Impacts on Cosmological Constraints from Degeneracies

In this paper, we study the degeneracies among several cosmological parameters in detail and discuss their impacts on the determinations of these parameters from the current and future observations. By combining the latest data sets, including type-Ia supernovae "Union2.1" compilation, WMAP seven-year data and the baryon acoustic oscillations from the SDSS Data Release Seven, we perform a global analysis to determine the cosmological parameters, such as the equation of state of dark energy w, the curvature of the universe \Omega_k, the total neutrino mass \sum{m_\nu}, and the parameters associated with the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations (n_s, \alpha_s and r). We pay particular attention on the degeneracies among these parameters and the influences on their constraints, by with or without including these degeneracies, respectively. We find that $w$ and \Omega_k or \sum{m_\nu} are strongly correlated. Including the degeneracies will significantly weaken the constraints. Furthermore, we study the capabilities of future observations and find these degeneracies can be broken very well. Consequently, the constraints of cosmological parameters can be improved dramatically.Comment: 9 figures, 6 tables, Accepted for publication in JCA

Dark Energy Constraints after Planck

The Planck collaboration has recently published maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with the highest precision. In the standard flat $\Lambda$CDM framework, Planck data show that the Hubble constant $H_0$ is in tension with that measured by the several direct probes on $H_0$. In this paper, we perform a global analysis from the current observational data in the general dark energy models and find that resolving this tension on $H_0$ requires the dark energy model with its equation of state (EoS) $w\neq-1$. Firstly, assuming the $w$ to be a constant, the Planck data favor $w < -1$ at about $2\,\sigma$ confidence level when combining with the supernovae "SNLS" compilation. And consequently the value derived on $H_0$, $H_0=71.3\pm2.0$ ${\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$ (68% C.L.), is consistent with that from direct $H_0$ probes. We then investigate the dark energy model with a time-evolving $w$, and obtain the 68% C.L. constraints $w_0=-0.81\pm0.19$ and $w_a=-1.9\pm1.1$ from the Planck data and the "SNLS" compilation. Current data still slightly favor the Quintom dark energy scenario with EoS across the cosmological constant boundary $w\equiv-1$.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Cosmological CPT Violation, Baryon/Leptogenesis and CMB Polarization

In this paper we study the cosmological CPT-violation and its implications in baryo/leptogenesis and CMB polarization. We propose specifically a variant of the models of gravitational leptogenesis. By performing a global analysis with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, we find the current CMB polarization observations from the three-year WMAP (WMAP3) and the 2003 flight of BOOMERANG (B03) data provide a weak evidence for our model. However to verify and especially exclude this type of mechanism for baryo/leptogenesis with cosmological CPT-violation, the future measurements on CMB polarization from PLANCK and CMBpol are necessary.Comment: The version appears in PL

Multiplicity fluctuation and correlation of mesons and baryons in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at LHC

We study the multiplicity fluctuation and correlation of identified mesons and baryons formed at the hadronization by the quark combination mechanism in the context of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Based on the statistical method of free quark combination, we derive the two-hadron multiplicity correlations such as meson-meson and meson-baryon correlations, and take the effects of quark number fluctuation at hadronization into account by a Taylor expansion method. After including the decay contributions, we calculate the dynamical fluctuation observable $\nu_{dyn}$ for $\text{K}\pi$, $p\pi$ and $\text{K}p$ pairs and discuss what underlying physics can be obtained by comparing with the data in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV and the simulations from HIJING and AMPT event generators.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

New feature of low pTp_{T} charm quark hadronization in pppp collisions at s=7\sqrt{s}=7 TeV

Treating the light-flavor constituent quarks and antiquarks that can well describe the data of light-flavor hadrons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV as the underlying source of chromatically neutralizing the charm quarks of low transverse momenta ($p_{T}$), we show that the experimental data of $p_{T}$ spectra of single-charm hadrons $D^{0,+}$, $D^{*+}$ $D_{s}^{+}$, $\Lambda_{c}^{+}$ and $\Xi_{c}^{0}$ at mid-rapidity in the low $p_{T}$ range ($2\lesssim p_{T}\lesssim7$ GeV/$c$) in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV can be well understood by the equal-velocity combination of perturbatively-created charm quarks and those light-flavor constituent quarks and antiquarks. This suggests a possible new scenario of low $p_{T}$ charm quark hadronization, in contrast to the traditional fragmentation mechanism, in $pp$ collisions at LHC energies. This is also another support for the exhibition of the effective constituent quark degrees of freedom for the small parton system created in $pp$ collisions at LHC energies.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Primordial Gravitational Waves Measurements and Anisotropies of CMB Polarization Rotation

Searching for the signal of primordial gravitational waves in the B-modes (BB) power spectrum is one of the key scientific aims of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments. However, this could be easily contaminated by several foreground issues, such as the thermal dust emission. In this paper we study another mechanism, the cosmic birefringence, which can be introduced by a CPT-violating interaction between CMB photons and an external scalar field. Such kind of interaction could give rise to the rotation of the linear polarization state of CMB photons, and consequently induce the CMB BB power spectrum, which could mimic the signal of primordial gravitational waves at large scales. With the recent polarization data of BICEP2 and the joint analysis data of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck, we perform a global fitting analysis on constraining the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ by considering the polarization rotation angle which can be separated into a background isotropic part and a small anisotropic part. Since the data of BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments have already been corrected by using the "self-calibration" method, here we mainly focus on the effects from the anisotropies of CMB polarization rotation angle. We find that including the anisotropies in the analysis could slightly weaken the constraints on $r$, when using current CMB polarization measurements. We also simulate the mock CMB data with the BICEP3-like sensitivity. Very interestingly, we find that if the effects of the anisotropic polarization rotation angle can not be taken into account properly in the analysis, the constraints on $r$ will be dramatically biased. This implies that we need to break the degeneracy between the anisotropies of the CMB polarization rotation angle and the CMB primordial tensor perturbations, in order to measure the signal of primordial gravitational waves accurately.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Testing Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati Gravity with Planck

Recently, the Planck collaboration has released the first cosmological papers providing the highest resolution, full sky, maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. In this paper we study a phenomenological model which interpolates between the pure $\Lambda$CDM model and the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld model with an additional parameter $\alpha$. Firstly, we calculate the "distance information" of Planck data which includes the "shift parameter" $R$, the "acoustic scale" $l_A$, and the photon decoupling epoch $z_\ast$ in different cosmological models and find that this information is almost independent on the input models we use. Then, we compare the constraints on the free parameter $\alpha$ of the DGP model from the "distance information" of Planck and WMAP data and find that the Planck data with high precision do not improve the constraint on $\alpha$, but give the higher median value and the better limit on the current matter density fraction $\Omega_m$. Then, combining the "distance information" of Planck measurement, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), type Ia supernovae (SNIa) and the prior on the current Hubble constant (HST), we obtain the tight constraint on the parameter $\alpha < 0.20$ at $95\%$ confidence level, which implies that the flat DGP model has been ruled out by the current cosmological data. Finally, we allow the additional parameter $\alpha < 0$ in our calculations and interestingly obtain $\alpha=-0.29\pm0.20$ ($68\%$ C.L.), which means the current data slightly favor the effective equation of state $w_{\rm eff}<-1$. More importantly, the tension between constraints on $H_0$ from different observational data has been eased.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

B(s)→SB_{(s)}\to S transitions in the light cone sum rules with the chiral current

$B_{(s)}$ semi-leptonic decays to the light scalar meson, $B_{(s)}\to S l\bar{\nu}_l, S l \bar{l}\,\,(l=e,\mu,\tau)$, are investigated in the QCD light-cone sum rules (LCSR) with chiral current correlator. Having little knowledge of ingredients of the scalar mesons, we confine ourself to the two quark picture for them and work with the two possible Scenarios. The resulting sum rules for the form factors receive no contributions from the twist-3 distribution amplitudes (DA's), in comparison with the calculation of the conventional LCSR approach where the twist-3 parts play usually an important role. We specify the range of the squared momentum transfer $q^2$, in which the operator product expansion (OPE) for the correlators remains valid approximately. It is found that the form factors satisfy a relation consistent with the prediction of soft collinear effective theory (SCET). In the effective range we investigate behaviors of the form factors and differential decay widthes and compare our calculations with the observations from other approaches. The present findings can be beneficial to experimentally identify physical properties of the scalar mesons.Comment: 22 pages,16 figure