Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Departments of Physics, June 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, June 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2005. / Vita. Thesis advisor: David Lowe. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-122). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-80). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-167).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-17T16:51:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-12-19. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2016-05-17T16:54:21Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000855561.pdf: 728928 bytes, checksum: d9c47745ba9f0ff381d16d64c98da423 (MD5) / Investigamos a formação, em larga escala, de estruturas no Universo, na presença da energia escura. Sua influência sobre o crescimento de perturbações cosmológicas é exercida tanto através do efeito sobre a taxa de expansão do fundo cósmico homogêneo, quanto de suas próprias flutuações de densidade de energia. Para calcularmos a taxa de formação de aglomerados de galáxias, empregamos uma generalização do formalismo de colapso esférico para a inclusão de fluidos com pressão. Um importante efeito de flutuações de energia escura associados a halos de matéria escura é a indução de halos de energia escura, que reprimem o crescimento de estruturas quando temos equações de estado não phantom; por outro lado, quando temos equações de estado phantom, são gerados vazios de energia escura, aumentando o crescimento de estruturas de matéria. Outro importante efeito ocorre quando consideramos a possibilidade da energia escura mudar sua equação de estado quando há grandes variações de sua densidade no interior dos halos em relação ao fundo homogêneo. O grande número de parametrizações da energia escura que foram obtidos com dados, de supernovas Ia são sensíveis apenas até desvios para o vermelho de ordem um. Mostramos que as parametrizações produzem assinaturas distintas na formação de aglomerados com o uso do formalismo de Press-Schechter. Portanto, futuras observações de aglomerados galácticos podem prover vínculos importantes no comportamento da energia escura durante a evolução do Universo / We investigate large scale structure formation in universe with dark energy presence. The dark energy influence on cosmological perturbation growth is exerted both through its effect on the expansion rate of background, and through its own density fluctuation as well. To compute the rate of formation of massive objects we employed the spherical collapse formalism, which was generalized to include fluids with pressure. An important effect caused by fluctuations in dark energy associated with dark matter halos is the induction of dark energy halos damping the growth of structures when the equations of state are non-phantom; on the other hand, phantom models generate dark energy voids, enhancing the growth of matter halos. Other important effect occurs when we consider the possibility of dark energy changing its equation of state when there are large differences between densities in the background and in the halos. The large number of dark energy parametrizations obtained with supernova Ia data are only sensitive to redshifts up to order one. We show these parametrizations produce distinguishable signatures in cluster formation using the Press-Schechter formalism. Therefore, future observations of galaxy clusters can provide important constraints on the behavior of dark energy in the course of universe evolution

Orientador: Rogério Rosenfeld / Banca: Alberto Vasquez Saa / Banca: Bruto Max Pimentel Escobar / Resumo: Na última década várias observações indicam que o universo está expandindo aceleradamente. Essa expansão acelerada pode ser explicada em um universo composto de 70% de energia escura e 30% de matéria (25% de matéria escura e 5% de matéria bariônica). A energia escura proporciona a pressão negativa necessária para produzir a aceleração em grandes escalas. Nesse trabalho faz-se uma revisão do modelo de um campo escalar como fonte da energia escura, conhecido genericamente como modelo de quintessência. Estuda-se o modelo de quintessência acoplada à matéria escura / Abstract: In the previous decade many observations indicate that the universe is accelerating. This rapid expansion can be explained in an universe made up of 70% of dark energy and 30% of matter (25% of dark matter and 5% of baryonic matter). The dark energy provides negative pressure to produce acceleration. In this work it is studied the model of Quintessence, a model of scalar field, as source of the dark energy. It is studied the model of Coupled Quintessence with dark matter / Mestre

The modern era of particle physics is driven by experimental anomalies. Experimental efforts have become increasingly diverse and are producing enormous volumes of data. In such a highly data-driven scientific environment theoretical models are necessary to understand this data and to help inform the development of new experimental approaches. In this dissertation I present two significant contributions to this effort relevant to the energy, intensity, and cosmic frontiers of modern particle physics research. Part 1 of this dissertation discusses methods to understand modern dark matter direct detection results. In particular I present an analysis under the hypothesis of inelastic dark matter, which supposes that dark matter must scatter inelastically, i.e. that it must gain or loose mass during a collision with atomic nuclei. This hypothesis is attractive because it can alleviate otherwise contradictory results from a number of dark matter detection facilities. The main conclusion of this work is a presentation of the analytical tools, along with a mathematica package that can be used to run the analysis, and the discovery that there are regions of inelastic dark matter parameter space which are consistent with all current experimental results, and constraints. Part 2 of this dissertation discusses a phenomenon of modern interest called kinetic mixing which allows particles from the standard model to spontaneously transform into particles which experience a new, as of yet undiscovered, force. This phenomenon is relatively common and well motivated theoretically and has motivated significant experimental effort. In this work, I present an analysis of a general case of kinetic mixing, called nonabelian kinetic mixing. This work shows that, In general, kinetic mixing predicts the existence of a new particle and that, under certain conditions, this particle could be detected at modern particle colliders. Furthermore, the mass of this particle is related to the strength of kinetic mixing. This relationship suggests novel ways to constrain kinetic mixing parameter space, and if observed would provide a very striking indication that such a model is realized in nature.

Galactical and cosmological evidence show that a quarter of the energy budget of our universe is made of collisionless, non-relativistic, and non-baryonic dark matter. Its potential coupling to standard model particles, however, has not yet been understood. One of the leading candidates - Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) - allows the production of a dark matter relic density as observed today and couples to standard model particles at or below the weak scale. LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a future tonne-scale two-phase xenon TPC aiming to detect WIMP recoils with xenon nuclei. The experiment will begin WIMP search data-taking in 2020 at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota and has a projected sensitivity of 3 × 10^-48 cm² or better in probing a 40 GeV/c² WIMP. The main observables of particle interactions in LZ are the primary scintillation (S1) and secondary scintillation (S2). However, optimising and achieving a stable S2 signal in such a tonne-scale TPC is non-trivial. Effects from the structural design of the S2 production region (top-corner structure), TPC tilt, and the xenon circulation system requires precise monitoring of the liquid surface. Such monitoring is achieved by the capacitive liquid level sensors developed within this thesis. The sensors are strategically placed to ensure that nonuniformity of the S2 signal due to the effects can be understood and corrected. In this thesis, the development of a monitoring system designed to optimise the quality of the S2 signal, based on the capacitive level sensors is discussed. A design of the electronics scheme based on a differential measurement allows femtofarad precision measurement of sensor's capacitance at picofarad level, even in the presence of cable capacitance at nanofarad level. A systematic study of the response of such a sensor to LXe and the application of the precision level sensors to two-phase TPC was carried out. Findings of intrinsic influences from LXe artefacts and LXe dielectric constant variation with its saturated temperature are identified; the result on the application of the sensors contributes to the designs of LZ circulation and the top-corner region. The final LZ level sensors show an artefact-free liquid level measurement and a 12 μm precision in measuring liquid nitrogen level (projection for LXe: ∼ 9 μm) over a 20 mm measurement range.