Dark matter decays or annihilations that produce line-like spectra may be smoking-gun signals. However, even such distinctive signatures can be mimicked by astrophysical or instrumental causes. We show that velocity spectroscopy-the measurement of energy shifts induced by relative motion of source and observer-can separate these three causes with minimal theoretical uncertainties. The principal obstacle has been energy resolution, but upcoming and proposed experiments will make significant improvements. As an example, we show that the imminent Astro-H mission can use Milky Way observations to separate possible causes of the 3.5-keV line. We discuss other applications.
We propose a simple model that elucidates the generation of halo velocity bias. The fluid equation approximation is often adopted in modelling the evolution of the halo density field. In this approach, halos are often taken to be point particles even though in reality they are finite-sized objects. In this paper, we generalize the fluid equation approximation to halos to include the finite extent of halos by taking into account the halo profile. We compute the perturbation of the halo density and velocity field to second order and find that the profile correction gives rise to $k^2$ correction terms in Fourier space. These corrections are more important for velocity than for density. In particular, the profile correction generates $k^2$ correction term in the velocity bias and the correction terms do not decay away in the long term limit, but it is not constant. We model the halo profile evolution using the spherical collapse model. We also measure the evolution of proto-halo profile at various redshifts numerically. We find that the spherical collapse model gives a reasonable description of the numerical profile evolution. Static halo profile is often adopted in modelling halos in theories such as the excursion set theory. Our work highlights the importance of including the profile evolution in the calculations.
Applying a transformation to a non-Gaussian field can enhance the information content of the resulting power spectrum, by reducing the correlations between Fourier modes. In the context of weak gravitational lensing, it has been shown that this gain in information content is significantly compromised by the presence of shape noise. We apply clipping to mock convergence fields, a technique which is known to be robust in the presence of noise and has been successfully applied to galaxy number density fields. When analysed in isolation the resulting convergence power spectrum returns degraded constraints on cosmological parameters. However substantial gains can be achieved by performing a combined analysis of the power spectra derived from both the original and transformed fields. Even in the presence of realistic levels of shape noise, we demonstrate that this approach is capable of reducing the area of likelihood contours within the $\Omega_m - \sigma_8$ plane by more than a factor of three.
In the present paper we discuss a generation of large antimatter regions with sizes exceeding the critical surviving size. In the modern epoch domains with high antimatter density evolve to single galaxies with a peculiar content of anti-helium and anti-deuterium.
We study inhomogeneous magnetised cosmologies through the post-recombination era in the framework of Newtonian gravity and the ideal-magnetohydrodynamic limit. The nonlinear kinematic and dynamic equations are derived and linearised around the Newtonian counterpart of the Einstein-de Sitter universe. This allows for a direct comparison with the earlier relativistic treatments of the issue. Focusing on the evolution of linear density perturbations, we provide new analytic solutions which include the effects of the magnetic pressure as well as those of the field's tension. We find that the extra pressure the magnetic field introduces into the system inhibits the growth of density distortions and also induces a purely magnetic Jeans length. On scales larger than the aforementioned characteristic length the inhomogeneities grow, though slower than in non-magnetised universes. Wavelengths smaller than the magnetic Jeans length, on the other hand, typically oscillate with decreasing amplitude. In all cases, the effect of the field is proportional to its relative strength.
We study the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations in inflation scenario involving a spectator dilaton field. In our setup, the rolling spectator dilaton causes a tachyonic instability of gauge fields, leading to a copious production of gauge fields in the superhorizon regime, which generates additional scalar and tensor perturbations through gravitational interactions. Our prime concern is the possibility to enhance the tensor-to-scalar ratio r relative to the standard result, while satisfying the observational constraints. To this end, we allow the dilaton field to be stabilized before the end of inflation, but after the CMB scales exit the horizon. We show that for the inflaton slow roll parameter {\epsilon} > 10^-3, the tensor-to-scalar ratio in our setup can be enhanced only by a factor of O(1) compared to the standard result. On the other hand, for smaller {\epsilon} corresponding to a lower inflation energy scale, a much bigger enhancement can be achieved, so that our setup can give rise to an observably large r > 10^-2 even when {\epsilon} << 10^-3. The tensor perturbation sourced by the spectator dilaton can have a strong scale dependence, and is generically red-tilted. We also discuss a specific model to realize our scenario, and identify the parameter region giving an observably large r for relatively low inflation energy scales.
Two classes of GRBs, short and long, have been determined without any doubts, and are usually prescribed to different physical scenarios. A third class, intermediate in $T_{90}$ durations, has been reported to be present in the datasets of BATSE, Swift, RHESSI and possibly BeppoSAX. The latest release of $>1500$ GRBs observed by Fermi gives an opportunity to further investigate the duration distribution. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a third class is present in the $\log T_{90}$ distribution, or is it described by a bimodal distribution. A standard $\chi^2$ fitting of a mixture of Gaussians is applied to 25 histograms with different binnings. Different binnings give various values of the fitting parameters, as well as the shape of the fitted curve. Among five statistically significant fits none is trimodal. Locations of the Gaussian components are in agreement with previous works. However, a trimodal distribution, understood in the sense of having three separated peaks, is not found for any binning. It is concluded that the duration distribution in Fermi data is well described by a mixture of three log-normal distributions, but it is intrinsically bimodal, hence no third class is present in the $T_{90}$ data of Fermi. It is suggested that the log-normal fit may not be an adequate model.
Large-scale peculiar motions are believed to reflect the local inhomogeneity and anisotropy of the universe, triggered by the ongoing process of structure formation. As a result, realistic observers do not follow the smooth Hubble flow, but have a peculiar, `tilt', velocity relative to it. Our Local Group of galaxies, in particular, moves with respect to the universal expansion at a speed of roughly 600~km/sec. Relative motion effects are known to interfere with the observations and their interpretation. The strong dipolar anisotropy seen in the the Cosmic Microwave Background, for example, is not a sign of real universal anisotropy, but a mere artifact of our peculiar motion relative to the Hubble flow. With these in mind, we look into the implications of large-scale bulk motions for the kinematics of their associated observers, by adopting a `tilted' Friedmann model. Our aim is to examine whether the deceleration parameter measured in the rest-frame of the bulk flow can differ from that of the actual universe due to relative-motion effects alone. We find that there is a difference, which depends on the speed as well as the scale of the bulk motion. The faster and the smaller the drifting domain, the larger the difference. In principle, this allows relatively slow peculiar velocities to have a disproportionately strong effect on the value of the deceleration parameter measured by observers within bulk flows of, say, few hundred megaparsecs. In fact, under certain circumstances, it is even possible to change the sign of the deceleration parameter. It goes without saying that all these effects vanish identically in the Hubble frame, which makes then an illusion and mere artifact of the observers' relative motion.
In the framework of scaler-tensor theories of gravity, we construct a new kind of cosmological model that conflates inflation and ekpyrosis. During a phase of conflation, the universe undergoes accelerated expansion, but with crucial differences compared to ordinary inflation. In particular, the potential energy is negative, which is of interest for supergravity and string theory where both negative potentials and the required scalar-tensor couplings are rather natural. A distinguishing feature of the model is that it does not amplify adiabatic scalar and tensor fluctuations, and in particular does not lead to eternal inflation and the associated infinities. We also show how density fluctuations in accord with current observations may be generated by adding a second scalar field to the model. Conflation may be viewed as complementary to the recently proposed anamorphic universe of Ijjas and Steinhardt.
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) has collected spectra for over one million galaxies at $0.15<z<0.7$ over a volume of 15.3 Gpc$^3$ (9,376 deg$^2$) -- providing us an opportunity to study the most massive galaxy populations with vanishing sample variance. However, BOSS samples are selected via complex color cuts that are optimized for cosmology studies, not galaxy science. In this paper, we supplement BOSS samples with photometric redshifts from the Stripe 82 Massive Galaxy Catalog and measure the total galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) at $z\sim0.3$ and $z\sim0.55$. With the total SMF in hand, we characterize the stellar mass completeness of BOSS samples. The high-redshift CMASS ("constant mass") sample is significantly impacted by mass incompleteness and is 80% complete at $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot}) >11.6$ only in the narrow redshift range $z=[0.51,0.61]$. The low redshift LOWZ sample is 80% complete at $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot}) >11.6$ for $z=[0.15,0.43]$. To construct mass complete samples at lower masses, spectroscopic samples need to be significantly supplemented by photometric redshifts. This work will enable future studies to better utilize the BOSS samples for galaxy-formation science.
Various inflationary scenarios can often be distinguished from one another by looking at the squeezed limit behavior of correlation functions. Therefore, it is useful to have a framework designed to study this limit in a more systematic and efficient way. We propose using an expansion in terms of weakly coupled super-horizon degrees of freedom, which is argued to generically exist in a near de Sitter space-time. The modes have a simple factorized form which leads to factorization of the squeezed-limit correlation functions with power-law behavior in $k_{\rm long}/k_{\rm short}$. This approach reproduces the known results in single-, quasi-single-, and multi-field inflationary models. However, it is applicable even if, unlike the above examples, the additional degrees of freedom are not weakly coupled at sub-horizon scales. Stronger results are derived in two-field (or sufficiently symmetric multi-field) inflationary models. We discuss the observability of the non-Gaussian 3-point function in the large-scale structure surveys, and argue that the squeezed limit behavior has a higher detectability chance than equilateral behavior when it scales as $(k_{\rm long}/k_{\rm short})^\Delta$ with $\Delta<1$ -- where local non-Gaussianity corresponds to $\Delta=0$.
For the first time in history, humans have reached the point where it is possible to construct a revolutionary space-based observatory that has the capability to find dozens of Earth-like worlds, and possibly some with signs of life. This same telescope, designed as a long-lived facility, would also produce transformational scientific advances in every area of astronomy and astrophysics from black hole physics to galaxy formation, from star and planet formation to the origins of the Solar System. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) commissioned a study on a next-generation UVOIR space observatory with the highest possible scientific impact in the era following JWST. This community-based study focuses on the future space-based options for UV and optical astronomy that significantly advance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the cosmos and the life within it. The committee concludes that a space telescope equipped with a 12-meter class primary mirror can find and characterize dozens of Earth-like planets and make fundamental advances across nearly all fields of astrophysics. The concept is called the High Definition Space Telescope (HDST). The telescope would be located at the Sun-Earth L2 point and would cover a spectral range that, at a minimum, runs from 0.1 to 2 microns. Unlike JWST, HDST will not need to operate at cryogenic temperatures. HDST can be made to be serviceable on orbit but does not require servicing to complete its primary scientific objectives. We present the scientific and technical requirements for HDST and show that it could allow us to determine whether or not life is common outside the Solar System. We do not propose a specific design for such a telescope, but show that designing, building and funding such a facility is feasible beginning in the next decade - if the necessary strategic investments in technology begin now.
We propose a new mechanism of spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking in the world-volume theory of revolving D-branes around a fixed point of orbifolds. In this paper, we consider a simple model of the T6/Z3 orbifold on which we put D3-branes, D7-branes and their anti-branes. The configuration breaks supersymmetry, but the R-R tadpole cancellation conditions are satisfied. A set of three D3-branes at an orbifold fixed point can separate from the point, but when they move perpendicular to the anti-D7-branes put on the fixed point, they are forced to be pulled back due to an attractive interaction between the D3 and anti-D7 branes. In order to stabilize the separation of the D3-branes at nonzero distance, we consider revolution of the D3-branes around the fixed point. Then the gauge symmetry on D3-branes is spontaneously broken, and the rank of the gauge group is reduced. The distance can be set at our will by appropriately choosing the angular momentum of the revolving D3-branes, which should be determined by the initial condition of the cosmological evolution of D-brane configurations. The distance corresponds to the vacuum expectation values of brane moduli fields in the world-volume theory and, if it is written as M/Ms^2 in terms of the string scale Ms, the scale of gauge symmetry breaking is given by M. Angular momentum conservation of revolving D3-branes assures the stability of the scale M against Ms.
Two classes of GRBs, short and long, have been determined without any doubts, and are usually ascribed to different progenitors, yet these classes overlap for a variety of descriptive parameters. A subsample of 46 long and 22 short $Fermi$ GRBs with estimated Hurst Exponents (HEs), complemented by minimum variability time-scales (MVTS) and durations ($T_{90}$) is used to perform a supervised Machine Learning (ML) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. It is found that while $T_{90}$ itself performs very well in distinguishing short and long GRBs, the overall success ratio is higher when the training set is complemented by MVTS and HE. These results may allow to introduce a new (non-linear) parameter that might provide less ambiguous classification of GRBs.
We consider a fermionic dark matter candidate interacting via a scalar mediator coupled with the Standard Model through a Higgs portal. We consider general setting including both scalar and pseudoscalar interactions between the scalar and fermion, and illustrate the relevant features for dark matter abundance, direct search limits and collider constraints. In addition we consider the dark matter self-interactions and show how the problems of a light scalar mediator in the early universe can be resolved.
Modifications of gravity of the galileon type rely on the Vainshtein screening to pass solar system tests. Such a mechanism suppresses the fluctuations of the scalar field in the vicinity of localized sources, leaving the gravitons as the only mediators of gravitational interactions. We highlight that, in galileon 4 and 5 models and their shift-symmetric extensions, the inevitable presence of the scalar field gradient modifies the dynamics of the gravitons, leading to unscreened deviations from general relativity. The observational bounds on the gravitational slip parameter constrain the Horndeski-extensions of quartic and quintic galileons to the level of $10^{-5}$. The corresponding beyond-Horndeski models can also be constrained to the level of $10^{-2}$, by adding to the analysis the limits on the speed of gravitational waves coming from the observations of the orbital decay of the Hulse-Taylor pulsar.
Links to: arXiv, form interface, find, astro-ph, recent, 1507, contact, help (Access key information)
We measure the weak lensing shear around galaxy troughs, i.e. the radial alignment of background galaxies relative to underdensities in projections of the foreground galaxy field over a wide range of redshift in Science Verification data from the Dark Energy Survey. Our detection of the shear signal is highly significant (10 to 15sigma for the smallest angular scales) for troughs with the redshift range z in [0.2,0.5] of the projected galaxy field and angular diameters of 10'...1{\deg}. These measurements probe the connection between the galaxy, matter density, and convergence fields. By assuming galaxies are biased tracers of the matter density with Poissonian noise, we find agreement of our measurements with predictions in a fiducial LambdaCDM model. The prediction for the lensing signal on large trough scales is virtually independent of the details of the underlying model for the connection of galaxies and matter. Our comparison of the shear around troughs with that around cylinders with large galaxy counts is consistent with a symmetry between galaxy and matter over- and underdensities. In addition, we measure the two-point angular correlation of troughs with galaxies which, in contrast to the lensing signal, is sensitive to galaxy bias on all scales. The lensing signal of troughs and their clustering with galaxies is therefore a promising probe of the statistical properties of matter underdensities and their connection to the galaxy field.
Next-generation spectroscopic surveys will map the large-scale structure of the observable universe, using emission line galaxies as tracers. While each survey will map the sky with a specific emission line, interloping emission lines can masquerade as the survey's intended emission line at different redshifts. Interloping lines from galaxies that are not removed can contaminate the power spectrum measurement, mixing correlations from various redshifts and diluting the true signal. We assess the potential for power spectrum contamination, finding that an interloper fraction worse than 0.2% could bias power spectrum measurements for future surveys by more than 10% of statistical errors, while also biasing inferences based on the power spectrum. We also construct a formalism for predicting biases for cosmological parameter measurements, and we demonstrate that a 0.3% interloper fraction could bias measurements of the growth rate by more than 10% of the error, which can affect constraints from upcoming surveys on gravity. We use the COSMOS Mock Catalog (CMC), with the emission lines re-scaled to better reproduce recent data, to predict potential interloper fractions for the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) and the Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST). We find that secondary line identification, or confirming galaxy redshifts by finding correlated emission lines, is able to remove interloping emission lines in PFS. For WFIRST, we use the CMC to predict that the 0.2% target can be reached for the WFIRST H$\alpha$ survey, but sensitive optical and near-infrared photometry will be required. For the WFIRST [OIII] survey, the predicted interloper fractions reach several percent and their effects will have to be estimated and removed statistically (e.g. with deep training samples). (Abridged)
We investigate the signatures left by massive neutrinos on the spatial distribution of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the post-reionization era by running hydrodynamic simulations that include massive neutrinos as additional collisionless particles. We find that halos in massive/massless neutrino cosmologies host a similar amount of neutral hydrogen, although for a fixed halo mass, on average, the HI mass increases with the sum of the neutrino masses. Our results show that HI is more strongly clustered in cosmologies with massive neutrinos, while its abundance, $\Omega_{\rm HI}(z)$, is lower. These effects arise mainly from the impact of massive neutrinos on cosmology: they suppress both the amplitude of the matter power spectrum on small scales and the abundance of dark matter halos. Modelling the HI distribution with hydrodynamic simulations at $z > 3$, and a simple analytic model at $z<3$, we use the Fisher matrix formalism to conservatively forecast the constraints that Phase 1 of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will place on the sum of neutrino masses, $M_\nu\equiv \Sigma m_{\nu}$. We find that with 10,000 hours of interferometric observations at $3 \lesssim z \lesssim 6$ from a deep and narrow survey with SKA1-LOW, the sum of the neutrino masses can be measured with an error $\sigma(M_\nu)\lesssim0.3$ eV (95% CL). Similar constraints can be obtained with a wide and deep SKA1-MID survey at $z \lesssim 3$, using the single-dish mode. By combining data from MID, LOW, and Planck, plus priors on cosmological parameters from a Stage IV spectroscopic galaxy survey, the sum of the neutrino masses can be determined with an error $\sigma(M_\nu)\simeq0.06$ eV (95% CL).
We calculate weighted mosaic correlations between the recently published Planck 2015 foreground maps - both anomalous microwave emission (AME) maps, free-free emission, synchrotron radiation and thermal dust emission. The weighting coefficients are constructed taking account of the signal-to-error ratio given by the data product. Positive correlation is found for AME compared with thermal dust emission as well as synchrotron radiation. We find AME and free-free emission tending to be anti-correlated, however, when investigating different scales, their relationship appears to be more complex. We argue that dust particles responsible for AME are pushed out of hot zones in the interstellar medium (ISM).
We present a new method to find voids in cosmological simulations based on the tidal and the velocity shear tensors definitions of the cosmic web. We use the fractional anisotropy (FA) computed from the eigenvalues of each web scheme as a void tracer. We identify voids using a watershed transform based on the local minima of the FA field without making any assumption on the shape or structure of the voids. We test the method on the Bolshoi simulation and report on the abundance and radial averaged profiles for the density, velocity and fractional anisotropy. We find that voids in the velocity shear web are smaller than voids in the tidal web, with a particular overabundance of very small voids in the inner region of filaments/sheets. We classify voids as subcompensated/overcompansated depending on the absence/presence of an overdense matter ridge in their density profile, finding that close to $65\%$ and $35\%$ of the total population are classified into each category, respectively. Finally, we find evidence for the existence of universal profiles from the radially averaged profiles for density, velocity and fractional anisotropy. This requires that the radial coordinate is normalized to the effective radius of each void. Put together, all these results show that the FA is a reliable tracer for voids, which can be used in complementarity to other existing methods and tracers.
We study the prediction of the dark matter power spectrum at two-loop order in the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structures (EFTofLSS) using high precision numerical simulations. In our universe, short distance non-linear perturbations, not under perturbative control, affect long distance fluctuations through an effective stress tensor that needs to be parametrized in terms of counterterms that are functions of the long distance fluctuating fields. We find that at two-loop order it is necessary to include three counterterms: a linear term in the over density, $\delta$, a quadratic term, $\delta^2$, and a higher derivative term, $\partial^2\delta$. After the inclusion of these three terms, the EFTofLSS at two-loop order matches simulation data up to $k\simeq 0.34 \,h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ at redshift $z=0$, up to $k\simeq 0.55\,h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ at $z=1$, and up to $k\simeq 1.1\,h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ at $z=2$. At these wavenumbers, the cosmic variance of the simulation is at least as small as $10^{-3}$, providing a high precision comparison between theory and data. The actual reach of the theory is affected by theoretical uncertainties associated to not having included higher order terms in perturbation theory, for which we provide an estimate, and by potentially overfitting the data, which we also try to address. Since in the EFTofLSS the coupling constants associated with the counterterms are unknown functions of time, we show how a simple parametrization gives a sensible description of their time-dependence. Overall, the $k$-reach of the EFTofLSS is much larger than previous analytical techniques, showing that the amount of cosmological information amenable to high-precision analytical control might be much larger than previously believed.
We present an accurate and fast framework for generating mock catalogues including low-mass halos, based on an implementation of the COmoving Lagrangian Acceleration (COLA) technique. Multiple realisations of mock catalogues are crucial for analyses of large-scale structure, but conventional N-body simulations are too computationally expensive for the production of thousands of realisations. We show that COLA simulations can produce accurate mock catalogues with a moderate computation resource for low- to intermediate- mass galaxies in $10^{12} M_\odot$ haloes, both in real and redshift space. COLA simulations have accurate peculiar velocities, without systematic errors in the velocity power spectra for k < 0.15 h/Mpc, and with only 3-per-cent error for k < 0.2 h/Mpc. We use COLA with 10 time steps and a Halo Occupation Distribution to produce 600 mock galaxy catalogues of the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. Our parallelized code for efficient generation of accurate halo catalogues is publicly available at github.com/junkoda/cola_halo.
In this paper we investigate the impact that realistic scale-dependence systematic effects may have on cosmic shear tomography. We model spatially varying residual ellipticity and size variations in weak lensing measurements and propagate these through to predicted changes in the uncertainty and bias of cosmological parameters. We show that the survey strategy - whether it is regular or randomised - is an important factor in determining the impact of a systematic effect: a purely randomised survey strategy produces the smallest biases, at the expense of larger parameter uncertainties, and a very regularised survey strategy produces large biases, but unaffected uncertainties. However, by removing, or modelling, the affected scales (l-modes) in the regular cases the biases are reduced to negligible levels. We find that the integral of the systematic power spectrum is not a good metric for dark energy performance, and we advocate that systematic effects should be modelled accurately in real space, where they enter the measurement process, and their effect subsequently propagated into power spectrum contributions.
Here we present a Bayesian formalism for the goodness-of-fit that is the evidence for a fixed functional form over the evidence for all functions that are a general perturbation about this form. This is done under the assumption that the statistical properties of the data can be modelled by a multivariate Gaussian distribution. We use this to show how one can optimise an experiment to find evidence for a fixed function over perturbations about this function. We apply this formalism to an illustrative problem of measuring perturbations in the dark energy equation of state about a cosmological constant.
The joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering is a promising method for inferring the growth function of large scale structure. This analysis will be carried out on data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), with its measurements of both the distribution of galaxies and the tangential shears of background galaxies induced by these foreground lenses. We develop a practical approach to modeling the assumptions and systematic effects affecting small scale lensing, which provides halo masses, and large scale galaxy clustering. Introducing parameters that characterize the halo occupation distribution (HOD), photometric redshift uncertainties, and shear measurement errors, we study how external priors on different subsets of these parameters affect our growth constraints. Degeneracies within the HOD model, as well as between the HOD and the growth function, are identified as the dominant source of complication, with other systematic effects sub-dominant. The impact of HOD parameters and their degeneracies necessitate the detailed joint modeling of the galaxy sample that we employ. We conclude that DES data will provide powerful constraints on the evolution of structure growth in the universe, conservatively/optimistically constraining the growth function to 7.9\%/4.8\% with its first-year data that covered over 1000 square degrees, and to 3.9\%/2.3\% with its full five-year data that will survey 5000 square degrees, including both statistical and systematic uncertainties.
We study the clustering of galaxies detected at $i<22.5$ in the Science Verification observations of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Two-point correlation functions are measured using $2.3\times 10^6$ galaxies over a contiguous 116 deg$^2$ region in five bins of photometric redshift width $\Delta z = 0.2$ in the range $0.2 < z < 1.2.$ The impact of photometric redshift errors are assessed by comparing results using a template-based photo-$z$ algorithm (BPZ) to a machine-learning algorithm (TPZ). A companion paper (Leistedt et al 2015) presents maps of several observational variables (e.g. seeing, sky brightness) which could modulate the galaxy density. Here we characterize and mitigate systematic errors on the measured clustering which arise from these observational variables, in addition to others such as Galactic dust and stellar contamination. After correcting for systematic effects we measure galaxy bias over a broad range of linear scales relative to mass clustering predicted from the Planck $\Lambda$CDM model, finding agreement with CFHTLS measurements with $\chi^2$ of 4.0 (8.7) with 5 degrees of freedom for the TPZ (BPZ) redshifts. We test a "linear bias" model, in which the galaxy clustering is a fixed multiple of the predicted non-linear dark-matter clustering. The precision of the data allow us to determine that the linear bias model describes the observed galaxy clustering to $2.5\%$ accuracy down to scales at least $4$ to $10$ times smaller than those on which linear theory is expected to be sufficient.
We briefly present a new coordinate-invariant statistical test dedicated to the study of the orientations of transverse quantities of non-uniformly distributed sources on the celestial sphere. These quantities can be projected spin-axes or polarization vectors of astronomical sources.
We measure the cross-correlation between the galaxy density in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification data and the lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as reconstructed with the Planck satellite and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). When using the DES main galaxy sample over the full redshift range $0.2 < z < 1.2$, a cross-correlation signal is detected at $6 \sigma$ and $4\sigma$ with SPT and Planck respectively. We then divide the DES galaxies into five photometric redshift bins, finding significant ($>$$2 \sigma$) detections in all bins. Comparing to the fiducial Planck cosmology, we find the redshift evolution of the signal matches expectations, although the amplitude is consistently lower than predicted across redshift bins. We test for possible systematics that could affect our result and find no evidence for significant contamination. Finally, we demonstrate how these measurements can be used to constrain the growth of structure across cosmic time. We find the data are fit by a model in which the amplitude of structure in the $z<1.2$ universe is $0.73 \pm 0.16$ times as large as predicted in the LCDM Planck cosmology, a $1.7\sigma$ deviation.
We present the first constraints on cosmology from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), using weak lensing measurements from the preliminary Science Verification (SV) data. We use 139 square degrees of SV data, which is less than 3\% of the full DES survey area. Using cosmic shear 2-point measurements over three redshift bins we find $\sigma_8 (\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5} = 0.81 \pm 0.06$ (68\% confidence), after marginalising over 7 systematics parameters and 3 other cosmological parameters. We examine the robustness of our results to the choice of data vector and systematics assumed, and find them to be stable. About $20$\% of our error bar comes from marginalising over shear and photometric redshift calibration uncertainties. The current state-of-the-art cosmic shear measurements from CFHTLenS are mildly discrepant with the cosmological constraints from Planck CMB data; our results are consistent with both datasets. Our uncertainties are $\sim$30\% larger than those from CFHTLenS when we carry out a comparable analysis of the two datasets, which we attribute largely to the lower number density of our shear catalogue. We investigate constraints on dark energy and find that, with this small fraction of the full survey, the DES SV constraints make negligible impact on the Planck constraints. The moderate disagreement between the CFHTLenS and Planck values of $\sigma_8 (\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}$ is present regardless of the value of $w$.
The modified gravity is considered to be one of possible explanations of the accelerated expansions of the present and the early universe. We study effects of the modified gravity on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). If effects of the modified gravity are significant during the BBN epoch, they should be observed as changes of primordial light element abundances. We assume a $f(G)$ term with the Gauss-Bonnet term $G$, during the BBN epoch. A power-law relation of $df/dG \propto t^p$ where $t$ is the cosmic time was assumed for the function $f(G)$ as an example case. We solve time evolutions of physical variables during BBN in the $f(G)$ gravity model numerically, and analyzed calculated results. It is found that a proper solution for the cosmic expansion rate can be lost in some parameter region. In addition, we show that calculated results of primordial light element abundances can be significantly different from observational data. Especially, observational limits on primordial D abundance leads to the strongest constraint on the $f(G)$ gravity. We then derive constraints on parameters of the $f(G)$ gravity taking into account the existence of the solution of expansion rate and final light element abundances.
We present measurements of weak gravitational lensing cosmic shear two-point statistics using Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data. We demonstrate that our results are robust to the choice of shear measurement pipeline, either ngmix or im3shape, and robust to the choice of two-point statistic, including both real and Fourier-space statistics. Our results pass a suite of null tests including tests for B-mode contamination and direct tests for any dependence of the two-point functions on a set of 16 observing conditions and galaxy properties, such as seeing, airmass, galaxy color, galaxy magnitude, etc. We furthermore use a large suite of simulations to compute the covariance matrix of the cosmic shear measurements and assign statistical significance to our null tests. We find that our covariance matrix is consistent with the halo model prediction, indicating that it has the appropriate level of halo sample variance. We compare the same jackknife procedure applied to the data and the simulations in order to search for additional sources of noise not captured by the simulations. We find no statistically significant extra sources of noise in the data. The overall detection significance with tomography for our highest source density catalog is 9.7sigma. Cosmological constraints from the measurements in this work are presented in a companion paper (DES et al. 2015).
In the recent work of Hill [Phys. Rev. D 91, 111702(R) (2015)], it is claimed that the axion electromagnetic anomaly induces an oscillating electron electric dipole moment of frequency $m_a$ and strength $\sim 10^{-32}~e$ cm, in the limit $v/c \to 0$ for the axion field. Here, we demonstrate that a proper treatment of this problem in the lowest order yields no electric dipole moment of the electron in the same limit.
We investigate how a Type IV future singularity can be included in the cosmological evolution of a well-known exponential model of inflation. In order to achieve this we use a two scalar field model, in the context of which the incorporation of the Type IV singularity can be consistently done. In the context of the exponential model we study, when a Type IV singularity is included in the evolution, an instability occurs in the slow-roll parameters, and in particular on the second slow-roll parameter. Particularly, if we abandon the slow-roll condition for both the scalars we shall use, then the most consistent description of the dynamics of the inflationary era is provided by the Hubble slow-roll parameters $\epsilon_H$ and $\eta_H$. Then, the second Hubble slow-roll parameter $\eta_H$, which measures the duration of the inflationary era, becomes singular at the point where the Type IV singularity is chosen to occur, while the Hubble slow-roll parameter $\epsilon_H$ is regular there. Therefore, this infinite singularity indicates that the occurrence of the finite-time singularity is responsible for the instability in the scalar field model we study. This sort of instability has it's imprint on the dynamical system that can be constructed from the cosmological equations, with the dynamical system being unstable. In addition, the instability due to the singularity mechanism we propose, is discussed in the context of other inflationary scalar potentials. Finally, we discuss the implications of such a singularity in the Hubble slow-roll parameters and we also critically discuss qualitatively, what implications could this effect have on the graceful exit problem of the exponential model.
We study metric transformations which depend on a scalar field $\phi$ and its first derivatives and confirm that the number of physical degrees of freedom does not change under such transformations, as long as they are not singular. We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a simple model in the gauge $\phi = t$. In addition, we explicitly show that the transformation and the gauge fixing do commute in transforming the action. We then extend the analysis to more general gravitational theories and transformations in general gauges. We verify that the set of all constraints and the constraint algebra are left unchanged by such transformations and conclude that the number of degrees of freedom is not modified by a regular and invertible generic transformation among two metrics. We also discuss the implications on the recently called "hidden" constraints and on the case of a singular transformation, a.k.a. mimetic gravity.
We introduce redMaGiC, an automated algorithm for selecting Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). The algorithm was specifically developed to minimize photometric redshift uncertainties in photometric large-scale structure studies. redMaGiC achieves this by self-training the color-cuts necessary to produce a luminosity-thresholded LRG sample of constant comoving density. We demonstrate that redMaGiC photozs are very nearly as accurate as the best machine-learning based methods, yet they require minimal spectroscopic training, do not suffer from extrapolation biases, and are very nearly Gaussian. We apply our algorithm to Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data to produce a redMaGiC catalog sampling the redshift range $z\in[0.2,0.8]$. Our fiducial sample has a comoving space density of $10^{-3}\ (h^{-1} Mpc)^{-3}$, and a median photoz bias ($z_{spec}-z_{photo}$) and scatter $(\sigma_z/(1+z))$ of 0.005 and 0.017 respectively. The corresponding $5\sigma$ outlier fraction is 1.4%. We also test our algorithm with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 (DR8) and Stripe 82 data, and discuss how spectroscopic training can be used to control photoz biases at the 0.1% level.
We consider the annihilation into gamma rays of Minimal Dark Matter candidates in the fermionic 5-plet and scalar 7-plet representations of $SU(2)_L$, taking into account both the Sommerfeld effect and the internal bremsstrahlung. Assuming the Einasto profile, we show that present measurements of the Galactic Center by the H.E.S.S. instrument exclude the 5-plet and 7-plet as the dominant form of dark matter for masses between 1 TeV and 20 TeV, in particular, the 5-plet mass leading to the observed dark matter density via thermal freeze-out. We also discuss prospects for the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array, which will be able to probe even heavier dark matter masses, including the scenario where the scalar 7-plet is thermally produced.
We present weak lensing shear catalogs for 139 square degrees of data taken during the Science Verification (SV) time for the new Dark Energy Camera (DECam) being used for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We describe our object selection, point spread function estimation and shear measurement procedures using two independent shear pipelines, IM3SHAPE and NGMIX, which produce catalogs of 2.12 million and 3.44 million galaxies respectively. We detail a set of null tests for the shear measurements and find that they pass the requirements for systematic errors at the level necessary for weak lensing science applications using the SV data. We also discuss some of the planned algorithmic improvements that will be necessary to produce sufficiently accurate shear catalogs for the full 5-year DES, which is expected to cover 5000 square degrees.
Links to: arXiv, form interface, find, astro-ph, recent, 1507, contact, help (Access key information)
We use the Planck HFI channel maps to make an all sky map of $\mu$-distortion fluctuations. Our $\mu$-type distortion map is dominated by the $y$-type distortion contamination from the hot gas in the low redshift Universe and we can thus only place upper limits on the $\mu$-type distortion fluctuations. For the amplitude of $\mu$-type distortions on $10'$ scales we get the limit on root mean square (rms) value $\mu_{rms}^{10'}< 6.4\times 10^{-6}$, a limit 14 times stronger than the COBE-FIRAS ($95\%$ confidence) limit on the mean of $< \mu > <90\times 10^{-6}$. Using our maps we also place strong upper limits on the auto angular power spectrum of $\mu$, $C_{\ell}^{\mu\mu}$ and the cross angular power spectrum of $\mu$ with the CMB temperature anisotropies, $C_{\ell}^{\mu T}$. The strongest observational limits are on the largest scales, $\ell(\ell+1)/(2\pi)C_{\ell}^{\mu\mu}|_{\ell=2-26}<(2.3\pm 1.0)\times 10^{-12}$ and $\ell(\ell+1)/(2\pi)C_{\ell}^{\mu T}|_{\ell=2-26}<(2.6\pm 2.6)\times 10^{-12}~{K}$. Our observational limits can be used to constrain new physics which can create spatially varying energy release in the early Universe between redshifts $5\times 10^4\lesssim z\lesssim 2\times 10^6$. We specifically apply our observational results to constrain the primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type, when the source of $\mu$-distortion is Silk damping, for very squeezed configurations with the wavenumber for the short wavelength mode $46 \lesssim k_{S} \lesssim 10^4 ~{Mpc^{-1}}$ and for the long wavelength mode $k_{L}\approx 10^{-3} ~{Mpc^{-1}}$. Our limits on the primordial non-Gaussianity parameters are $f_{NL}<10^5, \tau_{NL}<1.4\times 10^{11}$ for $k_{S}/k_{L}\approx 5\times 10^4- 10^7$. We give a new derivation of the evolution of the $\mu$-distortion fluctuations. We also introduce mixing of Bose-Einstein spectra and $y^{BE}$-type distortions.
Comparisons between observed and predicted strong lensing properties of galaxy clusters have been routinely used to claim either tension or consistency with $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. However, standard approaches to such cosmological tests are unable to quantify the preference for one cosmology over another. We advocate using a `weighted' variant of approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), whereby the parameters of the scaling relation between Einstein radii and cluster mass, $\alpha$ and $\beta$, are treated as summary statistics. We demonstrate, for the first time, a method of estimating the likelihood of the data under the $\Lambda$CDM framework, using the X-ray selected $z>0.5$ MACS clusters as a case in point and employing both N-body and hydrodynamic simulations of clusters. We investigate the uncertainty in the calculated likelihood, and consequential ability to compare competing cosmologies, that arises from incomplete descriptions of baryonic processes, discrepancies in cluster selection criteria, redshift distribution, and dynamical state. The relation between triaxial cluster masses at various overdensities provide a promising alternative to the strong lensing test.
The auto-correlation between two members of a galaxy population is symmetric under the interchange of the two galaxies being correlated. The cross-correlation between two different types of galaxies, separated by a vector $\bf{r}$, is not necessarily the same as that for a pair separated by $-\bf{r}$. Local anisotropies in the two-point cross-correlation function may thus indicate a specific direction which when mapped as a function of position trace out a vector field. This vector field can then be decomposed into longitudinal and transverse components, and those transverse components written as positive- and negative-helicity components. A locally asymmetric cross-correlation of the longitudinal type arises naturally in halo clustering, even with Gaussian initial conditions, and could be enhanced with local-type non-Gaussianity. Early-Universe scenarios that introduce a vector field may also give rise to such effects. These antisymmetric cross-correlations also provide a new possibility to seek a preferred cosmic direction correlated with the hemispherical power asymmetry in the cosmic microwave background and to seek a preferred location associated with the CMB cold spot. New ways to seek cosmic parity breaking are also possible.
The latest Planck results show a power deficit in the temperature anisotropies near $\ell \approx 20$ in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This observation can hardly be explained within the standard inflationary $\Lambda$-cold-dark-matter ($\Lambda$CDM) scenario. In this Letter we consider a string theory inspired inflationary model (axion monodromy inflation) with a step-like modulation in the potential which gives rise to observable signatures in the primordial perturbations. One interesting phenomenon is that the primordial scalar modes experience a sudden suppression at a critical scale when the modulation occurs. By fitting to the CMB data, we find that the model can nicely explain the $\ell \approx 20$ power deficit anomaly as well as predict specific patterns in the temperature-polarization correlation and polarization autocorrelation spectra. Though the significance of the result is not sufficient to claim a detection, our analysis reveals that fundamental physics at extremely high energy scales, namely, some effects inspired by string theory, may be observationally testable in forthcoming cosmological experiments.
The abundance of galaxy clusters can constrain both the geometry and structure growth in our Universe. However, this probe could be significantly complicated by recent claims of nonuniversality -- non-trivial dependences with respect to the cosmological model and redshift. In this work we analyse the dependance of the mass function on the way haloes are identified and establish if this can cause departures from universality. In order to explore this dependance, we use a set of different dark matter only cosmological simulations (Le SBARBINE simulations), with the latest cosmological parameters from the Planck collaboration; this first suite of simulations is followed by a lower resolution set carry out with different cosmological parameters. We identify dark matter haloes using a Spherical Overdensity algorithm with varying overdensity thresholds (virial, 2000$\rho_c$, 1000$\rho_c$, 500$\rho_c$, 200$\rho_c$ and 200$\rho_b$) at all redshifts. We notice that, when expressed in term of the rescaled variable $\nu$, the mass function for virial haloes can be considered universal as a function of redshift and cosmology, while this is clearly not the case for the other considered overdensities. We provide fitting functions for the halo mass function parameters as a function of density, that allow to predict, with a few percent accuracy, the halo mass function for a wide range of halo definitions, redshifts and cosmological models. We then present how the departures from universality associated with other halo definitions can be derived by combining the universality of the virial definition with the expected shape of the density profile of halos.
Spatially-varying depth and characteristics of observing conditions, such as seeing, airmass, or sky background, are major sources of systematic uncertainties in modern galaxy survey analyses, in particular in deep multi-epoch surveys. We present a framework to extract and project these sources of systematics onto the sky, and apply it to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to map the observing conditions of the Science Verification (SV) data. The resulting distributions and maps of sources of systematics are used in several analyses of DES SV to perform detailed null tests with the data, and also to incorporate systematics in survey simulations. We illustrate the complementarity of these two approaches by comparing the SV data with the BCC-UFig, a synthetic sky catalogue generated by forward-modelling of the DES SV images. We analyse the BCC-UFig simulation to construct galaxy samples mimicking those used in SV galaxy clustering studies. We show that the spatially-varying survey depth imprinted in the observed galaxy densities and the redshift distributions of the SV data are successfully reproduced by the simulation and well-captured by the maps of observing conditions. The combined use of the maps, the SV data and the BCC-UFig simulation allows us to quantify the impact of spatial systematics on $N(z)$, the redshift distributions inferred using photometric redshifts. We conclude that spatial systematics in the SV data are mainly due to seeing fluctuations and are under control in current clustering and weak lensing analyses. The framework presented here is relevant to all multi-epoch surveys, and will be essential for exploiting future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will require detailed null-tests and realistic end-to-end image simulations to correctly interpret the deep, high-cadence observations of the sky.
Approximately half of the matter in the Universe is "unbound" at z = 0, according to N-body simulations such as the Millennium Run. Here, we use the milli-Millennium simulation to examine the distribution of unbound matter in relation to the dark matter halos which host galaxies. We measure the unbound matter within two types of windows, using a halo dependent radius and a fixed radius at several different scales. We also consider the timescales over which a halo can accrete the local unbound matter at z = 2 and z = 0. Finally, we compare the unbound matter to observable properties of galaxies, such as local galaxy count environment and stellar mass. We find that halos at z = 2 can accrete far more of the nearby unbound matter over a Hubble time than halos at z = 0 and that 78% of particles within 5 $R_{vir}$ of a halo at z = 2 will be accreted by z = 0, compared to 36% of particles within 5 $h^{-1}$ Mpc of the halo. We also find that galaxy count environment is closely related to the amount of nearby unbound matter when measured on the same scale.
Using a new parallel algorithm implemented within the VisIt framework, we analysed large cosmological grid simulations to study the properties of baryons in filaments. The procedure allows us to build large catalogues with up to $\sim 3 \cdot 10^4$ filaments per simulated volume and to investigate the properties of cosmic filaments for very large volumes at high resolution (up to $300^3 ~\rm Mpc^3$ simulated with $2048^3$ cells). We determined scaling relations for the mass, volume, length and temperature of filaments and compared them to those of galaxy clusters. The longest filaments have a total length of about $200 ~\rm Mpc$ with a mass of several $10^{15} M_{\odot}$. We also investigated the effects of different gas physics. Radiative cooling significantly modifies the thermal properties of the warm-hot-intergalactic medium of filaments, mainly by lowering their mean temperature via line cooling. On the other hand, powerful feedback from active galactic nuclei in surrounding halos can heat up the gas in filaments. The impact of shock-accelerated cosmic rays from diffusive shock acceleration on filaments is small and the ratio of between cosmic ray and gas pressure within filaments is of the order of $\sim 10-20$ percent.
We investigate how well future large-scale radio surveys could measure different shapes of primordial non-Gaussianity; in particular we focus on angle-dependent non-Gaussianity arising from primordial anisotropic sources, whose bispectrum has an angle dependence between the three wavevectors that is characterized by Legendre polynomials $\mathcal{P}_L$ and expansion coefficients $c_L$. We provide forecasts for measurements of galaxy power spectrum, finding that Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data could allow measurements of primordial non-Gaussianity competitive or improving upon current constraints set by CMB experiments, for all the shapes considered. We argue that the best constraints will come from the possibility to assign redshift information to radio galaxy surveys, and investigate a few possible scenarios for the EMU and SKA surveys. A realistic (futuristic) modeling could provide constraints of $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm loc} \approx 1 (0.5)$ for the local shape, $f_{\rm NL}$ of $\mathcal{O}(10) (\mathcal{O}(1))$ for the orthogonal, equilateral and folded shapes, and $c_{L=1} \approx 80 (2)$, $c_{L=2} \approx 400 (10)$ for angle-dependent non-Gaussianity. The more futuristic forecasts show the potential of LSS analyses to considerably improve current constraints on non-Gaussianity, and so on models of the primordial Universe. Finally, we find the minimum requirements that would be needed to reach $\sigma(c_{L=1})=10$, which can be considered as a typical (lower) value predicted by some (inflationary) models.
We present photometric redshift estimates for galaxies used in the weak lensing analysis of the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification (DES SV) data. Four model- or machine learning-based photometric redshift methods -- ANNZ2, BPZ calibrated against BCC-Ufig simulations, SkyNet, and TPZ -- are analysed. For training, calibration, and testing of these methods, we construct a catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed galaxies matched against DES SV data. The performance of the methods is evaluated against the matched spectroscopic catalogue, focusing on metrics relevant for weak lensing analyses, with additional validation against COSMOS photo-zs. From the galaxies in the DES SV shear catalogue, which have mean redshift $0.72\pm0.01$ over the range $0.3<z<1.3$, we construct three tomographic bins with means of $z=\{0.45, 0.67, 1.00\}$. These bins each have systematic uncertainties $\delta z \lesssim 0.05$ in the mean of the fiducial SkyNet photo-z $n(z)$. We propagate the errors in the redshift distributions through to their impact on cosmological parameters estimated with cosmic shear, and find that they cause shifts in the value of $\sigma_8$ of approx. 3%. This shift is within the one sigma statistical errors on $\sigma_8$ for the DES SV shear catalog. We further study the potential impact of systematic differences on the critical surface density, $\Sigma_{\mathrm{crit}}$, finding levels of bias safely less than the statistical power of DES SV data. We recommend a final Gaussian prior for the photo-z bias in the mean of $n(z)$ of width $0.05$ for each of the three tomographic bins, and show that this is a sufficient bias model for the corresponding cosmology analysis.
We investigate whether Higgs inflation can occur in the Standard Model starting from natural initial conditions or not. The Higgs has a non-minimal coupling to the Ricci scalar. We confine our attention to the regime where quantum Einstein gravity effects are small in order to have results that are independent of the ultraviolet completion of gravity. At the classical level we find no tuning is required to have a successful Higgs inflation, provided the initial homogeneity condition is satisfied. On the other hand, at the quantum level we obtain that the renormalization for large non-minimal coupling requires an additional degree of freedom that transforms Higgs inflation into Starobinsky $R^2$ inflation, unless a tuning of the initial values of the running parameters is made.
Accepting that galactic mass discrepancies are due to modified dynamics, I show why it is specifically the MOND paradigm that is pointed to cogently. MOND is thus discussed here as a special case of a larger class of modified dynamics theories whereby galactic systems with large mass discrepancies are described by scale-invariant dynamics. This is a novel presentation that uses more recent, after-the-fact insights and data (largely predicted beforehand by MOND). Starting from a purist set of tenets, I follow the path that leads specifically to the MOND basic tenets. The main signposts are: (i) Space-time scale invariance underlies the dynamics of systems with large mass discrepancies. (ii) In these dynamics, $G$ must be replaced by a single "scale-invariant" gravitational constant, Q0 (in MOND, Q0=A0=Ga0, where a0 is MOND's acceleration constant). (iii) Universality of free fall points to the constant q0=Q0/G as the boundary between the G-controlled, standard dynamics, and the Q0-controlled, scale-invariant dynamics (in MOND, q0=a0). (iv) Data clinches the case for q0 being an acceleration (MOND).
The discovery of the Standard Model Higgs boson opens up a range of speculative cosmological scenarios, from the formation of structure in the early universe immediately after the big bang, to relics from the electroweak phase transition one nanosecond after the big bang, on to the end of the present-day universe through vacuum decay. Higgs physics is wide-ranging, and gives an impetus to go beyond the Standard Models of particle physics and cosmology to explore the physics of ultra-high energies and quantum gravity.
We show that the two additional Lagrangians that appear in theories beyond Horndeski can be reexpressed in terms of simple generalizations of the "John" and "Paul" terms of the Fab Four theories. We find that these extended Fab Four satisfy the same properties of self-tuning as the original Fab Four.
Links to: arXiv, form interface, find, astro-ph, recent, 1507, contact, help (Access key information)
If advanced civilizations appear in the universe with a desire to expand, the entire universe can become saturated with life on a short timescale, even if such expanders appear but rarely. Our presence in an untouched Milky Way thus constrains the appearance rate of galaxy-spanning Kardashev type III (K3) civilizations, if it is assumed that some fraction of K3 civilizations will continue their expansion at intergalactic distances. We use this constraint to estimate the appearance rate of K3 civilizations for 81 cosmological scenarios by specifying the extent to which humanity could be a statistical outlier. We find that in nearly all plausible scenarios, the distance to the nearest visible K3 is cosmological. In searches where the observable range is limited, we also find that the most likely detections tend to be expanding civilizations who have entered the observable range from farther away. An observation of K3 clusters is thus more likely than isolated K3 galaxies.
We measure the cosmic shear power spectrum on large angular scales by
cross-correlating the shapes of ~9 million galaxies measured in the optical
SDSS survey with the shapes of ~2.7x10^5 radio galaxies measured by the
overlapping VLA-FIRST survey. Our measurements span the multipole range 10 < l
< 130, corresponding to angular scales 2deg < {\theta} < 20deg. On these
scales, the shear maps from both surveys suffer from significant systematic
effects that prohibit a measurement of the shear power spectrum from either
survey alone. Conversely we demonstrate that a power spectrum measured by
cross-correlating the two surveys is unbiased.
We measure an E-mode power spectrum from the data that is inconsistent with
zero signal at the 99\% confidence (~2.7{\sigma}) level. The odd-parity B-mode
signal and the EB cross- correlation are both found to be consistent with zero
(within 1{\sigma}). These constraints are obtained after a careful error
analysis that accounts for uncertainties due to cosmic variance, random galaxy
shape noise and shape measurement errors, as well as additional errors
associated with the observed large-scale systematic effects in the two surveys.
Our constraints are consistent with the expected signal in the concordance
cosmological model assuming recent estimates of the cosmological parameters
from the Planck satellite, and literature values for the median redshifts of
the SDSS and FIRST galaxy populations.
The cross-power spectrum approach described in this paper represents a
powerful technique for mitigating shear systematics and will be ideal for
extracting robust results, with the exquisite control of systematics required,
from future cosmic shear surveys with the SKA, LSST, Euclid and WFIRST-AFTA.
During the last three decades progress in mapping the universe from an age of 400,000 years to the present has been stunning. Instrument/telescope combinations have naturally determined the sampling of various redshift ranges. Here we outline the impact of the Hectospec on the MMT on exploration of the universe in the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.8. We focus on dense redshift surveys, SHELS and HectoMAP. SHELS is a complete magnitude limited survey covering 8 square degrees. The HectoMAP survey combines a red-selected dense redshift survey and a weak lensing map covering 50 square degrees. Combining the dense redshift survey with a Subaru HyperSuprimeCam (HSC) weak lensing map will provide a powerful probe of the way galaxies trace the distribution of dark matter on a wide range of physical scales.
We address the problem that dynamical masses of high-redshift massive galaxies, derived using virial scaling, often come out lower than stellar masses inferred from population fitting to multi-band photometry. We compare dynamical and stellar masses for various samples spanning ranges of mass, compactness and redshift, including the SDSS. The discrepancy between dynamical and stellar masses occurs both at low and high redshifts, and systematically increases with galaxy compactness. Because it is unlikely that stellar masses show systematic errors with galaxy compactness, the correlation of mass discrepancy with compactness points to errors in the dynamical mass estimates which assume homology with massive, nearby ellipticals. We quantify the deviations from homology and propose specific non-virial scaling of dynamical mass with effective radius and velocity dispersion.
We examine axino dark matter in the regime of a low reheating temperature T_R after inflation and taking into account that reheating is a non-instantaneous process. This can have a significant effect on the dark matter abundance, mainly due to entropy production in inflaton decays. We study both thermal and non-thermal production of axinos in the context of the MSSM with ten free parameters. We identify the ranges of the axino mass and the reheating temperature allowed by the LHC and other particle physics data in different models of axino interactions. We confront these limits with cosmological constraints coming the observed dark matter density, large structures formation and big bang nucleosynthesis. We find a number of differences in the phenomenologically acceptable values of the axino mass and the reheating temperature relative to previous studies. In particular, an upper bound on the axino mass becomes dependent on T_R, reaching a maximum value at T_R~10^2 GeV. If the lightest ordinary supersymmetric particle is a wino or a higgsino, we obtain lower a limit of approximately 10 GeV for the reheating temperature. We demonstrate also that entropy production during reheating affects the maximum allowed axino mass and lowest values of the reheating temperature.
An unidentified 3.5 keV line from X-ray observations of galaxy clusters has been reported recently. Although still under scrutiny, decaying dark matter could be responsible for this signal. We investigate whether an axino with a mass of 7 keV could explain the line, keeping the discussion as model independent as possible. We point out several obstacles, which were overlooked in the literature, and which make the axino an unlikely candidate.
There are few opportunities in introductory physics for a genuine discussion of the philosophy of science, especially in cases where the physical principles are straightforward and the mathematics is simple. Terrestrial classical mechanics satisfies these requirements, but students new to physics usually carry too many incorrect or misleading preconceptions about the subject for it to be analyzed epistemologically. The problem of dark matter, and especially the physics of spiral galaxy velocity rotation curves, is a straightforward application of Newton's laws of motion and gravitation, and is just enough removed from everyday experience to be analyzed from a fresh perspective. It is proposed to teach students about important issues in the philosophy of physics, including Bacon's induction, Popper's falsifiability, and the Duhem-Quine thesis, all in light of the dark matter problem. These issues can be discussed in an advanced classical mechanics course, or, with limited simplification, at the end of a first course in introductory mechanics. The goal is for students to understand at a deeper level how the physics community has arrived at the current state of knowledge.
Links to: arXiv, form interface, find, astro-ph, recent, 1507, contact, help (Access key information)
We demonstrate how cosmic star-formation history can be measured with one-point statistics of carbon-monoxide intensity maps. Using a P(D) analysis, the luminosity function of CO-emitting sources can be inferred from the measured one-point intensity PDF. The star-formation rate density (SFRD) can then be obtained, at several redshifts, from the CO luminosity density. We study the effects of instrumental noise, line foregrounds, and target redshift, and obtain constraints on the CO luminosity density of order 10%. We show that the SFRD uncertainty is dominated by that of the model connecting CO luminosity and star formation. For pessimistic estimates of this model uncertainty, we obtain an error of order 50% on SFRD for surveys targeting redshifts between 2 and 7 with reasonable noise and foregrounds included. However, comparisons between intensity maps and galaxies could substantially reduce this model uncertainty. In this case our constraints on SFRD at these redshifts improve to roughly 5-10%, which is highly competitive with current measurements.
Doubly ionized silicon (SiIII) is a powerful tracer of diffuse ionized gas inside and outside of galaxies. It can be observed in the local Universe in ultraviolet (UV) absorption against bright extragalactic background sources. We here present an extensive study of intervening SiIII- selected absorbers and their relation to the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of galaxies at low redshift (z<=0.1), based on the analysis of UV absorption spectra along 303 extragalactic lines of sight obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Along a total redshift path of Dz=24 we identify 69 intervening SiIII systems that all show associated absorption from other low and high ions. We derive a number density of dN/dz(SiIII)=2.9 for absorbers with column densities log N(SiIII)>12.2. We develop a geometrical model for the absorption-cross section of the CGM around the local galaxy population and find excellent agreement between the model predictions and the observations. We further compare redshifts and positions of the absorbers with that of ~64,000 galaxies using archival galaxy-survey data. For the majority of the absorbers we identify possible L>0.5L* host galaxies within 300 km/s of the absorbers and derive impact parameters rho<200 kpc, demonstrating that the spatial distributions of SiIII absorbers and galaxies are highly correlated. Our study indicates that the majority of SiIII-selected absorbers in our sample trace the CGM of nearby galaxies within their virial radii at a typical covering fraction of ~75 per cent. From a detailed ionization model we estimate that diffuse gas in the CGM around galaxies, as traced by SiIII, contains substantially more baryonic mass than their neutral interstellar medium.
We reconstruct the radial profile of the projected gravitational potential of the galaxy cluster MACS-J1206 from 592 spectroscopic measurements of velocities of cluster members. For doing so, we use a method we have developed recently based on the Richardson-Lucy deprojection algorithm and an inversion of the spherically-symmetric Jeans equation. We find that, within the uncertainties, our reconstruction agrees very well with a potential reconstruction from weak and strong gravitational lensing as well as with a potential obtained from X-ray measurements. In addition, our reconstruction is in good agreement with several common analytic profiles of the lensing potential. Varying the anisotropy parameter in the Jeans equation, we find that isotropy parameters which are either small, $\beta\lesssim0.2$, or decrease with radius yield potential profiles which strongly disagree with that obtained from gravitational lensing. We achieve the best agreement between our potential profile and the profile from gravitational lensing if the anisotropy parameter rises quite steeply to $\beta\approx0. 6$ within $\approx0.5\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ and stays constant further out.
We consider a Swiss Cheese model with a random arrangement of
Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi holes in $\Lambda$CDM cheese. We study two kinds of
holes with radius $r_b=50$ $h^{-1}$Mpc, with either an underdense or an
overdense centre, called the open and closed case, respectively. We calculate
the effect of the holes on the temperature, angular diameter distance and, for
the first time in Swiss Cheese models, shear of the CMB. We quantify the
systematic shift of the mean and the statistical scatter, and calculate the
power spectra.
In the open case, the temperature power spectrum is three orders of magnitude
below the linear ISW spectrum. It is sensitive to the details of the hole, in
the closed case the amplitude is two orders of magnitude smaller. In contrast,
the power spectra of the distance and shear are more robust, and agree with
perturbation theory and previous Swiss Cheese results. We do not find a
statistically significant mean shift in the sky average of the angular diameter
distance, and obtain the 95% limit $|\Delta D_A/\bar{D}_A|\lesssim10^{-4}$.
We consider the argument that areas of spherical surfaces are nearly
unaffected by perturbations, which is often invoked in light propagation
calculations. The closed case is consistent with this at 1$\sigma$, whereas in
the open case the probability is only 1.4%.
We derive the general Ward identities for scale and special conformal transformations in theories of single field inflation. Our analysis is model independent and based on symmetry considerations alone. The identities we obtain are valid to all orders in the slow roll expansion. For special conformal transformations, the Ward identities include a term which is non-linear in the fields that arises due to a compensating spatial reparametrization. Some observational consequences are also discussed.
We point out that in the early universe, for temperatures in the approximate interval 175-80 MeV (after the quark-gluon plasma), pions carried a large share of the entropy and supported the largest inhomogeneities. Thus, we examine the production of entropy in a pion gas, particularizing to inhomogeneities of the temperature, for which we benefit from the known thermal conductivity. We finally put that entropy produced in relaxing such thermal inhomogeneities in the broad context of this relatively unexplored phase of early-universe cosmology.
We consider QCD axion models where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is badly broken by a larger amount in the past than in the present, in order to avoid the axion isocurvature problem. Specifically we study supersymmetric axion models where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is dynamically broken by either hidden gauge interactions or the $SU(3)_c$ strong interactions whose dynamical scales are temporarily enhanced by the dynamics of flat directions. The former scenario predicts a large amount of self-interacting dark radiation as the hidden gauge symmetry is weakly coupled in the present Universe. We also show that the observed amount of baryon asymmetry can be generated by the QCD axion dynamics via spontaneous baryogenesis. We briefly comment on the case in which the PQ symmetry is broken by a non-minimal coupling to gravity.
The existence of current-time universe's acceleration is usually modeled by means of two main strategies. The first makes use of a dark energy barotropic fluid entering \emph{by hand} the energy-momentum tensor of Einstein's theory. The second lies on extending the Hilbert-Einstein action giving rise to the class of extended theories of gravity. In this work, we propose a third approach, derived as an intrinsic geometrical effect of space-time, which provides repulsive regions under certain circumstances. We demonstrate that the effects of repulsive gravity naturally emerge in the field of a homogeneous and isotropic universe. To this end, we use an invariant definition of repulsive gravity based upon the behavior of the curvature eigenvalues. Moreover, we show that repulsive gravity counterbalances the standard gravitational attraction influencing both late and early times of the universe evolution. This phenomenon leads to the present speed up and to the fast expansion due to the inflationary epoch. In so doing, we are able to unify both dark energy and inflation in a single scheme, showing that the universe changes its dynamics when ${\ddot H\over H}=-2\dot H$, at the repulsion onset time where this condition is satisfied. Further, we argue that the spatial scalar curvature can be taken as vanishing because it does not affect at all the emergence of repulsive gravity. We check the goodness of our approach through two cosmological fits involving the most recent union 2.1 supernova compilation.
Recent results from neutrino experiments show evidence for light sterile neutrinos which do not have any Standard Model interactions. These light sterile states are disfavored by cosmology due to the constraints from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Large Scale Structure Formation. This tension could be solved if the sterile neutrino states had Secret Interaction with a light gauge boson $X$ with mass $M_X$ and coupling $g_X$, and with a field strength at least $10^3-10^4$ times larger than the Fermi constant. We show that such large interaction strength is ruled out due to the constraints from MINOS experiment. By performing an analysis on the Secret Interaction of the sterile neutrinos using the MINOS data and comparing with the results of cosmology, the CCFR experiment and the $(g-2)_\mu$ data we have found a concordance region for $g_X\sim (4-8)\times 10^{-4}$ and $M_X\sim (10-24)$~MeV.
In the standard cosmological framework of the 0th-order FLRW metric and the use of perfect fluids in the stress-energy tensor, dark energy with an equation-of-state parameter $w < -1$ (known as phantom dark energy) implies negative kinetic energy and vacuum instability when modeled as a scalar field. However, the value of best fit from Planck and WMAP9 for present-day $w$ is indeed less than $-1$. We find that it is not as obvious as one might think that phantom dark energy has negative kinetic energy categorically. Staying within the confines of observational constraints and general relativity, for which there is good experimental validation, we consider a few reasonable departures from the standard 0th-order framework in an attempt to see if negative kinetic energy can be avoided in these settings despite an apparent $w<-1$. We consider a more accurate description of the universe through the perturbing of the isotropic and homogeneous FLRW metric and the components of the stress-energy tensor, and we consider dynamic $w$ and primordial isocurvature and adiabatic perturbations. We find that phantom dark energy does not necessarily have negative kinetic energy for all relevant length scales at all times.
(abbreviated) We study quantized solutions of WdW equation describing a closed FRW universe with a $\Lambda $ term and a set of massless scalar fields. We show that when $\Lambda \ll 1$ in the natural units and the standard $in$-vacuum state is considered, either wavefunction of the universe, $\Psi$, or its derivative with respect to the scale factor, $a$, behave as random quasi-classical fields at sufficiently large values of $a$, when $1 \ll a \ll e^{{2\over 3\Lambda}}$ or $a \gg e^{{2\over 3\Lambda}}$, respectively. Statistical r.m.s value of the wavefunction is proportional to the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction for a closed universe with a $\Lambda $ term. Alternatively, the behaviour of our system at large values of $a$ can be described in terms of a density matrix corresponding to a mixed state, which is directly determined by statistical properties of $\Psi$. It gives a non-trivial probability distribution over field velocities. We suppose that a similar behaviour of $\Psi$ can be found in all models exhibiting copious production of excitations with respect to $out$-vacuum state associated with classical trajectories at large values of $a$. Thus, the third quantization procedure may provide a 'boundary condition' for classical solutions of WdW equation.
This document was submitted as supporting material to an Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). This ECP requests gridded visibilities as an extra imaging data product from the SKA, in order to enable bespoke analysis techniques to measure source morphologies to the accuracy necessary for precision cosmology with radio weak lensing. We also discuss the properties of an SKA weak lensing data set and potential overlaps with other cosmology science goals.
Links to: arXiv, form interface, find, astro-ph, recent, 1507, contact, help (Access key information)