Selim C. Hotinli, James B. Mertens, Matthew C. Johnson, Marc Kamionkowski

Compensated isocurvature perturbations (CIPs) are modulations of the relative baryon and dark matter density that leave the total matter density constant. The best current constraints from the primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) are consistent with CIPs some two orders of magnitude larger in amplitude than adiabatic perturbations, suggesting that there may be a huge gap in our knowledge of the early Universe. However, it was recently suggested by Barreira~et.~al. that CIPs which are correlated with the primordial curvature perturbation, as arises in some versions of the curvaton model, lead to a new observable: scale dependent galaxy bias. Combining a galaxy survey with an unbiased tracer of the density field facilitates a measurement of the amplitude of correlated CIPs that is free from cosmic variance, the main limitation on constraints from the primary CMB. Among the most promising tracers to use for this purpose is the remote dipole field, reconstructed using the technique of kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (kSZ) tomography. In this paper, we evaluate the detection significance on the amplitude of correlated CIPs possible with next-generation CMB and galaxy surveys using kSZ tomography. Our analysis includes all relativistic contributions to the observed galaxy number counts and allows for both CIPs and primordial non-Gaussianity, which also gives rise to a scale dependent galaxy bias. We find that kSZ tomography can probe CIPs of comparable amplitude to the adiabatic fluctuations, representing an improvement of over two orders of magnitude upon current constraints, and an order of magnitude over what will be possible using future CMB or galaxy surveys alone.

Vicente Atal, Judith Cid, Albert Escrivà, Jaume Garriga

Primordial black holes (PBHs) may result from high peaks in a random field of cosmological perturbations. In single field inflationary models, such perturbations can be seeded as the inflaton overshoots a small barrier on its way down the potential. PBHs are then produced through two distinct mechanisms, during the radiation era. The first one is the familiar collapse of large adiabatic overdensities. The second one is the collapse induced by relic bubbles where the inflaton field is trapped in a false vacuum, due to large backward fluctuations which prevented horizon sized regions from overshooting the barrier. We consider (numerically and analytically) the effect of non-Gaussianities on the threshold for overdensities to collapse into a PBH. Since typical high peaks have some dispersion in their shape or profile, we also consider the effect of such dispersion on the corresponding threshold for collapse. With these results we estimate the most likely channel for PBH production as a function of the non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{\rm NL}$. We also compare the threshold for collapse coming from the perturbative versus the non perturbative template for the non-Gaussianity arising in this model. We show that i) for $f_{\rm NL}\gtrsim 3.5$, the population of PBH coming from false vacuum regions dominates over that which comes from the collapse of large adiabatic overdensities, ii) the non-perturbative template of the non-Gaussianities is important to get accurate results. iii) the effect of the dispersion is small in determining the threshold for the compaction function, although it is appreciable in determining the threshold amplitude for the curvature perturbation at low $f_{\rm NL}$. We also confirm that the volume averaged compaction function provides a very accurate universal estimator for the threshold.

Ahmed Almheiri, Raghu Mahajan, Juan Maldacena, Ying Zhao

We consider a gravity theory coupled to matter, where the matter has a higher-dimensional holographic dual. In such a theory, finding quantum extremal surfaces becomes equivalent to finding the RT/HRT surfaces in the higher-dimensional theory. Using this we compute the entropy of Hawking radiation and argue that it follows the Page curve, as suggested by recent computations of the entropy and entanglement wedges for old black holes. The higher-dimensional geometry connects the radiation to the black hole interior in the spirit of ER=EPR. The black hole interior then becomes part of the entanglement wedge of the radiation. Inspired by this, we propose a new rule for computing the entropy of quantum systems entangled with gravitational systems which involves searching for "islands" in determining the entanglement wedge.

Yilber Fabian Bautista, Alfredo Guevara

We explore various tree-level double copy constructions for amplitudes including massive particles with spin. By working in general dimensions, we use that particles with spins $s\leq 2$ are fundamental to argue that the corresponding double copy relations partially follow from compactification of their massless counterparts. This massless origin fixes the coupling of gluons, dilatons and axions to matter in a characteristic way (for instance fixing the gyromagnetic ratio), whereas the graviton couples universally reflecting the equivalence principle. For spin-1 matter we conjecture all-order Lagrangians reproducing the interactions with up to two massive lines and we test them in a classical setup, where the massive lines represent spinning compact objects such as black holes. We also test the amplitudes via CHY formulae for both bosonic and fermionic integrands. At five points, we show that by applying generalized gauge transformations one can obtain a smooth transition from quantum to classical BCJ double copy relations for radiation, thereby providing a QFT derivation for the latter. As an application, we show how the theory arising in the classical double copy of Goldberger and Ridgway can be naturally identified with a certain compactification of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Supergravity.

Ermis Mitsou, Jaiyul Yoo

The standard description of cosmological observables is incomplete, because it does not take into account the correct angular parametrization of the sky, i.e. the one determined by the observer frame. This can be accomplished by introducing a tetrad at the observer point representing that frame. In this paper we consider the tetrad formalism of General Relativity and develop a new formalism for describing cosmological observables. It is based on the "observer space-time" manifold, whose coordinates are the proper time, redshift and angles an observer uses to parametrize measurements, and on which the rest of the observables are defined. This manifold does not have to be diffeomorphic to the true space-time and allows us to resolve caustics in the latter, in contrast with similar coordinate-based formalisms. We work out the definitions and equations for the angular diameter distance, weak lensing and number count observables. As for the ones associated to the CMB, they lie inside the phase space matrix distribution of the photon fluid evaluated at the observer point and pulled back on the observer sky. The second part of this paper is devoted to general-relativistic matrix kinetic theory. Here too the tetrad formalism appears as the natural approach for relating the macroscopic dynamics to the microscopic QFT. Part of the presented material is known and is included for completeness, but we provide more detailed discussions over some subtle issues and we also consider an alternative construction of the collision term which deviates from the standard one at higher order in the loop corrections. In summary, the present paper contains all the required structures for computations in cosmology with exact and model-independent cosmological observables. The associated linear perturbation theory will be given in a companion paper.

David E. Kaplan, Surjeet Rajendran, Paul Riggins

We demonstrate that rotational superradiance can be efficient in millisecond pulsars. Measurements from the two fastest known pulsars PSR J1748-2446ad and PSR B1937+21 can place bounds on bosons with masses below 10^{-11} eV. The bounds are maximally good at masses corresponding to the rotation rate of the star, where scalar interactions that mediate forces ~ 10^6 times weaker than gravity are ruled out, exceeding existing fifth force constraints by 3 orders of magnitude. For certain neutron star equations of state, these measurements would also constrain the QCD axion with masses between 5 10^{-13} and 3 10^{-12} eV. Despite the ability of most neutron star equations of state to support frequencies as high as ~ 1500 Hz, the observed absence of pulsars above ~ 700 Hz could be due to the existence of a new particle of mass ~ 10^{-11} eV with a Yukawa coupling to nucleons.