Cosmological constraints are usually derived under the assumption of a $6$ parameters $\Lambda$-CDM theoretical framework or simple one-parameter extensions. In this paper we present, for the first time, cosmological constraints in a significantly extended scenario, varying up to $12$ cosmological parameters simultaneously, including the sum of neutrino masses, the neutrino effective number, the dark energy equation of state, the gravitational waves background and the running of the spectral index of primordial perturbations. Using the latest Planck 2015 data release (with polarization) we found no significant indication for extensions to the standard $\Lambda$-CDM scenario, with the notable exception of the angular power spectrum lensing amplitude, $A_{\rm lens}$ that is larger than the expected value at more than two standard deviations even when combining the Planck data with BAO and supernovae type Ia external datasets. In our extended cosmological framework, we find that a combined Planck+BAO analysis constrains the value of the r.m.s. density fluctuation parameter to $\sigma_8=0.781_{-0.063}^{+0.065}$ at $95 \%$ c.l., helping to relieve the possible tensions with the CFHTlenS cosmic shear survey. We also find a lower value for the reionization optical depth $\tau=0.058_{-0.043}^{+0.040}$ at $95$ \% c.l. respect to the one derived under the assumption of $\Lambda$-CDM. The scalar spectral index $n_S$ is now compatible with a Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum to within $2.5$ standard deviations. Combining the Planck dataset with the HST prior on the Hubble constant provides a value for the equation of state $w < -1$ at more than two standard deviations while the neutrino effective number is fully compatible with the expectations of the standard three neutrino framework.
We perform a detailed study of the weak interactions of standard model neutrinos with the primordial plasma and their effect on the resonant production of sterile neutrino dark matter. Motivated by issues in cosmological structure formation on small scales, and reported X-ray signals that could be due to sterile neutrino decay, we consider $7$ keV-scale sterile neutrinos. Oscillation-driven production of such sterile neutrinos occurs at temperatures $T \gtrsim 100$ MeV, where we study two significant effects of weakly charged species in the primordial plasma: (1) the redistribution of an input lepton asymmetry; (2) the opacity for active neutrinos. We calculate the redistribution analytically above and below the quark-hadron transition, and match with lattice QCD calculations through the transition. We estimate opacities due to tree level processes involving leptons and quarks above the quark-hadron transition, and the most important mesons below the transition. We report final sterile neutrino dark matter phase space densities that are significantly influenced by these effects, and yet relatively robust to remaining uncertainties in the nature of the quark-hadron transition. We also provide transfer functions for cosmological density fluctuations with cutoffs at $k \simeq 10 \ h \ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, that are relevant to galactic structure formation.
Cosmological perturbations of sufficiently long wavelength admit a fluid dynamic description. We consider modes with wavevectors below a scale $k_m$ for which the dynamics is only mildly non-linear. The leading effect of modes above that scale can be accounted for by effective non-equilibrium viscosity and pressure terms. For mildly non-linear scales, these mainly arise from momentum transport within the ideal and cold but inhomogeneous fluid, while momentum transport due to more microscopic degrees of freedom is suppressed. As a consequence, concrete expressions with no free parameters, except the matching scale $k_m$, can be derived from matching evolution equations to standard cosmological perturbation theory. Two-loop calculations of the matter power spectrum in the viscous theory lead to excellent agreement with $N$-body simulations up to scales $k=0.2 \, h/$Mpc. The convergence properties in the ultraviolet are better than for standard perturbation theory and the results are robust with respect to variations of the matching scale.
We have updated our analysis of the 9-year WMAP data using the collection of polarization maps looking for the presence of additional evidence for a finite 'cosmic ray foreground' for the CMB. We have given special attention to high Galactic latitudes, where the recent BICEP2 findings were reported. The method of examining the correlation with the observed gamma ray flux proposed in our earlier papers and applied to the polarization data shows that the foreground related to cosmic rays is still observed even at high Galactic altitudes and conclusions about gravitational waves are not yet secure. Theory has it that there is important information about inflationary gravitational waves in the fine structure of the CMB polarization properties (polarization vector and angle) and it is necessary to examine further the conclusions that can be gained from studies of the CMB maps, in view of the disturbing foreground effects.
By considering $f(R)$ gravity models, the cosmic evolution is modified with respect to the standard $\Lambda$CDM scenario. In particular, the thermal history of particles results modified. In this paper, we derive the evolution of relics particles (WIMPs) assuming a reliable $f(R)$ cosmological solution and taking into account observational constraints. The connection to the PAMELA experiment is also discussed. Results are consistent with constraints coming from BICEP2 and PLANCK experiments.
The dark photon, an new hypothetical light spin 1 field, constitutes a well-motivated dark matter candidate. It manifests as an oscillating electric field with a fixed direction, which can be observed in magnetometric records. In this letter, we use magnetometer data from the Voyager probes to look for the dark photon in the 10^-24 eV to 10^-19 eV mass range, corresponding to frequencies between 10^-9 Hz and 10^-4 Hz. We also discuss the sensitivity of possible future SQUID magnetometry experiments.
We derive the evolution equation for the second order curvature perturbation using standard techniques of cosmological perturbation theory. The result is valid at all scales and includes all contributions from scalar, vector and tensor perturbations, as well as anisotropic stress, writing all our results purely in terms of gauge invariant quantities. Taking the large-scale approximation, we find that a conserved quantity exists only if, in addition to the non-adiabatic pressure, the transverse traceless part of the anisotropic stress tensor is also negligible.
We study the stellar halo color properties of six nearby massive highly inclined disk galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 observations in both F606W and F814W filters from the GHOSTS survey. The observed fields, placed both along the minor and major axis of each galaxy, probe the stellar outskirts out to projected distances of ~ 70 kpc from their galactic centre along the minor axis. The 50% completeness levels of the color magnitude diagrams are typically at two mag below the tip of the red giant branch. We find that all galaxies have extended stellar halos out to ~ 70 kpc. We determined the halo color distribution and color profile for each galaxy using the median colors of stars in the top ~ 0.7 mag of the RGB phase, where the data are at least 70% complete. Within each galaxy we find variations in the median colors as a function of radius which likely indicates population variations, reflecting that their outskirts were built from several small accreted objects. We find that half of the galaxies (NGC 0891, NGC 4565, and NGC 7814) present a clear negative color gradient, reflecting a declining metallicity in their halos; the other have no significant color or population gradient. In addition, notwithstanding the modest sample size of galaxies, there is no strong correlation between their halo color/metallicity or gradient with galaxy's properties such as rotational velocity or stellar mass. The diversity in halo color profiles observed in the GHOSTS Milky Way-mass galaxies qualitatively supports the predicted galaxy-to-galaxy scatter in halo stellar properties; a consequence of the stochasticity inherent in the merger and accretion history of galaxies.
By invoking inverse temperature as a van Kampen-Isreal future-directed timelike 4-vector, this paper derives the Relativistic Blackbody Spectrum, the Relativistic Wien's Displacement Law, and the Relativistic Stefan-Boltzmann Law in inertial and non-inertial reference frames.
Turbulence is thought to be a primary driving force behind the early stages of star formation. In this framework large, self gravitating, turbulent clouds fragment into smaller clouds which in turn fragment into even smaller ones. At the end of this cascade we find the clouds which collapse into protostars. Following this process is extremely challenging numerically due to the large dynamical range so in this paper we propose a semi analytic framework which is able to follow this process from the largest, giant molecular cloud (GMC) scale, to the final protostellar size scale. Due to the simplicity of the framework it is ideal for theoretical experimentation to find the principal processes behind different aspects of the star formation process. The basic version of the model discussed in this paper only contains turbulence, gravity and very crude assumptions about feedback, nevertheless it can reproduce the observed core mass function (CMF) and provide the protostellar system mass function (PSMF), which shows a striking resemblance to the observed IMF which implies that other physics do not change the IMF qualitatively. Furthermore we find that to produce a universal IMF protostellar feedback must be taken into account otherwise the PSMF peak shows a strong dependence on the background temperature.
In this paper, we study the physical meaning of the wavefunction of the universe. With the continuity equation derived from the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation in the minisuperspace model, we show that the quantity $\rho(a)=|\psi(a)|^2$ for the universe is inversely proportional to the Hubble parameter of the universe. Thus, $\rho(a)$ represents the probability density of the universe staying in the state $a$ during its evolution, which we call the dynamical interpretation of the wavefunction of the universe. We demonstrate that the dynamical interpretation can predict the evolution laws of the universe in the classical limit as those given by the Friedmann equation. Furthermore, we show that the value of the operator ordering factor $p$ in the WDW equation can be determined to be $p=-2$.
We propose a non-thermal scenario for the generation of baryon number asymmetry in a radiative neutrino mass model which is modified to realize inflation at the early Universe. In this scenario, inflaton plays a crucial role in both generation of neutrino masses and lepton number asymmetry. Lepton number asymmetry is firstly generated in the dark matter sector through direct decay of inflaton. It is transferred to the lepton sector via the dark matter annihilation and then converted to the baryon number asymmetry due to the sphaleron interaction. All of the neutrino masses, the baryon number asymmetry and the dark matter are intimately connected to each other through the inflaton.
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We report results for the alignments of galaxies in the EAGLE and cosmo-OWLS simulations as a function of galaxy separation and halo mass. The combination of these hydro-cosmological simulations enables us to span four orders of magnitude in halo mass ($10.7<log_{10}(M_{200}/[h^{-1}M_\odot])<15$) and a large range of separations ($-1<log_{10}(r/[h^{-1}Mpc])< 2$). We focus on two classes of alignments: the orientations of galaxies with respect to either the directions to, or the orientations of, surrounding galaxies. We find that the strength of the alignment is a strongly decreasing function of the distance between galaxies. The orientation-direction alignment can remain significant up to ~100 Mpc, for galaxies hosted by the most massive haloes in our simulations. Galaxies hosted by more massive subhaloes show stronger alignment. At a fixed halo mass, more aspherical or prolate galaxies exhibit stronger alignments. The spatial distribution of satellites is anisotropic and significantly aligned with the major axis of the main host halo. The major axis of satellite galaxies, when all stars are considered, are preferentially aligned towards the centre of the main host halo. The predicted projected direction-orientation alignment, $\epsilon_{g+}(r_{p})$, is in broad agreement with recent observations when only stars within the typical observable extent of a galaxy are used to define galaxy orientations. We find that the orientation-orientation alignment is weaker than the orientation-direction alignment on all scales. Overall, the strength of galaxy alignments depends strongly on the subset of stars that are used to measure the orientations of galaxies and it is always weaker than the alignment of the dark matter haloes. Thus, alignment models that use halo orientation as a direct proxy for galaxy orientation will overestimate the impact of intrinsic alignments on weak lensing analyses.
It is shown that compact bodies project out strands of concentrated dark matter filaments henceforth simply called hairs. These hairs are a consequence of the fine-grained stream structure of dark matter halos, and as such constitute a new physical prediction of $\Lambda$CDM. Using both an analytical model of planetary density and numerical simulations utilizing the {\it Fast Accurate Integrand Renormalization } (FAIR) algorithm (a fast geodesics calculator described below) with realistic planetary density inputs, dark matter streams moving through a compact body are shown to produce hugely magnified dark matter densities along the stream velocity axis going through the center of the body. Typical hair density enhancements are $10^7$ for Earth and $10^8$ for Jupiter. The largest enhancements occur for particles streaming through the core of the body that mostly focus at a single point called the root of the hair. For the Earth, the root is located at about $10^6$~km from the planetary center with a density enhancement of around $10^9$ while for a gas giant like Jupiter, the root is located at around $10^{5}$~km with a enhancement of around $10^{11}$.
We investigate dark and visible matter distribution in the Coma cluster in the case of the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile. A toy model where all galaxies in the cluster are concentrated inside a sphere of an effective radius $R_{eff}$ is considered. It enables to obtain the mean velocity dispersion as a function of $R_{eff}$. We show that, within the observation accuracy of the NFW parameters, the calculated value of $R_{eff}$ can be rather close to the observable cutoff of the galaxy distribution . Moreover, the comparison of our toy model with the observable data and simulations leads to the following preferable NFW parameters for the Coma cluster: $R_{200} \approx 1.77\,h^{-1} \, \mathrm{Mpc} = 2.61\, \mathrm{Mpc}$, $c=3\div 4$ and $M_{200}= 1.29 h^{-1}\times10^{15}M_{\odot}$. In the Coma cluster the most of galaxies are concentrated inside a sphere of the effective radius $R_{eff}\sim 3.7$ Mpc and the line-of-sight velocity dispersion is $1004\, \mathrm{km}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$.
We derive new constraints on the neutron lifetime based on the recent Planck 2015 observations of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB. Under the assumption of standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, we show that Planck data constrains the neutron lifetime to $\tau_n=(907 \pm 69) \, [\text{s}]$ at $68 \%$ c.l.. Moreover, by including the direct measurements of primordial Helium abundance of Izotov et al. 2014 and Mucciarelli et al. 2014, we show that cosmological data provide the stringent constraint $\tau_n=(905.7 \pm 7.8) \, [\text{s}]$. This value is in tension with the most recent experimental value of $\tau_n^{\text{bottle}}=(879.6 \pm 0.8) \, [\text{s}]$ provided by the "bottle method" based on Ultra Cold Neutrons, but in agreement with the experimental value of $\tau_n^{\text{beam}}=(888.0 \pm 2.1) \, [\text{s}]$ based on the "beam method". Future CMB surveys as COrE+, in combination with a weak lensing survey as EUCLID, could constrain the neutron life time up to a $\sim 6$ s precision.
We present a weak gravitational lensing analysis of supergroup SG1120$-$1202,
consisting of four distinct X-ray-luminous groups, that will merge to form a
cluster comparable in mass to Coma at $z=0$. These groups lie within a
projected separation of 1 to 4 Mpc and within $\Delta v=550$ km s$^{-1}$ and
form a unique protocluster to study the matter distribution in a coalescing
system.
Using high-resolution {\em HST}/ACS imaging, combined with an extensive
spectroscopic and imaging data set, we study the weak gravitational distortion
of background galaxy images by the matter distribution in the supergroup. We
compare the reconstructed projected density field with the distribution of
galaxies and hot X-ray emitting gas in the system and derive halo parameters
for the individual density peaks.
We show that the projected mass distribution closely follows the locations of
the X-ray peaks and associated brightest group galaxies. One of the groups that
lies at slightly lower redshift ($z\approx 0.35$) than the other three groups
($z\approx 0.37$) is X-ray luminous, but is barely detected in the
gravitational lensing signal. The other three groups show a significant
detection (up to $5 \sigma$ in mass), with velocity dispersions between
$355^{+55}_{-70}$ and $530^{+45}_{-55}$ km s$^{-1}$ and masses between
$0.8^{+0.4}_{-0.3} \times 10^{14}$ and $1.6^{+0.5}_{-0.4}\times 10^{14} h^{-1}
M_{\odot}$, consistent with independent measurements. These groups are
associated with peaks in the galaxy and gas density in a relatively
straightforward manner. Since the groups show no visible signs of interaction,
this supports the picture that we are catching the groups before they merge
into a cluster.
Unified dark matter models are appealing in that they describe the dark sector in terms of a single component. They however face problems when attempting to account for structure formation: in the linear regime, density fluctuations can become Jeans stable and oscillate rather than collapse, though it is possible that this difficulty may be circumvented by invoking nonlinear clustering. Here we examine the behaviour in the fully nonlinear regime, of collapsed objects that should mimic standard dark matter haloes. It is shown that the pressure gradient associated with the unified dark matter fluid should be significant in the outer parts of galaxies and clusters, and its effects obervable. In this case, no flat or falling rotation curve is possible for any (barotropic) equation of state with associated sound speed decreasing with density (a necessary condition if the fluid is to behave as pressureless matter at high density). The associated density profile is therefore also incompatible with that inferred in the outer part of clusters. For the prototypical case of the generalised Chaplygin gas, it is shown that this limits the values of the equation of state index $\alpha$ that are compatible with observations to $\alpha \la 0.0001$ or $\alpha \ga 2$. This is in line from what is deduced from linear analysis. More generally, from the expected properties of dark matter haloes, constraints on the sound speed are derived. For the particular case of the generalised Chaplygin gas, this further constrains the index to $\alpha \la 10^{-9}$ or $\alpha \ga 6.7$. For a unified dark matter fluid to mimic dark halo properties, therefore, it needs to have an equation of state such that the pressure gradients are either minimal or which decrease fast enough so as to be negligible at densities characteristic of the outer parts of haloes.
We exploit a new numerical technique for evaluating the tree order contributions to the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra for scalar potential models of inflation. Among other things we develop a good analytic approximation for the nonlocal corrections from evolution before and after horizon crossing.
We review the tantalising prospect that the first evidence for the dark energy driving the observed acceleration of the Universe on giga-parsec scales may be found through metre scale laboratory based atom interferometry experiments. To do that, we first introduce the idea that scalar fields could be responsible for dark energy and show that in order to be compatible with fifth force constraints these fields must have a screening mechanism which hides their effects from us within the solar system. Particular emphasis is placed on one such screening mechanism known as the chameleon effect where the field's mass becomes dependent on the environment. The way the field behaves in the presence of a spherical source is determined and we then go on to show how in the presence of the kind of high vacuum associated with atom interferometry experiments, and when the test particle is an atom, it is possible to use the associated interference pattern to place constraints on the acceleration due to the fifth force of the chameleon field - this has already been used to rule out large regions of the chameleon parameter space and maybe one day will be able to detect the force due to the dark energy field in the laboratory.
Recent work by Efstathiou (2014) highlighted the importance of outliers in the period-luminosity (PL) relation of Cepheid data on the distance ladder. We present a statistical framework designed to address this difficulty, and apply it to the Cepheid data from the Milky Way (MW), the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and the Riess et al. (2011) (hereafter R11) dataset. We consider two possible models of the outlier population in the R11 Cepheid dataset. One of these models exhibits tension between the PL relation of the R11 cepheids and the MW+LMC cepheids, while the other does not. We extend our models to adequately account for tension between the cepheid data sets when appropriate. Our outlier treatment has a significant impact on the distance scales to Supernovae hosts with Cepheid distances, increasing the uncertainty in these distances by a median factor of ~30%. We further find that our Cepheid outlier treatment translates into a modest, but non-negligible increase in the statistical uncertainty of H0, adding in quadrature 1.2 km/s/Mpc. Combined with the increased scatter in the Hubble diagram reported by Jones et al. (2015), we find H0=72.6+/-2.8 km/s/Mpc, corresponding to a 3.8% uncertainty in H0 from local measurements. This value is fully consistent with both the Planck and inverse-distance ladder H0 constraints.
We propose a light dark matter search experiment using an SOI pixel detector (SOIPIX). The event-driven SOIPIX can be a powerful tool for detecting light WIMPs because of its low energy threshold (< 1 keV) and high timing resolution (few {\mu}s). In this study, we evaluate the performance of an SOIPIX prototype detector and we examine the required specifications of SOIPIX for our target sensitivity.
We study a novel electromagnetic signature of supermassive black hole binaries whose inspiral starts being dominated by gravitational wave (GW) emission. Recent simulations suggest that the binary's member BHs can continue to accrete gas from the circumbinary accretion disk in this phase of the binary's evolution, all the way until coalescence. If one of the binary members produces a radio jet as a result of accretion, the jet precesses along a biconical surface due to the binary's orbital motion. When the binary enters the GW phase of its evolution, the opening angle widens, the jet exhibits milliarcsecond scale wiggles, and the conical surface of jet precession is twisted due to apparant superluminal motion. The rapidly increasing orbital velocity of the binary gives the jet an appearance of a "chirp." This helical chirping morphology of the jet can be used to infer the binary parameters. For binaries with mass 10^7--10^10 Msun at redshifts z<0.5, monitoring these features in current and archival data will place a lower limit on sources that could be detected by eLISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays. In the future, microarcsecond interferometry with the Square Kilometer Array will increase the potential usefulness of this technique.
Without Lorentz invariance, spontaneous global symmetry breaking can lead to multicritical Nambu-Goldstone modes with a higher-order low-energy dispersion $\omega\sim k^n$ ($n=2,3,\ldots$), whose naturalness is protected by polynomial shift symmetries. Here we investigate the role of infrared divergences and the nonrelativistic generalization of the Coleman-Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner (CHMW) theorem. We find novel cascading phenomena with large hierarchies between the scales at which the value of $n$ changes, leading to an evasion of the "no-go" consequences of the relativistic CHMW theorem.
We present a suite of high-resolution cosmological galaxy re-simulations of a Milky-Way size halo with variety of star-formation and feedback models to investigate the effects of the specific details of the star formation-feedback loop modeling on the observable properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM). We show that properties of the CGM are quite sensitive to the details of star formation-feedback loop. The simulation which produces a very realistic late-type central galaxy fails to reproduce existing observations of CGM. At the same time, variations of parameters of star formation recipe or feedback modeling, such as cosmic rays feedback, brings predicted CGM in better agreement with observations. The simulations show that the column density profiles of ions arising in such gas are well described by an exponential function of the impact parameter. Ions with higher ionization energy have more extended profiles with the scale height of the exponential distribution scaling as a power law of the ionization energy: hs~Eion^0.72. At z~0, the scale height of warm gas traced by low-ionization species, such as MgII and CIV, have scale heights of 0.2-0.4Rvir, while higher ionization species, such as OVI and NeVIII, have scale heights of 1.6-2.4Rvir. The predicted trend is in good qualitative and reasonable quantitative agreement with observations for ions, such as CIV and OVI. Simulations do produce a sharp turnover in the column density profiles and covering fraction distribution for different ions seen in observations. This turnover however does not correspond to a "boundary" of an ion, but reflects the underlying steep exponential column density profile. We also find that the scale height evolves slower than the virial radius at z<2, but similarly to the halo scale radius, rs. Thus, column density profiles of galaxies at different redshifts can be rescaled using rs of their halos.
One of the major sources of X-ray emitting hot gas around galaxies is the feedback from supernovae (SNe), but most of this metal-enriched feedback material is often not directly detected in X-ray observations. This missing galactic feedback problem is extremely prominent in early-type galaxy bulges where there is little cool gas to make the SNe ejecta radiate at lower temperature beyond the X-ray domain. We herein present a deep Suzaku observation of an S0 galaxy NGC5866, which is relatively rich in molecular gas as an S0 galaxy and shows significant evidence of cool-hot gas interaction. By jointly analyzing the Suzaku and an archival Chandra data, we measure the Fe/O abundance ratio to be $7.63_{-5.52}^{+7.28}$ relative to solar values. This abundance ratio is much higher than those of spiral galaxies, and even among the highest ones of S0 and elliptical galaxies. NGC5866 also simultaneously has the highest Fe/O abundance ratio and molecular gas mass among a small sample of gas-poor early-type galaxies. An estimation of the Fe budget indicates that NGC5866 could preserve a larger than usual fraction, but far from the total amount of Fe injected by Type Ia SNe. We also find that the hot gas temperature increases from inner to outer halos, with the inner halo has a temperature of ~0.25keV, clearly lower than that expected from Type Ia SNe heating. This low temperature could be most naturally explained by additional cooling processes related to the cool-hot gas interaction as being indicated by the existence of many extraplanar dusty filaments. Our results indicate that the large cool gas content and the presence of cool-hot gas interaction in the inner region of NGC5866 have significantly reduced the specific energy of the SN ejecta and so the velocity of galactic outflow. The galaxy could thus preserve a considerable fraction of metal-enriched feedback material from being blown out.
In this paper, we explore a novel observational signature of gravitational corrections during slow-roll inflation. We study the coupling of the inflaton field to higher-curvature tensors in models with a minimal breaking of conformal symmetry. In that case, the most general correction to the tensor two-point function is captured by a coupling to the square of the Weyl tensor. We show that these scenarios lead to a correction to the tilt of the tensor power spectrum and hence a violation of the tensor consistency condition. We arrive at the same conclusion through an analysis in conformal perturbation theory.
[abridged] We investigate the coevolution of galaxies and hosted supermassive black holes throughout the history of the Universe by a statistical approach based on the continuity equation and the abundance matching technique. Specifically, we present analytical solutions of the continuity equation without source term to reconstruct the supermassive black hole (BH) mass function from the AGN luminosity functions. Such an approach includes physically-motivated AGN lightcurves tested on independent datasets, which describe the evolution of the Eddington ratio and radiative efficiency from slim- to thin-disc conditions. We nicely reproduce the local estimates of the BH mass function, the AGN duty cycle as a function of mass and redshift, along with the Eddington ratio function and the fraction of galaxies with given stellar mass hosting an AGN with given Eddington ratio. We exploit the same approach to reconstruct the observed stellar mass function at different redshift from the UV and far-IR luminosity functions associated to star formation in galaxies. These results imply that the buildup of stars and BHs in galaxies occurs via in-situ processes, with dry mergers playing a marginal role at least for stellar masses < 3 10^11 M_sun and BH masses < 10^9 M_sun, where the statistical data are more secure and less biased by systematic errors. In addition, we develop an improved abundance matching technique to link the stellar and BH content of galaxies to the gravitationally dominant dark matter component. The resulting relationships constitute a testbed for galaxy evolution models, highlighting the complementary role of stellar and AGN feedback in the star formation process. Finally, the clustering properties of BHs and galaxies are found to be in full agreement with current observations, so further validating our results from the continuity equation.
Recent observations with the GISMO 2 mm camera revealed a detection 8" away from the lensed galaxy MACS1149-JD1 at z=9.6. Within the 17.5" FWHM GISMO beam, this detection is consistent with the position of the high-redshift galaxy and therefore, if confirmed, this object could be claimed to be the youngest galaxy producing significant quantities of dust. We present higher resolution (8.5") observations of this system taken with the AzTEC 1.1 mm camera mounted on the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano. Dust continuum emission at the position of MACS1149-JD1 is not detected with an r.m.s. of 0.17 mJy/beam. However, we find a detection ~ 11" away from MACS1149-JD1, still within the GISMO beam which is consistent with an association to the GISMO source. Combining the AzTEC and GISMO photometry, together with Herschel ancillary data, we derive a z_phot= 0.7-1.6 for the dusty galaxy. We conclude therefore that the GISMO and AzTEC detections are not associated with MACS1149-JD1. From the non-detection of MACS1149-JD1 we derive the following (3 \sigma) upper limits corrected for gravitational lensing magnification and for CMB effects: dust mass < 1.6 x 10^7 M_sun, IR luminosity < 8 x 10^10 L_sun, star formation rate < 14 M_sun/yr, and UV attenuation < 2.7 mag. These limits are comparable to those derived for other high-redshift galaxies from deep ALMA observations.
For a large class of scalar-tensor-like modified gravity whose action contains nonminimal couplings between a scalar field $\phi(x^\alpha)$ and generic curvature invariants $\mathcal{R}$ beyond the Ricci scalar $R=R^\alpha_{\;\;\alpha}$, we prove the covariant invariance of its field equation and confirm/prove the local energy-momentum conservation. These $\phi(x^\alpha)-\mathcal{R}$ coupling terms break the symmetry of diffeomorphism invariance under a particle transformation, which implies that the solutions of the field equation should satisfy the consistency condition $\mathcal{R}\equiv 0$ when $\phi(x^\alpha)$ is nondynamical and massless. Following this fact and based on the accelerated expansion of the observable Universe, we propose a primary test to check the viability of the modified gravity to be an effective dark energy, and a simplest example passing the test is the "Weyl/conformal dark energy".
We investigate the star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_*$) relation of a star-forming (SF) galaxy sample in the XMM-LSS field to $z\sim 3.0$ using the near-infrared data from the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey. Combining VIDEO with broad-band photometry, we use the SED fitting algorithm CIGALE to derive SFRs and $M_*$ and have adapted it to account for the full photometric redshift PDF uncertainty. Applying a SF selection using the D4000 index, we find evidence for strong evolution in the normalisation of the SFR-$M_*$ relation out to $z\sim 3$ and a roughly constant slope of (SFR $\propto M_*^{\alpha}$) $\alpha=0.69\pm0.02$ to $z\sim 1.7$. We find this increases close to unity toward $z\sim2.65$. Alternatively, if we apply a colour selection, we find a distinct turnover in the SFR-$M_*$ relation between $0.7\lesssim z\lesssim2.0$ at the high mass end, and suggest that this is due to an increased contamination from passive galaxies. We find evolution of the specific SFR $\propto(1+z)^{2.60}$ at $\log(M_*)\sim$10.5, out to $z\lesssim2.4$ with an observed flattening beyond $z\sim$ 2 with increased stellar mass. Comparing to a range of simulations we find the analytical scaling relation approaches, that invoke an equilibrium model, a good fit to our data, suggesting that a continual smooth accretion regulated by continual outflows may be a key driver in the overall growth of SFGs.
The proposed NEWS apparatus, a spherical detector with a small central electrode sensor operating as a proportional counter, promises to explore new swaths of the direct detection parameter space in the GeV and sub-GeV Dark Matter particle mass range by employing very light nuclear targets, such as H and He, and by taking advantage of a very low (sub-keV) energy threshold. Here we discuss and study two example classes of Dark Matter models that will be tested with NEWS: GeV-scale millicharged Dark Matter, and a GeV-Dirac Fermion Dark Matter model with a light (MeV-GeV) scalar or vector mediator, and indicate the physical regions of parameter space the experiment can probe.
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We present a method to test the isotropy of the magnitude-redshift relation of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) and single out the most discrepant direction (in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio) with respect to the all-sky data. Our technique accounts for possible directional variations of the corrections for SNe Ia and yields all-sky maps of the best-fit cosmological parameters with arbitrary angular resolution. To show its potential, we apply our method to the recent Union2.1 compilation, building maps with three different angular resolutions. We use a Monte Carlo method to estimate the statistical significance with which we could reject the null hypothesis that the magnitude-redshift relation is isotropic based on the properties of the observed most discrepant directions. We find that, based on pure signal-to-noise arguments, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected at any meaningful confidence level. However, if we also consider that the strongest deviations in the Union2.1 sample closely align with the dipole temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, we find that the null hypothesis should be rejected at the $95-99$ per cent confidence level, slightly depending on the angular resolution of the study. If this result is not due to a statistical fluke, it might either indicate that the SN data have not been cleaned from all possible systematics or even point towards new physics. We finally discuss future perspectives in the field for achieving larger and more uniform data sets that will vastly improve the quality of the results and optimally exploit our method.
We investigate whether the predictions of single-field models of inflation are robust under the introduction of additional scalar degrees of freedom, and whether these extra fields change the potentials for which the data show the strongest preference. We study the situation where an extra light scalar field contributes both to the total curvature perturbations and to the reheating kinematic properties. Ten reheating scenarios are identified, and all necessary formulas allowing a systematic computation of the predictions for this class of models are derived. They are implemented in the public library ASPIC, which contains more than 75 single-field potentials. This paves the way for a forthcoming full Bayesian analysis of the problem. A few representative examples are displayed and discussed.
The Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect predicts additional anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background due to time variation of the gravitational potential when the expansion of the universe is not matter dominated. The ISW effect is therefore expected in the early universe, due to the presence of relativistic particles at recombination, and in the late universe, when dark energy starts to dominate the expansion. Deviations from the standard picture can be parameterized by $A_{eISW}$ and $A_{\ell ISW}$, which rescale the overall amplitude of the early and late ISW effects. Analyzing the most recent CMB temperature spectra from the Planck 2015 release, we detect the presence of the early ISW at high significance with $A_{eISW} = 1.06\pm0.04$ at 68% CL and an upper limit for the late ISW of $A_{\ell ISW} < 1.1$ at 95% CL. The inclusion of the recent polarization data from the Planck experiment erases such $1.5\sigma$ hint for $A_{eISW}\neq 1$. When considering the recent detections of the late ISW coming from correlations between CMB temperature anisotropies and weak lensing, a value of $A_{\ell ISW}=0.85\pm0.21$ is predicted at 68% CL, showing a $4\sigma$ evidence. We discuss the stability of our result in the case of an extra relativistic energy component parametrized by the effective neutrino number $N_{eff}$ and of a CMB lensing amplitude $A_L$.
The smaller the angular scales on which the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are probed the more important their distortion due to gravitational lensing becomes. Here we investigate the maxima and minima of the CMB lensing deflection field using general extreme value statistics. Since general extreme value statistics applies to uncorrelated data in first place we consider appropriately low-pass filtered deflection maps. Besides the suppression of correlations filtering is required for another reason: The lensing field itself is not directly observable but needs to be (statistically) reconstructed from the lensed CMB by means of a quadratic estimator. This reconstruction, though, is noise dominated and therefore requires smoothing, too. In idealized Gaussian realizations as well as in realistically reconstructed data we find that both maxima and minima of the deflection angle components follow consistently a general extreme value distribution of Weibull-type. However, its shape, location and scale parameters vary significantly between different realizations. The statistics' potential power to constrain cosmological models appears therefore rather limited.
We assess a model of late cosmic reionization in which the ionizing background radiation arises entirely from high redshift quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The low optical depth to Thomson scattering reported by the Planck Collaboration pushes the redshift of instantaneous reionization down to z=8.8^{+1.7}_{-1.4} and greatly reduces the need for significant Lyman-continuum emission at very early times. We show that, if recent claims of a numerous population of faint AGNs at z=4-6 are upheld, and the high inferred AGN comoving emissivity at these epochs persists to higher redshifts, then active galaxies may drive the reionization of hydrogen and helium with little contribution from normal star-forming galaxies. We discuss an AGN-dominated scenario that satisfies a number of observational constraints: the HI photoionization rate is relatively flat over the range 2<z<5, hydrogen gets fully reionized by z=5.7, and the integrated Thomson scattering optical depth is tau=0.056, in agreement with measurements based on the Lya opacity of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. It is a prediction of the model that helium gets doubly reionized before redshift 4, the heat input from helium reionization dominates the thermal balance of the IGM after hydrogen reionization, and z>5 AGNs provide a significant fraction of the unresolved X-ray background at 2 keV. Singly- and doubly-ionized helium contribute about 13% to tau, and the HeIII volume fraction is already 50% when hydrogen becomes fully reionized.
Laboratory experiments searching for galactic dark matter particles scattering off nuclei have so far not been able to establish a discovery. We use data from the XENON100 experiment to search for dark matter interacting with electrons. With no evidence for a signal above the low background of our experiment, we exclude a variety of representative dark matter models that would induce electronic recoils. For axial-vector couplings to electrons, we exclude cross-sections above 6x10^(-35) cm^2 for particle masses of m_chi = 2 GeV/c^2. Independent of the dark matter halo, we exclude leptophilic models as explanation for the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA signal, such as couplings to electrons through axial-vector interactions at a 4.4 sigma confidence level, mirror dark matter at 3.6 sigma, and luminous dark matter at 4.6 sigma.
We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate in the (2-6) keV energy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012 with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background contributions during this run, we performed an un-binned profile likelihood analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global significance of less than 1 sigma for all periods suggesting no statistically significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual modulation is 2.8 sigma, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and the phase of the modulation disfavor a dark matter interpretation. The DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation interpreted as a dark matter signature with axial-vector coupling of WIMPs to electrons is excluded at 4.8 sigma.
Accurate modeling of nonlinearities in the galaxy bispectrum, the Fourier transform of the galaxy three-point correlation function, is essential to fully exploit it as a cosmological probe. In this paper, we present numerical and theoretical challenges in modeling the nonlinear bispectrum. First, we test the robustness of the matter bispectrum measured from N-body simulations using different initial conditions generators. We run a suite of N-body simulations using the Zel'dovich approximation and second-order Lagrangian perturbation theory (2LPT) at different starting redshifts, and find that transients from initial decaying modes systematically reduce the nonlinearities in the matter bispectrum. To achieve 1% accuracy in the matter bispectrum for $z\le3$ on scales $k<1$ $h$/Mpc, 2LPT initial conditions generator with initial redshift of $z\gtrsim100$ is required. We then compare various analytical formulas and empirical fitting functions for modeling the nonlinear matter bispectrum, and discuss the regimes for which each is valid. We find that the next-to-leading order (one-loop) correction from standard perturbation theory matches with N-body results on quasi-linear scales for $z\ge1$. The fitting formula given in Scoccimarro & Couchman (2001) extends the agreement to a wider range of scales and redshifts. However, we find that the fitting formula in Gil-Mar\'in et al. (2012) does not accurately predict the matter bispectrum outside of the regime for which the formula has been developed.
Following our previous work wherein the leading order effective action was computed in the covariant effective field theory of gravity, here we specialize the effective action to the FRW spacetime and obtain the effective Friedmann equations. In particular, we focus our attention on studying the cosmological implications of the non-local terms when each of them is combined with the Einstein-Hilbert action. We obtain both analytical and iterative solutions to the effective background equations in all the cases and also briefly comment on the consistency between the iterative and numerical solutions whenever possible. We find that among all the non-local terms, the imprints induced by $R\frac{1}{\square^2}R$ are very significant. Interpreting these corrections as an effective dark energy component characterized by an equation of state parameter, we find that the $R\frac{1}{\square^2}R$ correction can indeed lead to an accelerated expansion of the universe at the present epoch even in the absence of a cosmological constant. We briefly discuss some phenomenological consequences of our results.
The intrinsic alignments of galaxies are recognised as a contaminant to weak gravitational lensing measurements. In this work, we study the alignment of galaxy shapes and spins at low redshift (z~0.5) in Horizon-AGN, an adaptive-mesh-refinement hydrodynamical cosmological simulation box of 100 Mpc/h a side with AGN feedback implementation. We find that spheroidal galaxies in the simulation show a tendency to be aligned radially towards over-densities in the dark matter density field and other spheroidals. This trend is in agreement with observations, but the amplitude of the signal depends strongly on how shapes are measured and how galaxies are selected in the simulation. Disc galaxies show a tendency to be oriented tangentially around spheroidals in three-dimensions. While this signal seems suppressed in projection, this does not guarantee that disc alignments can be safely ignored in future weak lensing surveys. The shape alignments of luminous galaxies in Horizon-AGN are in agreement with observations and other simulation works, but we find less alignment for lower luminosity populations. We also characterize the systematics of galaxy shapes in the simulation and show that they can be safely neglected when measuring the correlation of the density field and galaxy ellipticities.
Sterile Neutrinos with a mass in the keV range form a good candidate for dark matter. They are naturally produced from neutrino oscillations via their mixing with the active neutrinos. However the production via non-resonant neutrino oscillations has recently been ruled out. The alternative production via Higgs decay is negligibly small compared to neutrino oscillations. We show that in the neutrino-phillic two Higgs doublet model, the contribution from Higgs decay can dominate over the contribution from neutrino oscillations and evade all constraints. We also study the free-streaming horizon and find that a sterile neutrino mass in the range of 4 to 53 keV leads to warm dark matter.
A class of dynamical dark energy models is constructed through an extended version of fermion fields called ELKO spinors, which are spin one half with mass dimension one. We find that if the ELKO spinor interacts with torsion fields in a homogeneous and isotropic universe, then it does not imply any future dark energy singularity or any abrupt event, though the fermion has a negative kinetic energy. In fact, the equation of state of this dark energy model will asymptotically approach the value $w=-1$ from above without crossing the phantom divide and inducing therefore a de Sitter state. Consequently, we expect the model to be stable because no phantom field will be created. At late time, the torsion fields will vanish as the ELKO spinors dilute. As would be expected intuitively, this result is unaffected by the presence of cold dark matter although the proof is not as straightforward as in general relativity.
We investigate the non-spherical density structure of dark halos of the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, based on revised axisymmetric mass models from our previous work. The models we adopt here fully take into account velocity anisotropy of tracer stars confined within a flattened dark halo. Applying our models to the available kinematic data of the twelve bright dSphs, we find that these galaxies associate, in general, elongated dark halos even considering the effect of this velocity anisotropy of stars. We also find that the best-fit parameters, especially for the shapes of dark halos and velocity anisotropy, are susceptible to both the availability of velocity data in the outer regions and the effect of the lack of sample stars in each spatial bin. Thus, to obtain more realistic limits on dark halo structures, we require photometric and kinematic data over much larger areas in the dSphs than previously explored. The results obtained from the currently available data suggest that the shapes of dark halos in the dSphs are more elongated than those of $\Lambda$CDM subhalos. This mismatch needs to be solved by theory including baryon components and the associated feedback to dark halos as well as by further observational limits in larger areas of dSphs. It is also found that more diffuse dark halos may have undergone consecutive star-formation history, thereby implying that dark-halo structure plays an important role in star-formation activity.
Lyman alpha blobs (LABs) are spatially extended lyman alpha nebulae seen at high redshift. The origin of Lyman alpha emission in the LABs is still unclear and under debate. To study their heating mechanism(s), we present Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the 20 cm radio emission and Herschel PACS and SPIRE measurements of the far-infrared (FIR) emission towards the four LABs in the protocluster J2143-4423 at z=2.38. Among the four LABs, B6 and B7 are detected in the radio with fluxes of 67+/-17 microJy and 77+/-16 microJy, respectively, and B5 is marginally detected at 3 sigma (51+/-16 microJy). For all detected sources, their radio positions are consistent with the central positions of the LABs. B6 and B7 are obviously also detected in the FIR. By fitting the data with different templates, we obtained redshifts of 2.20$^{+0.30}_{-0.35}$ for B6 and 2.20$^{+0.45}_{-0.30}$ for B7 which are consistent with the redshift of the lyman alpha emission within uncertainties, indicating that both FIR sources are likely associated with the LABs. The associated FIR emission in B6 and B7 and high star formation rates strongly favor star formation in galaxies as an important powering source for the lyman alpha emission in both LABs. However, the other two, B1 and B5, are predominantly driven by the active galactic nuclei or other sources of energy still to be specified, but not mainly by star formation. In general, the LABs are powered by quite diverse sources of energy.
I first review the status of Digital Sky Surveys. The focus will be on extragalactic surveys with an area of more than 100 sq.deg. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the archetype of such imaging surveys and it is its great success that has prompted great activity in this field. The latest surveys explore wider, fainter and higher resolution and also a longer wavelength range than SDSS. Many of these surveys overlap particularly in the S Hemisphere where we now have Pan-STARRS, DES and the ESO VST surveys, and our aim here is to compare their properties. Since there is no dedicated article on the VST ATLAS in this symposium, we shall especially review the properties of this particular survey. This easily fits onto our other main focus which is to compare overlapping Southern Surveys and see how they best fit with the available NIR imaging data. We conclude that the Southern Hemisphere will soon overtake the North in terms of multiwavelength imaging. However we note that the South has more limited opportunities for spectroscopic follow-up and this weakness will persist during the LSST era. Some new perspectives are offered on this and other aspects of survey astronomy.
We obtained single-phase near-infrared (NIR) magnitudes in the $J$- and $K$-band for a sample of 33 RR Lyrae stars in the Carina dSph galaxy. Applying different theoretical and empirical calibrations of the NIR period-luminosity-metallicity relation for RR Lyrae stars, we find consistent results and obtain a true, reddening-corrected distance modulus of 20.118 $\pm$ 0.017 (statistical) $\pm$ 0.11 (systematic) mag. This value is in excellent agreement with the results obtained in the context of the Araucaria Project from NIR photometry of Red Clump stars (20.165 $\pm$ 0.015) and Tip of Red Giant Branch (20.09 $\pm$ 0.03 $\pm$ 0.12 mag in $J$-band, 20.14 $\pm$ 0.04 $\pm$ 0.14 mag in $K$-band), as well as with most independent distance determinations to this galaxy. The near-infrared RR Lyrae method proved to be a reliable tool for accurate distance determination at the 5 percent level or better, particularly for galaxies and globular clusters that lack young standard candles, like Cepheids.
We use single-dish radio spectra of known 22 GHz H$_2$O megamasers, primarily gathered from the large dataset observed by the Megamaser Cosmology Project, to identify Keplerian accretion disks and to investigate several aspects of the disk physics. We test a mechanism for maser excitation proposed by Maoz & McKee (1998), whereby population inversion arises in gas behind spiral shocks traveling through the disk. Though the flux of redshifted features is larger on average than that of blueshifted features, in support of the model, the high-velocity features show none of the predicted systematic velocity drifts. We find rapid intra-day variability in the maser spectrum of ESO 558-G009 that is likely the result of interstellar scintillation, for which we favor a nearby ($D \approx 70$ pc) scattering screen. In a search for reverberation in six well-sampled sources, we find that any radially-propagating signal must be contributing $\lesssim$10% of the total variability. We also set limits on the magnetic field strengths in seven sources, using strong flaring events to check for the presence of Zeeman splitting. These limits are typically 200--300 mG ($1\sigma$), but our most stringent limits reach down to 73 mG for the galaxy NGC 1194.
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We construct error distributions for a compilation of 232 Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) distance moduli values from de Grijs et al. 2014 that give an LMC distance modulus of (m-M)_{0}=18.49 \pm 0.13 (median and 1\sigma symmetrized error). Central estimates found from weighted mean and median statistics are used to construct the error distributions. The weighted mean error distribution is non-Gaussian --- flatter and broader than Gaussian --- with more (less) probability in the tails (center) than is predicted by a Gaussian distribution; this could be the consequence of unaccounted-for systematic uncertainties. The median statistics error distribution, which does not make use of the individual measurement errors, is also non-Gaussian --- more peaked than Gaussian --- with less (more) probability in the tails (center) than is predicted by a Gaussian distribution; this could be the consequence of publication bias and/or the non-independence of the measurements.
Using a void catalog from the SDSS survey, we present the first measurements of void clustering and the corresponding void bias. Over the range 30-200 Mpc/h the void auto-correlation is detected at 5-sigma significance for voids of radius 15-20 Mpc/h. We also measure the void-galaxy cross-correlation at higher signal-to-noise and compare the inferred void bias with the autocorrelation results. Void bias is constant with scale for voids of a given size, but its value falls from 5.6 +/- 1.0 to below zero as the void radius increases from 15 to 30 Mpc/h. The comparison of our measurements with carefully matched galaxy mock catalogs, with no free parameters related to the voids, shows that model predictions can be reliably made for void correlations. We study the dependence of void bias on tracer density and void size with a view to future applications. In combination with our previous lensing measurements of void mass profiles, these clustering measurements provide another step towards using voids as cosmological tracers.
We calculate the running of the scalar index in the ekpyrotic and matter bounce cosmological scenarios, and find that it is typically negative for ekpyrotic models, while it is typically positive for realizations of the matter bounce where multiple fields are present. This can be compared to inflation, where the observationally preferred models typically predict a negative running. The magnitude of the running is expected to be between $10^{-4}$ and up to $10^{-2},$ leading in some cases to interesting expectations for near-future observations.
We examine the production of dark matter by decaying topological defects in the high mass region $m_{\mathrm{DM}} \gg m_W$ of the Inert Doublet Model, extended with an extra U(1) gauge symmetry. The density of dark matter states (the neutral Higgs states of the inert doublet) is determined by the interplay of the freeze-out mechanism and the additional production of dark matter states from the decays of topological defects, in this case cosmic strings. These decays increase the predicted relic abundance compared to the standard freeze-out only case, and as a consequence the viable parameter space of the Inert Doublet Model can be widened substantially. In particular, for a given dark matter annihilation rate lower dark matter masses become viable. We investigate the allowed mass range taking into account constraints on the energy injection rate from the diffuse $\gamma$-ray background and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, together with constraints on the dark matter properties coming from direct and indirect detection limits. For the Inert Doublet Model high-mass region, an inert Higgs mass as low as $\sim 200$ GeV is permitted. There is also an upper limit on string mass per unit length, and hence the symmetry breaking scale, from the relic abundance in this scenario. Depending on assumptions made about the string decays, the limits are in the range $10^{12}$ GeV to $10^{13}$ GeV.
We investigate the change in ionizing photons in galaxies between 0.2<z<0.6 using the F2 field of the SHELS complete galaxy redshift survey. We show, for the first time, that while the [OIII]/Hb and [OIII]/[OII] ratios rise, the [NII]/H-alpha and [SII]/H-alpha ratios fall significantly over the 0.2<z<0.35 redshift range for stellar masses between 9.2<log(M/Msun)<10.6. The [OIII]/H-beta and [OIII]/[OII] ratios continue to rise across the full 0.2<z<0.6 redshift range for stellar masses between 9.8<log(M/Msun)<10.0. We conclusively rule out AGN contamination, a changing ISM pressure, and a change in the hardness of the EUV radiation field as the cause of the change in the line ratios between 0.2<z<0.35. We find that the ionization parameter rises significantly with redshift (by 0.1 to 0.25 dex depending on the stellar mass of the sample). We show that the ionization parameter is strongly correlated with the fraction of young-to-old stars, as traced by the H-beta equivalent width. We discuss the implications of this result on higher redshift studies, and we consider the implications on the use of standard optical metallicity diagnostics at high redshift.
The combination of dynamical and strong gravitational lensing studies of massive galaxies shows that their total density profile in the central region (i.e. up to a few half-light radius) can be described by a power law, $\rho(r)\propto r^{-\gamma}$. Therefore, such a power-law model is employed for a large number of strong-lensing applications, including the so-called time-delay technique used to infer the Hubble constant $H_0$. However, since the radial scale at which strong lensing features are formed (i.e., the Einstein radius) corresponds to the transition from the dominance of baryonic matter to dark matter, there is no known reason why galaxies should follow a power law in density. The assumption of a power law artificially breaks the mass-sheet degeneracy, a well-known invariance transformation in gravitational lensing which affects the product of Hubble constant and time delay and can therefore cause a bias in the determination of $H_0$ from the time-delay technique. In this paper, we use the Illustris hydrodynamical simulations to estimate the amplitude of this bias, and to understand how it is related to observational properties of galaxies. Investigating a large sample of Illustris galaxies that have velocity dispersion $\sigma_{\rm SIE} \geqslant 160$ km/s at redshifts below $z=1$, we find that the bias on $H_0$ introduced by the power-law assumption can reach 20%-50%, with a scatter of 10%-30% (rms). However, we find that by selecting galaxies with an inferred power-law model slope close to isothermal, it is possible to reduce the bias on $H_0$ to <5%, and the scatter to <10%. This could potentially be used to form less biased statistical samples for $H_0$ measurements in the upcoming large survey era.
In this paper, we obtain the NIRB and SBGWs from the early stars, which are constrained by the observation of reionization and star formation rate. We study the transition from Pop III to Pop II stars via the star formation model of different population, which takes into account the reionization and the metal enrichment evolution. We calculate the two main metal pollution channels arising from the supernova-driven protogalactic outflows and "genetic channel". We obtain the SFRs of Pop III and Pop II and their NIRB and SBGWs radiation. We predict that the upper limit of metallicity in metal-enriched IGM (the galaxies whose polluted via "genetic channel") reaches $Z_{\rm crit}=10^{-3.5}Z_{\odot}$ at $z\sim13$ ($z\sim11$), which is consistent with our star formation model. We constrain on the SFR of Pop III stars from the observation of reionization. The peak intensity of NIRB is about $0.03-0.2~nW m^{-2}{sr}^{-1}$ at $\sim 1 \mu m$ for $z>6$. The prediction of NIRB signal is consistent with the metallicity evolution. We also obtain the gravitational wave background from the black holes formed by these early stars. The predicted gravitational wave background has a peak amplitude of $\Omega_{GW}\simeq8\times10^{-9}$ at $\nu=158$ Hz for Pop II star remnants. However, the background generated by Pop III.2 stars is much less than Pop II stars, with a peak amplitude of $\Omega_{GW}\simeq1.2\times10^{-11}$ at $\nu=28~Hz$. The background of Pop III.1 shifts to lower frequencies, and the amplitude of $\Omega _{GW}$ for Pop III.1 stars shows a minimum value at $\nu\simeq 10$ Hz, due to the lack of gravitational wave signals from the stars with $140~M_{\odot}<M_\ast<260~M_{\odot}$.
The theory and phenomenology of light sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale is reviewed. The reactor, Gallium and LSND anomalies are briefly described and interpreted as indications of the existence of short-baseline oscillations which require the existence of light sterile neutrinos. The global fits of short-baseline oscillation data in 3+1 and 3+2 schemes are discussed, together with the implications for beta-decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay. The cosmological effects of light sterile neutrinos are briefly reviewed and the implications of existing cosmological data are discussed. The review concludes with a summary of future perspectives.
Using superconformal methods we derive an explicit de Sitter supergravity action invariant under spontaneously broken local ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry. The supergravity multiplet interacts with a nilpotent goldstino multiplet. We present a complete locally supersymmetric action including the graviton and the fermionic fields, gravitino and goldstino, no scalars. In the global limit when supergravity multiplet decouples, our action reproduces the Volkov-Akulov theory. In the unitary gauge where goldstino vanishes we recover pure supergravity with the positive cosmological constant. The classical equations of motion, with all fermions vanishing, have a maximally symmetric solution: de Sitter space.
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The recently constructed Hubble diagram using a combined sample of SNLS and SDSS-II Type Ia SNe, and an application of the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test using model-independent Baryon Acoustic Oscillation data, have suggested that the principal constraint underlying the cosmic expansion is the total equation-of-state of the cosmic fluid, rather than that of its dark energy. These studies have focused on the critical redshift range (0 < z < 2) within which the transition from decelerated to accelerated expansion is thought to have occurred, and they suggest that the cosmic fluid has zero active mass, consistent with a constant expansion rate. The evident impact of this conclusion on cosmological theory calls for an independent confirmation. In this paper, we carry out this crucial one-on-one comparison between the R_h=ct Universe (an FRW cosmology with zero active mass) and wCDM/LCDM, using the latest high-z measurements of H(z). Whereas the Type Ia SNe yield the integrated luminosity distance, while the AP diagnostic tests the geometry of the Universe, the Hubble parameter directly samples the expansion rate itself. We find that the model-independent cosmic chronometer data prefer R_h}=ct over wCDM/LCDM with a BIC likelihood of ~95% versus only ~5%, in strong support of the earlier SNeIa and AP results. This contrasts with a recent analysis of H(z) data based solely on BAO measurements which, however, strongly depend on the assumed cosmology. We discuss why the latter approach is inappropriate for model comparisons, and emphasize again the need for truly model-independent observations to be used in cosmological tests.
We estimate cluster masses and velocity dispersions for 123 clusters from optical spectroscopy to compare the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) mass proxy and dynamical masses. Our new survey, HeCS-SZ (Hectospec Cluster Survey of SZ-selected clusters), includes 7,721 new or remeasured redshifts from MMT/Hectospec observations of 24 SZ-selected clusters at redshifts $z$=0.05-0.20 and not in previous surveys. We supplement the Hectospec data with spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and cluster data from the Cluster Infall Regions in SDSS (CIRS) project and the Hectospec Cluster Survey (HeCS), our Hectospec survey of clusters selected by X-ray flux. We measure the scaling relation between velocity dispersion and SZ mass estimates from the integrated Compton parameter for an SZ complete sample of 83 clusters. The observed relation agrees very well with a simple virial scaling from mass (based on SZ) to velocity dispersion. The SZ mass estimates (calibrated with hydrostatic X-ray mass estimates) are not significantly biased. Further, the velocity dispersion of cluster galaxies is consistent with the expected velocity dispersion of dark matter particles, indicating that galaxies are good dynamical tracers (i.e., velocity bias is small). Significant mass bias in SZ mass estimates could relieve tension between cosmological results from Planck SZ cluster counts and Planck CMB data. However, the excellent agreement between our measured velocity dispersions and those predicted from a virial scaling relation suggests that any SZ mass bias is too small to reconcile SZ and CMB results. In principle, SZ mass bias and velocity bias of galaxies could conspire to yield good agreement, but the required velocity bias is $\sigma_{galaxy}\approx 0.77\sigma_{DM}$, outside the range of plausible models of velocity bias in the literature.
Cosmic microwave background lensing has become a new cosmological probe, carrying rich information on the matter power spectrum and distances over the redshift range $z\approx1$-4. We investigate the role of scale dependent new physics, such as from modified gravity, neutrino mass, and cold (low sound speed) dark energy, and its signature on CMB lensing. The distinction between different scale dependences, and the different redshift dependent weighting of the matter power spectrum entering into CMB lensing and other power spectra, imply that CMB lensing can probe simultaneously a diverse range of physics. We highlight the role of arcminute resolution polarization experiments for distinguishing between physical effects.
We consider a phenomenological model of monodromy inflation where the inflaton is the phase of a complex scalar field $\Phi$. Planck-suppressed operators of $\mathcal O(f^5/M_\mathrm{pl})$ modify the geometry of the vev $\left \langle \Phi \right \rangle$ at first order in the decay constant $f$, which adds a first-order periodic term to the definition of the canonically normalized inflaton $\phi$. This correction to the inflaton induces a fixed number of extra oscillatory terms in the monodromy potential $V \sim \theta^p$. We derive the same result in a toy scenario where the vacuum $\left \langle \Phi \right \rangle$ is an ellipse with an arbitrarily large eccentricity. These extra oscillations change the form of the power spectrum as a function of scale $k$ and provide a possible mechanism for differentiating EFT-motivated monodromy inflation from models where the angular shift symmetry is a gauge symmetry.
We measure the two-point clustering of spectroscopically confirmed quasars from the final sample of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) on comoving scales of 4 < s < 22 Mpc/h. The sample covers 6950 deg^2 (~ 19 (Gpc/h)^3) and, over the redshift range 2.2 < z < 2.8, contains 55,826 homogeneously selected quasars, which is twice as many as in any similar work. We deduce b_Q = 3.54 +/- 0.10 ; the most precise measurement of quasar bias to date at these redshifts. This corresponds to a host halo mass of ~ 2 x 10^12 ~ M_sun/h with an implied quasar duty cycle of ~1 percent. The real-space projected correlation function is well-fit by a power law of index -2 and correlation length r0 = (8.12 +/- 0.22), Mpc/h over scales of 4 < rp < 25 ~ Mpc/h. To better study the evolution of quasar clustering at moderate redshift, we extend the redshift range of our study to z ~ 3.4 and measure the bias and correlation length of three subsamples over 2.2 < z < 3.4. We find no significant evolution of r0 or bias over this range, implying that the host halo mass of quasars decreases somewhat with increasing redshift. We find quasar clustering remains similar over a decade in luminosity, contradicting a scenario in which quasar luminosity is monotonically related to halo mass at z ~ 2.5. Our results are broadly consistent with previous BOSS measurements, but they yield more precise constraints based upon a larger and more uniform data set.
We study the generation of sharp features in the primordial spectra within the framework of effective field theory of inflation, wherein curvature perturbations are the consequence of the dynamics of a single scalar degree of freedom. We identify two sources in the generation of features: rapid variations of the sound speed c_s (at which curvature fluctuations propagate) and rapid variations of the expansion rate H during inflation. With this in mind, we propose a non-trivial relation linking these two quantities that allows us to study the generation of sharp features in realistic scenarios where features are the result of the simultaneous occurrence of these two sources. This relation depends on a single parameter with a value determined by the particular model (and its numerical input) responsible for the rapidly varying background. As a consequence, we find a one-parameter consistency relation between the shape and size of features in the bispectrum and features in the power spectrum. To substantiate this result, we discuss several examples of models for which this one-parameter relation (between c_s and H) holds, including models in which features in the spectra are both sudden and resonant.
We calculate the squeezed limit of the bispectrum produced by inflation with multiple light fields. To achieve this we allow for different horizon exit times for each mode and calculate the intrinsic field-space three-point function in the squeezed limit using soft-limit techniques. We then use the $\delta N$ formalism from the time the last mode exits the horizon to calculate the bispectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation. We apply our results to calculate the spectral index of the halo bias, $n_{\delta b}$, an important observational probe of the squeezed limit of the primordial bispectrum and compare our results with previous formulae. We give an example of a curvaton model with $n_{\delta b} \sim {\cal O}(n_s-1)$ for which we find a 20% correction to observable parameters for squeezings relevant to future experiments. For completeness, we also calculate the squeezed limit of three-point correlation functions involving gravitons for multiple field models.
We introduce a novel dark matter scenario where the visible sector and the dark sector share a common asymmetry. The two sectors are connected through an unstable mediator with baryon number one, allowing the standard model baryon asymmetry to be shared with dark matter via semi-annihilation. The present-day abundance of dark matter is then set by thermal freeze-out of this semi-annihilation process, yielding an asymmetric version of the WIMP miracle as well as promising signals for indirect detection experiments. As a proof of concept, we find a viable region of parameter space consistent with the observed Fermi excess of GeV gamma rays from the galactic center.
We study the superstring inspired $E_{6}$ model motivated $U(1)_{N}$ extension of the supersymmetric standard model to explore the possibility of explaining the recent excess CMS events and the baryon asymmetry of the universe in eight possible variants of the model. In light of the hints from short-baseline neutrino experiments at the existence of one or more light sterile neutrinos, we also study the neutrino mass matrices dictated by the field assignments and the discrete symmetries in these variants. We find that all the variants can explain the excess CMS events via the exotic slepton decay, while for a standard choice of the discrete symmetry four of the variants have the feature of allowing high scale baryogenesis (leptogenesis). For one other variant three body decay induced soft baryogenesis mechanism is possible which can induce baryon number violating neutron-antineutron oscillation. We also point out a new discrete symmetry which has the feature of ensuring proton stability and forbidding tree level flavor changing neutral current processes while allowing for the possibility of high scale leptogenesis for two of the variants. On the other hand, neutrino mass matrix of the $U(1)_{N}$ model variants naturally accommodates three active and two sterile neutrinos which acquire masses through their mixing with extra neutral fermions giving rise to interesting textures for neutrino masses.
Accurate statistical measurement with large imaging surveys has traditionally
required throwing away a sizable fraction of the data. This is because most
measurements have have relied on selecting nearly complete samples, where
variations in the composition of the galaxy population with seeing, depth, or
other survey characteristics are small.
We introduce a new measurement method that aims to minimize this wastage,
allowing precision measurement for any class of stars or galaxies detectable in
an imaging survey. We have implemented our proposal in Balrog, a software
package which embeds fake objects in real imaging in order to accurately
characterize measurement biases.
We demonstrate this technique with an angular clustering measurement using
Dark Energy Survey (DES) data. We first show that recovery of our injected
galaxies depends on a wide variety of survey characteristics in the same way as
the real data. We then construct a flux-limited sample of the faintest galaxies
in DES, chosen specifically for their sensitivity to depth and seeing
variations. Using the synthetic galaxies as randoms in the standard
Landy-Szalay correlation function estimator suppresses the effects of variable
survey selection by at least two orders of magnitude. With this correction, our
measured angular clustering is found to be in excellent agreement with that of
a matched sample drawn from much deeper, higher-resolution space-based COSMOS
imaging; over angular scales of $0.004^{\circ} < \theta < 0.2^{\circ}$, we find
a best-fit scaling amplitude between the DES and COSMOS measurements of $1.00
\pm 0.09$.
We expect this methodology to be broadly useful for extending the statistical
reach of measurements in a wide variety of coming imaging surveys.
We provide a systematic treatment of chemical equilibrium in the presence of
a specific type of time dependent background. The type of time dependent
background we consider appears, for example, in recently proposed axion/Majoron
leptogenesis models [1,2]. In describing the chemical equilibrium we use
quantities which are invariant under redefinition of fermion phases (we refer
to this redefinition as a change of basis for short), and therefore it is a
basis invariant treatment. The change of the anomaly terms due to the change of
the path integral measure [3,4] under a basis change is taken into account. We
find it is useful to go back and forth between different bases, and there are
insights which can be more easily obtained in one basis rather than another. A
toy model is provided to illustrate the ideas.
For the axion leptogenesis model [1], our result suggests that at $T >
10^{13}$ GeV , when sphaleron processes decouple, and $\Gamma_{B+L} << H <
\Gamma_L$ (where $H$ is the Hubble parameter at temperature $T$ and $\Gamma_L$
is the $\Delta L = 2$ lepton number violating interaction rate), the amount of
$B-L$ created is controlled by the smallness of the sphaleron interaction rate,
$\Gamma_{B+L}$. Therefore it is not as efficient as described. In addition, we
notice a modification of gauge boson dispersion relation at sub-leading order.
The influence of plasma on different effects of gravitational lensing is reviewed. Using the Hamiltonian approach for geometrical optics in a medium in the presence of gravity, an exact formula for the photon deflection angle by a black hole (or another body with a Schwarzschild metric) embedded in plasma with a spherically symmetric density distribution is derived. The deflection angle in this case is determined by the mutual combination of different factors: gravity, dispersion, and refraction. While the effects of deflection by the gravity in vacuum and the refractive deflection in a nonhomogeneous medium are well known, the new effect is that, in the case of a homogeneous plasma, in the absence of refractive deflection, the gravitational deflection differs from the vacuum deflection and depends on the photon frequency. In the presence of a plasma nonhomogeneity, the chromatic refractive deflection also occurs, so the presence of plasma always makes gravitational lensing chromatic. In particular, the presence of plasma leads to different angular positions of the same image if it is observed at different wavelengths. It is discussed in detail how to apply the presented formulas for the calculation of the deflection angle in different situations. Gravitational lensing in plasma beyond the weak deflection approximation is also considered.
In this paper we review a recently developed approximate method for investigation of dynamics of compressible ellipsoidal figures. Collapse and subsequent behaviour are described by a system of ordinary differential equations for time evolution of semi-axes of a uniformly rotating, three-axis, uniform-density ellipsoid. First, we apply this approach to investigate dynamic stability of non-spherical bodies. We solve the equations that describe, in a simplified way, the Newtonian dynamics of a self-gravitating non-rotating spheroidal body. We find that, after loss of stability, a contraction to a singularity occurs only in a pure spherical collapse, and deviations from spherical symmetry prevent the contraction to the singularity through a stabilizing action of nonlinear non-spherical oscillations. The development of instability leads to the formation of a regularly or chaotically oscillating body, in which dynamical motion prevents the formation of the singularity. We find regions of chaotic and regular pulsations by constructing a Poincare diagram. A real collapse occurs after damping of the oscillations because of energy losses, shock wave formation or viscosity. We use our approach to investigate approximately the first stages of collapse during the large scale structure formation. The theory of this process started from ideas of Ya. B. Zeldovich, concerning the formation of strongly non-spherical structures during nonlinear stages of the development of gravitational instability, known as 'Zeldovich's pancakes'. In this paper the collapse of non-collisional dark matter and the formation of pancake structures are investigated approximately. We estimate an emission of very long gravitational waves during the collapse, and discuss the possibility of gravitational lensing and polarization of the cosmic microwave background by these waves.
We present a new method for determining the local dark matter density using kinematic data for a population of tracer stars. The Jeans equation in the $z$-direction is integrated to yield an equation that gives the velocity dispersion as a function of the total mass density, tracer density, and terms describing the couplings of vertical-radial and vertical-axial motions. Using MultiNest we can then fit a dark matter mass profile to tracer density and velocity dispersion data, and derive credible regions on the dark matter density profile. Our method avoids numerical differentiation, leading to lower numerical noise, and is able to deal with the tilt term while remaining one dimensional. In this study we present the method and perform initial tests on idealised mock data. We also demonstrate the crucial importance of dealing with the tilt term for tracers that sample $\gtrsim 1$ kpc above the disc plane. If ignored, this results in a systematic overestimation of the dark matter density.
We perform a joint analysis of current data from cosmology and laboratory experiments to constrain the neutrino mass parameters in the framework of bayesian statistics, also accounting for uncertainties in nuclear modeling, relevant for neutrinoless double $\beta$ decay ($0\nu2\beta$) searches. We find that a combination of current oscillation, cosmological and $0\nu2\beta$ data constrains $m_{\beta\beta}~<~0.04\,(0.06)$ eV at 95\% C.L. for normal (inverted) hierarchy. This result is not affected by uncertainties in nuclear modeling. We then perform forecasts for forthcoming and next-generation experiments, and find that in the case of normal hierarchy, and given a total mass of $0.1\,$ eV, it will be possible to measure the total mass itself, the effective Majorana mass and the effective electron mass with an accuracy (at 95\% C.L.) of $0.05$, $0.015$, $0.02$ eV respectively, as well as to be sensitive to one of the Majorana phases. We argue that more precise nuclear modeling will be crucial to improve these sensitivities.
Recently, a novel mechanism to address the hierarchy problem has been proposed [1], where the hierarchy between weak scale physics and any putative `cutoff' $M$ is translated into a parametrically large field excursion for the so-called relaxion field, driving the Higgs mass to values much less than $M$ through cosmological dynamics. In its simplest incarnation, the relaxion mechanism requires nothing beyond the standard model other than an axion (the relaxion field) and an inflaton. In this note, we critically re-examine the requirements for successfully realizing the relaxion mechanism and point out that parametrically larger field excursions can be obtained for a given number of e-folds by simply requiring that the background break exact de Sitter invariance. We discuss several corollaries of this observation, including the interplay between the upper bound on the scale $M$ and the order parameter $\epsilon$ associated with the breaking of dS symmetry, and the possibility that the relaxion could play the role of a curvaton. We find that a successful realization of the mechanism is possible with as few as $\mathcal O (10^3)$ e-foldings, albeit with a reduced cutoff $M \sim 10^6$ GeV for a dark QCD axion and outline a minimal scenario that can be made consistent with CMB observations.
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