest angular scales is sensitive to such inhomogeneities and can be used to constrain the presence of ultra-large scale structure (ULSS). We numerically evolve nonlinear inhomogeneities present at the beginning of inflation in full General Relativity to assess the CMB quadrupole constraint on the amplitude of the initial fluctuations and the size of the observable universe relative to a length scale characterizing the ULSS. To obtain a statistically significant number of simulations, we adopt a toy model in which inhomogeneities are injected along a preferred direction. We compute the likelihood function for the CMB quadrupole including both ULSS and the standard quantum fluctuations produced during inflation. We compute the posterior given the observed CMB quadrupole, finding that when including gravitational nonlinearities, ULSS curvature perturbations of order unity are allowed by the data, even on length scales not too much larger than the size of the observable universe. Our results illustrate the utility and importance of numerical relativity for constraining early universe cosmology.

Relating metric and covariant perturbation theories in $f(R)$ gravity
arXiv: 1604.0397

Modified theories of gravity have been invoked recently as an alternative to dark energy, in an attempt to explain the apparent accelerated expansion of the universe at the present time. In order to describe inhomogeneities in cosmological models, cosmological perturbation theory is used, of which two formalisms exist: the metric approach and the covariant approach. In this paper I present the relationship between the metric and covariant approaches for modeling $f(R)$ theories of gravity. This provides a useful resource that researchers primarily working with one formalism can use to compare or translate their results to the other formalism.

The Standard Model Higgs as the origin of the hot Big Bang
arXiv: 1604.0390
Daniel G. Figueroa, Christian T. Byrnes

If the Standard Model (SM) Higgs is weakly coupled to the inflationary sector, the Higgs is expected to be universally in the form of a condensate towards the end of inflation. The Higgs decays rapidly after inflation -- via non-perturbative effects -- into an out-of-equilibrium distribution of SM species, which thermalize soon afterwards. If the post-inflationary equation of state of the universe is stiff, $w \simeq +1$, the SM species eventually dominate the total energy budget. This provides a natural origin for the relativistic thermal plasma of SM species, required for the onset the hot Big Bang' era. The viability of this scenario requires the inflationary Hubble scale $H_*$ to be lower than the instability scale for Higgs vacuum decay, the Higgs not to generate too large curvature perturbations at cosmological scales, and the SM dominance to occur before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We show that successful reheating into the SM can only be obtained in the presence of a non-minimal coupling to gravity $\xi \gg 0.1$, with a reheating temperature $T_{\rm RH} \simeq \mathcal{O}(10^{10})\xi^{3/2}(H_*/10^{14}{\rm GeV})^2~{\rm GeV}$

Novel third-order Lovelock wormhole solutions
arXiv: 1604.0291

In this work, we consider wormhole geometries in third-order Lovelock gravity and investigate the possibility that these solutions satisfy the energy conditions. In this framework, by applying a specific equation of state, we obtain exact wormhole solutions, and by imposing suitable values for the parameters of the theory, we find that these geometries satisfy the weak energy condition in the vicinity of the throat, due to the presence of higher order curvature terms. Finally, we trace out a numerical analysis, by assuming a specific redshift function, and find asymptotically flat solutions that satisfy the weak energy condition throughout the spacetime.

From the Flamm-Einstein-Rosen bridge to the modern renaissance of traversable wormholes
arXiv: 1604.0208
Francisco S. N. Lobo

We consider the possibility of multiply-connected spacetimes, ranging from the Flamm-Einstein-Rosen bridge, geons, and the modern renaissance of traversable wormholes. A fundamental property in wormhole physics is the flaring-out condition of the throat, which through the Einstein field equation entails the violation of the null energy condition. In the context of modified theories of gravity, it has also been shown that the normal matter can be imposed to satisfy the energy conditions, and it is the higher order curvature terms, interpreted as a gravitational fluid, that sustain these non-standard wormhole geometries, fundamentally different from their counterparts in general relativity. We explore interesting features of these geometries, in particular, the physical properties and characteristics of these exotic spacetimes'.

Anatomy of Exotic Higgs Decays in 2HDM
arXiv: 1604.0140
Felix Kling, Jose Miguel No, Shufang Su

Large mass splittings between new scalars in two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDM) open a key avenue to search for these new states via exotic heavy Higgs decays. We discuss in detail the different search channels for these new scalars at the LHC in the presence of a sizable mass splitting, i.e. a hierarchical 2HDM scenario, taking into account the theoretical and experimental constraints. We provide benchmark planes to exploit the complementarity among these searches, analyzing their potential to probe the hierarchical 2HDM parameter space during LHC Run 2.

A general theory of linear cosmological perturbations: scalar-tensor and vector-tensor theories
arXiv: 1604.0139
Macarena Lagos, Tessa Baker, Pedro G. Ferreira, Johannes Noller

We present a method for parametrizing linear cosmological perturbations of theories of gravity, around homogeneous and isotropic backgrounds. The method is sufficiently general and systematic that it can be applied to theories with any degrees of freedom (DoFs) and arbitrary gauge symmetries. In this paper, we focus on scalar-tensor and vector-tensor theories, invariant under linear coordinate transformations. In the case of scalar-tensor theories, we use our framework to recover the simple parametrizations of linearized Horndeski and "Beyond Horndeski" theories, and also find higher-derivative corrections. In the case of vector-tensor theories, we first construct the most general quadratic action for perturbations that leads to second-order equations of motion, which propagates two scalar DoFs. Then we specialize to the case in which the vector field is time-like (\a la Einstein-Aether gravity), where the theory only propagates one scalar DoF. As a result, we identify the complete forms of the quadratic actions for perturbations, and the number of free parameters that need to be defined, to cosmologically characterize these two broad classes of theories.

Reconstructing cosmic growth with kSZ observations in the era of Stage IV experiments
arXiv: 1604.0138
David Alonso, Thibaut Louis, Philip Bull, Pedro G. Ferreira

Future ground-based CMB experiments will generate competitive large-scale structure datasets by precisely characterizing CMB secondary anisotropies over a large fraction of the sky. We describe a method for constraining the growth rate of structure to sub-1% precision out to $z\approx 1$, using a combination of galaxy cluster peculiar velocities measured using the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect, and the velocity field reconstructed from galaxy redshift surveys. We consider only thermal SZ-selected cluster samples, which will consist of $\mathcal{O}(10^4-10^5)$ sources for Stage 3 and 4 CMB experiments respectively. Three different methods for separating the kSZ effect from the primary CMB are compared, including a novel blind "constrained realization" method that improves signal-to-noise by a factor of $\sim 2$ over a commonly-used aperture photometry technique. Measurements of the integrated tSZ $y$-parameter are used to break the kSZ velocity-optical depth degeneracy, and the effects of including CMB polarization and SZ profile uncertainties are also considered. A combination of future Stage 4 experiments should be able to measure the product of the growth and expansion rates, $\alpha\equiv f H$, to better than 1% in bins of $\Delta z = 0.1$ out to $z \approx 1$ -- competitive with contemporary redshift-space distortion constraints from galaxy surveys.

Stability of gravitating charged-scalar solitons in a cavity
arXiv: 1604.0113
Supakchai Ponglertsakul, Elizabeth Winstanley, Sam R. Dolan

We present new regular solutions of Einstein-charged scalar field theory in a cavity. The system is enclosed inside a reflecting mirror-like boundary, on which the scalar field vanishes. The mirror is placed at the zero of the scalar field closest to the origin, and inside this boundary our solutions are regular. We study the stability of these solitons under linear, spherically symmetric perturbations of the metric, scalar and electromagnetic fields. If the radius of the mirror is sufficiently large, we present numerical evidence for the stability of the solitons. For small mirror radius, some of the solitons are unstable. We discuss the physical interpretation of this instability.

Model-independent constraints on modified gravity from current data and from the Euclid and SKA future surveys
arXiv: 1604.0105
Laura Taddei, Matteo Martinelli, Luca Amendola

The aim of this paper is to constrain modified gravity with redshift space distortion observations and supernovae measurements. Compared with a standard LCDM analysis, we include three additional free parameters, namely the initial conditions of the matter perturbations,the overall perturbation normalization, and a scale-dependent Y parameter modifying the Poisson equation, in an attempt to perform a more model-independent analysis. First, we constrain the Poisson parameter Y (also called Geff ) by using currently available fsigma_8 data and the recent SN catalog JLA. We find that the inclusion of the additional free parameters makes the constraints significantly weaker than when fixing them to the standard cosmological value. Second, we constrain Y by using forecast growth-rate data for Euclid and SKA missions. Here again we point out the weakening of the constraints when the additional parameters are included. Finally, we adopt as modified gravity Poisson parameter the specific Horndeski form, and use scale-dependent forecasts to build an exclusion plot for the Yukawa potential akin to the ones realized in laboratory experiments, both for the Euclid and the SKA surveys.

Physics from solar neutrinos in dark matter direct detection experiments
arXiv: 1604.0102
David G. Cerdeño, Malcolm Fairbairn, Thomas Jubb, et al.

The next generation of dark matter direct detection experiments will be sensitive to both coherent neutrino-nucleus and neutrino-electron scattering. This will enable them to explore aspects of solar physics, perform the lowest energy measurement of the weak angle to date, and probe contributions from new theories with light mediators. In this article, we compute the projected nuclear and electron recoil rates expected in several dark matter direct detection experiments due to solar neutrinos, and use these estimates to infer errors on future measurements of the neutrino fluxes, weak mixing angle and solar observables, as well as to constrain new physics in the neutrino sector. The combined rates of solar neutrino events in second generation experiments (SuperCDMS and LZ) can yield a measurement of the pp flux to 2.5% accuracy via electron recoil, and slightly improve the boron-8 flux determination. Assuming a low-mass argon phase, projected tonne-scale experiments like DARWIN can reduce the uncertainty on both the pp and boron-8 neutrino fluxes to below 1%. Finally, we use current results from LUX, SuperCDMS and CDMSlite to set bounds on new interactions between neutrinos and electrons or nuclei, and show that future direct detection experiments can be used to set complementary constraints on the parameter space associated with light mediators.

Testing General Free Functions in Preferred Scale Theories
arXiv: 1604.0100
Ali Mozaffari

Building on previous work, we explore the parameter space of general free functions in non-relativistic modified gravity theories motivated by k-essence and other scalar-tensor theories. Using a few proposed tests, we aim to update Solar System based constraints on these ideas in line with previous theories and suggest their utility in constraining modification to GR, potentially even being able to test k-essence type theories.

Galaxy Populations in Massive Galaxy Clusters to z=1.1: Color Distribution, Concentration, Halo Occupation Number and Red Sequence Fraction
arXiv: 1604.0098
C. Hennig, J. J. Mohr, A. Zenteno, et al.

We study the galaxy populations in 74 Sunyaev Zeldovich Effect (SZE) selected clusters from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey that have been imaged in the science verification phase of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The sample extends up to $z\sim 1.1$ with $4 \times 10^{14} M_{\odot}\le M_{200}\le 3\times 10^{15} M_{\odot}$. Using the band containing the 4000~\AA\ break and its redward neighbor, we study the color-magnitude distributions of cluster galaxies to $\sim m_*+2$, finding: (1) the intrinsic rest frame $g-r$ color width of the red sequence (RS) population is $\sim$0.03 out to $z\sim0.85$ with a preference for an increase to $\sim0.07$ at $z=1$ and (2) the prominence of the RS declines beyond $z\sim0.6$. The spatial distribution of cluster galaxies is well described by the NFW profile out to $4R_{200}$ with a concentration of $c_{\mathrm{g}} = 3.59^{+0.20}_{-0.18}$, $5.37^{+0.27}_{-0.24}$ and $1.38^{+0.21}_{-0.19}$ for the full, the RS and the blue non-RS populations, respectively, but with $\sim40$\% to 55\% cluster to cluster variation and no statistically significant redshift or mass trends. The number of galaxies within the virial region $N_{200}$ exhibits a mass trend indicating that the number of galaxies per unit total mass is lower in the most massive clusters, and shows no significant redshift trend. The red sequence (RS) fraction within $R_{200}$ is $(68\pm3)$\% at $z=0.46$, varies from $\sim$55\% at $z=1$ to $\sim$80\% at $z=0.1$, and exhibits intrinsic variation among clusters of $\sim14$\%. We discuss a model that suggests the observed redshift trend in RS fraction favors a transformation timescale for infalling field galaxies to become RS galaxies of 2 to 3~Gyr.

The Potential of the Dwarf Galaxy Triangulum II for Dark Matter Indirect Detection
arXiv: 1604.0083
Anna Genina, Malcolm Fairbairn

Triangulum II is a recently discovered ultra faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy or globular cluster, which may be one of the most dark matter dominated objects known. In this work we try to estimate the potential of this object for studies of the indirect detection of self-annihilating dark matter by obtaining its astrophysical J-factor. We perform a basic estimate of the velocity gradient to look for signs of the halo being tidally disrupted but show that the observed value is statistically compatible with zero velocity gradient. We solve the spherical Jeans equation using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) engine GreAT and the Jeans analysis part of the CLUMPY package. We find the results point towards a very large J-factor, appearing to make Triangulum II one of the best targets in the search for dark matter. However we stress that the very small number of line of sight velocities currently available for this object make follow up studies essential.

A Proposed Experimental Search for Chameleons using Asymmetric Parallel Plates
arXiv: 1604.0034
Clare Burrage, Edmund J. Copeland, James A. Stevenson

Light scalar fields coupled to matter are a common consequence of theories of dark energy and attempts to solve the cosmological constant problem. The chameleon screening mechanism is commonly invoked in order to suppress the fifth forces mediated by these scalars, suficiently to avoid current experimental constraints, without fine tuning. The force is suppressed dynamically by allowing the mass of the scalar to vary with the local density. Recently it has been shown that near future cold atoms experiments using atom-interferometry have the ability to access a large proportion of the chameleon parameter space. In this work we demonstrate how experiments utilising asymmetric parallel plates can push deeper into the remaining parameter space available to the chameleon.

Constraining $f(T, \mathcal{T})$ gravity models using type Ia supernovae
arXiv: 1603.0967
Diego Saez-Gomez, C. Sofia Carvalho, Francisco S. N. Lobo, Ismael Tereno

We present an analysis of an $f(T, \mathcal{T})$ extension of the Teleparallel Equivalent of General Relativity that includes non--minimal couplings between torsion and matter. We construct two models that recover the usual continuity equation. We then constrain the parameters of each model by fitting the predicted distance modulus to that measured from type Ia supernovae. We found that both models can reproduce late--time cosmic acceleration without introducing extra complexity. We also observe that one of the models satisfies well the observational constraints and yields a goodness--of--fit similar to the $\Lambda$CDM model, thus demonstrating that $f(T,\mathcal{T})$ gravity theory encompasses viable models that can be an alternative to $\Lambda$CDM.

Electrodynamics and spacetime geometry: Astrophysical applications
arXiv: 1603.0818
Francisco Cabral, Francisco S. N. Lobo

After a brief review of the foundations of (pre-metric) electromagnetism in differential forms, we proceed with the tensor formulation and explore physical consequences of Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime. The generalized Gauss and Maxwell-Amp\{e}re laws, as well as the wave equations, reveal potentially interesting astrophysical applications. The physical implications of these equations are explored and specific solutions are obtained. In all cases, new electromagnetic couplings and related phenomena are induced by the spacetime curvature. The applications of astrophysical interest considered here correspond essentially to the Schwarzschild spacetime and the spacetime around a rotating spherical mass in the weak field and slow rotation regime. In the latter, we use the Parameterised Post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism. In general, new electromagnetic effects induced by spacetime curvature include the following: Gravitational contributions for the decay of electric and magnetic fields in spherically symmetric spacetime, magnetic contributions to Gauss law due to the gravitomagnetic character of the spacetime around rotating objects, additional electric contributions to Maxwell's displacement current in the Maxwell-Amp\'{e}re law induced by gravitomagnetism (and also for dynamical geometries), and the coupling between the wave dynamics for different electric and magnetic components (affecting polarization), amongst others.

Gravitational waves and electrodynamics: New perspectives
arXiv: 1603.0815
Francisco Cabral, Francisco S. N. Lobo

Given the recent direct measurement of gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-VIRGO collaboration, the coupling between electromagnetic fields and gravity have a special relevance since it opens new perspectives for future GW detectors and also potentially provide information on the physics of highly energetic GW sources. We explore such couplings using the field equations of electrodynamics on (pseudo) Riemann manifolds and apply it to the background of a GW, seen as a linear perturbation of Minkowski geometry. Electric and magnetic oscillations are induced that propagate as electromagnetic waves and contain information about the GW which generates them. We also briefly show the generation of charge density fluctuations induced by GW and the implications for astrophysics.

A double power series method for approximating cosmological perturbations
arXiv: 1603.0757
Andrew J. Wren, Karim A. Malik

We introduce a double power series method for finding approximate analytical solutions for systems of differential equations commonly found in cosmological perturbation theory. The method was set out, in a non-cosmological context, by Feshchenko, Shkil' and Nikolenko (FSN) in 1966, and is applicable to cases where perturbations are on sub-horizon scales. The FSN method is essentially an extension of the well known Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method for finding approximate analytical solutions for ordinary differential equations. The FSN method is well suited for solving systems of linear second order ordinary differential equations, that also depend on a small parameter, which here we take to be the inverse wave-number. We use the FSN method to find new approximate oscillating solutions in linear order cosmological perturbation theory for a flat radiation-matter universe. Together with this model's well known growing and decaying M\'esz\'aros solutions, these oscillating modes provide a complete set of sub-horizon approximations for the metric potential, radiation and matter perturbations. Comparison with numerical solutions of the perturbation equations shows that our approximations can be made accurate to within a typical error of 1%, or better. We also set out a heuristic method for error estimation. A Mathematica notebook which implements the double power series method is made available online.

Galaxy bispectrum, primordial non-Gaussianity and redshift space distortions
arXiv: 1603.0681
Matteo Tellarini, Ashley J. Ross, Gianmassimo Tasinato, David Wands

Measurements of the non-Gaussianity of the primordial density field have the power to considerably improve our understanding of the physics of inflation. Indeed, if we can increase the precision of current measurements by an order of magnitude, a null-detection would rule out many classes of scenarios for generating primordial fluctuations. Large-scale galaxy redshift surveys represent experiments that hold the promise to realise this goal. Thus, we model the galaxy bispectrum and forecast the accuracy with which it will probe the parameter $f_{\rm NL}$, which represents the degree of primordial local-type non Gaussianity. Specifically, we address the problem of modelling redshift space distortions (RSD) in the tree-level galaxy bispectrum including $f_{\rm NL}$. We find novel contributions associated with RSD, with the characteristic large scale amplification induced by local-type non-Gaussianity. These RSD effects must be properly accounted for in order to obtain un-biased measurements of $f_{\rm NL}$ from the galaxy bispectrum. We propose an analytic template for the monopole which can be used to fit against data on large scales, extending models used in the recent measurements. Finally, we perform idealised forecasts on $\sigma_{f_{\rm NL}}$ -- the accuracy of the determination of local non-linear parameter $f_{\rm NL}$ -- from measurements of the galaxy bispectrum. Our findings suggest that current surveys can in principle provide $f_{\rm NL}$ constraints competitive with Planck, and future surveys could improve them further.

Heavily Reddened z~2 Type 1 Quasars II: H-alpha Star Formation Constraints from SINFONI IFU Observations
arXiv: 1603.0641
Susannah Alaghband-Zadeh, Manda Banerji, Paul C. Hewett, Richard G. McMahon

We use near infrared integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy to search for H$\alpha$ emission associated with star formation in a sample of 28 heavily reddened ($E(B-V)\simeq$0.5-1.9), hyperluminous ($log(L_{bol}/ergs^{-1})\simeq$47-48) broad-line quasars at $z\simeq$1.4-2.7. Sixteen of the 28 quasars show evidence for star formation with an average extinction-corrected star formation rate (SFR) of 320$\pm$70M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$. A stacked spectrum of the detections shows weak [NII], consistent with star formation as the origin of the narrow H$\alpha$ emission. The star-forming regions are spatially unresolved in 11 of the 16 detections and constrained to lie within $\sim$6kpc of the quasar emission. In the five resolved detections we find the star-forming regions are extended on scales of $\sim$8kpc around the quasar emission. The prevalence of high SFRs is consistent with the identification of the heavily reddened quasar population as representing a transitional phase from apparent starburst galaxies' to optically-luminous quasars. Upper limits are determined for 10 quasars in which star formation is undetected. In two of the quasars the SFR is constrained to be relatively modest, $<$50M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$, but significantly higher levels of star formation could be present in the other eight quasars. The combination of the 16 strong star formation detections and the eight high SFR limits means that high levels of star formation may be present in the majority of the sample. Higher spatial resolution data, of multiple emission lines, will allow us to better understand the interplay between star formation and Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) activity in these transitioning quasars.

Testing Gravity Using Galaxy Clusters: New Constraints on Beyond Horndeski Theories
arXiv: 1603.0636
Jeremy Sakstein, Harry Wilcox, David Bacon, et al.

The Beyond Horndeski class of alternative gravity theories allow for Self-accelerating de-Sitter cosmologies with no need for a cosmological constant. This makes them viable alternatives to $\Lambda$CDM and so testing their small-scale predictions against General Relativity is of paramount importance. These theories generically predict deviations in both the Newtonian force law and the gravitational lensing of light inside extended objects. Therefore, by simultaneously fitting the X-ray and lensing profiles of galaxy clusters new constraints can be obtained. In this work, we apply this methodology to the stacked profiles of 58 high-redshift ($0.1<z<1.2$) clusters using X-ray surface brightness profiles from the XMM Cluster Survey and weak lensing profiles from CFHTLenS. By performing a multi-parameter Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis, we are able to place new constraints on the parameters governing deviations from Newton's law $\Upsilon_{1}=-0.11^{+0.93}_{-0.67}$ and light bending $\Upsilon_{2}=-0.22^{+1.22}_{-1.19}$. Both constraints are consistent with General Relativity, for which $\Upsilon_{1}=\Upsilon_{2}=0$. We present here the first observational constraints on $\Upsilon_{2}$, as well as the first extragalactic measurement of both parameters.

Time Delay Analysis of the Lensed Quasar SDSS J1001+5027
arXiv: 1603.0633
Amir Aghamousa, Arman Shafieloo

We modify upon the algorithm we proposed before in \citep{aghamousa_timedelay_1} on time delay estimation of the strong lens systems incorporating weighted cross correlation, defining two tuning parameters in the analysis and optimizing the method (deriving its parameters) by trading off between the bias and variance using many Monte Carlo simulations. We apply our proposed method on the light curves of the lensed quasar SDSS J1001+5027 since this system has been well studied by other groups to compare our results with their findings. In this work we propose two estimators namely "mean" and "mirror" estimators and we show that these two estimators should result to consistent and accurate estimations. Our mirror estimator results to $-117.1^{+1.6}_{-1.0}$ days time delay for this system and our mean estimator results to $-119.8^{+1.8}_{-0.8}$ days using Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the uncertainties. These two estimations are very much consistent with results of the other groups, however, the small discrepancy between these estimations hints towards some possible minor systematics in the data or inaccurate estimation of the uncertainties of the data epochs. Using simulations provided by \citep{COSMOGRAIL_XIV}, where they account for some possible systematics in the simulations, we got larger error bars on the estimated time delays while the mean estimated values remained unchanged.

Scalar field dark matter and the Higgs field
arXiv: 1603.0624
Orfeu Bertolami, Catarina Cosme, João G. Rosa

We discuss the possibility that dark matter corresponds to an oscillating scalar field coupled to the Higgs boson. We argue that the initial field amplitude should generically be of the order of the Hubble parameter during inflation, as a result of its quasi-de Sitter fluctuations. This implies that such a field may account for the present dark matter abundance for masses in the range $10^{-6} - 10^{-4}$ eV, if the tensor-to-scalar ratio is within the range of planned CMB experiments. We show that such mass values can naturally be obtained through either Planck-suppressed non-renormalizable interactions with the Higgs boson or, alternatively, through renormalizable interactions within the Randall-Sundrum scenario, where the dark matter scalar resides in the bulk of the warped extra-dimension and the Higgs is confined to the infrared brane.

Scale-Independent Inflation and Hierarchy Generation
arXiv: 1603.0598
Pedro G. Ferreira, Christopher T. Hill, Graham G. Ross

We discuss models involving two scalar fields coupled to classical gravity that satisfy the general criteria: (i) the theory has no mass input parameters, (ii) classical scale symmetry is broken only through $-\frac{1}{12}\varsigma \phi^2 R$ couplings where $\varsigma$ departs from the special conformal value of $1$; (iii) the Planck mass is dynamically generated by the vacuum expectations values (VEVs) of the scalars (iv) there is a stage of viable inflation associated with slow roll in the two--scalar potential; (v) the final vacuum has a small to vanishing cosmological constant and an hierarchically small ratio of the VEVs and the ratio of the scalar masses to the Planck scale. This assumes the paradigm of classical scale symmetry as a custodial symmetry of large hierarchies.

Simulation tests of galaxy cluster constraints on chameleon gravity
arXiv: 1603.0591
Harry Wilcox, Robert C. Nichol, Gong-bo Zhao, et al.

We use two new hydrodynamical simulations of $\Lambda$CDM and $f(R)$ gravity to test the methodology used by Wilcox et al. 2015 (W15) in constraining the effects of a fifth force on the profiles of clusters of galaxies. We construct realistic simulated stacked weak lensing and X-ray surface brightness cluster profiles from these cosmological simulations, and then use these data projected along various lines-of-sight to test the spherical symmetry of our stacking procedure. We also test the applicability of the NFW profile to model weak lensing profiles of clusters in $f(R)$ gravity. Finally, we test the validity of the analytical model developed in W15 against the simulated profiles. Overall, we find our methodology is robust and broadly agrees with these simulated data. We also apply our full Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis from W15 to our simulated X-ray and lensing profiles, providing consistent constraints on the modified gravity parameters as obtained from the real cluster data, e.g. for our $\Lambda$CDM simulation we obtain $Bouncing Cosmologies: Progress and Problems arXiv: 1603.0583 Robert Brandenberger, Patrick Peter We review the status of bouncing cosmologies as alternatives to cosmological inflation for providing a description of the very early universe, and a source for the cosmological perturbations which are observed today. We focus on the motivation for considering bouncing cosmologies, the origin of fluctuations in these models, and the challenges which various implementations face. Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing in the DES Science Verification Data arXiv: 1603.0579 J. Clampitt, C. Sánchez, J. Kwan, et al. We present galaxy-galaxy lensing results from 139 square degrees of Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data. Our lens sample consists of red galaxies, known as redMaGiC, which are specifically selected to have a low photometric redshift error and outlier rate. The lensing measurement has a total signal-to-noise of 29, including all lenses over a wide redshift range$0.2 < z < 0.8$. Dividing the lenses into three redshift bins, we find no evidence for evolution in the halo mass with redshift. We obtain consistent results for the lensing measurement with two independent shear pipelines, ngmix and im3shape. We perform a number of null tests on the shear and photometric redshift catalogs and quantify resulting systematic errors. Covariances from jackknife subsamples of the data are validated with a suite of 50 mock surveys. The results and systematics checks in this work provide a critical input for future cosmological and galaxy evolution studies with the DES data and redMaGiC galaxy samples. We fit a Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) model, and demonstrate that our data constrains the mean halo mass of the lens galaxies, despite strong degeneracies between individual HOD parameters. Cosmological$N$-body simulations with suppressed variance arXiv: 1603.0525 Raul E. Angulo, Andrew Pontzen We present and test a method that dramatically reduces variance arising from the sparse sampling of wavemodes in cosmological simulations. The method uses two simulations which are fixed (the initial Fourier mode amplitudes are fixed to the ensemble average power spectrum) and paired (with initial modes exactly out of phase). We measure the power spectrum, monopole and quadrupole redshift-space correlation functions, halo mass function and reduced bispectrum at$z=1$. By these measures, predictions from a fixed pair can be as precise on non-linear scales as an average over 50 traditional simulations. The fixing procedure introduces a non-Gaussian correction to the initial conditions; we give an analytic argument showing why the simulations are still able to predict the mean properties of the Gaussian ensemble. We anticipate that the method will drive down the computational time requirements for accurate large-scale explorations of galaxy bias and clustering statistics, enabling more precise comparisons with theoretical models, and facilitating the use of numerical simulations in cosmological data interpretation. Cosmology constraints from shear peak statistics in Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data arXiv: 1603.0504 T. Kacprzak, D. Kirk, O. Friedrich, et al. Shear peak statistics has gained a lot of attention recently as a practical alternative to the two point statistics for constraining cosmological parameters. We perform a shear peak statistics analysis of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data, using weak gravitational lensing measurements from a 139 deg$^2$field. We measure the abundance of peaks identified in aperture mass maps, as a function of their signal-to-noise ratio, in the signal-to-noise range$0<\mathcal S / \mathcal N<4$. To predict the peak counts as a function of cosmological parameters we use a suite of$N$-body simulations spanning 158 models with varying$\Omega_{\rm m}$and$\sigma_8$, fixing$w = -1$,$\Omega_{\rm b} = 0.04$,$h = 0.7$and$n_s=1$, to which we have applied the DES SV mask and redshift distribution. In our fiducial analysis we measure$\sigma_{8}(\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.6}=0.77 \pm 0.07, after marginalising over the shear multiplicative bias and the error on the mean redshift of the galaxy sample. We introduce models of intrinsic alignments, blending, and source contamination by cluster members. These models indicate that peaks with\mathcal S / \mathcal N>4$would require significant corrections, which is why we do not include them in our analysis. We compare our results to the cosmological constraints from the two point analysis on the SV field and find them to be in good agreement in both the central value and its uncertainty. We discuss prospects for future peak statistics analysis with upcoming DES data. Active galaxies may harbour wormholes if dark matter is axionic arXiv: 1603.0467 Konstantinos Dimopoulos AGN jets carry helical magnetic fields, which can affect dark matter if the latter is axionic. This preliminary study shows that the nature of the axionic condensate may change and violate the weak and dominant energy conditions. If the central supermassive black hole of an active galaxy is laced with such matter, then in the presence of strong magnetic fields, it may become a wormhole. In general, the presence of such matter may affect galaxy formation and galactic dynamics, so this possibility should not be ignored when considering axionic dark matter. Updated constraints on spatial variations of the fine-structure constant arXiv: 1603.0449 A. M. M. Pinho, C. J. A. P. Martins Recent work by Webb {\it et al.} has provided indications of spatial variations of the fine-structure constant,$\alpha$, at a level of a few parts per million. Using a dataset of 293 archival measurements, they further show that a dipole provides a statistically good fit to the data, a result subsequently confirmed by other authors. Here we show that a more recent dataset of dedicated measurements further constrains these variations: although there are only 10 such measurements, their uncertainties are considerably smaller. We find that a dipolar variation is still a good fit to the combined dataset, but the amplitude of such a dipole must be somewhat smaller:$8.1\pm1.7$ppm for the full dataset, versus$9.4\pm2.2$ppm for the Webb {\it et al.} data alone, both at the$68.3\%$confidence level. Constraints on the direction on the sky of such a dipole are also significantly improved. On the other hand the data can't yet discriminate between a pure spatial dipole and one with an additional redshift dependence. Effective cosmological constant induced by stochastic fluctuations of Newton's constant arXiv: 1603.0417 Marco de Cesare, Fedele Lizzi, Mairi Sakellariadou We consider implications of the microscopic dynamics of spacetime for the evolution of cosmological models. We argue that quantum geometry effects may lead to stochastic fluctuations of the gravitational constant, which is thus considered as a macroscopic effective dynamical quantity. Consistency with Riemannian geometry entails the presence of a time-dependent dark energy term in the modified field equations, which can be expressed in terms of the dynamical gravitational constant. We suggest that the late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe may be ascribed to quantum fluctuations in the geometry of spacetime rather than the vacuum energy from the matter sector. Recommendations on presenting LHC searches for missing transverse energy signals using simplified$s$-channel models of dark matter arXiv: 1603.0415 Antonio Boveia, Oliver Buchmueller, Giorgio Busoni, et al. This document summarises the proposal of the LHC Dark Matter Working Group on how to present LHC results on$s$-channel simplified dark matter models and to compare them to direct (indirect) detection experiments. Detection of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect with DES Year 1 and SPT arXiv: 1603.0390 B. Soergel, S. Flender, K. T. Story, et al. We detect the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect with a statistical significance of$4.2 \sigma$by combining a cluster catalogue derived from the first year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with CMB temperature maps from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SPT-SZ) Survey. This measurement is performed with a differential statistic that isolates the pairwise kSZ signal, providing the first detection of the large-scale, pairwise motion of clusters using redshifts derived from photometric data. By fitting the pairwise kSZ signal to a theoretical template we measure the average central optical depth of the cluster sample,$\bar{\tau}_e = (3.75 \pm 0.89)\cdot 10^{-3}$. We compare the extracted signal to realistic simulations and find good agreement with respect to the signal-to-noise, the constraint on$\bar{\tau}_e$, and the corresponding gas fraction. High-precision measurements of the pairwise kSZ signal with future data will be able to place constraints on the baryonic physics of galaxy clusters, and could be used to probe gravity on scales$ \gtrsim 100$Mpc. Information Gain on Reheating: the One Bit Milestone arXiv: 1603.0260 Jerome Martin, Christophe Ringeval, Vincent Vennin We show that the Planck 2015 and BICEP2/KECK measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies provide together an information gain of 0.82 +- 0.13 bits on the reheating history over all slow-roll single-field models of inflation. This corresponds to a 40% improvement compared to the Planck 2013 constraints on the reheating. Our method relies on an exhaustive CMB data analysis performed over nearly 200 models of inflation to derive the Kullback-Leibler entropy between the prior and the fully marginalized posterior of the reheating parameter. This number is a weighted average by the Bayesian evidence of each model to explain the data thereby ensuring its fairness and robustness. The simplest possible bouncing quantum cosmological model arXiv: 1603.0234 Patrick Peter, Sandro D. P. Vitenti We present and expand the simplest possible quantum cosmological model already discussed in a previous work: the trajectory formulation of quantum mechanics applied to cosmology in the FLRW minisuperspace without spatial curvature. The initial conditions that were assumed there were such that the wave function would not change its functional form but instead provide a dynamics to its parameters. Here, we consider a more general situation, in practice consisting of modified Gaussian wave functions, aiming at obtaining a bounce from a contracting phase. Whereas previous works consistently obtain very symmetric bounces, we find that it is possible to produce highly non symmetric solutions, and even cases for which multiple bounces naturally occur. We also introduce a means of treating the shear in this category of models by quantizing in the Bianchi I minisuperpace. Accelerated expansion of the Universe without an inflaton and resolution of the initial singularity from GFT condensates arXiv: 1603.0176 Marco de Cesare, Mairi Sakellariadou We study the expansion of the Universe using an effective Friedmann equation obtained from the dynamics of GFT isotropic condensates. A promising feature of this model is the occurrence of an era of accelerated expansion, without the need to introduce an inflaton field with an appropriately chosen potential. Although the evolution equations are "classical", the cosmological model is entirely quantum and does not admit a description in terms of a classical spacetime. Consistency with Riemannian geometry holds only at late times, when standard cosmology is recovered. Hence the dynamics is given in purely relational terms. An effective gravitational constant is seen to arise from the collective behaviour of spacetime quanta, as described by GFT. The occurrence of a bounce, which resolves the initial spacetime singularity, is shown to be a general property of the model. Convexity at finite temperature and non-extensive thermodynamics arXiv: 1603.0154 Jean Alexandre Starting from a bare scalar potential with two degenerate minima at$\phi=\pm v$, and assuming that both minima contribute to the partition function, the effective potential is explicitly calculated at one loop. The true vacuum of the dressed theory is at$\phi=0$for finite spacetime volume: the effective potential is convex and suppressed by this volume, between the dressed mass scales$\pm v_{dressed}$. In this interval, the effective potential has a universal functional form, for which higher order quantum corrections modify only the mass scale$v_{dressed}$. At finite temperature, the volume-suppressed part of the effective potential exists only below the usual critical temperature and, as a consequence, the free energy ceases to be extensive and the thermodynamics potentials are frozen. CMB Constraints on Cosmic Strings and Superstrings arXiv: 1603.0127 Tom Charnock, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Edmund J. Copeland, Adam Moss We present the first complete MCMC analysis of cosmological models with evolving cosmic (super)string networks, using the Unconnected Segment Model in the unequal-time correlator formalism. For ordinary cosmic string networks, we derive joint constraints on {\Lambda}CDM and string network parameters, namely the string tension G{\mu}, the loop-chopping efficiency c_r and the string wiggliness {\alpha}. For cosmic superstrings, we obtain joint constraints on the fundamental string tension G{\mu}_F, the string coupling g_s, the self-interaction coefficient c_s, and the volume of compact extra dimensions w. This constitutes the most comprehensive CMB analysis of {\Lambda}CDM cosmology + strings to date. For ordinary cosmic string networks our updated constraint on the string tension is, in relativistic units, G{\mu}<1.1x10^-7, while for cosmic superstrings our constraint on the fundamental string tension is G{\mu}_F<2.8x10^-8, both obtained using Planck2015 temperature and polarisation data. Photometric Supernova Classification With Machine Learning arXiv: 1603.0088 Michelle Lochner, Jason D. McEwen, Hiranya V. Peiris, et al. Automated photometric supernova classification has become an active area of research in recent years in light of current and upcoming imaging surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), given that spectroscopic confirmation of type for all supernovae discovered with these surveys will be impossible. Here, we develop a multi-faceted classification pipeline, combining existing and new approaches. Our pipeline consists of two stages: extracting descriptive features from the light curves and classification using a machine learning algorithm. Our feature extraction methods vary from model-dependent techniques, namely SALT2 fits, to more independent techniques fitting parametric models to curves, to a completely model-independent wavelet approach. We cover a range of representative machine learning algorithms, including naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbors, support vector machines, artificial neural networks and boosted decision trees. We test the pipeline on simulated multi-band DES light curves from the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge. Using the commonly-used area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC) as a metric, we find that the SALT2 fits and the wavelet approach, with the boosted decision trees algorithm, each achieves an AUC of 0.98, where 1 represents perfect classification. We find that a representative training set is essential for good classification, whatever the feature set or algorithm, suggesting that spectroscopic follow-up is best focused on fewer objects at a broad range of redshifts than on many bright objects. Importantly, we find that by using either one of the two best feature extraction methods (SALT2 model fits and wavelet decomposition) and a boosted decision tree algorithm, accurate classification is possible purely from light curve data, without the need for any redshift information. Probing Theories of Gravity with Phase Space-Inferred Potentials of Galaxy Clusters arXiv: 1603.0005 Alejo Stark, Christopher J. Miller, Nicholas Kern, et al. Modified theories of gravity provide us with a unique opportunity to generate innovative tests of gravity. In Chameleon f(R) gravity, the gravitational potential differs from the weak-field limit of general relativity (GR) in a mass dependent way. We develop a probe of gravity which compares high mass clusters, where Chameleon effects are weak, to low mass clusters, where the effects can be strong. We utilize the escape velocity edges in the radius/velocity phase space to infer the gravitational potential profiles on scales of 0.3-1 virial radii. We show that the escape edges of low mass clusters are enhanced compared to GR, where the magnitude of the difference depends on the background field value Black Holes and Abelian Symmetry Breaking arXiv: 1602.0869 Javier Chagoya, Gustavo Niz, Gianmassimo Tasinato Black hole configurations offer insights on the non-linear aspects of gravitational theories, and can suggest testable predictions for modifications of General Relativity. In this work, we examine exact black hole configurations in vector-tensor theories, originally proposed to explain dark energy by breaking the Abelian symmetry with a non-minimal coupling of the vector to gravity. We are able to evade the no-go theorems by Bekenstein on the existence of regular black holes in vector-tensor theories with Proca mass terms, and exhibit regular black hole solutions with a profile for the longitudinal vector polarization, characterised by an additional charge. We analytically find the most general static, spherically symmetric black hole solutions with and without a cosmological constant, and study in some detail their features, such as how the geometry depends on the vector charges. We also include angular momentum, and find solutions describing slowly-rotating black holes. Finally, we extend some of these solutions to higher dimensions. Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914 arXiv: 1602.0849 B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, et al. A gravitational-wave transient was identified in data recorded by the Advanced LIGO detectors on 2015 September 14. The event candidate, initially designated G184098 and later given the name GW150914, is described in detail elsewhere. By prior arrangement, preliminary estimates of the time, significance, and sky location of the event were shared with 63 teams of observers covering radio, optical, near-infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths with ground- and space-based facilities. In this Letter we describe the low-latency analysis of the gravitational wave data and present the sky localization of the first observed compact binary merger. We summarize the follow-up observations reported by 25 teams via private Gamma-ray Coordinates Network Circulars, giving an overview of the participating facilities, the gravitational wave sky localization coverage, the timeline and depth of the observations. As this event turned out to be a binary black hole merger, there is little expectation of a detectable electromagnetic signature. Nevertheless, this first broadband campaign to search for a counterpart of an Advanced LIGO source represents a milestone and highlights the broad capabilities of the transient astronomy community and the observing strategies that have been developed to pursue neutron star binary merger events. Detailed investigations of the electromagnetic data and results of the electromagnetic follow-up campaign will be disseminated in the papers of the individual teams. We present an exact expression for the$1/f$contribution to the noise of the CMB temperature and polarization maps for a survey in which the scan pattern is isotropic. The result for polarization applies likewise to surveys with and without a rotating half-wave plate. A representative range of survey parameters is explored and implications for the design and optimization of future surveys are discussed. These results are most directly applicable to space-based surveys, which afford considerable freedom in the choice of the scan pattern on the celestial sphere. We discuss the applicability of the methods developed here to analyzing past experiments and present some conclusions pertinent to the design of future experiments. The techniques developed here do not require that the excess low frequency noise have exactly the$1/f$shape and readily generalize to other functional forms for the detector noise power spectrum. In the case of weakly anisotropic scanning patterns the techniques in this paper can be used to find a preconditioner for solving the map making equation efficiently using the conjugate gradient method. Physical and invariant models for defect network evolution arXiv: 1602.0808 C. J. A. P. Martins, M. M. P. V. P. Cabral We revisit the velocity-dependent one-scale model for topological defect evolution, and present a new alternative formulation in terms of a physical (rather than invariant) characteristic length scale. While the two approaches are equivalent (as we explicitly demonstrate), the new one is particularly relevant when studying the evolution of ultra-relativistic defects. Moreover, a comparison of the two provides further insight on the interpretation of the model's two phenomenological parameters,$c$related to energy losses and$k$related to the curvature of the defects. As an illustration of the relevance of the new formulation, we use it to study the evolution of cosmic string and domain wall networks in contracting universes. We show that these networks are ultra-relativistic and conformally contracted, with the physical length scale behaving as$L_{ph}\propto a$and the density as$\rho\propto a^{-4}$(as in a radiation fluid) in both cases. On the other hand the velocity and invariant length respectively behave as$(\gamma v)\propto a^{-n}$and$L_{inv}\propto a^{\frac{4}{4-n}}$, where$n$is the number of dimensions of the defect's worldsheet. Finally we also study an alternative friction-dominated scenario and show that the stretching and Kibble regimes identified in the case of expanding universes can also occur for contracting ones. Joint Measurement of Lensing-Galaxy Correlations Using SPT and DES SV Data arXiv: 1602.0738 E. J. Baxter, J. Clampitt, T. Giannantonio, et al. We measure the correlation of galaxy lensing and cosmic microwave background lensing with a set of galaxies expected to trace the matter density field. The measurements are performed using pre-survey Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification optical imaging data and millimeter-wave data from the 2500 square degree South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SPT-SZ) survey. The two lensing-galaxy correlations are jointly fit to extract constraints on cosmological parameters, constraints on the redshift distribution of the lens galaxies, and constraints on the absolute shear calibration of DES galaxy lensing measurements. We show that an attractive feature of these fits is that they are fairly insensitive to the clustering bias of the galaxies used as matter tracers. The measurement presented in this work confirms that DES and SPT data are consistent with each other and with the currently favored$\Lambda$CDM cosmological model. It also demonstrates that joint lensing-galaxy correlation measurement considered here contains a wealth of information that can be extracted using current and future surveys. Disformal scalars as dark matter candidates: Branon phenomenology arXiv: 1602.0727 Jose A. R. Cembranos, Antonio L. Maroto Scalar particles coupled to the Standard Model fields through a disformal coupling arise in different theories, such as massive gravity or brane-world models. We will review the main phenomenology associated with such particles. Distinctive disformal signatures could be measured at colliders and with astrophysical observations. The phenomenological relevance of the disformal coupling demands the introduction of a set of symmetries, which may ensure the stability of these new degrees of freedom. In such a case, they constitute natural dark matter candidates since they are generally massive and weakly coupled. We will illustrate these ideas by paying particular attention to the branon case, since these questions arise naturally in brane-world models with low tension, where they were first discussed. UV (in)sensitivity of Higgs inflation arXiv: 1602.0723 Jacopo Fumagalli, Marieke Postma The predictions of Standard Model Higgs inflation are in excellent agreement with the Planck data, without the need for new fields. However, consistency of the theory requires the presence of (unknown) threshold corrections. These modify the running of the couplings, and thereby change the shape of the inflationary potential. This raises the question how sensitive the CMB parameters are to the UV completion. We show that, due to a precise cancellation, the inflationary predictions are almost unaffected. This implies in general that one cannot relate the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio to the precise top and Higgs mass measurements at the LHC, nor can one probe effects of UV physics on the running. 3D Weak Lensing: Modified Theories of Gravity arXiv: 1602.0671 Geraint Pratten, Dipak Munshi, Patrick Valageas, Philippe Brax Weak lensing (WL) promises to be a particularly sensitive probe of both the growth of large scale structure (LSS) as well as the fundamental relation between matter density perturbations and metric perturbations, thus providing a powerful tool with which we may constrain modified theories of gravity (MG) on cosmological scales. Future deep, wide-field WL surveys will provide an unprecedented opportunity to constrain deviations from General Relativity (GR). Employing a three-dimensional (3D) analysis based on the spherical Fourier-Bessel (sFB) expansion, we investigate the extent to which MG theories will be constrained by a typical 3D WL survey configuration including noise from the intrinsic ellipticity distribution$\sigma_{\epsilon}$of source galaxies. Here we focus on two classes of screened theories of gravity: i)$f(R)$chameleon models and ii) environmentally dependent dilaton models. We use one-loop perturbation theory combined with halo models in order to accurately model the evolution of matter power-spectrum with redshift in these theories. Using a Fisher information matrix based approach, we show that for an all-sky spectroscopic survey, the parameter$f_{R_0}$can be constrained in the range$f_{R_0}< 5\times 10^{-6}(9\times 10^{-6})$for$n=1(2)$with a 3$\sigma$confidence level. This can be achieved by using relatively low order angular harmonics$\ell<100$. Including higher order harmonics$\ell>100$can further tighten the constraints, making them comparable to current solar-system constraints. We also employ a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to study the parameter degeneracies in the MG parameters. Our results can trivially be extended to other MG theories, such as the K-mouflage models. The confusion from intrinsic ellipticity correlation and modification of the matter power-spectrum at small scale due to feedback mechanisms is briefly discussed. Hierarchical Bayesian inference of galaxy redshift distributions from photometric surveys arXiv: 1602.0596 Boris Leistedt, Daniel J. Mortlock, Hiranya V. Peiris Accurately characterizing the redshift distributions of galaxies is essential for analysing deep photometric surveys and testing cosmological models. We present a technique to simultaneously infer redshift distributions and individual redshifts from photometric galaxy catalogues. Our model constructs a piecewise constant representation (effectively a histogram) of the distribution of galaxy types and redshifts, the parameters of which are efficiently inferred from noisy photometric flux measurements. This approach can be seen as a generalization of template-fitting photometric redshift methods and relies on a library of spectral templates to relate the photometric fluxes of individual galaxies to their redshifts. We illustrate this technique on simulated galaxy survey data, and demonstrate that it delivers correct posterior distributions on the underlying type and redshift distributions, as well as on the individual types and redshifts of galaxies. We show that even with uninformative priors, large photometric errors and parameter degeneracies, the redshift and type distributions can be recovered robustly thanks to the hierarchical nature of the model, which is not possible with common photometric redshift estimation techniques. As a result, redshift uncertainties can be fully propagated in cosmological analyses for the first time, fulfilling an essential requirement for the current and future generations of surveys. The Intrinsic Matter Bispectrum in$Λ$CDM arXiv: 1602.0593 Thomas Tram, Christian Fidler, Robert Crittenden, et al. We present a fully relativistic calculation of the matter bispectrum at second order in cosmological perturbation theory assuming a Gaussian primordial curvature perturbation. For the first time we perform a full numerical integration of the bispectrum for both baryons and cold dark matter using the second-order Einstein-Boltzmann code, SONG. We review previous analytical results and provide an improved analytic approximation for the second-order kernel in Poisson gauge which incorporates Newtonian nonlinear evolution, relativistic initial conditions, the effect of radiation at early times and the cosmological constant at late times. Our improved kernel provides a percent level fit to the full numerical result at late times for most configurations, including both equilateral shapes and the squeezed limit. We show that baryon acoustic oscillations leave an imprint in the matter bispectrum, making a significant impact on squeezed shapes. Non-perturbative emergence of non-Fermi liquid behaviour in$d=2$quantum critical metals arXiv: 1602.0536 Balazs Meszena, Petter Säterskog, Andrey Bagrov, Koenraad Schalm We consider the planar local patch approximation of$d=2$fermions at finite density coupled to a critical boson. In the quenched or Bloch-Nordsieck approximation, where one takes the limit of fermion flavors$N_f\rightarrow 0$, the fermion spectral function can be determined {exactly}. We show that one can obtain this non-perturbative answer thanks to a specific identity of fermionic two-point functions in the planar local patch approximation. The resulting spectrum is that of a non-Fermi liquid: quasiparticles are not part of the exact fermionic excitation spectrum of the theory. Instead one finds continuous spectral weight with power law scaling excitations as in a$d=1$dimensional critical state. Moreover, at low energies there are three such excitations at three different Fermi surfaces, two with a low energy Green's function$G \sim (\omega-v_*k)^{-1/2}$and one with$G \sim

A White Paper on keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
arXiv: 1602.0481
R. Adhikari, M. Agostini, N. Anh Ky, et al.

We present a comprehensive review of keV-scale sterile neutrino Dark Matter, collecting views and insights from all disciplines involved - cosmology, astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics - in each case viewed from both theoretical and experimental/observational perspectives. After reviewing the role of active neutrinos in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, we focus on sterile neutrinos in the context of the Dark Matter puzzle. Here, we first review the physics motivation for sterile neutrino Dark Matter, based on challenges and tensions in purely cold Dark Matter scenarios. We then round out the discussion by critically summarizing all known constraints on sterile neutrino Dark Matter arising from astrophysical observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical considerations. In this context, we provide a balanced discourse on the possibly positive signal from X-ray observations. Another focus of the paper concerns the construction of particle physics models, aiming to explain how sterile neutrinos of keV-scale masses could arise in concrete settings beyond the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The paper ends with an extensive review of current and future astrophysical and laboratory searches, highlighting new ideas and their experimental challenges, as well as future perspectives for the discovery of sterile neutrinos.

Comments on Graviton Propagation in Light of GW150914
arXiv: 1602.0476
John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos, Dimitri V. Nanopoulos

The observation of gravitational waves from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) event GW150914 may be used to constrain the possibility of Lorentz violation in graviton propagation, and the observation by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor of a transient source in apparent coincidence may be used to constrain the difference between the velocities of light and gravitational waves: $c_g - c_\gamma < 10^{-17}$.

A Dark Energy Camera Search for Missing Supergiants in the LMC After the Advanced LIGO Gravitational Wave Event GW150914
arXiv: 1602.0419
J. Annis, M. Soares-Santos, E. Berger, et al.

The collapse of the core of a star is expected to produce gravitational radiation. While this process will usually produce a luminous supernova, the optical signatue could be subluminous and a direct collapse to a black hole, with the star just disappearing, is possible. The gravitational wave event GW150914 reported by the LIGO Virgo Collaboration (LVC) on 2015 September 16, was detected by a burst analysis and whose high probability spatial localization included the Large Magellanic Cloud. Shortly after the announcement of the event, we used the Dark Energy Camera to observe 102 deg$^2$ of the localization area, including a 38 deg$^2$ area centered on the LMC. Using a catalog of 152 LMC luminous red supergiants, candidates to undergo a core collapse without a visible supernova, we find that the positions of 144 of these are inside our images, and that all are detected - none have disappeared. There are other classes of candidates: we searched existing catalogs of red supergiants, yellow supergiants, Wolf-Rayet stars, and luminous blue variable stars, recovering all that were inside the imaging area. Based on our observations, we conclude that it is unlikely that GW150914 was caused by the core collapse of a supergiant in the LMC, consistent with the LIGO Collaboration analyses of the gravitational wave form as best described by a binary black hole merger. We discuss how to generalize this search for future very nearby core collapse candidates.

Drell-Yan Constraints on New Electroweak States and the Di-photon Anomaly
arXiv: 1602.0387
Christian Gross, Oleg Lebedev, Jose Miguel No

LHC data in Run 2 hint at the existence of a resonance with the mass around 750 GeV which decays into 2 photons. Microscopic particle physics models fitting the data invoke new fields beyond the Standard Model which carry electric charge. Regardless of the details of the spectrum and couplings among the extra fields, they have a cumulative effect on the running of the electroweak gauge couplings at high energies. We find that the LHC Drell-Yan production already sets constraints on such particles which will become progressively stronger with more data.

Gravitational effects on the Higgs field within the Solar System
arXiv: 1602.0329
Franco D. Albareti, Antonio L. Maroto, Francisco Prada

The Higgs mechanism predicts, apart from the existence of a new scalar boson, the presence of a constant Higgs field that permeates all of space. The vacuum expectation value (VEV) of this field is affected by quantum corrections which are mainly generated by the self-interactions and couplings of the Higgs field to gauge bosons and heavy quarks. In this work we show that gravity can affect, in a non-trivial way, these quantum corrections through the finite parts of the one-loop contributions to the effective potential. In particular, we consider the corrections generated by the Standard Model Higgs self-interactions in slowly-varying weak gravitational backgrounds. The obtained results amount to the existence of non-negligible inhomogeneities in the Higgs VEV. Such inhomogeneities translate into spatial variations of the particle masses, and in particular of the proton-to-electron mass ratio. We find that these Higgs perturbations in our Solar System are controlled by the Eddington parameter, and are absent in pure General Relativity. Yet, they may be present in modified gravity theories. This predicted effect may be constrained by atomic clocks or high-resolution spectroscopic measurements, which could allow to improve current limits on modifications of Einstein's gravity.

Doppler term in the galaxy two-point correlation function: wide-angle, velocity, Doppler lensing and cosmic acceleration effects
arXiv: 1602.0318
Alvise Raccanelli, Daniele Bertacca, Donghui Jeong, et al.

We study the parity-odd part (that we shall call Doppler term) of the linear galaxy two-point correlation function that arises from wide-angle, velocity, Doppler lensing and cosmic acceleration effects. As it is important at low redshift and at large angular separations, the Doppler term is usually neglected in the current generation of galaxy surveys. For future wide-angle galaxy surveys such as Euclid, SPHEREx and SKA, however, we show that the Doppler term must be included. The effect of these terms is dominated by the magnification due to relativistic aberration effects and the slope of the galaxy redshift distribution and it generally mimics the effect of the local type primordial non-Gaussianity with the effective nonlinearity parameter $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eff}$ of a few, we show that this would affect forecasts on measurements of $f_{\rm NL}$ at low-redshift. Our results show that a survey at low redshift with large number density over a wide area of the sky could detect the Doppler term with a signal-to-noise ratio of $\sim 1-20$, depending on survey specifications.

Extended Scalar-Tensor Theories of Gravity
arXiv: 1602.0311
Marco Crisostomi, Kazuya Koyama, Gianmassimo Tasinato

We study new consistent scalar-tensor theories of gravity recently introduced by Langlois and Noui with potentially interesting cosmological applications. We derive the conditions for the existence of a primary constraint that prevents the propagation of an additional dangerous mode associated with higher order equations of motion. We then classify the most general, consistent scalar-tensor theories that are at most quadratic in the second derivatives of the scalar field. In addition, we investigate the possible connection between these theories and (beyond) Horndeski through conformal and disformal transformations. Finally, we point out that these theories can be associated with new operators in the effective field theory of dark energy, which might open up new possibilities to test dark energy models in future surveys.

Gravitational perturbations of the Higgs field
arXiv: 1602.0277
Franco D. Albareti, Antonio L. Maroto, Francisco Prada

We study the possible effects of classical gravitational fields on the Higgs vacuum expectation value through the modifications induced in the one-loop effective potential. We concentrate our study on the Higgs self-interactions contribution in a perturbed FRW background. For weak and slowly-varying gravitational fields, a complete set of mode solutions for the Klein-Gordon equation is obtained to leading order in the adiabatic approximation. The mode integrations are calculated using standard dimensional regularization techniques. As expected, the regularized effective potential contains the same divergences as in flat space-time, which can be renormalized without the need of additional counterterms. However, we find new finite non-local contributions which depend on the gravitational potentials, and introduce an explicit space-time dependence on the Higgs potential coefficients. Being finite, the new terms are free of renormalization ambiguities. Inhomogeneities in the effective potential translate into perturbations of the Higgs vacuum expectation value that can have observable effects both on cosmological scales and within the Solar System.

The exceptional generalised geometry of supersymmetric AdS flux backgrounds
arXiv: 1602.0215
Anthony Ashmore, Michela Petrini, Daniel Waldram

We analyse generic AdS flux backgrounds preserving eight supercharges in $D=4$ and $D=5$ dimensions using exceptional generalised geometry. We show that they are described by a pair of globally defined, generalised structures, identical to those that appear for flat flux backgrounds but with different integrability conditions. We give a number of explicit examples of such "exceptional Sasaki-Einstein" backgrounds in type IIB supergravity and M-theory. In particular, we give the complete analysis of the generic AdS$_5$ M-theory backgrounds. We also briefly discuss the structure of the moduli space of solutions. In all cases, one structure defines a "generalised Reeb vector" that generates a Killing symmetry of the background corresponding to the R-symmetry of the dual field theory, and in addition encodes the generic contact structures that appear in the $D=4$ M-theory and $D=5$ type IIB cases. Finally, we investigate the relation between generalised structures and quantities in the dual field theory, showing that the central charge and R-charge of BPS wrapped-brane states are both encoded by the generalised Reeb vector, as well as discussing how volume minimisation (the dual of $a$- and $\mathcal{F}$-maximisation) is encoded.

Holographic Construction of Excited CFT States
arXiv: 1602.0203
Ariana Christodoulou, Kostas Skenderis

We present a systematic construction of bulk solutions that are dual to CFT excited states. The bulk solution is constructed perturbatively in bulk fields. The linearised solution is universal and depends only on the conformal dimension of the primary operator that is associated with the state via the operator-state correspondence, while higher order terms depend on detailed properties of the operator, such as its OPE with itself and generally involve many bulk fields. We illustrate the discussion with the holographic construction of the universal part of the solution for states of two dimensional CFTs, either on $R \times S^1$ or on $R^{1,1}$. We compute the 1-point function both in the CFT and in the bulk, finding exact agreement. We comment on the relation with other reconstruction approaches.

The clustering amplitude of X-ray selected AGN at z=0.8: Evidence for a negative dependence on accretion luminosity
arXiv: 1602.0185
G. Mountrichas, A. Georgakakis, M. L. Menzel, et al.

The northern tile of the wide-area and shallow XMM-XXL X-ray survey field is used to estimate the average dark matter halo mass of relatively luminous X-ray selected AGN [$\rm log\, L_X (\rm 2-10\,keV)= 43.6^{+0.4}_{-0.4}\,erg/s$] in the redshift interval $z=0.5-1.2$. Spectroscopic follow-up observations of X-ray sources in the XMM-XXL field by the Sloan telescope are combined with the VIPERS spectroscopic galaxy survey to determine the cross-correlation signal between X-ray selected AGN (total of 318) and galaxies (about 20,\,000). We model the large scales (2-25\,Mpc) of the correlation function to infer a mean dark matter halo mass of $\log M / (M_{\odot} \, h^{-1}) = 12.50 ^{+0.22} _{-0.30}$ for the X-ray selected AGN sample. This measurement is about 0.5\,dex lower compared to estimates in the literature of the mean dark matter halo masses of moderate luminosity X-ray AGN [$L_X (\rm 2-10\,keV)\approx 10^{42} - 10^{43}\,erg/s$] at similar redshifts. Our analysis also links the mean clustering properties of moderate luminosity AGN with those of powerful UV/optically selected QSOs, which are typically found in halos with masses few times $10^{12}\,M_{\odot}$. There is therefore evidence for a negative luminosity dependence of the AGN clustering. This is consistent with suggestions that AGN have a broad dark matter halo mass distribution with a high mass tail that becomes sub-dominant at high accretion luminosities. We further show that our results are in qualitative agreement with semi-analytic models of galaxy and AGN evolution, which attribute the wide range of dark matter halo masses among the AGN population to different triggering mechanisms and/or black hole fueling modes.

Large scale distribution of total mass versus luminous matter from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: First search in the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10
arXiv: 1602.0183
M. T. Soumagnac, R. Barkana, C. G. Sabiu, et al.

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) in the early Universe are predicted to leave an as yet undetected signature on the relative clustering of total mass versus luminous matter. A detection of this effect would provide an important confirmation of the standard cosmological paradigm and constrain alternatives to dark matter as well as non-standard fluctuations such as Compensated Isocurvature Perturbations (CIPs). We conduct the first observational search for this effect, by comparing the number-weighted and luminosity-weighted correlation functions, using the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10 CMASS sample. When including CIPs in our model, we formally obtain evidence at $3.2\sigma$ of the relative clustering signature and a limit that matches the existing upper limits on the amplitude of CIPs. However, various tests suggest that these results are not yet robust, perhaps due to systematic biases in the data. The method developed in this Letter, used with more accurate future data such as that from DESI, is likely to confirm or disprove our preliminary evidence.

The Price of an Electroweak Monopole
arXiv: 1602.0174
John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos, Tevong You

In a recent paper, Cho, Kim and Yoon (CKY) have proposed a version of the SU(2) $\times$ U(1) Standard Model with finite-energy monopole and dyon solutions. The CKY model postulates that the effective U(1) gauge coupling $\to \infty$ very rapidly as the Englert-Brout-Higgs vacuum expectation value $\to 0$, but in a way that is incompatible with LHC measurements of the Higgs boson $H \to \gamma \gamma$ decay rate. We construct generalizations of the CKY model that are compatible with the $H \to \gamma \gamma$ constraint, and calculate the corresponding values of the monopole and dyon masses. We find that the monopole mass could be $< 5.5$ TeV, so that it could be pair-produced at the LHC and accessible to the MoEDAL experiment.

Electrodynamics and spacetime geometry I: Foundations
arXiv: 1602.0149
Francisco Cabral, Francisco S. N. Lobo

We explore the intimate connection between spacetime geometry and electrodynamics. This link is already implicit in the constitutive relations between the field strengths and excitations, which are an essential part of the axiomatic structure of electromagnetism, clearly formulated via integration theory and differential forms. We briefly review the foundations of electromagnetism based on charge and magnetic flux conservation, the Lorentz force and the constitutive relations which introduce the spacetime metric. We then proceed with the tensor formulation by assuming local, linear, homogeneous and isotropic constitutive relations, and explore the physical, observable consequences of Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime. The field equations, charge conservation and the Lorentz force are explicitly expressed in general (pseudo) Riemanian manifolds. The generalized Gauss and Maxwell-Amp\{e}re laws, as well as the wave equations, reveal potentially interesting astrophysical applications. In all cases new electromagnetic couplings and related phenomena are induced by spacetime curvature. The implications and possible applications for gravity waves detection are briefly addressed. At the foundational level, we discuss the possibility of generalizing the vacuum constitutive relations, by relaxing the fixed conditions of homogeneity and isotropy, and by assuming that the symmetry properties of the electro-vacuum follow the spacetime isometries. The implications of this extension are briefly discussed in the context of the intimate connection between electromagnetism and the geometry (and causal structure) of spacetime.

Extending the velocity-dependent one-scale model for domain walls
arXiv: 1602.0132
C. J. A. P. Martins, I. Yu. Rybak, A. Avgoustidis, E. P. S. Shellard

We report on an extensive study of the evolution of domain wall networks in Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker universes by means of the largest currently available field-theory simulations. These simulations were done in $4096^3$ boxes and for a range of different fixed expansion rates, as well as for the transition between the radiation and matter eras. A detailed comparison with the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS) model shows that this cannot accurately reproduce the results of the entire range of simulated regimes if one assumes that the phenomenological energy loss and momentum parameters are constants. We therefore discuss how a more accurate modeling of these parameters can be done, specifically by introducing an additional mechanism of energy loss (scalar radiation, which is particularly relevant for regimes with relatively little damping) and a modified momentum parameter which is a function of velocity (in analogy to what was previously done for cosmic strings). We finally show that this extended model, appropriately calibrated, provides an accurate fit to our simulations.

Ruling out the light WIMP explanation of the galactic 511 keV line
arXiv: 1602.0111
Ryan J. Wilkinson, Aaron C. Vincent, Celine Boehm, Christopher McCabe

Over the past few decades, an anomalous 511 keV gamma-ray line has been observed from the centre of the Milky Way. Dark matter (DM) in the form of light (< 10 MeV) WIMPs annihilating into electron-positron pairs has been one of the leading hypotheses of the observed emission. Here we show that this explanation is ruled out by the latest cosmological data, suggesting an astrophysical or more exotic DM source of the signal.

A New Maximum-Likelihood Technique for Reconstructing Cosmic-Ray Anisotropy at All Angular Scales
arXiv: 1601.0787
Markus Ahlers, Segev Y. BenZvi, Paolo Desiati, et al.

The arrival directions of TeV-PeV cosmic rays show weak but significant anisotropies with relative intensities at the level of one per mille. Due to the smallness of the anisotropies, quantitative studies require careful disentanglement of detector effects from the observation. We discuss an iterative maximum-likelihood reconstruction that simultaneously fits cosmic ray anisotropies and detector acceptance. The method does not rely on detector simulations and provides an optimal anisotropy reconstruction for ground-based cosmic ray observatories located in the middle latitudes. It is particularly well suited to the recovery of the dipole anisotropy, which is a crucial observable for the study of cosmic ray diffusion in our Galaxy. We also provide general analysis methods for recovering large- and small-scale anisotropies that take into account systematic effects of the observation by ground-based detectors.

The Equation of State Approach to Cosmological Perturbations in f(R) Gravity
arXiv: 1601.0758
Boris Bolliet, Richard A. Battye, Jonathan A. Pearson

The discovery of apparent cosmological acceleration has spawned a huge number of dark energy and modified gravity theories. The f(R) models of gravity are obtained when one replaces the Ricci scalar in the Einstein-Hilbert action by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar. In this work we provide expressions for the equations of state (EoS) for perturbations which completely characterize the linearized perturbations in f(R) gravity, including the scalar, vector, and tensor modes. The EoS formalism is a powerful and elegant parametrization where the modification to General Relativity are treated as a dark-energy-fluid. The perturbed dark-energy-fluid variables such as the anisotropic stress or the entropy perturbation are explicitly given in terms of parameters of the model of interest.

Witnessing the birth of the red sequence: ALMA high-resolution imaging of [CII] and dust in two interacting ultra-red starbursts at z = 4.425
arXiv: 1601.0754
I. Oteo, R. J. Ivison, L. Dunne, et al.

Exploiting the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we have studied the morphology and the physical scale of the interstellar medium - both gas and dust - in SGP38326, an unlensed pair of interacting starbursts at $z= 4.425$. SGP38326 is the most luminous star bursting system known at $z > 4$ with an IR-derived ${\rm SFR \sim 4300 \,} M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1}$. SGP38326 also contains a molecular gas reservoir among the most massive ever found in the early Universe, and it is the likely progenitor of a massive, red-and-dead elliptical galaxy at $z \sim 3$. Probing scales of $\sim 0.1"$ or $\sim 800 \, {\rm pc}$ we find that the smooth distribution of the continuum emission from cool dust grains contrasts with the more irregular morphology of the gas, as traced by the [CII] fine structure emission. The gas is also extended over larger physical scales than the dust. The velocity information provided by the resolved [CII] emission reveals that the dynamics of the two components of SGP38326 are compatible with disk-like, ordered rotation, but also reveals an ISM which is turbulent and unstable. Our observations support a scenario where at least a subset of the most distant extreme starbursts are highly dissipative mergers of gas-rich galaxies.

Re-examining the significance of the 750 GeV diphoton excess at ATLAS
arXiv: 1601.0733

The excess seen in the diphoton channel at around 750 GeV by both ATLAS and CMS has caused a great deal of excitement in the particle physics community. However, there has recently been much discussion about uncertainties in the significance of the peak seen by the ATLAS experiment. In this note, we aim to estimate this significance using a range of possible parametrisations for the smooth diphoton background. We obtain a local significance close to that reported by ATLAS and further demonstrate that the significance of the excess is not substantially reduced when more complicated background functions are considered. In particular, the background contribution is strongly constrained by the small numbers of events at large diphoton invariant mass. Future data releases will improve constraints on the diphoton background, as well as clarifying the true nature of the 750 GeV excess.

The stellar-to-halo mass relation of GAMA galaxies from 100 square degrees of KiDS weak lensing data
arXiv: 1601.0679
Edo van Uitert, Marcello Cacciato, Henk Hoekstra, et al.

We study the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies in the range 9.7<log_10(M_*/h^-2 M_sun)<11.7 and z<0.4, obtained from a combined analysis of the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We use ~100 deg^2 of KiDS data to study the lensing signal around galaxies for which spectroscopic redshifts and stellar masses were determined by GAMA. We show that lensing alone results in poor constraints on the stellar-to-halo mass relation due to a degeneracy between the satellite fraction and the halo mass, which is lifted when we simultaneously fit the stellar mass function. At M_sun>5x10^10 h^-2 M_sun, the stellar mass increases with halo mass as ~M_h^0.25. The ratio of dark matter to stellar mass has a minimum at a halo mass of 8x10^11 h^-1 M_sun with a value of M_h/M_*=56_-10^+16 [h]. We also use the GAMA group catalogue to select centrals and satellites in groups with five or more members, which trace regions in space where the local matter density is higher than average, and determine for the first time the stellar-to-halo mass relation in these denser environments. We find no significant differences compared to the relation from the full sample, which suggests that the stellar-to-halo mass relation does not vary strongly with local density. Furthermore, we find that the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies can also be obtained by modelling the lensing signal and stellar mass function of satellite galaxies only, which shows that the assumptions to model the satellite contribution in the halo model do not significantly bias the stellar-to-halo mass relation. Finally, we show that the combination of weak lensing with the stellar mass function can be used to test the purity of group catalogues.

Linear stability of noncommutative spectral geometry
arXiv: 1601.0639

We consider the spectral action within the context of a 4-dimensional manifold with torsion and show that, in the vacuum case, the equations of motion reduce to Einstein's equations, securing the linear stability of the theory. To subsequently investigate the nonvacuum case, we consider the spectral action of an almost commutative torsion geometry and show that the Hamiltonian is bounded from below, a result which guarantees the linear stability of the theory.

The 5 - 10 keV AGN luminosity function at 0.01<z<4.0
arXiv: 1601.0600
S. Fotopoulou, J. Buchner, I. Georgantopoulos, et al.

The active galactic nuclei X-ray luminosity function traces actively accreting supermassive black holes and is essential for the study of the properties of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population, black hole evolution, and galaxy-black hole coevolution. Up to now, the AGN luminosity function has been estimated several times in soft (0.5-2 keV) and hard X-rays (2-10 keV). AGN selection in these energy ranges often suffers from identification and redshift incompleteness and, at the same time, photoelectric absorption can obscure a significant amount of the X-ray radiation. We estimate the evolution of the luminosity function in the 5-10 keV band, where we effectively avoid the absorbed part of the spectrum, rendering absorption corrections unnecessary up to NH=10^23 cm^-2. Our dataset is a compilation of six wide, and deep fields: MAXI, HBSS, XMM-COSMOS, Lockman Hole, XMM-CDFS, AEGIS-XD, Chandra-COSMOS, and Chandra-CDFS. This extensive sample of ~1110 AGN (0.01<z<4.0, 41<log L_x<46) is 98% redshift complete with 68% spectroscopic redshifts. We use Bayesian analysis to select the best parametric model from simple pure luminosity and pure density evolution to more complicated luminosity and density evolution and luminosity-dependent density evolution. We estimate the model parameters that describe best our dataset separately for each survey and for the combined sample. We show that, according to Bayesian model selection, the preferred model for our dataset is the luminosity-dependent density evolution (LDDE). Our estimation of the AGN luminosity function does not require any assumption on the AGN absorption and is in good agreement with previous works in the 2-10 keV energy band based on X-ray hardness ratios to model the absorption in AGN up to redshift three. Our sample does not show evidence of a rapid decline of the AGN luminosity function up to redshift four. [abridged]

CFHTLenS revisited: assessing concordance with Planck including astrophysical systematics
arXiv: 1601.0578
Shahab Joudaki, Chris Blake, Catherine Heymans, et al.

We investigate the impact of astrophysical systematics on cosmic shear cosmological parameter constraints from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), and the concordance with cosmic microwave background measurements by Planck. We present updated CFHTLenS cosmic shear tomography measurements extended to degree scales using a covariance calibrated by a new suite of N-body simulations. We analyze these measurements with a new model fitting pipeline, accounting for key systematic uncertainties arising from intrinsic galaxy alignments, baryonic effects in the nonlinear matter power spectrum, and photometric redshift uncertainties. We examine the impact of the systematic degrees of freedom on the cosmological parameter constraints, both independently and jointly. When the systematic uncertainties are considered independently, the intrinsic alignment amplitude is the only degree of freedom that is substantially preferred by the data. When the systematic uncertainties are considered jointly, there is no consistently strong preference in favor of the more complex models. We quantify the level of concordance between the CFHTLenS and Planck datasets by employing two distinct data concordance tests, grounded in Bayesian evidence and information theory. We find that the two data concordance tests largely agree with one another, and that the level of concordance between the CFHTLenS and Planck datasets is sensitive to the exact details of the systematic uncertainties included in our analysis, ranging from decisive discordance to substantial concordance as the treatment of the systematic uncertainties becomes more conservative. The least conservative scenario is the one most favored by the cosmic shear data, but it is also the one that shows the greatest degree of discordance with Planck. The data and analysis code are public at https://github.com/sjoudaki/cfhtlens_revisited

Horndeski: beyond, or not beyond?
arXiv: 1601.0465
Marco Crisostomi, Matthew Hull, Kazuya Koyama, Gianmassimo Tasinato

Determining the most general, consistent scalar tensor theory of gravity is important for building models of inflation and dark energy. In this work we investigate the number of degrees of freedom present in the theory of beyond Horndeski. We discuss how to construct the theory from the extrinsic curvature of the constant scalar field hypersurface, and find a simple expression for the action which guarantees the existence of the primary constraint necessary to avoid the Ostrogradsky instability. Our analysis is completely gauge-invariant. However we confirm that, mixing together beyond Horndeski with a different order of Horndeski, obstructs the construction of this primary constraint. Instead, when the mixing is between actions of the same order, the theory can be mapped to Horndeski through a generalised disformal transformation. This mapping however is impossible with beyond Horndeski alone, since we find that the theory is invariant under such a transformation. The picture that emerges is that beyond Horndeski is a healthy but isolated theory: combined with Horndeski, it either becomes Horndeski, or likely propagates a ghost.

SKA Weak Lensing I: Cosmological Forecasts and the Power of Radio-Optical Cross-Correlations
arXiv: 1601.0394
Ian Harrison, Stefano Camera, Joe Zuntz, Michael L. Brown

We construct forecasts for cosmological parameter constraints from weak gravitational lensing surveys involving the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Considering matter content, dark energy and modified gravity parameters, we show that the first phase of the SKA (SKA1) can be competitive with other Stage III experiments such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and that the full SKA (SKA2) can potentially form tighter constraints than Stage IV optical weak lensing experiments, such as those that will be conducted with LSST or Euclid-like facilities. Using weak lensing alone, going from SKA1 to SKA2 represents improvements by factors of $\sim10$ in matter, $\sim8$ in dark energy and $\sim5$ in modified gravity parameters. We also show, for the first time, the powerful result that comparably tight constraints (within $\sim5\%$) for both Stage III and Stage IV experiments, can be gained from cross-correlating shear maps between the optical and radio wavebands, a process which will also eliminate a number of potential sources of systematic errors which can otherwise greatly limit the utility of weak lensing cosmology.

Acausality in Nonlocal Gravity Theory
arXiv: 1601.0380
Ying-li Zhang, Kazuya Koyama, Misao Sasaki, Gong-Bo Zhao

We investigate the nonlocal gravity theory by deriving nonlocal equations of motion using the traditional variation principle in a homogeneous background. We focus on a class of models with a linear nonlocal modification term in the action. It is found that the resulting equations of motion contain the advanced Green's function, implying that there is an acausality problem. As a consequence, a divergence arises in the solutions due to contributions from the future infinity unless the Universe will go back to the radiation dominated era or become the Minkowski spacetime in the future. We also discuss the relation between the original nonlocal equations and its biscalar-tensor representation and identify the auxiliary fields with the corresponding original nonlocal terms. Finally, we show that the acusality problem cannot be avoided by any function of nonlocal terms in the action.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Stellar mass growth of spiral galaxies in the cosmic web
arXiv: 1601.0339
Mehmet Alpaslan, Meiert W. Grootes, Pamela M. Marcum, et al.

We look for correlated changes in stellar mass and star formation rate along filaments in the cosmic web by examining the stellar masses and UV-derived star formation rates (SFR) of 1,799 ungrouped and unpaired spiral galaxies that reside in filaments. We devise multiple distance metrics to characterise the complex geometry of filaments, and find that galaxies closer to the cylindrical centre of a filament have higher stellar masses than their counterparts near the periphery of filaments, on the edges of voids. In addition, these peripheral spiral galaxies have higher specific star formation rates (SSFR) at a given mass. Complementing our sample of filament spiral galaxies with spiral galaxies in tendrils and voids, we find that the average SFR of these objects in different large scale environments are similar to each other with the primary discriminant in SFR being stellar mass, in line with previous works. However, the distributions of SFRs are found to vary with large-scale environment. Our results thus suggest a model in which in addition to stellar mass as the primary discriminant, the large-scale environment is imprinted in the SFR as a second order effect. Furthermore, our detailed results for filament galaxies suggest a model in which gas accretion from voids onto filaments is primarily in an orthogonal direction. Overall, we find our results to be in line with theoretical expectations of the thermodynamic properties of the intergalactic medium in different large-scale environments.

The Significance of the 750 GeV Fluctuation in the ATLAS Run 2 Diphoton Data
arXiv: 1601.0315
Jonathan H. Davis, Malcolm Fairbairn, John Heal, Patrick Tunney

We investigate the robustness of the resonance like feature centred at around a 750 GeV invariant mass in the 13 TeV diphoton data, recently released by the ATLAS collaboration. We focus on the choice of empirical function used to model the continuum diphoton background in order to quantify the uncertainties in the analysis due to this choice. We extend the function chosen by the ATLAS collaboration to one with two components. By performing a profile likelihood analysis we find that the local significance of a resonance drops from $3.9\sigma$ using the ATLAS background function, and a freely-varying width, to only $2\sigma$ with our own function. We argue that the latter significance is more realistic, since the former was derived using a function which is fit almost entirely to the low-energy data, while underfitting in the region around the resonance.

Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy: II. Extending the parameter space
arXiv: 1601.0295
C. J. A. P. Martins, A. M. M. Pinho, P. Carreira, et al.

Astrophysical tests of the stability of fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, are a powerful probe of new physics. Recently these measurements, combined with local atomic clock tests and Type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter data, were used to constrain the simplest class of dynamical dark energy models where the same degree of freedom is assumed to provide both the dark energy and (through a dimensionless coupling, $\zeta$, to the electromagnetic sector) the $\alpha$ variation. One caveat of these analyses was that it was based on fiducial models where the dark energy equation of state was described by a single parameter (effectively its present day value, $w_0$). Here we relax this assumption and study broader dark energy model classes, including the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder and Early Dark Energy parametrizations. Even in these extended cases we find that the current data constrains the coupling $\zeta$ at the $10^{-6}$ level and $w_0$ to a few percent (marginalizing over other parameters), thus confirming the robustness of earlier analyses. On the other hand, the additional parameters are typically not well constrained. We also highlight the implications of our results for constraints on violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle and improvements to be expected from forthcoming measurements with high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs.

Suzaku Confirms NGC~3660 is an Unabsorbed Seyfert 2
arXiv: 1601.0270
E. Rivers, M. Brightman, S. Bianchi, et al.

An enigmatic group of objects, unabsorbed Seyfert 2s may have intrinsically weak broad line regions, obscuration in the line of sight to the BLR but not to the X-ray corona, or so much obscuration that the X-ray continuum is completely suppressed and the observed spectrum is actually scattered into the line of sight from nearby material. NGC 3660 has been shown to have weak broad optical/near infrared lines, no obscuration in the soft X-ray band, and no indication of "changing look" behavior. The only previous hard X-ray detection of this source by Beppo-SAX seemed to indicate that the source might harbor a heavily obscured nucleus. However, our analysis of a long-look Suzaku observation of this source shows that this is not the case, and that this source has a typical power law X-ray continuum with normal reflection and no obscuration. We conclude that NGC 3660 is confirmed to have no unidentified obscuration and that the anomolously high Beppo-SAX measurement must be due to source confusion or similar, being inconsistent with our Suzaku measurements as well as non-detections from Swift-BAT and RXTE.

HerMES: A search for high-redshift dusty galaxies in the HerMES Large Mode Survey - Catalogue, number counts and early results
arXiv: 1601.0266
V. Asboth, A. Conley, J. Sayers, et al.

Selecting sources with rising flux densities towards longer wavelengths from Herschel/SPIRE maps is an efficient way to produce a catalogue rich in high-redshift (z > 4) dusty star-forming galaxies. The effectiveness of this approach has already been confirmed by spectroscopic follow-up observations, but the previously available catalogues made this way are limited by small survey areas. Here we apply a map-based search method to 274 deg$^2$ of the HerMES Large Mode Survey (HeLMS) and create a catalogue of 477 objects with SPIRE flux densities $S_{500} > S_{350} >S_{250}$ and a 5 \sigma cut-off $S_{500}$ > 52 mJy. From this catalogue we determine that the total number of these "red" sources is at least an order of magnitude higher than predicted by galaxy evolution models. These results are in agreement with previous findings in smaller HerMES fields; however, due to our significantly larger sample size we are also able to investigate the shape of the red source counts for the first time. We examine the 500 $\mu$m differential number counts of these sources, and we find that the resulting "red" counts are very steep and suggest strong evolution in the properties of this population. We have obtained spectroscopic redshift measurements for two of our sources using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). One source is at z = 5.126 and the redshift for the other object is z $\gtrsim$ 3.8, confirming that with our selection method we can indeed find high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies.

A Bayesian analysis of the 69 highest energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory
arXiv: 1601.0230
Alexander Khanin, Daniel J. Mortlock

The origins of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) remain an open question. Several attempts have been made to cross-correlate the arrival directions of the UHECRs with catalogs of potential sources, but no definite conclusion has been reached. We report a Bayesian analysis of the 69 events from the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO), that aims to determine the fraction of the UHECRs that originate from known AGNs in the Veron-Cety & Veron (VCV) catalog, as well as AGNs detected with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (Swift-BAT), galaxies from the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS), and an additional volume-limited sample of 17 nearby AGNs. The study makes use of a multi-level Bayesian model of UHECR injection, propagation and detection. We find that for reasonable ranges of prior parameters, the Bayes factors disfavour a purely isotropic model. For fiducial values of the model parameters, we report 68% credible intervals for the fraction of source originating UHECRs of 0.09+0.05-0.04, 0.25+0.09-0.08, 0.24+0.12-0.10, and 0.08+0.04-0.03 for the VCV, Swift-BAT and 2MRS catalogs, and the sample of 17 AGNs, respectively.

The optical-UV emissivity of quasars: dependence on black hole mass and radio loudness
arXiv: 1601.0202
Francesco Shankar, Giorgio Calderone, Christian Knigge, et al.

We analyzed a large sample of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasar spectra at redshift 1.0 < z < 1.2 to compare the inferred underlying quasar continuum slopes (after removal of the host galaxy contribution) with accretion disk models. The latter predict redder (decreasing) alpha_3000 continuum slopes (L_\nu~\nu^alpha at 3000Ang) with increasing black hole mass, bluer alpha_3000 with increasing luminosity at 3000Ang, and bluer alpha_3000 with increasing spin of the black hole, when all other parameters are held fixed. We find no clear evidence for any of these predictions in the data. In particular we find that: (i) alpha_3000 shows no significant dependence on black hole mass or luminosity. Dedicated Monte Carlo tests suggest that the substantial observational uncertainties in the black hole virial masses can effectively erase any intrinsic dependence of alpha_3000 on black hole mass, in line with some previous studies. (ii) The mean slope alpha_3000 of radio-loud sources, thought to be produced by rapidly spinning black holes, is comparable to, or even redder than, that of radio-quiet quasars. Indeed, although quasars appear to become more radio loud with decreasing luminosity, we still do not detect any significant dependence of alpha_3000 on radio loudness. The predicted mean alpha_3000 slopes tend to be bluer than in the data. Disk models with high inclinations and dust extinction tend to produce redder slopes closer to empirical estimates. Our mean alpha_3000 values are close to the ones independently inferred at z<0.5 suggesting weak evolution with redshift, at least for moderately luminous quasars.

RAY-RAMSES: a code for ray tracing on the fly in N-body simulations
arXiv: 1601.0201
Alexandre Barreira, Claudio Llinares, Sownak Bose, Baojiu Li

We present a ray tracing code to compute integrated cosmological observables on the fly in AMR N-body simulations. Unlike conventional ray tracing techniques, our code takes full advantage of the time and spatial resolution attained by the N-body simulation by computing the integrals along the line of sight on a cell-by-cell basis through the AMR simulation grid. Moroever, since it runs on the fly in the N-body run, our code can produce maps of the desired observables without storing large (or any) amounts of data for post-processing. We implemented our routines in the RAMSES N-body code and tested the implementation using an example of weak lensing simulation. We analyse basic statistics of lensing convergence maps and find good agreement with semi-analytical methods. The ray tracing methodology presented here can be used in several cosmological analysis such as Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect studies as well as modified gravity. Our code can also be used in cross-checks of the more conventional methods, which can be important in tests of theory systematics in preparation for upcoming large scale structure surveys.

Implications of the CMB power asymmetry for the early universe
arXiv: 1601.0197
Christian T. Byrnes, Donough Regan, David Seery, Ewan R. M. Tarrant

Observations of the microwave background fluctuations suggest a scale-dependent amplitude asymmetry of roughly 2.5 sigma significance. Inflationary explanations for this 'anomaly' require non-Gaussian fluctuations which couple observable modes to those on much larger scales. In this Letter we describe an analysis of such scenarios which significantly extends previous treatments. We identify the non-Gaussian 'response function' which characterizes the asymmetry, and show that it is non-trivial to construct a model which yields a sufficient amplitude: many independent fine tunings are required, often making such models appear less likely than the anomaly they seek to explain. We present an explicit model satisfying observational constraints and determine for the first time how large its bispectrum would appear to a Planck-like experiment. Although this model is merely illustrative, we expect it is a good proxy for the bispectrum in a sizeable class of models which generate a scale-dependent response using a large eta parameter.

SILC: a new Planck Internal Linear Combination CMB temperature map using directional wavelets
arXiv: 1601.0132
Keir K. Rogers, Hiranya V. Peiris, Boris Leistedt, et al.

We present new clean maps of the CMB temperature anisotropies (as measured by Planck) constructed with a novel internal linear combination (ILC) algorithm using directional, scale-discretised wavelets --- Scale-discretised, directional wavelet ILC or SILC. Directional wavelets, when convolved with signals on the sphere, can separate the anisotropic filamentary structures which are characteristic of both the CMB and foregrounds. Extending previous component separation methods, which use the frequency, spatial and harmonic signatures of foregrounds to separate them from the cosmological background signal, SILC can additionally use morphological information in the foregrounds and CMB to better localise the cleaning algorithm. We test the method on Planck data and simulations, demonstrating consistency with existing component separation algorithms, and discuss how to optimise the use of morphological information by varying the number of directional wavelets as a function of spatial scale. We find that combining the use of directional and axisymmetric wavelets depending on scale could yield higher quality CMB temperature maps. Our results set the stage for the application of SILC to polarisation anisotropies through an extension to spin wavelets.

A new method to measure galaxy bias by combining the density and weak lensing fields
arXiv: 1601.0016
Arnau Pujol, Chihway Chang, Enrique Gaztañaga, et al.

We present a new method to measure the redshift-dependent galaxy bias by combining information from the galaxy density field and the weak lensing field. This method is based on Amara et al. (2012), where they use the galaxy density field to construct a bias-weighted convergence field kg. The main difference between Amara et al. (2012) and our new implementation is that here we present another way to measure galaxy bias using tomography instead of bias parameterizations. The correlation between kg and the true lensing field k allows us to measure galaxy bias using different zero-lag correlations, such as <kgk>/<kk> or <kgkg>/<kgk>. This paper is the first that studies and systematically tests the robustness of this method in simulations. We use the MICE simulation suite, which includes a set of self-consistent N-body simulations, lensing maps, and mock galaxy catalogues. We study the accuracy and systematic uncertainties associated with the implementation of the method, and the regime where it is consistent with the linear galaxy bias defined by projected 2-point correlation functions (2PCF). We find that our method is consistent with linear bias at the percent level for scales larger than 30 arcmin, while nonlinearities appear at smaller scales. We also find that projection along the redshift direction can cause up to a 5% deviation between the different galaxy bias estimators. This measurement is a good complement to other measurements of bias, since it does not depend strongly on {\sigma}8 as the 2PCF measurements. We apply this method to the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data in a follow-up paper.

Cosmological perturbations in mimetic Horndeski gravity
arXiv: 1512.0937
Frederico Arroja, Nicola Bartolo, Purnendu Karmakar, Sabino Matarrese

We study linear scalar perturbations around a flat FLRW background in mimetic Horndeski gravity. In the absence of matter, we show that the Newtonian potential satisfies a second-order differential equation with no spatial derivatives. This implies that the sound speed for scalar perturbations is exactly zero on this background. We also show that in mimetic $G^3$ theories the sound speed is equally zero. We obtain the equation of motion for the comoving curvature perturbation (first order differential equation) and solve it to find that the comoving curvature perturbation is constant on all scales in mimetic Horndeski gravity. We find solutions for the Newtonian potential evolution equation in two simple models. Finally we show that the sound speed is zero on all backgrounds and therefore the system does not have any wave-like scalar degrees of freedom.

Self-similar equilibration of strongly interacting systems from holography
arXiv: 1512.0915
Ioannis Bakas, Kostas Skenderis, Benjamin Withers

We study the equilibration of a class of far-from-equilibrium strongly interacting systems using gauge/gravity duality. The systems we analyse are 2+1 dimensional and have a four dimensional gravitational dual. A prototype example of a system we analyse is the equilibration of a two dimensional fluid which is translational invariant in one direction and is attached to two different heat baths with different temperatures at infinity in the other direction. We realise such setup in gauge/gravity duality by joining two semi-infinite asymptotically Anti-de Sitter (AdS) black branes of different temperatures, which subsequently evolve towards equilibrium by emitting gravitational radiation towards the boundary of AdS. At sufficiently late times the solution converges to a similarity solution, which is only sensitive to the left and right equilibrium states and not to the details of the initial conditions. This attractor solution not only incorporates the growing region of equilibrated plasma but also the outwardly-propagating transition regions, and can be constructed by solving a single ordinary differential equation.

Shock waves, rarefaction waves and non-equilibrium steady states in quantum critical systems
arXiv: 1512.0903
Andrew Lucas, Koenraad Schalm, Benjamin Doyon, M. J. Bhaseen

We re-examine the emergence of a universal non-equilibrium steady state following a local quench between quantum critical heat baths in spatial dimensions greater than one. We show that energy transport proceeds by the formation of an instantaneous shock wave and a broadening rarefaction wave on either side of the interface, and not by two shock waves as previously proposed. For small temperature differences the universal steady state energy currents of the two-shock and rarefaction-shock solutions coincide. Over a broad range of parameters, the difference in the energy flow across the interface between these two solutions is at the level of two percent. The properties of the energy flow remain fully universal and independent of the microscopic theory. We briefly discuss the width of the shock wave in a viscous fluid, the effects of momentum relaxation, and the generalization to charged fluids.

Direct search for features in the primordial bispectrum
arXiv: 1512.0897
Stephen Appleby, Jinn-Ouk Gong, Dhiraj Kumar Hazra, et al.

We study features in the bispectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation correlated with the reconstructed primordial power spectrum from the observed cosmic microwave background temperature data. We first show how the bispectrum can be completely specified in terms of the power spectrum and its first two derivatives, valid for any configuration of interest. Then using a model-independent reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum from the Planck angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropies, we compute the bispectrum in different triangular configurations. We find that in the squeezed limit at k ~ 0.1/Mpc and k ~ 0.013/Mpc there are marginal 2sigma deviations from the standard featureless bispectrum, which meanwhile is consistent with the reconstructed bispectrum in the equilateral configuration.

A novel approach to thin-shell wormholes and applications
arXiv: 1512.0847

A novel framework is presented that can be adapted to a wide class of generic spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes. By using the Darmois--Israel formalism, we analyze the stability of arbitrary spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes to linearized perturbations around static solutions. We demonstrate in full generality that the stability of the wormhole is equivalent to choosing suitable properties for the exotic material residing on the wormhole throat. As an application, we consider the thin-shell variant of the Ellis wormhole for the cases of a vanishing momentum flux and non-zero external fluxes.

The evolving perception of controversial movies
arXiv: 1512.0789
Luca Amendola, Valerio Marra, Miguel Quartin

Polarization of opinion is an important feature of public debate on political, social and cultural topics. The availability of large internet databases of users' ratings has permitted quantitative analysis of polarization trends-for instance, previous studies have included analyses of controversial topics on Wikipedia, as well as the relationship between online reviews and a product's perceived quality. Here, we study the dynamics of polarization in the movie ratings collected by the Internet Movie database (IMDb) website in relation to films produced over the period 1915-2015. We define two statistical indexes, dubbed hard and soft controversiality, which quantify polarized and uniform rating distributions, respectively. We find that controversy decreases with popularity and that hard controversy is relatively rare. Our findings also suggest that more recent movies are more controversial than older ones and we detect a trend of "convergence to the mainstream" with a time scale of roughly 40-50 years. This phenomenon appears qualitatively different from trends observed in both online reviews of commercial products and in political debate, and we speculate that it may be connected with the absence of long-lived "echo chambers" in the cultural domain. This hypothesis can and should be tested by extending our analysis to other forms of cultural expression and/or to databases with different demographic user bases.

Vacuum for a massless quantum scalar field outside a collapsing shell in anti-de Sitter space-time
arXiv: 1512.0783
Paul G. Abel, Elizabeth Winstanley

We consider a massless quantum scalar field on a two-dimensional space-time describing a thin shell of matter collapsing to form a Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole. At early times, before the shell starts to collapse, the quantum field is in the vacuum state, corresponding to the Boulware vacuum on an eternal black hole space-time. The scalar field satisfies reflecting boundary conditions on the anti-de Sitter boundary. Using the Davies-Fulling-Unruh prescription for computing the renormalized expectation value of the stress-energy tensor, we find that at late times the black hole is in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath at the Hawking temperature, so the quantum field is in a state analogous to the Hartle-Hawking vacuum on an eternal black hole space-time.

Novel stability approach of thin-shell gravastars
arXiv: 1512.0765

We develop an extremely general and robust framework that can be adapted to wide classes of generic spherically symmetric thin-shell gravastars. The thin shell (transition layer) will be permitted to move freely in the bulk spacetimes, permitting a fully dynamic analysis. This will then allow us to perform a general stability analysis, where it is explicitly shown that stability of the gravastar is related to the properties of the matter residing in the thin-shell transition layer.

Influence of large local and non-local bispectra on primordial black hole abundance
arXiv: 1512.0722
Sam Young, Donough Regan, Christian T. Byrnes

Primordial black holes represent a unique probe to constrain the early universe on small scales - providing the only constraints on the primordial power spectrum on the majority of scales. However, these constraints are strongly dependent on even small amounts of non-Gaussianity, which is unconstrained on scales significantly smaller than those visible in the CMB. This paper goes beyond previous considerations to consider the effects of a bispectrum of the equilateral, orthogonal and local shapes with arbitrary magnitude upon the abundance of primordial black holes. Non-Gaussian density maps of the early universe are generated from a given bispectrum and used to place constraints on the small scale power spectrum. When small, we show that the skewness provides an accurate estimate for how the constraint depends on non-Gaussianity, independently of the shape of the bispectrum. We show that the orthogonal template of non-Gaussianity has an order of magnitude weaker effect on the constraints than the local and equilateral templates.

Dynamical system analysis for nonminimal torsion-matter coupled gravity
arXiv: 1512.0699
Sante Carloni, Francisco S. N. Lobo, Giovanni Otalora, Emmanuel N. Saridakis

In this work, we perform a detailed dynamical analysis for the cosmological applications of a nonminimal torsion-matter coupled gravity. Two alternative formalisms are proposed, which enable one to choose between the easier approach for a given problem, and furthermore, we analyze six specific models. In general, we extract fixed points corresponding either to dark-matter dominated, scaling decelerated solutions, or to dark-energy dominated accelerated solutions. Additionally, we find that there is a small parameter region in which the model can experience the transition from the matter epoch to a dark-energy era. These features are in agreement with the observed universe evolution, and make the theory a successful candidate for the description of Nature.

Drude in D major
arXiv: 1512.0626
Tomas Andrade, Simon A. Gentle, Benjamin Withers

We study holographic momentum relaxation in the limit of a large number of spacetime dimensions D. For an axion model we find that momentum conservation is restored as D becomes large. To compensate we scale the strength of the sources with D so that momentum is relaxed even at infinite D. We analytically obtain the quasi-normal modes which control electric and heat transport, and give their frequencies in a 1/D expansion. We also obtain the AC thermal conductivity as an expansion in 1/D, which at leading order takes Drude form. To order 1/D our analytical result provides a reasonable approximation to the AC conductivity even at D=4, establishing large D as a practical method in this context. As a further application, we discuss the signature of the transition from coherent to incoherent behaviour known to exist in the system for finite D.

Supersymmetry, Cosmological Constant and Inflation: Towards a fundamental cosmic picture via "running vacuum"
arXiv: 1512.0625
Nick E. Mavromatos

On the occasion of a century from the proposal of General relativity by Einstein, I attempt to tackle some open issues in modern cosmology, via a toy but non-trivial model. Specifically, I would like to link together: (i) the smallness of the cosmological constant today, (ii) the evolution of the universe from an inflationary era after the big-bang till now, and (iii) local supersymmetry in the gravitational sector (supergravity) with a broken spectrum at early eras, by making use of the concept of the "running vacuum" in the context of a simple toy model of four-dimensional N=1 supergravity. The model is characterised by dynamically broken local supersymmetry, induced by the formation of gravitino condensates in the early universe. As I will argue, there is a Starobinsky-type inflationary era characterising the broken supersymmetry phase in this model, which is compatible with the current cosmological data, provided a given constraint is satisfied among some tree-level parameters of the model and the renormalised cosmological constant of the de Sitter background used in the analysis. Applying the "running vacuum" concept, then, to the effective field theory at the exit of inflation, makes a smooth connection (in cosmic time) with the radiation dominance epoch and subsequently with the current era of the Universe, characterised by a small (but dominant) cosmological-constant contribution to the cosmic energy density. In this approach, the smallness of the cosmological constant today is attributed to the failure (due to quantum gravity non-perturbative effects) of the aforementioned constraint.

Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. II: Gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions
arXiv: 1512.0623
Chiara Caprini, Mark Hindmarsh, Stephan Huber, et al.

We investigate the potential for the eLISA space-based interferometer to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced by strong first-order cosmological phase transitions. We discuss the resulting contributions from bubble collisions, magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and sound waves to the stochastic background, and estimate the total corresponding signal predicted in gravitational waves. The projected sensitivity of eLISA to cosmological phase transitions is computed in a model-independent way for various detector designs and configurations. By applying these results to several specific models, we demonstrate that eLISA is able to probe many well-motivated scenarios beyond the Standard Model of particle physics predicting strong first-order cosmological phase transitions in the early Universe.

Higgs inflation and quantum gravity: An exact renormalisation group approach
arXiv: 1512.0613
Ippocratis D. Saltas

We use the Wilsonian functional Renormalisation Group (RG) to study quantum corrections for the Higgs inflationary action including the effect of gravitons, and analyse the leading-order quantum gravitational corrections to the Higgs' quartic coupling, as well as its non-minimal coupling to gravity and Newton's constant, at the inflationary regime and beyond. We explain how within this framework the effect of Higgs and graviton loops can be sufficiently suppressed during inflation, and we also place a bound on the corresponding value of the infrared RG cut-off scale during inflation. Finally, we briefly discuss the potential embedding of the model within the scenario of Asymptotic Safety, while all main equations are explicitly presented.

Matter in transition
arXiv: 1512.0579
Lara B. Anderson, James Gray, Nikhil Raghuram, Washington Taylor

We explore a novel type of transition in certain 6D and 4D quantum field theories, in which the matter content of the theory changes while the gauge group and other parts of the spectrum remain invariant. Such transitions can occur, for example, for SU(6) and SU(7) gauge groups, where matter fields in a three-index antisymmetric representation and the fundamental representation are exchanged in the transition for matter in the two-index antisymmetric representation. These matter transitions are realized by passing through superconformal theories at the transition point. We explore these transitions in dual F-theory and heterotic descriptions, where a number of novel features arise. For example, in the heterotic description the relevant 6D SU(7) theories are described by bundles on K3 surfaces where the geometry of the K3 is constrained in addition to the bundle structure. On the F-theory side, non-standard representations such as the three-index antisymmetric representation of SU(N) require Weierstrass models that cannot be realized from the standard SU(N) Tate form. We also briefly describe some other situations, with groups such as Sp(3), SO(12), and SU(3), where analogous matter transitions can occur between different representations. For SU(3), in particular, we find a matter transition between adjoint matter and matter in the symmetric representation, giving an explicit Weierstrass model for the F-theory description of the symmetric representation that complements another recent analogous construction.

See-Saw Composite Higgses at the LHC: Linking Naturalness to the $750$ GeV Di-Photon Resonance
arXiv: 1512.0570
Jose Miguel No, Veronica Sanz, Jack Setford

We explore the possibility of explaining the recent $\sim 750$ GeV excesses observed by ATLAS and CMS in the $\gamma\gamma$ spectrum in the context of a compelling theory of Naturalness. The potential spin-zero resonance responsible for the excesses also requires the existence of new heavy charged states. We show that both such features are naturally realized in a see-saw Composite Higgs model for EWSB, where the new pseudo-Goldstone bosons are expected to be comparatively heavier than the SM Higgs, and the new fermions have masses in the TeV range. If confirmed, the existence of this new resonance could be the first stone in the construction of a new theory of Naturalness.

Detection of regulator genes and eQTLs in gene networks
arXiv: 1512.0557
Lingfei Wang, Tom Michoel

Genetic differences between individuals associated to quantitative phenotypic traits, including disease states, are usually found in non-coding genomic regions. These genetic variants are often also associated to differences in expression levels of nearby genes (they are "expression quantitative trait loci" or eQTLs for short) and presumably play a gene regulatory role, affecting the status of molecular networks of interacting genes, proteins and metabolites. Computational systems biology approaches to reconstruct causal gene networks from large-scale omics data have therefore become essential to understand the structure of networks controlled by eQTLs together with other regulatory genes, and to generate detailed hypotheses about the molecular mechanisms that lead from genotype to phenotype. Here we review the main analytical methods and softwares to identify eQTLs and their associated genes, to reconstruct co-expression networks and modules, to reconstruct causal Bayesian gene and module networks, and to validate predicted networks in silico.

Non-Linear Matter Power Spectrum Covariance Matrix Errors and Cosmological Parameter Uncertainties
arXiv: 1512.0538
Linda Blot, Pier Stefano Corasaniti, Luca Amendola, Thomas D. Kitching

The covariance matrix of the matter power spectrum is a key element of the statistical analysis of galaxy clustering data. Independent realisations of observational measurements can be used to sample the covariance, nevertheless statistical sampling errors will propagate into the cosmological parameter inference potentially limiting the capabilities of the upcoming generation of galaxy surveys. The impact of these errors as function of the number of independent realisations has been previously evaluated for Gaussian distributed data. However, non-linearities in the late time clustering of matter cause departures from Gaussian statistics. Here, we address the impact of non-Gaussian errors on the sample covariance and precision matrix errors using a large ensemble of numerical N-body simulations. In the range of modes where finite volume effects are negligible ($0.1\lesssim k\,[h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}]\lesssim 1.2$) we find deviations of the estimated variance of the sample covariance with respect to Gaussian predictions above $\sim 10\%$ level. These reduce to about $\sim 5\%$ in the case of the precision matrix. Finally, we perform a Fisher analysis to estimate the effect of covariance errors on the cosmological parameter constraints. In particular, assuming Euclid-like survey characteristics we find that a number of independent realisation larger than $\gtrsim 5000$ is necessary to reduce the contribution of sample covariance errors to the cosmological parameter uncertainties at sub-percent level. We also show that restricting the analysis to large scales $k\lesssim0.2\,h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$ results in a considerable loss in constraining power, while using the linear covariance to include smaller scales leads to an underestimation of the errors on the cosmological parameters.

Beyond $Λ$CDM: Problems, solutions, and the road ahead
arXiv: 1512.0535
Philip Bull, Yashar Akrami, Julian Adamek, et al.

Despite its continued observational successes, there is a persistent (and growing) interest in extending cosmology beyond the standard model, $\Lambda$CDM. This is motivated by a range of apparently serious theoretical issues, involving such questions as the cosmological constant problem, the particle nature of dark matter, the validity of general relativity on large scales, the existence of anomalies in the CMB and on small scales, and the predictivity and testability of the inflationary paradigm. In this paper, we summarize the current status of $\Lambda$CDM as a physical theory, and review investigations into possible alternatives along a number of different lines, with a particular focus on highlighting the most promising directions. While the fundamental problems are proving reluctant to yield, the study of alternative cosmologies has led to considerable progress, with much more to come if hopes about forthcoming high-precision observations and new theoretical ideas are fulfilled.

Rotating fermions inside a cylindrical boundary
arXiv: 1512.0523
Victor E. Ambrus, Elizabeth Winstanley

We study a quantum fermion field inside a cylinder in Minkowski space-time. On the surface of the cylinder, the fermion field satisfies either spectral or MIT bag boundary conditions. We define rigidly rotating quantum states in both cases, assuming that the radius of the cylinder is sufficiently small that the speed-of-light surface is excluded from the space-time. With this assumption, we calculate rigidly-rotating thermal expectation values of the fermion condensate, neutrino charge current and stress-energy tensor relative to the bounded vacuum state. These rigidly-rotating thermal expectation values are finite everywhere inside and on the surface of the cylinder and their detailed properties depend on the choice of boundary conditions. We also compute the Casimir divergence of the expectation values of these quantities in the bounded vacuum state relative to the unbounded Minkowski vacuum. We find that the rate of divergence of the Casimir expectation values depends on the conditions imposed on the boundary.

Introductory lectures on lattice QCD at nonzero baryon number
arXiv: 1512.0514
Gert Aarts

These lecture notes contain an elementary introduction to lattice QCD at nonzero chemical potential. Topics discussed include chemical potential in the continuum and on the lattice; the sign, overlap and Silver Blaze problems; the phase boundary at small chemical potential; imaginary chemical potential; and complex Langevin dynamics. An incomplete overview of other approaches is presented as well. These lectures are meant for postgraduate students and postdocs with an interest in extreme QCD. A basic knowledge of lattice QCD is assumed but not essential. Some exercises are included at the end.

Gravity's Rainbow and Traversable Wormholes
arXiv: 1512.0447
Remo Garattini, Francisco S. N. Lobo

In the context of Gravity's Rainbow, we compute the graviton one-loop contribution to a classical energy in a traversable wormhole background, by considering the equation of state $p_{r} = \omega\rho$. The investigation is evaluated by means of a variational approach with Gaussian trial wave functionals. However, instead of using a regularization/renormalization process, we use the distortion induced by Gravity's Rainbow to handle the divergences.

Probing the Origin of Neutrino Masses and Mixings via Doubly Charged Scalars: Complementarity of the Intensity and the Energy Frontiers
arXiv: 1512.0439
Tanja Geib, Stephen F. King, Alexander Merle, et al.

We discuss how the intensity and the energy frontiers provide complementary constraints within a minimal model of neutrino mass involving just one new field beyond the Standard Model at accessible energy, namely a doubly charged scalar $S^{++}$ and its antiparticle $S^{--}$. In particular we focus on the complementarity between high-energy LHC searches and low-energy probes such as lepton flavor violation. Our setting is a prime example of how high- and low-energy physics can cross-fertilize each other.

The Diboson Excess: Experimental Situation and Classification of Explanations; A Les Houches Pre-Proceeding
arXiv: 1512.0435
Johann Brehmer, Gustaaf Brooijmans, Giacomo Cacciapaglia, et al.

We examine the diboson' excess at $\sim 2$ TeV seen by the LHC experiments in various channels. We provide a comparison of the excess significances as a function of the mass of the tentative resonance and give the signal cross sections needed to explain the excesses. We also present a survey of available theoretical explanations of the resonance, classified in three main approaches. Beyond that, we discuss methods to verify the anomaly, determining the major properties of the various surpluses and exploring how different models can be discriminated. Finally, we give a tabular summary of the numerous explanations, presenting their main phenomenological features.

Measurement of the dipole in the cross-correlation function of galaxies
arXiv: 1512.0391
Enrique Gaztanaga, Camille Bonvin, Lam Hui

It is usually assumed that in the linear regime the two-point correlation function of galaxies contains only a monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole. Looking at cross-correlations between different populations of galaxies, this turns out not to be the case. In particular, the cross-correlations between a bright and a faint population of galaxies contain also a dipole. In this paper we present the first measurement of this dipole. We discuss the three types of effects that contribute to the dipole: relativistic distortions, evolution effects and wide-angle effects. We show that the relativistic distortions and the evolution effects are too small to be detected in the LOWz and CMASS sample of the BOSS survey. We discuss the convention-dependent nature of the wide-angle effect and we show that with the appropriate choice of kernel, a particular version of the wide-angle effect (that we call large-angle effect) can be significantly enhanced. We measure this effect in the dipole with a signal-to-noise of 50, which is as good as the one of the monopole. We emphasise that the large-angle dipole does not contain new statistical information, since it is just a geometrical combination of the monopole and the quadrupole. However it is conceivable that it is sensitive to different systematics.

Optimising the measurement of relativistic distortions in large-scale structure
arXiv: 1512.0356
Camille Bonvin, Lam Hui, Enrique Gaztanaga

It has been shown recently that relativistic distortions generate a dipolar modulation in the two-point correlation function of galaxies. To measure this relativistic dipole it is necessary to cross-correlate different populations of galaxies with for example different luminosities or colours. In this paper, we construct an optimal estimator to measure the dipole with multiple populations. We show that this estimator increases the signal-to-noise of the dipole by up to 35 percent. Using 6 populations of galaxies, in a survey with halos and number densities similar to those of the millennium simulation, we forecast a cumulative signal-to-noise of 4.4. For the main galaxy sample of SDSS at low redshift z<0.2 our optimal estimator predicts a cumulative signal-to-noise of 2.4. Finally we forecast a cumulative signal-to-noise of 7.4 in the upcoming DESI survey. These forecasts indicate that with the appropriate choice of estimator the relativistic dipole should be detectable in current and future surveys.

The XMM Cluster Survey: The Halo Occupation Number of BOSS galaxies in X-ray clusters
arXiv: 1512.0343
Nicola Mehrtens, A. Kathy Romer, Robert C. Nichol, et al.

We present a direct measurement of the mean halo occupation distribution (HOD) of galaxies taken from the eleventh data release (DR11) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Survey (BOSS). The HOD of BOSS low-redshift (LOWZ: $0.2 < z < 0.4$) and Constant-Mass (CMASS: $0.43 <z <0.7$) galaxies is inferred via their association with the dark-matter halos of 174 X-ray-selected galaxy clusters drawn from the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS). Halo masses are determined for each galaxy cluster based on X-ray temperature measurements, and range between ${\rm log_{10}} (M_{180}/M_{\odot}) = 13-15$, encompassing the mass range of the one-halo' term. Our directly-measured HODs are consistent with the HOD-model fits inferred via the galaxy-clustering analyses of Parejko et al. (2013) for the BOSS LOWZ sample and White et al. (2011) for the BOSS CMASS sample. We determine a best-fit alpha-index of 0.91$\pm$0.08 and $1.27^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ for the CMASS and LOWZ HOD, respectively. This result provides independent support for the HOD-models assumed during the development of the BOSS mock-galaxy catalogues that have subsequently been used to derive BOSS cosmological constraints.

Inflation with an extra light scalar field after Planck
arXiv: 1512.0340
Vincent Vennin, Kazuya Koyama, David Wands

Bayesian inference techniques are used to investigate situations where an additional light scalar field is present during inflation and reheating. This includes (but is not limited to) curvaton-type models. We design a numerical pipeline where $\simeq 200$ inflaton setups $\times\, 10$ reheating scenarios $= 2000$ models are implemented and we present the results for a few prototypical potentials. We find that single-field models are remarkably robust under the introduction of light scalar degrees of freedom. Models that are ruled out at the single-field level are not improved in general, because good values of the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio can only be obtained for very fine-tuned values of the extra field parameters and/or when large non-Gaussianities are produced. The only exception is quartic large-field inflation, so that the best models after Planck are of two kinds: plateau potentials, regardless of whether an extra field is added or not, and quartic large-field inflation with an extra light scalar field, in some specific reheating scenarios. Using Bayesian complexity, we also find that more parameters are constrained for the models we study than for their single-field versions. This is because the added parameters not only contribute to the reheating kinematics but also to the cosmological perturbations themselves, to which the added field contributes. The interplay between these two effects lead to a suppression of degeneracies that is responsible for having more constrained parameters.

The D-material universe
arXiv: 1512.0333

In a previous publication by some of the authors (N.E.M., M.S. and M.F.Y.), we have argued that the "D-material universe", that is a model of a brane world propagating in a higher-dimensional bulk populated by collections of D-particle stringy defects, provides a model for the growth of large-scale structure in the universe via the vector field in its spectrum. The latter corresponds to D-particle recoil velocity excitations as a result of the interactions of the defects with stringy matter and radiation on the brane world. In this article, we first elaborate further on the results of the previous study on the galactic growth era and analyse the circumstances under which the D-particle recoil velocity fluid may "mimic" dark matter in galaxies. A lensing phenomenology is also presented for some samples of galaxies, which previously were known to provide tension for modified gravity (TeVeS) models. The current model is found in agreement with these lensing data. Then we discuss a cosmic evolution for the D-material universe by analysing the conditions under which the late eras of this universe associated with large-scale structure are connected to early epochs, where inflation takes place. It is shown that inflation is induced by dense populations of D-particles in the early universe, with the role of the inflaton field played by the condensate of the D-particle recoil-velocity fields under their interaction with relativistic stringy matter, only for sufficiently large brane tensions and low string mass scales compared to the Hubble scale. On the other hand, for large string scales, where the recoil-velocity condensate fields are weak, inflation cannot be driven by the D-particle defects alone. In such cases inflation may be driven by dilaton (or other moduli) fields in the underlying string theory.

Canonical single field slow-roll inflation with a non-monotonic tensor-to-scalar ratio
arXiv: 1512.0310
Gabriel German, Alfredo Herrera-Aguilar, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Roberto A. Sussman

We take a pragmatic, model independent approach to single field slow-roll canonical inflation by imposing conditions, not on the potential, but on the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon(\phi)$ and its derivatives $\epsilon^{\prime }(\phi)$ and $\epsilon^{\prime\prime }(\phi)$, thereby extracting general conditions on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and the running $n_{sk}$ at $\phi_{H}$ where the perturbations are produced, some $50$ $-$ $60$ $e$-folds before the end of inflation. We find quite generally that for models where $\epsilon(\phi)$ develops a maximum, a relatively large $r$ is most likely accompanied by a positive running while a negligible tensor-to-scalar ratio implies negative running. The definitive answer, however, is given in terms of the slow-roll parameter $\xi_2(\phi)$. To accommodate a large tensor-to-scalar ratio that meets the limiting values allowed by the Planck data, we study a non-monotonic $\epsilon(\phi)$ decreasing during most part of inflation. Since at $\phi_{H}$ the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon(\phi)$ is increasing, we thus require that $\epsilon(\phi)$ develops a maximum for $\phi > \phi_{H}$ after which $\epsilon(\phi)$ decrease to small values where most $e$-folds are produced. The end of inflation might occur trough a hybrid mechanism and a small field excursion $\Delta\phi_e\equiv Dyons and dyonic black holes in${\mathfrak {su}}(N)$Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in anti-de Sitter space-time arXiv: 1512.0301 Ben L. Shepherd, Elizabeth Winstanley We present new spherically symmetric, dyonic soliton and black hole solutions of the${\mathfrak {su}}(N)$Einstein-Yang-Mills equations in four-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter space-time. The gauge field has nontrivial electric and magnetic components and is described by$N-1$magnetic gauge field functions and$N-1$electric gauge field functions. We explore the phase space of solutions in detail for${\mathfrak {su}}(2)$and${\mathfrak {su}}(3)$gauge groups. Combinations of the electric gauge field functions are monotonic and have no zeros; in general the magnetic gauge field functions may have zeros. The phase space of solutions is extremely rich, and we find solutions in which the magnetic gauge field functions have more than fifty zeros. Of particular interest are solutions for which the magnetic gauge field functions have no zeros, which exist when the negative cosmological constant has sufficiently large magnitude. We conjecture that at least some of these nodeless solutions may be stable under linear, spherically symmetric, perturbations. Planck intermediate results. XLI. A map of lensing-induced B-modes arXiv: 1512.0288 Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, et al. The lensing-induced$B$-mode signal is a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution integrated back to the last-scattering surface, with a broad kernel that peaks at$z\simeq2$. It also constitutes an important contaminant for the extraction of the primary CMB$B$-modes from inflation. Combining all-sky coverage and high resolution and sensitivity, Planck provides accurate nearly all-sky measurements of both the polarization$E$-mode signal and the integrated mass distribution via the reconstruction of the CMB gravitational lensing. By combining these two data products, we have produced an all-sky template map of the secondary CMB$B$-modes using a real-space algorithm that minimizes the impact of sky masks. The cross-correlation of this template with an observed (primordial and secondary)$B$-mode map can be used to measure the lensing$B$-mode power spectrum at all angular scales. In particular when cross-correlating with the$B$-mode contribution directly derived from the Planck polarization maps, we obtain lensing-induced$B$-mode power spectrum measurements at a significance of$12\,\sigma$, which are in agreement with the theoretical expectation derived from the \Planck\ best-fit$\Lambda$CDM model. This unique nearly all-sky secondary$B$-mode template, which includes the lensing-induced information from intermediate to small ($10\lesssim \ell\lesssim 1000$) angular scales, is delivered as part of the Planck 2015 public data release. It will be particularly useful for experiments searching for primordial$B$-modes, such as BICEP2/Keck Array or LiteBIRD, since it will enable an estimate to be made of the secondary (i.e., lensing) contribution to the measured total CMB$B$-modes. The XMM Cluster Survey: evolution of the velocity dispersion -- temperature relation over half a Hubble time arXiv: 1512.0280 Susan Wilson, Matt Hilton, Philip J. Rooney, et al. We measure the evolution of the velocity dispersion--temperature ($\sigma_{\rm v}$--$T_{\rm X}$) relation up to$z = 1$using a sample of 38 galaxy clusters drawn from the \textit{XMM} Cluster Survey. This work improves upon previous studies by the use of a homogeneous cluster sample and in terms of the number of high redshift clusters included. We present here new redshift and velocity dispersion measurements for 12$z > 0.5$clusters observed with the GMOS instruments on the Gemini telescopes. Using an orthogonal regression method, we find that the slope of the relation is steeper than that expected if clusters were self-similar, and that the evolution of the normalisation is slightly negative, but not significantly different from zero ($\sigma_{\rm v} \propto T^{0.86 \pm 0.14} E(z)^{-0.37 \pm 0.33}$). We verify our results by applying our methods to cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. The lack of evolution seen from the data suggests that the feedback does not significantly heat the gas, a result that is consistent with simulations including radiative cooling. Complete Normal Ordering 1: Foundations arXiv: 1512.0260 John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos, Dimitri P. Skliros We introduce a new prescription for quantising scalar field theories perturbatively around a true minimum of the full quantum effective action, which is to complete normal order' the bare action of interest. When the true vacuum of the theory is located at zero field value, the key property of this prescription is the automatic cancellation, to any finite order in perturbation theory, of all tadpole and, more generally, all cephalopod' Feynman diagrams. The latter are connected diagrams that can be disconnected into two pieces by cutting one internal vertex, with either one or both pieces free from external lines. In addition, this procedure of complete normal ordering' (which is an extension of the standard field theory definition of normal ordering) reduces by a substantial factor the number of Feynman diagrams to be calculated at any given loop order. We illustrate explicitly the complete normal ordering procedure and the cancellation of cephalopod diagrams in scalar field theories with non-derivative interactions, and by using a point splitting trick' we extend this result to theories with derivative interactions, such as those appearing as non-linear sigma-models in the world-sheet formulation of string theory. We focus here on theories with trivial vacua, generalising the discussion to non-trivial vacua in a follow-up paper. Astronomy Job Crisis arXiv: 1512.0222 Asantha Cooray, Alexandra Abate, Boris Häußler, et al. Astronomers in CANDELS outline changes for the academic system to promote a smooth transition for junior scientists from academia to industry. Prospects for dark matter detection with inelastic transitions of xenon arXiv: 1512.0046 Christopher McCabe Dark matter can scatter and excite a nucleus to a low-lying excitation in a direct detection experiment. This signature is distinct from the canonical elastic scattering signal because the inelastic signal also contains the energy deposited from the subsequent prompt de-excitation of the nucleus. A measurement of the elastic and inelastic signal will allow a single experiment to distinguish between a spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction. For the first time, we characterise the inelastic signal for two-phase xenon detectors in which dark matter inelastically scatters off the Xe-129 or Xe-131 isotope. We do this by implementing a realistic simulation of a typical tonne-scale two-phase xenon detector and by carefully estimating the relevant background signals. With our detector simulation, we explore whether the inelastic signal from the axial-vector interaction is detectable with upcoming tonne-scale detectors. We find that two-phase detectors allow for some discrimination between signal and background so that it is possible to detect dark matter that inelastically scatters off either the Xe-129 or Xe-131 isotope for dark matter particles that are heavier than approximately 100 GeV. If, after two years of data, the XENON1T search for elastic scattering nuclei finds no evidence for dark matter, the possibility of ever detecting an inelastic signal from the axial-vector interaction will be almost entirely excluded. Small-scale anisotropies of cosmic rays from relative diffusion arXiv: 1511.0945 Philipp Mertsch, Markus Ahlers The arrival directions of multi-TeV cosmic rays show significant anisotropies at small angular scales. It has been argued that this small scale structure is reflecting the local, turbulent magnetic field in the presence of a global dipole anisotropy in cosmic rays as determined by diffusion. This effect is analogous to weak gravitational lensing of temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background. We show that the non-trivial power spectrum in this setup can be related to the properties of relative diffusion and we study the convergence of the angular power spectrum to a steady-state as a function of backtracking time. We also determine the steady-state solution in an analytical approach based on a modified BGK ansatz. A rigorous mathematical treatment of the generation of small scale anisotropies will help in unraveling the structure of the local magnetic field through cosmic ray anisotropies. Speeding up N-body simulations of modified gravity: Vainshtein screening models arXiv: 1511.0820 Alexandre Barreira, Sownak Bose, Baojiu Li We introduce and demonstrate the power of a method to speed up current iterative techniques for N-body modified gravity simulations. Our method is based on the observation that the accuracy of the final result is not compromised if the calculation of the fifth force becomes less accurate, but substantially faster, in high-density regions where it is weak due to screening. We focus on the nDGP model which employs Vainshtein screening, and test our method by running AMR simulations in which the solutions on the finer levels of the mesh (high density) are not obtained iteratively, but instead interpolated from coarser levels. We show that the impact this has on the matter power spectrum is below$1\%$for$k < 5h/{\rm Mpc}$at$z = 0$, and even smaller at higher redshift. The impact on halo properties is also small ($\lesssim 3\%$for abundance, profiles, mass; and$\lesssim 0.05\%$for positions and velocities). The method can boost the performance of modified gravity simulations by more than a factor of 10, which allows them to be pushed to resolution levels that were previously hard to achieve. The Subaru FMOS galaxy redshift survey (FastSound). IV. New constraint on gravity theory from redshift space distortions at$z\sim 1.4$arXiv: 1511.0808 Teppei Okumura, Chiaki Hikage, Tomonori Totani, et al. We measure the redshift-space correlation function from a spectroscopic sample of 2783 emission line galaxies from the FastSound survey. The survey, which uses the Subaru Telescope and covers the redshift ranges of$1.19<z<1.55$, is the first cosmological study at such high redshifts. We detect clear anisotropy due to redshift-space distortions (RSD) both in the correlation function as a function of separations parallel and perpendicular to the line of sight and its quadrupole moment. RSD has been extensively used to test general relativity on cosmological scales at$z<1$. Adopting a LCDM cosmology with the fixed expansion history and no velocity dispersion$\sigma_{\rm v}=0$, and using the RSD measurements on scales above 8Mpc/h, we obtain the first constraint on the growth rate at the redshift,$f(z)\sigma_8(z)=0.482\pm 0.116$at$z\sim 1.4$after marginalizing over the galaxy bias parameter$b(z)\sigma_8(z)$. This corresponds to$4.2\sigma$detection of RSD. Our constraint is consistent with the prediction of general relativity$f\sigma_8\sim 0.392$within the$1-\sigma$confidence level. When we allow$\sigma_{\rm v}$to vary and marginalize it over, the growth rate constraint becomes$f\sigma_8=0.494^{+0.126}_{-0.120}$. We also demonstrate that by combining with the low-z constraints on$f\sigma_8$, high-z galaxy surveys like the FastSound can be useful to distinguish modified gravity models without relying on CMB anisotropy experiments. Photoionization Models of the Inner Gaseous Disk of the Herbig Be Star BD+65 1637 arXiv: 1511.0649 P. Patel, T. A. A. Sigut, J. D. Landstreet We attempt to constrain the physical properties of the inner, gaseous disk of the Herbig Be star BD+65 1637 using non-LTE, circumstellar disk codes and observed spectra (3700 to 10,500 \r{A}) from the ESPaDOnS instrument on CFHT. The photoionizing radiation of the central star is assumed to be the sole source of input energy for the disk. We model optical and near-infrared emission lines that are thought to form in this region using standard techniques that have been successful in modeling the spectra of Classical Be stars. By comparing synthetic line profiles of hydrogen, helium, iron and calcium with the observed line profiles, we try to constrain the geometry, density structure, and kinematics of the gaseous disk. Reasonable matches have been found for all line profiles individually; however, no disk density model based on a single power-law for the equatorial density was able to simultaneously fit all of the observed emission lines. Amongst the emission lines, the metal lines, especially the Ca II IR triplet, seem to require higher disk densities than the other lines. Excluding the Ca II lines, a model in which the equatorial disk density falls as$10^{-10} (R_{*}/R)^3 g\,cm^{-3}$seen at an inclination of 45{\deg} for a$50\,R_{*}$disk provides reasonable matches to the overall line shapes and strengths. The Ca II lines seem to require a shallower drop off as$10^{-10} (R_{*}/R)^2 g\,cm^{-3}$to match their strength. More complex disk density models are likely required to refine the match to the BD+65 1637 spectrum. The HerMES sub-millimetre local and low-redshift luminosity functions arXiv: 1511.0616 L. Marchetti, M. Vaccari, A. Franceschini, et al. We used wide area surveys over 39 deg$^2$by the HerMES collaboration, performed with the Herschel Observatory SPIRE multi-wavelength camera, to estimate the low-redshift,$0.02<z<0.5$, monochromatic luminosity functions (LFs) of galaxies at 250, 350 and 500$\,\mu$m. SPIRE flux densities were also combined with Spitzer photometry and multi-wavelength archival data to perform a complete SED fitting analysis of SPIRE detected sources to calculate precise k-corrections, as well as the bolometric infrared (8-1000$\,\mu$m) luminosity functions and their low-$z$evolution from a combination of statistical estimators. Integration of the latter prompted us to also compute the local luminosity density (LLD) and the comoving star formation rate density (SFRD) for our sources, and to compare them with theoretical predictions of galaxy formation models. The luminosity functions show significant and rapid luminosity evolution already at low redshifts,$0.02<z<0.2$, with L$_{IR}^* \propto (1+z)^{6.0\pm0.4}$and$\Phi_{IR}^* \propto (1+z)^{-2.1\pm0.4}$, L$_{250}^* \propto (1+z)^{5.3\pm0.2}$and$\Phi_{250}^* \propto (1+z)^{-0.6\pm0.4}$estimated using the IR bolometric and the 250$\,\mu$m LFs respectively. Converting our IR LD estimate into an SFRD assuming a standard Salpeter IMF and including the unobscured contribution based on the UV dust-uncorrected emission from local galaxies, we estimate a SFRD scaling of SFRD$_0+0.08 z$, where SFRD$_0\simeq (1.9\pm 0.03)\times 10^{-2} [\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}]$is our total SFRD estimate at$z\sim0.02$. Incoherent thermal transport from dirty black holes arXiv: 1511.0597 Sašo Grozdanov, Andrew Lucas, Koenraad Schalm We study thermal transport in strongly disordered, strongly interacting quantum field theories without quasiparticles using gauge-gravity duality. We analyze linear perturbations of black holes with broken translational symmetry in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories of gravity. Using general geometric arguments in the bulk, we derive bounds on thermal conductivity for the dual disordered field theories in one and two spatial dimensions. In the latter case, the thermal conductivity is always non-zero at finite temperature, so long as the dilaton potential is bounded from below. Hence, generic holographic models make non-trivial predictions about the thermal conductivity in a strongly disordered, strongly coupled metal in two spatial dimensions. Searching for scalar gravitational interactions in current and future cosmological data arXiv: 1511.0596 Alireza Hojjati, Aaron Plahn, Alex Zucca, et al. Modified gravity theories often contain a scalar field of gravitational strength which interacts with matter. We examine constraints on the range and the coupling strength of a scalar gravitational degree of freedom using a subset of current data that can be safely analyzed within the linear perturbation theory. Using a model-independent implementation of scalar-tensor theories in MGCAMB in terms of two functions of the scale factor describing the mass and the coupling of the scalar degree of freedom, we derive constraints on the$f(R)$, generalized chameleon, Symmetron and Dilaton models. Since most of the large scale structure data available today is from relatively low redshifts, only a limited range of observed scales is in the linear regime, leading to relatively weak constraints. We then perform a forecast for a future large scale structure survey, such as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will map a significant volume at higher redshifts, and show that it will produce much stronger constraints on scalar interactions in specific models. We also perform a principal component analysis and find that future surveys should be able to provide tight constraints on several eigenmodes of the scalar mass evolution. How to Avoid a Swift Kick in the Chameleons arXiv: 1511.0576 Antonio Padilla, Emma Platts, David Stefanyszyn, et al. Recently, it was argued that the conformal coupling of the chameleon to matter fields created an issue for early universe cosmology. As standard model degrees of freedom become non-relativistic in the early universe, the chameleon is attracted towards a "surfing" solution, so that it arrives at the potential minimum with too large a velocity. This leads to rapid variations in the chameleon's mass and excitation of high energy modes, casting doubts on the classical treatment at Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Here we present the DBI chameleon, a consistent high energy modification of the chameleon theory that dynamically renders it weakly coupled to matter during the early universe thereby eliminating the adverse effects of the kicks'. This is done without any fine tuning of the coupling between the chameleon and matter fields, and retains its screening ability in the solar system. We demonstrate this explicitly with a combination of analytic and numerical results. Einstein-charged scalar field theory: black hole solutions and their stability arXiv: 1511.0547 Supakchai Ponglertsakul, Sam Dolan, Elizabeth Winstanley A complex scalar field on a charged black hole in a cavity is known to experience a superradiant instability. We investigate possible final states of this instability. We find hairy black hole solutions of a fully coupled system of Einstein gravity and a charged scalar field. The black holes are surrounded by a reflecting mirror. We also investigate the stability of these black holes. On Instanton Superpotentials, Calabi-Yau Geometry, and Fibrations arXiv: 1511.0518 Lara B. Anderson, Fabio Apruzzi, Xin Gao, et al. In this paper we explore contributions to non-perturbative superpotentials arising from instantons wrapping effective divisors in smooth Calabi-Yau four-folds. We concentrate on the case of manifolds constructed as complete intersections in products of projective spaces (CICYs) or generalizations thereof (gCICYs). We systematically investigate the structure of the cone of effective (algebraic) divisors in the four-fold geometries and employ the same tools recently developed in arXiv:1507.03235 to construct more general instanton geometries than have previously been considered in the literature. We provide examples of instanton configurations on Calabi-Yau manifolds that are elliptically and$K3$-fibered and explore their consequences in the context of string dualities. The examples discussed include manifolds containing infinite families of divisors with arithmetic genus,$\chi(D, \mathcal O_D)=1$and superpotentials exhibiting modular symmetry. Planck intermediate results. XL. The Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal from the Virgo cluster arXiv: 1511.0515 Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, et al. The Virgo cluster is the largest Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) source in the sky, both in terms of angular size and total integrated flux. Planck's wide angular scale and frequency coverage, together with its high sensitivity, allow a detailed study of this large object through the SZ effect. Virgo is well resolved by Planck, showing an elongated structure, which correlates well with the morphology observed from X-rays, but extends beyond the observed X-ray signal. We find a good agreement between the SZ signal (or Compton paranmeter, y_c) observed by Planck and the expected signal inferred from X-ray observations and simple analytical models. Due to its proximity to us, the gas beyond the virial radius can be studied with unprecedented sensitivity by integrating the SZ signal over tens of square degrees. We study the signal in the outskirts of Virgo and compare it with analytical models and a constrained simulation of the environment of Virgo. Planck data suggest that significant amounts of low-density plasma surround Virgo out to twice the virial radius. We find the SZ signal in the outskirts of Virgo to be consistent with a simple model that extrapolates the inferred pressure at lower radii while assuming that the temperature stays in the keV range beyond the virial radius. The observed signal is also consistent with simulations and points to a shallow pressure profile in the outskirts of the cluster. This reservoir of gas at large radii can be linked with the hottest phase of the elusive warm/hot intergalactic medium. Taking the lack of symmetry of Virgo into account, we find that a prolate model is favoured by the combination of SZ and X-ray data, in agreement with predictions. Topological black holes in${\mathfrak {su}}(N)$Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with a negative cosmological constant arXiv: 1511.0495 J. Erik Baxter, Elizabeth Winstanley We investigate the phase space of topological black hole solutions of${\mathfrak {su}}(N)$Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in anti-de Sitter space with a purely magnetic gauge potential. The gauge field is described by$N-1$magnetic gauge field functions$\omega_{j}$,$j=1,\ldots , N-1$. For${\mathfrak {su}}(2)$gauge group, the function$\omega_{1}$has no zeros. This is no longer the case when we consider a larger gauge group. The phase space of topological black holes is considerably simpler than for the corresponding spherically symmetric black holes, but for$N>2$and a flat event horizon, there exist solutions where at least one of the$\omega_{j}$functions has one or more zeros. For most of the solutions, all the$\omega_{j}$functions have no zeros, and at least some of these are linearly stable. Gravitational waves from cosmological first order phase transitions arXiv: 1511.0452 Mark Hindmarsh, Stephan Huber, Kari Rummukainen, David Weir First order phase transitions in the early Universe generate gravitational waves, which may be observable in future space-based gravitational wave observatiories, e.g. the European eLISA satellite constellation. The gravitational waves provide an unprecedented direct view of the Universe at the time of their creation. We study the generation of the gravitational waves during a first order phase transition using large-scale simulations of a model consisting of relativistic fluid and an order parameter field. We observe that the dominant source of gravitational waves is the sound generated by the transition, resulting in considerably stronger radiation than earlier calculations have indicated. Sub-percent constraints on cosmological temperature evolution arXiv: 1511.0433 A. Avgoustidis, R. T. Génova-Santos, G. Luzzi, C. J. A. P. Martins The redshift dependence of the cosmic microwave background temperature is one of the key cosmological observables. In the standard cosmological model one has$T(z)=T_0(1+z)$, where$T_0$is the present-day temperature. Deviations from this behavior would imply the presence of new physics. Here we discuss how the combination of all currently available direct and indirect measurements of$T(z)$constrains the common phenomenological parametrization$T(z)=T_0(1+z)^{1-\beta}$, and obtain the first sub-percent constraint on the$\beta$parameter, specifically$\beta=(7.6\pm8.0)\times10^{-3}$at the$68.3\%$confidence level. Inverted initial conditions: exploring the growth of cosmic structure and voids arXiv: 1511.0409 Andrew Pontzen, Anže Slosar, Nina Roth, Hiranya V. Peiris We introduce and explore "paired" cosmological simulations. A pair consists of an A and B simulation with initial conditions related by the inversion$\delta_A(x, t_{initial})=-\delta_B(x,t_{initial})$(underdensities substituted for overdensities and vice versa). We argue that the technique is valuable for improving our understanding of cosmic structure formation. The A and B fields are by definition equally likely draws from {\Lambda}CDM initial conditions, and in the linear regime evolve identically up to the overall sign. As non-linear evolution takes hold, a region that collapses to form a halo in simulation A will tend to expand to create a void in simulation B. Applications include (i) contrasting the growth of A-halos and B-voids to test excursion-set theories of structure formation; (ii) cross-correlating the density field of the A and B universes as a novel test for perturbation theory; and (iii) canceling error terms by averaging power spectra between the two boxes. Generalizations of the method to more elaborate field transformations are suggested. The dynamics of aloof baby Skyrmions arXiv: 1511.0348 Petja Salmi, Paul Sutcliffe The aloof baby Skyrme model is a (2+1)-dimensional theory with solitons that are lightly bound. It is a low-dimensional analogue of a similar Skyrme model in (3+1)-dimensions, where the lightly bound solitons have binding energies comparable to nuclei. A previous study of static solitons in the aloof baby Skyrme model revealed that multi-soliton bound states have a cluster structure, with constituents that preserve their individual identities due to the short-range repulsion and long-range attraction between solitons. Furthermore, there are many different local energy minima that are all well-described by a simple binary species particle model. In this paper we present the first results on soliton dynamics in the aloof baby Skyrme model. Numerical field theory simulations reveal that the lightly bound cluster structure results in a variety of exotic soliton scattering events that are novel in comparison to standard Skyrmion scattering. A dynamical version of the binary species point particle model is shown to provide a good qualitative description of the dynamics. Mass anomalous dimension of SU(2) with Nf=8 using the spectral density method arXiv: 1511.0346 Joni M. Suorsa, Viljami Leino, Jarno Rantaharju, et al. SU(2) with Nf=8 is believed to have an infrared conformal fixed point. We use the spectral density method to evaluate the coupling constant dependence of the mass anomalous dimension for massless HEX smeared, clover improved Wilson fermions with Schr\"odinger functional boundary conditions. The hemispherical asymmetry from a scale-dependent inflationary bispectrum arXiv: 1511.0312 Christian T. Byrnes, Donough Regan, David Seery, Ewan R. M. Tarrant If the primordial bispectrum is sufficiently large then the CMB hemispherical asymmetry may be explained by a large-scale mode of exceptional amplitude which perturbs the zeta two-point function. We extend previous calculations, which were restricted to one- or two-source scenarios, by providing a method to compute the response of the two-point function in any model yielding a 'local-like' bispectrum. In general, this shows that it is not the reduced bispectrum fNL which sources the amplitude and scale-dependence of the mode coupling but rather a combination of 'response functions'. We discuss why it is difficult to construct successful scenarios and enumerate the fine-tunings which seem to be required. Finally, we exhibit a concrete model which can be contrived to match the observational constraints and show that to a Planck-like experiment it would appear to have Generalized Proca action for an Abelian vector field arXiv: 1511.0310 Erwan Allys, Patrick Peter, Yeinzon Rodriguez We revisit the most general theory for a massive vector field with derivative self-interactions, extending previous works on the subject to account for terms having trivial total derivative interactions for the longitudinal mode. In the flat spacetime (Minkowski) case, we obtain all the possible terms containing products of up to five first-order derivatives of the vector field, and provide a conjecture about higher-order terms. Rendering the metric dynamical, we covariantize the results and add all possible terms implying curvature. Strong-coupling scales and the graph structure of multi-gravity theories arXiv: 1511.0287 James H. C. Scargill, Johannes Noller In this paper we consider how the strong-coupling scale, or perturbative cutoff, in a multi-gravity theory depends upon the presence and structure of interactions between the different fields. This can elegantly be rephrased in terms of the size and structure of the theory graph' which depicts the interactions in a given theory. We show that the question can be answered in terms of the properties of various graph-theoretical matrices, affording an efficient way to estimate and place bounds on the strong-coupling scale of a given theory. In light of this we also consider the problem of relating a given theory graph to a discretised higher dimensional theory, a la dimensional deconstruction. The puzzling orbital period evolution of the low mass X-ray binary AX J1745.6-2901 arXiv: 1511.0285 G. Ponti, K. De, T. Munoz-Darias, et al. The orbital period evolution of X-ray binaries provides fundamental clues to understanding mechanisms of angular momentum loss from these systems. We present an X-ray eclipse timing analysis of the transient low mass X-ray binary AX J1745.6-2901. This system shows full eclipses and thus is one of the few objects for which accurate orbital evolution studies using this method can be carried out. We report on XMM-Newton and ASCA observations covering 30 complete X-ray eclipses spanning an interval of more than 20 years. We improve the determination of the orbital period to a relative precision of$2\times10^{-8}$, two orders of magnitudes better than previous estimates. We determine, for the first time, a highly significant rate of decrease of the orbital period$\dot{P}_{orb}=-4.03\pm0.32\times10^{-11}$~s/s. This is at least one order of magnitude larger than expected from conservative mass transfer and angular momentum losses due to gravitational waves and magnetic breaking, and might result from non-conservative mass transfer. Imprinted on the long term evolution of the orbit, we observe highly significant eclipse leads-delays of ~10-20 s, characterised by a clear state dependence in which, on average, eclipses occur earlier during the hard state. From topological to non-topological solitons: kinks, domain walls and Q-balls in a scalar field model with non-trivial vacuum manifold arXiv: 1511.0275 Yves Brihaye, Adolfo Cisterna, Betti Hartmann, Gabriel Luchini We consider a scalar field model with a self-interaction potential that possesses a discrete vacuum manifold. We point out that this model allows for both topological as well as non-topological solitons. In (1+1) dimensions both type of solutions have finite energy, while in (3+1) dimensions, the topological solitons have finite energy per unit area only and correspond to domain walls. Non-topological solitons with finite energy do exist in (3+1) dimensions due to a non-trivial phase of the scalar field and an associated U(1) symmetry of the model, though. We construct these so-called Q-ball solutions numerically, point out the differences to previous studies with different scalar field potentials and also discuss the influence of a minimal coupling to both gravity as well as a U(1) gauge field. In this latter case, the conserved Noether charge Q can be interpreted as the electric charge of the solution. Evaluation of conformal integrals arXiv: 1511.0235 Adam Bzowski, Paul McFadden, Kostas Skenderis We present a comprehensive method for the evaluation of a vast class of integrals representing 3-point functions of conformal field theories in momentum space. The method leads to analytic, closed-form expressions for all scalar and tensorial 3-point functions of operators with integer dimensions in any spacetime dimension. In particular, this encompasses all 3-point functions of the stress tensor, conserved currents and marginal scalar operators. Second-order cosmological perturbation theory and initial conditions for$N$-body simulations arXiv: 1511.0222 Adam J. Christopherson, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Cornelius Rampf, Karim A. Malik We use gauge-invariant cosmological perturbation theory to calculate the displacement field that sets the initial conditions for$N$-body simulations. Using first and second-order fully relativistic perturbation theory in the synchronous-comoving gauge, allows us to go beyond the Newtonian predictions and to calculate relativistic corrections to it. We use an Einstein--de Sitter model, including both growing and decaying modes in our solutions. The impact of our results should be assessed through the implementation of the featured displacement in cosmological$N$-body simulations. Disformally self-tuning gravity arXiv: 1511.0205 William T. Emond, Paul M. Saffin We extend a previous self-tuning analysis of the most general scalar-tensor theory of gravity in four dimensions with second order field equations by considering a generalized coupling to the matter sector. Through allowing a disformal coupling to matter we are able to extend the Fab Four model and construct a new class of theories that are able to tune away the cosmological constant on Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker backgrounds. Non-linearity and environmental dependence of the star forming galaxies Main Sequence arXiv: 1511.0189 G. Erfanianfar, P. Popesso, A. Finoguenov, et al. Using data from four deep fields (COSMOS, AEGIS, ECDFS, and CDFN), we study the correlation between the position of galaxies in the star formation rate (SFR) versus stellar mass plane and local environment at$z<1.1$. To accurately estimate the galaxy SFR, we use the deepest available Spitzer/MIPS 24 and Herschel/PACS datasets. We distinguish group environments ($M_{halo}\sim$10$^{12.5-14.2}$$M_{\odot}) based on the available deep X-ray data and lower halo mass environments based on the local galaxy density. We confirm that the Main Sequence (MS) of star forming galaxies is not a linear relation and there is a flattening towards higher stellar masses ( M_*>10^{10.4-10.6} M_{\odot}), across all environments. At high redshift ( 0.5<z<1.1 ), the MS varies little with environment. At low redshift ( 0.15<z<0.5 ), group galaxies tend to deviate from the mean MS towards the region of quiescence with respect to isolated galaxies and less-dense environments. We find that the flattening of the MS toward low SFR is due to an increased fraction of bulge dominated galaxies at high masses. Instead, the deviation of group galaxies from the MS at low redshift is caused by a large fraction of red disk dominated galaxies which are not present in the lower density environments. Our results suggest that above a mass threshold ( \sim10^{10.4}-10^{10.6}$$M_{\odot}$) stellar mass, morphology and environment act together in driving the evolution of the SF activity towards lower level. The presence of a dominating bulge and the associated quenching processes are already in place beyond$z\sim$1. The environmental effects appear, instead, at lower redshifts and have a long time-scale. Information Retention by Stringy Black Holes arXiv: 1511.0182 John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos, D. V. Nanopoulos Building upon our previous work on two-dimensional stringy black holes and its extension to spherically-symmetric four-dimensional stringy black holes, we show how the latter retain information. A key r\^ole is played by an infinite-dimensional$W_\infty$symmetry that preserves the area of an isolated black-hole horizon and hence its entropy. The exactly-marginal conformal world-sheet operator representing a massless stringy particle interacting with the black hole necessarily includes a contribution from$W_\infty$generators in its vertex function. This admixture manifests the transfer of information between the string black hole and external particles. We discuss different manifestations of$W_\infty$symmetry in black-hole physics and the connections between them. Testing Gravity Using Dwarf Stars arXiv: 1511.0168 Jeremy Sakstein Generic scalar-tensor theories of gravity predict deviations from Newtonian physics inside astrophysical bodies. In this paper, we point out that low mass stellar objects, red and brown dwarf stars, are excellent probes of these theories. We calculate two important and potentially observable quantities: the radius of brown dwarfs and the minimum mass for hydrogen burning in red dwarfs. The brown dwarf radius can differ significantly from the GR prediction and upcoming surveys that probe the mass-radius relation for stars with masses$<\mathcal{O}(0.1M_\odot)$have the potential to place new constraints. The minimum mass for hydrogen burning can be larger than several presently observed Red Dwarf stars. This places a new and extremely stringent constraint on the parameters that appear in the effective field theory of dark energy and rules out several well-studied dark energy models. Generalised matter couplings in massive bigravity arXiv: 1511.0148 Scott Melville, Johannes Noller We investigate matter couplings in massive bigravity. We find a new family of such consistent couplings, including and extending known consistent matter couplings, and we investigate their decoupling limits, ADM decompositions, Higuchi bounds and further aspects. We show that differences to previous known consistent couplings only arise beyond the$\Lambda_3$decoupling limit and discuss the uniqueness of consistent matter couplings and how this is related to the so-called symmetric vielbein condition. Since we work in a vielbein formulation, these results easily generalise to multi-gravity. Quasars as probes of cosmological reionization arXiv: 1511.0110 Daniel J. Mortlock Quasars are the most luminous non-transient sources in the epoch of cosmological reionization (i.e., which ended a billion years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of z ~ 5), and are powerful probes of the inter-galactic medium at that time. This review covers current efforts to identify high-redshift quasars and how they have been used to constrain the reionization history. This includes a full description of the various processes by which neutral hydrogen atoms can absorb/scatter ultraviolet photons, and which lead to the Gunn-Peterson effect, dark gap and dark pixel analyses, quasar near zones and damping wing absorption. Finally, the future prospects for using quasars as probes of reionization are described. The general form of the coupled Horndeski Lagrangian that allows cosmological scaling solutions arXiv: 1511.0100 Adalto R. Gomes, Luca Amendola We consider the general scalar field Horndeski Lagrangian coupled to matter. Within this class of models, we present two results that are independent of the particular form of the model. First, we show that in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric the Horndeski Lagrangian coincides with the pressure of the scalar field. Second, we employ the previous result to identify the most general form of the Lagrangian that allows for cosmological scaling solutions, i.e. solutions where the ratio of matter to field density and the equation of state remain constant. Scaling solutions of this kind may help solving the coincidence problem since in this case the presently observed ratio of matter to dark energy does not depend on initial conditions, but rather on the theoretical parameters. Evidence against star-forming galaxies as the dominant source of IceCube neutrinos arXiv: 1511.0068 Keith Bechtol, Markus Ahlers, Mattia Di Mauro, et al. The cumulative emission resulting from hadronic cosmic-ray interactions in star-forming galaxies (SFGs) has been proposed as the dominant contribution to the astrophysical neutrino flux at TeV to PeV energies reported by IceCube. The same particle interactions also inevitably create gamma-ray emission that could be detectable as a component of the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB), now measured with the Fermi-LAT in the energy range from 0.1 to 820 GeV. New studies of the blazar flux distribution at gamma-ray energies above 50 GeV place an upper bound on the residual non-blazar component of the EGB. We show that these results are in strong tension with models that consider SFGs as the dominant source of the diffuse neutrino backgrounds. Mordell integrals and Giveon-Kutasov duality arXiv: 1511.0020 Georgios Giasemidis, Miguel Tierz We solve, for finite$N$, the matrix model of supersymmetric$U(N)$Chern-Simons theory coupled to$N_{f}$massive hypermultiplets of$R$-charge$\frac{1}{2}$, together with a Fayet-Iliopoulos term. We compute the partition function by identifying it with a determinant of a Hankel matrix, whose entries are parametric derivatives (of order$N_{f}-1$) of Mordell integrals. We obtain finite Gauss sums expressions for the partition functions. We also apply these results to obtain an exhaustive test of Giveon-Kutasov (GK) duality in the$\mathcal{N}=3$setting, by systematic computation of the matrix models involved. The phase factor that arises in the duality is then obtained explicitly. We give an expression characterized by modular arithmetic (mod 4) behavior that holds for all tested values of the parameters (checked up to$N_{f}=12$flavours). Designing and testing inflationary models with Bayesian networks arXiv: 1511.0002 Layne C. Price, Hiranya V. Peiris, Jonathan Frazer, Richard Easther Even simple inflationary scenarios have many free parameters. Beyond the variables appearing in the inflationary action, these include dynamical initial conditions, the number of fields, and couplings to other sectors. These quantities are often ignored but cosmological observables can depend on the unknown parameters. We use Bayesian networks to account for a large set of inflationary parameters, deriving generative models for the primordial spectra that are conditioned on a hierarchical set of prior probabilities describing the initial conditions, reheating physics, and other free parameters. We use$N_f$--quadratic inflation as an illustrative example, finding that the number of$e$-folds$N_*$between horizon exit for the pivot scale and the end of inflation is typically the most important parameter, even when the number of fields, their masses and initial conditions are unknown, along with possible conditional dependencies between these parameters. Insights into the heavy dense QCD phase diagram using Complex Langevin simulations arXiv: 1510.0910 Gert Aarts, Felipe Attanasio, Benjamin Jäger, et al. Complex Langevin simulations provide an alternative to sample path integrals with complex weights and therefore are suited to determine the phase diagram of QCD from first principles. Adaptive step-size scaling and gauge cooling are used to improve the convergence of our simulations. We present results for the phase diagram of QCD in the limit of heavy quarks and discuss the order of the phase transitions, which are studied by varying the spatial simulation volume. Towards the heavy dense QCD phase diagram using Complex Langevin simulations arXiv: 1510.0909 Gert Aarts, Felipe Attanasio, Benjamin Jäger, et al. Monte Carlo methods cannot probe far into the QCD phase diagram with a real chemical potential, due to the famous sign problem. Complex Langevin simulations, using adaptive step-size scaling and gauge cooling, are suited for sampling path integrals with complex weights. We report here on tests of the deconfinement transition in pure Yang-Mills SU(3) simulations and present an update on the QCD phase diagram in the limit of heavy and dense quarks. Scalar 3-point functions in CFT: renormalisation, beta functions and anomalies arXiv: 1510.0844 Adam Bzowski, Paul McFadden, Kostas Skenderis We present a comprehensive discussion of renormalisation of 3-point functions of scalar operators in conformal field theories in general dimension. We have previously shown that conformal symmetry uniquely determines the momentum-space 3-point functions in terms of certain integrals involving a product of three Bessel functions (triple-K integrals). The triple-K integrals diverge when the dimensions of operators satisfy certain relations and we discuss how to obtain renormalised 3-point functions in all cases. There are three different types of divergences: ultralocal, semilocal and nonlocal, and a given divergent triple-K integral may have any combination of them. Ultralocal divergences may be removed using local counterterms and this results in new conformal anomalies. Semilocal divergences may be removed by renormalising the sources, and this results in CFT correlators that satisfy Callan-Symanzik equations with beta functions. In the case of non-local divergences, it is the triple-K representation that is singular, not the 3-point function. Here, the CFT correlator is the coefficient of the leading nonlocal singularity, which satisfies all the expected conformal Ward identities. Such correlators exhibit enhanced symmetry: they are also invariant under dual conformal transformations where the momenta play the role of coordinates. When both anomalies and beta functions are present the correlators exhibit novel analytic structure containing products of logarithms of momenta. We illustrate our discussion with numerous examples, including free field realisations and AdS/CFT computations. The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS): a cosmological forecast arXiv: 1510.0821 Gong-Bo Zhao, Yuting Wang, Ashley J. Ross, et al. We present a science forecast for the eBOSS survey, part of the SDSS-IV project, which is a spectroscopic survey using multiple tracers of large-scale structure, including luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission line galaxies (ELGs) and quasars (both as a direct probe of structure and through the Ly-$\alpha$forest). Focusing on discrete tracers, we forecast the expected accuracy of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO), the redshift-space distortion (RSD) measurements, the$f_{\rm NL}$parameter quantifying the primordial non-Gaussianity, the dark energy and modified gravity parameters. We also use the line-of-sight clustering in the Ly-$\alpha$forest to constrain the total neutrino mass. We find that eBOSS LRGs ($0.6<z<1.0$) (combined with the BOSS LRGs at$z>0.6$), ELGs ($0.6<z<1.2$) and Clustering Quasars (CQs) ($0.6<z<2.2$) can achieve a precision of 1%, 2.2% and 1.6% precisions, respectively, for spherically averaged BAO distance measurements. Using the same samples, the constraint on$f\sigma_8$is expected to be 2.5%, 3.3% and 2.8% respectively. For primordial non-Gaussianity, eBOSS alone can reach an accuracy of$\sigma(f_{\rm NL})\sim10-15$, depending on the external measurement of the galaxy bias and our ability to model large-scale systematic errors. eBOSS can at most improve the dark energy Figure of Merit (FoM) by a factor of$3$for the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parametrisation, and can well constrain three eigenmodes for the general equation-of-state parameter (Abridged). Covariantised Vector Galileons arXiv: 1510.0702 Matthew Hull, Kazuya Koyama, Gianmassimo Tasinato Vector Galileons are ghost-free systems containing higher derivative interactions of vector fields. They break the vector gauge symmetry, and the dynamics of the longitudinal vector polarizations acquire a Galileon symmetry in an appropriate decoupling limit in Minkowski space. Using an ADM approach, we carefully reconsider the coupling with gravity of vector Galileons, with the aim of studying the necessary conditions to avoid the propagation of ghosts. We develop arguments that put on a more solid footing the results previously obtained in the literature. Moreover, working in analogy with the scalar counterpart, we find indications for the existence of a beyond Horndeski' theory involving vector degrees of freedom, that avoids the propagation of ghosts thanks to secondary constraints. In addition, we analyze a Higgs mechanism for generating vector Galileons through spontaneous symmetry breaking, and we present its consistent covariantisation. Pan-STARRS1 variability of XMM-COSMOS AGN. II. Physical correlations and power spectrum analysis arXiv: 1510.0673 T. Simm, M. Salvato, R. Saglia, et al. [Abbreviated] We search for scaling relations between the fundamental AGN parameters and rest-frame UV/optical variability properties for a sample of$\sim$90 X-ray selected AGNs covering a wide redshift range from the XMM-COSMOS survey, with optical light curves in four bands provided by the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) Medium Deep Field 04 survey. To estimate the variability amplitude we utilize the normalized excess variance ($\sigma_{\mathrm{rms}}^{2}$) and probe variability on rest-frame timescales of several months and years by calculating$\sigma_{\mathrm{rms}}^{2}$from different parts of our light curves. In addition, we derive the rest-frame optical PSD for our sources using continuous-time autoregressive moving average (CARMA) models. We observe that the excess variance and the PSD amplitude are strongly anti-correlated with wavelength, bolometric luminosity and Eddington ratio. There is no evidence for a dependency of the variability amplitude on black hole mass and redshift. These results suggest that the accretion rate is the fundamental physical quantity determining the rest-frame UV/optical variability amplitude of quasars on timescales of months and years. The optical PSD of all of our sources is consistent with a broken power law showing a characteristic bend at rest-frame timescales ranging between$\sim$100 and$\sim$300 days. The break timescale exhibits no significant correlation with any of the fundamental AGN parameters. The low frequency slope of the PSD is consistent with a value of$-1$for most of our objects, whereas the high frequency slope is characterized by a broad distribution of values between$\sim-2$and$\sim-4$. These findings unveil significant deviations from the simple "damped random walk" model, frequently used in previous optical variability studies. We find a weak tendency for AGNs with higher black hole mass having steeper high frequency PSD slopes. Quantum Cosmological Perturbations of Multiple Fluids arXiv: 1510.0662 Patrick Peter, Nelson Pinto-Neto, Sandro Dias Pinto Vitenti The formalism to treat quantization and evolution of cosmological perturbations of multiple fluids is described. We first construct the Lagrangian for both the gravitational and matter parts, providing the necessary relevant variables and momenta leading to the quadratic Hamiltonian describing linear perturbations. The final Hamiltonian is obtained without assuming any equations of motions for the background variables. This general formalism is applied to the special case of two fluids, having in mind the usual radiation and matter mix which made most of our current Universe history. Quantization is achieved using an adiabatic expansion of the basis functions. This allows for an unambiguous definition of a vacuum state up to the given adiabatic order. Using this basis, we show that particle creation is well defined for a suitable choice of vacuum and canonical variables, so that the time evolution of the corresponding quantum fields is unitary. This provides constraints for setting initial conditions for an arbitrary number of fluids and background time evolution. We also show that the common choice of variables for quantization can lead to an ill-defined vacuum definition. Our formalism is not restricted to the case where the coupling between fields is small, but is only required to vary adiabatically with respect to the ultraviolet modes, thus paving the way to consistent descriptions of general models not restricted to single-field (or fluid). Shaft Inflation and the Planck satellite observations arXiv: 1510.0659 Konstantinos Dimopoulos A new family of inflation models is introduced and studied. The models are characterised by a scalar potential which, far from the origin, approaches an inflationary plateau in a power-law manner, while near the origin becomes monomial, as in chaotic inflation. The models are obtained in the context of global supersymmetry starting with a superpotential, which interpolates from a generalised monomial to an O'Raifearteagh form for small to large values of the inflaton field respectively. It is demonstrated that the observables obtained, such as the scalar spectral index, its running and the tensor to scalar ratio, are in excellent agreement with the latest observations, without any fine-tuning. Moreover, by widening mildly the shaft in field space, it is shown that sizable tensors can be generated, which may well be observable in the near future. Evidence for the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeľdovich effect with ACTPol and velocity reconstruction from BOSS arXiv: 1510.0644 Emmanuel Schaan, Simone Ferraro, Mariana Vargas-Magaña, et al. We use microwave temperature maps from two seasons of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACTPol) at 146 GHz, together with the Constant Mass CMASS galaxy sample from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey to measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Ze\v{l}dovich (kSZ) effect over the redshift range z = 0.4 - 0.7. We use galaxy positions and the continuity equation to obtain a reconstruction of the line-of-sight velocity field. We stack the cosmic microwave background temperature at the location of each halo, weighted by the corresponding reconstructed velocity. The resulting best fit kSZ model is preferred over the no-kSZ hypothesis at 3.3sigma and 2.9sigma for two independent velocity reconstruction methods, using 25,537 galaxies over 660 square degrees. The effect of foregrounds that are uncorrelated with the galaxy velocities is expected to be well below our signal, and residual thermal Sunyaev-Ze\v{l}dovich contamination is controlled by masking the most massive clusters. Finally, we discuss the systematics involved in converting our measurement of the kSZ amplitude into the mean free electron fraction of the halos in our sample. Hydrogen Burning in Low Mass Stars Constrains Alternative Gravity Theories arXiv: 1510.0596 Jeremy Sakstein The most general scalar-tensor theories of gravity predict a weakening of the gravitational force inside astrophysical bodies. There is a minimum mass for hydrogen burning in stars that is set by the interplay of plasma physics and the theory of gravity. We calculate this for alternative theories of gravity, and find that it is always significantly larger than the general relativity prediction. The observation of several low mass Red Dwarf stars therefore rules out a large class of scalar-tensor gravity theories, and places strong constraints on the cosmological parameters appearing in the effective field theory of dark energy. Energy-momentum correlations for Abelian Higgs cosmic strings arXiv: 1510.0500 David Daverio, Mark Hindmarsh, Martin Kunz, et al. We report on the energy-momentum correlators obtained with recent numerical simulations of the Abelian Higgs model, essential for the computation of cosmic microwave background and matter perturbations of cosmic strings. Due to significant improvements both in raw computing power and in our parallel simulation framework, the dynamical range of the simulations has increased four-fold both in space and time, and for the first time we are able to simulate strings with a constant physical width in both the radiation and matter eras. The new simulations improve the accuracy of the measurements of the correlation functions at the horizon scale and confirm the shape around the peak. The normalization is slightly higher in the high wave-number tails, due to a small increase in the string density. We study for the first time the behaviour of the correlators across cosmological transitions, and discover that the correlation functions evolve adiabatically, ie the network adapts quickly to changes in the expansion rate. We propose a new method for constructing source functions for Einstein-Boltzmann integrators, comparing it with two other methods previously used. The new method is more consistent, easier to implement, and significantly more accurate. The effect of interacting dark energy on local measurements of the Hubble constant arXiv: 1510.0431 Io Odderskov, Marco Baldi, Luca Amendola In the current state of cosmology, where cosmological parameters are being measured to percent accuracy, it is essential to understand all sources of error to high precision. In this paper we present the results of a study of the local variations in the Hubble constant measured at the distance scale of the Coma Cluster, and test the validity of correcting for the peculiar velocities predicted by gravitational instability theory. The study is based on N-body simulations, and includes models featuring a coupling between dark energy and dark matter, as well as two$\Lambda$CDM simulations with different values of$\sigma_8$. It is found that the variance in the local flows is significantly larger in the coupled models, which increases the uncertainty in the local measurements of the Hubble constant in these scenarios. By comparing the results from the different simulations, it is found that most of the effect is caused by the higher value of$\sigma_8$in the coupled cosmologies, though this cannot account for all of the additional variance. Given the discrepancy between different estimates of the Hubble constant in the universe today, cosmological models causing a greater cosmic variance is something that we should be aware of. Testing gravity with$E_G$: mapping theory onto observations arXiv: 1510.0428 C. Danielle Leonard, Pedro G. Ferreira, Catherine Heymans We present a complete derivation of the observationally motivated definition of the modified gravity statistic$E_G$. Using this expression, we investigate how variations to theory and survey parameters may introduce uncertainty in the general relativistic prediction of$E_G$. We forecast errors on$E_G$for measurements using two combinations of upcoming surveys, and find that theoretical uncertainties may dominate for a futuristic measurement. Finally, we compute predictions of$E_G$under modifications to general relativity in the quasistatic regime, and comment on the pros and cons of using$E_G$to test gravity with future surveys. Calculation of free baryon spectral densities at finite temperature arXiv: 1510.0406 Chrisanthi Praki, Gert Aarts Following a recent lattice study of nucleon parity doubling at finite temperature from the computation of the two-point nucleon correlators, we study the spectral functions of free nucleons at finite temperature. Spectral densities in the continuum are presented along with a comparison to (free) results on the lattice. Particular attention is given to lattice artefacts at higher energies. Probing parity doubling in nucleons at high temperature arXiv: 1510.0404 Gert Aarts, Chris Allton, Simon Hands, et al. The spectrum of nucleons and their parity partners is studied as a function of temperature spanning the deconfinement transition. We analyse our results using the correlation functions directly, exponential fits in the hadronic phase, and the Maximum Entropy Method. These techniques all indicate that there is degeneracy in the parity partners' channels in the deconfined phase. This is in accordance with the expectation that there is parity doubling and chiral symmetry in the deconfined phase. In the hadronic phase, we also find that the nucleon ground state is largely independent of temperature, whereas there are substantial temperature effects in the negative parity channel. All results are obtained using our FASTSUM 2+1 flavour ensembles. The Speed of Galileon Gravity arXiv: 1510.0370 Philippe Brax, Clare Burrage, Anne-Christine Davis We analyse the speed of gravitational waves in coupled Galileon models with an equation of state$\omega_\phi=-1$now and a ghost-free Minkowski limit. We find that the gravitational waves propagate much faster than the speed of light unless these models are small perturbations of cubic Galileons and the Galileon energy density is sub-dominant to a dominant cosmological constant. In this case, the binary pulsar bounds on the speed of gravitational waves can be satisfied and the equation of state can be close to -1 when the coupling to matter and the coefficient of the cubic term of the Galileon Lagrangian are related. This severely restricts the allowed cosmological behaviour of Galileon models and we are forced to conclude that Galileons with a stable Minkowski limit cannot account for the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe on their own. Moreover any sub-dominant Galileon component of our universe must be dominated by the cubic term. For such models with gravitons propagating faster than the speed of light, the gravitons become potentially unstable and could decay into photon pairs. They could also emit photons by Cerenkov radiation. We show that the decay rate of such speedy gravitons into photons and the Cerenkov radiation are in fact negligible. Moreover the time delay between the gravitational signal and light emitted by explosive astrophysical events could serve as a confirmation that a modification of gravity acts on the largest scales of the Universe. Using inpainting to construct accurate cut-sky CMB estimators arXiv: 1510.0310 H. F. Gruetjen, J. R. Fergusson, M. Liguori, E. P. S. Shellard The direct evaluation of manifestly optimal, cut-sky CMB power spectrum and bispectrum estimators is numerically very costly, due to the presence of inverse-covariance filtering operations. This justifies the investigation of alternative approaches. In this work, we mostly focus on an inpainting algorithm that was introduced in recent CMB analyses to cure cut-sky suboptimalities of bispectrum estimators. First, we show that inpainting can equally be applied to the problem of unbiased estimation of power spectra. We then compare the performance of a novel inpainted CMB temperature power spectrum estimator to the popular apodised pseudo-$C_l$(PCL) method and demonstrate, both numerically and with analytic arguments, that inpainted power spectrum estimates significantly outperform PCL estimates. Finally, we study the case of cut-sky bispectrum estimators, comparing the performance of three different approaches: inpainting, apodisation and a novel low-l leaning scheme. Providing an analytic argument why the local shape is typically most affected we mainly focus on local type non-Gaussianity. Our results show that inpainting allows to achieve optimality also for bispectrum estimation, but interestingly also demonstrate that appropriate apodisation, in conjunction with low-l cleaning, can lead to comparable accuracy. Pair Interaction of Catalytically Active Colloids: From Assembly to Escape arXiv: 1510.0300 Nima Sharifi-Mood, Ali Mozaffari, Ubaldo Córdova-Figueroa The dynamics and pair trajectory of two self-propelled colloids are reported. The autonomous motions of the colloids are due to a catalytic chemical reaction taking place asymmetrically on their surfaces that generates a concentration gradient of interactive solutes around the particles and actuate particle propulsion. We consider two spherical particles with symmetric catalytic caps extending over the local polar angles$\theta^1_{cap}$and$\theta^2_{cap}$from the centers of active sectors in an otherwise quiescent fluid. A combined analytical-numerical technique was developed to solve the coupled mass transfer equation and the hydrodynamics in the Stokes flow regime. The ensuing pair trajectory of the colloids is controlled by the reacting coverages$\theta^j_{cap}$and their initial relative orientation with respect to each other. Our analysis indicates two possible scenarios for pair trajectories of catalytic self-propelled particles: either the particles approach, come into contact and assemble or they interact and move away from each other (escape). For arbitrary motions of the colloids, it is found that the direction of particle rotations is the key factor in determining the escape or assembly scenario. Based on the analysis, a phase diagram is sketched for the pair trajectory of the catalytically active particles as a function of active coverages and their initial relative orientations. We believe this study has important implications in elucidation of collective behaviors of auotophoretically self-propelled colloids. Shocks in the Early Universe arXiv: 1510.0298 Ue-Li Pen, Neil Turok We point out a surprising consequence of the usually assumed initial conditions for cosmological perturbations. Namely, a scale-invariant spectrum of Gaussian, linear, adiabatic, scalar, growing mode perturbations not only creates acoustic oscillations, of the kind observed in great detail on large scales today, it also leads to the production of shock waves in the radiation fluid of the very early universe. At very early epochs,$1$GeV$<T<10^{7}$GeV, assuming standard model physics, viscous damping is negligible and nonlinear effects turn acoustic waves into shocks after$\sim 10^4$oscillations. The resulting scale-invariant network of shocks provides a natural mechanism for creating significant departures from local thermal equilibrium as well as primordial vorticity and gravitational waves. Tracing the reverberation lag in the hard state of black hole X-ray binaries arXiv: 1510.0279 B. De Marco, G. Ponti, T. Muñoz-Darias, K. Nandra We report results obtained from a systematic analysis of X-ray lags in a sample of black hole X-ray binaries, with the aim of assessing the presence of reverberation lags and studying their evolution during outburst. We used XMM-Newton and simultaneous RXTE observations to obtain broad-band energy coverage of both the disc and the hard X-ray Comptonization components. In most cases the detection of reverberation lags is hampered by low levels of variability signal-to-noise ratio (e.g. typically when the source is in a soft state) and/or short exposure times. The most detailed study was possible for GX 339-4 in the hard state, which allowed us to characterize the evolution of X-ray lags as a function of luminosity in a single source. Over all the sampled frequencies (~0.05-9 Hz) we observe the hard lags intrinsic to the power law component, already well-known from previous RXTE studies. The XMM-Newton soft X-ray response allows us to detail the disc variability. At low-frequencies (long time scales) the disc component always leads the power law component. On the other hand, a soft reverberation lag (ascribable to thermal reprocessing) is always detected at high-frequencies (short time scales). The intrinsic amplitude of the reverberation lag decreases as the source luminosity and the disc-fraction increase. This suggests that the distance between the X-ray source and the region of the optically-thick disc where reprocessing occurs, gradually decreases as GX 339-4 rises in luminosity through the hard state, possibly as a consequence of reduced disc truncation. Imaging parity-violation in the CMB arXiv: 1510.0262 Carlo R. Contaldi Correlations of polarisation components in the coordinate frame are a natural basis for searches of parity-violating modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This fact can be exploited to build estimators of parity-violating modes that are local and robust with respect to partial-sky coverage or inhomogeneous weighting. As an example application of a method based on these ideas we develop a peak stacking tool that isolates the signature of parity-violating modes. We apply the tool to Planck maps and obtain a constraint on the monopole of the polarisation rotation angle$\alpha=0.31\pm 0.23$. We also demonstrate how the tool can be used as a local method for reconstructing maps of direction dependent rotation$\alpha (\hat n)$. Novel Scenarios for Majorana Neutrino Mass Generation and Leptogenesis from Kalb-Ramond Torsion arXiv: 1510.0245 Nick E. Mavromatos The Kalb-Ramond (KR) antisymmetric tensor field arises naturally in the gravitational multiplet of string theory. Nevertheless, the respective low-energy field theory action, in which, for reasons of gauge invariance, the only dependence on the KR field is through its field strength, constitutes an interesting model \emph{per se}. In this context, the KR field strength also acts as a totally antisymmetric torsion field, while in four space-time dimensions is \emph{dual} to an (KR) axion-like pseudoscalar field. In this context, we review here first the r\^ole of quantum fluctuations of the KR axion on the generation of Majorana mass for neutrinos, via a mixing with ordinary axions that may exist in the theory as providers of dark matter candidates. Then we proceed to discuss the r\^ole of constant in time (thus Lorentz violating) KR torsion backgrounds, that may exist in the early Universe but are completely negligible today, on inducing Leptogenesis by means of \emph{tree-level} CP violating decays of Right Handed Massive Majorana neutrinos in the presence of such H-torsion backgrounds. Some speculations regarding microscopic D-brane world models, where such scenarios may be realised, are also given. Large scale CMB anomalies from thawing cosmic strings arXiv: 1510.0191 Christophe Ringeval, Daisuke Yamauchi, Jun'ichi Yokoyama, Francois R. Bouchet Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings imprint their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies after recombination. Being almost frozen in the Hubble flow, these strings are quasi static and evade almost all of the previously derived constraints on their tension while being able to source large scale anisotropies in the CMB sky. Using a local variance estimator on thousand of numerically simulated Nambu-Goto all sky maps, we compute the expected signal and show that it can mimic a dipole modulation at large angular scales while being negligible at small angles. Interestingly, such a scenario generically produces one cold spot from the thawing of a cosmic string loop. Mixed with anisotropies of inflationary origin, we find that a few strings of tension GU = O(1) x 10^(-6) match the amplitude of the dipole modulation reported in the Planck satellite measurements and could be at the origin of other large scale anomalies. A menagerie of hairy black holes arXiv: 1510.0166 Elizabeth Winstanley According to the no-hair conjecture, equilibrium black holes are simple objects, completely determined by global charges which can be measured at infinity. This is the case in Einstein-Maxwell theory due to beautiful uniqueness theorems. However, the no-hair conjecture is not true in general, and there is now a plethora of matter models possessing hairy black hole solutions. In this note we focus on one such matter model: Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) theory, and restrict our attention to four-dimensional, static, non-rotating black holes for simplicity. We outline some of the menagerie of EYM solutions in both asymptotically flat and asymptotically anti-de Sitter space. We attempt to make sense of this black hole zoo in terms of Bizon's modified no-hair conjecture. The Einstein static universe in Scalar-Fluid theories arXiv: 1510.0147 Christian G. Boehmer, Nicola Tamanini, Matthew Wright A new Lagrangian framework has recently been proposed to describe interactions between relativistic perfect fluids and scalar fields. In this paper we investigate the Einstein static universe in this new class of theories, which have been named Scalar-Fluid theories. The stability of the static solutions to both homogeneous and inhomogeneous perturbations is analysed deriving the relevant cosmological perturbation equations at the linear order. We can find several configurations corresponding to an Einstein static universes which are stable against inhomogeneous perturbations, but unstable against homogeneous perturbations. This shows the possible applications of Scalar-Fluid theories to the inflationary emergent universe scenario. A new class of de Sitter vacua in String Theory Compactifications arXiv: 1510.0127 Ana Achúcarro, Pablo Ortiz, Kepa Sousa We revisit the stability of the complex structure moduli in the large volume regime of type-IIB flux compactifications. We argue that when the volume is not exponentially large, such as in K\"ahler uplifted dS vacua, the quantum corrections to the tree-level mass spectrum can induce tachyonic instabilities in this sector. We discuss a Random Matrix Theory model for the classical spectrum of the complex structure fields, and derive a new stability bound involving the compactification volume and the (very large) number of moduli. We also present a new class of vacua for this sector where the mass spectrum presents a finite gap, without invoking large supersymmetric masses. At these vacua the complex structure sector is protected from tachyonic instabilities even at non-exponential volumes. A distinguishing feature is that all fermions in this sector are lighter than the gravitino. A Perfect Bounce arXiv: 1510.0069 Steffen Gielen, Neil Turok We study quantum cosmology with conformal matter comprising a perfect radiation fluid and a number of conformally coupled scalar fields. For FRW backgrounds, we are able to perform the quantum gravity path integral exactly. We find the evolution to describe a "perfect bounce," in which the universe passes smoothly through the singularity. The Feynman path integral is precisely that for a relativistic oscillator, for which the scale factor of the universe is a time and the scalar fields are spatial coordinates. This picture provides natural, unitary quantum mechanical evolution across a bounce. We also study the quantum evolution of anisotropies and of inhomogeneous perturbations, at linear and nonlinear order. We provide evidence for a semiclassical description in which all fields pass "around" the cosmological singularity along complex classical paths. Parametrizations of the global 21-cm signal and parameter estimation from single-dipole experiments arXiv: 1510.0027 Geraint J. A. Harker, Jordan Mirocha, Jack O. Burns, Jonathan R. Pritchard One approach to extracting the global 21-cm signal from total-power measurements at low radio frequencies is to parametrize the different contributions to the data and then fit for these parameters. We examine parametrizations of the 21-cm signal itself, and propose one based on modelling the Lyman-alpha background, IGM temperature and hydrogen ionized fraction using tanh functions. This captures the shape of the signal from a physical modelling code better than an earlier parametrization based on interpolating between maxima and minima of the signal, and imposes a greater level of physical plausibility. This allows less biased constraints on the turning points of the signal, even though these are not explicitly fit for. Biases can also be alleviated by discarding information which is less robustly described by the parametrization, for example by ignoring detailed shape information coming from the covariances between turning points or from the high-frequency parts of the signal, or by marginalizing over the high-frequency parts of the signal by fitting a more complex foreground model. The fits are sufficiently accurate to be usable for experiments gathering 1000 h of data, though in this case it may be important to choose observing windows which do not include the brightest areas of the foregrounds. Our assumption of pointed, single-antenna observations and very broad-band fitting makes these results particularly applicable to experiments such as the Dark Ages Radio Explorer, which would study the global 21-cm signal from the clean environment of a low lunar orbit, taking data from the far side. Compound lensing: Einstein Zig-Zags and high multiplicity lensed images arXiv: 1510.0024 Thomas E. Collett, David J. Bacon Compound strong gravitational lensing is a rare phenomenon, but a handful of such lensed systems are likely to be discovered in forthcoming surveys. In this work, we use a double SIS lens model to analytically understand how the properties of the system impact image multiplicity for the final source. We find that up to six images of a background source can form, but only if the second lens is multiply imaged by the first and the Einstein radius of the second lens is comparable to, but does not exceed that of the first. We then build a model of compound lensing masses in the Universe, using SIE lenses, and assess how the optical depth for multiple imaging by a galaxy-galaxy compound lens varies with source redshift. For a source redshift of 4, we find optical depths of$6 \times 10^{-6}$for multiple imaging and$5 \times 10^{-8}$for multiplicity of 6 or greater. We find that extreme magnifications are possible, with magnifications of 100 or more for$6 \times 10^{-9}$of$z=10$sources with 0.1 kpc radii. We show some of the image configurations that can be generated by compound lenses, and demonstrate that they are qualitatively different to those generated by single-plane lenses; dedicated compound lens finders will be necessary if these systems are to be discovered in forthcoming surveys. Exceptional Calabi--Yau spaces: the geometry of$\mathcal{N}=2$backgrounds with flux arXiv: 1510.0002 Anthony Ashmore, Daniel Waldram In this paper we define the analogue of Calabi--Yau geometry for generic$D=4$,$\mathcal{N}=2$flux backgrounds in type II supergravity and M-theory. We show that solutions of the Killing spinor equations are in one-to-one correspondence with integrable, globally defined structures in$E_{7(7)}\times\mathbb{R}^+$generalised geometry. Such "exceptional Calabi--Yau" geometries are determined by two generalised objects that parametrise hyper- and vector-multiplet degrees of freedom and generalise conventional complex, symplectic and hyper-Kahler geometries. The integrability conditions for both hyper- and vector-multiplet structures are given by the vanishing of moment maps for the "generalised diffeomorphism group" of diffeomorphisms combined with gauge transformations. We give a number of explicit examples and discuss the structure of the moduli spaces of solutions. We then extend our construction to$D=5$and$D=6$flux backgrounds preserving eight supercharges, where similar structures appear, and finally discuss the analogous structures in$O(d,d)\times\mathbb{R}^+$generalised geometry. Gaussianisation for fast and accurate inference from cosmological data arXiv: 1510.0001 Robert L. Schuhmann, Benjamin Joachimi, Hiranya V. Peiris We present a method to transform multivariate unimodal non-Gaussian posterior probability densities into approximately Gaussian ones via non-linear mappings, such as Box--Cox transformations and generalisations thereof. This permits an analytical reconstruction of the posterior from a point sample, like a Markov chain, and simplifies the subsequent joint analysis with other experiments. This way, a multivariate posterior density can be reported efficiently, by compressing the information contained in MCMC samples. Further, the model evidence integral (i.e. the marginal likelihood) can be computed analytically. This method is analogous to the search for normal parameters in the cosmic microwave background, but is more general. The search for the optimally Gaussianising transformation is performed computationally through a maximum-likelihood formalism; its quality can be judged by how well the credible regions of the posterior are reproduced. We demonstrate that our method outperforms kernel density estimates in this objective. Further, we select marginal posterior samples from Planck data with several distinct strongly non-Gaussian features, and verify the reproduction of the marginal contours. To demonstrate evidence computation, we Gaussianise the joint distribution of data from weak lensing and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), for different cosmological models, and find a preference for flat$\Lambda$CDM. Comparing to values computed with the Savage-Dickey density ratio, and Population Monte Carlo, we find good agreement of our method within the spread of the other two. Unbiased methods for removing systematics from galaxy clustering measurements arXiv: 1509.0893 Franz Elsner, Boris Leistedt, Hiranya V. Peiris Measuring the angular clustering of galaxies as a function of redshift is a powerful method for extracting information from the three-dimensional galaxy distribution. The precision of such measurements will dramatically increase with ongoing and future wide-field galaxy surveys. However, these are also increasingly sensitive to observational and astrophysical contaminants. Here, we study the statistical properties of three methods proposed for controlling such systematics -- template subtraction, basic mode projection, and extended mode projection -- all of which make use of externally supplied template maps, designed to characterise and capture the spatial variations of potential systematic effects. Based on a detailed mathematical analysis, and in agreement with simulations, we find that the template subtraction method in its original formulation returns biased estimates of the galaxy angular clustering. We derive closed-form expressions that should be used to correct results for this shortcoming. Turning to the basic mode projection algorithm, we prove it to be free of any bias, whereas we conclude that results computed with extended mode projection are biased. Within a simplified setup, we derive analytical expressions for the bias and discuss the options for correcting it in more realistic configurations. Common to all three methods is an increased estimator variance induced by the cleaning process, albeit at different levels. These results enable unbiased high-precision clustering measurements in the presence of spatially-varying systematics, an essential step towards realising the full potential of current and planned galaxy surveys. Eliminating the optical depth nuisance from the CMB with 21 cm cosmology arXiv: 1509.0846 Adrian Liu, Jonathan R. Pritchard, Rupert Allison, et al. Amongst standard model parameters that are constrained by cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations, the optical depth$\tau$stands out as a nuisance parameter. While$\tau$provides some crude limits on reionization, it also degrades constraints on other cosmological parameters. Here we explore how 21 cm cosmology---as a direct probe of reionization---can be used to independently predict$\tau$in an effort to improve CMB parameter constraints. We develop two complementary schemes for doing so. The first uses 21 cm power spectrum observations in conjunction with semi-analytic simulations to predict$\tau$. The other uses global 21 cm measurements to directly constrain low redshift (post-reheating) contributions to$\tau$in a relatively model-independent way. Forecasting the performance of the upcoming Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array, we find that significant reductions in the errors on$\tau$can be achieved. These results are particularly effective at breaking the CMB degeneracy between$\tau$and the amplitude of the primordial fluctuation spectrum$A_s$, with errors on$\ln (10^{10} A_s)$reduced by up to a factor of four. Stage 4 CMB constraints on the neutrino mass sum are also improved, with errors potentially reduced to$12\,\textrm{meV}$regardless of whether CMB experiments can precisely measure the reionization bump in polarization power spectra. Observations of the 21 cm line are therefore capable of improving not only our understanding of reionization astrophysics, but also of cosmology in general. The binned bispectrum estimator: template-based and non-parametric CMB non-Gaussianity searches arXiv: 1509.0810 Martin Bucher, Benjamin Racine, Bartjan van Tent We describe the details of the binned bispectrum estimator as used for the official 2013 and 2015 analyses of the temperature and polarization CMB maps from the ESA Planck satellite. The defining aspect of this estimator is the determination of a map bispectrum (3-point correlator) that has been binned in harmonic space. For a parametric determination of the non-Gaussianity in the map (the so-called fNL parameters), one takes the inner product of this binned bispectrum with theoretically motivated templates. However, as a complementary approach one can also smooth the binned bispectrum using a variable smoothing scale in order to suppress noise and make coherent features stand out above the noise. This allows one to look in a model-independent way for any statistically significant bispectral signal. This approach is useful for characterizing the bispectral shape of the galactic foreground emission, for which a theoretical prediction of the bispectral anisotropy is lacking, and for detecting a serendipitous primordial signal, for which a theoretical template has not yet been put forth. Both the template-based and the non-parametric approaches are described in this paper. Exploring the Parameter Space of Warm-Inflation Models arXiv: 1509.0760 Mar Bastero-Gil, Arjun Berera, Nico Kronberg Warm inflation includes inflaton interactions with other fields throughout the inflationary epoch instead of confining such interactions to a distinct reheating era. Previous investigations have shown that, when certain constraints on the dynamics of these interactions and the resultant radiation bath are satisfied, a low-momentum-dominated dissipation coefficient$\propto T^3/m_\chi^2$can sustain an era of inflation compatible with CMB observations. In this work, we extend these analyses by including the pole-dominated dissipation term$\propto \sqrt{m_\chi T} \exp(-m_\chi/T)$. We find that, with this enhanced dissipation, certain models, notably the quadratic hilltop potential, perform significantly better. Specifically, we can achieve 50 e-folds of inflation and a spectral index compatible with Planck data while requiring fewer mediator field ($O(10^4)$for the quadratic hilltop potential) and smaller coupling constants, opening up interesting model-building possibilities. We also highlight the significance of the specific parametric dependence of the dissipative coefficient which could prove useful in even greater reduction in field content. Robust forecasts on fundamental physics from the foreground-obscured, gravitationally-lensed CMB polarization arXiv: 1509.0677 Josquin Errard, Stephen M. Feeney, Hiranya V. Peiris, Andrew H. Jaffe [Abridged] Recent results from the BICEP, Keck Array and Planck Collaborations demonstrate that Galactic foregrounds are an unavoidable obstacle in the search for evidence of inflationary gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. Beyond the foregrounds, the effect of lensing by intervening large-scale structure further obscures all but the strongest inflationary signals permitted by current data. With a plethora of ongoing and upcoming experiments aiming to measure these signatures, careful and self-consistent consideration of experiments' foreground- and lensing-removal capabilities is critical in obtaining credible forecasts of their performance. We investigate the capabilities of instruments such as Advanced ACTPol, BICEP3 and Keck Array, CLASS, EBEX10K, PIPER, Simons Array, SPT-3G and SPIDER, and projects as COrE+, LiteBIRD-ext, PIXIE and Stage IV, to clean contamination due to polarized synchrotron and dust from raw multi-frequency data, and remove lensing from the resulting co-added CMB maps (either using iterative CMB-only techniques or through cross-correlation with external data). Incorporating these effects, we present forecasts for the constraining power of these experiments in terms of inflationary physics, the neutrino sector, and dark energy parameters. Made publicly available through an online interface, this tool enables the next generation of CMB experiments to foreground-proof their designs, optimize their frequency coverage to maximize scientific output, and determine where cross-experimental collaboration would be most beneficial. We find that analyzing data from ground, balloon and space instruments in complementary combinations can significantly improve component separation performance, delensing, and cosmological constraints over individual datasets. Planck 2015 results. XXIII. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect--cosmic infrared background correlation arXiv: 1509.0655 Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, et al. We use Planck data to detect the cross-correlation between the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect and the infrared emission from the galaxies that make up the the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We first perform a stacking analysis towards Planck-confirmed galaxy clusters. We detect infrared emission produced by dusty galaxies inside these clusters and demonstrate that the infrared emission is about 50% more extended than the tSZ effect. Modelling the emission with a Navarro--Frenk--White profile, we find that the radial profile concentration parameter is$c_{500} = 1.00^{+0.18}_{-0.15}$. This indicates that infrared galaxies in the outskirts of clusters have higher infrared flux than cluster-core galaxies. We also study the cross-correlation between tSZ and CIB anisotropies, following three alternative approaches based on power spectrum analyses: (i) using a catalogue of confirmed clusters detected in Planck data; (ii) using an all-sky tSZ map built from Planck frequency maps; and (iii) using cross-spectra between Planck frequency maps. With the three different methods, we detect the tSZ-CIB cross-power spectrum at significance levels of (i) 6$\sigma$, (ii) 3$\sigma$, and (iii) 4$\sigma$. We model the tSZ-CIB cross-correlation signature and compare predictions with the measurements. The amplitude of the cross-correlation relative to the fiducial model is$A_{\rm tSZ-CIB}= 1.2\pm0.3$. This result is consistent with predictions for the tSZ-CIB cross-correlation assuming the best-fit cosmological model from Planck 2015 results along with the tSZ and CIB scaling relations. Planck 2015 results. XII. Full Focal Plane simulations arXiv: 1509.0634 Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, et al. We present the 8th Full Focal Plane simulation set (FFP8), deployed in support of the Planck 2015 results. FFP8 consists of 10 fiducial mission realizations reduced to 18144 maps, together with the most massive suite of Monte Carlo realizations of instrument noise and CMB ever generated, comprising$10^4$mission realizations reduced to about$10^6$maps. The resulting maps incorporate the dominant instrumental, scanning, and data analysis effects; remaining subdominant effects will be included in future updates. Generated at a cost of some 25 million CPU-hours spread across multiple high-performance-computing (HPC) platforms, FFP8 is used for the validation and verification of analysis algorithms, as well as their implementations, and for removing biases from and quantifying uncertainties in the results of analyses of the real data. Semiclassical solutions of generalized Wheeler-DeWitt cosmology arXiv: 1509.0572 Marco de Cesare, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo, Mairi Sakellariadou We consider an extension of WDW minisuperpace cosmology with additional interaction terms that preserve the linear structure of the theory. General perturbative methods are developed and applied to known semiclassical solutions for a closed Universe filled with a massless scalar. The exact Feynman propagator of the free theory is derived by means of a conformal transformation in minisuperspace. As an example, a stochastic interaction term is considered and first order perturbative corrections are computed. It is argued that such an interaction can be used to describe the interaction of the cosmological background with the microscopic d.o.f. of the gravitational field. A Helmoltz-like equation is considered for the case of interactions that do not depend on the internal time and the corresponding Green's kernel is obtained exactly.The possibility of linking this approach to fundamental theories of Quantum Gravity is investigated. Disformal Gravity Theories: A Jordan Frame Analysis arXiv: 1509.0567 Jeremy Sakstein, Sarunas Verner The Jordan frame action for general disformal theories is presented and studied for the first time, motivated by several unresolved mysteries that arise when working in the Einstein frame. We present the Friedmann equations and, specialising to exponential functions, study the late-time cosmology using dynamical systems methods and by finding approximate solutions. Our analysis reveals that either the disformal effects are irrelevant or the universe evolves towards a phantom phase where the equation of state of dark energy is$-3$. There is a marginal case where the asymptotic state of the universe depends on the model parameters and de-Sitter solutions can be obtained. Our findings indicate that the metric singularity found using the Einstein frame construction corresponds phantom behaviour in the Jordan frame and we argue that this is the case for general disformal theories. Minimal boson stars in 5 dimensions: classical instability and existence of ergoregions arXiv: 1509.0453 Yves Brihaye, Betti Hartmann We show that minimal boson stars, i.e. boson stars made out of scalar fields without self-interaction, are always classically unstable in 5 space-time dimensions. This is true for the non-rotating as well as rotating case with two equal angular momenta and in both Einstein and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, respectively, and contrasts with the 4-dimensional case, where classically stable minimal boson stars exist. We also discuss the appearance of ergoregions for rotating boson stars with two equal angular momenta. While rotating black holes typically possess an ergoregion, rotating compact objects without horizons such as boson stars have ergoregions only in a limited range of the parameter space. In this paper, we show for which values of the parameters these ergoregions appear and compare this with the case of standard Einstein gravity. We also point out that the interplay between Gauss-Bonnet gravity and rotation puts constraints on the behaviour of the space-time close to the rotation axis. General relativity and cosmology arXiv: 1509.0449 Martin Bucher, Wei-Tou Ni This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's 1915 landmark paper "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation" in which the field equations of general relativity were correctly formulated for the first time, thus rendering general relativity a complete theory. Over the subsequent hundred years physicists and astronomers have struggled with uncovering the consequences and applications of these equations. This contribution, which was written as an introduction to six chapters dealing with the connection between general relativity and cosmology that will appear in the two-volume book "One Hundred Years of General Relativity: From Genesis and Empirical Foundations to Gravitational Waves, Cosmology and Quantum Gravity," endeavors to provide a historical overview of the connection between general relativity and cosmology, two areas whose development has been closely intertwined. POLARBEAR Constraints on Cosmic Birefringence and Primordial Magnetic Fields arXiv: 1509.0246 POLARBEAR Collaboration, Peter A. R. Ade, Kam Arnold, et al. We constrain anisotropic cosmic birefringence using four-point correlations of even-parity$E$-mode and odd-parity$B$-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background measurements made by the POLARization of the Background Radiation (POLARBEAR) experiment in its first season of observations. We find that the anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal from any parity-violating processes is consistent with zero. The Faraday rotation from anisotropic cosmic birefringence can be compared with the equivalent quantity generated by primordial magnetic fields if they existed. The POLARBEAR nondetection translates into a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limit of 93 nanogauss (nG) on the amplitude of an equivalent primordial magnetic field inclusive of systematic uncertainties. This four-point correlation constraint on Faraday rotation is about 15 times tighter than the upper limit of 1380 nG inferred from constraining the contribution of Faraday rotation to two-point correlations of$B$-modes measured by Planck in 2015. Metric perturbations sourced by primordial magnetic fields would also contribute to the$B$-mode power spectrum. Using the POLARBEAR measurements of the$B$-mode power spectrum (two-point correlation), we set a 95% C.L. upper limit of 3.9 nG on primordial magnetic fields assuming a flat prior on the field amplitude. This limit is comparable to what was found in the Planck 2015 two-point correlation analysis with both temperature and polarization. We perform a set of systematic error tests and find no evidence for contamination. This work marks the first time that anisotropic cosmic birefringence or primordial magnetic fields have been constrained from the ground at subdegree scales. Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Projected Galaxy Clustering arXiv: 1509.0215 D. J. Farrow, Shaun Cole, Peder Norberg, et al. We measure the projected 2-point correlation function of galaxies in the 180 deg$^2$equatorial regions of the GAMA II survey, for four different redshift slices between z = 0.0 and z=0.5. To do this we further develop the Cole (2011) method of producing suitable random catalogues for the calculation of correlation functions. We find that more r-band luminous, more massive and redder galaxies are more clustered. We also find that red galaxies have stronger clustering on scales less than ~3$h^{-1}$Mpc. We compare to two different versions of the GALFORM galaxy formation model, Lacey et al (in prep.) and Gonzalez-Perez et al. (2014), and find that the models reproduce the trend of stronger clustering for more massive galaxies. However, the models under predict the clustering of blue galaxies, can incorrectly predict the correlation function on small scales and under predict the clustering in our sample of galaxies with ~3$L_r$. We suggest possible avenues to explore to improve these cluster- ing predictions. The measurements presented in this paper can be used to test other galaxy formation models, and we make the measurements available online to facilitate this. Non-Hermitian extension of gauge theories and implications for neutrino physics arXiv: 1509.0120 Jean Alexandre, Carl M. Bender, Peter Millington An extension of QED is considered in which the Dirac fermion has both Hermitian and anti-Hermitian mass terms, as well as both vector and axial-vector couplings to the gauge field. Gauge invariance is restored when the Hermitian and anti-Hermitian masses are of equal magnitude, and the theory reduces to that of a single massless Weyl fermion. An analogous non-Hermitian Yukawa theory is considered, and it is shown that this model can explain the smallness of the light-neutrino masses and provide an additional source of leptonic CP violation. Cascading dust inflation in Born-Infeld gravity arXiv: 1509.0118 Jose Beltran Jimenez, Lavinia Heisenberg, Gonzalo J. Olmo, Christophe Ringeval In the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, which deviates from General Relativity (GR) in the high curvature regime, we discuss the viability of Cosmic Inflation without scalar fields. For energy densities higher than the new mass scale of the theory, a gravitating dust component is shown to generically induce an accelerated expansion of the Universe. Within such a simple scenario, inflation gracefully exits when the GR regime is recovered, but the Universe would remain matter dominated. In order to implement a reheating era after inflation, we then consider inflation to be driven by a mixture of unstable dust species decaying into radiation. Because the speed of sound gravitates within the Born-Infeld model under consideration, our scenario ends up being predictive on various open questions of the inflationary paradigm. The total number of e-folds of acceleration is given by the lifetime of the unstable dust components and is related to the duration of reheating. As a result, inflation does not last much longer than the number of e-folds of deceleration allowing a small spatial curvature and large scale deviations to isotropy to be observable today. Energy densities are self-regulated as inflation can only start for a total energy density less than a threshold value, again related to the species' lifetime. Above this threshold, the Universe may bounce thereby avoiding a singularity. Another distinctive feature is that the accelerated expansion is of the superinflationary kind, namely the first Hubble flow function is negative. We show however that the tensor modes are never excited and the tensor-to-scalar ratio is always vanishing, independently of the energy scale of inflation. Looking through the Pseudo-Scalar Portal into Dark Matter: Novel Mono-Higgs and Mono-$Z$Signatures at LHC arXiv: 1509.0111 Jose Miguel No Mono-$X$signatures are a powerful collider probe of the nature of dark matter. We show that mono-Higgs and mono-$Z$may be key signatures of pseudo-scalar portal interactions between dark matter and the SM. We demonstrate this using a simple renormalizable version of the portal, with a Two-Higgs-Doublet-Model as electroweak symmetry breaking sector. Mono-$Z$and mono-Higgs signatures in this scenario are of resonant type, which constitutes a novel type of dark matter signature at LHC. Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos arXiv: 1509.0080 Kohta Murase, Dafne Guetta, Markus Ahlers The latest IceCube data suggest that the all-flavor cosmic neutrino flux may be as large as 10^-7 GeV/cm^2/s/sr around 30 TeV. We show that, if sources of the TeV-PeV neutrinos are transparent to gamma rays with respect to two-photon annihilation, strong tensions with the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background measured by Fermi are unavoidable, independently of the production mechanism. We further show that, if the IceCube neutrinos have a photohadronic (pgamma) origin, the sources are expected to be opaque to 1-100 GeV gamma rays. With these general multimessenger arguments, we find that the latest data suggest a population of cosmic-ray accelerators hidden in GeV-TeV gamma rays as a neutrino origin. Searches for x-ray and MeV gamma-ray counterparts are encouraged, and TeV-PeV neutrinos themselves will serve as special probes of dense source environments. The evolution of the disc variability along the hard state of the black hole transient GX 339-4 arXiv: 1509.0004 B. De Marco, G. Ponti, T. Muñoz-Darias, K. Nandra We report on the analysis of hard-state power spectral density function (PSD) of GX 339-4 down to the soft X-ray band, where the disc significantly contributes to the total emission. At any luminosity probed, the disc in the hard state is intrinsically more variable than in the soft state. However, the fast decrease of disc variability as a function of luminosity, combined with the increase of disc intensity, causes a net drop of fractional variability at high luminosities and low energies, which reminds the well-known behaviour of disc-dominated energy bands in the soft state. The peak-frequency of the high-frequency Lorentzian (likely corresponding to the high-frequency break seen in active galactic nuclei, AGN) scales with luminosity, but we do not find evidence for a linear scaling. In addition, we observe that this characteristic frequency is energy-dependent. We find that the normalization of the PSD at the peak of the high-frequency Lorentzian decreases with luminosity at all energies, though in the soft band this trend is steeper. Together with the frequency shift, this yields quasi-constant high frequency (5-20 Hz) fractional rms at high energies, with less than 10 percent scatter. This reinforces previous claims suggesting that the high frequency PSD solely scales with BH mass. On the other hand, this constancy breaks down in the soft band (where the scatter increases to ~30 percent). This is a consequence of the additional contribution from the disc component, and resembles the behaviour of optical variability in AGN. Cold Dust Emission from X-ray AGN in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: Dependence on Luminosity, Obscuration & AGN Activity arXiv: 1509.0001 Manda Banerji, R. G. McMahon, C. J. Willott, et al. We study the 850um emission in X-ray selected AGN in the 2 sq-deg COSMOS field using new data from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey. We find 19 850um bright X-ray AGN in a high-sensitivity region covering 0.89 sq-deg with flux densities of S850=4-10 mJy. The 19 AGN span the full range in redshift and hard X-ray luminosity covered by the sample - 0.7<z<3.5 and 43.2<log10(LX) <45. We report a highly significant stacked 850um detection of a hard X-ray flux-limited population of 699 z>1 X-ray AGN - S850=0.71+/-0.08mJy. We explore trends in the stacked 850um flux densities with redshift, finding no evolution in the average cold dust emission over the redshift range probed. For Type 1 AGN, there is no significant correlation between the stacked 850um flux and hard X-ray luminosity. However, in Type 2 AGN the stacked submm flux is a factor of 2 higher at high luminosities. When averaging over all X-ray luminosities, no significant differences are found in the stacked submm fluxes of Type 1 and Type 2 AGN as well as AGN separated on the basis of X-ray hardness ratios and optical-to-infrared colours. However, at log10(LX) >44.4, dependences in average submm flux on the optical-to-infrared colours become more pronounced. We argue that these high luminosity AGN represent a transition from a secular to a merger-driven evolutionary phase where the star formation rates and accretion luminosities are more tightly coupled. Stacked AGN 850um fluxes are compared to the stacked fluxes of a mass-matched sample of K-band selected non-AGN galaxies. We find that at 10.5<log10(M*/M0)<11.5, the non-AGN 850um fluxes are 1.5-2x higher than in Type 2 AGN of equivalent mass. We suggest these differences are due to the presence of massive dusty, red starburst galaxies in the K-band selected non-AGN sample, which are not present in optically selected catalogues covering a smaller area. Cluster gas fraction as a test of gravity arXiv: 1508.0736 Baojiu Li, Jian-hua He, Liang Gao We propose a new cosmological test of gravity, by using the observed mass fraction of X-ray emitting gas in massive galaxy clusters. The cluster gas fraction, believed to be a fair sample of the average baryon fraction in the Universe, is a well-understood observable, which has previously mainly been used to constrain background cosmology. In some modified gravity models, such as$f(R)$gravity, gas temperature in a massive cluster is determined by the effective mass of that cluster, which can be larger than its true mass. On the other hand, X-ray luminosity is determined by the true gas density, which in both modified gravity and$\Lambda$CDM models depends mainly on$\Omega_{\rm b}/\Omega_{\rm m}$and hence the true total cluster mass. As a result, the standard practice of combining gas temperatures and X-ray surface brightnesses of clusters to infer their gas fractions can, in modified gravity models, lead to a larger - in$f(R)$gravity this can be$1/3$larger - value of$\Omega_{\rm b}/\Omega_{\rm m}$than that inferred from other observations such as the CMB. A quick calculation shows that the Hu-Sawicki$n=1f(R)$model with$

An accurate method of modeling cluster scaling relations in modified gravity
arXiv: 1508.0735
Jian-hua He, Baojiu Li

We propose a new method to model cluster scaling relations in modified gravity. Using a suite of non-radiative hydrodynamical simulations, we show that the scaling relations of accumulated gas quantities, such as the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect (Compton-y parameter) and the x-ray Compton-Y parameter, can be accurately predicted using the known results in the $\Lambda$CDM model with a precision of $\sim3\%$. This method provides a reliable way to analyze the gas physics in modified gravity using the less-demanding and much more efficient pure cold dark matter simulations. Our results therefore have important theoretical and practical implications in constraining gravity using cluster surveys.

Fitting and forecasting non-linear coupled dark energy
arXiv: 1508.0720
Santiago Casas, Luca Amendola, Marco Baldi, et al.

We consider cosmological models in which dark matter feels a fifth force mediated by the dark energy scalar field, also known as coupled dark energy. Our interest resides in estimating forecasts for future surveys like Euclid when we take into account non-linear effects, relying on new fitting functions that reproduce the non-linear matter power spectrum obtained from N-body simulations. We obtain fitting functions for models in which the dark matter-dark energy coupling is constant. Their validity is demonstrated for all available simulations in the redshift range $z=0-1.6$ and wave modes below $k=10 \text{h/Mpc}$. These fitting formulas can be used to test the predictions of the model in the non-linear regime without the need for additional computing-intensive N-body simulations. We then use these fitting functions to perform forecasts on the constraining power that future galaxy-redshift surveys like Euclid will have on the coupling parameter, using the Fisher matrix method for galaxy clustering (GC) and weak lensing (WL). We find that by using information in the non-linear power spectrum, and combining the GC and WL probes, we can constrain the dark matter-dark energy coupling constant squared, $\beta^{2}$, with precision smaller than 4\% and all other cosmological parameters better than 1\%, which is a considerable improvement of more than an order of magnitude compared to corresponding linear power spectrum forecasts with the same survey specifications.

Dark energy and Equivalence Principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant
arXiv: 1508.0615
C. J. A. P. Martins, A. M. M. Pinho, R. F. C. Alves, et al.

Astrophysical tests of the stability of fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, are becoming an increasingly powerful probe of new physics. Here we discuss how these measurements, combined with local atomic clock tests and Type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter data, constrain the simplest class of dynamical dark energy models where the same degree of freedom is assumed to provide both the dark energy and (through a dimensionless coupling, $\zeta$, to the electromagnetic sector) the $\alpha$ variation. Specifically, current data tightly constrains a combination of $\zeta$ and the present dark energy equation of state $w_0$. Moreover, in these models the new degree of freedom inevitably couples to nucleons (through the $\alpha$ dependence of their masses) and leads to violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle. We obtain indirect bounds on the E\"otv\"os parameter $\eta$ that are typically stronger than the current direct ones. We discuss the model-dependence of our results and briefly comment on how the forthcoming generation of high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs will enable significantly tighter constraints.

On the Stability of Fundamental Couplings in the Galaxy
arXiv: 1508.0608
S. M. João, C. J. A. P. Martins, I. S. A. B. Mota, P. M. T. Vianez

Astrophysical tests of the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings are a key probe of the standard paradigms in fundamental physics and cosmology. In this report we discuss updated constraints on the stability of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the proton-to-electron mass ratio $\mu=m_p/m_e$ within the Galaxy. We revisit and improve upon the analysis by Truppe {\it et al.} by allowing for the possibility of simultaneous variations of both couplings and also by combining them with the recent measurements by Levshakov {\it et al.} By considering representative unification scenarios we find no evidence for variations of $\alpha$ at the 0.4 ppm level, and of $\mu$ at the 0.6 ppm level; if one uses the Levshakov bound on $\mu$ as a prior, the$\alpha$ bound is improved to 0.1 ppm. We also highlight how these measurements can constrain (and discriminate among) several fundamental physics paradigms.

New massive bigravity cosmologies with double matter coupling
arXiv: 1508.0586
Macarena Lagos, Johannes Noller

We study a previously largely unexplored branch of homogeneous and isotropic background solutions in ghost-free massive bigravity with consistent double matter coupling. For a certain family of parameters we find self-inflated' FLRW cosmologies, i.e. solutions with an accelerated early-time period during the radiation-dominated era. In addition, these solutions also display an accelerated late-time period closely mimicking GR with a cosmological constant. Interestingly, within this family, the particular case of $\beta_1=\beta_3=0$ gives bouncing cosmologies, where there is an infinite contracting past, a non-zero minimum value of the scale factor at the bounce, and an infinite expanding future.

Latfield2: A c++ library for classical lattice field theory
arXiv: 1508.0561
David Daverio, Mark Hindmarsh, Neil Bevis

latfield2 is a C++ library designed to simplify writing parallel codes for solving partial differen- tial equations, developed for application to classical field theories in particle physics and cosmology. It is a significant rewrite of the latfield framework, moving from a slab domain decomposition to a rod decomposition, where the last two dimension of the lattice are scattered into a two dimensional process grid. Parallelism is implemented using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard, and hidden in the basic objects of grid-based simulations: Lattice, Site and Field. It comes with an integrated parallel fast Fourier transform, and I/O server class permitting computation to continue during the writing of large files to disk. latfield2 has been used for production runs on tens of thousands of processor elements, and is expected to be scalable to hundreds of thousands.

Helical mode interactions and spectral transfer processes in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
arXiv: 1508.0552
Moritz F. Linkmann, Arjun Berera, Mairi E. McKay, Julia Jäger

Spectral transfer processes in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are investigated analytically by decomposition of the velocity and magnetic fields in Fourier space into helical modes. Steady solutions of the dynamical system which governs the evolution of the helical modes are determined, and a stability analysis of these solutions is carried out. The interpretation of the analysis is that unstable solutions lead to energy transfer between the interacting modes while stable solutions do not. From this, a dependence of possible interscale energy and helicity transfers on the helicities of the interacting modes is derived. As expected from the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity in 3D MHD turbulence, mode interactions with like helicities lead to transfer of energy and magnetic helicity to smaller wavenumbers. However, some interactions of modes with unlike helicities also contribute to an inverse energy transfer. As such, an inverse energy cascade for nonhelical magnetic fields is shown to be possible. Furthermore, it is found that high values of the cross-helicity may have an asymmetric effect on forward and reverse transfer of energy, where forward transfer is more quenched in regions of high cross-helicity than reverse transfer. This conforms with recent observations of solar wind turbulence. For specific helical interactions the relation to dynamo action is established.

Modified teleparallel theories of gravity
arXiv: 1508.0512
Sebastian Bahamonde, Christian G. Boehmer, Matthew Wright

We investigate modified theories of gravity in the context of teleparallel geometries. It is well known that modified gravity models based on the torsion scalar are not invariant under local Lorentz transformations while modifications based on the Ricci scalar are. This motivates the study of a model depending on the torsion scalar and the divergence of the torsion vector. We derive the teleparallel equivalent of $f(R)$ gravity as a particular subset of these models and also show that this is the unique theory in this class that is invariant under local Lorentz transformation. Furthermore one can show that $f(T)$ gravity is the unique theory admitting second order field equations.

Quantum corrections in Higgs inflation: the Standard Model case
arXiv: 1508.0466
Damien P. George, Sander Mooij, Marieke Postma

We compute the one-loop renormalization group equations for Standard Model Higgs inflation. The calculation is done in the Einstein frame, using a covariant formalism for the multi-field system. All counterterms, and thus the betafunctions, can be extracted from the radiative corrections to the two-point functions; the calculation of higher n-point functions then serves as a consistency check of the approach. We find that the theory is renormalizable in the effective field theory sense in the small, mid and large field regime. In the large field regime our results differ slightly from those found in the literature, due to a different treatment of the Goldstone bosons.

Holographic dual of a time machine
arXiv: 1508.0444
Irina Arefeva, Andrey Bagrov, Petter Saterskog, Koenraad Schalm

We apply the $AdS/CFT$ holography to the simplest possible eternal time machine solution in $AdS_3$ based on two conical defects moving around their center of mass along a circular orbit. Closed timelike curves in this space-time extend all the way to the boundary of $AdS_3$, violating causality of the boundary field theory. By use of the geodesic approximation we address the "grandfather paradox" in the dual $1+1$ dimensional field theory and calculate the two-point retarded Green function. It has a non-trivial analytical structure both at negative and positive times, providing us with an intuition on how an interacting quantum field could behave once causality is broken. In contrast with the previous considerations our calculations reveal the possibility of a consistent and controllable evolution of a quantum system without any need to impose additional consistency constraints.

Planck intermediate results. XXXIX. The Planck list of high-redshift source candidates
arXiv: 1508.0417
Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, et al.

The Planck mission, thanks to its large frequency range and all-sky coverage, has a unique potential for systematically detecting the brightest, and rarest, submillimetre sources on the sky, including distant objects in the high-redshift Universe traced by their dust emission. A novel method, based on a component-separation procedure using a combination of Planck and IRAS data, has been applied to select the most luminous cold submm sources with spectral energy distributions peaking between 353 and 857GHz at 5' resolution. A total of 2151 Planck high-z source candidates (the PHZ) have been detected in the cleanest 26% of the sky, with flux density at 545GHz above 500mJy. Embedded in the cosmic infrared background close to the confusion limit, these high-z candidates exhibit colder colours than their surroundings, consistent with redshifts z>2, assuming a dust temperature of 35K and a spectral index of 1.5. First follow-up observations obtained from optical to submm have confirmed that this list consists of two distinct populations. A small fraction (around 3%) of the sources have been identified as strongly gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxies, which are amongst the brightest submm lensed objects (with flux density at 545GHz ranging from 350mJy up to 1Jy) at redshift 2 to 4. However, the vast majority of the PHZ sources appear as overdensities of dusty star-forming galaxies, having colours consistent with z>2, and may be considered as proto-cluster candidates. The PHZ provides an original sample, complementary to the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich Catalogue; by extending the population of the virialized massive galaxy clusters to a population of sources at z>1.5, the PHZ may contain the progenitors of today's clusters. Hence the PHZ opens a new window on the study of the early ages of structure formation, and the understanding of the intensively star-forming phase at high-z.

Weak lensing of large scale structure in the presence of screening
arXiv: 1508.0401
Nicolas Tessore, Hans A. Winther, R. Benton Metcalf, et al.

A number of alternatives to general relativity exhibit gravitational screening in the non-linear regime of structure formation. We describe a set of algorithms that can produce weak lensing maps of large scale structure in such theories and can be used to generate mock surveys for cosmological analysis. By analysing a few basic statistics we indicate how these alternatives can be distinguished from general relativity with future weak lensing surveys.

Planck 2013 results. XXXI. Consistency of the Planck data
arXiv: 1508.0337
Planck Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, M. Arnaud, et al.

The Planck design and scanning strategy provide many levels of redundancy that can be exploited to provide tests of internal consistency. One of the most important is the comparison of the 70GHz and 100GHz channels. Based on different instrument technologies, with feeds located differently in the focal plane, analysed independently by different teams using different software, and near the minimum of diffuse foreground emission, these channels are in effect two different experiments. The 143GHz channel has the lowest noise level on Planck, and is near the minimum of unresolved foreground emission. In this paper, we analyse the level of consistency achieved in the 2013 Planck data. We concentrate on comparisons between the 70/100/143GHz channel maps and power spectra, particularly over the angular scales of the first and second acoustic peaks, on maps masked for diffuse Galactic emission and for strong unresolved sources. Difference maps covering angular scales from 8deg-15arcmin are consistent with noise, and show no evidence of cosmic microwave background structure. Including small but important corrections for unresolved-source residuals, we demonstrate agreement between 70 and 100GHz power spectra averaged over 70<l<390 at the 0.8% level, and agreement between 143 and 100GHz power spectra of 0.4% over the same l range. These values are within and consistent with the overall uncertainties in calibration given in the Planck 2013 results. We also present results based on the 2013 likelihood analysis showing consistency at the 0.35% between the 100/143/217GHz power spectra. We analyse calibration procedures and beams to determine what fraction of these differences can be accounted for by known approximations or systematic errors that could be controlled even better in the future, reducing uncertainties still further. Several possible small improvements are described...(abridged)

The bispectrum of cosmic string temperature fluctuations including recombination effects
arXiv: 1508.0223
Donough Regan, Mark Hindmarsh

We calculate the cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum from cosmic strings, for the first time including the contributions from the last scattering surface, using a well-established Gaussian model for the string energy-momentum correlation functions, and a simplified model for the cosmic fluid. We check our approximation for the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) contribution against the bispectrum obtained from the full sky map of the cosmic string ISW signal used by the Planck team, obtaining good agreement. We validate our model for the last scattering surface contribution by comparing the predicted temperature power spectrum with that obtained from a full Boltzmann code treatment applied to the Unconnected Segment Model of a string network. We find that including the last scattering contribution has only a small impact on the upper limit on the string tension resulting from the bispectrum at Planck resolutions, and argue that the bispectrum is unlikely to be competitive with the power spectrum at any resolution.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Panchromatic Data Release (far-UV --- far-IR) and the low-z energy budget
arXiv: 1508.0207
Simon P. Driver, Angus H. Wright, Stephen K. Andrews, et al.

We present the GAMA Panchromatic Data Release (PDR) constituting over 230deg$^2$ of imaging with photometry in 21 bands extending from the far-UV to the far-IR. These data complement our spectroscopic campaign of over 300k galaxies, and are compiled from observations with a variety of facilities including: GALEX, SDSS, VISTA, WISE, and Herschel, with the GAMA regions currently being surveyed by VST and scheduled for observations by ASKAP. These data are processed to a common astrometric solution, from which photometry is derived for 221,373 galaxies with r<19.8 mag. Online tools are provided to access and download data cutouts, or the full mosaics of the GAMA regions in each band. We focus, in particular, on the reduction and analysis of the VISTA VIKING data, and compare to earlier datasets (i.e., 2MASS and UKIDSS) before combining the data and examining its integrity. Having derived the 21-band photometric catalogue we proceed to fit the data using the energy balance code MAGPHYS. These measurements are then used to obtain the first fully empirical measurement of the 0.1-500$\mu$m energy output of the Universe. Exploring the Cosmic Spectral Energy Distribution (CSED) across three time-intervals (0.3-1.1Gyr, 1.1-1.8~Gyr and 1.8---2.4~Gyr), we find that the Universe is currently generating $(1.5 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{35}$ h$_{70}$ W Mpc$^{-3}$, down from $(2.5 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{35}$ h$_{70}$ W Mpc$^{-3}$ 2.3~Gyr ago. More importantly, we identify significant and smooth evolution in the integrated photon escape fraction at all wavelengths, with the UV escape fraction increasing from 27(18)% at z=0.18 in NUV(FUV) to 34(23)% at z=0.06. The GAMA PDR will allow for detailed studies of the energy production and outputs of individual systems, sub-populations, and representative galaxy samples at $z<0.5$. The GAMA PDR can be found at: http://gama-psi.icrar.org/

CMB spectral distortions from the decay of causally generated magnetic fields
arXiv: 1508.0168
Jacques M. Wagstaff, Robi Banerjee

We improve previous calculations of the CMB spectral distortions due to the decay of primordial magnetic fields. We focus our studies on causally generated magnetic fields at the electroweak and QCD phase transitions. We also consider the decay of helical magnetic fields. We show that the decay of non-helical magnetic fields generated at either the electroweak or QCD scale produce $\mu$ and $y$-type distortions below $10^{-8}$ which are probably not detectable by a future PIXIE-like experiment. We show that magnetic fields generated at the electroweak scale must have a helicity fraction $f_*>10^{-4}$ in order to produce detectable $\mu$-type distortions. Hence a positive detection coming from the decay of magnetic fields would rule out non-helical primordial magnetic fields and provide a lower bound on the magnetic helicity.

Knotty inflation and the dimensionality of spacetime
arXiv: 1508.0145
Arjun Berera, Roman V. Buniy, Thomas W. Kephart, et al.

We suggest a structure for the vacuum comprised of a network of tightly knotted/linked flux tubes formed in a QCD-like cosmological phase transition and show that such a network can drive cosmological inflation. As the network can be topologically stable only in three space dimensions, this scenario provides a dynamical explanation for the existence of exactly three large spatial dimensions in our Universe.

Discovery of two gravitationally lensed quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
arXiv: 1508.0120
Adriano Agnello, Tommaso Treu, Fernanda Ostrovski, et al.

We present spectroscopic confirmation of two new lensed quasars via data obtained at the 6.5m Magellan/Baade Telescope. The lens candidates have been selected from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and WISE based on their multi-band photometry and extended morphology in DES images. Images of DES J0115-5244 show two blue point sources at either side of a red galaxy. Our long-slit data confirm that both point sources are images of the same quasar at $z_{s}=1.64.$ The Einstein Radius estimated from the DES images is $0.51$". DES J2200+0110 is in the area of overlap between DES and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Two blue components are visible in the DES and SDSS images. The SDSS fiber spectrum shows a quasar component at $z_{s}=2.38$ and absorption compatible with Mg II and Fe II at $z_{l}=0.799$, which we tentatively associate with the foreground lens galaxy. The long-slit Magellan spectra show that the blue components are resolved images of the same quasar. The Einstein Radius is $0.68$" corresponding to an enclosed mass of $1.6\times10^{11}\,M_{\odot}.$ Three other candidates were observed and rejected, two being low-redshift pairs of starburst galaxies, and one being a quasar behind a blue star. These first confirmation results provide an important empirical validation of the data-mining and model-based selection that is being applied to the entire DES dataset.

E-ELT constraints on runaway dilaton scenarios
arXiv: 1508.0076
Matteo Martinelli, Erminia Calabrese, C. J. A. P. Martins

We use a combination of simulated cosmological probes and astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, as expected from the forthcoming European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), to constrain the class of string-inspired runaway dilaton models of Damour, Piazza and Veneziano. We consider three different scenarios for the dark sector couplings in the model and discuss the observational differences between them. We improve previously existing analyses investigating in detail the degeneracies between the parameters ruling the coupling of the dilaton field to the other components of the universe, and studying how the constraints on these parameters change for different fiducial cosmologies. We find that if the couplings are small (e.g., $\alpha_b=\alpha_V\sim0$) these degeneracies strongly affect the constraining power of future data, while if they are sufficiently large (e.g., $\alpha_b\gtrsim10^{-5}-\alpha_V\gtrsim0.05$, as in agreement with current constraints) the degeneracies can be partially broken. We show that E-ELT will be able to probe some of this additional parameter space.

Galaxy Clustering in 3D and Modified Gravity Theories
arXiv: 1508.0058
Dipak Munshi, Geraint Pratten, Patrick Valageas, et al.

We study Modified Gravity (MG) theories by modelling the redshifted matter power spectrum in a spherical Fourier-Bessel (sFB) basis. We use a fully non-linear description of the real-space matter power-spectrum and include the lowest-order redshift-space correction (Kaiser effect), taking into account some additional non-linear contributions. Ignoring relativistic corrections, which are not expected to play an important role for a shallow survey, we analyse two different modified gravity scenarios, namely the generalised Dilaton scalar-tensor theories and the $f({R})$ models in the large curvature regime. We compute the 3D power spectrum ${\cal C}^s_{\ell}(k_1,k_2)$ for various such MG theories with and without redshift space distortions, assuming precise knowledge of background cosmological parameters. Using an all-sky spectroscopic survey with Gaussian selection function $\varphi(r)\propto \exp(-{r^2 / r^2_0})$, $r_0 = 150 \, h^{-1} \, {\textrm{Mpc}}$, and number density of galaxies $\bar {\textrm{N}} =10^{-4}\;{\textrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$, we use a $\chi^2$ analysis, and find that the lower-order $(\ell \leq 25)$ multipoles of ${\cal C}^s_\ell(k,k')$ (with radial modes restricted to $k < 0.2 \, h \,{\textrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$) can constraint the parameter $f_{R_0}$ at a level of $2\times 10^{-5} (3\times 10^{-5})$ with $3 \sigma$ confidence for $n=1(2)$. Combining constraints from higher $\ell > 25$ modes can further reduce the error bars and thus in principle make cosmological gravity constraints competitive with solar system tests. However this will require an accurate modelling of non-linear redshift space distortions. Using a tomographic $\beta(a)$-$m(a)$ parameterization we also derive constraints on specific parameters describing the Dilaton models of modified gravity.

In-N-Out: the gas cycle from dwarfs to spiral galaxies
arXiv: 1508.0000
Charlotte R. Christensen, Romeel Davé, Fabio Governato, et al.

We examine the scalings of galactic outflows with halo mass across a suite of twenty high-resolution cosmological zoom galaxy simulations covering halo masses from 10^9.5 - 10^12 M_sun. These simulations self-consistently generate outflows from the available supernova energy in a manner that successfully reproduces key galaxy observables including the stellar mass-halo mass, Tully-Fisher, and mass-metallicity relations. We quantify the importance of ejective feedback to setting the stellar mass relative to the efficiency of gas accretion and star formation. Ejective feedback is increasingly important as galaxy mass decreases; we find an effective mass loading factor that scales as v_circ^(-2.2), with an amplitude and shape that is invariant with redshift. These scalings are consistent with analytic models for energy-driven wind, based solely on the halo potential. Recycling is common: about half the outflow mass across all galaxy masses is later re-accreted. The recycling timescale is typically about 1 Gyr, virtually independent of halo mass. Recycled material is re-accreted farther out in the disk and with typically about 2-3 times more angular momentum. These results elucidate and quantify how the baryon cycle plausibly regulates star formation and alters the angular momentum distribution of disk material across the halo mass range where most of cosmic star formation occurs.

On the stability of dyons and dyonic black holes in Einstein-Yang-Mills theory
arXiv: 1507.0891
Brien C. Nolan, Elizabeth Winstanley

We investigate the stability of four-dimensional dyonic soliton and black hole solutions of ${\mathfrak {su}}(2)$ Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in anti-de Sitter space. We prove that, in a neighbourhood of the embedded trivial (Schwarzschild-)anti-de Sitter solution, there exist non-trivial dyonic soliton and black hole solutions of the field equations which are stable under linear, spherically symmetric, perturbations of the metric and non-Abelian gauge field.

The squeezed limit of the bispectrum in multi-field inflation
arXiv: 1507.0862
Zachary Kenton, David J. Mulryne

We calculate the squeezed limit of the bispectrum produced by inflation with multiple light fields. To achieve this we allow for different horizon exit times for each mode and calculate the intrinsic field-space three-point function in the squeezed limit using soft-limit techniques. We then use the $\delta N$ formalism from the time the last mode exits the horizon to calculate the bispectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation. We apply our results to calculate the spectral index of the halo bias, $n_{\delta b}$, an important observational probe of the squeezed limit of the primordial bispectrum and compare our results with previous formulae. We give an example of a curvaton model with $n_{\delta b} \sim {\cal O}(n_s-1)$ for which we find a 20% correction to observable parameters for squeezings relevant to future experiments. For completeness, we also calculate the squeezed limit of three-point correlation functions involving gravitons for multiple field models.

Encyclopaedia Curvatonis
arXiv: 1507.0757
Vincent Vennin, Kazuya Koyama, David Wands

We investigate whether the predictions of single-field models of inflation are robust under the introduction of additional scalar degrees of freedom, and whether these extra fields change the potentials for which the data show the strongest preference. We study the situation where an extra light scalar field contributes both to the total curvature perturbations and to the reheating kinematic properties. Ten reheating scenarios are identified, and all necessary formulas allowing a systematic computation of the predictions for this class of models are derived. They are implemented in the public library ASPIC, which contains more than 75 single-field potentials. This paves the way for a forthcoming full Bayesian analysis of the problem. A few representative examples are displayed and discussed.

Using Atom Interferometry to Detect Dark Energy
arXiv: 1507.0749
Clare Burrage, Edmund J. Copeland

We review the tantalising prospect that the first evidence for the dark energy driving the observed acceleration of the Universe on giga-parsec scales may be found through metre scale laboratory based atom interferometry experiments. To do that, we first introduce the idea that scalar fields could be responsible for dark energy and show that in order to be compatible with fifth force constraints these fields must have a screening mechanism which hides their effects from us within the solar system. Particular emphasis is placed on one such screening mechanism known as the chameleon effect where the field's mass becomes dependent on the environment. The way the field behaves in the presence of a spherical source is determined and we then go on to show how in the presence of the kind of high vacuum associated with atom interferometry experiments, and when the test particle is an atom, it is possible to use the associated interference pattern to place constraints on the acceleration due to the fifth force of the chameleon field - this has already been used to rule out large regions of the chameleon parameter space and maybe one day will be able to detect the force due to the dark energy field in the laboratory.

Vector and tensor contributions to the curvature perturbation at second order
arXiv: 1507.0692
Pedro Carrilho, Karim A. Malik

We derive the evolution equation for the second order curvature perturbation using standard techniques of cosmological perturbation theory. We do this for different definitions of the gauge invariant curvature perturbation, arising from different splits of the spatial metric, and compare the expressions. The results are valid at all scales and include all contributions from scalar, vector and tensor perturbations, as well as anisotropic stress, with all our results written purely in terms of gauge invariant quantities. Taking the large-scale approximation, we find that a conserved quantity exists only if, in addition to the non-adiabatic pressure, the transverse traceless part of the anisotropic stress tensor is also negligible. We also find that the version of the gauge invariant curvature perturbation which is exactly conserved is the one defined with the determinant of the spatial part of the inverse metric.

SKA Engineering Change Proposal: Gridded Visibilities to Enable Precision Cosmology with Radio Weak Lensing
arXiv: 1507.0663
Ian Harrison, Michael L. Brown

This document was submitted as supporting material to an Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). This ECP requests gridded visibilities as an extra imaging data product from the SKA, in order to enable bespoke analysis techniques to measure source morphologies to the accuracy necessary for precision cosmology with radio weak lensing. We also discuss the properties of an SKA weak lensing data set and potential overlaps with other cosmology science goals.

Future Constraints on Angle-Dependent Non-Gaussianity from Large Radio Surveys
arXiv: 1507.0590
Alvise Raccanelli, Maresuke Shiraishi, Nicola Bartolo, et al.

We investigate how well future large-scale radio surveys could measure different shapes of primordial non-Gaussianity; in particular we focus on angle-dependent non-Gaussianity arising from primordial anisotropic sources, whose bispectrum has an angle dependence between the three wavevectors that is characterized by Legendre polynomials $\mathcal{P}_L$ and expansion coefficients $c_L$. We provide forecasts for measurements of galaxy power spectrum, finding that Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data could allow measurements of primordial non-Gaussianity competitive or improving upon current constraints set by CMB experiments, for all the shapes considered. We argue that the best constraints will come from the possibility to assign redshift information to radio galaxy surveys, and investigate a few possible scenarios for the EMU and SKA surveys. A realistic (futuristic) modeling could provide constraints of $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm loc} \approx 1 (0.5)$ for the local shape, $f_{\rm NL}$ of $\mathcal{O}(10) (\mathcal{O}(1))$ for the orthogonal, equilateral and folded shapes, and $c_{L=1} \approx 80 (2)$, $c_{L=2} \approx 400 (10)$ for angle-dependent non-Gaussianity. The more futuristic forecasts show the potential of LSS analyses to considerably improve current constraints on non-Gaussianity, and so on models of the primordial Universe. Finally, we find the minimum requirements that would be needed to reach $\sigma(c_{L=1})=10$, which can be considered as a typical (lower) value predicted by some (inflationary) models.

Vacuum polarization on the brane
arXiv: 1507.0502
Cormac Breen, Matthew Hewitt, Adrian C. Ottewill, Elizabeth Winstanley

We compute the renormalized expectation value of the square of a massless, conformally coupled, quantum scalar field on the brane of a higher-dimensional black hole. Working in the AADD brane-world scenario, the extra dimensions are flat and we assume that the compactification radius is large compared with the size of the black hole. The four-dimensional on-brane metric corresponds to a slice through a higher-dimensional Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole geometry and depends on the number of bulk space-time dimensions. The quantum scalar field is in a thermal state at the Hawking temperature. An exact, closed-form expression is derived for the renormalized expectation value of the square of the quantum scalar field on the event horizon of the black hole. Outside the event horizon, this renormalized expectation value is computed numerically. The answer depends on the number of bulk space-time dimensions, with a magnitude which increases rapidly as the number of bulk space-time dimensions increases.

Reheating with a Composite Higgs
arXiv: 1507.0465
Djuna Croon, Veronica Sanz, Ewan R. M. Tarrant

The flatness of the inflaton potential and lightness of the Higgs could have the common origin of the breaking of a global symmetry. This scenario provides a unified framework of Goldstone Inflation and Composite Higgs, where the inflaton and the Higgs both have a pseudo--Goldstone boson nature. The inflaton reheats the Universe via decays to the Higgs and subsequent secondary production of other SM particles via the top and massive vector bosons. We find that inflationary predictions and perturbative reheating conditions are consistent with CMB data for sub--Planckian values of the fields, as well as opening up the possibility of inflation at the TeV scale. We explore this exciting possibility, leading to an interplay between collider data and cosmological constraints.

Constraining ultra large-scale cosmology with multiple tracers in optical and radio surveys
arXiv: 1507.0355
David Alonso, Pedro G. Ferreira

Multiple tracers of the cosmic density field, with different bias, number and luminosity evolution, can be used to measure the large-scale properties of the Universe. We show how an optimal combination of tracers can be used to detect general-relativistic effects in the observed density of sources. We forecast for the detectability of these effects, as well as measurements of primordial non-Gaussianity and large-scale lensing magnification with current and upcoming large-scale structure experiments. In particular we quantify the significance of these detections in the short term with experiments such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and in the long term with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). We review the main observational challenges that must be overcome to carry out these measurements.

A New Construction of Calabi-Yau Manifolds: Generalized CICYs
arXiv: 1507.0323
Lara B. Anderson, Fabio Apruzzi, Xin Gao, et al.

We present a generalization of the complete intersection in products of projective space (CICY) construction of Calabi-Yau manifolds. CICY three-folds and four-folds have been studied extensively in the physics literature. Their utility stems from the fact that they can be simply described in terms of a configuration matrix', a matrix of integers from which many of the details of the geometries can be easily extracted. The generalization we present is to allow negative integers in the configuration matrices which were previously taken to have positive semi-definite entries. This broadening of the complete intersection construction leads to a larger class of Calabi-Yau manifolds than that considered in previous work, which nevertheless enjoys much of the same degree of calculational control. These new Calabi-Yau manifolds are complete intersections in (not necessarily Fano) ambient spaces with an effective anticanonical class. We find examples with topology distinct from any that has appeared in the literature to date. The new manifolds thus obtained have many interesting features. For example, they can have smaller Hodge numbers than ordinary CICYs and lead to many examples with elliptic and K3-fibration structures relevant to F-theory and string dualities.

Recombination era magnetic fields from axion dark matter
arXiv: 1507.0300

We introduce a new mechanism for generating magnetic fields in the recombination era. This Harrison-like mechanism utilizes vorticity in baryons that is sourced through the Bose-Einstein condensate of axions via gravitational interactions. The magnetic fields generated are on the galactic scales $\sim 10\,{\rm kpc}$ and have a magnitude of the order of $B\sim10^{-23}\,{\rm G}$ today. The field has a greater magnitude than those generated from other mechanisms relying on second order perturbation theory, and is sufficient to provide a seed for battery mechanisms.

Planck 2015 results. XI. CMB power spectra, likelihoods, and robustness of parameters
arXiv: 1507.0270
Planck Collaboration, N. Aghanim, M. Arnaud, et al.

This paper presents the Planck 2015 likelihoods, statistical descriptions of the 2-point correlation functions of CMB temperature and polarization. They use the hybrid approach employed previously: pixel-based at low multipoles, $\ell$, and a Gaussian approximation to the distribution of cross-power spectra at higher $\ell$. The main improvements are the use of more and better processed data and of Planck polarization data, and more detailed foreground and instrumental models. More than doubling the data allows further checks and enhanced immunity to systematics. Progress in foreground modelling enables a larger sky fraction, contributing to enhanced precision. Improvements in processing and instrumental models further reduce uncertainties. Extensive tests establish robustness and accuracy, from temperature, from polarization, and from their combination, and show that the {\Lambda}CDM model continues to offer a very good fit. We further validate the likelihood against specific extensions to this baseline, such as the effective number of neutrino species. For this first detailed analysis of Planck polarization, we concentrate at high $\ell$ on E modes. At low $\ell$ we use temperature at all Planck frequencies along with a subset of polarization. These data take advantage of Planck's wide frequency range to improve the separation of CMB and foregrounds. Within the baseline cosmology this requires a reionization optical depth $\tau=0.078\pm0.019$, significantly lower than without high-frequency data for explicit dust monitoring. At high $\ell$ we detect residual errors in E, typically at the {\mu}K$^2$ level; we thus recommend temperature alone as the high-$\ell$ baseline. Nevertheless, Planck high-$\ell$ polarization spectra are already good enough to allow a separate high-accuracy determination of the {\Lambda}CDM parameters, consistent with those established from temperature alone.

Coarse-grained description of cosmic structure from Szekeres models
arXiv: 1507.0230
Roberto A. Sussman, I. Delgado Gaspar, Juan Carlos Hidalgo

We show that the full dynamical freedom of the well known Szekeres models allows for the description of elaborated 3--dimensional networks of cold dark matter structures (over--densities and/or density voids) undergoing "pancake" collapse. By reducing Einstein's field equations to a set of evolution equations, which themselves reduce in the linear limit to evolution equations for linear perturbations, we determine the dynamics of such structures, with the spatial comoving location of each structure uniquely specified by standard early Universe initial conditions. By means of a representative example we examine in detail the density contrast, the Hubble flow and peculiar velocities of structures that evolved, from linear initial data at the last scattering surface, to fully non--linear 10--20 Mpc. scale configurations today. To motivate further research, we provide a qualitative discussion on the connection of Szekeres models with linear perturbations and the pancake collapse of the Zeldovich approximation. This type of structure modelling provides a coarse grained -- but fully relativistic non--linear and non--perturbative -- description of evolving large scale cosmic structures before their virialisation, and as such it has an enormous potential for applications in cosmological research.

The COpernicus COmplexio: Statistical Properties of Warm Dark Matter Haloes
arXiv: 1507.0199
Sownak Bose, Wojciech A. Hellwing, Carlos S. Frenk, et al.

The recent detection of a 3.5 keV X-ray line from the centres of galaxies and clusters by Bulbul et al. (2014a) and Boyarsky et al. (2014a) has been interpreted as emission from the decay of 7 keV sterile neutrinos which could make up the (warm) dark matter (WDM). As part of the COpernicus COmplexio (COCO) programme, we investigate the properties of dark matter haloes formed in a high-resolution cosmological $N$-body simulation from initial conditions similar to those expected in a universe in which the dark matter consists of 7 keV sterile neutrinos. This simulation and its cold dark matter (CDM) counterpart have $\sim13.4$bn particles, each of mass $\sim 10^5\, h^{-1} M_\odot$, providing detailed information about halo structure and evolution down to dwarf galaxy mass scales. Non-linear structure formation on small scales ($M_{200}\, \leq\, 2 \times 10^9\,h^{-1}\,M_\odot$) begins slightly later in COCO-Warm than in COCO-Cold. The halo mass function at the present day in the WDM model begins to drop below its CDM counterpart at a mass $\sim 2 \times 10^{9}\,h^{-1}\,M_\odot$ and declines very rapidly towards lower masses so that there are five times fewer haloes of mass $M_{200}= 10^{8}\,h^{-1}\,M_\odot$ in COCO-Warm than in COCO-Cold. Halo concentrations on dwarf galaxy scales are correspondingly smaller in COCO-Warm, and we provide a simple functional form that describes its evolution with redshift. The shapes of haloes are similar in the two cases, but the smallest haloes in COCO-Warm rotate slightly more slowly than their CDM counterparts.

Dark Matter Benchmark Models for Early LHC Run-2 Searches: Report of the ATLAS/CMS Dark Matter Forum
arXiv: 1507.0096
Daniel Abercrombie, Nural Akchurin, Ece Akilli, et al.

This document is the final report of the ATLAS-CMS Dark Matter Forum, a forum organized by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations with the participation of experts on theories of Dark Matter, to select a minimal basis set of dark matter simplified models that should support the design of the early LHC Run-2 searches. A prioritized, compact set of benchmark models is proposed, accompanied by studies of the parameter space of these models and a repository of generator implementations. This report also addresses how to apply the Effective Field Theory formalism for collider searches and present the results of such interpretations.

Solar System Constraints on Disformal Gravity Theories
arXiv: 1507.0056
Hiu Yan Ip, Jeremy Sakstein, Fabian Schmidt

Disformal theories of gravity are scalar-tensor theories where the scalar couples derivatively to matter via the Jordan frame metric. These models have recently attracted interest in the cosmological context since they admit accelerating solutions. We derive the solution for a static isolated mass in generic disformal gravity theories and transform it into the parameterised post-Newtonian form. This allows us to investigate constraints placed on such theories by local tests of gravity. The tightest constraints come from preferred-frame effects due to the motion of the Solar System with respect to the evolving cosmological background field. The constraints we obtain improve upon the previous solar system constraints by two orders of magnitude, and constrain the scale of the disformal coupling for generic models to $\mathcal{M} \gtrsim 100$ eV. These constraints render all disformal effects irrelevant for cosmology.

Absence of disorder-driven metal-insulator transitions in simple holographic models
arXiv: 1507.0000
Sašo Grozdanov, Andrew Lucas, Subir Sachdev, Koenraad Schalm

We study electrical transport in a strongly coupled strange metal in two spatial dimensions at finite temperature and charge density, holographically dual to Einstein-Maxwell theory in an asymptotically $\mathrm{AdS}_4$ spacetime, with arbitrary spatial inhomogeneity, up to mild assumptions including emergent isotropy. In condensed matter, these are candidate models for exotic strange metals without long-lived quasiparticles. We prove that the electrical conductivity is bounded from below by a universal minimal conductance: the quantum critical conductivity of a clean, charge-neutral plasma. Beyond non-perturbatively justifying mean-field approximations to disorder, our work demonstrates the practicality of new hydrodynamic insight into holographic transport.

Tachyon inflation in the Large-$N$ formalism
arXiv: 1506.0917
Nandinii Barbosa-Cendejas, Josue De-Santiago, Gabriel German, et al.

We study tachyon inflation within the large-$N$ formalism, which takes a prescription for the small Hubble flow slow--roll parameter $\epsilon_1$ as a function of the large number of $e$-folds $N$. This leads to a classification of models through their behaviour at large $N$. In addition to the perturbative $N$ class, we introduce the polynomial and exponential classes for the $\epsilon_1$ parameter. With this formalism we reconstruct a large number of potentials used previously in the literature for Tachyon Inflation. We also obtain new families of potentials form the polynomial class. We characterize the realizations of Tachyon Inflation by computing the usual cosmological observables up to second order in the Hubble flow slow--roll parameters. This allows us to look at observable differences between tachyon and canonical single field inflation. The analysis of observables in light of the Planck 2015 data shows the viability of some of these models, mostly for certain realization of the polynomial and exponential classes.

The two faces of mimetic Horndeski gravity: disformal transformations and Lagrange multiplier
arXiv: 1506.0857
Frederico Arroja, Nicola Bartolo, Purnendu Karmakar, Sabino Matarrese

We show that very general scalar-tensor theories of gravity (including, e.g., Horndeski models) are generically invariant under disformal transformations. However there is a special subset, when the transformation is not invertible, that yields new equations of motion which are a generalization of the so-called "mimetic" dark matter theory recently introduced by Chamsedinne and Mukhanov. These conclusions hold true irrespective of whether the scalar field in the action of the assumed scalar-tensor theory of gravity is the same or different than the scalar field involved in the transformation. The new equations of motion for our general mimetic theory can also be derived from an action containing an additional Lagrange multiplier field. The general mimetic scalar-tensor theory has the same number of derivatives in the equations of motion as the original scalar-tensor theory. As an application we show that the simplest mimetic scalar-tensor model is able to mimic the cosmological background of a flat FLRW model with a barotropic perfect fluid with any constant equation of state.

On the phenomenology of extended Brans-Dicke Gravity
arXiv: 1506.0777
Nelson A. Lima, Pedro G. Ferreira

We introduce a designer approach for extended Brans-Dicke gravity that allows us to obtain the evolution of the scalar field by fixing the Hubble parameter to that of a $w$CDM model. We obtain analytical approximations for $\phi$ as a function of the scale factor and use these to build expressions for the effective Newton's constant at the background and at the linear level and the slip between the perturbed Newtonian potentials. By doing so, we are able to explore their dependence on the fundamental parameters of the theory.

Generalized $f(R,φ,X)$ gravity and the late-time cosmic acceleration
arXiv: 1506.0772
Sebastian Bahamonde, Christian G. Boehmer, Francisco S. N. Lobo, Diego Saez-Gomez

High-precision observational data have confirmed with startling evidence that the Universe is currently undergoing a phase of accelerated expansion. This phase, one of the most important and challenging current problems in cosmology, represents a new imbalance in the governing gravitational equations. Historically, physics has addressed such imbalances by either identifying sources that were previously unaccounted for, or by altering the gravitational theory. Several candidates, responsible for this expansion, have been proposed in the literature, in particular, dark energy models and modified gravity models, amongst others. Outstanding questions are related to the nature of this so-called "dark energy" that is driving this acceleration, and whether it is due to the vacuum energy or a dynamical field. On the other hand, the late-time cosmic acceleration may be due to modifications of General Relativity. In this work we explore a generalised modified gravity theory, namely $f(R,\phi,X)$ gravity, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar, $\phi$ is a scalar field, and $X$ is a kinetic term. This theory contains a wide range of dark energy and modified gravity models. We considered specific models and applications to the late-time cosmic acceleration.

Lattice Calculation of the Decay of Primordial Higgs Condensate
arXiv: 1506.0689
Kari Enqvist, Sami Nurmi, Stanislav Rusak, David J. Weir

We study the resonant decay of the primordial Standard Model Higgs condensate after inflation into $SU(2)$ gauge bosons on the lattice. We find that the non-Abelian interactions between the gauge bosons quickly extend the momentum distribution towards high values, efficiently destroying the condensate after the onset of backreaction. For the inflationary scale $H = 10^8$ GeV, we find that 90% of the Higgs condensate has decayed after $n \sim 10$ oscillation cycles. This differs significantly from the Abelian case where, given the same coupling strengths, most of the condensate would persist after the resonance.

Modified Gravity N-body Code Comparison Project
arXiv: 1506.0638
Hans A. Winther, Fabian Schmidt, Alexandre Barreira, et al.

Self-consistent ${\it N}$-body simulations of modified gravity models are a key ingredient to obtain rigorous constraints on deviations from General Relativity using large-scale structure observations. This paper provides the first detailed comparison of the results of different ${\it N}$-body codes for the $f(R)$, DGP, and Symmetron models, starting from the same initial conditions. We find that the fractional deviation of the matter power spectrum from $\Lambda$CDM agrees to better than $1\%$ up to $k \sim 5-10~h/{\rm Mpc}$ between the different codes. These codes are thus able to meet the stringent accuracy requirements of upcoming observational surveys. All codes are also in good agreement in their results for the velocity divergence power spectrum, halo abundances and halo profiles. We also test the quasi-static limit, which is employed in most modified gravity ${\it N}$-body codes, for the Symmetron model for which the most significant non-static effects among the models considered are expected. We conclude that this limit is a very good approximation for all of the observables considered here.

Small-Scale Anisotropies of Cosmic Rays from Relative Diffusion
arXiv: 1506.0548
Markus Ahlers, Philipp Mertsch

The arrival directions of multi-TeV cosmic rays show significant anisotropies at small angular scales. It has been argued that this small-scale structure can naturally arise from cosmic ray scattering in local turbulent magnetic fields that distort a global dipole anisotropy set by diffusion. We study this effect in terms of the power spectrum of cosmic ray arrival directions and show that the strength of small-scale anisotropies is related to properties of relative diffusion. We provide a formalism for how these power spectra can be inferred from simulations and motivate a simple analytic extension of the ensemble-averaged diffusion equation that can account for the effect.

H-ATLAS/GAMA: Quantifying the Morphological Evolution of the Galaxy Population Using Cosmic Calorimetry
arXiv: 1506.0546
Stephen Eales, Andrew Fullard, Matthew Allen, et al.

Using results from the Herschel Astrophysical Terrahertz Large-Area Survey and the Galaxy and Mass Assembly project, we show that, for galaxy masses above approximately 1.0e8 solar masses, 51% of the stellar mass-density in the local Universe is in early-type galaxies (ETGs: Sersic n > 2.5) while 89% of the rate of production of stellar mass-density is occurring in late-type galaxies (LTGs: Sersic n < 2.5). From this zero-redshift benchmark, we have used a calorimetric technique to quantify the importance of the morphological transformation of galaxies over the history of the Universe. The extragalactic background radiation contains all the energy generated by nuclear fusion in stars since the Big Bang. By resolving this background radiation into individual galaxies using the deepest far-infrared survey with the Herschel Space Observatory and a deep near-infrared/optical survey with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and using measurements of the Sersic index of these galaxies derived from the HST images, we estimate that approximately 83% of the stellar mass-density formed over the history of the Universe occurred in LTGs. The difference between this and the fraction of the stellar mass-density that is in LTGs today implies there must have been a major transformation of LTGs into ETGs after the formation of most of the stars.

Combined constraints on deviations of dark energy from an ideal fluid from Euclid and Planck
arXiv: 1506.0460
Elisabetta Majerotto, Domenico Sapone, Bjoern Malte Schaefer

Cosmological fluids are commonly assumed to be distributed in a spatially homogeneous way, while their internal properties are described by a perfect fluid. As such, they influence the Hubble-expansion through their respective densities and equation of state parameters. The subject of this paper is an investigation of the fluid-mechanical properties of a dark energy fluid, which is characterised by its sound speed and its viscosity apart from its equation of state. In particular, we compute the predicted spectra for the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect for our generalised fluid, and compare them with the corresponding predictions for weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering, which had been computed in previous work. We perform statistical forecasts and show that the integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal obtained by cross correlating Euclid galaxies with Planck temperatures, when joined to galaxy clustering and weak lensing observations, yields a percent sensitivity on the dark energy sound speed and viscosity. We prove that the iSW effect provides strong degeneracy breaking for low sound speeds and large differences between the sound speed and viscosity parameters.

Spacetime curvature and Higgs stability after inflation
arXiv: 1506.0406
Matti Herranen, Tommi Markkanen, Sami Nurmi, Arttu Rajantie

We investigate the dynamics of the Higgs field at the end of inflation in the minimal scenario consisting of an inflaton field coupled to the Standard Model only through the non-minimal gravitational coupling $\xi$ of the Higgs field. Such a coupling is required by renormalisation of the Standard Model in curved space, and in the current scenario also by vacuum stability during high-scale inflation. We find that for $\xi\gtrsim 1$, rapidly changing spacetime curvature at the end of inflation leads to significant production of Higgs particles, potentially triggering a transition to a negative-energy Planck scale vacuum state and causing an immediate collapse of the Universe.

Disformal dark energy at colliders
arXiv: 1506.0405
Philippe Brax, Clare Burrage, Christoph Englert

Disformally coupled, light scalar fields arise in many of the theories of dark energy and modified gravity that attempt to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. They have proved difficult to constrain with precision tests of gravity because they do not give rise to fifth forces around static non-relativistic sources. However, because the scalar field couples derivatively to standard model matter, measurements at high energy particle colliders offer an effective way to constrain and potentially detect a disformally coupled scalar field. Here we derive new constraints on the strength of the disformal coupling from LHC run 1 data and provide a forecast for the improvement of these constraints from run 2. We additionally comment on the running of disformal and standard model couplings in this scenario under the renormalisation group flow.

Cosmic Strings
arXiv: 1506.0403
Tanmay Vachaspati, Levon Pogosian, Daniele Steer

This article, written for Scolarpedia, provides a brief introduction into the subject of cosmic strings, together with a review of their main properties, cosmological evolution and observational signatures.

Search for a direction in the forest of Lyman-$α$
arXiv: 1506.0392
Dhiraj Kumar Hazra, Arman Shafieloo

We report the first test of isotropy of the Universe in the matter dominated epoch using the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data from the high redshift quasars ($z>2$) from SDSS-III BOSS-DR9 datasets. Using some specified data cuts, we obtain the probability distribution function (PDF) of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest transmitted flux and use the statistical moments of the PDF to address the isotropy of the Universe. In an isotropic Universe one would expect the transmitted flux to have consistent statistical characteristics in different parts of the sky. We trisect the total survey area of 3275 ${\rm deg}^2$ along the galactic latitude and using quadrant convention. We also make three subdivisions in the data for three different signal-to-noise-ratios (SNR). Finally we obtain and compare the statistical moments in the mean redshifts of 2.3, 2.6 and 2.9. We find, that the moments from all patches agree at all redshifts and at all SNRs, within 3$\sigma$ uncertainties. Since Lyman-$\alpha$ transmitted flux directly maps the neutral hydrogen distribution in the inter galactic medium (IGM), our results indicate, within the limited survey area and sensitivity of the data, the distribution of the neutral hydrogen in the Universe is consistent with isotropic distribution. We should mention that we report few deviations from isotropy in the data with low statistical significance. Increase in survey area and larger amount of data are needed to make any strong conclusion about these deviations.

Further consistency tests of the stability of fundamental couplings
arXiv: 1506.0355
M. C. Ferreira, C. J. A. P. Martins

In a recent publication [Ferreira {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. D89 (2014) 083011] we tested the consistency of current astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the proton-to-electron mass ratio $\mu=m_p/m_e$ (mostly obtained in the optical/ultraviolet) with combined measurements of $\alpha$, $\mu$ and the proton gyromagnetic ratio $g_p$ (mostly in the radio band). Given the significant observational progress made in the past year, we now revisit and update this analysis. We find that apparent inconsistencies, at about the two-sigma level, persist and are in some cases enhanced, especially for matter era measurements (corresponding to redshifts $z>1$). Although hidden systematics may be the more plausible explanation, we briefly highlight the importance of clarifying this issue, which is within the reach of state-of-the art observational facilities such as ALMA and ESPRESSO.

New gaugings and non-geometry
arXiv: 1506.0345
Kanghoon Lee, Charles Strickland-Constable, Daniel Waldram

We discuss the possible realisation in string/M theory of the recently discovered family of four-dimensional maximal $SO(8)$ gauged supergravities, and of an analogous family of seven-dimensional half-maximal $SO(4)$ gauged supergravities. We first prove a no-go theorem that neither class of gaugings can be realised via a compactification that is locally described by ten- or eleven-dimensional supergravity. In the language of Double Field Theory and its M theory analogue, this implies that the section condition must be violated. Introducing the minimal number of additional coordinates possible, we then show that the standard $S^3$ and $S^7$ compactifications of ten- and eleven-dimensional supergravity admit a new class of section-violating generalised frames with a generalised Lie derivative algebra that reproduces the embedding tensor of the $SO(4)$ and $SO(8)$ gaugings respectively. The physical meaning, if any, of these constructions is unclear. They highlight a number of the issues that arise when attempting to apply the formalism of Double Field Theory to non-toroidal backgrounds. Using a naive brane charge quantisation to determine the periodicities of the additional coordinates restricts the $SO(4)$ gaugings to an infinite discrete set and excludes all the $SO(8)$ gaugings other than the standard one.

On extended symmetries for the Galileon
arXiv: 1506.0344
Johannes Noller, Vishagan Sivanesan, Mikael von Strauss

We investigate a large class of infinitesimal, but fully nonlinear in the field, transformations of the Galileon and search for extended symmetries. The transformations involve powers of the coordinates $x$ and the field $\pi$ up to any finite order $N$. Up to quadratic order the structure of these symmetry transformations is the unique generalisation of both the infinitesimal version of the standard Galileon shift symmetry as well as a recently discovered infinitesimal extension of this symmetry. The only higher-order extensions of this symmetry we recover are (Galileon dual' versions of) symmetries of the standard kinetic term.

Simplified Models for Dark Matter Searches at the LHC
arXiv: 1506.0311
Jalal Abdallah, Henrique Araujo, Alexandre Arbey, et al.

This document outlines a set of simplified models for dark matter and its interactions with Standard Model particles. It is intended to summarize the main characteristics that these simplified models have when applied to dark matter searches at the LHC, and to provide a number of useful expressions for reference. The list of models includes both s-channel and t-channel scenarios. For s-channel, spin-0 and spin-1 mediation is discussed, and also realizations where the Higgs particle provides a portal between the dark and visible sectors. The guiding principles underpinning the proposed simplified models are spelled out, and some suggestions for implementation are presented.

The phase diagram of heavy dense QCD with complex Langevin simulations
arXiv: 1506.0254
Gert Aarts, Felipe Attanasio, Benjamin Jäger, et al.

The sign problem of QCD prevents standard lattice simulations to determine the phase diagram of strong interactions with a finite chemical potential directly. Complex Langevin simulations provide an alternative method to sample path integrals with complex weights. We report on our ongoing project to determine the phase diagram of QCD in the limit of heavy quarks (HDQCD) using Complex Langevin simulations.

PT-symmetric interpretation of unstable effective potentials
arXiv: 1506.0197
Carl M. Bender, Daniel W. Hook, Nick E. Mavromatos, Sarben Sarkar

The conventional interpretation of the one-loop effective potentials of the Higgs field in the Standard Model and the gravitino condensate in dynamically broken supergravity is that these theories are unstable at large field values. A PT-symmetric reinterpretation of these models at a quantum-mechanical level eliminates these instabilities and suggests that these instabilities may also be tamed at the quantum-field-theory level.

Some Novel Ways for Neutrino Mass Generation
arXiv: 1506.0148
Nick E. Mavromatos

I discuss dynamical generation of neutrino masses in unconventional scenarios where the background space-time geometry plays a crucial role. I discuss two types of backgrounds: (i) Lorentz Violating and (ii) Geometries with Torsion. In the former case, the violation of Lorentz symmetry, at a scale M, may be viewed as a catalyst for mass generation and induced flavour oscillations among neutrino species, which survive the limit of M taken to infinity, leading to a hierarchy among neutrino masses. In the latter case, the (totally antisymmetric components of the) torsion degrees of freedom correspond to a pseudoscalar axion field in four space-time dimensions. This field is assumed to be mixed, through non-diagonal kinetic terms, with ordinary axion fields that may exist in the theory for other reasons and couple to neutrinos with chirality changing Yukawa couplings. The torsion-ordinary-axion-field mixing is responsible, through higher-loop anomalous graphs, for the dynamical generation of Majorana masses. The latter scenarios can also be realised in some (compactified) string theory models, where the (totally antisymmetric) torsion is played by the field strength of the spin-one antisymmetric tensor (Kalb-Ramond) field, which exists in the gravitational string multiplet.

A relativistic signature in large-scale structure
arXiv: 1506.0091
Nicola Bartolo, Daniele Bertacca, Marco Bruni, et al.

In General Relativity, the constraint equation relating metric and density perturbations is inherently nonlinear, leading to an effective non-Gaussianity in the dark matter density field on large scales - even if the primordial metric perturbation is Gaussian. Intrinsic non-Gaussianity in the large-scale dark matter overdensity in GR is real and physical. However, the variance smoothed on a local physical scale is not correlated with the large-scale curvature perturbation, so that there is no relativistic signature in the galaxy bias when using the simplest model of bias. It is an open question whether the observable mass proxies such as luminosity or weak lensing correspond directly to the physical mass in the simple halo bias model. If not, there may be observables that encode this relativistic signature.

Magnetic monopole - domain wall collisions
arXiv: 1505.0817
Micah Brush, Levon Pogosian, Tanmay Vachaspati

Interactions of different types of topological defects can play an important role in the aftermath of a phase transition. We study interactions of fundamental magnetic monopoles and stable domain walls in a Grand Unified theory in which $SU(5) \times Z_2$ symmetry is spontaneously broken to $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)/Z_6$. We find that there are only two distinct outcomes depending on the relative orientation of the monopole and the wall in internal space. In one case, the monopole passes through the wall, while in the other it unwinds on hitting the wall.

Readout strategies for directional dark matter detection beyond the neutrino background
arXiv: 1505.0806
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Anne M. Green, Julien Billard, et al.

The search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by direct detection faces an encroaching background due to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. As the sensitivity of these experiments improves, the question of how to best distinguish a dark matter signal from neutrinos will become increasingly important. A proposed method of overcoming this so-called 'neutrino floor' is to utilize the directional signature that both neutrino and dark matter induced recoils possess. We show that directional experiments can indeed probe WIMP-nucleon cross-sections below the neutrino floor with little loss in sensitivity due to the neutrino background. In particular we find at low WIMP masses (around 6 GeV) the discovery limits for directional detectors penetrate below the non-directional limit by several orders of magnitude. For high WIMP masses (around 100 GeV), the non-directional limit is overcome by a factor of a few. Furthermore we show that even for directional detectors which can only measure 1- or 2-dimensional projections of the 3-dimensional recoil track, the discovery potential is only reduced by a factor of 3 at most. We also demonstrate that while the experimental limitations of directional detectors, such as sense recognition and finite angular resolution, have a detrimental effect on the discovery limits, it is still possible to overcome the ultimate neutrino background faced by non-directional detectors.

Hierarchical Cosmic Shear Power Spectrum Inference
arXiv: 1505.0784
Justin Alsing, Alan Heavens, Andrew H. Jaffe, et al.

We develop a Bayesian hierarchical modelling approach for cosmic shear power spectrum inference, jointly sampling from the posterior distribution of the cosmic shear field and its (tomographic) power spectra. Inference of the shear power spectrum is a powerful intermediate product for a cosmic shear analysis, since it requires very few model assumptions and can be used to perform inference on a wide range of cosmological models \emph{a posteriori} without loss of information. We show that joint posterior for the shear map and power spectrum can be sampled effectively by Gibbs sampling, iteratively drawing samples from the map and power spectrum, each conditional on the other. This approach neatly circumvents difficulties associated with complicated survey geometry and masks that plague frequentist power spectrum estimators, since the power spectrum inference provides prior information about the field in masked regions at every sampling step. We demonstrate this approach for inference of tomographic shear $E$-mode, $B$-mode and $EB$-cross power spectra from a simulated galaxy shear catalogue with a number of important features; galaxies distributed on the sky and in redshift with photometric redshift uncertainties, realistic random ellipticity noise for every galaxy and a complicated survey mask. The obtained posterior distributions for the tomographic power spectrum coefficients recover the underlying simulated power spectra for both $E$- and $B$-modes.

Constraining Dark Matter Interactions with Pseudoscalar and Scalar Mediators Using Collider Searches for Multi-jets plus Missing Transverse Energy
arXiv: 1505.0782
Oliver Buchmueller, Sarah A. Malik, Christopher McCabe, Bjoern Penning

The mono-jet search, looking for events involving missing transverse energy (MET) plus one or two jets, is the most prominent collider dark matter search. We show that multi-jet searches, which look for MET plus two or more jets, are significantly more sensitive than the mono-jet search for pseudoscalar- and scalar-mediated interactions. We demonstrate this in the context of a simplified model with a pseudoscalar interaction that explains the excess in GeV energy gamma rays observed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We show that multi-jet searches already constrain a pseudoscalar interpretation of the excess in much of the parameter space where the mass of the mediator (mA) is more than twice the dark matter mass (mDM). With the forthcoming run of the LHC at higher energies, the remaining regions of the parameter space where mA>2mDM will be fully explored. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of complementing the mono-jet final state with multi-jet final states to maximise the sensitivity of the search for the production of dark matter at colliders.

Ultra large-scale cosmology in next-generation experiments with single tracers
arXiv: 1505.0759
David Alonso, Philip Bull, Pedro G. Ferreira, et al.

Future surveys of large-scale structure will be able to measure perturbations on the scale of the cosmological horizon, and so could potentially probe a number of novel relativistic effects that are negligibly small on sub-horizon scales. These effects leave distinctive signatures in the power spectra of clustering observables and, if measurable, would open a new window on relativistic cosmology. We quantify the size and detectability of the effects for the most relevant future large-scale structure experiments: spectroscopic and photometric galaxy redshift surveys, intensity mapping surveys of neutral hydrogen, and radio continuum surveys. Our forecasts show that next-generation experiments, reaching out to redshifts $z\simeq 4$, will not be able to detect previously-undetected general-relativistic effects by using individual tracers of the density field, although the contribution of weak lensing magnification on large scales should be clearly detectable. We also perform a rigorous joint forecast for the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity through the excess power it produces in the clustering of biased tracers on large scales, finding that uncertainties of $\sigma(f_{\rm NL})\sim 1-2$ should be achievable. We study the level of degeneracy of these large-scale effects with several tracer-dependent nuisance parameters, quantifying the minimal priors on the latter that are needed for an optimal measurement of the former. Finally, we discuss the systematic effects that must be mitigated to achieve this level of sensitivity, and some alternative approaches that should help to improve the constraints. The computational tools developed to carry out this study, which requires the full-sky computation of the theoretical angular power spectra for $\mathcal{O}(100)$ redshift bins, as well as realistic models of the luminosity function, are publicly available.

New directional signatures from the non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter
arXiv: 1505.0740

The framework of non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) aims to generalise the standard analysis of direct detection experiments in terms of spin-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) interactions. We show that a number of NREFT operators lead to distinctive new directional signatures, such as prominent ring-like features in the directional recoil rate, even for relatively low mass WIMPs. We discuss these signatures and how they could affect the interpretation of future results from directional detectors. We demonstrate that considering a range of possible operators introduces a factor of 2 uncertainty in the number of events required to confirm the median recoil direction of the signal. Furthermore, using directional detection, it is possible to distinguish the more general NREFT interactions from the standard SI/SD interactions at the $2\sigma$ level with $\mathcal{O}(100-500)$ events. In particular, we demonstrate that for certain NREFT operators, directional sensitivity provides the only method of distinguishing them from these standard operators, highlighting the importance of directional detectors in probing the particle physics of dark matter.

Self-Diffusiophoretic Colloidal Propulsion Near a Solid Boundary
arXiv: 1505.0717
Ali Mozaffari, Nima Sharifi-Mood, Joel Koplik, Charles Maldarelli

We study the diffusiophoretic self-propulsion of a colloidal catalytic particle due to a surface chemical reaction in a vicinity of a solid wall. Diffusiophoresis is a chemico-mechanical transduction mechanism in which a concentration gradient of an interacting solute produces an unbalanced force on a colloidal particle and drives it along the gradient. We consider a spherical particle with an axisymmetric reacting cap covering the polar angle range $0\le \theta\le \theta_{cap}$ in the presence of a repulsive solute, near an infinite planar wall, and solve the coupled solute concentration and Stokes equations, using a mixture of numerical and analytic arguments. The resulting particle trajectory is determined by $\theta_{cap}$ and the initial orientation of the symmetry axis with respect to the plane. At normal incidence the particle initially moves away from or towards the wall, depending on whether the cap faces towards or away, respectively, but even in the latter case the particle never reaches the wall due to hydrodynamic lubrication resistance. For other initial orientations, when $\theta_{cap}\le 115^{\circ}$ the particle either moves away immediately or else rotates along its trajectory so as to cause the active side to face the wall and the particle to rebound. For higher coverage we find trajectories where the particle skims along the wall at constant separation or else comes to rest. We provide a phase diagram giving the nature of the trajectory (repulsion, rebound, skimming or stationary) as a function of $\theta_{cap}$ and the initial orientation.

The impact of spin temperature fluctuations on the 21-cm moments
arXiv: 1505.0710
Catherine A. Watkinson, Jonathan R. Pritchard

This paper considers the impact of Lyman-alpha coupling and X-ray heating on the 21-cm brightness-temperature one-point statistics (as predicted by semi-numerical simulations). The X-ray production efficiency is varied over four orders of magnitude and the hardness of the X-ray spectrum is varied from that predicted for high-mass X-ray binaries, to the softer spectrum expected from the hot inter-stellar medium. We find peaks in the redshift evolution of both the variance and skewness associated with the efficiency of X-ray production. The amplitude of the variance is also sensitive to the hardness of the X-ray SED. We find that the relative timing of the coupling and heating phases can be inferred from the redshift extent of a plateau that connects a peak in the variance's evolution associated with Lyman-alpha coupling to the heating peak. Importantly, we find that late X-ray heating would seriously hamper our ability to constrain reionization with the variance. Late X-ray heating also qualitatively alters the evolution of the skewness, providing a clean way to constrain such models. If foregrounds can be removed, we find that LOFAR, MWA and PAPER could constrain reionization and late X-ray heating models with the variance. We find that HERA and SKA (phase 1) will be able to constrain both reionization and heating by measuring the variance using foreground-avoidance techniques. If foregrounds can be removed they will also be able to constrain the nature of Lyman-alpha coupling.

Cosmological Measurements with General Relativistic Galaxy Correlations
arXiv: 1505.0617
Alvise Raccanelli, Francesco Montanari, Daniele Bertacca, et al.

We investigate the cosmological dependence and the constraining power of large-scale galaxy correlations, including all redshift-distortions, wide-angle, lensing and gravitational potential effects on linear scales. We analyze the cosmological information present in the lensing convergence and in the gravitational potential terms describing the so-called "relativistic effects," and we find that, while smaller than the information contained in intrinsic galaxy clustering, it is not negligible. We investigate how neglecting them does bias cosmological measurements performed by future spectroscopic and photometric large-scale surveys such as SKA and Euclid. We perform a Fisher analysis using the CLASS code, modified to include scale-dependent galaxy bias and redshift-dependent magnification and evolution bias. Our results show that neglecting relativistic terms introduces an error in the forecasted precision in measuring cosmological parameters of the order of a few tens of percent, in particular when measuring the matter content of the Universe and primordial non-Gaussianity parameters. Therefore, we argue that radial correlations and integrated relativistic terms need to be taken into account when forecasting the constraining power of future large-scale number counts of galaxy surveys.

Indications of Negative Evolution for the Sources of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
arXiv: 1505.0609
Andrew M. Taylor, Markus Ahlers, Dan Hooper

Using recent measurements of the spectrum and chemical composition of the highest energy cosmic rays, we consider the sources of these particles. We find that the data strongly prefers models in which the sources of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays inject predominantly intermediate mass nuclei, with comparatively few protons or heavy nuclei, such as iron or silicon. If the number density of sources per comoving volume does not evolve with redshift, the injected spectrum must be very hard ($\alpha\simeq 1$) in order to fit the spectrum observed at Earth. Such a hard spectral index would be surprising and difficult to accommodate theoretically. In contrast, much softer spectral indices, consistent with the predictions of Fermi acceleration ($\alpha\simeq 2$), are favored in models with negative source evolution. With this theoretical bias, these observations thus favor models in which the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays are preferentially located within the low-redshift universe.

Weak lensing by voids in modified lensing potentials
arXiv: 1505.0580
Alexandre Barreira, Marius Cautun, Baojiu Li, et al.

We study lensing by voids in Cubic Galileon and Nonlocal gravity cosmologies, which are examples of theories of gravity that modify the lensing potential. We find voids in the dark matter and halo density fields of N-body simulations and compute their lensing signal analytically from the void density profiles, which we show are well fit by a simple analytical formula. In the Cubic Galileon model, the modifications to gravity inside voids are not screened and they approximately double the size of the lensing effects compared to GR. The difference is largely determined by the direct effects of the fifth force on lensing and less so by the modified density profiles. For this model, we also discuss the subtle impact on the force and lensing calculations caused by the screening effects of haloes that exist in and around voids. In the Nonlocal model, the impact of the modified density profiles and the direct modifications to lensing are comparable, but they boost the lensing signal by only $\approx 10\%$, compared with that of GR. Overall, our results suggest that lensing by voids is a promising tool to test models of gravity that modify lensing.

Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: II. Synergies with supernovae
arXiv: 1505.0552
A. C. O. Leite, C. J. A. P. Martins

In previous work [Amendola {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. D86 (2012) 063515], Principal Component Analysis based methods to constrain the dark energy equation of state using Type Ia supernovae and other low redshift probes were extended to spectroscopic tests of the stability fundamental couplings, which can probe higher redshifts. Here we use them to quantify the gains in sensitivity obtained by combining spectroscopic measurements expected from ESPRESSO at the VLT and the high-resolution ultra-stable spectrograph for the E-ELT (known as ELT-HIRES) with future supernova surveys. In addition to simulated low and intermediate redshift supernova surveys, we assess the dark energy impact of high-redshift supernovas detected by JWST and characterized by the E-ELT or TMT. Our results show that a detailed characterization of the dark energy properties beyond the acceleration phase (i.e., deep in the matter era) is viable, and may reach as deep as redshift 4.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Trends in galaxy colours, morphology, and stellar populations with large scale structure, group, and pair environments
arXiv: 1505.0551
Mehmet Alpaslan, Simon Driver, Aaron S. G. Robotham, et al.

We explore trends in galaxy properties with Mpc-scale structures using catalogues of environment and large scale structure from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Existing GAMA catalogues of large scale structure, group and pair membership allow us to construct galaxy stellar mass functions for different environmental types. To avoid simply extracting the known underlying correlations between galaxy properties and stellar mass, we create a mass matched sample of galaxies with stellar masses between $9.5 \leq \log{M_*/h^{-2} M_{\odot}} \leq 11$ for each environmental population. Using these samples, we show that mass normalised galaxies in different large scale environments have similar energy outputs, $u-r$ colours, luminosities, and morphologies. Extending our analysis to group and pair environments, we show galaxies that are not in groups or pairs exhibit similar characteristics to each other regardless of broader environment. For our mass controlled sample, we fail to see a strong dependence of S\'{e}rsic index or galaxy luminosity on halo mass, but do find that it correlates very strongly with colour. Repeating our analysis for galaxies that have not been mass controlled introduces and amplifies trends in the properties of galaxies in pairs, groups, and large scale structure, indicating that stellar mass is the most important predictor of the galaxy properties we examine, as opposed to environmental classifications.

The Subaru-XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) VIII.: Multi-wavelength Identification, Optical/NIR Spectroscopic Properties, and Photometric Redshifts of X-ray Sources
arXiv: 1505.0548
Masayuki Akiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Mike G. Watson, et al.

We report the multi-wavelength identification of the X-ray sources found in the Subaru-XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) using deep imaging data covering the wavelength range between the far-UV to the mid-IR. We select a primary counterpart of each X-ray source by applying the likelihood ratio method to R-band, 3.6micron, near-UV, and 24micron source catalogs as well as matching catalogs of AGN candidates selected in 1.4GHz radio and i'-band variability surveys. Once candidates of Galactic stars, ultra-luminous X-ray sources in a nearby galaxy, and clusters of galaxies are removed there are 896 AGN candidates in the sample. We conduct spectroscopic observations of the primary counterparts with multi-object spectrographs in the optical and NIR; 65\% of the X-ray AGN candidates are spectroscopically-identified. For the remaining X-ray AGN candidates, we evaluate their photometric redshift with photometric data in 15 bands. Utilising the multi-wavelength photometric data of the large sample of X-ray selected AGNs, we evaluate the stellar masses, M*, of the host galaxies of the narrow-line AGNs. The distribution of the stellar mass is remarkably constant from z=0.1 to 4.0. The relation between M* and 2--10 keV luminosity can be explained with strong cosmological evolution of the relationship between the black hole mass and M*. We also evaluate the scatter of the UV-MIR spectral energy distribution (SED) of the X-ray AGNs as a function of X-ray luminosity and absorption to the nucleus. The scatter is compared with galaxies which have redshift and stellar mass distribution matched with the X-ray AGN. The UV-NIR SEDs of obscured X-ray AGNs are similar to those of the galaxies in the matched sample. In the NIR-MIR range, the median SEDs of X-ray AGNs are redder, but the scatter of the SEDs of the X-ray AGN broadly overlaps that of the galaxies in the matched sample.

arXiv: 1505.0540
I. Jack, D. R. T. Jones, C. Poole

The a-function is a proposed quantity defined for quantum field theories which has a monotonic behaviour along renormalisation group flows, being related to the beta-functions via a gradient flow equation involving a positive definite metric. We demonstrate the existence of a candidate a-function for renormalisable Chern-Simons theories in three dimensions, involving scalar and fermion fields, in both non-supersymmetric and supersymmetric cases.

General relativistic corrections to $N$-body simulations and the Zel'dovich approximation
arXiv: 1505.0475
Christian Fidler, Cornelius Rampf, Thomas Tram, et al.

The initial conditions for Newtonian $N$-body simulations are usually generated by applying the Zel'dovich approximation to the initial displacements of the particles using an initial power spectrum of density fluctuations generated by an Einstein-Boltzmann solver. We show that in most gauges the initial displacements generated in this way receive a first-order relativistic correction. We define a new gauge, the $N$-body gauge, in which this relativistic correction vanishes and show that a conventional Newtonian $N$-body simulation includes all first-order relativistic contributions (in the absence of radiation) if we identify the coordinates in Newtonian simulations with those in the relativistic $N$-body gauge.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Redshift Space Distortions from the Clipped Galaxy Field
arXiv: 1505.0386
Fergus Simpson, Chris Blake, John A. Peacock, et al.

We present the first cosmological measurement derived from a galaxy density field subject to a `clipping' transformation. By enforcing an upper bound on the galaxy number density field in the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey (GAMA), contributions from the nonlinear processes of virialisation and galaxy bias are greatly reduced. This leads to a galaxy power spectrum which is easier to model, without calibration from numerical simulations. We develop a theoretical model for the power spectrum of a clipped field in redshift space, which is exact for the case of anisotropic Gaussian fields. Clipping is found to extend the applicability of the conventional Kaiser prescription by more than a factor of three in wavenumber, or a factor of thirty in terms of the number of Fourier modes. By modelling the galaxy power spectrum on scales k < 0.3 h/Mpc and density fluctuations $\delta_g < 4$ we measure the normalised growth rate $f\sigma_8(z = 0.18) = 0.29 \pm 0.10$.

Effective dark matter power spectra in $f(R)$ gravity
arXiv: 1505.0365
Jian-hua He, Baojiu Li, Adam J. Hawken

Using N-body simulations, we measure the power spectrum of the effective dark matter density field, which is defined through the modified Poisson equation in $f(R)$ cosmologies. We find that when compared to the conventional dark matter power spectrum, the effective power spectrum deviates more significantly from the $\Lambda$CDM model. For models with $f_{R0}=-10^{-4}$, the deviation can exceed 150\% while the deviation of the conventional matter power spectrum is less than 50\%. Even for models with $f_{R0}=-10^{-6}$, for which the conventional matter power spectrum is very close to the $\Lambda$CDM prediction, the effective power spectrum shows sizeable deviations. Our results indicate that traditional analyses based on the dark matter density field may seriously underestimate the impact of $f(R)$ gravity on galaxy clustering. We therefore suggest the use of the effective density field in such studies. In addition, based on our findings, we also discuss several possible methods of making use of the differences between the conventional and effective dark matter power spectra in $f(R)$ gravity to discriminate the theory from the $\Lambda$CDM model.

The Vainshtein mechanism beyond the quasi-static approximation
arXiv: 1505.0353
Hans A. Winther, Pedro G. Ferreira

Theories of modified gravity, in both the linear and fully non-linear regime, are often studied under the assumption that the evolution of the new (often scalar) degree of freedom present in the theory is quasi-static. This approximation significantly simplifies the study of the theory, and one often has good reason to believe that it should hold. Nevertheless it is a crucial assumption that should be explicitly checked whenever possible. In this paper we do so for the Vainshtein mechanism. By solving for the full spatial and time evolution of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati and the Cubic Galileon model, in a spherical symmetric spacetime, we are able to demonstrate that the Vainshtein solution is a stable attractor and forms no matter what initial conditions we take for the scalar field. Furthermore,the quasi-static approximation is also found to be a very good approximation whenever it exists. For the best-fit Cubic Galileon model, however, we find that for deep voids at late times, the numerical solution blows up at the same time as the quasi-static solution ceases to exist. We argue that this phenomenon is a true instability of the model.

Galactic Neutrinos in the TeV to PeV Range
arXiv: 1505.0315
Markus Ahlers, Yang Bai, Vernon Barger, Ran Lu

We study the contribution of Galactic sources to the flux of astrophysical neutrinos recently observed by the IceCube Collaboration. We show that in the simplest model of homogeneous and isotropic cosmic ray diffusion in the Milky Way the Galactic diffuse neutrino emission consistent with $\gamma$-ray (Fermi-LAT) and cosmic ray data (KASCADE, KASCADE-Grande and CREAM) is expected to account for only $4\%-8\%$ of the IceCube flux above 60 TeV. Direct neutrino emission from cosmic ray-gas ($pp$) interactions in the sources would require an unusually large average opacity above 0.01. On the other hand, we find that the IceCube events already probe Galactic neutrino scenarios via the distribution of event arrival directions. Based on the latter, we show that most Galactic scenarios can only have a limited contribution to the astrophysical signal: diffuse Galactic emission ($\lesssim50\%$), quasi-diffuse emission of neutrino sources ($\lesssim65\%$), extended diffuse emission from the Fermi Bubbles ($\lesssim25\%$) or unidentified TeV $\gamma$-ray sources ($\lesssim25\%$). The arguments discussed here leave, at present, dark matter decay unconstrained.

Cold Baryogenesis from first principles in the Two-Higgs Doublet model with Fermions
arXiv: 1505.0269
Zong-Gang Mou, Paul M. Saffin, Anders Tranberg

We present a first-principles numerical computation of the baryon asymmetry in electroweak-scale baryogenesis. For the scenario of Cold Baryogenesis, we consider a one fermion-family reduced CP-violating two Higgs-doublet model, including a classical SU(2)-gauge/two-Higgs sector coupled to one quantum left-handed fermion doublet and two right-handed singlets. Separately, the C(CP) breaking of the two-Higgs potential and the C and P breaking of the gauge-fermion interactions do not provide a baryon asymmetry. Only when combined does baryogenesis occur. Through large-scale computer simulations, we compute the asymmetry for one particularly favourable scalar potential. The numerical signal is at the boundary of what is numerically discernible with the available computer resources, but we tentatively find an asymmetry of $A Manifestly Local Theory of Vacuum Energy Sequestering arXiv: 1505.0149 Nemanja Kaloper, Antonio Padilla, David Stefanyszyn, George Zahariade We present a manifestly local, diffeomorphism invariant and locally Poincare invariant formulation of vacuum energy sequestering. In this theory, quantum vacuum energy generated by matter loops is cancelled by auxiliary fields. The auxiliary fields decouple from gravity almost completely. Their only residual effect is an a priori arbitrary, finite contribution to the curvature of the background geometry, which is radiatively stable. Its value is to be determined by a measurement, like the finite part of any radiatively stable UV-sensitive quantity in quantum field theory. Effective matter dispersion relation in quantum covariant Horava-Lifshitz gravity arXiv: 1505.0139 Jean Alexandre, James Brister We study how quantum fluctuations of the metric in covariant Horava-Lifshitz gravity influence the propagation of classical fields (complex scalar and photon). The effective Lorentz-symmetry violation induced by the breaking of 4-dimensional diffeomorphism is then evaluated, by comparing the dressed dispersion relations for both external fields. The constraint of vanishing 3-dimensional Ricci scalar is imposed in the path integral, which therefore explicitly depends on two propagating gravitational degrees of freedom only. Because the matter fields are classical, the present model contains only logarithmic divergences. Furthermore, it imposes the characteristic Horava-Lifshitz scale to be smaller than$10^{10}$GeV, if one wishes not to violate the current bounds on Lorentz symmetry violation. Reconstruction of the dark matter-vacuum energy interaction arXiv: 1505.0137 Yuting Wang, Gong-Bo Zhao, David Wands, et al. An interaction between the vacuum energy and dark matter is an intriguing possibility which may offer a way of solving the cosmological constant problem. Adopting a general prescription for momentum exchange between the two dark components, we reconstruct$\alpha(a)$, the temporal evolution of the coupling strength between dark matter and vacuum energy, in a nonparametric Bayesian approach using combined observational data sets from the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and large scale structure. An evolving interaction between the vacuum energy and dark matter removes some of the tensions between different data sets. However, it is not preferred over$\Lambda\$CDM in the Bayesian sense, as improvement in the fit is not sufficient to compensate for the increase in the volume of the parameter space.

Dark-matter bound states from Feynman diagrams
arXiv: 1505.0010
Kalliopi Petraki, Marieke Postma, Michael Wiechers

If dark matter couples directly to a light force mediator, then it may form bound states in the early universe and in the non-relativistic environment of haloes today. In this work, we establish a field-theoretic framework for the computation of bound-state formation cross-sections, de-excitation and decay rates, in theories with long-range interactions. Using this formalism, we carry out specific computations for scalar particles interacting either via a light scalar or vector mediator. At low relative velocities of the interacting particles, the formation of bound states is enhanced by the Sommerfeld effect. For particle-antiparticle pairs, we show that bound-state formation can be faster than annihilation into radiation in the regime where the Sommerfeld effect is important. The field-theoretic formalism outlined here can be generalised to compute bound-state formation cross-sections in a variety of theories, including theories featuring non-Abelian (albeit non-confining) interactions, such as the electroweak interactions.

UK Cosmology gratefully acknowledges financial support from Winton Capital Management

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