Structure of dark matter halos in warm dark matter models and in models with long-lived charged massive particles
We study the formation of non-linear structures in warm dark matter (WDM) models and in a long-lived charged massive particle (CHAMP) model. CHAMPs with a decay lifetime of about 1 yr induce characteristic suppression in the matter power spectrum at subgalactic scales through acoustic oscillations in the thermal background. We explore structure formation in such a model. We also study three WDM models, where the dark matter particles are produced through the following mechanisms: i) WDM particles are produced in the thermal background and then kinematically decoupled; ii) WDM particles are fermions produced by the decay of thermal heavy bosons; and iii) WDM particles are produced by the decay of non-relativistic heavy particles. We show that the linear matter power spectra for the three models are all characterised by the comoving Jeans scale at the matter-radiation equality. Furthermore, we can also describe the linear matter power spectrum for the long-lived CHAMP model in terms of a suitably defined characteristic cut-off scale kCh, similarly to the WDM models. We perform large cosmological N-body simulations to study the non-linear growth of structures in these four models. We compare the halo mass functions, the subhalo mass functions, and the radial distributions of subhalos in simulated Milky Way-size halos. For the characteristic cut-off scale kcut = 51 h Mpc−1, the subhalo abundance ( ~ 109Msun) is suppressed by a factor of ~ 10 compared with the standard ΛCDM model. We then study the models with kcut 51, 410, 820 h Mpc−1, and confirm that the halo and the subhalo abundances and the radial distributions of subhalos are indeed similar between the different WDM models and the long-lived CHAMP model. The result suggests that the cut-off scale kcut not only characterises the linear power spectra but also can be used to predict the non-linear clustering properties. The radial distribution of subhalos in Milky Way-size halos is consistent with the observed distribution for kcut ~ 50−800 h Mpc−1; such models resolve the so-called ``missing satellite problem".

title: Constraining SuperWIMPy and Warm Subhalos with Future Submillilensing
abstract: We propose to observe QSO-galaxy strong lens systems to give a new constraint on the damping scale of the initial fluctuations. We find that the future observation of submilliarc scale astrometric shifts of the multiple lensed images of QSOs would find ∼ 10 ( 3 – 9 ) M ⊙ subhalos inside the macrolens halo. The superweakly interacting massive particles (superWIMPs) produced from a WIMP decay and the warm dark matter (WDM) particles that predict a comoving damping scale larger than ∼ 2 kpc can be constrained if ∼ 10 3 M ⊙ subhalos are detected.

title: Bigger Rip with no dark energy
abstract: By studying a modified Friedmann equation which arises in an extension of general relativity which accommodates a time-dependent fundamental length L ( t ), we consider cosmological models where the scale factor diverges with an essential singularity at a finite future time. Such models have no dark energy in the conventional sense of energy possessing a simple pressure–energy relationship. Data on supernovae restrict the time from the present until the Rip to be longer than the current age of the Universe.

title: Correlated Isocurvature Fluctuation of Quintessence and Curvaton Scenario
abstract: We consider cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy in models with quintessence taking into account of isocurvature fluctuation in the quintessence. It is shown that, if the primordial fluctuation of the quintessence has a correlation with the adiabatic density fluctuations, CMB angular power spectrum $C_l$ at low multipoles can be suppressed. Possible scenario of generating correlated mixture of the quintessence and adiabatic fluctuations is also discussed.

title: Neutrino mass from cosmology: impact of high-accuracy measurement of the Hubble constant
abstract: Non-zero neutrino mass would affect the evolution of the Universe in observable ways, and a strong constraint on the mass can be achieved using combinations of cosmological data sets. We focus on the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, the Hubble constant H0, and the length scale for baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) to investigate the constraint on the neutrino mass, mν. We analyze data from multiple existing CMB studies (WMAP5, ACBAR, CBI, BOOMERANG, and QUAD), recent measurement of H0 (SHOES), with about two times lower uncertainty (5 %) than previous estimates, and recent treatments of BAO from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We obtained an upper limit of mν < 0.2eV (95 % C.L.), for a flat ΛCDM model. This is a 40 % reduction in the limit derived from previous H0 estimates and one-third lower than can be achieved with extant CMB and BAO data. We also analyze the impact of smaller uncertainty on measurements of H0 as may be anticipated in the near term, in combination with CMB data from the Planck mission, and BAO data from the SDSS/BOSS program. We demonstrate the possibility of a 5σ detection for a fiducial neutrino mass of 0.1 eV or a 95 % upper limit of 0.04 eV for a fiducial of mν = 0 eV. These constraints are about 50 % better than those achieved without external constraint. We further investigate the impact on modeling where the dark-energy equation of state is constant but not necessarily -1, or where a non-flat universe is allowed. In these cases, the next-generation accuracies of Planck, BOSS, and 1 % measurement of H0 would all be required to obtain the limit mν < 0.05−0.06 eV (95 % C.L.) for the fiducial of mν = 0 eV. The independence of systematics argues for pursuit of both BAO and H0 measurements.

title: On the determination of neutrino masses and dark energy evolution from the cross-correlation of CMB and LSS
abstract: We discuss the possibilities of the simultaneous determination of the neutrino masses and the evolution of dark energy from future cosmological observations such as cosmic microwave background (CMB), large scale structure (LSS) and the cross-correlation between them. Recently it has been discussed that there is a degeneracy between the neutrino masses and the equation of state for dark energy. It is also known that there are some degeneracies among the parameters describing the dark energy evolution. We discuss the implications of these for the cross-correlation of CMB with LSS in some detail. Then we consider to what extent we can determine the neutrino masses and the dark energy evolution using the expected data from CMB, LSS and their cross-correlation.

title: Numerical Evaluation of Gauge Invariants for a-Gauge Solutions in Open String Field Theory
abstract: We evaluate gauge invariants (vacuum energy and gauge invariant overlap) for numerical classical solutions in cubic open string field theory under Asano-Kato's $a$-gauge fixing condition. We propose an efficient iterative procedure for solving the equations of motion so that the BRST invariance of the solutions is numerically ensured. The resulting gauge invariants are numerically stable and almost equal to those of Schnabl's tachyon vacuum solution in the well-defined region of a gauge parameter. These results provide further evidence that the numerical and analytical solutions are gauge equivalent.

title: High-resolution search for the Theta(+) pentaquark via a pion-induced reaction at J-PARC
abstract: The pentaquark Theta(+) has been searched for via the pi(-) p --> K- X reaction with beam momenta of 1.92 and 2.01 GeV/c at J-PARC. A missing mass resolution of 2 MeV (FWHM) was achieved but no sharp peak structure was observed. The upper limits on the production cross section averaged over the scattering angle from 2 degrees to 15 degrees in the laboratory frame were found to be less than 0.28 mu b/sr at the 90% confidence level for both the 1.92- and 2.01- GeV/c data. The systematic uncertainty of the upper limits was controlled within 10%. Constraints on the Theta(+) decay width were also evaluated with a theoretical calculation using an effective Lagrangian. The present result implies that the width should be less than 0.36 and 1.9 MeV for the spin-parity of 1/2(+) and 1/2(-), respectively

title: Observables for identity-based tachyon vacuum solutions
abstract: We consider a modified KBc algebra in bosonic open string field theory expanded around identity-based scalar solutions. By use of the algebra, classical solutions on the background are constructed and observables for them, including energy densities and gauge invariant overlaps, are calculable. These results are applied to evaluate observables analytically for both of the identity-based trivial pure gauge solution and the identity-based tachyon vacuum solution.

title: Discovery of recombining plasma in the supernova remnant 3C 391
abstract: Recent X-ray study of middle-aged supernova remnants (SNRs) reveals strong radiative recombination continua (RRCs) associated with overionized plasmas, of which the origin still remains uncertain. We report our discovery of an RRC in the middle-aged SNR 3C 391. If the X-ray spectrum is fitted with a two-temperature plasma model in collisional ionization equilibrium (CIE), residuals of Si XIV Ly alpha line at 2.006 keV, S XVI Ly alpha line at 2.623 keV and the edge of RRC of Si XIII at 2.666 keV are found. The X-ray spectrum is better described by a composite model consisting of a CIE plasma and a recombining plasma (RP). The abundance pattern suggests that the RP is associated to the ejecta from a core-collapse supernova with a progenitor star of 15 solar mass. There is no significant difference of the recombining plasma parameters between the southeast region and the northwest region surrounded by dense molecular clouds. We also find a hint of Fe I K alpha line at 6.4 keV (~2.4 sigma detection) from the southeast region of the SNR.

title: Open string field theory on noncommutative space
abstract: We study Witten's open string field theory in the presence of a constant B field. We construct the string field theory in the operator formalism and find that, compared to the ordinary theory with no B field, the vertices in the resulting theory has an additional factor. The factor makes the zero modes of strings noncommutative. This is in agreement with the results in the first-quantized formulation. We also discuss background independence of the purely cubic action derived from the above string field theory and then find a redefinition of string fields to remove the additional factor from the vertex. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the supersymmetric extension of our string field theory.