Kyoto University

About: Kyoto University is a education organization based out in Kyoto, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Population. The organization has 85837 authors who have published 217215 publications receiving 6526826 citations. The organization is also known as: Kyōto University & Kyōto daigaku.

False vacuum inflation with Einstein gravity

Abstract: We present a detailed investigation of chaotic inflation models which feature two scalar fields such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the magnitude of the inflaton field falls below some critical value, and a first or second order transition to the true vacuum ensues. Particular attention is paid to the case termed ``hybrid inflation'' by Linde, where the false vacuum energy density dominates so that the phase transition signals the end of inflation. We focus mostly on the case of a second order transition, but treat also the first order case and discuss bubble production in that context for the first time. False-vacuum-dominated inflation is dramatically different from the usual true vacuum case, both in its cosmology and in its relation to particle physics. The spectral index of the adiabatic density perturbation originating during inflation can be indistinguishable from 1, or it can be up to ten percent or so higher. The energy scale at the end of inflation can be many orders of magnitude less than the value ${10}^{16}$ GeV, which is ususal in the true vacuum case. Reheating occurs promptly at the end of inflation. Cosmic strings or other topological defects are almost inevitably produced at the end of inflation, and if the inflationary energy scale is near its upper limit they contribute significantly to large scale structure formation and the cosmic microwave background anisotropy.Turning to particle physics, false vacuum inflaton occurs with the inflaton field far below the Planck scale and is therefore somewhat easier to implement in the context of supergravity than true vacuum chaotic inflation. The smallness of the inflaton mass compared with the inflationary Hubble parameter still presents a difficulty for generic supergravity theories. Remarkably, however, the difficulty can be avoided in a natural way for a class of supergravity models that follow from orbifold compactification of superstrings. This opens up the prospect of a truly realistic superstring-derived theory of inflation. One possibility, which we show to be viable at least in the context of global supersymmetry, is that the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is responsible for the false vacuum.

Induction of pluripotent stem cells from fibroblast cultures.

Abstract: Clinical application of embryonic stem (ES) cells faces difficulties regarding use of embryos, as well as tissue rejection after implantation. One way to circumvent these issues is to generate pluripotent stem cells directly from somatic cells. Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state by the injection of a nucleus into an enucleated oocyte or by fusion with ES cells. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these processes. We have recently shown that the combination of four transcription factors can generate ES-like pluripotent stem cells directly from mouse fibroblast cultures. The cells, named induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, can be differentiated into three germ layers and committed to chimeric mice. Here we describe detailed methods and tips for the generation of iPS cells.

The Simons Observatory : Science goals and forecasts

Abstract: The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands centered at: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes and one large-aperture 6-m telescope, with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The small aperture telescopes will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ≈ 10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 μK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, at a target level of σ(r)=0.003. The large aperture telescope will map ≈ 40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 μK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope sky region and partially with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources.