<p>We propose an efficient regularization method for functional determinants of radial operators using heat kernel coefficients. Our key finding is a systematic way to identify heat kernel coefficients in the angular momentum space. We explicitly obtain the formulas up to sixth order in the heat kernel expansion, which suffice to regularize up to 13-dimensional functional determinants. We find that the heat kernel coefficients accurately approximate the large angular momentum dependence of functional determinants, and make numerical computations more efficient. In the limit of a large angular momentum, our formulas reduce to the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin formulas in previous studies, but are extended to higher orders. All the results are available in both the zeta function regularization and the dimensional regularization.</p>

Slovenia

Yutaro Shoji

South Korea

Japan

Masahide Yamaguchi

Regularization of functional determinants of radial operators via heat kernel coefficients

We present a minimal setup within the framework of Horndeski gravity that can describe a nonpathological Genesis scenario, namely, the strong-coupling energy scale is always well above the classical energy scale. Our setup allows for a fully stable transition to the kination epoch, during which General Relativity (GR) is restored. This Genesis scenario circumvents the no-go theorem at the cost of encountering the risk of strong coupling in the past. Interestingly, our scenario admits two different regimes for the background solution for Hubble parameter at the Genesis stage: power-law behavior and manifestly non-power-law behavior. We explicitly show that, in both regimes, our model remains within unitarity bounds. In most cases, the tensor spectrum is blue-tilted. Then, we adopt a mechanism with a spectator field that allows for a red-tilted scalar power spectrum. We also suggest a deformation of the model that enables us to achieve sufficiently small values for the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Finally, we discuss the geodesic (in)completeness of the current model.

Han Choi

Pavel Petrov

Can Horndeski Genesis be nonpathological?

We discuss formation of cosmic strings associated with a spontaneously broken approximate <math><mi>U</mi><mo>(</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>)</mo></math> symmetry by performing classical field-theoretical simulations. An original <math><mi>U</mi><mo>(</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>)</mo></math> symmetry is explicitly broken down to its subgroup <math><msub><mi>Z</mi><mi>N</mi></msub></math> even before spontaneous breaking takes place. We estimate the ratio of explicit breaking to that of spontaneous breaking for which topological defects for <math><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></math> and <math><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>2</mn></math> are formed. For <math><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></math>, a cosmic string attached to a single domain wall can be formed when the amount of the explicit breaking is 3 orders of magnitude smaller than that of the spontaneous breaking. For <math><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>2</mn></math>, no matter how large the explicit breaking is, domain walls are inevitably formed as long as the temperature of the Universe is high enough to restore <math><msub><mi>Z</mi><mn>2</mn></msub></math> symmetry. In that case, cosmic strings are also inevitably formed as long as the amount of the explicit breaking is smaller than that of the spontaneous breaking.

Kohei Fujikura

United Kingdom

Mairi Sakellariadou

Michiru Uwabo-Niibo

Formation of defects associated with both spontaneous and explicit symmetry breaking

Using the recently developed cosmological bootstrap method, we compute the exact analytical solution for the seed integral appearing in cosmological correlators with double massive scalar exchanges. The result is explicit, valid in any kinematic configuration, and free from spurious divergences. It is applicable to any number of fields’ species with any masses. With an appropriate choice of variables, the results contain only single-layer summations. We also propose simple approximate formulas valid in different limits, enabling direct and instantaneous evaluation. Supported by exact numerical results using CosmoFlow, we explore the phenomenology of double massive exchange diagrams. Contrary to single-exchange diagrams with ubiquitous Lorentz-covariant interactions, the size of the cubic coupling constant can be large while respecting perturbativity bounds. Because of this property, the primordial bispectrum from double-exchange diagrams can be as large as, coincidentally, current observational constraints. In addition to being sizable on equilateral configurations, we show that the primordial bispectrum exhibits a large cosmological collider signal in the squeezed limit, making the double massive exchanges interesting channels for the detection of massive primordial fields. We propose to decisively disentangle double-exchange channels from single-exchange ones with cosmological observations by exploiting the phase information of the cosmological collider signal, the inflationary flavor oscillations from multiple fields’ species exchanges and the double soft limit in the primordial trispectrum.

Shuntaro Aoki

France

Lucas Pinol

Fumiya Sano

Yuhang Zhu

Cosmological correlators with double massive exchanges: bootstrap equation and phenomenology

Abstract We use the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence to find the least bounce action in an AdS false vacuum state, i.e. the most probable decay process of the metastable AdS vacuum within the Euclidean formalism by Callan and Coleman. It was shown that the O(4) symmetric bounce solution leads to the action minimum in the absence of gravity, but it is nontrivial in the presence of gravity. The AdS/CFT duality is used to evade the difficulties particular to a metastable gravitational system. To this end, we show that the Fubini bounce solution in CFT, corresponding to the Coleman–de Luccia (CdL) bounce in AdS, gives the least action among all finite bounce solutions in a conformal scalar field theory. Thus, we prove that the CdL action is the least action among all possible large and thin-wall configurations under certain conditions.

Naritaka Oshita

Israel

Is the Coleman–de Luccia Action Minimum?: An AdS/CFT Approach

Massive fields can imprint unique oscillatory features on primordial correlation functions or inflationary correlators, which is dubbed the cosmological collider signal. In this work, we analytically investigate the effects of a time-dependent mass of a scalar field on inflationary correlators, extending previous numerical studies and implementing techniques developed in the cosmological bootstrap program. The time-dependent mass is in general induced by couplings to the slow-roll inflaton background, with particularly significant effects in the case of non-derivative couplings. By linearly approximating the time dependence, the mode function of the massive scalar is computed analytically, on which we derive analytic formulae for two-, three-, and four-point correlators with the tree-level exchange of the massive scalar. The obtained formulae are utilized to discuss the phenomenological impacts on the power spectrum and bispectrum, and it is found that the scaling behavior of the bispectrum in the squeezed configuration, i.e., the cosmological collider signal, is modified from a time-dependent Boltzmann suppression. By investigating the scaling behavior in detail, we are in principle able to determine the non-derivative couplings between the inflaton and the massive particle.

Toshifumi Noumi

Analytic formulae for inflationary correlators with dynamical mass

Under reasonable working assumptions including the polynomial boundedness, one proves the well-known Cerulus-Martin lower bound on how fast an elastic scattering amplitude can decrease in the hard-scattering regime. In this paper we consider two non-trivial extensions of the previous bound. (i) We generalize the assumption of polynomial boundedness by allowing amplitudes to exponentially grow for some complex momenta and prove a more general lower bound in the hard-scattering regime. (ii) We prove a new lower bound on elastic scattering amplitudes in the Regge regime, in both cases of polynomial and exponential boundedness. A bound on the Regge trajectory for negative momentum transfer squared is also derived. We discuss the relevance of our results for understanding gravitational scattering at the non-perturbative level and for constraining ultraviolet completions. In particular, we use the new bounds as probes of non-locality in black-hole formation, perturbative string theory, classicalization, Galileons, and infinite-derivative field theories, where both the polynomial boundedness and the Cerulus-Martin bound are violated.

Sweden

Luca Buoninfante

Junsei Tokuda

New lower bounds on scattering amplitudes: non-locality constraints

We study the interaction of several types of static straight cosmic strings, including local strings, global strings, and bosonic superconducting strings with and without magnetic currents. First, we evaluate the interaction energy of two widely separated cosmic strings using the point source formalism and show that the most dominant contribution to the interaction energy comes from the excitation of the lightest mediator particles in a underlying theory. The interaction energy at arbitrary separation distances is then analyzed numerically by the gradient flow method. It turns out that an additional scalar field introduced in the bosonic superconducting string becomes an additional source of attraction. For such a bosonic superconducting string, we find that a string with two winding numbers is energetically favorable compared to two strings with a single winding number in a certain parameter region. Our analysis reveals that a phase structure of bosonic superconducting strings is richer than that of local and global strings and that the formation of bound states at intersections of bosonic superconducting strings is favored.

Siyao Li

Interactions between several types of cosmic strings

Abstract We show the well-posed variational principle in constraint systems. In a naive procedure of the variational principle with constraints, the proper number of boundary conditions does not match that of physical degrees of freedom , which implies that, even in theories with up to first-order derivatives, the minimal (or extremal) value of the action with the boundary terms is not a solution of the equation of motion in the Dirac procedure of constrained systems. We propose specific and concrete steps to solve this problem. These steps utilize the Hamilton formalism, which allows us to separate the physical degrees of freedom from the constraints. This reveals the physical degrees of freedom that are necessary to be fixed on boundaries, and also enables us to specify the variables to be fixed and the surface terms.

Keisuke Izumi

Keigo Shimada

Kyosuke Tomonari

Boundary conditions for constraint systems in variational principle

We show that invertible transformations of dynamical variables can change the number of dynamical degrees of freedom. Moreover, even in cases when the number of dynamical degrees of freedom remains unchanged, the resulting dynamics can be essentially different from the one of the system prior to transformation. After giving concrete examples in point particle cases, we discuss changes in dynamics due to invertible disformal transformations of the metric in gravitational theories.