Coordinatori
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Fabio Finelli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Fabio Finelli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
- Guenter Sigl (Universität Hamburg)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Sadakazu Haino (Academia Sinica)
- Mercedes Paniccia (Universite de Geneve)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Elisa Bernardini (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
- Guenter Sigl (Universität Hamburg)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Mercedes Paniccia (Universite de Geneve)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology: Joint session with Dark Matter
- Guenter Sigl (Universität Hamburg)
- Marco Selvi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Elisa Bernardini (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Elisa Bernardini (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
- Fabio Finelli (INAF & INFN )
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Fabio Finelli (INAF & INFN )
- Chiara Caprini (CNRS APC Paris)
Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
- Mercedes Paniccia (Universite de Geneve)
`Preheating' refers to non-perturbative particle production at the end of cosmic inflation. In many modern inflationary models, this process is predominantly or partly tachyonic, that is, proceeds through a tachyonic instability where the mass-squared of the inflaton field is negative. An example of such a model is Higgs inflation, where the Standard Model Higgs field is the inflaton,...
According to the current experimental data, the SM Higgs vacuum appears to be metastable due to the development of a second, lower ground state in the Higgs potential. Consequently, vacuum decay would induce the nucleation of true vacuum bubbles with catastrophic consequences for our false vacuum Universe. Since such an event would render our Universe incompatible with measurements, we are...
In this talk, I will present a short overview of the connection between particle physics and phase transitions in the early and very early universe. I will then focus on phase transitions during inflation and present recent results on how to use the stochastic spectral expansion to perform phenomenology calculations. I will also talk about the interplay between the electroweak phase...
Bubble nucleation is a key ingredient in a cosmological first order phase transition. The non-equilibrium bubble dynamics and the properties of the transition are controlled by the density perturbations in the hot plasma. We present, for the first time, the full solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation. Our approach, differently from the traditional one based on the fluid approximation,...
Extensions of the Higgs sector of the Standard Model allow for a rich cosmological history around the electroweak scale. We show that besides the possibility of strong first-order phase transitions, which have been thoroughly studied in the literature, also other important phenomena can occur, like the non-restoration of the electroweak symmetry or the existence of vacua in which the Universe...
We present a simple extension of the Standard Model with three right-handed neutrinos with an additional U(1$)_\text{F}$ abelian flavor symmetry, with a non standard leptonic charge $L_e-L_\mu-L_\tau$ for lepton doublets and arbitrary right-handed charges. We present a see-saw realization of such a scenario. The baryon asymmetry of the Universe is generated via thermal leptogenesis through...
We study single field slow-roll inflation in the presence of $F(R)$ gravity in the Palatini formulation. In contrast to metric $F(R)$, when rewritten in terms of an auxiliary field and moved to the Einstein frame, Palatini $F(R)$ does not develop a new dynamical degree of freedom. However, it is not possible to solve analytically the constraint equation of the auxiliary field for a general...
The LiteBIRD satellite (Lite satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection) will perform the final measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization anisotropies on large and intermediate angular scales. Its sensitivity and the wide frequency coverage in 15 bands will allow an unprecedented accuracy in the measurement and...
We discuss the imprints of a cosmological redshift-dependent pseudoscalar field on the rotation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) linear polarization generated by a coupling $ g_\phi \phi F^{\mu\nu} \tilde F_{\mu \nu}$.
We show how either phenomenological or theoretically motivated redshift dependence of the pseudoscalar field, such as those in models of Early Dark Energy, Quintessence...
Parity-violating extensions of Maxwell electromagnetism induce a rotation of the linear polarization plane of photons during propagation. This effect, known as cosmic birefringence, impacts on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations producing a mixing of $E$ and $B$ polarization modes which is otherwise null in the standard scenario. Such an effect is naturally parametrized by a...
In this talk, I will present a Neural Network-improved version of DarkHistory, a code package that self-consistently computes the early universe temperature, ionization levels, and photon spectral distortion due to exotic energy injections. We use simple multilayer perceptron networks to store and interpolate complicated photon and electron transfer functions, previously stored as large...
We study the production of relativistic relics, also known as dark radiation, in the early Universe and precisely compute their current contribution to the extra number of effective neutrinos. One of the dark radiation candidates is the QCD axion produced from the primordial bath in the early universe. We consider KSVZ and DFSZ axion models and investigate the axion production at different...
The observations of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors have led so far to the confident identification of 90 signals, from the merger of compact binary systems constituted of black holes and neutron stars. These events have offered a new testing ground for General Relativity and better insights into the nuclear equation of state for neutron stars, as well as the...
Sources of geophysical noise (such as wind, sea waves and earthquakes) or of anthropogenic noise (nearby activities, road traffic, etc.) impact ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) interferometric detectors, causing transient sensitivity worsening and gaps in data taking.
During the one year-long third Observing Run (O3: from April 01, 2019 to March 27, 2020), the Virgo Collaboration...
The characteristics of the cosmic microwave background provide circumstantial evidence that the hot radiation-dominated epoch in the early universe was preceded by a period of inflationary expansion. Here, it will be shown how a measurement of the stochastic gravitational wave background can reveal the cosmic history and the physical conditions during inflation, subsequent pre- and reheating,...
In 2006, A. Cohen and S. Glashow presented for the first time the idea of Very Special Relativity (VSR), where they imagined to restrict space-time invariance to a subgroup of the full Lorentz group, usually the subgroup $SIM(2)$. The advantage of this theory is that, while it does not affect the classical prediction of Special Relativity, it can explain the existence of neutrino masses...
Gravitational-wave (GW) cosmology provides a new way to measure the expansion history of the Universe, based on the fact that GWs are direct distance tracers. This property allows at the same time to test gravity at cosmological scales, since in presence of modifications of General Relativity the distance inferred from GWs is modified - a phenomenon known as ''modified GW propagation''. On the...
In this talk, I will evaluate the potential for extremely high-precision astrometry of a small number of non-magnetic, photometrically stable hot white dwarfs (WD) located at $\sim$ kpc distances to access interesting sources in the gravitational-wave (GW) frequency band from 10 nHz to 1 $\mu$Hz. Previous astrometric studies have focused on the potential for less precise, large-scale...
We present high statistics measurements of primary cosmic rays Helium, Carbon, Oxygen, Neon, Magnesium, Silicon, Sulfur, Iron, and Nickel with AMS. The properties of He-C-O, Ne-Mg-Si, S, Fe and Ni fluxes are discussed.
We present high statistics measurements of AMS-02 of the secondary cosmic rays Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, and Fluorine. The properties of the secondary cosmic ray fluxes and their ratios to the primary cosmic rays Li/C, Be/C, B/C, Li/O, Be/O, B/O, and F/Si are discussed. A systematic comparison with the latest GALPROP cosmic ray model is presented.
Cosmic Nitrogen, Sodium, and Aluminum nuclei are a combination of primaries, produced at cosmic-ray sources, and secondaries resulting from collisions of heavier primary cosmic rays with the interstellar medium. We present high statistics measurements of the N, Na and Al rigidity spectra. We discuss the properties and composition of their spectra and present a novel model-independent...
Deuterons and ³He represent a few per cent of the cosmic-ray nuclei. They are mainly produced by fragmentation reactions of primary cosmic ⁴He nuclei on the interstellar medium and represent a very sensitive tool to verify and constrain CR propagation models in the galaxy, providing additional information to that of the cosmic B/C ratio. Precision measurements of the deuteron and ³He fluxes...
Beryllium nuclei are expected to be mainly produced by the fragmentation of primary cosmic rays (CR) during their propagation. Therefore, their measurement is essential in the understanding of cosmic ray propagation and sources. In particular, the $^{10}$Be/$^9$Be ratio can be used as a radioactive clock providing the measurement of CR residence time in the Galaxy. In this contribution, the...
Analysis of anisotropy of the arrival directions of galactic protons, helium, carbon and oxygen has been performed with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station. These results allow to investigate the origin of the spectral hardening observed by AMS in these cosmic ray species. The AMS results on the dipole anisotropy are presented along with the discussion of the...
The precision measurement of daily proton fluxes with AMS during ten years of operation in the rigidity interval from 1 to 100 GV is presented. The proton fluxes exhibit variations on multiple time scales. From 2014 to 2018, we observed recurrent flux variations with a period of 27 days. Shorter periods of 9 days and 13.5 days are observed in 2016. The strength of all three periodicities...
The detailed measurement of the positron fluxes from May 20, 2011 to October 29, 2019 with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station, is presented. Time variation of the fluxes on different time scales associated with the solar activity over half solar cycle 24 is shown. The measured effect of charge sign dependent effects on particles with the same mass is discussed.
Since its launch, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 (AMS-02) has delivered outstanding quality measurements of the spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) species, which resulted in a number of breakthroughs. Some of the most recent AMS-02 results are the measurements of the spectra of CR fluorine, sodium and aluminum up to 2 TV. Given their low solar system abundances, a significant fraction of each...
The LHC-forward experiment (LHCf), located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is designed to measure the production cross section of neutral particles in the very-forward region, covering the pseudorapidity region above 8.4 (up to zero-degree particles). By measuring the very-forward particle production rates at the highest energy possible at an accelerator, LHCf will provide fundamental...
Neutron star (NS) as the dark matter (DM) probe has gained a broad
attention recently, either from heating due to DM annihilation or
its stability under the presence of DM. In this work, we investigate
spin-$1/2$ fermionic DM $\chi$ charged under the $U(1)_{X}$
in the dark sector. The massive gauge boson $V$ of
$U(1)_{X}$ gauge group can be produced in NS via DM annihilation. The produced...
Beyond the Standard Model physics is required to explain both the baryon asymmetry of the universe and the the dark matter relic density. In this talk we discuss a setup wherein both problems could possibly be solved within an unified framework. In particular we consider a new scalar particle, that shares interaction with the Higgs boson and admits charges under the SM gauge groups, that can...
Commonly known as Boltzmann suppression is the key ingredient to create chemical imbalance for thermal dark matter. In a degenerate/quasi degenerate dark sector chemical imbalance can also be generated from a different mechanism which is analogous to the radioactive decay law, known as co-decaying dark matter. In this work, we have studied the dynamics of a multicomponent thermally decoupled...
We analyze the possibility that the dark matter candidate is from the approximate scale symmetry theory of the hidden scalar sector. The study includes the warm dark matter scenario and the Bose-Einstein condensation which may lead to massive dark scalar boson stars giving rise to direct detection through observation of the primary (direct) photons. The dynamical system of the scalar...
Self-interaction of particulate dark matter may help thermalising the galactic center and driving core formation. The core radius is expectedly sensitive to the self-interaction strength of dark matter. In this work we study the feasibility of constraining dark matter self-interaction from the distribution of core radius in isolated haloes. We perform systematic $N$-body simulations of...
Dark photon is one of the cold dark matter (CDM) candidates. It is predicted in the context of high-scale inflation models and a part of string theories. However, experimental constraints for its mass range at around $O$(10--100)$\,\mu\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ have not been tight yet. The dark photon CDM is predicted to convert to a photon with a weak coupling constant ($\chi$). The frequency of the...
The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics is a very successful theory that can explain the fundamental particles and their interactions. However, there are theoretical, and experimental motivations of studying physics Beyond Standard Model. I will discuss the possibility of probing Beyond Standard Model physics through light particles like axions and light gauge bosons. We also obtain...
Flavor violating axion couplings can be in action before recombination, and they can fill the early universe with an additional radiation component. Working within a model-independent framework, we consider an effective field theory for the axion field and quantify axion production. Current cosmological data exclude already a fraction of the available parameter space, and the bounds will...
The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a large-scale axion helioscope that will look for axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) produced in the Sun. It is conceived to reach a sensitivity on the axion photon coupling in the range of 10$^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$.
On the way to IAXO, an intermediate experiment babyIAXO is already in the construction phase. BabyIAXO will be important to test...
Axion, a hypothetical particle originally emerging from a proposed solution to the strong CP problem of particle physics, is one of the most favored candidates addressing the dark matter puzzle. As part of the efforts within the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP) of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), we are searching for axion dark matter using the haloscope method...
The multiple-cell cavity design, developed at IBS-CAPP, was successfully demonstrated, by conducting an axion experiment using a double-cell cavity, as an efficient approach for high-mass axion searches. Using cavities with higher cell-multiplicities, we are currently running parallel experiments for axion searches near 6 GHz and 7 GHz with KSVZ sensitivity relying on dilution refrigerators...
The BREAD Collaboration proposes an ambitious program of broadband searches for terahertz axion dark matter. Its experimental hallmark is a cylindrical metal barrel converting axions to photons that are focused by a parabolic reflector to an ultralow noise photosensor. Practically, this novel dish antenna geometry enables enclosure inside standard cryostats and high-field magnets. We present...
The MAgnetized Disc And Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX) intends to search for dark matter axions in the mass range of 40 to 400 μeV, a range previously inaccessible by other experiments. This mass range is favored by models in which the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken after cosmic inflation. MADMAX will apply the concept of the dielectric haloscope, multiple movable dielectric disks in a...
Non-standard neutrino properties can modify the picture of neutrino decoupling from the cosmic plasma. We have calculated the impact on the contribution of neutrinos to the cosmological radiation density, parameterized via the effective number of neutrinos ($N_{\rm eff}$), for some particular cases, including the presence of neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with electrons or mixing...
There is an interesting connection between early universe cosmology and searches for long-lived particles (LLPs) at the LHC. Light particles can be produced via freeze-in and act as dark radiation, contributing to the effective number of relativistic species $N_\text{eff}$. The parameter space of interest for future CMB missions points to LLP decay lengths in the mm to cm range. These decay...
An unexpected explanation for neutrino mass, Dark Matter (DM) and Dark Energy (DE) from genuine Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) of the Standard Model (SM) is proposed here, while the strong CP problem is resolved without any need to account for fundamental axions. We suggest that the neutrino sector can be in a double phase in the Universe: i) relativistic neutrinos, belonging to the SM; ii)...
The ANTARES high-energy neutrino telescope has operated in its full configuration from May 2008 up to February 2022 with its detector lines anchored at 2500 below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. The location of ANTARES allowed for an advantageous view of the Southern Sky through neutrino-induced upgoing muons, with a geometrical configuration optimized for neutrino of Galactic origin...
The SN1987A core-collapse supernova was the first extragalactic transient source observed through neutrinos. The detection of the 25 associated neutrinos by the Super-Kamiokande, IMB and Baksan experiments marked the beginning of neutrino astronomy. Since then, neutrino telescopes have not been able to make another observation due to the remoteness of the sources. It is therefore essential to...
Baikal-GVD is a large underwater neutrino detector currently under construction in Lake Baikal, Russia. With an instrumented volume already approaching 0.4 km$^3$ and a sub-degree angular resolution, Baikal-GVD is becoming one of the key players in neutrino astronomy. We review the current status of Baikal-GVD and recent results obtained with the partially complete instrument.
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observatory. Its hybrid detection technique combines the observation of the longitudinal development of extensive air showers and the lateral distribution of particles arriving at the ground. In this contribution, a review of the latest results on hadronic interactions using measurements from the Pierre Auger...
Euclid is a mission of the European Space Agency designed to constrain the properties of dark energy and gravity via weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering. It will carry out a wide area imaging and spectroscopy survey (the Euclid Wide Survey: EWS) in visible and near- infrared bands, covering approximately 15 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky in six years. Euclid will be equipped with a...
Euclid will observe 15,000 deg2 of the darkest sky that is free of contamination by light from our Galaxy and our Solar System. Three “Euclid Deep Fields” covering around 40 deg2 in total will be also observed extending the scientific scope of the mission the high-redshift universe. The complete survey represents hundreds of thousands images and several tens of Petabytes of data. About 10...
With the immense number of images, data and sources that Euclid will deliver, the consortium will be in a unique position to create/provide/construct legacy catalogs, with exquisite imaging quality and superb Near Infrared Spectroscopy, with impact on may areas of galaxy science. This talk will review the prospects and scientific output that Euclid will be able to achieve in areas of Galaxy...
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) are one of the most useful and used cosmological probes to measure cosmological distances independently of the underlying background cosmology. However, in the current measurements, the inference is done using a theoretical clustering correlation function template where the cosmological and the non-linear damping parameters are kept fixed to fiducial LCDM...
The synergy between gravitational wave (GW) experiments and large galaxy surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is most prominent in the standard siren method, which has already enabled several measurements of the Hubble Constant. A standard siren analysis was performed using the only GW event with an electromagnetic counterpart, GW170817, for the first time. We have...
Dilatons (and moduli) couple to the masses and coupling constants of ordinary matter, and these quantities are fixed by the local value of the dilaton field. If, in addition, the dilaton with mass $m_\phi$ contributes to the cosmic dark matter density, then such quantities oscillate in time at the dilaton Compton frequency. We show how these oscillations lead to broadening and shifting of the...
Primordial Gravitational Waves (GWs) are a unique tool to explore the physics and the microphysics of the early Universe. After the GW detections by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration the next target of modern cosmology is the detection of the stochastic background of GWs. Even if the main probe of primordial GWs is the Cosmic Microwave Background, we will see in this talk how we can extract...
In $\sim 2034$ the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will detect the coalescence of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) from $10^5$ to $10^7$ $\rm M_{\odot}$ up to $z\sim 10$. The gravitational wave (GWs) signal is expected to be accompanied by a powerful electromagnetic (EM) counterpart, from radio to X-ray, generated by the gas accreting on the binary.
If LISA locates the MBHB...
Observational constraints and prospects for detection of features, i.e. physically motivated oscillations in the primordial power spectrum, have so far concentrated on the CMB and Large Scale Structure surveys. Probing these features could, for instance, establish the existence of heavy particles beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments, and even test the inflationary paradigm or point to...
Primordial black holes constitute an attractive dark matter candidate. I will discuss several new observational signatures for primordial black holes spanning orders of magnitude in mass, connecting them to gravitational wave and multi-messenger astronomy as well as long-standing astrophysical puzzles such as the origin of heavy elements.
Primordial Black Holes are hypothetical Black Holes formed in the very early universe and are potential Dark Matter Candidates. Focusing on the Primordial Black Holes mass range $[5\cdot10^{14}-1\cdot10^{17}]$ g, we point out that their evaporation can produce detectable signals in existing experiments. First of all, we study neutrinos emitted by PBHs evaporation. They can interact through the...
The direct detection of gravitational waves opened an unprecedented channel to probe fundamental physics. Several alternative theories of gravitation have been proposed with various motivations, including accounting for the accelerated expansion of the Universe and the unification of fundamental forces. The study of gravitational waves propagation enables to put several predictions from those...
The sensitivity of the Pierre Auger Observatory to ultra-high energy neutral particles, such as photons, neutrinos and neutrons, allows it to take active part to Multi-Messenger searches in collaboration with other observatories. Searches for photons and neutrinos are performed by exploiting the design of the Pierre Auger Observatory, which allows to use the different properties of cosmic ray,...
The Pierre Auger Observatory, in the south of Mendoza province (Argentina), is the largest facility in the world to observe ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) and has been taking data for almost twenty years. It is designed to simultaneous detect the longitudinal development of the extensive air showers in the atmosphere and the measurement of particles’ densities at ground level. This...
In the last few years, gamma-ray astronomy opens a new window in the sub-PeV to PeV range inaugurated by the Tibet AS$\gamma$ collaboration followed by the HAWC and LHAASO collaborations. Gamma rays at this energy range are expected to be emitted by the neutral pion decay produced in the interaction between cosmic-ray particles and the interstellar matter, hence it is important to identify...
DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite mission, launched in December 2015, is in operation for more than 6 years. The main sub-detector, a thick imaging calorimeter BGO is capable of measuring gamma rays and cosmic-ray electrons up to about 10 TeV and cosmic ray ions up to about 100 TeV. This talk gives an overview of the mission and presents the latest results on the electron, proton...
The Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET), in operation on the International Space Station since 2015, collected a large sample of cosmic-ray over a wide energy interval. The instrument identifes the charge of individual elements up to nickel and beyond and, thanks to a homogeneous lead-tungstate calorimeter, it measures the energy of cosmic-ray nuclei providing a direct measurement of their...
The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility is a future space experiment which is designed for the direct measurement of cosmic-rays (CR). The instrument will be installed aboard the China’s Space Station around 2027 and is based on a homogeneous, deep, 3D segmented calorimeter. The calorimeter is surrounded by scintillating fiber trackers, anti-coincidence scintillators,...
The Tibet ASgamma experiment is located at 4,300m above sea level, in Tibet, China. The experiment is composed of a 65,700 m2 surface air shower array and 3,400 m2 underground water Cherenkov muon detectors. The surface air shower array is used for reconstructing the primary particle energy and direction, while the underground muon detectors are used for discriminating gamma-ray induced...
