First author: Edward W. Kolb
The phenomenon of cosmological gravitational particle production (CGPP) is expected to occur during the period of inflation and the transition into a hot big bang cosmology. Particles may be produced even if they only couple directly to gravity, and so CGPP provides a natural explanation for the origin of dark matter. In this work we study the gravitational production of massive spin-2 particles assuming two different couplings to matter.
First author: Yun Wang
The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is very useful for processing signals with intricate and irregular structures in astrophysics and cosmology. It is crucial to propose precise and fast algorithms for the CWT. In this work, we review and compare four different fast CWT algorithms for the 1D signals, including the FFTCWT, the V97CWT, the M02CWT, and the A19CWT. The FFTCWT algorithm implements the CWT using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) with a computational complexity of $\mathcal{O}(N\log_2N)$ per scale.
First author: Ofer Lahav
Could Machine Learning (ML) make fundamental discoveries and tackle unsolved problems in Cosmology? Detailed observations of the present contents of the universe are consistent with the Cosmological Constant Lambda and Cold Dark Matter model, subject to some unresolved inconsistencies (’tensions’) among observations of the Hubble Constant and the clumpiness factor. To understand these issues further, large surveys of billions of galaxies and other probes require new statistical approaches.
First author: Charlie F. Sharpe
We investigate the sensitivity of a universe’s nuclear entropy after Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) to variations in both the baryon-to-photon ratio and the temporal evolution of cosmological expansion. Specifically, we construct counterfactual cosmologies to quantify the degree by which these two parameters must vary from those in our Universe before we observe a substantial change in the degree of fusion, and thus nuclear entropy, during BBN.
First author: Gianfranco Bertone
The next generation of space-based experiments will go hunting for answers to cosmology’s key open questions which revolve around inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Low earth orbit and lunar missions within the European Space Agency’s Human and Robotic Exploration programme can push our knowledge forward in all of these three fields. A radio interferometer on the Moon, a cold atom interferometer in low earth orbit and a gravitational wave interferometer on the Moon are highlighted as the most fruitful missions to plan and execute in the mid-term.
First author: Purba Mukherjee
The fundamental constants in Nature play a crucial role in the understanding of physical phenomena. Hence, it is of paramount importance to measure them with exquisite precision and to examine whether they present any variability across cosmic time, as a means to test the standard model of Cosmology, as well as fundamental physics. We revisit a consistency test of the speed of light variability proposed by Cai {\it et al.
First author: Nhat-Minh Nguyen
We present evidence for a suppressed growth rate of large-scale structure during the dark-energy dominated era. Modeling the growth rate of perturbations with the ``growth index’’ $\gamma$, we find that current cosmological data strongly prefer a higher growth index than the value $\gamma=0.55$ predicted by general relativity in a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Both the cosmic microwave background data from Planck and the large-scale structure data from weak lensing, galaxy clustering, and cosmic velocities separately favor growth suppression.
First author: Ido Ben-Dayan
Addressing the discrepancy between the late and early time measurements of the Hubble parameter, $H_0$, and the so-called $S_8$ parameter has been a challenge in precision cosmology. Several models are present to address these tensions, but very few of them can do so simultaneously. In the past, we have suggested Banks-Zaks/Unparticles as an emergent Dark Energy model and claimed that it can ameliorate the Hubble tension.
First author: Esraa Ali Elkhateeb
In this work, we reconstruct the cosmological unified dark fluid model proposed previously by Elkhateeb \cite{Elkhateeb:2017oqy} in the framework of $f(R)$ gravity. Utilizing the equivalence between the scalar-tensor theory and the $f(R)$ gravity theory, the scalar field for the dark fluid is obtained, whence the $f(R)$ function is extracted and its viability is discussed. The linear growth of matter perturbations on the low redshifts is studied in our constructed $f(R)$ function, and the results are in good agreement with those from the $\Lambda$CDM model for the dark universe.
First author: Léo Vacher
One of the few firm predictions of string theory is the existence of a massless scalar field coupled to gravity, the dilaton. In its presence, the value of the fundamental constants of the universe, such as the fine-structure constant, will vary with the time-dependent vacuum expectation value of this field, in direct violation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle. The \emph{runaway dilaton} proposed by Damour, Piazza, and Veneziano provides a physically motivated cosmological scenario which reconciles the existence of a massless dilaton with observations, while still providing non-standard and testable predictions.
