We probe the higher-order clustering of the galaxies in the final data release (DR12) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) using the method of germ-grain Minkowski Functionals (MFs). Our sample consists of 410,615 BOSS galaxies from the northern Galactic cap in the redshift range 0.450--0.595. We show the MFs to be sensitive to contributions up to the six-point correlation function for this data set. We ensure with a custom angular mask that the results are more independent of boundary effects than in previous analyses of this type. We extract the higher-order part of the MFs and quantify the difference to the case without higher-order correlations. The resulting $\chi^{2}$ value of over 10,000 for a modest number of degrees of freedom, O(200), indicates a 100-sigma deviation and demonstrates that we have a highly significant signal of the non-Gaussian contributions to the galaxy distribution. This statistical power can be useful in testing models with differing higher-order correlations. Comparing the galaxy data to the QPM and MultiDark-Patchy mocks, we find that the latter better describes the observed structure. From an order-by-order decomposition we expect that, for example, already a reduction of the amplitude of the MD-Patchy mock power spectrum by 5% would remove the remaining tension.
The outcome of upcoming cosmological surveys will depend on the accurate estimates of photometric redshifts. In the framework of the implementation of the photo-z algorithm for Euclid, we are exploring new avenues to improve template-fitting methods. The paper focusses on the prescription of the extinction of source light by dust in the Milky Way. Since Galactic extinction strongly correlates with wavelength and photometry is commonly obtained in broad-band filters, the amount of absorption depends on the source SED, a point often neglected as the SED is not known a-priori. A consequence of this is that the observed E(B-V) (=A_B-A_V) will be different from the E(B-V) used to normalise the absorption law k_lambda (=A_lambda/E(B-V)). Band-pass corrections are required to renormalise the law for a given SED. We assess the band-pass corrections of a range of SEDs and find they vary by up to 20%. We investigate how dust-to-reddening scaling factors depend of the sources used for their calibration. We derive scaling factors from the color excesses of z<0.4 SDSS red galaxies and show that band-pass corrections predict the observed differences. Extinction is then estimated for a range of SEDs and filters relevant to Euclid and other cosmological ground-based surveys. For high extinction line-of-sights (E(B-V)>0.1, ~8% of the Euclid survey), the variations in corrections can be ~0.1mag in the `bluer' optical filters and ~0.04mag in the NIR filters. An inaccurate correction of extinction critically affects photo-z. In particular, for high extinctions and z<0.5, the bias (mean D_z=z_phot-z_real) exceeds 0.2%(1+z), the precision required by weak-lensing analyses. Additional uncertainty on the MW extinction law further reduces the photo-z precision. We propose a new prescription of Galactic absorption for template-fitting algorithms that takes into consideration the dependence of extinction with SED.
Directionally sensitive dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments present the only way to observe the full three-dimensional velocity distribution of the Milky Way halo local to Earth. In this work we compare methods for extracting information about the local DM velocity distribution from a set of recoil directions and energies in a range of hypothetical directional and non-directional experiments. We compare a model independent empirical parameterisation of the velocity distribution based on an angular discretisation with a model dependent approach which assumes knowledge of the functional form of the distribution. The methods are tested under three distinct halo models which cover a range of possible phase space structures for the local velocity distribution: a smooth Maxwellian halo, a tidal stream and a debris flow. In each case we use simulated directional data to attempt to reconstruct the shape and parameters describing each model as well as the DM particle properties. We find that the empirical parametrisation is able to make accurate unbiased reconstructions of the DM mass and cross section as well as capture features in the underlying velocity distribution in certain directions without any assumptions about its true functional form. We also find that by extracting directionally averaged velocity parameters with this method one can discriminate between halo models with different classes of substructure.
Future large scale structure surveys will provide increasingly tight constraints on our cosmological model. These surveys will report results on the distance scale and growth rate of perturbations through measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift-Space Distortions. It is interesting to ask: what further analyses should become routine, so as to test as-yet-unknown models of cosmic acceleration? Models which aim to explain the accelerated expansion rate of the Universe by modifications to General Relativity often invoke screening mechanisms which can imprint a non-standard density dependence on their predictions. This suggests density-dependent clustering as a `generic' constraint. This paper argues that a density-marked correlation function provides a density-dependent statistic which is easy to compute and report and requires minimal additional infrastructure beyond what is routinely available to such survey analyses. We give one realization of this idea and study it using low order perturbation theory. We encourage groups developing modified gravity theories to see whether such statistics provide discriminatory power for their models.
One alternative to the CDM paradigm is the Scalar Field Dark Matter (SFDM) model, which assumes dark matter is a spin-0 ultra-light scalar field with a typical mass $m\sim10^{-22}\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ and positive self-interactions. Due to the ultra-light boson mass, the SFDM could form Bose-Einstein condensates in the very early universe, which are interpreted as the dark matter haloes. Although cosmologically the model behaves as CDM, they differ at small scales: SFDM naturally predicts fewer satellite haloes, cores in dwarf galaxies and the formation of massive galaxies at high redshifts. The ground state (or BEC) solution at zero temperature suffices to describe low-mass galaxies but fails for larger systems. A possible solution is adding finite-temperature corrections to the SF potential which allows combinations of excited states. In this work we test the finite-temperature multistate SFDM solution at galaxy cluster scales and compare our results with the NFW and BEC profiles. We achieve this by fitting the mass distribution of 13 Chandra X-ray clusters of galaxies, excluding the brightest galaxy central region. We show that the SFDM model accurately describes the clusters' DM mass distributions offering an equivalent or better agreement than the NFW profile. The complete disagreement of the BEC model with the data is also shown. We conclude that the theoretically motivated multistate SFDM profile is an interesting alternative to empirical profiles and \textit{ad hoc} fitting-functions that attempt to couple the asymptotic NFW decline with the core SFDM model.
In this paper, based on a 2.29 GHz VLBI all-sky survey of 613 milliarcsecond ultra-compact radio sources with $0.0035<z<3.787$, we describe a method of identifing the sub-sample which can serve as individual standard rulers in cosmology. If the linear size of the compact structure is assumed to depend on source luminosity and redshift as $l_m=l L^\beta (1+z)^n$, only intermediate-luminosity quasars ($10^{27}$ W/Hz$<L<$ $10^{28}$ W/Hz) show negligible dependence ($|n|\simeq 10^{-3}$, $|\beta|\simeq 10^{-4}$), and thus represent a population of such rulers with fixed characteristic length $l=11.42$ pc. With a sample of 120 such sources covering the redshift range $0.46<z<2.80$, we confirm the existence of dark energy in the Universe with high significance, and obtain stringent constraints on both the matter density $\Omega_m=0.323\pm0.195$ and the Hubble constant $H_0=66.25\pm7.75$ km sec$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$. Finally, with the angular diameter distances $D_A$ measured for quasars extending to high redshifts ($z\sim 3.0$), we reconstruct the $D_A(z)$ function using the technique of Gaussian processes. This allows us to identify the redshift corresponding to the maximum of the $D_A(z)$ function: $z_m=1.65$ and the corresponding angular diameter distance $D_A(z_m)=1732.73\pm74.66$ Mpc. Similar reconstruction of the expansion rate function $H(z)$ based on the data from cosmic chronometers and BAO gives us $H(z_m)=172.85\pm6.06$ km sec$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$. These measurements are used to estimate the speed of light at this redshift: $c=2.995(\pm0.235)\times 10^5$ km/s. This is the first measurement of the speed of light in a cosmological setting referring to the distant past.
The prospects of future galaxy surveys for non-Gaussianity measurements call for the development of robust techniques for computing the bispectrum of primordial cosmological perturbations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the calculation of the squeezed bispectrum in multiple-field inflation. With use of the $\delta N$ formalism, our framework sheds new light on the recently pointed out difference between the squeezed bispectrum for global observers and that for local observers, while allowing one to calculate both. For local observers in particular, the squeezed bispectrum is found to vanish in single-field inflation. Furthermore, our framework allows one to go beyond the near-equilateral ("small hierarchy") limit, and to automatically include intrinsic non-Gaussianities that do not need to be calculated separately. The explicit computational programme of our method is given and illustrated with a few examples.
We present new measurements of the power spectra of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies using the Planck 2015 full-mission HFI data at 353, 545, and 857 GHz over 20000 square degrees. We use techniques similar to those applied for the cosmological analysis of Planck, subtracting dust emission at the power spectrum level. Our analysis gives stable solutions for the CIB power spectra with increasing sky coverage up to about 50% of the sky. These spectra agree well with Hi cleaned spectra from Planck measured on much smaller areas of sky with low Galactic dust emission. At 545 and 857 GHz our CIB spectra agree well with those measured from Herschel data. We find that the CIB spectra at l > 500 are well fitted by a power-law model for the clustered CIB, with a shallow index {\gamma}^cib = 0.53\pm0.02. This is consistent with the CIB results at 217 GHz from the cosmological parameter analysis of Planck. We show that a linear combination of the 545 and 857 GHz Planck maps is dominated by CIB fluctuations at multipoles l > 300.
In this paper, we consider two case examples of Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) generalizations of canonical large-field inflation models, characterized by a reduced sound speed, $c_{S} < 1$. The reduced speed of sound lowers the tensor-scalar ratio, improving the fit of the models to the data, but increases the equilateral-mode non-Gaussianity, $f^\mathrm{equil.}_\mathrm{NL}$, which the latest results from the Planck satellite constrain by a new upper bound. We examine constraints on these models in light of the most recent Planck and BICEP/Keck results, and find that they have a greatly decreased window of viability. The upper bound on $f^\mathrm{equil.}_\mathrm{NL}$ corresponds to a lower bound on the sound speed and a corresponding lower bound on the tensor-scalar ratio of $r \sim 0.01$, so that near-future Cosmic Microwave Background observations may be capable of ruling out entire classes of DBI inflation models. The result is, however, not universal: infrared-type DBI inflation models, where the speed of sound increases with time, are not subject to the bound.
I calculate the rate of WIMP capture and annihilation in the Earth in the non-relativistic effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions. Neglecting operator interference, I consider all Galilean invariant interaction operators that can arise from the exchange of a heavy particle of spin less than or equal to one when WIMPs have spin 0, 1/2 or 1. I compute position and shape of the expected resonances in the mass - capture rate plane and show that Iron is not the most important element in the capture process for many currently ignored interaction operators. I compare these predictions with the recent results of an Earth WIMP analysis of IceCube in the 86-string configuration and set limits on all isoscalar and isovector coupling constants of the effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions. For certain interaction operators and for a dark matter particle mass of about 50 GeV, I find that these limits are stronger than those I have previously derived in an analysis of the solar WIMP search performed at IceCube in the 79-string configuration.
Astrophysical techniques have pioneered the discovery of neutrino mass properties. Current cosmological observations give an upper bound on neutrino masses by attempting to disentangle the small neutrino contribution from the sum of all matter using precise theoretical models. We discover the differential neutrino condensation effect in our TianNu N-body simulation. Neutrino masses can be inferred using this effect by comparing galaxy properties in regions of the universe with different neutrino relative abundance (i.e. the local neutrino to cold dark matter density ratio). In "neutrino-rich"' regions, more neutrinos can be captured by massive halos compared to "neutrino-poor" regions. This effect differentially skews the halo mass function and opens up the path to independent neutrino mass measurements in current or future galaxy surveys.
We study non--perturbatively the effect of the deflection angle on the BAO wiggles of the matter power spectrum in real space. We show that from redshift z~2 this introduces a dispersion of roughly 1 Mpc at BAO scale, which corresponds approximately to a 1% effect. The lensing effect induced by the deflection angle, which is completely geometrical and survey independent, smears out the BAO wiggles. The effect on the power spectrum amplitude at BAO scale is about 0.1% for z~2 and 0.2% for z~4. We compare the smoothing effects induced by the lensing potential and non--linear structure formation, showing that the two effects become comparable at z~4, while the lensing effect dominates for sources at higher redshifts. We note that this effect is not accounted through BAO reconstruction techniques.
The number of nonrelativistic axions can be changed by inelastic reactions that produce photons or relativistic axions. Any odd number of axions can annihilate into two photons. Any even number of nonrelativistic axions can scatter into two relativistic axions. We calculate the rate at which axions are lost from axion stars from these inelastic reactions. In dilute systems of axions, the dominant inelastic reaction is axion decay into two photons. In sufficiently dense systems of axions, the dominant inelastic reaction is the scattering of four nonrelativistic axions into two relativistic axions. The scattering of odd numbers of axions into two photons produces monochromatic radio-frequency signals at odd-integer harmonics of the fundamental frequency set by the axion mass. This provides a unique signature for dense systems of axions, such as a dense axion star or a collapsing dilute axion star.
We report on the successful completion of a 2 trillion particle cosmological simulation to z=0 run on the Piz Daint supercomputer (CSCS, Switzerland), using 4000+ GPU nodes for a little less than 80h of wall-clock time or 350,000 node hours. Using multiple benchmarks and performance measurements on the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory Titan supercomputer, we demonstrate that our code PKDGRAV3, delivers, to our knowledge, the fastest time-to-solution for large-scale cosmological N-body simulations. This was made possible by using the Fast Multipole Method in conjunction with individual and adaptive particle time steps, both deployed efficiently (and for the first time) on supercomputers with GPU-accelerated nodes. The very low memory footprint of PKDGRAV3 allowed us to run the first ever benchmark with 8 trillion particles on Titan, and to achieve perfect scaling up to 18000 nodes and a peak performance of 10 Pflops.
We study the dust content of galaxies from z $=$ 0 to z $=$ 9 in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation that include new recipes to track the production and destruction of dust. We include condensation of dust in stellar ejecta, the growth of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM), the destruction of dust by supernovae and in the hot halo, and dusty winds and inflows. The rate of dust growth in the ISM depends on the metallicity and density of molecular clouds. Our fiducial model reproduces the relation between dust mass and stellar mass from z $=$ 0 to z $=$ 7, the dust-to-gas ratio of local galaxies as a function of stellar mass, the double power law trend between dust-to- gas ratio and gas-phase metallicity, the number density of galaxies with dust masses less than $10^{8.3} M_\odot$, and the cosmic density of dust at z $=$ 0. The dominant mode of dust formation is dust growth in the ISM, except for galaxies with $M_* < 10^7 M_\odot$, where condensation of dust in supernova ejecta dominates. The dust-to-metal ratio of galaxies evolves as a function of gas-phase metallicity, unlike what is typically assumed in cosmological simulations. Model variants including higher condensation efficiencies, a fixed timescale for dust growth in the ISM, or no growth at all reproduce some of the observed constraints, but fail to reproduce the shape of dust scaling relations and the dust mass of high-redshift galaxies simultaneously.
We investigate the effects of dense environments on galaxy evolution by examining how the properties of galaxies in the z = 1.6 protocluster Cl 0218.3-0510 depend on their location. We determine galaxy properties using spectral energy distribution fitting to 14-band photometry, including data at three wavelengths that tightly bracket the Balmer and 4000A breaks of the protocluster galaxies. We find that two-thirds of the protocluster galaxies, which lie between several compact groups, are indistinguishable from field galaxies. The other third, which reside within the groups, differ significantly from the intergroup galaxies in both colour and specific star formation rate. We find that the fraction of red galaxies within the massive protocluster groups is twice that of the intergroup region. These excess red galaxies are due to enhanced fractions of both passive galaxies (1.7 times that of the intergroup region) and dusty star-forming galaxies (3 times that of the intergroup region). We infer that some protocluster galaxies are processed in the groups before the cluster collapses. These processes act to suppress star formation and change the mode of star formation from unobscured to obscured.
SDSS J2222+2745 is a galaxy cluster at z=0.49, strongly lensing a quasar at z=2.805 into six widely separated images. In recent HST imaging of the field, we identify additional multiply lensed galaxies, and confirm the sixth quasar image that was identified by Dahle et al. (2013). We used the Gemini North telescope to measure a spectroscopic redshift of z=4.56 of one of the secondary lensed galaxies. These data are used to refine the lens model of SDSS J2222+2745, compute the time delay and magnifications of the lensed quasar images, and reconstruct the source image of the quasar host and a second lensed galaxy at z=2.3. This second galaxy also appears in absorption in our Gemini spectra of the lensed quasar, at a projected distance of 34 kpc. Our model is in agreement with the recent time delay measurements of Dahle et al. (2015), who found tAB=47.7+/-6.0 days and tAC=-722+/-24 days. We use the observed time delays to further constrain the model, and find that the model-predicted time delays of the three faint images of the quasar are tAD=502+/-68 days, tAE=611+/-75 days, and tAF=415+/-72 days. We have initiated a follow-up campaign to measure these time delays with Gemini North. Finally, we present initial results from an X-ray monitoring program with Swift, indicating the presence of hard X-ray emission from the lensed quasar, as well as extended X-ray emission from the cluster itself, which is consistent with the lensing mass measurement and the cluster velocity dispersion.
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We present a method aimed at separating the motion-induced dipole of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the intrinsic, primordial dipole component. We show that in a moving frame, the leakage of an intrinsic dipole moment into the CMB monopole and quadrupole induces spectral distortions with distinct frequency functions that respectively peak at 266 GHz and 310 GHz at $\sim 10$nK level. The leakage into the quadrupole moment also induces a geometrical distortion to the spatial morphology of this mode. The combination of these effects can be used to lift the degeneracy between the motion-induced dipole and any intrinsic dipole that the CMB might possess. The leakage of an intrinsic dipole of order $\sim 10^{-5}$ into the monopole and quadrupole moments will be detectable by a PIXIE--like experiment at $\sim 6\sigma$ at the peak frequency.
1) Background: the budget of non-thermal energy in galaxy clusters is not well constrained, owing to the observational and theoretical difficulties in studying these diluted plasmas on large scales. 2) Method: we use recent cosmological simulations with complex physics in order to connect the emergence of non-thermal energy to the underlying evolution of gas and dark matter. 3) Results: the impact of non-thermal energy (e.g. cosmic rays, magnetic fields and turbulent motions) is found to increase in the outer region of galaxy clusters. Within numerical and theoretical uncertainties, turbulent motions dominate the budget of non-thermal energy in most of the cosmic volume. 4) Conclusion: assessing the distribution non-thermal energy in galaxy clusters is crucial to perform high-precision cosmology in the future. Constraining the level of non-thermal energy in cluster outskirts will improve our understanding of the acceleration of relativistic particles by cosmic shocks and of the origin of extragalactic magnetic fields.
This thesis begins with an introduction to the state of the art of modern Cosmology. The field of Particle Cosmology is then introduced and explored, in particular with regard to the study of cosmological inflation. We then introduce a new model of Thermal Inflation, in which the mass of the thermal waterfall field responsible for the inflation is dependent on a light spectator scalar field. The model contains a variety of free parameters, two of which control the power of the coupling term and the non-renormalizable term. We use the $\delta N$ formalism to investigate the "end of inflation" and modulated decay scenarios in turn to see whether they are able to produce the dominant contribution to the primordial curvature perturbation $\zeta$. We constrain the model and then explore the parameter space. We explore key observational signatures, such as non-Gaussianity, the scalar spectral index and the running of the scalar spectral index. We find that for some regions of the parameter space, the ability of the model to produce the dominant contribution to $\zeta$ is excluded. However, for other regions of the parameter space, we find that the model yields a sharp prediction for a variety of parameters within the model.
The growth index of matter fluctuations is computed for ten distinct accelerating cosmological models and confronted to the latest growth rate data via a two-step process. First, we implement a joint statistical analysis in order to place constraints on the free parameters of all models using solely background data. Second, using the observed growth rate of clustering from various galaxy surveys we test the performance of the current cosmological models at the perturbation level while either marginalizing over $\sigma_8$ or having it as a free parameter. As a result, we find that at a statistical level, i.e. after considering the best-fit $\chi^2$ or the value of the Akaike information criterion, most models are in very good agreement with the growth rate data and are practically indistinguishable from $\Lambda$CDM. However, when we also consider the internal consistency of the models by comparing the theoretically predicted values of $(\gamma_0, \gamma_1)$, i.e. the value of the growth index $\gamma(z)$ and its derivative today, with the best-fit ones, we find that the predictions of three out of ten dark energy models are in mild tension with the best-fit ones when $\sigma_8$ is marginalized over. When $\sigma_8$ is free we find that most models are not only in mild tension, but also predict low values for $\sigma_8$. This could be attributed to either a systematic problem with the growth-rate data or the emergence of new physics at low redshifts, with the latter possibly being related to the well-known issue of the lack of power at small scales. Finally, by utilizing mock data based on an LSST-like survey we show that with future surveys and by using the growth index parameterization, it will be possible to resolve the issue of the low $\sigma_8$ but also the tension between the fitted and theoretically predicted values of $(\gamma_0, \gamma_1)$.
Generalizing one of the author's recent paper on minimal Higgs inflation, we proposed and analyzed a large class of inflationary models with non-polynomial modification of the potential. The modification is done by introducing a single scale creating an infinite plateau for large inflaton field value. One can identify those class of potentials as a small dip at the origin of a constant one dimensional field space. Because of this large flat plateau, we find all the predictions are fitting extremely well with the recent observations made by PLANCK. We have extensively studied perturbative reheating phenomena specifically focusing on the production of dark matter heavier than the reheating temperature. We generalize the well known analysis of heavy dark matter production for general equation of state $w$ of the oscillating inflaton field. However, at the end we consider effective equation of state $w = (n-2)/(n+2)$ emerging form our model. Where, $n$ is the index of the power law potential during late time oscillatory phase. Considering present value of the dark matter abundance $\Omega_{DM} h^2 = 0.1120 \pm 0.0056 $, we constrain the parameter space of annihilation cross-section ($\left<\sigma|v|\right>$) and mass $(M_X)$ of a single component dark matter for different reheating temperature and equation of state $w$.
The growth index $\gamma$ is an interesting tool to assess the phenomenology of dark energy (DE) models, in particular of those beyond general relativity (GR). We investigate the possibility for DE models to allow for a constant $\gamma$ during the entire matter and DE dominated stages. It is shown that if DE is described by quintessence (a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity), this behaviour of $\gamma$ is excluded either because it would require a transition to a phantom behaviour at some finite moment of time, or, in the case of tracking DE at the matter dominated stage, because the relative matter density $\Omega_m$ appears to be too small. An infinite number of solutions, with $\Omega_m$ and $\gamma$ both constant, are found with $w_{DE}=0$ corresponding to Einstein-de Sitter universes. For all modified gravity DE models satisfying $G_{\rm eff}\ge G$, among them the $f(R)$ DE models suggested in the literature, the condition to have a constant $w_{DE}$ is strongly violated at the present epoch. In contrast, DE tracking dust-like matter deep in the matter era, but with $\Omega_m <1$, requires $G_{\rm eff} > G$ and an example is given using scalar-tensor gravity for a range of admissible values of $\gamma$. For constant $w_{DE}$ inside GR, departure from a quasi-constant value is limited until today. Even a large variation of $w_{DE}$ may not result in a clear signature in the change of $\gamma$. The change however is substantial in the future and the asymptotic value of $\gamma$ is found while its slope with respect to $\Omega_m$ (and with respect to $z$) diverges and tends to $-\infty$.
The supersymmetric realization of inflation in $F$-term supergravity is usually plagued by the well known "$\eta$" problem. In this paper, a broad class of small-field examples is realized by employing general O'Raifeartaigh superpotentials. For illustration we present the simplest example in detail, which can be considered as a generalization of hybrid inflation.
Annihilation of Dark Matter (DM) particles has been recognized as one of the possible mechanisms for the production of non-thermal particles and radiation in galaxy clusters. Previous studies have shown that, while DM models can reproduce the spectral properties of the radio halo in the Coma cluster, they fail in reproducing the shape of the radio halo surface brightness because they produce a shape that is too concentrated towards the center of the cluster with respect to the observed one. However, in previous studies the DM distribution was modeled like a single spherically symmetric halo, while the DM distribution in Coma is found to have a complex and elongated shape. In this work we calculate a range of non-thermal emissions in the Coma cluster by using the observed distribution of DM sub-halos. We find that, by including the sub-halos in the DM model, we obtain a radio surface brightness with a shape similar to the observed one, and that the sub-halos boost the radio emission by a factor between 5 and 20\%, allowing to reduce the gap between the annihilation cross section required to reproduce the radio halo flux and the upper limits derived from other observations, and that this gap can be explained by realistic values of the boosting factor due to smaller substructures. Models with neutralino mass of 9 GeV and composition $\tau^+ \tau^-$, and mass of 43 GeV and composition $b \bar b$ can fit the radio halo spectrum using the observed properties of the magnetic field in Coma, and do not predict a gamma-ray emission in excess compared to the recent Fermi-LAT upper limits. These findings make these DM models viable candidate to explain the origin of radio halos in galaxy clusters. [abridged]
Small temperature anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background can be sourced by density perturbations via the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Large voids and superclusters are excellent environments to make a localized measurement of this tiny imprint. In some cases excess signals have been reported. We probed these claims with an independent data set, using the first year data of the Dark Energy Survey in a different footprint, and using a different super-structure finding strategy. We identified 52 large voids and 102 superclusters at redshifts $0.2 < z < 0.65$. We used the Jubilee simulation to a priori evaluate the optimal ISW measurement configuration for our compensated top-hat filtering technique, and then performed a stacking measurement of the CMB temperature field based on the DES data. For optimal configurations, we detected a cumulative cold imprint of voids with $\Delta T_{f} \approx -5.0\pm3.7~\mu K$ and a hot imprint of superclusters $\Delta T_{f} \approx 5.1\pm3.2~\mu K$ ; this is $\sim1.2\sigma$ higher than the expected $|\Delta T_{f}| \approx 0.6~\mu K$ imprint of such super-structures in $\Lambda$CDM. If we instead use an a posteriori selected filter size ($R/R_{v}=0.6$), we can find a temperature decrement as large as $\Delta T_{f} \approx -9.8\pm4.7~\mu K$ for voids, which is $\sim2\sigma$ above $\Lambda$CDM expectations and is comparable to previous measurements made using SDSS super-structure data.
Standard analyses of the reionization history of the universe from Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements consider only the overall optical depth to electron scattering ($\tau$), and further assume a step-like reionization history. However, the polarization data contain information beyond the overall optical depth, and the assumption of a step-like function may miss high redshift contributions to the optical depth and lead to biased $\tau$ constraints. Accounting for its full reionization information content, we reconsider the interpretation of Planck 2015 Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) polarization data using simple, yet physically-motivated reionization models. We show that these measurements still, in fact, allow a non-negligible contribution from metal-free (Pop-III) stars forming in mini-halos of mass $M \sim 10^5-10^6 M_\odot$ at $z \gtrsim 15$, provided this mode of star formation is fairly inefficient. Our best fit model includes an early, self-regulated phase of Pop-III star formation in which the reionization history has a gradual, plateau feature. In this model, $\sim$20\% of the volume of the universe is ionized by $z \sim 20$, yet it nevertheless provides a good match to the Planck LFI measurements. Although preferred when the full information content of the data is incorporated, this model would spuriously be disfavored in the standard analysis. This preference is driven mostly by excess power from E-mode polarization at multipoles of $10 \lesssim \ell \lesssim 20$, which may reflect remaining systematic errors in the data, a statistical fluctuation, or signatures of the first stars. Measurements from the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) should be able to confirm or refute this hint and future cosmic-variance limited E-mode polarization surveys can provide substantially more information on these signatures
SuperCDMS SNOLAB will be a next-generation experiment aimed at directly detecting low-mass (< 10 GeV/c$^2$) particles that may constitute dark matter by using cryogenic detectors of two types (HV and iZIP) and two target materials (germanium and silicon). The experiment is being designed with an initial sensitivity to nuclear recoil cross sections ~ 1 x 10$^{-43}$ cm$^2$ for a dark matter particle mass of 1 GeV/c$^2$, and with capacity to continue exploration to both smaller masses and better sensitivities. The phonon sensitivity of the HV detectors will be sufficient to detect nuclear recoils from sub-GeV dark matter. A detailed calibration of the detector response to low energy recoils will be needed to optimize running conditions of the HV detectors and to interpret their data for dark matter searches. Low-activity shielding, and the depth of SNOLAB, will reduce most backgrounds, but cosmogenically produced $^{3}$H and naturally occurring $^{32}$Si will be present in the detectors at some level. Even if these backgrounds are x10 higher than expected, the science reach of the HV detectors would be over three orders of magnitude beyond current results for a dark matter mass of 1 GeV/c$^2$. The iZIP detectors are relatively insensitive to variations in detector response and backgrounds, and will provide better sensitivity for dark matter particle masses (> 5 GeV/c$^2$). The mix of detector types (HV and iZIP), and targets (germanium and silicon), planned for the experiment, as well as flexibility in how the detectors are operated, will allow us to maximize the low-mass reach, and understand the backgrounds that the experiment will encounter. Upgrades to the experiment, perhaps with a variety of ultra-low-background cryogenic detectors, will extend dark matter sensitivity down to the "neutrino floor", where coherent scatters of solar neutrinos become a limiting background.
The effects of heavy fields modulate the scalar power spectrum during inflation. We analytically calculate the modulations of the scalar power spectrum from a heavy field with a separable monomial potential, i.e. V(\phi)~\phi^n. In general the modulation is characterized by a power-law oscillation which is reduced to the logarithmic oscillation in the case of n=2.
Metals from Population III (Pop III) supernovae led to the formation of less massive Pop II stars in the early universe, altering the course of evolution of primeval galaxies and cosmological reionization. There are a variety of scenarios in which heavy elements from the first supernovae were taken up into second-generation stars, but cosmological simulations only model them on the largest scales. We present small-scale, high-resolution simulations of the chemical enrichment of a primordial halo by a nearby supernova after partial evaporation by the progenitor star. We find that ejecta from the explosion crash into and mix violently with ablative flows driven off the halo by the star, creating dense, enriched clumps capable of collapsing into Pop II stars. Metals may mix less efficiently with the partially exposed core of the halo, and it can form either Pop III or Pop II stars. Both Pop II and III stars may thus form after the collision if the ejecta do not strip all the gas from the halo. The partial evaporation of the halo prior to the explosion is crucial to its later enrichment by the supernova.
We construct and provide the adiabatic regularization method for a $U(1)$ gauge field in a conformally flat spacetime by quantizing in the canonical formalism the gauge fixed $U(1)$ theory with mass terms for the gauge fields and the ghost fields. We show that the adiabatic expansion for the mode functions and the adiabatic vacuum can be defined in a similar way using WKB-type solutions as the scalar fields. As an application of the adiabatic method, we compute the trace of the energy momentum tensor and reproduces the known result for the conformal anomaly obtained by the other regularization methods. The availability of the adiabatic expansion scheme for gauge field allows one to study the renormalization of the de-Sitter space maximal superconformal Yang-Mills theory using the adiabatic regularization method.
3D printing presents an attractive alternative to visual representation of physical datasets such as astronomical images that can be used for research, outreach or teaching purposes, and is especially relevant to people with a visual disability. We here report the use of 3D printing technology to produce a representation of the all-sky Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) intensity anisotropy maps produced by the Planck mission. The success of this work in representing key features of the CMB is discussed as is the potential of this approach for representing other astrophysical data sets. 3D printing such datasets represents a highly complementary approach to the usual 2D projections used in teaching and outreach work, and can also form the basis of undergraduate projects. The CAD files used to produce the models discussed in this paper are made available.
We implement the method developed in [1] to construct the most general parametrised action for linear cosmological perturbations of bimetric theories of gravity. Specifically, we consider perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background, and identify the complete form of the action invariant under diffeomorphism transformations, as well as the number of free parameters characterising this cosmological class of theories. We discuss, in detail, the case without derivative interactions, and compare our results with those found in massive bigravity.
The spacetime evolution of massless spinning particles in a Robertson-Walker background is derived using the deterministic system of equations of motion due to Papapetrou, Souriau and Saturnini. A numerical integration of this system of differential equations in the case of the standard model is performed. The deviation of the photon worldlines from the null geodesics is of the order of the wavelength. Perturbative solutions are also worked out in a more general case. An experimental measurement of this deviation would test the acceleration of our expanding universe.
The dynamics of the large-scale structure of the universe enjoys at all scales, even in the highly non-linear regime, a Lifshitz symmetry during the matter-dominated period. In this paper we propose a general class of six-dimensional spacetimes which could be a gravity dual to the four-dimensional large-scale structure of the universe. In this set-up, the Lifshitz symmetry manifests itself as an isometry in the bulk and our universe is a four-dimensional brane moving in such six-dimensional bulk. After finding the correspondence between the bulk and the brane dynamical Lifshitz exponents, we find the intriguing result that the preferred value of the dynamical Lifshitz exponent of our observed universe, at both linear and non-linear scales, corresponds to a fixed point of the RGE flow of the dynamical Lifshitz exponent in the dual system where the symmetry is enhanced to the Schrodinger group containing a non-relativistic conformal symmetry. We also investigate the RGE flow between fixed points of the Lifshitz dynamical exponent in the bulk and observe that this flow is reflected in a growth rate of the large-scale structure, which seems to be in qualitative agreement with what is observed in current data. Our set-up might provide an interesting new arena for testing the ideas of holography and gravitational duals.
We examine low energy phenomenology of the relaxion solution to the weak scale hierarchy problem. Assuming that the Hubble friction is responsible for the dissipation of relaxion energy, we identify the cosmological relaxion window which corresponds to the parameter region compatible with a given value of the acceptable number of inflationary $e$-foldings. We then discuss a variety of observational constraints on the relaxion window, while focusing on the case that the barrier potential to stabilize the relaxion is induced by new physics, rather than by low energy QCD dynamics. We find that majority of the parameter space with a relaxion mass $m_\phi\gtrsim 100$ eV or a relaxion decay constant $f\lesssim 10^7$ GeV is excluded by existing constraints. There is an interesting small parameter region with $m_\phi\sim \,0.2-1$ GeV and $f\sim\, {\rm few}-10$ TeV, which is allowed by existing constraints, but can be probed soon by future beam dump experiment such as the SHiP experiment, or by improved EDM experiments.
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To measure the mass of foreground objects with weak gravitational lensing, one needs to estimate the redshift distribution of lensed background sources. This is commonly done in an empirical fashion, i.e. with a reference sample of galaxies of known spectroscopic redshift, matched to the source population. In this work, we develop a simple decision tree framework that, under the ideal conditions of a large, purely magnitude-limited reference sample, allows an unbiased recovery of the source redshift probability density function p(z), as a function of magnitude and color. We use this framework to quantify biases in empirically estimated p(z) caused by selection effects present in realistic reference and weak lensing source catalogs, namely (1) complex selection of reference objects by the targeting strategy and success rate of existing spectroscopic surveys and (2) selection of background sources by the success of object detection and shape measurement at low signal-to-noise. For intermediate-to-high redshift clusters, and for depths and filter combinations appropriate for ongoing lensing surveys, we find that (1) spectroscopic selection can cause biases above the 10 per-cent level, which can be reduced to ~5 per-cent by optimal lensing weighting, while (2) selection effects in the shape catalog bias mass estimates at or below the 2 per-cent level. This illustrates the importance of completeness of the reference catalogs for empirical redshift estimation.
Modern Cosmology offers us a great understanding of the universe with
striking precision, made possible by the modern technologies of the newest
generations of telescopes. The standard cosmological model, however, is not
absent of theoretical problems and open questions. One possibility that has
been put forward is the existence of a coupling between dark sectors. The idea
of an interaction between the dark components could help physicists understand
why we live in an epoch of the universe where dark matter and dark energy are
comparable in terms of energy density, which can be regarded as a coincidence
given that their time evolutions are completely different.
We introduce the interaction phenomenologically and proceed to test models of
interaction with observations of redshift-space distortions. In a flat universe
composed only of those two fluids, we consider separately two forms of
interaction, through terms proportional to the densities of both dark energy
and dark matter. An analytic expression for the growth rate approximated as $f
= \Omega_{\mathrm{DM}}^{\gamma}$, where $\Omega_{\mathrm{DM}}$ is the
percentage contribution from the dark matter to the content of the universe and
$\gamma$ is the growth index, is derived in terms of the interaction strength
and of other parameters of the model in the first case, while for the second
model we show that a non-zero interaction cannot be accommodated by the index
growth approximation. The successful expressions obtained are then used to
compare the predictions with growth of structure observational data in a MCMC
code.
We also employ observations of galaxy clusters to assess their virial state
via the modified Layzer-Irvine equation in order to detect signs of an
interaction, obtaining measurements of observed virial ratios, interaction
strength, rest virial ratio and departure from equilibrium for a set of
clusters. [abridged]
The Short BaseLine (SBL) neutrino oscillations anomalies hint at the presence of a sterile neutrino with a mass of around 1 eV. However, such neutrino is highly incompatible with the cosmological data, in particular from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), if no new physics is assumed. An interesting possibility for reconciling the 1 eV sterile neutrino presence in cosmology is related to the existence of a new pseudoscalar interaction. If the sterile neutrinos experience such a pseudoscalar interaction, the cosmological analyses of the full CMB data prefer a sterile neutrino mass that is fully compatible with the SBL determinations. The additional interaction allows to obtain also an improved compatibility of the cosmological predictions with the local measurements of the Hubble parameter.
We study a Galileon inflation in the light of Planck 2015 observational data in order to constraint the model parameter space. We study the spectrum of the primordial modes of the density perturbations by expanding the action up to the second order in perturbations. Then we expand the action up to the third order and find the three point correlation functions to find the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity of the primordial perturbations. We study the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity both in equilateral and orthogonal configurations in this setup and test the model with recent observational data. Our analysis shows that for some ranges of the non-minimal coupling parameter, the model is consistent with observation and it is also possible to have large non-Gaussianity which would be observable by future improvements in experiments. Moreover, we obtain the tilt of the tensor power spectrum and test the standard inflationary consistency relation ($r=-8n_T$) against the latest bounds from the Planck 2015 dataset. We find a slight deviation from the standard consistency relation in this setup. Nevertheless, such a deviation seems not to be sufficiently remarkable to be detected confidently.
Cosmological implications of Higgs field fluctuations during inflation are considered. This study is based on the Standard Model and the standard quadratic model of chaotic inflation where the Higgs field is minimally coupled to gravity and has no direct coupling to the inflaton. In the Standard model the renormalisation group improved effective potential develops an instability (an additional minimum and maximum) at large field values. It is shown that such a new maximum should take place at an energy scale above $10^{14} \;\text{GeV},$ otherwise a universe like ours is extremely unlikely. The extension to the case of the Higgs field interacting with the inflaton field is discussed.
In this paper we study cosmological signatures of modified gravity theories that can be written as a coupling between a extra scalar field and the electromagnetic part of the usual Lagrangian for the matter fields. In these frameworks all the electromagnetic sector of the theory is affected and variations of fundamental constants, of the cosmic distance duality relation and of the evolution law of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) are expected and are related each other. In order to search these variations we perform jointly analyses with angular diameter distances of galaxy clusters, luminosity distances of type Ia supernovae and $T_{CMB}(z)$ measurements. We obtain tight constraints with no indication of violation of the standard framework.
Various theories, such as MOND, MOG, Emergent Gravity and $f(R)$ theories avoid dark matter by assuming a change in General Relativity and/or in Newton's law. Galactic rotation curves are typically described well. Here the application to galaxy clusters is considered, focussed on the good lensing and X-ray data for A1689. As a start, the no-dark-matter case is confirmed to work badly: the need for dark matter starts near the cluster centre, where Newton's law is still supposed to be valid. This leads to the conundrum discovered by Zwicky, which is likely only solvable if the theories assume additional (dark) matter. Neutrinos with eV masses serve well without altering the successes in (dwarf) galaxies.
Gravitational wave (GW) detection in space is aimed at low frequency band (100 nHz - 100 mHz) and middle frequency band (100 mHz - 10 Hz). The science goals are the detection of GWs from (i) Supermassive Black Holes; (ii) Extreme-Mass-Ratio Black Hole Inspirals; (iii) Intermediate-Mass Black Holes; (iv) Galactic Compact Binaries and (v) Relic GW Background. In this paper, we present an overview on the sensitivity, orbit design, basic orbit configuration, angular resolution, orbit optimization, deployment, time-delay interferometry and payload concept of the current proposed GW detectors in space under study. The detector proposals under study have arm length ranging from 1000 km to 1.3 x 109 km (8.6 AU) including (a) Solar orbiting detectors -- ASTROD-GW (ASTROD [Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices] optimized for GW detection), BBO (Big Bang Observer), DECIGO (DECi-hertz Interferometer GW Observatory), e-LISA (evolved LISA [Laser Interferometer Space Antenna]), LISA, other LISA-type detectors such as ALIA, TAIJI etc. (in Earth-like solar orbits), and Super-ASTROD (in Jupiter-like solar orbits); and (b) Earth orbiting detectors -- ASTROD-EM/LAGRANGE, GADFLI/GEOGRAWI/g-LISA, OMEGA and TIANQIN.
The generation of the circular polarization of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) photons is discussed in this paper via their interactions with astroparticles in the presence or absence of background fields such as magnetic fields and non-commutative space time geometry. Solving quantum Boltzmann equation for GRB-photons as a photon ensemble, we discuss the generation of circular polarization (as Faraday conversion phase shift $\Delta \phi_{FC}$) of GRBs in the following cases: (i) intermediate interactions, i.e. the Compton scattering of GRBs in the galaxy cluster magnetic field and in the presence of non-commutative space time geometry, as well as the scattering of GRBs in cosmic neutrino background (CNB), and in cosmic microwave background (CMB); (ii) interactions with particles and fields in shock wave, i.e. the Compton scattering of GRBs with accelerated charged particles in the presence of magnetic fields. We found that (i) after shock wave crossing, the most contribution of $\Delta \phi_{FC}$ for energetic GRBs (in order GeV and larger) comes from GRB-CMB interactions, however for low energy GRBs the contributions of the Compton scattering of GRBs in the galaxy cluster magnetic field dominate; (ii) in shock wave crossing, the magnetic filed has significant effects on converting GRB's linear polarization to circular one, this effect can be used to better understanding magnetic profile in shock wave. The main aim of this work is a emphasis that the studying and measuring the circular polarization of GRBs are helpful for better understanding of physics and mechanism of the generation of GRBs and their interactions before reaching us.
We present calculations of the wide angle emission of short-duration gamma-ray bursts from compact binary merger progenitors. Such events are expected to be localized by their gravitational wave emission, fairly irrespective of the orientation of the angular momentum vector of the system, along which the gamma-ray burst outflow is expected to propagate. We show that both the prompt and afterglow emission are dim and challenging to detect for observers lying outside of the cone within which the relativistic outflow is propagating. If the jet initially propagates through a baryon contaminated region surrounding the merger site, however, a hot cocoon forms around it. The cocoon subsequently expands quasi-isotropically producing its own prompt emission and external shock powered afterglow. We show that the cocoon afterglow peaks a few hours to a few days after the burst and is detectable for up to a few weeks at all wavelengths. For a significant fraction of the gravitationally-detected neutron-star-binary mergers, the cocoon afterglow would likely be the only identifiable electromagnetic counterpart, at least at radio and X-ray frequencies.
We introduce a suite of thirty cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical zoom simulations of the formation of Milky Way-like galaxies and their dark haloes. These were carried out with the moving mesh code \textlcsc{AREPO}, together with a comprehensive model for galaxy formation physics, including AGN feedback and magnetic fields, which produces realistic galaxy populations in large cosmological simulations. We demonstrate that our simulations reproduce a wide range of observables, in particular, two component disc dominated galaxies with appropriate stellar masses, sizes, rotation curves, star formation rates and metallicities. We investigate the driving mechanisms that set present day disc sizes/scale lengths, and find that they are related to the angular momentum of halo material. We show that the largest discs are produced by quiescent mergers that inspiral into the galaxy and deposit high angular momentum material into the pre-existing disc, simultaneously increasing the spin of dark matter and gas in the halo. More violent mergers and strong AGN feedback play roles in limiting disc size by destroying pre-existing discs and by suppressing gas accretion onto the outer disc, respectively. The most important factor that leads to compact discs, however, is simply a low angular momentum for the halo. In these cases, AGN feedback plays an important role in limiting central star formation and the formation of a massive bulge.
We compare the rest-frame ultraviolet and rest-frame optical morphologies of 2 < z < 3 star-forming galaxies in the GOODS-S field using Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 and ACS images from the CANDELS, GOODS, and ERS programs. We show that the distribution of sizes and concentrations for 1.90 < z < 2.35 galaxies selected via their rest-frame optical emission-lines are statistically indistinguishable from those of Lyman-alpha emitting systems found at z ~ 2.1 and z ~ 3.1. We also show that the z > 2 star-forming systems of all sizes and masses become smaller and more compact as one shifts the observing window from the UV to the optical. We argue that this offset is due to inside-out galaxy formation over the first ~ 2 Gyr of cosmic time.
We present new estimates for the statistical properties of damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs). We compute the column density distribution function at $z>2$, the line density, $\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}X$, and the neutral hydrogen density, $\Omega_\mathrm{DLA}$. Our estimates are derived from the DLA catalogue of \cite{Garnett:2016}, which uses the SDSS--III DR12 quasar spectroscopic survey. This catalogue provides a probability that a given spectrum contains a DLA, allowing us to use even the noisiest data without biasing our results and thus substantially increase our sample size. We measure a non-zero column density distribution function at $95\%$ confidence for all column densities $N_\mathrm{HI} < 5\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$. We make the first measurements from SDSS of $\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}X$ and $\Omega_\mathrm{DLA}$ at $z>4$. We show that our results are insensitive to the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectra, but that there is a residual dependence on quasar redshift for $z<2.5$, which may be due to remaining systematics in our analysis.
We perform the improved constraints on the Hubble constant $H_0$ by using the model-independent method, Gaussian Processes. Utilizing the latest 36 $H(z)$ measurements, we obtain $H_0=69.21\pm3.72$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, which is consistent with the Planck 2015 and Riess et al. 2016 analysis at $1\sigma$ confidence level, and reduces the uncertainty from $6.5\%$ (Busti et al. 2014) to $5.4\%$. Different from the results of Busti et al. 2014 by only using 19 $H(z)$ measurements, our reconstruction results of $H(z)$ and the derived values of $H_0$ are independent of the choice of covariance functions.
In this paper, we examine the cosmological dynamics of a slotheon field in a linear potential. The slotheon correction term $\frac{G^{\mu\nu}}{2M^2}\pi_{;\mu}\pi_{;\nu}$ respects the galileon symmetry in curved space time. We demonstrate the future evolution of universe in this model. We show that in this scenario, the universe ends with the Big Crunch singularity like the standard case. The difference being that the time at which the singularity occurs is delayed in the slotheon gravity. The delay crucially depends upon the strength of slotheon correction.
By making use of a simple model that captures the key features of the anomalous Maxwell equations, we study the role of inhomogeneities on the evolution of magnetic fields in a chiral plasma. We find that inhomogeneities of the chiral asymmetry by themselves do not prevent the anomaly-driven inverse cascade and, as in the homogeneous case, the magnetic helicity is transferred from shorter to longer wavelength helical modes of the magnetic field. However, we also find that the evolution appears to be sensitive to the effects of diffusion. In the case when diffusion is negligible, the inverse cascade slows down considerably compared to the homogeneous scenario. In the case of the primordial plasma, though, we find that the diffusion is substantial and efficiently suppresses chiral asymmetry inhomogeneities. As a result, the inverse cascade proceeds practically in the same way as in the chirally homogeneous model.
We use holographic techniques to compute inflationary non-Gaussianities for general single-field inflation, including models with a non-trivial sound speed. In this holographic approach, the inflationary dynamics is captured by a relevant deformation of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) in the UV, while the inflationary correlators are computed by conformal perturbation theory. In this paper, we discuss the effects of higher derivative operators, such as $(\partial_\mu\phi\partial^\mu\phi)^{m}$, which are known to induce a non-trivial sound speed and source potentially large non-Gaussianities. We compute the full inflationary bispectra from the deformed CFT correlators. We also discuss the squeezed limit of the bispectra from the viewpoint of operator product expansions. As is generic in the holographic description of inflation, our power spectrum is blue tilted in the UV region. We extend our bispectrum computation to the IR region by resumming the conformal perturbations to all orders. We provide a self-consistent setup which reproduces a red tilted power spectrum, as well as all possible bispectrum shapes in the slow-roll regime.
If massive neutrinos are Dirac particles, the proposed PTOLEMY experiment will hopefully be able to discover cosmic neutrino background via $\nu^{}_e + {^3}{\rm H} \to {^3}{\rm He} + e^-$ with a capture rate of $\Gamma^{}_{\rm D} \approx 4~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. Recently, it has been pointed out that right-handed components of Dirac neutrinos could also be copiously produced in the early Universe and become an extra thermal or nonthermal ingredient of cosmic relic neutrinos, enhancing the capture rate to $\Gamma^{}_{\rm D} \approx 5.1~{\rm yr}^{-1}$ or $\Gamma^{}_{\rm D} \approx 6.1~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. In this work, we investigate the possibility to distinguish between thermal and nonthermal spectra of cosmic relic neutrinos by measuring the annual modulation of the capture rate. For neutrino masses of $0.1~{\rm eV}$, we have found the amplitude of annual modulation in the standard case is ${\cal M} \approx 0.05\%$, which will be increased to $0.1\%$ and $0.15\%$ in the thermal and nonthermal scenarios, respectively. The future detection of such a modulation will be helpful in understanding the Majorana or Dirac nature of massive neutrinos.
We study the gravitational baryogenesis mechanism for generating baryon asymmetry in the context of running vacuum models. Regardless if these models can produce a viable cosmological evolution, we demonstrate that they produce a non-zero baryon-to-entropy ratio even if the Universe is filled with conformal matter. This is a sound difference between the running vacuum gravitational baryogenesis and the Einstein-Hilbert one, since in the latter case, the predicted baryon-to-entropy ratio is zero. We consider two running vacuum models and show that the resulting baryon-to-entropy ratio is compatible with the observational data.
We present the first results of a new data analysis pipeline for processing extragalactic AKARI/IRC images. The main improvements of the pipeline over the standard analysis are the removal of Earth shine and image distortion correction. We present the differential number counts of the AKARI/IRC S11 filter IRAC validation field. The differential number counts are consistent with S11 AKARI NEP deep and 12 microns WISE NEP number counts, and with a phenomenological backward evolution galaxy model, at brighter fluxes densities. There is a detection of deeper galaxies in the IRAC validation field.
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We present a simple method to accurately infer line of sight (LOS) integrated lensing effects for galaxy scale strong lens systems through image reconstruction. Our approach enables us to separate weak lensing LOS effects from the main strong lens deflector. We test our method using mock data and show that strong lens systems can be accurate probes of cosmic shear with a precision on the shear terms of $\pm 0.003$. We apply our formalism to reconstruct the lens COSMOS 0038+4133 and its LOS. In addition, we estimate the LOS properties with a halo-rendering estimate based on the COSMOS field galaxies and a galaxy-halo connection. The two approaches are independent and complementary in their information content. We find that when estimating the convergence at the strong lens system, performing a joint analysis improves the measure by a factor of two compared to a halo model only analysis. Furthermore, the constraints of the strong lens reconstruction lead to tighter constraints on the halo masses of the LOS galaxies. Joint constraints of multiple strong lens systems may add valuable information to the galaxy-halo connection and may allow independent weak lensing shear measurement calibrations.
There is a well observed bimodality in X-ray astronomy between cool-core (CC) and non-cool-core (NCC) clusters, but the origin of this distinction is still largely unknown. Competing theories can be divided into internal (inside-out), in which internal physical processes transform or maintain the NCC phase, and external (outside-in), in which the cluster type is determined by its initial conditions, which in turn lead to different formation histories (i.e., assembly bias). We propose a new method that uses the relative assembly bias of CC to NCC clusters, as determined via the two-point cluster-galaxy cross-correlation function (CCF), to test whether formation history plays a role in determining their nature. We apply our method to 48 ACCEPT clusters, which have well resolved central entropies, and cross-correlate with the SDSS-III/BOSS LOWZ galaxy catalog. We find that the relative bias of NCC over CC clusters is $b = 1.42 \pm 0.35$ ($1.6\sigma$ different from unity). Our measurement is limited by the small number of clusters with core entropy information within the BOSS footprint, 14 CC and 34 NCC. Future compilations of X-ray cluster samples, combined with deep all-sky redshift surveys, will be able to better constrain the relative assembly bias of CC and NCC clusters and determine the origin of the bimodality.
An interaction between dark matter and dark energy, proportional to the product of their energy densities, results in a scaling behavior of the ratio of these densities with respect to the scale factor of the Robertson-Walker metric. This gives rise to a class of cosmological models which deviate from the standard model in an analytically tractable way. In particular, it becomes possible to quantify the role of potential dark-energy perturbations. We investigate the impact of this interaction on the structure formation process. Using the (modified) CAMB code we obtain the CMB spectrum as well as the linear matter power spectrum. It is shown that the strong degeneracy in the parameter space present in the background analysis is considerably reduced by considering \textit{Planck} data. Our analysis is compatible with the $\Lambda$CDM model at the $2\sigma$ confidence level with a slightly preferred direction of the energy flow from dark matter to dark energy.
The gravitino problem is revisited in the framework of cosmological models in which the primordial cosmic matter is described by a relativistic imperfect fluid. Dissipative effects (or bulk viscosity effects) arise owing to the different cooling rates of the fluid components. We show that the effects of the bulk viscosity allow to avoid the late abundance of gravitinos. In particular, we found that for a particular choice of the parameters characterizing the cosmological model, the gravitino abundance turns out to be independent on the reheating temperature.
We present a pilot X-ray study of the five most massive ($M_{500}>5 \times 10^{14} M_{\odot}$), distant (z~1), galaxy clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We optimally combine XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray observations by leveraging the throughput of XMM to obtain spatially-resolved spectroscopy, and the spatial resolution of Chandra to probe the bright inner parts and to detect embedded point sources. Capitalising on the excellent agreement in flux-related measurements, we present a new method to derive the density profiles, constrained in the centre by Chandra and in the outskirts by XMM. We show that the Chandra-XMM combination is fundamental for morphological analysis at these redshifts, the Chandra resolution being required to remove point source contamination, and the XMM sensitivity allowing higher significance detection of faint substructures. The sample is dominated by dynamically disturbed objects. We use the combined Chandra-XMM density profiles and spatially-resolved temperature profiles to investigate thermodynamic quantities including entropy and pressure. From comparison of the scaled profiles with the local REXCESS sample, we find no significant departure from standard self-similar evolution, within the dispersion, at any radius, except for the entropy beyond 0.7$R_{500}$. The baryon mass fraction tends towards the cosmic value, with a weaker dependence on mass than observed in the local Universe. We compare with predictions from numerical simulations. The present pilot study demonstrates the utility and feasibility of spatially-resolved analysis of individual objects at high-redshift through the combination of XMM and Chandra observations. Observations of a larger sample will allow a fuller statistical analysis to be undertaken, in particular of the intrinsic scatter in the structural and scaling properties of the cluster population. (abridged)
Clustering of dark matter halos has been shown to depend on halo properties
beyond mass such as halo concentration, a phenomenon referred to as halo
assembly bias. Standard halo occupation modeling (HOD) in large scale structure
studies assumes that halo mass alone is sufficient in characterizing the
connection between galaxies and halos. Modeling of galaxy clustering can face
systematic effects if the number or properties of galaxies are correlated with
other halo properties. Using the Small MultiDark-Planck high resolution
$N$-body simulation and the measurements of the projected two-point correlation
function and the number density of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 main
galaxy sample, we investigate the extent to which the dependence of halo
occupation on halo concentration can be constrained, and to what extent
allowing for this dependence can improve our modeling of galaxy clustering.
Given the SDSS clustering data, our constraints on HOD with assembly bias,
suggests that satellite population is not correlated with halo concentration at
fixed halo mass. Furthermore, in terms of the occupation of centrals at fixed
halo mass, our results favor lack of correlation with halo concentration in the
most luminous samples ($M_{\rm r}<-21.5,-21$), modest levels of correlation for
$M_{\rm r}<-20.5,-20, -19.5$ samples, lack of correlation for $M_{\rm
r}<-19,-18.5$ samples, and anti-correlation for the faintest sample $M_{\rm
r}<-18$.
We show that in comparison with abundance-matching mock catalogs, our
findings suggest qualitatively similar but modest levels of assembly bias that
is only present in the central occupation. Furthermore, by performing model
comparison based on information criteria, we find that in most cases, the
standard mass-only HOD model is still favored by the observations.
Angular power spectra of optical and infrared background anisotropies at wavelengths between 0.5 to 5 $\mu$m are a useful probe of faint sources present during reionization, in addition to faint galaxies and diffuse signals at low redshift. The cross-correlation of these fluctuations with backgrounds at other wavelengths can be used to separate some of these signals. A previous study on the cross-correlation between X-ray and $Spitzer$ fluctuations at 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m has been interpreted as evidence for direct collapse blackholes (DCBHs) present at $z > 12$. Here we return to this cross-correlation and study its wavelength dependence from 0.5 to 4.5 $\mu$m using $Hubble$ and $Spitzer$ data in combination with a subset of the 4 Ms $Chandra$ observations in GOODS-S/ECDFS. Our study involves five $Hubble$ bands at 0.6, 0.7, 0.85, 1.25 and 1.6 $\mu$m, and two $Spitzer$-IRAC bands at 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m. We confirm the previously seen cross-correlation between 3.6 $\mu$m (4.5 $\mu$m) and X-rays with 3.7$\sigma$ (4.2$\sigma$) and 2.7$\sigma$ (3.7$\sigma$) detections in the soft [0.5-2] keV and hard [2-8] keV X-ray bands, respectively, at angular scales above 20 arcseconds. The cross-correlation of X-rays with $Hubble$ is largely anticorrelated, ranging between the levels of 1.4$-$3.5$\sigma$ for all the $Hubble$ and X-ray bands. This lack of correlation in the shorter optical/NIR bands implies the sources responsible for the cosmic infrared background at 3.6 and 4.5~$\mu$m are at least partly dissimilar to those at 1.6 $\mu$m and shorter.
We investigate the symmetry structure of inflation in 2+1 dimensions. In particular, we show that the asymptotic symmetries of three-dimensional de Sitter space are in one-to-one correspondence with cosmological adiabatic modes for the curvature perturbation. In 2+1 dimensions, the asymptotic symmetry algebra is infinite-dimensional, given by two copies of the Virasoro algebra, and can be traced to the conformal symmetries of the two-dimensional spatial slices of de Sitter. We study the consequences of this infinite-dimensional symmetry for inflationary correlation functions, finding new soft theorems that hold only in 2+1 dimensions. Expanding the correlation functions as a power series in the soft momentum $q$, these relations constrain the traceless part of the tensorial coefficient at each order in $q$ in terms of a lower-point function. As a check, we verify that the ${\cal O}(q^2)$ identity is satisfied by inflationary correlation functions in the limit of small sound speed.
A supermassive black hole moving through a field of stars will gravitationally scatter the stars, inducing a backreaction force on the black hole known as dynamical friction. In Newtonian gravity, the axisymmetry of the system about the black hole's velocity $\mathbf{v}$ implies that the dynamical friction must be anti-parallel to $\mathbf{v}$. However, in general relativity the black hole's spin $\mathbf{S}$ need not be parallel to $\mathbf{v}$, breaking the axisymmetry of the system and generating a new component of dynamical friction similar to the Lorentz force $\mathbf{F} = q\mathbf{v} \times \mathbf{B}$ experienced by a particle with charge $q$ moving in a magnetic field $\mathbf{B}$. We call this new force gravitomagnetic dynamical friction and calculate its magnitude for a spinning black hole moving through a field of stars with Maxwellian velocity dispersion $\sigma$, assuming that both $v$ and $\sigma$ are much less than the speed of light $c$. We use post-Newtonian equations of motion accurate to $\mathcal{O}(v^3/c^3)$ needed to capture the effect of spin-orbit coupling and also include direct stellar capture by the black hole's event horizon. Gravitomagnetic dynamical friction will cause a black hole with uniform speed to spiral about the direction of its spin, similar to a charged particle spiraling about a magnetic field line, and will exert a torque on a supermassive black hole orbiting a galactic center, causing the angular momentum of this orbit to slowly precess about the black-hole spin. As this effect is suppressed by a factor $(\sigma/c)^2$ in nonrelativistic systems, we expect it to be negligible in most astrophysical contexts but provide this calculation for its theoretical interest and potential application to relativistic systems.
We use data from the HST Coma Cluster Treasury program to assess the richness of the Globular Cluster Systems (GCSs) of 54 Coma ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), and hence to constrain the virial masses of their haloes. For 18 of these the half-light radius exceeds 1.5 kpc. We use a maximum-likelihood method to take account of the high contamination levels. UDG GCSs are poor: for 14 of the largest 18, $N_{GC}<29$ with 90% confidence, $N_{GC}\leq46$ for the remaining 4. From a stacked analysis of the 18 largest UDGs we estimate $\langle N_{GC}\rangle=4.9^{+4.3}_{-3.3}$ (median, 10 and 90% quantiles); the corresponding number for the complementary 36 systems is $\langle N_{GC}\rangle=0.8^{+0.9}_{-0.6}$. These results strongly suggest that most Coma UDGs have low-mass haloes. Their GCSs do not display significantly larger richnesses than nearby dwarf galaxies of similar stellar mass.
The cosmological process of hydrogen (HI) reionization in the intergalactic medium is thought to be driven by UV photons emitted by star-forming galaxies and ionizing active galactic nuclei (AGN). The contribution of QSOs to HI reionization at $z>4$ has been traditionally believed to be quite modest. However, this view has been recently challenged by new estimates of a higher faint-end UV luminosity function (LF). To set firmer constraints on the emissivity of AGN at $z<6$, we here make use of complete X-ray selected samples including deep Chandra and new COSMOS data, capable to efficiently measure the 1 ryd comoving AGN emissivity up to $z\sim5-6$ and down to five magnitudes fainter than probed by current optical surveys, without any luminosity extrapolation. We find good agreement between the logN$\rm{_H}\lesssim21-22$ cm$^{-2}$ X-ray LF and the optically-selected QSO LF at all redshifts for $M_{1450}\leq -23$. The full range of the logN$\rm{_H}\lesssim21-22$ cm$^{-2}$ LF ($M_{1450} \leq -17$) was then used to quantify the contribution of AGN to the photon budget critical value needed to keep the Universe ionized. We find that the contribution of ionizing AGN at $z = 6$ is as small as 1\% - 7\%, and very unlikely to be greater than 30\%, thus excluding an AGN-dominated reionization scenario.
We present a minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) providing a consistent picture of particle physics from the electroweak scale to the Planck scale and of cosmology from inflation until today. Three right-handed neutrinos $N_i$, a new color triplet $Q$ and a complex SM-singlet scalar $\sigma$, whose vacuum expectation value $v_\sigma \sim 10^{11}$ GeV breaks lepton number and a Peccei-Quinn symmetry simultaneously, are added to the SM. At low energies, the model reduces to the SM, augmented by seesaw generated neutrino masses and mixing, plus the axion. The latter solves the strong CP problem and accounts for the cold dark matter in the Universe. The inflaton is comprised by a mixture of $\sigma$ and the SM Higgs and reheating of the Universe after inflation proceeds via the Higgs portal. Baryogenesis occurs via thermal leptogenesis. Thus, five fundamental problems of particle physics and cosmology are solved at one stroke in this unified Standard Model - Axion - Seesaw - Higgs portal inflation (SMASH) model. It can be probed decisively by upcoming cosmic microwave background and axion dark matter experiments.
The XXL survey currently covers two 25 sq. deg. patches with XMM observations of ~10ks. We summarise the scientific results associated with the first release of the XXL data set, that occurred mid 2016. We review several arguments for increasing the survey depth to 40 ks during the next decade of XMM operations. X-ray (z<2) cluster, (z<4) AGN and cosmic background survey science will then benefit from an extraordinary data reservoir. This, combined with deep multi-{\lambda} observations, will lead to solid standalone cosmological constraints and provide a wealth of information on the formation and evolution of AGN, clusters and the X-ray background. In particular, it will offer a unique opportunity to pinpoint the z>1 cluster density. It will eventually constitute a reference study and an ideal calibration field for the upcoming eROSITA and Euclid missions.
We discuss the cosmological implications of nonlocal modifications of general relativity containing tensorial structures. Assuming the presence of standard radiation- and matter-dominated eras, we show that, except in very particular cases, the nonlocal terms contribute a rapidly-growing energy density. These models therefore generically do not have a stable cosmological evolution.
Models of nuclear dark matter propose that the dark sector contains large composite states consisting of dark nucleons in analogy to Standard Model nuclei. We examine the direct detection phenomenology of a particular class of nuclear dark matter model at the current generation of tonne-scale liquid noble experiments, in particular DEAP-3600 and XENON1T. In our chosen nuclear dark matter scenario distinctive features arise in the recoil energy spectra due to the non-point-like nature of the composite dark matter state. We calculate the number of events required to distinguish these spectra from those of a standard point-like WIMP state with a decaying exponential recoil spectrum. In the most favourable regions of nuclear dark matter parameter space, we find that a few tens of events are needed to distinguish nuclear dark matter from WIMPs at the $3\,\sigma$ level in a single experiment. Given the total exposure time of DEAP-3600 and XENON1T we find that at best a $2\,\sigma$ distinction is possible by these experiments individually, while $3\,\sigma$ sensitivity is reached for a range of parameters by the combination of the two experiments. We show that future upgrades of these experiments have potential to distinguish a large range of nuclear dark matter models from that of a WIMP at greater than $3\,\sigma$.
We present the extensive follow-up campaign on the afterglow of GRB 110715A at 17 different wavelengths, from X-ray to radio bands, starting 81 seconds after the burst and extending up to 74 days later. We performed for the first time a GRB afterglow observation with the ALMA observatory. We find that the afterglow of GRB 110715A is very bright at optical and radio wavelengths. We use optical and near infrared spectroscopy to provide further information about the progenitor's environment and its host galaxy. The spectrum shows weak absorption features at a redshift $z$ = 0.8225, which reveal a host galaxy environment with low ionization, column density and dynamical activity. Late deep imaging shows a very faint galaxy, consistent with the spectroscopic results. The broadband afterglow emission is modelled with synchrotron radiation using a numerical algorithm and we determine the best fit parameters using Bayesian inference in order to constrain the physical parameters of the jet and the medium in which the relativistic shock propagates. We fitted our data with a variety of models, including different density profiles and energy injections. Although the general behaviour can be roughly described by these models, none of them are able to fully explain all data points simultaneously. GRB 110715A shows the complexity of reproducing extensive multi-wavelength broadband afterglow observations, and the need of good sampling in wavelength and time and more complex models to accurately constrain the physics of GRB afterglows.
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