Kination dominated quintessence models of dark energy have the intriguing feature that the relic abundance of thermal cold dark matter can be significantly enhanced compared to the predictions from standard cosmology. Previous treatments of such models do not include a realistic embedding of inflationary initial conditions. We remedy this situation by constructing a viable inflationary model in which the inflaton and quintessence field are the same scalar degree of freedom. Kination domination is achieved after inflation through a strong push or kick of the inflaton, and sufficient reheating can be achieved depending on model parameters. This allows us to explore both model-dependent and model-independent cosmological predictions of this scenario. We find that measurements of the B-mode CMB polarization can rule out this class of scenarios almost model independently. We also discuss other experimentally accessible signatures for this class of models.
We show that proton storage ring experiments designed to search for proton electric dipole moments can also be used to look for the nearly dc spin precession induced by dark energy and ultra-light dark matter. These experiments are sensitive to both axion-like and vector fields. Current technology permits probes of these phenomena up to three orders of magnitude beyond astrophysical limits. The relativistic boost of the protons in these rings allows this scheme to have sensitivities comparable to atomic co-magnetometer experiments that can also probe similar phenomena. These complementary approaches can be used to extract the micro-physics of a signal, allowing us to distinguish between pseudo-scalar, magnetic and electric dipole moment interactions.
Observations of the interstellar medium by the Herschel, Planck etc. infrared satellites throw doubt on standard {Lambda}CDMHC cosmological processes to form gravitational structures. According to the Hydro-Gravitational-Dynamics (HGD) cosmology of Gibson (1996), and the quasar microlensing observations of Schild (1996), the dark matter of galaxies consists of Proto-Globular-star-Cluster (PGC) clumps of Earth-mass primordial gas planets in metastable equilibrium since PGCs began star production at 0.3 Myr by planet mergers. Dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe inferred from SuperNovae Ia are systematic dimming errors produced as frozen gas dark matter planets evaporate to form stars. Collisionless cold dark matter that clumps and hierarchically clusters does not exist. Clumps of PGCs began diffusion from the Milky Way Proto-Galaxy upon freezing at 14 Myr to give the Magellanic Clouds and the faint dwarf galaxies of the 10^22 m diameter baryonic dark matter Galaxy halo. The first stars persist as old globular star clusters (OGCs). Water oceans and the biological big bang occurred at 2-8 Myr. Life inevitably formed and evolved in the cosmological primordial organic soup provided by 10^80 big bang planets and their hot oceans as they gently merged to form larger binary planets and small binary stars.
Phenomenological implications of the Mimetic Tensor-Vector-Scalar theory (MiTeVeS) are studied. The theory is an extension of the vector field model of mimetic dark matter, where a scalar field is also incorporated, and it is known to be free from ghost instability. In the absence of interactions between the scalar field and the vector field, the obtained cosmological solution corresponds to the General theory of Relativity (GR) with a minimally-coupled scalar field. However, including an interaction term between the scalar field and the vector field yields interesting dynamics. There is a shift symmetry for the scalar field with a flat potential, and the conserved Noether current, which is associated with the symmetry, behaves as a dark matter component. Consequently, the solution contains a cosmological constant, dark matter and a stiff matter fluid. Breaking the shift symmetry with a non-flat potential gives a natural interaction between dark energy and dark matter.
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) non-relativistic condensate of Majorana neutrinos. The condensate of neutrinos can provide an attractive alternative candidate for the DM, being in a cold coherent state. We will explain how neutrinos, combining into Cooper pairs, can form collective low-energy degrees of freedom, hence providing a strongly motivated candidate for the QCD (composite) axion.
We perform a systematic analysis of dark matter production during post-inflationary reheating. Following the period of exponential expansion, the inflaton begins a period of damped oscillations as it decays. These oscillations and the evolution of temperature of the thermalized decay products depend on the shape of the inflaton potential $V(Phi)$. We consider potentials of the form $Phi^k$. Standard matter-dominated oscillations occur for $k=2$. In general, the production of dark matter may depend on either (or both) the maximum temperature after inflation, or the reheating temperature, where the latter is defined when the Universe becomes radiation dominated. We show that dark matter production is sensitive to the inflaton potential and depends heavily on the maximum temperature when $k>2$. We also consider the production of dark matter with masses larger than the reheating temperature.