Cosmology and Gravitation

The so-called cosmological backreaction arises when one directly averages the Einstein equations to recover cosmology. While usually applied to avoid employing dark energy models, strictly speaking any cosmological model should be built from such an averaging procedure rather than an assumed background. We apply the Buchert formalism to Einstein-de Sitter, Lambda CDM and quintessence cosmologies, and as a first approach to the full problem, evaluate numerically the discrepancies arising from linear perturbation theory between the averaged behaviour and the assumed behaviour. (References: J. Behrend, IB and G. Robbers, JCAP01(2008)013, aXiv:0710.4964; IB, G. Robbers and J. Behrend, in preperation)

At the end of inflation, dynamical instability can rapidly deposit the energy of homogeneous cold inflation into excitations of other fields. This process (known as preheating) essentially starts the hot big bang as we know it. I will present simulations of several preheating models using a new numerical solver DEFROST I developed. The results trace the evolution of the fields, which quickly become very inhomogeneous as the instability kicks in. Surprisingly, there appears to be a certain universality across preheating models with different decay channels. After initial transient, the field density distributions quickly become stationary and lognormal to high precision. I will discuss possible connection of this observation to scalar field turbulence.

Observations of the Milky Way by the SPI/INTEGRAL satellite have confirmed the presence of a strong 511 KeV gamma-ray line emission from the bulge, which require an intense source of positrons in the galactic center. These observations are hard to account for by conventional astrophysical scenarios, whereas other proposals, such as light DM, face stringent constraints from the diffuse gamma-ray background. I will describe how light superconducting strings could be the source of the observed 511 KeV emission. The associated particle physics, at the ~ 1 TeV scale, is within reach of planned accelerator experiments, while the scenario has a distinguishing spatial distribution, proportional to the galactic magnetic field. I will also discuss how cosmic magnetic fields of nano-Gauss strength today could have been created at the time of baryogenesis. In addition to being astrophysically relevant, such magnetic fields, which are helical, can provide an independent probe of baryogenesis and CP violation in particle physics.

In this talk I will analyse the stochastic background of gravitational waves coming from a first order phase transition in the early universe. The signal is potentially detectable by the space interferometer LISA. I will present a detailed analytical model of the gravitational wave production by the collision of broken phase bubbles, together with analytical results for the gravitational wave power spectrum. Gravitational wave production by turbulence and magnetic fields will also be briefly discussed.

Recent developments in the field of Numerical Relativity have not only provided key insights of binary black hole systems but also began influencing its future role. Undoubtedly one of the most important future drivers in the near future of the field will be its role as another element within the study of spectacular astrophysical phenomena involving strongly gravitation scenarios. Connecting (yet to be observed) gravitational waves with observations within the electromagnetic spectra will be one ultimate goal of this enterprise. This talk will illustrate this interplay within the study of magnetized binary neutron star systems as a stepping stone towards more ambitious goals.

I will review relativistic quantum theory that is based on Wigner\'s unitary representations of the Poincare group, Dirac\'s forms of dynamics, and Newton-Wigner\'s definition of the position operator. Formulas will be derived that transform particle observables between different inertial reference frames. In the absence of interactions, these formulas coincide with Lorentz transformations from special relativity. However, when interaction is turned on, some deviations appear. The relationship of this result to the Currie-Jordan-Sudarshan \'no-interaction\' theorem will be mentioned, and the status of Lorentz transformations within quantum and classical theories of interacting particles will be discussed.

We study the effective field theory of inflation, i.e. the most general theory describing the fluctuations around a quasi de Sitter background, in the case of single field models. The scalar mode can be eaten by the metric by going to unitary gauge. In this gauge, the most general theory is built with the lowest dimension operators invariant under spatial diffeomorphisms, like g^{00} and K_{mu nu}, the extrinsic curvature of constant time surfaces. This approach allows us to characterize all the possible high energy corrections to simple slow-roll inflation, whose sizes are constrained by experiments. Also, it describes in a common language all single field models, including those with a small speed of sound and Ghost Inflation, and it makes explicit the implications of having a quasi de Sitter background. The non-linear realization of time diffeomorphisms forces correlation among different observables, like a reduced speed of sound and an enhanced level of non-Gaussianity.

I will review an old (Greenberg and Schweber, 1958) and undeservedly forgotten idea in quantum field theory. This idea allows one to reformulate QFT as a Hamiltonian theory of physical (rather than bare) particles and their direct interactions. The dressed particle approach is scattering-equivalent to the traditional one, however it doesn\'t require renormalization and may provide a valuable tool for calculations of wave functions of bound states and time evolution.

Many string theorists and cosmologists have recently turned their attention to building and testing string theory models of inflation. One of the main goals is to find novel features that could distinguish stringy models from their field theoretic counterparts. This is difficult because, in most examples, string theory is used to derived an effective theory operating at energies well below the string scale. However, since string theory provides a complete description of dynamics also at higher energies, it may be interesting to construct inflationary models which take advantage of this distinctive feature. I will discuss recent progress in this direction using p-adic string theory - a toy model of the bosonic string for which the full series of higher dimensional operators is known explicitly - as a playground for studying string cosmology to all order in $alpha\'$. The p-adic string is a nonlocal theory containing derivatives of all orders and this structure is also ubiquitous in string field theory. After discussing the difficulties (such as ghosts and classical instabilities) that arise in working with higher derivative theories I will show how to construct generic inflationary models with infinitely many derivatives. Novel features include the possibility of realizing slow roll inflation with a steep potential and large nongaussian signatures in the CMB.

We introduce a formalism allowing us to localize a certain class of theories with an infinite number of derivatives (nonlocal), which include effective actions of string field theory. The number of degrees of freedom is finite and the Cauchy problem, Hamiltonian and quantization are all well-defined. As applications, the rolling tachyon of cubic string field theory and some cosmological toy models are considered.