We report on the implications for cosmic inflation of the 2018 Release of the Planck CMB anisotropy measurements. The results are fully consistent with the two previous Planck cosmological releases, but have smaller uncertainties thanks to improvements in the characterization of polarization at low and high multipoles. Planck temperature, polarization, and lensing data determine the spectral index of scalar perturbations to be $n_\mathrm{s}=0.9649\pm 0.0042$ at 68% CL and show no evidence for a scale dependence of $n_\mathrm{s}.$ Spatial flatness is confirmed at a precision of 0.4% at 95% CL with the combination with BAO data. The Planck 95% CL upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r_{0.002}<0.10$, is further tightened by combining with the BICEP2/Keck Array BK15 data to obtain $r_{0.002}<0.056$. In the framework of single-field inflationary models with Einstein gravity, these results imply that: (a) slow-roll models with a concave potential, $V" (\phi) < 0,$ are increasingly favoured by the data; and (b) two different methods for reconstructing the inflaton potential find no evidence for dynamics beyond slow roll. Non-parametric reconstructions of the primordial power spectrum consistently confirm a pure power law. A complementary analysis also finds no evidence for theoretically motivated parameterized features in the Planck power spectrum, a result further strengthened for certain oscillatory models by a new combined analysis that includes Planck bispectrum data. The new Planck polarization data provide a stringent test of the adiabaticity of the initial conditions. The polarization data also provide improved constraints on inflationary models that predict a small statistically anisotropic quadrupolar modulation of the primordial fluctuations. However, the polarization data do not confirm physical models for a scale-dependent dipolar modulation.

/pdf/planck-2015-results-xx-constraints-on-inflation-4lq02ohyyn.pdf

Planck 2015 results. XX. Constraints on inflation

We present the implications for cosmic inflation of the Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in both temperature and polarization based on the full Planck survey, which includes more than twice the integration time of the nominal survey used for the 2013 release papers. The Planck full mission temperature data and a first release of polarization data on large angular scales measure the spectral index of curvature perturbations to be ns = 0.968 ± 0.006 and tightly constrain its scale dependence to dns/ dlnk = −0.003 ± 0.007 when combined with the Planck lensing likelihood. When the Planck high-l polarization data are included, the results are consistent and uncertainties are further reduced. The upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio is r0.002< 0.11 (95% CL). This upper limit is consistent with the B-mode polarization constraint r< 0.12 (95% CL) obtained from a joint analysis of the BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck data. These results imply that V(φ) ∝ φ2 and natural inflation are now disfavoured compared to models predicting a smaller tensor-to-scalar ratio, such as R2 inflation. We search for several physically motivated deviations from a simple power-law spectrum of curvature perturbations, including those motivated by a reconstruction of the inflaton potential not relying on the slow-roll approximation. We find that such models are not preferred, either according to a Bayesian model comparison or according to a frequentist simulation-based analysis. Three independent methods reconstructing the primordial power spectrum consistently recover a featureless and smooth over the range of scales 0.008 Mpc-1 ≲ k ≲ 0.1 Mpc-1. At large scales, each method finds deviations from a power law, connected to a deficit at multipoles l ≈ 20−40 in the temperature power spectrum, but at an uncompelling statistical significance owing to the large cosmic variance present at these multipoles. By combining power spectrum and non-Gaussianity bounds, we constrain models with generalized Lagrangians, including Galileon models and axion monodromy models. The Planck data are consistent with adiabatic primordial perturbations, and the estimated values for the parameters of the base Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model are not significantly altered when more general initial conditions are admitted. In correlated mixed adiabatic and isocurvature models, the 95% CL upper bound for the non-adiabatic contribution to the observed CMB temperature variance is | αnon - adi | < 1.9%, 4.0%, and 2.9% for CDM, neutrino density, and neutrino velocity isocurvature modes, respectively. We have tested inflationary models producing an anisotropic modulation of the primordial curvature power spectrum findingthat the dipolar modulation in the CMB temperature field induced by a CDM isocurvature perturbation is not preferred at a statistically significant level. We also establish tight constraints on a possible quadrupolar modulation of the curvature perturbation. These results are consistent with the Planck 2013 analysis based on the nominal mission data and further constrain slow-roll single-field inflationary models, as expected from the increased precision of Planck data using the full set of observations.

/pdf/planck-2013-results-xxii-constraints-on-inflation-30br34ax5l.pdf

Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation

The question of the nature of the dark matter in the Universe remains one of the most outstanding unsolved problems in basic science. One of the best motivated particle physics candidates is the lightest supersymmetric particle, assumed to be the lightest neutralino—a linear combination of the supersymmetric partners of the photon, the Z boson and neutral scalar Higgs particles. Here we describe DarkSUSY, a publicly available advanced numerical package for neutralino dark matter calculations. In DarkSUSY one can compute the neutralino density in the Universe today using precision methods which include resonances, pair production thresholds and coannihilations. Masses and mixings of supersymmetric particles can be computed within DarkSUSY or with the help of external programs such as FeynHiggs, ISASUGRA and SUSPECT. Accelerator bounds can be checked to identify viable dark matter candidates. DarkSUSY also computes a large variety of astrophysical signals from neutralino dark matter, such as direct detection in low-background counting experiments and indirect detection through antiprotons, antideuterons, gamma-rays and positrons from the galactic halo or high-energy neutrinos from the centre of the Earth or of the Sun. Here we describe the physics behind the package. A detailed manual will be provided with the computer package.

/pdf/darksusy-computing-supersymmetric-dark-matter-properties-52bmzgum6l.pdf

DarkSUSY: Computing Supersymmetric Dark Matter Properties Numerically

A new mechanism for baryogenesis is proposed. It is argued that, after inflation, the scalar quarks and leptons of a supersymmetric GUT may have large expectation values. The subsequent evolution of such a system is shown to generate a significant baryon density. For typical values of the parameters, n B / n γ may be as large as 10 3 .

A New Mechanism for Baryogenesis

http://lapth.cnrs.fr/micromegas/downloadarea/manual/micromega_cpc.pdf

micrOMEGAs : A program for calculating the relic density in the MSSM

The cosmological relic density of the lightest supersymmetric particle of the minimal supersymmetric standard model is calculated under the assumption of gauge and Yukawa coupling unification. We employ radiative electroweak breaking with universal boundary conditions from gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Coannihilation of the lightest supersymmetric particle, which turns out to be an almost pure bino, with the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (the lightest stau) is crucial for reducing its relic density to an acceptable level. Agreement with the mixed or the pure cold (in the presence of a nonzero cosmological constant) dark matter scenarios for large scale structure formation in the universe requires that the lightest stau mass is about 2-8% larger than the bino mass, which can be as low as 222 GeV. The smallest allowed value of the lightest stau mass turns out to be about 232 GeV.

Supersymmetric cold dark matter with Yukawa unification

The minimal supersymmetric standard model with universal boundary conditions and "asymptotic" Yukawa unification is considered. The full one-loop effective potential for radiative electroweak symmetry breaking as well as the one-loop corrections to the charged Higgs boson, b-quark and tau lepton masses are included. The CP-even Higgs boson masses are corrected to two-loops. The relic abundance of the lightest supersymmetric particle (bino) is calculated by including its coannihilations with the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (lightest stau) consistently with Yukawa unification. The branching ratio of b --> s gamma is evaluated by incorporating all the applicable next-to-leading order QCD corrections. The bino-stau coannihilations reduce the bino relic abundance below the upper bound from cold dark matter considerations in a sizable fraction of the parameter space allowed by b --> s gamma for mu>0. Thus, the mu>0 case, which also predicts an acceptable b-quark mass, is perfectly compatible with data.

Yukawa Unification, b --> s gamma and Bino-Stau Coannihilation

Yukawa unification, b→sγ and bino–stau coannihilation

http://cds.cern.ch/record/542596/files/0203131.pdf

Yukawa quasi-unification

The generation of a kination-dominated phase by a quintessential exponential model is investigated and the parameters of the model are restricted so that a number of observational constraints (originating from nucleosynthesis, the present acceleration of the universe and the dark-energy-density parameter) are satisfied. The decoupling of a thermal cold dark matter particle during the period of kination is analysed, the relic density is calculated both numerically and semi-analytically and the results are compared with each other. It is argued that the enhancement, with respect to the standard paradigm, of the cold dark matter abundance can be expressed as a function of the quintessential density parameter at the onset of nucleosynthesis. We found that values of the latter quantity close to its upper bound require the thermal-averaged cross section times the velocity of the cold relic to be almost three orders of magnitude larger than that needed in the standard scenario so that compatibility with the cold dark matter constraint is achieved.

Constantinos Pallis

Papers

Supersymmetric cold dark matter with Yukawa unification

Yukawa Unification, b --> s gamma and Bino-Stau Coannihilation

Yukawa unification, b→sγ and bino–stau coannihilation

Yukawa quasi-unification

Quintessential kination and cold dark matter abundance