High-redshift voids in the excursion set formalism

Voids are a dominant feature of the low-redshift galaxy distribution. Several recent surveys have found evidence for the existence of large-scale structure at high redshifts as well. We present analytic estimates of galaxy void sizes at redshifts z ~ 5 - 10 using the excursion set formalism. We find that recent narrow-band surveys at z ~ 5 - 6.5 should find voids with characteristic scales of roughly 20 comoving Mpc and maximum diameters approaching 40 Mpc. This is consistent with existing surveys, but a precise comparison is difficult because of the relatively small volumes probed so far. At z ~ 7 - 10, we expect characteristic void scales of ~ 14 - 20 comoving Mpc assuming that all galaxies within dark matter haloes more massive than 10^10 M_sun are observable. We find that these characteristic scales are similar to the sizes of empty regions resulting from purely random fluctuations in the galaxy counts. As a result, true large-scale structure will be difficult to observe at z ~ 7 - 10, unless galaxies in haloes with masses less than ~ 10^9 M_sun are visible. Galaxy surveys must be deep and only the largest voids will provide meaningful information. Our model provides a convenient picture for estimating the "worst-case" effects of cosmic variance on high-redshift galaxy surveys with limited volumes.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, accepted by MNRA

The Effect of Large-Scale Structure on the Magnification of High-Redshift Sources by Cluster-Lenses

Cluster gravitational lensing surveys like the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields survey will detect distant galaxies 10-50 times fainter than any yet discovered. Using these surveys to measure the luminosity function of such faint, distant galaxies, however, requires that magnification maps built from the constraints of strongly-lensed images be accurate. For models that assume the cluster and nearby (correlated) structures are the only significant sources of lensing, a potential source of error in these maps comes from the fact that light rays also suffer weak deflections by uncorrelated large-scale structure along the line-of-sight, i.e. cosmic weak lensing (CWL). To demonstrate the magnitude of this effect, we calculate the magnification change which results when the same cluster-lens is placed along different lines of sight. Using a simple density profile for a cluster-lens at z~0.3-0.5 and the power spectrum of the matter density fluctuations responsible for CWL, we show that the typical magnifications of ~5(10) of sources at z=6-10 can differ by ~10-20(20-30)% from one line-of-sight to another. However, these fluctuations rise to greater than order unity near critical curves, indicating that CWL tends to make its greatest contribution to the most magnified images. We conclude that the neglect of CWL in determining the intrinsic luminosities of highly-magnified galaxies may introduce errors significant enough to warrant further effort to include this contribution in cluster-lens modeling. We suggest that methods of modeling CWL in galaxy-strong-lensing systems should be generalized to cluster-lensing systems.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. Changes to text for improved clarity, minor typos corrected, and references updated. All results remain the sam

Consequences of Fine-Tuning for Fifth Force Searches

Light bosonic fields mediate long range forces between objects. If these fields have self-interactions, i.e., non-quadratic terms in the potential, the experimental constraints on such forces can be drastically altered due to a screening (chameleon) or enhancement effect. We explore how technically natural values for such self-interaction coupling constants modify the existing constraints. We point out that assuming the existence of these natural interactions leads to new constraints, contrary to the usual expectation that screening leads to gaps in coverage. We discuss how screening can turn fundamentally equivalence principle (EP)-preserving forces into EP-violating ones. This means that when natural screening is present, searches for EP violation can be used to constrain EP-preserving forces. We show how this effect enables the recently discovered stellar triple system \textit{PSR J0337$+$1715} to place a powerful constraint on EP-preserving fifth forces. Finally, we demonstrate that technically natural cubic self-interactions modify the vacuum structure of the scalar potential, leading to new constraints from spontaneous and induced vacuum decay.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures -- v3 reflects version published in JHE

Selfish Dark Matter

We present a mechanism where a particle asymmetry in one sector is used to generate an asymmetry in another sector. The two sectors are not coupled through particle number violating interactions and are not required to be in thermal contact with each other. When this mechanism is applied to baryogenesis in asymmetric dark matter models, we find that the dark matter particles can be extremely light, e.g. much lighter than an eV, and that in some cases there is no need to annihilate away the symmetric component of dark matter. We discuss a concrete realization of the mechanism with signals in direct detection, at the LHC, at $B$-factories or future beam dump experiments.Comment: 18+5 pages, 2 figures; Journal version: Added references, small changes to the free-streaming length estimate

Large Fluctuations in the High-Redshift Metagalactic Ionizing Background

Recent observations have shown that the scatter in opacities among coeval segments of the Lyman-alpha forest increases rapidly at z > 5. In this paper, we assess whether the large scatter can be explained by fluctuations in the ionizing background in the post-reionization intergalactic medium. We find that matching the observed scatter at z ~ 5.5 requires a short spatially averaged mean free path of 3 shorter than direct measurements at z ~ 5.2. We argue that such rapid evolution in the mean free path is difficult to reconcile with our measurements of the global H I photoionization rate, which stay approximately constant over the interval z ~ 4.8 - 5.5. However, we also show that measurements of the mean free path at z > 5 are likely biased towards higher values by the quasar proximity effect. This bias can reconcile the short values of the mean free path that are required to explain the large scatter in opacities. We discuss the implications of this scenario for cosmological reionization. Finally, we investigate whether other statistics applied to the z > 5 Lyman-alpha forest can shed light on the origin of the scatter. Compared to a model with a uniform ionizing background, models that successfully account for the scatter lead to enhanced power in the line-of-sight flux power spectrum on scales k < 0.1 h/Mpc. We find tentative evidence for this enhancement in observations of the high-redshift Lyman-alpha forest.Comment: Matches version published by MNRAS with clarifications and expanded discussio

Energy Efficiency Improvements in Dry Drilling with Optimised Diamond-Like Carbon Coating

We demonstrate enhancements of performance and energy efficiency of cutting tools by deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings on machine parts. DLC was deposited on steel drill bits, using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) with the acetylene precursor diluted with argon, to produce a surface with low friction and low wear rate. Drill bit performance in dry drilling of aluminium was quantified by analysis of power consumption and swarf flow. Optimised deposition conditions produced drill bits with greatly enhanced performance over uncoated drill bits, showing a 25% reduction in swarf clogging, a 36% reduction in power consumption and a greater than five-fold increase in lifetime. Surface analysis with scanning electron microscopy shows that DLC coated drills exhibit much lower aluminium build up on the trailing shank of the drill, enhancing the anti-adhering properties of the drill and reducing heat generation during operation, resulting in the observed improvements in efficiency. Variation of drilling efficiency with argon dilution of precursor is related to changes in the microstructure of the DLC coating