Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Particle Astrophyics'

The presence of turbulence in astrophysical magnetic fields can have a significant effect on the diffusion of particles and, therefore, should be taken into account when performing simulations involving particle propagation. After reviewing the constructionof the turbulent magnetic field component, we incorporate this feature in two separate projects. In the first, we consider the possible source(s) of hadronic cosmic rays thought to be responsible for the diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission in the vicinity ofthe Galactic center. Assuming a completely turbulent magnetic field with an average strength of 10-100microG, we find that relativistic protons do not travel far enough to produce gamma-rays spatially correlated with the giant molecular clouds, as seen by HESS,when injected into the interstellar medium by a single point source, such as the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. Increasing the number of point sources to five does improve the longitudinal extent of the emission but either shows only weak correlation with the molecular gas or highlights the source positions - both pictures areinconsistent with HESS observations. We conclude that protons must be accelerated throughout the Galactic center region via e.g. a second-order Fermi process in order to reproduce the HESS gamma-ray map if the magnetic field there is completely turbulent. Secondly, we examine the possible link between the asymmetric 511keV electron-positron annihilation emission from the inner Galactic disk and hard low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Three different magnetic field configurations were considered: a completely turbulent field, a field in which the turbulent component has equal energy density as the mean component, and a strongly ordered field with little turbulence. Assuming the environment around each LMXB system is the same, we find that the LMXBs alone cannot account for all the positrons necessary to sufficiently fill the region regardless of the particular magnetic field structure chosen. Another transport mechanism (e.g. a galactic wind) in addition to the diffusive motion caused by the magnetic field fluctuations and/or allowing the LMXBs to be embedded in different phases of the interstellar medium is needed for the LMXB picture to remain a viable possibility.

A survey of the theory of neutrino oscillations in dense matter and neutrino backgrounds is presented. We discuss collective neutrino systems using the gyroscopic pendulum analogy and describe the motion that results from self-induced parametric resonances. The effects of dense matter on the flavour oscillations of neutrinos are also detailed. This theory is applied to the case of continuous supernova neutrino spectra and explanations of the spectral swapping behaviour seen in numerical studies are summarized. The results of numerical simulations of supernova oscillations in turbulent supernova backgrounds are presented and discussed. We study the motion of two example supernova neutrino spectra and examine the differences in the dynamics and flavour evolution that results from adding turbulent fluctuations to the supernova matter background. We also investigate the effect that fluctuations in the neutrino density can have on the oscillation behaviour. We find that in general the final neutrino spectra emerging from the inner supernova regions are quite robust to fluctuations in the backgrounds in our model, while the intermediate dynamics can be very strongly altered. Some significant changes in the final spectra are also found to occur when the neutrino background density fluctuations are large. We give a detailed review of the resonant matter effects that determine the survival probabilities of atmospheric muon neutrinos. The differences between various Earth density models are described, and these models are then used to predict the flux of muon-type neutrino events in the Deep Core extension to the IceCube detector. We use recent results from the detector collaboration and build on previous work which considered the sensitivity of the detector to the mass hierarchy, and show that uncertainties in the Earth's density can have a significant influence on the event rates.

In this thesis I study astrophysical and cosmological effects of axion-like particles (ALPs). ALPs are pseudo-scalar particles, which are generally very weakly-interacting, with a coupling α/M E · B to electromagnetism. They are predicted by many theories which extend the standard model (SM) of particle physics, most notably string theory. String theory compactifications also predict many scalar fields called moduli which describe the size and shape of the extra, compact dimensions. In string theory models generically the moduli fields are responsible for reheating the universe after inflation. Being gravitationally-coupled, they will also decay to any other particles or sectors of the theory, including any light ALPs, of which there are usually many. The ALPs produced by moduli decay will contribute to dark radiation, additional relativistic energy density. The amount of dark radiation is tightly constrained by observations, this bounds the branching fraction of moduli decays into ALPs, which constrains the string theory model itself. I calculate the amount of dark radiation produced in a model with one light modulus, solely responsible for reheating, called the Large Volume Scenario. I study a minimal version of this model with one ALP and a visible sector comprised of the minimal supersymmetric SM. The dominant visible sector decay mode is to two Higgses, I include radiative corrections to this decay and find that ALP dark radiation is over-produced in this minimal version of the model, effectively ruling it out. The production of ALPs from moduli decay at reheating seems to be a generic feature of string theory models. These ALPs would exist today as a homogeneous cosmic ALP background (CAB). The coupling of ALPs to electromagnetism allows ALPs to convert to photons and vice versa in a magnetic field, leading to potential observable astrophysical signals of this CAB. Observations have shown an excess in soft X-ray emission from many galaxy clusters. I use detailed simulations of galaxy cluster magnetic fields to show that a CAB can explain these observations by conversion of ALPs into X-ray photons. I simulate ALP-photon conversion in four galaxy clusters and compare to soft X-ray observations. I show the excesses (or lack thereof) can be fit consistently across the clusters for a CAB with ALP-photon inverse coupling of M = 6 - 12 x 10¹² GeV, if the CAB spectrum has energy ~ 200 eV. I also study the possibility of using galaxy clusters to search for and constrain the ALP coupling to photons using cluster X-ray emission. Conversion of X-ray photons into ALPs will cause spectral distortions to the thermal X-ray spectrum emitted by galaxy clusters. I show that the non-observation of these distortions is able to produce the strongest constraints to date on the ALP-photon inverse coupling, M ≳ 7 x 10¹¹ GeV.

2002/2003
In questo lavoro ho affrontato lo studio della produzione dal vuoto di particelle (elettroni, posi troni e fotoni) in presenza di campi magnetici intensi e lentamente variabili nel tempo. Per "campi magnetici intensi" intendo campi magnetici la cui intensità è molto maggiore del valore Ber = m2c3 /(ne) = 4.4 x 1013 gauss che corrisponde al valore minimo dell'ampiezza che un campo magnetico deve avere affinché risulti energeticamente possibile la creazione dal vuoto di una coppia e- - e+. Tali campi magnetici non possono essere prodotti in laboratorio, tuttavia, come mostrano certe evidenze indirette e simulazioni numeriche, essi possono essere presenti attorno a certi oggetti astrofisici compatti (stelle di neutroni estremamente magnetizzate dette magnetar o buchi neri massicci). Per questo motivo, nel presente lavoro ho assunto che le sorgenti dei campi magnetici in gioco sono sempre oggetti astrofisici compatti del tipo appena descritto. In particolare, ho tentato di applicare i miei risultati ai cosiddetti Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) e ai loro spettri energetici. I G RB sono impulsi molto intensi di raggi gamma soft che sono rivelati in media una volta al giorno dai nostri satelliti e che, si pensa, sono originati proprio attorno a sorgenti astrofisiche come buchi neri massicci o, secondo alcuni modelli, magnetar. Il mio punto di vista è quello di un fisico teorico e non di un astrofisico e, pertanto, i modelli che utilizzo sono versioni molto semplificate della realtà. Tuttavia, alcuni degli spettri di fotoni che ho calcolato mostrano somiglianze qualitative con i corrispondenti spettri energetici sperimentali dei GRB. Da un punto di vista dei risultati, la tesi può essere divisa in tre parti distinte: la prima riguarda la produzione di coppie e- -e+ in presenza di un campo magnetico intenso e lentamente variabile in varie configurazioni, la seconda riguarda la produzione di fotoni in presenza di un campo magnetico intenso e lentamente rotante e, infine, la terza riguarda gli effetti che il campo gravitazionale dell'oggetto astrofisico compatto induce sulla produzione di coppie e- - e+. Nella prima parte ho calcolato la probabilità per unità di volume che una coppia e- - e+ venga creata dal vuoto in presenza di un campo magnetico intenso e lentamente variabile per mezzo della teoria delle perturbazioni adiabatiche al primo ordine. Inizialmente, ho mostrato analiticamente che se il campo magnetico cambia direzione allora vengono innescati meccanismi di produzione molto più efficienti rispetto a quelli innescati in presenza di un campo magnetico variabile solo in modulo. Il motivo fisico di questo fatto va ricercato nell'esistenza di stati di singola particella elettronici e positronici la cui energia non dipende dal campo magnetico. Infatti, questi stati, detti transverse ground states (TGS), hanno, in presenza di un campo magnetico intenso, un'energia molto più bassa di quella degli altri stati e solo se il campo magnetico varia in direzione è possibile creare una coppia in cui sia l'elettrone che il positrone sono in un TGS. Un'altra conclusione di questa prima parte riguarda il ruolo che il campo elettrico indotto dalla variazione nel tempo del campo magnetico gioca nel fenomeno della produzione. Infatti, si vede che la creazione della coppia è possibile (ovviamente) solo se tale campo elettrico è presente e, in particolare, che la probabilità di creazione per unità di volume è proporzionale al quadrato del campo elettrico stesso. A vendo in mente una possibile applicazione dei calcoli agli spettri dei GRB, nella seconda parte della tesi ho calcolato lo spettro dei fotoni emessi da elettroni e positroni presenti in un campo magnetico intenso e puramente rotante in seguito alla loro annichilazione o come radiazione di sincrotrone. In entrambi i casi lo spettro finale è stato calcolato numericamente. Mentre lo spettro di annichilazione presenta un picco pronunciato in corrispondenza della massa dell'elettrone, lo spettro di sincrotrone mostra due andamenti differenti attorno ad un valore di energia rv 1-3 Me V. In generale, la forma dello spettro di sincrotrone somiglia qualitativamente a quella di alcuni spettri di G RB mentre lo spettro di annichilazione è decisamente diverso. In particolare, è risultato che analogamente agli spettri sperimentali l'andamento dello spettro di sincrotrone per piccole energie è inversamente proporzionale all'energia del fotone. Infine, ho anche calcolato analiticamente lo spettro dei fotoni emessi direttamente dal vuoto in seguito all'interazione non lineare del vuoto stesso col campo magnetico rotante ma i risultati mostrano che il nun1ero di fotoni così prodotti è decisamente inferiore a quello dei fotoni prodotti attraverso gli altri due meccanismi e la loro presenza può essere trascurata. Come ho detto all'inizio, i campi magnetici che considero sono prodotti da stelle di neutroni o da buchi neri. Per questo, può risultare importante tenere in considerazione anche la presenza del campo gravitazionale prodotto dall'oggetto compatto. Ho fatto questo nell'ultima parte della tesi in cui ho visto come le energie e gli stati elettronici e positronici di singola particella e, di conseguenza, le probabilità di produzione di una coppia vengono modificate dalla presenza di un campo gravitazionale debole trattato perturbativamente o dalla presenza di uno intenso trattato non perturbativamente. Nel primo caso, il risultato più interessante è che in presenza di un campo gravitazionale (seppur debole) perpendicolare al campo magnetico è possibile creare coppie con l 'elettrone e il positrone in un TGS anche se il campo magnetico varia solo in modulo. Invece, il trattamento del caso non perturbativo è risultato completamente diverso per il fatto che i livelli energetici dell'elettrone e del positrone, a differenza che nello spaziotempo di Minkowski, sono individuati da un numero quantico continuo e indipendente dagli altri numeri quantici e dal campo magnetico. In questo caso, ho mostrato come gli effetti del campo gravitazionale sulla probabilità di creazione sono effettivamente molto importanti, tanto da non poter essere trascurati. In particolare, elettroni e positroni con energie molto alte vengono creati in numero maggiore in presenza di un campo gravitazionale intenso che nello spaziotempo di Minkowski.
In this work I have studied the production from vacuum of electrons, positrons and photons in the presence of strong and slowly-varying magnetic fields. "Strong magnetic fields" here means magnetic fields whose intensity is much larger than Ber = m2c3 / (he) = 4.4 x 1013 gauss corresponding t o the minimum strength of a magnetic field whose energy is enough to create an e- - e+ pair from vacuum. Such intense magnetic fields cannot be created in terrestrial laboratories but, as some indirect evidences and numerical simulations show, they may be present around some astrophysical compact objects (strongly magnetized neutron stars called magnetar or massive black ho l es). For this reason, in the present work I h ave assumed t ha t the sources of the magnetic fields are always such kind of astrophysical compact objects. In particular, I have tried t o apply my results to the so-called Gamma-Ray Bursts ( G RB) an d their energy spectra. G RB are very intense soft gamma-ray pulses that our satellites register on average once a day and that are thought to be originated around astrophysical objects like massive black ho l es or, following some models, magnetars. My point of view is no t astrophysical but theoretical then the models I have used are very simplified versions of the real situation. Nevertheless, some of the photon spectra I have calculated are qualitatively similar to the corresponding experimental G RBs energy spectra. The results of the thesis can be divided into three different parts: the first one concerns the production of e- - e+ pairs in the presence of a strong, slowly-varying magnetic field in various configurations, the second one concerns the production of photons in the presence of a strong and slowly-rotating magnetic field and, finally, the third one concerns how the presence of the gravitational field of the astrophysical compact object affects the production of e- -e+ pairs. In the first part I have calculated the probability per unit volume that an e- - e+ pair is created from vacuum in the presence of a strong, slowly varying magnetic field through the first-order adiabatic perturbation theory. Firstly, I have shown analytically that if the direction of the magnetic field changes with time then production mechanisms are primed that are much more efficient than those primed in the presence of a magnetic field changing only in strength. The physical reason of this fact is the existence of one particle electron and positron states whose energy does not depend on the magnetic field. In fact, these states, called transverse ground states (TGS), have, in the presence of a strong magnetic field, an energy much lower than that of the other states and only if the magnetic field changes in direction it is possible to create a pair in which both the electron and the positron are in a TGS. Another conclusion in this first part concerns the role that the electric field induced by the time variation of the magnetic field plays in the production mechanism. In fact, one sees that the pair creation is possible ( obviously) only if such an electric field is present an d, in particular, t ha t the probability per unit volume is proportional to the square of the electric field itself. Having in mind a possible application of the calculations to G RBs spectra, in the second part of the thesis I have calculated the spectrum of the photons emitted by electrons and positrons in the magnetic field as a consequence of their annihilation or as synchrotron radiation. In both cases the final spectrum has been calculated numerically. While the annihilation spectrum shows a well marked peak around the electron mass, the synchrotron spectrum shows two different behaviours around an energy value rv 1-3 Me V. In general, the form of the synchrotron spectrum is qualitatively similar to some GRBs spectra while the annihilation spectrum is completely different. In particular, analogously to the experimental spectra the low-energy behaviour of the synchrotron spectrum is proportional to the inverse of the photon energy. Finally, I have also calculated the spectrum of the photons emitted directly from vacuum as a consequence of the nonlinear interaction of the vacuum itself with the rotating magnetic field but the results show that the number of photons produced through this mechanism is definitely lower than that of the photons produced through the other mechanisms and their presence can be neglected. As I have said at the beginning, the magnetic fields considered are produced by neutron stars or black holes. For this reason, taking into account the gravitational field produced by the compact object may give relevant results. I have clone this in the last part of the thesis where I have shown how the one particle electron an d positron energies and states and, consequently, the probability production of a pair are modified by the presence of a weak gravitational field treated perturbatively or by the presence of a strong gravitational field treated non perturbatively. In the first case, the most important result is that in the presence of a ( though weak) gravitational field perpendicular to the magnetic field it is possible to create pairs with the electron and the positron both in a TGS even if the magnetic field changes only in strength. Instead, the treatment of the non perturbative case resulted completely different because the electron an d positron one particle energies, unlike in Minkowski spacetime, are characterized by a continuous quantum number independent of the other quantum numbers and of the magnetic field. In this case, I have shown how the effects of the gravitational field on the production probability are really important and that they cannot be neglected. In particular, high-energy electrons an d positrons are more likely produced in the presence of a strong gravitational field than in Minkowski spacetime.
XVI Ciclo
1974
Versione digitalizzata della tesi di dottorato cartacea.

This thesis explores methods of detecting dark matter particles, with some emphasis on several dark matter models of current interest. Detection in this context means observation of an experimental signature correlated with dark matter interactions with Standard Model particles. This includes recoils of nuclei or electrons from dark matter scattering events, and direct or indirect observation of particles produced by dark matter annihilation.
Physics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2008.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-169).
Particles have tremendous potential as astronomical messengers, and conversely, studying the universe as a whole also teaches us about particle physics. This thesis encompasses both of these research directions. Many models predict a diffuse flux of high energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei and other astrophysical sources. The "Astrophysics Underground" portion of this thesis describes a search for this neutrino flux performed by looking for extremely high energy upward-going muons using the Super-Kamiokande detector, and comparing the observed flux to the expected background. We use our results to to set an upper limit on the diffuse neutrino flux from astrophysical sources. In addition to using particles to do astronomy, we can also use the universe itself as a particle physics lab. Cosmology provides new insights that could never be observed in terrestrial laboratories. The "Particle Physics in the Sky" portion of this thesis focuses on extracting cosmological information from galaxy surveys. To overcome technical challenges faced by the latest galaxy surveys, we produced a comprehensive upgrade to mangle, a software package that processes the angular masks defining the survey area on the sky. We added dramatically faster algorithms and new useful features to this software that are necessary for managing complex masks of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and will be invaluable for future surveys as well. With this software in hand, we utilized galaxy clustering data from SDSS to investigate the relation between galaxies and dark matter by studying relative bias, i.e., the relation between different types of galaxies. If all galaxies were perfect tracers of dark matter, different subpopulations would trace each other perfectly as well. However, separating galaxies by their luminosities and colors reveals a complicated picture: red galaxies are clustered more strongly than blue galaxies, with both the brightest and the faintest red galaxies showing the strongest clustering. Furthermore, red and blue galaxies tend to occupy different regions of space, effectively introducing an element of stochasticity (randomness) when modeling their relative distributions. In order to make precise measurements from the next generation of galaxy surveys, it will be essential to account for this complexity.
by Molly E.C. Swanson.
Ph.D.

The likelihood that gravitational waves from stellar-size black holes spiraling into a supermassive black hole would be detectable by a space based gravitational wave observatory has spurred the interest in studying the extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI) problem and black hole perturbation theory (BHP). In this approach, the smaller black hole is treated as a point particle and its trajectory deviates from a geodesic due to the interaction with its own field. This interaction is known as the gravitational self-force, and it includes both a damping force, commonly known as radiation reaction, as well as a conservative force. The computation of this force is complicated by the fact that the formal expression for the force due to a point particle diverges, requiring a careful regularization to find the finite self-force.

This dissertation focuses on the computation of the scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational self-force on accelerated particles. We begin with a discussion of the "MiSaTaQuWa" prescription for self-force renormalization (Mino, Sasaki, Takasugi 1999 and Quinn and Wald, 1999) along with the refinements made by Detweiler and Whiting (2003), and demonstrate how this prescription is equivalent to performing an angle average and renormalizing the mass of the particle. With this background, we shift to a discussion of the "mode-sum renormalization" technique developed by Barack and Ori (2000), who demonstrated that for particles moving along a geodesic in Schwarzschild spacetime (and later in Kerr spacetime), the regularization parameters can be described using only the leading and subleading terms (known as the A and B terms). We extend this to demonstrate that this is true for fields of spins 0, 1, and 2, for accelerated trajectories in arbitrary spacetimes.

Using these results, we discuss the renormalization of a charged point mass moving through an electrovac spacetime; extending previous studies to situations in which the gravitational and electromagnetic contributions are comparable. We renormalize by using the angle average plus mass renormalization in order to find the contribution from the coupling of the fields and encounter a striking result: Due to a remarkable cancellation, the coupling of the fields does not contribute to the renormalization. This means that the renormalized mass is obtained by subtracting (1) the purely electromagnetic contribution from a point charge moving along an accelerated trajectory and (2) the purely gravitational contribution of an electrically neutral point mass moving along the same trajectory. In terms of the mode-sum regularization, the same cancellation implies that the regularization parameters are merely the sums of their purely electromagnetic and gravitational values.

Finally, we consider the scalar self-force on a point charge orbiting a Schwarzschild black-hole following a non-Keplerian circular orbit. We utilize the techniques of Mano, Suzuki, and Takasugi (1996) for generating analytic solutions. With this tool, it is possible to generate a solution for the field as a series in the Fourier frequency, which allows researchers to naturally express the solutions in a post Newtonian series (see Shah et. al. 2014). We make use of a powerful insight by Hikida et. al.(2005), which allows us to perform the renormalization analytically. We investigate the details of this procedure and illuminate the mechanisms through which it works. We finish by demonstrating the power of this technique, showing how it is possible to obtain the post Newtonian expressions by only explicitly computing a handful of modes.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-205) and index.
The IceCube detector opens a new window into our universe; valuable for both astronomy and particle physics. This thesis spans a wide range of topics that are bound together by a common theme: the development and application of new statistical and computational methods for analysing data from particle and astrophysics experiments. Sterile neutrinos are a hypothetical fourth kind of neutrino, which are motivated by anomalies observed in various short base-line neutrino experiments. These experiments have published results that are not mutually compatible. This thesis presents a global fit to many short base-line datasets with the addition of the recent IceCube sterile neutrino search, constraining the full 3+1 mixing matrix for the first time. The global fit strongly favours the sterile neutrino hypothesis, although significant tension still remains within the datasets. The origin of the observed astrophysical neutrino flux at IceCube remains elusive. Current methods, using a hot-spot model, have seen no significant clustering of events. This thesis presents a new test for point sources of neutrinos, based on the non-Poissonian Template Fitting technique. Constraints on population models for neutrino points sources are shown for the first time. Atmospheric neutrinos form a background for astrophysical analyses on IceCube, but also serve as the signal in particle physics analyses such as the sterile neutrino search. The first comprehensive study of the effect of global atmospheric temperature variations on atmospheric neutrino fluxes is provided. This thesis also presents two studies on using new computational methods for simulation and reconstruction on IceCube. Convolutional neural networks have been used to classify low-level waveform data, with the goal of identifying tau-neutrinos. Metropolis light transport, a rendering technique used in the CGI industry, has been extended to simulate the transport of light inside the IceCube experiment. Both show promising results, exceeding existing algorithms in their test cases.
by Gabriel L.W.H. Collin.
Ph. D.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'astrophysique de laboratoire. Nous abordons divers aspects de la physique des chocs non-collisionels en présence de flots de plasma relativistes dans des configurations d'intérêt pour les communautés astrophysique et de l’interaction laser-plasma (ILP). Notre approche repose sur la modélisation analytique et la simulation cinétique haute-performance, outil central pour décrire les processus d'ILP et la physique non linéaire à l'origine des chocs étudiés. Le code Particle-in-Cell SMILEI a été largement utilisé et développé au cours ce travail. Trois configurations physiques sont étudiées. L’instabilité Weibel en présence de faisceaux d'électrons contre-propagatifs alignés avec un champ magnétique externe est décrite. Les phases linéaires et non linéaires sont expliquées à l’aide de modèles théoriques confirmés par des simulations. La génération de chocs non-collisionels lors de l’interaction de deux plasmas relativistes de paires est étudiée en présence d’un champ magnétique perpendiculaire. L’accent est mis sur la comparaison des prédictions théoriques sur les grandeurs macroscopiques avec les simulations, ainsi que sur la définition du temps de formation du choc, l’ensemble de ces grandeurs étant d’une grande importance pour de futures expériences. Enfin, nous proposons un schéma permettant de recréer, en laboratoire, l’instabilité Weibel ionique par l'utilisation d'un laser intense. Les flots de plasmas produits ici sont plus rapides et denses que dans les expériences actuelles, conduisant à un taux de croissance et des champs magnétiques plus élevés. Ces résultats sont également important pour l’ILP à très haute intensité
The work presented in this thesis belongs to the general framework of Laboratory Astrophysics. We address various aspects of the physics of collisionless shocks developing in the presence of relativistic plasma flows, in configurations of interest for the astrophysical and the laser-plasma interaction (LPI) communities. The approach used throughout this thesis relied on both analytical modeling and high-performance kinetic simulations, a central tool to describe LPI processes as well as the non-linear physics behind shock formation. The PIC code SMILEI has been widely used and developed during this work. Three physical configurations are studied. First we consider the Weibel instability driven by two counter-streaming electron beams aligned with an external magnetic field. The linear and non-linear phases are explained using theoretical models confirmed by simulations.Then the generation of non-collisional shocks during the interaction of two relativistic plasma pairs is studied in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We focus on the comparison of theoretical predictions for macroscopic variables with the simulation results, as well as on the definition and measurement of the shock formation time, all of which are of great importance for future experiments.Finally, we proposed a scheme to produce, in the laboratory, the ion-Weibel-instability with the use of an ultra-high-intensity laser. The produced flows are faster and denser than in current experiments, leading to a larger growth rate and stronger magnetic fields. These results are important for the LPI at very high intensity

The applied particle physics has a strong R&D tradition aimed at rising the instrumentation performances to achieve relevant results for the scientific community. The know-how achieved in developing particle detectors can be applied to apparently divergent fields like hadrontherapy and cosmic ray detection. A proof of this fact is presented in this doctoral thesis, where the results coming from three different projects are discussed in likewise macro-chapters. A brief introduction (Chapter 1) reports the basic features characterizing a typical particle detector system. This section is developed following the data transmission path: from the sensor, the data moves through the front-end electronics for being readout and collected, ready for the data manipulation. After this general section, the thesis describes the results achieved in two projects developed by the collaboration between the medical physics group of the University of Turin and the Turin section of the Italian Nuclear Institute for Nuclear Physics. Chapter 2 focuses on the TERA09 project. TERA09 is a 64 channels customized chip that has been realized to equip the front-end readout electronics for the new generation of beam monitor chambers for particle therapy applications. In this field, the trend in the accelerators development is moving toward compact solutions providing high-intensity pulsed-beams. However, such a high intensity will saturate the present readout electronics. In order to overcome this critical issue, the TERA09 chip is able to cope with the expected maximum intensity while keeping high resolution by working on a wide conversion-linearity zone which extends from hundreds of pA to hundreds of μA. The chip gain spread is in the order of 1-3% (r.m.s.), with a 200 fC charge resolution. The thesis author took part in the chip design and fully characterized the device. The same group is currently working on behalf of the MoVeIT collaboration for the development of a new silicon strip detector prototype for particle therapy applications. Chapter 3 presents the technical aspects of this project, focusing on the author’s contribution: the front-end electronics design. The sensor adopted for the MoVeIT project is based on 50 μm thin sensors with internal gain, aiming to detect the single beam particle thus counting their number up to 109 cm2/s fluxes, with a pileup probability < 1%. A similar approach would lead to a drastic step forward if compared to the classical and widely used monitoring system based on gas ionization chambers. For what concerns the front-end electronics, the group strategy has been to design two prototypes of custom front-end: one based on a transimpedance preamplifier with a resistive feedback and the other one based on a charge sensitive amplifier. The challenging tasks for the electronics are represented by the charge and dynamic range which are respectively the 3 - 150 fC and the hundreds of MHz instantaneous rate (100 MHz as the milestone, up to 250 MHz ideally). Chapter 4 is a report on the trigger logic development for the Mini-EUSO detector. Mini-EUSO is a telescope designed by the JEM-EUSO Collaboration to map the Earth in the UV range from the vantage point of the International Space Station (ISS), in low Earth orbit. This approach will lay the groundwork for the detection of Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays (EECRs) from space. Due to its 2.5 μs time resolution, Mini-EUSO is capable of detecting a wide range of UV phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere. In order to maximize the scientific return of the mission, it is necessary to implement a multi-level trigger logic for data selection over different timescales. This logic is key to the success of the mission and thus must be thoroughly tested and carefully integrated into the data processing system prior to the launch. The author took part in the trigger integration in hardware, laboratory trigger tests and also developed the firmware of the trigger ancillary blocks. Chapter 5 closes this doctoral thesis, with a dedicated summary part for each of the three macro-chapters.

There is by now compelling evidence that most of the matter in the Universe is in the form of dark matter, a form of matter quite different from the matter we experience in every day life. The gravitational effects of this dark matter have been observed in many different ways but its true nature is still unknown. In most models, dark matter particles can annihilate with each other into standard model particles; the direct or indirect observation of such annihilation products could give important clues for the dark matter puzzle. For signals from dark matter annihilations to be detectable, typically high dark matter densities are required. Massive objects, such as stars, can increase the local dark matter density both via scattering off nucleons and by pulling in dark matter gravitationally as a star forms. Annihilations within this kind of dark matter population gravitationally bound to a star, like the Sun, give rise to a gamma ray flux. For a star which has a planetary system, dark matter can become gravitationally bound also through gravitational interactions with the planets. The interplay between the different dark matter populations in the solar system is analyzed, shedding new light on dark matter annihilations inside celestial bodies and improving the predicted experimental reach. Dark matter annihilations inside a star would also deposit energy in the star which, if abundant enough, could alter the stellar evolution. This is investigated for the very first stars in the Universe. Finally, there is a possibility for abundant small scale dark matter overdensities to have formed in the early Universe. Prospects of detecting gamma rays from such minihalos, which have survived until the present day, are discussed.
Kosmologiska observationer har visat att större delen av materian i universum består av mörk materia, en form av materia med helt andra egenskaper än den vi upplever i vardagslivet. Effekterna av denna mörka materia har observerats gravitationellt på många olika sätt men vad den egentligen består av är fortfarande okänt. I de flesta modeller kan mörk materia-partiklar annihilera med varandra till standardmodellpartiklar. Att direkt eller indirekt observera sådana annihilationsprodukter kan ge viktiga ledtrådar om vad den mörka materian består av. För att kunna detektera sådana signaler fordras typiskt höga densiteter av mörk materia. Stjärnor kan lokalt öka densiteten av mörk materia, både via spridning mot atomkärnor i stjärnan och genom den ökande gravitationskraften i samband med att en stjärna föds. Annihilationer inom en sådan mörk materia-population gravitationellt bunden till en stjärna, till exempel solen, ger upphov till ett flöde av gammastrålning, som beräknas. För en stjärna som har ett planetsystem kan mörk materia även bli infångad genom gravitationell växelverkan med planeterna. Samspelet mellan de två mörk materia-populationerna i solsystemet analyseras, vilket ger nya insikter om mörk materia-annihilationer inuti himlakroppar och förbättrar de experimentella möjligheterna att detektera dem. Mörk materia-annihilationer inuti en stjärna utgör också en extra energikälla för stjärnan, vilket kan påverka stjärnans utveckling om mörk materia-densiteten blir tillräckligt stor. Denna effekt undersöks för de allra första stjärnorna i universum. Slutligen finns det också en möjlighet att det i det tidiga universum skapades mörk materia-ansamlingar som fortfarande finns kvar idag. Utsikterna att upptäcka dessa genom mätning av gammastrålning diskuteras.
QC 20120130

I present a formulation of fluid dynamics that is consistent with particle transport and acceleration. This formulation consists of two parts: a transport equation that describes the evolution of a particle distribution function in terms of a fluid velocity in which the distribution is embedded, and an equation for the fluid velocity that involves integrals of the distribution function. The motivation of this work is to provide a formalism for calculating the effect of particle acceleration on the flows of typical astrophysical plasmas. It is shown that the equation to be solved simultaneously with the transport equation is just the momentum equation for the system, and that the number and energy equations are implicit in the transport equation. There is no restriction on the energies of particles constituting such systems. Connections are made to the cosmic-ray transport equation, two-fluid models of cosmic-ray - thermal gas interaction, and self-consistent Monte Carlo models of particle acceleration at parallel shocks. The formalism is developed for non-relativistic flow speeds. It is assumed that particle distributions are nearly isotropic in the fluid frame, an assumption that is generally valid in space plasmas. It is assumed that particle scattering mean-free-paths are much less than the length scales associated with changes in the fluid velocity or particle distribution.

Particle production is examined within the context of brane cosmology. Non-perturbative formalisms are reviewed and employed to calculate particle number (or the energy density associated with such particles) produced in dynamical spacetimes arising from various brane configurations. Specifically, reheating from tachyon condensation, the quantum instability of a class of S-brane spacetimes, and particle production on an orbiting brane-antibrane system are investigated.

In the paper attached to this thesis, Paper I, we have calculated the flux of neutrinos that emanate from cosmic ray collisions in the solar atmosphere. These neutrinos are created in the cascades that follow the primary collision and can travel from their production point to a detector on Earth, interacting with the solar material and oscillating on the way. The motivation is both a better understanding of the cosmic ray interactions in the solar environment but also the fact that this neutrino flux presents an almost irreducible background for the searches for neutrinos from annihilations between dark matter particles in the Sun’s core. This interesting connection between neutrinos and dark matter make use of the Sun as a laboratory to investigate new models of particle physics. If dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), the Sun will sweep up some of these WIMPs when it moves through the halo of dark matter that our galaxy lies in. These WIMPs will become gravitationally bound to the Sun and over time accumulate in the Sun’s core. In most models WIMPs can annihilate to Standard Model particles when encountering each other. The only particle that can make it out of the Sun without being absorbed is the neutrino. The buildup of WIMPs in the solar interior can therefore lead to a detectable flux of neutrinos. Neutrino telescopes therefore search for an excess of neutrinos from the Sun. To be able to ensure that a detected flux is in fact coming from dark matter annihilations one must properly account for all other sources of neutrinos. At higher energies these are primarily neutrinos created in energetic collisions between cosmic rays and particles in the Earth’s atmosphere, but also the solar atmospheric neutrinos. The latter will be tougher to disentangle from a WIMP signal since they also come from the Sun. We calculate in Paper I the creation of the neutrinos in the solar atmosphere and propagate these neutrinos to a detector on Earth, including oscillations and interactions in the Sun and vacuum oscillations between the Sun and the Earth. We find that the expected flux is small but potentially detectable by current neutrino telescopes, although further studies are needed to fully ascertain the possibility of discovery as well as how to properly disentangle this from a potential WIMP-induced neutrino signal.

Physics
Ph.D.
Astounding evidence for invisible "dark" matter has been found from galaxy clusters, cosmic and stellar gas motion, gravitational lensing studies, cosmic microwave background analysis, and large scale galaxy surveys. Although all studies indicate that there is a dominant presence of non-luminous matter in the universe (about 22 percent of the total energy density with 5 times more dark matter than baryonic matter), its identity and its "direct" detection (through non-gravitational effects) has not yet been achieved. Dark matter in the form of massive, weakly interacting particles (WIMPs) could be detected through their collisions with target nuclei. This requires detectors to be sensitive to very low-energy (less than 100 keV) nuclear recoils with very low expected rates (a few interactions per year per ton of target). Reducing the background in a direct dark matter detector is the biggest challenge. A detector capable of seeing such low-energy nuclear recoils is difficult to build because of the necessary size and the radio- and chemical- purity. Therefore it is imperative to first construct small-scale prototypes to develop the necessary technology and systems, before attempting to deploy large-scale detectors in underground laboratories. Our collaboration, the DarkSide Collaboration, utilizes argon in two-phase time projection chambers (TPCs). We have designed, built, and commissioned DarkSide-10, a 10 kg prototype detector, and are designing and building DarkSide-50, a 50 kg dark matter detector. The present work is an account of my contribution to these efforts. The two-phase argon TPC technology allows powerful discrimination between dark matter nuclear recoils and background events. Presented here are simulations, designs, and analyses involving the electroluminescence in the gas phase from extracted ionization charge for both DarkSide-10 and DarkSide-50. This work involves the design of the HHV systems, including field cages, that are responsible for producing the electric fields that drift, accelerate, and extract ionization electrons. Detecting the ionization electrons is an essential element of the background discrimination and gives event location using position reconstruction. Based on using COMSOL multiphysics software, the TPC electric fields were simulated. For DarkSide-10 the maximum radial displacement a drifting electron would undergo was found to be 0.2 mm and 1 mm for DarkSide-50. Using the electroluminescence signal from an optical Monte Carlo, position reconstruction in these two-phase argon TPCs was studied. Using principal component analysis paired with a multidimensional fit, position reconstruction resolution for DarkSide-10 was found to be less than 0.5 cm and less than 2.5 cm for DarkSide-50 for events occurring near the walls. DarkSide-10 is fully built and has gone through several campaigns of operation and upgrading both at Princeton University and in an underground laboratory (Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy). Key DarkSide two-phase argon TPC technologies, such as a successful HHV system, have been demonstrated. Specific studies from DarkSide-10 data including analysis of the field homogeneity and the field dependence on the electroluminescence signal are reported here.
Temple University--Theses

Aspects of the self consistent acceleration and transport of cosmic rays in astrophysical fluid flows and associated numerical methods are studied. Problems investigated are: (i) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave interactions and instabilities in two-fluid models of cosmic ray modified shocks and flows; (ii) two dimensional, self consistent models of cosmic ray acceleration by the first order Fermi mechanism in supernova remnant shocks; (iii) new Riemann solver for the two-dimensional Euler equations and adaptive mesh refinement scheme for the coupled MHD and cosmic ray transport equations. The interaction of short wavelength MHD waves and instabilities in cosmic ray modified flows are investigated using asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations, with application to cosmic ray driven squeezing instabilities in supernova remnant shocks. In the linear wave regime, the waves are coupled by wave mixing due to gradients in the background flow; cosmic-ray squeezing instability effects, and damping due to the diffusing cosmic-rays. Numerical solutions of the fully nonlinear two-fluid cosmic ray MHD equations are compared with solutions of the wave mixing equations for oblique, cosmic ray modified shocks. A two-dimensional, self-consistent, adaptive mesh refinement numerical algorithm is developed for the solution of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations coupled to the kinetic transport equation for energetic charged particles. The method is used to simulate the evolution of the momentum distribution function of the cosmic rays accelerated at supernova remnant shocks. The numerical methods were tested on a variety of fluid dynamics and MHD problems, and previous models of cosmic ray modified supernova remnant shocks. A Riemann solver based on two-dimensional multi-state Riemann problems was developed. The scheme generalizes the traditional one-dimensional flux calculation to include contributions to the flux through the cell edges of the waves originating at cell corners. The multidimensional flux corrections increase the accuracy and stability of the scheme. An adaptive mesh refinement technique was used to study the Von Neumann paradox associated with the formation of three shocks, when a low Mach number, supersonic flow impinges on a thin wedge. For the first time, the region near the triple point has been resolved in a numerical solution of the Euler equations.

For a plasma in the collisionless regime, test-particle modelling can lend some insight into the macroscopic behavior of the plasma, e.g conductivity and heating. A common example for which this technique is used is a system with electric and magnetic fields given by B = {dollar}\delta y{dollar}cx x + xcx y + {dollar}\gamma{dollar}cx z and E = {dollar}\epsilon{dollar}cx z, where {dollar}\delta{dollar}, {dollar}\gamma{dollar}, and {dollar}\epsilon{dollar} are constant parameters. This model can be used to model plasma behavior near neutral lines, ({dollar}\gamma{dollar} = 0), as well as current sheets ({dollar}\gamma{dollar} = 0, {dollar}\delta{dollar} = 0). The integrability properties of the particle motion in such fields might affect the plasma's macroscopic behavior, and we have asked the question "For what values of {dollar}\delta{dollar}, {dollar}\gamma{dollar}, and {dollar}\epsilon{dollar} is the system integrable?" to answer this question, we have employed Painleve singularity analysis, which is an examination of the singularity properties of a test particle's equations of motion in the complex time plane. This analysis has identified two field geometries for which the system's particle dynamics are integrable in terms of the second Painleve transcendent: the circular O-line case and the case of the neutral sheet configuration. These geometries yield particle dynamics that are integrable in the Liouville sense (i.e. there exist the proper number of integrals in involution) in an extended phase space which includes the time as a canonical coordinate, and this property is also true for nonzero {dollar}\gamma{dollar}. The singularity property tests also identified a large, dense set of X-line and O-line field geometries that yield dynamics that may possess the weak Painleve property. In the case of the X-line geometries, this result shows little relevance to the physical nature of the system, but the existence of a dense set of elliptical O-line geometries with this property may be related to the fact that for {dollar}\epsilon{dollar} positive, one can construct asymptotic solutions in the limit {dollar}t \to \infty{dollar}.

The PAMELA space experiment is scheduled for launch towards the end of 2004 on-board a Russian Resurs DK1 satellite, orbiting Earth at an altitude of 300– 600 km. The main scientific goal is a study of the antimatter component of the cosmic radiation. The semipolar orbit (70.4◦) allows PAMELA to investigate a wide range of energies for antiprotons (80 MeV–190 GeV) and positrons (50 MeV– 270 GeV). Three years of data taking will provide unprecedented statistics in this energy range and will set the upper limit for the ratio He/He below 10−7. PAMELA is built around a permanent magnet silicon spectrometer, surrounded by a plastic scintillator anticoincidence shield built at KTH. The anticounter scintillators are used to aid in the rejection of background from particles not cleanly entering the acceptance of the tracker. Information from the anticounter system will be included as a veto in a second level trigger, to exclude the acquisition of events generated by false triggers.

An LED-based monitoring system has been developed for the anticounter system. The LEDs mimic the light signal produced in the scintillator by an ionising particle. This allows the functionality of the AC system to be verified in-orbit. The development and testing of the monitoring system are presented and comparisons have been made with independent radioactive source-based calibration methods. The anticounter system has also been extensively tested with cosmic rays and particle beams. Most of these tests have been performed with the anticounters integrated with the other PAMELA subdetectors in a flight-like configuration.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has reported the observation of 35 neutrino events above 30 TeV with evidence for an astrophysical neutrino flux using data collected from May 2010 to May 2013. These events provide the first high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux ever observed. The sources of these events are currently unknown. IceCube has looked for correlations between these events and a list of TeV photon sources including a catalog of 36 galactic sources and 42 extragalactic sources, correlations with the galactic plane and center, and spatial and temporal clustering. These searches have shown no significant correlations. The isotropic distribution of the event directions gives indications that the events could be extragalactic in nature and therefore may originate in the same processes that generate ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The sources of these UHECRs are still unknown; however, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as one possible source class. By determining the source of these high-energy neutrinos, it may be possible to determine the sources of UHECRs as well. This study is a search for directional and temporal correlation between 856 GRBs and the astrophysical neutrino flux observed by IceCube. Nearly 10,000 expanding time windows centered on the earliest reported time of the burst were examined. The time windows start at ±10 s and extend to ±15 days. We find no evidence of correlations for these time windows and set an upper limit on the fraction of the astrophysical flux that can be attributed to the observed GRBs as a function of the time window. GRBs can contribute at most 12% of the astrophysical neutrino flux if the neutrino-GRB correlation time is less than ≈20 hours, and no more than 38% of the astrophysical neutrino flux can be attributed to the known GRBs at time scales up to 15 days. We conclude that GRBs observable by satellites are not solely responsible for IceCube’s astrophysical neutrino flux, even if very long correlation time scales are assumed.

Thesis(Ph.D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2010
Title from PDF (viewed on 2009-12-30) Department of Physics Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references and appendices Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

The Standard Model of particle physics has enjoyed unprecedented success in predicting experimental results. However, evidence from astrophysical observations points to the existence of a dark sector of particles that interact only very weakly with the Standard Model. In this work, we search for dark sector signatures in X-ray telescope data. Much of this work concerns a class of hypothetical particles, the axion-like particle (ALP). ALPs are a theoretically well-motivated extension of the Standard Model. If ALPs exist, they may lead to intriguing astrophysical signatures: in the presence of a background magnetic field, ALPs and photons can interconvert. We could detect ALPs by searching for photon to ALP conversion. For example, photons produced by point sources in or behind galaxy clusters may convert to ALPs in the cluster's magnetic field. This could lead to observable spectral anomalies. Using this strategy, we place world leading bounds on the ALP-photon coupling. One potential signal of dark matter is an anomalous line in the spectra of galaxies and galaxy clusters. In 2014, an anomalous line was found at an energy of 3.5 keV. The nature and cause of this line is still under discussion. We analyse a scenario in which the 3.5 keV line arises from dark matter decay to ALPs, which interconvert with 3.5 keV photons in astrophysical magnetic fields. We further report an anomalous deficit at 3.5 keV in the spectrum of the Active Galactic Nucleus at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster. This motivates the study of a new model in which both features are caused by “fluorescent dark matter” which resonantly interacts with 3.5 keV photons. We analyse observations of Perseus at 3.5 keV to date, and show that they are well explained by this model. Further theoretical and experimental work is needed to discover or exclude fundamental physics effects in X-ray spectra.

This thesis studies the cosmology of ultra-light scalar fields with masses in the range 10⁻³³ eV ? m ? 10⁻¹⁸ eV and their effects on cosmology. The existence of such fields is motivated by the theoretical framework of the "String Axiverse". All types of string theory contain multiple axion fields associated with antisymmetric tensor fields compactified on closed cycles in the compact space. Since the masses of these fields scale exponentially with the volume of the cycle, it is possible for them to be naturally light. We study the effects of these fields as a component of the dark matter and show analytically and numerically that they cause a suppression of structure formation on cosmological scales set by the inverse mass. We show that it will be possible with future galaxy redshift and weak lensing surveys to detect an ultra- light field comprising of order a percent of the total dark matter. If such a field is allowed to couple to the geometry that provided its mass via a phenomenological scalar potential for the axion and modulus, then the expansion of the universe can be altered significantly. In particular, we find that it is possible to have multiple epochs of accelerated expansion over a large region of parameter space, and to have a flat universe with a big crunch in the distant future. Finally, we address the issue of isocurvature perturbations in axion cosmologies, and demonstrate that in the ultra-light case the power spectrum is effected. This may have implications for the conclusions made about fine tuning in the axiverse in relation to a potential detection of tensor modes in the CMB that are different to the case of a standard axion.

A dark matter (DM) search experiment was flown on the IMAX balloon payload, which tested the hypothesis that a minor component of the dark matter in the Galactic halo is composed of ionizing (dE/dx > 1 \ MeV/g/cm² or σ > 2 x 10⁻²⁰ cm²) supermassive particles (mₓ ∈ [10⁴,10¹²] GeV/c²) that cannot penetrate the atmosphere due to their low velocities (β ∈ [0.0003, 0.0025]). The DM search experiment consisted of a delayed coincidence between four ∼ 2400 cm² plastic scintillation detectors, with a total acceptance of ∼ 100 cm² sr. In order to search for ultra-slow particles which do not slow down in the IMAX telescope, the experiment contained TDCs which measured the time-delays T(i,i+1) ∈ [0.3, 14.0] μs between hits in successive counters ∼ 1% precision. Using the first 5 hours of data at float altitude (5 g/cm² residual atmosphere), we observed ∼ 5 candidate non-slowing dark matter events, consistent with the background from accidental coincidences of 4 events. This implies that the DM flux is less than 6.5 x 10⁻⁶cm⁻²s⁻¹sr⁻¹ (95% C.L.). Similar results were also obtained for particles which slow down in the counter telescope. This experiment effectively closes much of a previously unconstrained 'window' in the mass/cross-section joint parameter space for massive particles as the dominant halo DM, and implies that for certain regions of this parameter space massive particles cannot be more than one part in 10⁵ by mass of all the DM. These results can also directly constrain 'light' magnetic monopoles and neutraCHAMPs in a previously unconstrained mass region mₓ ∈ [10⁶,10⁹] GeV.

In this work we analyze various implications of the presence of large field vacum expectation values (VEVs) along supersymmetric flat directions during the early universe. First, we discuss supersymmetric leptogenesis and the gravitino bound. Supersym- metric thermal leptogenesis with a hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum normally requires the mass of the lightest right-handed neutrino to be heavier than about 109 GeV. This is in conflict with the upper bound on the reheating temperature which is found by imposing that the gravitinos generated during the reheating stage after inflation do not jeopardize successful nucleosynthesis. We show that a solution to this tension is actually already incorporated in the framework, because of the presence of flat directions in the supersymmetric scalar potential. Massive right- handed neutrinos are efficiently produced non-thermally and the observed baryon asymmetry can be explained even for a reheating temperature respecting the gravitino bound if two conditions are satisfied: the initial value of the flat direction must be close to Planckian values and the phase-dependent terms in the flat direction potential are either vanishing or sufficiently small. We then show that flat directions also contribute to the total curvature perturbation. Such perturbation is generated at the first oscillation of the flat direction condensate when the latter relaxes to the minimum of its potential after the end of inflation. If the contribution to the total curvature perturbation from supersymmetric flat direction is the dominant one, then a significant level of non-Gaussianity in the cosmological perturbation is also naturally expected. Finally, we argue that supersymmetric flat direction VEVs can decay non perturbatively via preheating even in the case where they undergo elliptic motion in the complex plane instead of radial motion through the origin. It has been generally argued that in this case adiabaticity is never violated and preheating is inefficient. Considering a toy U(1) gauge theory, we explicitly calculate the scalar potential, in the unitary gauge, for excitations around several flat directions. We show that the mass matrix for the excitations has non-diagonal entries which vary with the phase of the flat direction vacuum expectation value. Furthermore, this mass matrix has zero eigenvalues whose eigenstates change with time. We show that these light degrees of freedom are produced copiously in the non-perturbative decay of the flat direction VEV.

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is analysed as the weighted residual method. In particular the analysis focuses on the collocation aspect of the method. Using Monte Carlo experiments we demonstrate that SPH is highly sensitive to node disorder, especially in its symmetrised energy and momentum conserving form. This aspect of the method is related to low [Beta] MHD instabilities observed by other authors. A remedy in the form of the Weighted Differences Method is suggested, which addresses this problem to some extent, but at a cost of losing automatic conservation of energy and momentum. ¶ The Weighted Differences Method is used to simulate propagation of Alfven and magnetosonic wave fronts in [Beta] = 0 plasma, and the results are compared with data obtained with the NCSA Zeus3D code with the Method of Characteristics (MOC) module. ¶ SPH is then applied to two interesting astrophysical situations: accretion on to a white dwarf in a compact binary system, which results in a formation of an accretion disk, and gravitational collapse of a magnetised vortex. Both models are 3 dimensional. ¶ The accretion disk which forms in the binary star model is characterised by turbulent flow: the Karman vortex street is observed behind the stream-disk interaction region. The shock that forms at the point of stream-disk interaction is controlled by the means of particle merges, whereas Monaghan-Lattanzio artificial viscosity is used to simulate Smagorinsky closure. ¶ The evolution of the collapsing magnetised vortex ends up in the formation of an expanding ring in the symmetry plane of the system. We observe the presence of spiralling inward motion towards the centre of attraction. That final state compares favourably with the observed qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the circumnuclear disk in the Galactic Centre. That simulation has also been verified with the NCSA Zeus3D run. ¶ In conclusions we contrast the result of our Monte Carlo experiments with the results delivered by our production runs. We also compare SPH and Weighted Differences against the new generation of conservative finite differences methods, such as the Godunov method and the Piecewise Parabolic Method. We conclude that although SPH cannot match the accuracy and performance of those methods, it appears to have some advantage in simulation of rotating flows, which are of special interest to astrophysics.

Determining cosmological parameters from current observational data requires knowledge of the primordial density perturbations generated during inflation. We begin by examining a model of inflation along a flat direction of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and the power spectrum of perturbations it can produce. We consider the fine-tuning issues associated with this model and discuss a modification of the potential to include a hybrid transition that reduces the fine-tuning, without affecting the viability of the model. However, supersymmetric flat directions might play a role in other models of inflation as well. In particular, they may cause a feature in the primordial power spectrum of perturbations, unlike the scale-free spectrum assumed in the standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) cosmological model. We then show that in the presence of such a feature, an alternative cosmological model with a large local void and no dark energy provides a good fit to both Type Ia supernovae and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the WMAP satellite. Constraints from the locally measured Hubble parameter, baryon acoustic oscillations and primordial nucleosynthesis are also satisfied. This degeneracy motivates a search for other independent observational tests of LCDM. The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) imprint of large-scale structure on the CMB is one such test. The ISW imprint of superstructures of size ~100 Mpc/h at redshift z~0.5 has been detected with >4 sigma significance, however it has been noted that the signal is much larger than expected. We revisit the calculation using linear theory predictions in a LCDM cosmology and find the theoretical prediction is inconsistent by >3 sigma with the observation. If the observed signal is indeed due to the ISW effect then huge, extremely underdense voids are far more common in the observed universe than predicted by LCDM.

The identification of the relic particles which presumably constitute cold dark matter is a key challenge for astroparticle physics. Indirect methods for their detection using high energy astro- physical probes such as cosmic rays have been much discussed. In particular, recent ‘excesses’ in cosmic ray electron and positron fluxes, as well as in microwave sky maps, have been claimed to be due to the annihilation or decay of dark matter. In this thesis, we argue however that these signals are plagued by irreducible astrophysical backgrounds and show how plausible con- ventional physics can mimic the alleged dark matter signals. In chapter 1, we review evidence of, and possible particle candidates for, cold dark matter, as well as our current understanding of galactic cosmic rays and the state-of-the-art in indirect detection. All other chapters contain original work, mainly based on the author’s journal publications. In particular, in chapter 2, we consider the possibility that the rise in the positron fraction observed by the PAMELA satellite is due to the production through (hadronic) cosmic ray spallation and subsequent acceleration of positrons, in the same sources as the primary cosmic rays. We present a new (unpublished) analytical estimate of the range of possible fluctuations in the high energy electron flux due to the discreteness of plausible cosmic ray sources such as supernova remnants. Fitting our result for the total electron-positron flux measured by the Fermi satellite allows us to fix the only free parameter of the model and make an independent prediction for the positron fraction. Our explanation relies on a large number of supernova remnants nearby which are accelerating hadronic cosmic rays. Turning the argument around, we find encouraging prospects for the observation of neutrinos from such sources in km^3-scale detectors such as IceCube. Chapter 3 presents a test of this model by considering similar effects expected for nuclear secondary-to-primary ratios such as B/C. A rise predicted above O(100)GeV/n would be an unique confirmation of our explanation for a rising positron fraction and rule out the dark matter explanation. In chapter 4, we review the assumptions made in the extraction of the `WMAP haze' which has also been claimed to be due to electrons and positrons from dark matter annihilation in the Galactic centre region. We argue that the energy-dependence of their diffusion means that the extraction of the haze through fitting to templates of low frequency diffuse galactic radio emission is unreliable. The systematic effects introduced by this can, under specific circumstances, reproduce the residual, suggesting that the ‘haze’ may be just an artefact of the template subtraction. We present a summary and thoughts about further work in the epilogue.

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment has recently placed the most stringent limit for the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section. The WIMP search limit was aided by an internal tritium source resulting in an unprecedented calibration and understanding of the electronic recoil background. Here we discuss corrections to the signals in LUX, the energy scale calibration and present the methodology for extracting fundamental properties of electron recoils in liquid xenon. The tritium calibration is used to measure the ionization and scintillation yield of xenon down to 1 keV, the results is compared to other experiments. Recombination probability and its fluctuation is measured from 1 to 1000 keV, using betas from tritium and Compton scatters from an external ¹³⁷Cs source. Finally, the tritium source is described and the most recent results for ER discrimination in LUX is presented.

La première partie de cette thèse est motivèe par un problème important soulevé par la théorie linéaire des ondes de densité, Celle-ci prévoit en effet un transfert de moment cinétique entre une onde et le satellite qui l'excite.Ce transfert devrait créer l'effondrement des anneaux sur la planète, en particulier de l'anneau A, et l'éloignement des satellites en des temps caractéristiques très courts devant l'âge du système solaire , ce qui contredit l'hypothèse de l'origine primordiale des anneaux, qui semblait a priori la plus simple pour expliquer leur existence, Plusieurs hypothèses ont été avancées pour résoudre cette question: soit bien sür les anneaux sont jeunes, soit le calcul du transfert de moment cinétique par la théorie linéaire est largement surestimé, soit encore la physique qui permet la survivance des anneaux n'est pas comprise. Le but de mon travail est de tester la deuxième hypothèse, en utilisant une représentation non-linéaire des ondes de densité, Dans un premier temps, j'expliquerai les bases du formalisme non-linéaire utilisé, qui a été développé par Borderies, Goldreich et Tremaine et appliqué par ce groupe à une grande variété de problèmes de dynamique des anneaux de planètes. Je présenterai également un travail théorique formulant ce formalisme dans le cas où le corps central ne possède pas la symétrie sphérique. J'expliquerai ensuite comment je l'ai utilisé dans l'étude d'un des profils d'onde enregistré par Voyager, et je montrerai les implications de cette étude sur notre connaissance des caractéristiques physiques des anneaux et de leur dynamique. La seconde partie de cette thèse se rattache au premier des axes de recherche mentionné ci-dessus. Les études statistiques des anneaux portent en quasi-totalité sur la détermination de la dispersion de vitesse des particules, qui dans la plupart des cas sont supposées toutes identiques. A l'inverse, je me suis intéressé à un problème encore peu étudié: la distribution en taille des particules dans les anneaux. J'exposerai un modèle analytique que j'ai développé en vue d'expliquer les caractéristiques de la distribution dans les anneaux de Saturne, qui a pu être déterminée à l'aide des données de l'expérience d'occultation radio des anneaux réalisée par Voyager. L'un des buts d'une telle étude est d'entreprendre un premier pas dans l'élaboration d'une théorie statistique des anneaux plus complète que celles dont on dispose actuellement (en vue par exemple, d'une détermination couplée de la dispersion de vitesse et de la distribution en taille des particules) .

The centre of the Milky Way, commonly referred to as the Galactic Centre, is roughly that region within 500 pc of the central black hole, Sagittarius A*. Within the innermost parsec around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* are more than a hundred massive young stars whose orbits align to form one or possibly two discs. At about 100 pc is a ring containing more than ten million solar masses of molecular gas which could be the origin of some of the most massive star clusters in the Galaxy. I have performed a number of numerical simulations to help us understand how it is that these structures may have been formed. I firstly describe and test an improvement to the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code I used. This improves conservation of energy and momentum in certain situations such as in strong shocks from supernovae, which were to be included in a later chapter. The discs of massive stars around Sagittarius A* are believed to have been born there within fragmenting gaseous discs. This is problematic, as the formation of two stellar discs would require two gaseous counterparts. A method is described of forming multiple discs around a black hole from a single cloud's infall and subsequent tidal destruction. This is due to its prolate shape providing a naturally large distribution in the direction of the angular momentum vectors within the cloud. The resulting discs may then go on to form stars. Energetically, it would appear that a sequence of supernovae could potentially cause a giant molecular cloud to fall inwards towards the central black hole from an originally large orbit around the Galactic Centre. I simulate the impact on a giant molecular cloud of supernovae originating from a massive stellar cluster located a parsec away. Ultimately, the supernovae are found to have little effect. Finally, I simulate the formation of the dense ring of clouds observed in the Central Molec- ular Zone at a distance of about 100 pc from Sgr A*. Infalling gas is shown to be subject to such extreme tidal forces that a single cloud of gas is extended to form a long stream. The ribbon grows to the point that it self-intersects and forms a ring-like structure. Its complexity depends on the orbit of the original cloud. The position-velocity data is compared with observations, and similarities are noted.

This Thesis studies some aspects of string compactifications with particular em- phasis on moduli stabilisation and cosmology. In Chapter 1 I motivate the study of string compactifications as a way to build on the successes of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and of the theory of General Relativity. Chapter 2 constitutes an overview of the technical background necessary for the study of flux compactifications. I sketch how the desire to obtain a supersymmet- ric theory in four dimensions constrains us to consider compactifications of the ten dimensional theory in six dimensional Calabi-Yau orientifolds. I argue that it is strictly necessary to stabilise the geometry of this compact space in order to have a phenomenologically viable four dimensional theory. I introduce the large volume scenario of type IIB compactifications that successfully incorporates fluxes and sub- leading corrections to yield a four dimensional theory with broken supersymmetry and all geometrical moduli stabilised. The next four Chapters are devoted to the study of some phenomenological aspects of moduli stabilisation and constitute the original work developed for this Thesis. In Chapter 3 I investigate the consequences of field redefinitions in the stabilisation of moduli and supersymmetry breaking, finding that redefinitions of the small blow- up moduli do not significantly alter the standard picture of moduli stabilisation in the large volume scenario and that the soft supersymmetry breaking terms are generated at the scale of the gravitino mass. Chapter 4 deals with the putative destabilisation of the volume modulus by very dense objects. The analysis of the moduli potential shows that even the densest astrophysical objects cannot destabilise the moduli, and that destabilisation is only achievable in the context of black hole formation and cosmological singularities. In Chapter 5 I present a model of inflation within the large volume scenario. The inflaton is identified with a geometric modulus, the fibre modulus, and its potential generated by poly-instanton effects. The model is shown to be robust and consistent with current observational constraints. In Chapter 6 I introduce a model of quintessence, where the quintessence field and its potential share the same origin with the inflationary model of the previous Chapter. This model constitutes a stringy realisation of supersymmetric large extra dimensions, where supersymmetry, the low gravity scale and the scale of dark energy are intrinsically connected. I conclude in Chapter 7 outlining the direction of future research.