Cosmology and Gravitation

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a five-year, 5000 sq. deg. observing program using the Dark Energy Camera on the 4m Blanco telescope at CTIO. I will describe the cosmological analysis of large-scale structure in the Universe using 1321 sq. deg. of data taken in the first year of DES operations. The analysis combines unprecedented measurements of weak gravitational lensing and the clustering of galaxies over the redshift range 0.2 to 1.3 to derive the most precise such cosmological constraints to date. These DES results from the low-redshift Universe are consistent with those from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and support the standard cosmological model, LCDM. In the coming years, DES will produce significantly tighter constraints on cosmology through similar and additional analyses using observations over more than three times the sky-area and more than twice the integrated exposure time per object as these results.

I present a one-function family of solutions to 4D vacuum Einstein equations. While all diffeomorphic to the extremal Kerr black hole, they are labeled by well-defined conserved charges and are hence distinct geometries. Out of the appropriate combination of these charges, we construct a Virasoro algebra and consistency conditions lead us to a proposal for identifying extreme Kerr black hole microstates, dubbed as extreme Kerr fluff. Counting these microstates, we correctly reproduce the extreme Kerr black hole entropy.

The emergence of classical behavior from an out-of-equilibrium quantum wavefunction is determined by its entanglement structure, in the form of redundant information shared between many local subsystems. We show how this structure can be generated via cosmological dynamics from the vacuum state of a massless field, causing the wavefunction to branch into classical field configurations.  An accelerating epoch first excites the vacuum into a superposition of classical fields alongside a highly sensitive bath of super-horizon particles. Gravitational interactions allow these quanta to collect information about the long-wavelength field. During a subsequent decelerating epoch, this information propagates spatially, creating long-range redundant correlations in the wavefunction. The resulting classical observables (field configurations), preferred basis for decoherence, and system/environment decomposition emerge from the translation invariant wavefunction and Hamiltonian, rather than being fixed by hand. We discuss the implications for the classicality of cosmological perturbations.

I will discuss related aspects of field theories with higher-derivative Lagrangians but second-order equations of motion, with a focus on the Lovelock and Horndeski classes that have found use in modifications to general relativity. In the first half I will investigate when restricting to such terms is and is not well-justified from an effective field theory perspective. In the second half I will discuss how non-perturbative effects, like domain walls and quantum tunneling, are modified in the presence of these kinetic terms

I will describe a tidal effect whereby the decay of primordial gravity waves leaves a permanent shear in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Future large-scale structure surveys - especially radio surveys of high-redshift hydrogen gas - could measure this shear and its spatial dependence to form a map of the initial gravity-wave field. The three dimensional nature of this probe makes it sensitive to the helicity of the gravity waves, allowing for searches for early-Universe gravitational parity violation. Due to the large number of measurable modes in the high-redshift large-scale structure, these tidal imprints could ultimately be more sensitive than searches for CMB B-modes.

Standard models of cosmology use inflation as a mechanism to resolve the isotropy and homogeneity problem of the universe as well as the flatness problem. However, due to various well known problems with the inflationary paradigm, there has been an ongoing search for alternatives. Perhaps the most famous among these is the cyclic universe scenario or scenarios which incorporate bounces. As these scenarios have a contracting phase in the evolution of the universe, it is reasonable to ask whether the problems of homogeneity and isotropy can still be resolved in these scenarios. In my talk, I will focus on the problem of the resolution of isotropy. In the contracting phase of the evolution, the mechanism of ekpyrosis is used in most cosmological scenarios which incorporate a contracting phase to mitigate the problem of anisotropies blowing up on approaching the bounce. I will start by studying anisotropic universes and I shall examine the effect of the addition of ultra-stiff anisotropic pressures on the ekpyrotic phase. I will then consider evolving such anisotropic universes through several cycles with increasing expansion maxima at each successive bounce. This eventually leads to flatness in the isotropic case. My aim will be to see if the resolution of the flatness problem also leads to a simultaneous resolution of the isotropy problem. In the last section of my talk, I will briefly consider the effect of non comoving velocities on the shape of this anisotropic bouncing universe.

Thermodynamics is a closed field of research. The laws of thermodynamics, established in the nineteenth century, are still standing unchallenged.  However, they do not include gravity. Inclusion of gravity into the thermodynamical system can significantly modify the expected behavior of the system. We will demonstrate that gravity dynamically induces a maximal temperature that can be reached in a gas of particles.  We will also show how gravity can significantly change the Poincare recurrence theorem, and sometimes even prevent the recurrence from happening.

Many of the multi-planet systems discovered around other stars are maximally packed. This implies that simulations with masses or orbital parameters too far from the actual values will destabilize on short timescales; thus, long-term dynamics allows one to constrain the orbital architectures of many closely packed multi-planet systems. I will present a recent such application in the TRAPPIST-1 system, with 7 Earth-sized planets in the longest resonant chain discovered to date. In this case the complicated resonant phase space structure allows for strong constraints. A central challenge in such studies is the large computational cost of N-body simulations, which preclude a full survey of the high-dimensional parameter space of orbital architectures allowed by observations. I will discuss our recent successes in training machine learning models capable of predicting orbital stability a million times faster than N-body simulations, and the discovery space that this opens up for exoplanet characterization and planet formation studies.

The study of super-Eddington accretion is essential to our understanding of the growth of super-massive black holes in the early universe, the accretion of tidally disrupted stars, and the nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources.  Unfortunately, this mode of accretion is particularly difficult to model because of the multidimensionality of the flow, the importance magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and the dominant dynamical role played by radiation forces.  However, recent increases in computing power and advances in algorithms are facilitating major improvements in our ability to model radiation in numerical simulations of astrophysical plasmas.  I will briefly describe our new radiation transfer modules and discuss our efforts to model super-Eddington accretion flows around stellar mass and supermassive black holes.  I will focus on applications to ultraluminous X-ray sources, which must be radiating well above their Eddington luminosity unless they harbour intermediate mass black holes. I will argue that most of these sources can be (and likely are) "normal" ~10 solar mass black holes accreting and radiating with luminosities well above their Eddington "limit”.

The 21cm transition of atomic hydrogen is rapidly becoming one of our most powerful tools for probing the evolution of the universe.  The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is a planned 1,024-element array to be built in South Africa that will study the (possible) evolution of dark energy from z=0.8 to 2.5. Its design also makes it an excellent pulsar and fast radio burst (FRB) search machine.  While the FRB rates in the HIRAX band are uncertain, we expect it will discover dozen(s) per day.  HIRAX will use inexpensive 6m satellite television-class dishes.  The same dishes can be used to build relatively inexpensive outrigger stations in southern Africa to localize a large fraction of the FRBs discovered by HIRAX to ~0.1 arcseconds, potentially transforming them into probes of the universe.