Cosmology and Gravitation

Gravitomagnetism is a subtle concept. Adding Lorentz invariance to Newtonian gravity leads to magnetism, but Einsteinian gravitomagnetism differs from Maxwell\'s electromagnetism. The differences lead to confusion when Lense-Thirring precession is wrongly ascribed to gyroscopes, and when authors disagree about whether lunar laser ranging has measured gravitomagnetism. To clarify these issues, we analyze electric and magnetic effects in local Lorentz frames using the tetrad formalism.

It is argued that space-time is discretized on the basis of the gravitational interactions among the degrees of freedom of quantum fields.Configurations of fields fall into 2 classes,propagating (cisplanckian in length scale) and those that are transplanckian, sequestered in the space-time that is localized in discrete elements.Only the former determine the hubble expansion parameter and are therefore used to construct the inflaton.The model used for discretization is Sorkin\'s causet construction.From this the covariant massy Klein Gordon equation can be rationalized.The mass is encoded as an exchange matrix element between the sequestered (bound) degrees of freedom and those that propagate,presumably by tunneling thereby exlaining why m<<1.

I will illustrate the case of interacting dark Energy, that is to say cosmologies in which the dark energy scalar field interacts with other things in the universe (gravity, cold dark matter or neutrinos). After briefly presenting the status of our work for the first two classes of models, regarding both linear perturbations and Nbody simulations, I will in particular focus on the case of \'growing neutrinos\': in these models, neutrinos with a mass increasing with time might be driven to cluster at very large scales, due to a new interaction stronger than gravity and mediated by the dark energy scalar field.

The Lee-Wick model has recently been put forwards as an alternative to supersymmetry for solving the hierarchy problem of particle physics. I will show that, modulo important consistency questions, coupling the Lee-Wick model to cosmology leads to a bouncing universe cosmology with a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations emerging from quantum vacuum fluctuations in the contracting phase.

The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is our most important source of information about the early universe. Many of its features are in good agreement with the predictions of the so-called standard model of cosmology -- the Lambda Cold Dark Matter Inflationary Big Bang. However, the large-angle correlations in the microwave background exhibit several statistically significant anomalies compared to the predictions of the standard model. On the one hand, the lowest multipoles seem to be correlated not just with each other but with the geometry of the solar system. On the other hand, when we look at the part of the sky that we most trust -- the part outside the galactic plane, there is a dramatic lack of large angle correlations. So much so that no choice of angular powerspectrum can explain it if the alms are Gaussian random statistically isotropic variables of zero mean.

The Dark Energy might constitute an observable fraction of the total energy density of our Universe as far back as the time of matter radiation equality or even big bang nucleosynthesis. In this talk, I will review the cosmological implications of such an \'Early Dark Energy\' component, and discuss how it might - or might not - be detected by observations. In particular, I will show how assuming the early dark energy to be negligible will bias the interpretation of cosmological data.

One of the most challenging problems in theoretical physics today is the so called cosmological constant problem. While current observational constraints are consistent with the predictions of GR with a tiny cosmological constant, often referred to as the dark energy, it remains possible that it\'s the deviation of the law of gravity at large distance from Einstein\'s theory that resolves the puzzle. In this talk, I will briefly review some of the theoretical attempts made along this line, including the simple massive gravity, large extra dimensions, Unimodular gravity, classically constrained gravity, as well as their difficulties. I will then focus on some most recent study on the theory of massive graviton in de Sitter space, which may be more closely related to the reality both today and during the inflationary epoch. In particular, I would describe a model, in which one is able to open up the forbidden mass range of the graviton on a de Sitter background discovered by Higuchi.

In this talk I will discuss gravitational wave production by early universe sources. I will focus on the gravitational waves produced by a network of cosmic strings and the bounds that can be placed on cosmic string model parameters using current and future experiments. I will also talk about recent work on gravitational waves produced by sources in the early universe when the expansion of the universe cannot be neglected. As an example of such a process I will consider the preheating epoch that may follow inflation.

I\'ll discuss three promising upcoming experimental measurements that will probe the expansion history of the universe: (1) growth bases tests of Dark Energy with the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect, including new results from the South Pole Telescope and APEX-SZ, (2) inflationary constraints that will be provided by the next generation of CMB-polarization experiments, with prospects from EBEX, and (3) standard ruler measurements from Baryon Acoustic oscillations, including an introduction to an ambitious new Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping initiative called CHIME. The talk will build on the PI-presentation last week from SPT-collaborator Jeff McMahon. I\'ll focus on the experimental aspects of each measurement, it\'s interface to theory, and spend most of the time on (3) CHIME.

WMAP measurements of CMB temperature anisotropies reveal a power asymmetry: the average amplitude of temperature fluctuations in one hemisphere is larger than the average amplitude in the opposite hemisphere at the 99% confidence level. This power asymmetry may be generated during inflation by a large-amplitude superhorizon perturbation that causes the mean energy density to vary across the observable Universe. Such a superhorizon perturbation would also induce large-scale temperature anisotropies in the CMB; measurements of the CMB quadrupole and octupole (but not the dipole!) therefore constrain the perturbation\'s amplitude and wavelength. I will show how a superhorizon perturbation in a multi-field inflationary theory, the curvaton model, can produce the observed power asymmetry without generating unacceptable temperature fluctuations in the CMB. I will also discuss how this mechanism for generating the power asymmetry will be tested by forthcoming CMB experiments.

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10-meter submm-wave telescope optimized for large-field imaging of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at arcminute resolution. The first key project of the SPT is a large area survey to find galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zel\'dovich effect. Combined with optically determined redshifts, the survey yields will be used to place constraints on the nature of dark energy, via its effect on the growth of clusters and the geometry of the universe. Working toward this goal, the SPT has surveyed two 100 square degree fields at high sensitivity. This talk will review the status of the SPT, present some of the first SZ results, and discuss future science with this instrument.