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Primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) may significantly influence 21-cm physics via two mechanisms: (i) magnetic heating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) through ambipolar diffusion (AD) and decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence (DT), (ii) impact on the star formation rate density (SFRD) through small-scale enhancement of the matter power spectrum. In this analysis, we integrate both of these effects within a unified analytical framework and use it to determine upper bounds on the parameter space of a nearly scale-invariant non-helical PMF in the light of the global 21-cm signal observed by EDGES. Our findings reveal that the joint consideration of both effects furnishes constraints of the order $B_0\lesssim\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ nG on the present-day magnetic field strength, which are considerably tighter compared to earlier analyses. We subsequently explore the prospects of detecting such a magnetized 21-cm power spectrum at the upcoming SKA-Low mission. For the relevant parameters of the PMF ($B_0$ and $n_{\!_{B}}$) and the excess radio background ($\xi$), SNR estimation and Fisher forecast analysis indicate that it may be possible to constrain these three parameters with relative $1\sigma$ uncertainties $\lesssim10\%$ and an associated SNR $\gtrsim10$ at SKA-Low. This also leads to possible correlations among these three parameters, thus revealing intriguing trends of interplay among the various physical processes involved., Comment: 23 pages and 12 sets of figures. Comments are welcome

We analyze the effective four-dimensional dynamics of the extra-dimensional moduli fields in curved braneworlds having nested warping, with particular emphasis on the doubly warped model which is interesting in the light of current collider constraints on the mass of the Kaluza-Klein graviton. The presence of a non-zero brane cosmological constant ($\Omega$) naturally induces an effective moduli potential in the four-dimensional action, which shows distinct features in dS ($\Omega>0$) and AdS ($\Omega<0$) branches. For the observationally interesting case of dS 4-branes, a metastable minimum in the potential arises along the first modulus, with no minima along the higher moduli. The underlying nested geometry also leads to interesting separable forms of the non-canonical kinetic terms in the Einstein frame, where the brane curvature directly impacts the kinetic properties of only the first modulus. The non-canonicity of the scenario has been illustrated via an explicit computation of the field space curvature. We subsequently explore the ability of curved multiply warped geometries to drive inflation with an in-built exit mechanism, by considering predominant slow roll along each modular direction on a case-by-case basis. We find slow roll on top of the metastable plateau along the first modular direction to be the most viable scenario, with the higher-dimensional moduli parametrically tuning the height of the potential without significant impact on the inflationary observables. On the other hand, while slow roll along the higher moduli can successfully inflate the background and eventually lead to an exit, consistency with observations seemingly requires unphysical hierarchies among the extra-dimensional radii, thus disfavouring such scenarios., Comment: 25 pages, 7 sets of figures, 1 table

Assuming a slow-roll inflationary model where conformal invariance of the Maxwell action is broken via a non-minimal kinetic coupling term, we investigate the non-Gaussian three-point cross-correlation function between the primordial curvature perturbation and the primordial magnetic field, under a fairly general choice of initial vacua for both the scalar and the gauge field sectors. Among the possible triangular configurations of the resulting cross-bispectrum, we find that the squeezed limit leads to local-type non-Gaussianity allowing a product form decomposition in terms of the scalar and magnetic power spectra, which is a generic result independent of any specific choice of the initial states. We subsequently explore its detection prospects in the CMB via correlations between pre-recombination $\mu$-type spectral distortions and temperature anisotropies, sourced by such a primordial cross-correlation. Our analysis with several proposed next-generation CMB missions forecasts a low value of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the $\mu T$ spectrum if both the vacua are assumed to be pure Bunch-Davies. On the contrary, the SNR may be enhanced significantly for non-Bunch-Davies initial states for the magnetic sector within allowed bounds from current CMB data., Comment: 15 pages, 3 sets of figures, 3 tables

We study the prospects of Gaussian processes (GP), a machine learning (ML) algorithm, as a tool to reconstruct the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ with two upcoming gravitational wave missions, namely the evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (eLISA) and the Einstein Telescope (ET). Assuming various background cosmological models, the Hubble parameter has been reconstructed in a non-parametric manner with the help of GP using realistically generated catalogs for each mission. The effects of early-time and late-time priors on the reconstruction of $H(z)$, and hence on the Hubble constant ($H_0$), have also been focused on separately. Our analysis reveals that GP is quite robust in reconstructing the expansion history of the Universe within the observational window of the specific missions under consideration. We further confirm that both eLISA and ET would be able to provide constraints on $H(z)$ and $H_0$ which would be competitive to those inferred from current datasets. In particular, we observe that an eLISA run of $\sim10$-year duration with $\sim80$ detected bright siren events would be able to constrain $H_0$ as good as a $\sim3$-year ET run assuming $\sim 1000$ bright siren event detections. Further improvement in precision is expected for longer eLISA mission durations such as a $\sim15$-year time-frame having $\sim120$ events. Lastly, we discuss the possible role of these future gravitational wave missions in addressing the Hubble tension, for each model, on a case-by-case basis., Comment: 14 pages, 8 sets of figures, Accepted in ApJ

We carry out an in-depth analysis of the capability of the upcoming space-based gravitational wave mission eLISA in addressing the Hubble tension, with a primary focus on observations at intermediate redshifts ($3

We generalize nested multiply warped braneworld models by incorporating non-zero brane curvature caused by an effective cosmological constant {\Omega} induced on the 3-branes. Starting with the doubly warped model, we first analyze the case where the maximally warped brane is identified as the visible brane. For {\Omega} < 0, resolution of the gauge hierarchy problem imposes a small upper bound on |{\Omega}|, and can possibly lead to positivity of all the 3-brane tensions. For {\Omega} > 0, the latter is not possible but the tuning of the cosmological constant to its tiny observed value is linked to the tuning of the extra dimensional moduli close to the inverse Planck length, justifying the original flat brane approximation. In both regimes, we study the dependence of the scale-clustering of the pair of TeV-branes on the brane cosmological constant and hence its potential role in generating a fermion mass hierarchy between these branes. Identifying the near-maximally warped brane as the visible brane instead opens up regions in the parameter space that allow positive 3-brane tensions for both anti de Sitter and de Sitter branes, subject to non-trivial constraints on the warping parameters. We conclude by generalizing the key results to arbitrary n-fold nested warped braneworlds., Comment: 28 Pages, 4 figures

We examine the modulus stabilization mechanism of a warped geometry model with nested warping. Such a model with multiple moduli is known to offer a possible resolution of the fermion mass hierarchy problem in the standard model. A six dimensional doubly warped braneworld model under consideration admits two distinct moduli, with the associated warp factors dynamically generating different physical mass scales on four 3-branes. In order to address the hierarchy problem related to the Higgs mass, both moduli need to be stabilized around their desired values without any extreme fine tuning of parameters. We show that it is possible to stabilize them simultaneously due to the appearence of an effective 4D moduli potential, which is generated by a single bulk scalar field having non-zero VEVs frozen on the 3-branes. We also discuss how the entire mechanism can possibly be understood from a purely gravitational point of view, with higher curvature f(R) contributions in the bulk automatically providing a scalar degree of freedom that can serve as the stabilizing field in the Einstein frame., Comment: 19 Pages, 1 Figure