Arushi Gupta, José Manuel Zorrilla Matilla, Daniel Hsu, Zontán Haiman

Weak lensing maps contain information beyond two-point statistics on small scales. Much recent work has tried to extract this information through a range of different observables or via nonlinear transformations of the lensing field. Here we train and apply a 2D convolutional neural network to simulated noiseless lensing maps covering 96 different cosmological models over a range of {$\Omega_m,\sigma_8$}. Using the area of the confidence contour in the {$\Omega_m,\sigma_8$} plane as a figure-of-merit, derived from simulated convergence maps smoothed on a scale of 1.0 arcmin, we show that the neural network yields $\approx 5 \times$ tighter constraints than the power spectrum, and $\approx 4 \times$ tighter than the lensing peaks. Such gains illustrate the extent to which weak lensing data encode cosmological information not accessible to the power spectrum or even non-Gaussian statistics such as lensing peaks.

Benjamin Bose, Kazuya Koyama, Matthew Lewandowski, Filippo Vernizzi, Hans A. Winther

We compare analytical computations with numerical simulations for dark-matter clustering, in general relativity and in the normal branch of DGP gravity (nDGP). Our analytical frameword is the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure (EFTofLSS), which we use to compute the one-loop dark-matter power spectrum, including the resummation of infrared bulk displacement effects. We compare this to a set of 20 COLA simulations at redshifts $z = 0$, $z=0.5$, and $z =1$, and fit the free parameter of the EFTofLSS, called the speed of sound, in both $\Lambda$CDM and nDGP at each redshift. At one-loop at $z = 0$, the reach of the EFTofLSS is $k_{\rm reach}\approx 0.14 \, h { \rm Mpc^{-1}}$ for both $\Lambda$CDM and nDGP. Along the way, we compare two different infrared resummation schemes and two different treatments of the time dependence of the perturbative expansion, concluding that they agree to approximately $1\%$ over the scales of interest. Finally, we use the ratio of the COLA power spectra to make a precision measurement of the difference between the speeds of sound in $\Lambda$CDM and nDGP, and verify that this is proportional to the modification of the linear coupling constant of the Poisson equation.

Chen Heinrich, Wayne Hu

We study the relationship between signatures of high redshift ionization in large-angle CMB polarization power spectra and features in the Planck 2015 data. Using a principal component (PC) ionization basis that is complete to the cosmic variance limit out to $z_{\mathrm{max}}=30,40,50$, we find a robust $>95\%$ CL preference for ionization at $z>15$ with no preference for $z>40$. This robustness originates from the $\ell \sim 10$ region of the data which show high power relative to $\ell \le 8$ and result in a poor fit to a steplike model of reionization. Instead by allowing for high redshift reionization, the PCs provide a better fit by $2\Delta \mathrm{ln}\mathcal{L} = 5-6$. Due to a degeneracy in the ionization redshift response, this improved fit is due to a single aspect of the model: the ability to accommodate $z>10$ component to the ionization but does not constitute a highly significant detection on its own. For models that accommodate such a component, its presence is allowed and even favored; for models that do not, their poor fit reflects statistical or systematic fluctuations. These possibilities produce very different and testable predictions at $\ell \sim 15-20$, as well as small but detectable differences at $\ell>30$ that can further restrict the high redshift limit of reionization.

S. I. Alvis, I. J. Arnquist, F. T. Avignone III, A. S. Barabash, C. J. Barton, F. E. Bertrand, V. Brudanin, M. Busch, M. Buuck, T. S. Caldwell, Y-D. Chan, C. D. Christofferson, P.-H. Chu, C. Cuesta, J. A. Detwiler, C. Dunagan, Yu. Efremenko, H. Ejiri, S. R. Elliott, T. Gilliss, G. K. Giovanetti, M. P. Green, J. Gruszko, I. S. Guinn, V. E. Guiseppe, C. R. Haufe, L. Hehn, R. Henning, E. W. Hoppe, M. A. Howe, S. I. Konovalov, R. T. Kouzes, A. M. Lopez, R. D. Martin, R. Massarczyk, S. J. Meijer, S. Mertens, J. Myslik, C. O'Shaughnessy, G. Othman, W. Pettus, A. W. P. Poon, D. C. Radford, J. Rager, A. L. Reine, K. Rielage, R. G. H. Robertson, N. W. Ruof, B. Shanks, M. Shirchenko, A. M. Suriano, D. Tedeschi, R. L. Varner, S. Vasilyev, K. Vorren, B. R. White, J. F. Wilkerson, C. Wiseman, W. Xu, et al. (5 additional authors not shown)

The \textsc{Majorana Demonstrator} is an ultra low-background experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in $^{76}$Ge. The heavily shielded array of germanium detectors, placed nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, also allows searches for new exotic physics. Free, relativistic, lightly-ionizing particles with electrical charges less than $e$ are forbidden by the standard model but predicted by some of its extensions. If such particles exist, they might be detected in the \textsc{Majorana Demonstrator} by searching for multiple- detector events with individual-detector energy depositions down to 1 keV. This search is background free and no candidate events have been found in 285 days of data taking. New direct-detection limits are set for the flux of lightly ionizing particles for charges as low as $e$/1000.

Matt Visser

In three very recent papers, (an initial paper by Morishima and Futamase, and two subsequent papers by Morishima, Futamase, and Shimizu), it has been argued that the observed experimental anomaly in the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon might be explained using general relativity. It is my melancholy duty to report that these articles are fundamentally flawed in that they fail to correctly implement the Einstein equivalence principle of general relativity. Insofar as one accepts the underlying logic behind these calculations (and so rejects general relativity) the claimed effect due to the Earth's gravity will be swamped by the effect due to Sun (by a factor of fifteen), and by the effect due to the Galaxy (by a factor of two thousand). In contrast, insofar as one accepts general relativity, then the claimed effect will be suppressed by an extra factor of [(size of laboratory)/(radius of Earth)]^2. Either way, the claimed effect is not compatible with explaining the observed experimental anomaly in the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

Leonard Susskind

This is the first of several short notes in which I will describe phenomena that illustrate GR=QM. In it I explain that the gravitational attraction that a black hole exerts on a nearby test object is a consequence of a fundamental law of quantum mechanics---the tendency for complexity to grow. It will also be shown that the Einstein bound on velocities is closely related to the quantum-chaos bound of Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford.

Xinyu Dai, Eduardo Guerras

Previously, planets have been detected only in the Milky Way galaxy. Here, we show that quasar microlensing provides a means to probe extragalactic planets in the lens galaxy, by studying the microlensing properties of emission close to the event horizon of the supermassive black hole of the background quasar, using the current generation telescopes. We show that a population of unbound planets between stars with masses ranging from Moon to Jupiter masses is needed to explain the frequent Fek line energy shifts observed in the gravitationally lensed quasar RXJ1131-1231 at a lens redshift of $z=0.295$ or 3.8 billion light-years away. We constrain the planet mass fraction to be larger than 0.0001 of the halo mass, which is equivalent to 2,000 objects ranging from Moon to Jupiter mass per main sequence star.

Takahiro Morishima, Toshifumi Futamase

The magnetic moment of free fermions in the curved spacetime has been studied based on the general relativity. Adopting the Schwarzschild metric for the background spacetime, the effective value of the magnetic moment has been calculated up to the post-Newtonian order $O(1/c^2)$ for three cases (A) Dirac particles with g=2, (B) neutral fermions with g$\ne$2 and e=0 and (C) charged fermions with g$\ne$2 and e$\ne$0. The result shows their gravity dependence is given as $\mu_{\rm m}^{\rm eff}= (1\!+\!3\phi/c^2) \,\mu_{\rm m} $ for all of these cases in which the coupling between fermions and the electromagnetic field is essentially different. It implies that the magnetic moment is influenced by the spacetime curvature on the basis of the general relativity commonly for point-like fermions, composite fermions and spread fermions dressed with the vacuum fluctuation. The gravitational effect affects the gyro-magnetic ratio and the anomalous magnetic moment as ${\rm g}^{\rm eff} \!\simeq\! (1 \!+\! 3\phi/c^2)\,{\rm g} $, ${a}^{\rm eff} \!\simeq\! a \!+\! 3(1\!+\!a)\,\phi/c^2 $. Consequently, the anomalous magnetic moment of fermions with g$\simeq$2 measured on the Earth's surface contains the gravitational effect as $|a^{\rm eff}| \simeq 3|\phi|/c^2 \simeq 2.1\!\times\! 10^{-9}$, which implies that the gravitational anomaly of $2.1\!\times\! 10^{-9}$ is induced by the curvature of the spacetime on the basis of the general relativity in addition to the quantum radiative corrections for all fermions including electrons and muons.

Takahiro Morishima, Toshifumi Futamase, Hirohiko M. Shimizu

The general relativistic effects to the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron ${\rm g}_{\rm e}$-2 in the Earth's gravitational field have been examined. The magnetic moment of electrons to be measured on the Earth's surface is evaluated as $\mu_{\rm m}^{\rm eff} \simeq (1\!+\!3\phi/c^2)\,\mu_{\rm m}$ on the basis of the Dirac equation containing the post-Newtonian effects of the general relativity for fermions moving in the Earth's gravitational field. This implies that the anomalous magnetic moment of $10^{-9}$ appears in addition to the radiative corrections in the quantum field theory. This may seem contradictory with the fact of the 12th digit agreement between the experimental value measured on the ground level ${\rm g}_{\rm e(EXP)}$ and the theoretical value calculated in the flat spacetime ${\rm g}_{\rm e(SM)}$. In this paper, we show that the apparent contradiction can be explained consistently with the framework of the general relativity.

Takahiro Morishima, Toshifumi Futamase, Hirohiko M. Shimizu

The general relativistic effects to the anomalous magnetic moment of muons moving in the Earth's gravitational field have been examined. The Dirac equation generalized to include the general relativity suggests the magnetic moment of fermions measured on the ground level is influenced by the Earth's gravitational field as $\mu_{\rm m}^{\rm eff} \!\simeq\! (1\!+\!3\phi/c^2)\,\mu_{\rm m}$, where $\mu_{\rm m}$ is the magnetic moment in the flat spacetime and $\phi\!=\!-{G M}/{r}$ is the Earth's gravitational potential. It implies that the muon anomalous magnetic moment measured on the Earth $a_\mu\!\equiv\!{\rm g}_\mu/2\!-\!1$ contains the gravitational correction of $\left\vert a_\mu\right\vert\simeq 2.1\!\times\! 10^{-9}$ in addition to the quantum radiative corrections. The gravitationally induced anomaly may affect the comparison between the theoretical and experimental values recently reported: $a_{\mu({\rm EXP})}-a_{\mu({\rm SM})}=28.8\,\,(8.0)\times10^{-10}\,\,(3.6\,\sigma)$. In this paper, the comparison between the theory and the experiment is examined by considering the influence of the spacetime curvature to the measurement on the muon ${\rm g}_\mu\!\!-\!2$ experiment using the storage ring on the basis of the general relativity up to the post-Newtonian order of $O(1/c^2)$.