Browsing by master's degree program "Magisterprogrammet i elementarpartikelfysik och astrofysikaliska vetenskaper"

We study how higher-order gravity affects Higgs inflation in the Palatini formulation. We first review the metric and Palatini formulations in comparative manner and discuss their differences. Next cosmic inflation driven by a scalar field and inflationary observables are discussed. After this we review the Higgs inflation and compute the inflationary observables both in the metric and Palatini formulations. We then consider adding higher-order terms of the curvature to the action. We derive the equations of motion for the most general action quadratic in the curvature that does not violate parity in both the metric and Palatini formulations. Finally we present a new result. We analyse Higgs inflation in the Palatini formulation with higher-order curvature terms. We consider a simplified scenario where only terms constructed from the symmetric part of the Ricci tensor are added to the action. This implies that there are no new gravitational degrees of freedom, which makes the analysis easier. As a new result we found out that the scalar perturbation spectrum is unchanged, but the tensor perturbation spectrum is suppressed by the higher-order curvature couplings.

The nature of dark matter (DM) is one of the outstanding problems of modern physics. The existence of dark matter implies physics beyond the Standard Model (SM), as the SM doesn’t contain any viable DM candidates. Dark matter manifests itself through various cosmological and astrophysical observations of the rotational speeds of galaxies, structure formation, measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters. An attractive explanation of the observed dark matter density is provided by the WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) paradigm. In the following thesis I explore this idea within the well motivated Higgs portal framework. In particular, I explore three options for dark matter composition: a scalar field and U(1) and SU(2) hidden gauge Fields. I find that the WIMP paradigm is still consistent with the data. Even though it finds itself under pressure from direct detection experiments, it is not yet in crisis. Simple and well motivated WIMP models can fit the observed DM density without violating the collider and direct DM detection constraints.

One of the most noticeable effects of solar–terrestrial physics is the aurora which regularly appears in the polar regions. This polar light is the result of the excitation of atmospheric species by charged particles originating from the solar wind and magnetosphere that enter the Earth’s atmosphere, which are called precipitating particles. We present the first results on auroral proton precipitation into the ionosphere using a global 3-dimensional simulation of near-Earth space plasma with the Vlasiator hybrid-Vlasov model, driven with a southward interplanetary magnetic field and steady solar wind parameters. The hybrid-Vlasov approach describes ions through their velocity distribution function in phase space (3-dimensional ordinary space and 3-dimensional velocity space), while electrons are represented by a massless charge-neutralizing fluid. Vlasiator is a global model describing the whole region of near-Earth space including the Earth’s magnetosphere (whole dayside and part of the magnetotail), the magnetosheath, as well as the foreshock region and some solar wind. The precipitating proton differential number fluxes for this run are determined from the proton phase-space density contained within the bounce loss-cone, which is set at a constant angle of 10 degrees everywhere. To determine the precipitation of particles at ionospheric altitudes (in this case a height of 110 km above the Earth’s surface), we trace magnetic field lines from the ionosphere to the inner boundary of the Vlasiator domain using the Tsyganenko model. With this, we obtain a magnetic local time–geomagnetic latitude map of differential number flux of precipitating protons in 9 energy bins between 0.5 and 50 keV. From the differential number flux, proton integral energy fluxes and mean energies can be obtained. The integral energy fluxes in the Vlasiator run are then compared to data of the Precipitation Electron/Proton Spectrometer (SSJ) instrument of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) for several satellite overpasses during events with similar solar wind conditions as in the Vlasiator run. The SSJ instrument bins proton energies between 0.03 and 30 keV. Typical values of the total integral energy flux are between 5 · 10^6 and 5 · 10^7 keV cm−2 s−1 sr−1 in the cusp and between 1 · 10^6 and 3 · 10^7 keV cm−2 s−1 sr−1 in the evening sector for both Vlasiator and DMSP, although DMSP fluxes can locally be up to an order of magnitude higher. Additionally, global precipitation patterns in Vlasiator are compared to Ovation Prime, which is an empirical model based on data from DMSP which can be used to forecast precipitation of auroral electrons and protons. Although Ovation Prime shows a much wider cusp region compared to Vlasiator, both show similar maximum integral energy fluxes around 1 to 2 · 10^7 keV cm−2 s−1 sr−1 in the cusp region, and between 3 · 10^6 and 5 · 10^7 keV cm−2 s−1 sr−1 in the nightside oval.

Color confinement, the inability for free quarks to exist at normal temperatures and densities, is one of the most important properties of Quantum Chromodynamics, the quantum field theory (QFT) of the strong interaction. A simple representation of confinement can be obtained by considering a static (i.e. infinitely massive) quark-antiquark pair. The potential of the pair contains a term linear with respect to the separation. Therefore, separating the pair would require infinite energy meaning that the quarks are confined. The static potential can be related to the expectation value of a QFT operator called the Wilson loop. In the non-perturbative large coupling regime lattice field theory can be applied to estimate expectation values of observables. The idea of lattice field theory is to replace continuous spacetime with a lattice, where the fields are defined on the sites and links. The discretization of spacetime allows evaluating path integrals numerically using Monte Carlo methods. An alternate way of computing the Wilson loop expectation value is provided by holographic duality. It is an equivalence between a QFT in four-dimensional flat spacetime and a higher-dimensional theory of gravity in curved spacetime. The duality allows evaluation of hard, non-perturbative QFT calculations with easy classical computations on the gravity side. From the lattice data of the static potential, we can construct a holographic model that could produce those results in a process called bulk reconstruction. The constructed holographic model can then be used to compute other QFT quantities such as entanglement entropy. These quantities allow us to study confinement among other things. In this thesis, lattice field theory measurements of the static potential at different temperatures are presented. Then using a machine learning method, the corresponding holographic metrics are constructed from the lattice results. The lattice simulations have been done as a learning exercise and for the bulk reconstruction method, this thesis is a proof of concept, where no further computations are done using the constructed metrics. The lattice results are in good agreement with previous ones and the bulk reconstruction method seems to work as intended. In future works the method should be applied to a bigger dataset and other quantities should be computed with the constructed metrics.

In high energy physics the microscopic nature of our universe is studied. A common experimental way is to collide particles such as protons with almost the speed of light and study the fragments that fly away from the interaction point. The results are compared to existing theories and help to modify or create knowledge of our universe. However, our senses are not capable of directly measuring those tiny and fast fragments from the collisions. Therefore, we need dedicated devices called particle detectors. Several types of radiation detectors are known to us. Most of those utilize the fact that particles in such experiments are ionizing when traversing matter. The detectors we are interested in contain gas as the main interacting material for the ionizing radiation, called gaseous detectors. One of these is the Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM), which uses electric fields to make electrons drift through the holes of one or several foils producing a signal that can be detected. Gain and ion backflow are two properties that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the detector. The effect of the hole diameters of the foil on the gain and on the ion backflow is insufficiently known, however. In this thesis such measurements have been performed. For this purpose a GEM detector operating in proportional region was constructed. The detector contained a special foil with four quadrants in such a way that the diameters of the holes were different in each quadrant. The functionality of the detector was verified by measuring the leakage current, by using a multichannel analyzer, and by calculating the sum of all currents. The detector constructed passed all the tests. The diameters of the holes in the foil quadrants were estimated by calculating the amount of pixels from the foil image taken. The outer hole diameters were around 50 µm and inner hole diameters 40 µm in the quadrant with smallest holes. The corresponding diameters in the quadrant with largest holes were around 70 µm and 66 µm. The measurements were started by searching the proper values for the drift and the induction fields and for the GEM voltage range. A drift field of 2 kV/cm, an induction field of 7 kV/cm, and a voltage range from 400 V to 500 V were chosen. The results from the actual measurements were similar on both sides of the foil. The effective gain increased steadily along with the voltage being around 10-fold at 500 V compared to that at 400 V . The ion backflow, on the other hand, stayed constant or even slightly decreased. The results measured from the four quadrants differed clearly from each other. In the quadrant with the smallest holes the effective gain was about twice as high as in the quadrant with the largest holes. Respectively the ion backflow was about 30 % higher in the quadrant with small holes than in the quadrant with large holes.

Matter-antimatter asymmetry is one of the problems that the Standard Model of particle physics faces. All the processes and interactions described by it cannot explain why in the universe the density of matter is greater than the density of antimatter. Baryogenesis is the name given to the mechanisms that can explain this asymmetry. The necessary conditions for a process to generate the asymmetry are the Sakharov conditions. The process must violate the baryon number conservation, must violate charge and charge-parity symmetries (C and CP violation) and must happen out of equilibrium which is related with the charge-parity-time (CPT) violation. Possible processes that can violate the baryon number are proton decay and neutron oscillations. None of them have been observed experimentally. In some theories that allow proton decay, the half-life is some orders of magnitude greater than the age of the universe which implies that high energy scales are needed for testing this decay. However, neutron oscillations have less restrictive bounds. Two options for these oscillations are the neutron-antineutron oscillations and the neutron-mirror neutron oscillations. In the first one, a neutron transforms into an antineutron over time, while in the second one, a neutron transforms into a sterile neutron (only interacts with our universe through gravity). The focus of this work will be neutron oscillations. Some experiments have helped to set bounds on the neutron-antineutron oscillation period and nowadays more advanced experiments based on the improvements of technology are being developed. These new experiments will be able to set new bounds or discover physics beyond the Standard Model. In the theoretical frame, some modifications can be implemented into the Dirac Lagrangian that produce a baryon number violation of two units; this corresponds to a neutron-antineutron oscillation. Once the Lagrangian is formulated the properties of the oscillations are studied. In particular, the probability of the oscillation and the symmetry properties of both the Lagrangian and the oscillation can be computed to check if the Sakharov conditions are satisfied. To do this diagonalization techniques, chiral notation and the charge and charge-parity conjugation operators will be used. The discovering of a process that violates baryon number conservation would be very important for the Standard Model. It could imply the existence of new physics and it could potentially solve matter- antimatter asymmetry.

Correlation functions in a superconformal field theory are strictly constrained by conformal symmetry. Notably, one-point functions of conformal operators always vanish. However, when a defect is inserted into the spacetime of the field theory, certain one-point functions become non-zero due to the broken conformal symmetry, highlighting the special properties of the defect. One interesting type of defect is the domain wall, which separates spacetime into two regions with distinct vacua. The domain wall version of $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory has been extensively studied in recent years. In this context, the supersymmetric domain wall preserves integrability, allowing one to evaluate one-point functions in the defect field theory using integrability techniques. As an analogous study of the domain wall version of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory, this thesis focuses on the ABJM theory with a 1/2-BPS domain wall, meaning that the domain wall preserves half the original supersymmetry. We first review integrability methods, e.g. the Coordinate Bethe ansatz and the Algebraic Bethe ansatz for $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ Heisenberg spin chain. The spectrum of the spin chain can be determined by solving sets of the Bethe equations. Moreover, the Rational $Q$-system is examined, which solves the Bethe equations efficiently and eliminates all nonphysical solutions automatically. On the field theory side, we first review the original ABJM theory and its spectral integrability following J. A. Minahan's work in 2009. There exists an underlying quantum $\mathfrak{su}(4)$ spin chain with alternating even and odd sites, whose Hamiltonian can be identified with the two-loop dilation operator of ABJM theory in the planar limit. This correspondence allows us to find the spectrum of ABJM theory using the Bethe ansatz. We study the $\mathfrak{su}(4)$ alternating spin chain and demonstrate the procedure for constructing eigenstates of ABJM theory. Finally, we study the tree-level one-point functions in the domain wall version of ABJM theory. We derive the classical solutions for the scalar fields that describe a domain wall and explicitly demonstrate how the domain wall preserves half of the supersymmetry. With these classical solutions, we define a domain wall version of ABJM theory. Then, we introduce the so-called Matrix Product State, which is a boundary state in the spin chain's Hilbert space. The domain wall can be identified with an integrable matrix product state, leading to a compact determinant formula for the one-point functions in spin chain language. Consequently, we can evaluate one-point functions explicitly using the Bethe ansatz and boundary integrability.

The Standard model of particle physics has been very successful in describing particles and their interactions. In 2012 the last missing piece, the Higgs boson, was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. However even for all its success the Standard model fails to explain some phenomena of nature. Two of these unexplained phenomena are dark matter and the metastability of the electroweak vacuum. In this thesis we study one of the simplest extensions of the Standard model; the complex singlet scalar extension. In this framework the CP-even component of the singlet mixes with the Standard model like Higgs boson through the portal operator to form new mass eigenstates. The CP-odd component is a pseudo-Goldstone boson which could be a viable dark matter candidate. We analyse parameter space of the model with respect to constraints from particle physics experiments and cosmological observations. The time evolution of dark matter number density is derived to study the process of dark matter freeze-out. The relic density of the Dark Matter candidate is then calculated with the micrOmegas tool. These calculations are then compared to the measured values of dark matter relic density. Moreover, the electroweak vacuum can be stabilised due the contribution of the singlet scalar to the Standard Model Higgs potential. We derive the β-functions of the couplings in order to study the renormalisation group evolution of the parameters of the model. With the contribution of the portal coupling to the β-function of the Higgs coupling we are able to stabilise the electroweak vacuum up to the Planck scale. The two-loop β-functions are calculated using the SARAH tool.

Semiconductor radiation detectors are devices used to detect electromagnetic and particle radiation. The signal formation is based on the transportation of charges between the valence band and conduction band. The interaction between the detector material and the radiation generates free electrons and holes that move in opposite directions in the electric field applied between the electrodes. The movement of charges induces a current in the external electrical circuit, which can be used for particle identification, measurement of energy or momentum, timing, or tracking. There are several different detector materials and designs and, new options are continuously developed. Diamond is a detector material that has received a great amount of interest in many fields. This is due to its many unique properties. Many of them arise from the diamond crystal structure and the strength of the bond between the carbon atoms. The tight and rigid structure makes diamond a strong and durable material, which allows operation of diamond detectors in harsh radiation environments. This, combined with the fast signal formation and short response time makes diamond detector an excellent choice for high energy physics applications. The diamond structure leads also to a wide band gap. Thanks to the wide band bap, diamond detectors have low leakage current and they can be operated even in high temperatures without protection from surrounding light. Especially electrical properties of semiconductors strongly depend on the concentration of impurities and crystal defects. Determination of electrical properties can therefore be used to study the crystal quality of the material. The electrical properties of the material determine the safe operational region of the device and knowledge of the leakage current and the charge carrier transportation mechanism are required for optimized operation of detectors. Characterization of electrical properties is therefore an important part of semiconductor device fabrication. Electrical characterization should be done at different stages of the fabrication in order to detect problems at an early stage and to get an idea of what could have caused them. This work describes the quality assurance process of single crystal CVD (chemical vapour deposition) diamond detectors for the PPS-detectors for the CMS-experiment. The quality assurance process includes visual inspection of the diamond surfaces and dimensions by optical and cross polarized light microscopy, and electrical characterization by measurement of leakage current and CCE (charge collection efficiency). The CCE measurement setup was improved with a stage controller, which allows automatic measurement of CCE in several positions on the diamond detector. The operation of the new setup and the reproducibility of the results were studied by repeated measurements of a reference diamond. The setup could successfully be used to measure CCE over the whole diamond surface. However, the measurement uncertainty is quite large. Further work is needed to reduce the measurement uncertainty and to determine the correlation between observed defects and the measured electrical properties.

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are one of the most powerful sources of the luminous Universe. Radio-loud AGN exhibit prominent relativistic outflows known as jets, whose synchrotron radiation can be detected in the radio domain. The launching, evolution and variable nature of these sources is still not fully understood. We study 3C 84, because its proximity, brightness and the intermittent nature of its jet makes it a good target to investigate these open questions of the AGN phenomena. 3C 84 (optical counterpart: NGC 1275) is a Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxy, located in the Perseus cluster at z = 0.0176. Due to its close proximity, 3C 84 has been a favourable target for observations throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum, especially for ones in the radio domain. Its most recent activity started 2003, when a new component emerged from the core in the form of a restarted parsec-scale jet. This provided a rare opportunity to study the formation and evolution of a jet (see Nagai et al. 2010, 2014, 2017 and Suzuki et al. 2012). The highest resolution results were obtained by Giovannini et al. (2018), who imaged the source with the Global VLBI Network together with the Space Radio Telescope, RadioAstron. This enabled them to capture the limb-brightened structure of the restarted jet and measure its collimation profile from ~350 gravitational radii. In this work I present the 22 GHz RadioAstron observations carried out 3 years later, in a similar configuration, but with a significantly different sampling of the space baselines than the ones presented in Giovannini et al. (2018). The calibration was carried out in the Astronomical Image Processing System (AIPS), whereas imaging was done in Difmap (Shepherd 1997). The aim of this thesis work was to obtain a high-resolution image of the source, measure the collimation profile of the restarted jet, and compare the results with those of Giovannini et al. (2018) and verify the observed source structures and measured jet properties, if possible. Comparing the images of the two epochs (angular resolution of the 2016 observations is 0.217x0.072 mas at Pa=-49.6°), they both show a similar structure, with the radio core, a diffuse emission region (C2), and the hotspot (C3) at the end of the restarted jet. Edge-brightening is confirmed in the jet and the counter-jet. However, the jet has advanced ~1 mas, corresponding to the velocity of 0.55c. C3 has moved from the center of the feature to the jet head, indicating an interaction between the jet and the clumpy external medium (Kino et al. , 2018 and Nagai et al., 2017). The base of the jet has also changed between the observation, approximately by ~20°. In the light that in the 1990s the jet pointed towards C2, then swinged westwards when the jet emerged (Suzuki et al., 2012 and Giovannini et al., 2018), and on the 2016 image has moved towards its initial position. This suggest a precessing jet, observed and modeled by Dominik et al. (2021) and Britzen et al. (2019). Measuring the brightness temperature of the core and the hotspot shows a signifacant drop of 70% and 50% since the 2013 measurements, respectively, due to emission of jet material and the expansion of the jet. Jet width measurements between 1200 and 19000 gravitational radii reveal a less cylindrical collimation profile, with r ~ z0.31 – where z is the de-projected distance from the core and r is the width of the jet. The evolution of the restarted jet’s profile from quasi-cylindrical (Giovannini et al. 2018) to less cylindrical implies that the cocoon surrounding the jet (Savolainen, 2018) cannot confine the jet material as it moves further from the core. The measured collimation profile corresponds to a slowly decreasing density, and more steeply decreasing pressure gradient in the external medium. Since the closest jet width measurement is only at 1200 gravitational radii from the core (here the jet width is 750 gravitational radii), it cannot confirm the wide jet base measured by Giovannini et al. (2018) at 350 gravitational radii. Based on this result, we arrive at the same conclusion as Giovannini et al. (2018), that the jet is either launched from the accretion disk, or it is ergosphere-launched, but undergoes a quick lateral expansion below 1000 gravitational radii.