Cosmological observations are becoming increasingly sensitive to the effects of light particles in the form of dark radiation (DR) at the time of recombination. The conventional observable of effective neutrino number, $N_{\rm eff}$, is insufficient for probing generic, interacting models of DR. In this work, we perform likelihood analyses which allow both free-streaming effective neutrinos (parametrized by $N_{\rm eff}$) and interacting effective neutrinos (parametrized by $N_{\rm fld}$). We motivate an alternative parametrization of DR in terms of $N_{\rm tot}$ (total effective number of neutrinos) and $f_{\rm fs}$ (the fraction of effective neutrinos which are free-streaming), which is less degenerate than using $N_{\rm eff}$ and $N_{\rm fld}$. Using the Planck 2015 likelihoods in conjunction with measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), we find constraints on the total amount of beyond the Standard Model effective neutrinos (both free-streaming and interacting) of $\Delta N_{\rm tot} < 0.39$ at 2$\sigma$. In addition, we consider the possibility that this scenario alleviates the tensions between early-time and late-time cosmological observations, in particular the measurements of $\sigma_8$ (the amplitude of matter power fluctuations at 8$h^{-1}$ Mpc), finding a mild preference for interactions among light species. We further forecast the sensitivities of a variety of future experiments, including Advanced ACTPol (a representative CMB Stage-III experiment), CMB Stage-IV, and the Euclid satellite. This study is relevant for probing non-standard neutrino physics as well as a wide variety of new particle physics models beyond the Standard Model that involve dark radiation.
When combining cosmological and oscillations results to constrain the neutrino sector, the question of the propagation of systematic uncertainties is often raised. We address it in the context of the derivation of an upper bound on the sum of the neutrino masses ($\Sigma m_\nu$) with recent cosmological data. This work is performed within the ${{\mathrm{\Lambda{CDM}}}}$ model extended to $\Sigma m_\nu$, for which we advocate the use of three mass-degenerate neutrinos. We focus on the study of systematic uncertainties linked to the foregrounds modelling in CMB data analysis, and on the impact of the present knowledge of the reionisation optical depth. This is done through the use of different likelihoods, built from Planck data. Limits on $\Sigma m_\nu$ are derived with various combinations of data, including latest BAO and SN results. We also discuss the impact of the preference of current CMB data for amplitudes of the gravitational lensing distortions higher than expected within the ${{\mathrm{\Lambda{CDM}}}}$ model, and add the Planck CMB lensing. We then derive a robust upper limit: $\Sigma m_\nu < 0.17\hbox{ eV at } 95\% \hbox{CL}$, including 0.01 eV of foreground systematics. We also discuss the neutrino mass repartition and show that today's data do not allow to disentangle normal from inverted hierarchy. The impact on the other cosmological parameters is also reported, for different assumptions on the neutrino mass repartition, and different high and low multipoles CMB likelihoods.
Axion dark matter models have been thoroughly studied in the recent literature, in particular under the prescription of a free scalar field, but a full treatment of the axion field is still required mainly because nonlinearities in a more realistic potential may play an important role in the cosmological dynamics. In this paper, we show how to solve the cosmological equations of an axion field for both the background and the linear perturbations with the aid of an amended version of the Boltzmann code CLASS, and contrast our results with those of cold dark matter and the free axion case. We conclude that there is a slight delay in the onset of the axion field oscillations when nonlinearities in the axion potential are taken into account, and the characteristic cut-off in the mass power spectrum shifts towards larger scales (smaller wavenumbers). We quantified the differences between the axion and free cases and discuss how the two models could be distinguished by the properties of their mass power spectrum.
We introduce the Hydrangea simulations, a suite of 24 cosmological hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of massive galaxy clusters (M_200c = 10^14-10^15 M_Sun) with baryon particle masses of ~10^6 M_Sun. Designed to study the impact of the cluster environment on galaxy formation, they are a key part of the `Cluster-EAGLE' project (Barnes et al. 2017). They use a galaxy formation model developed for the EAGLE project, which has been shown to yield both realistic field galaxies and hot gas fractions of galaxy groups consistent with observations. The total stellar mass content of the simulated clusters agrees with observations, but central cluster galaxies are too massive, by up to 0.6 dex. Passive satellite fractions are higher than in the field, and at stellar masses Mstar > 10^10 M_Sun this environmental effect is quantitatively consistent with observations. The predicted satellite stellar mass function matches data from local cluster surveys. Normalized to total mass, there are fewer low-mass (Mstar < 10^10 M_Sun) galaxies within the virial radius of clusters than in the field, primarily due to star formation quenching. Conversely, the simulations predict an overabundance of massive galaxies in clusters compared to the field that persists to their far outskirts (> 5r_200c). This is caused by a significantly increased stellar mass fraction of (sub-)haloes in the cluster environment, by up to ~0.3 dex even well beyond r_200c. Haloes near clusters are also more concentrated than equally massive field haloes, but these two effects are largely uncorrelated.
We study an effective field theory which includes the Standard Model extended by a Dark Sector consisting of two fermionic $SU(2)_{L}$-doublets. A $Z_2$ parity guarantees that, after electroweak symmetry breaking, the lightest neutral particle is stable, acting as a WIMP. The dark sector interacts with the Higgs and gauge bosons through renormalizable and non-renormalizable $d=5$ operators. We find that a WIMP with a mass around the electroweak scale, i.e. accessible at the LHC, is consistent with collider and astrophysical data only when non-trivial magnetic dipole interactions with the gauge bosons exist.
We revisit the decoupling effects associated with heavy particles in the renormalization group running of the vacuum energy in a mass-dependent renormalization scheme. We find the running of the vacuum energy stemming from the Higgs condensate in the entire energy range and show that it behaves as expected from the simple dimensional arguments meaning that it exhibits the quadratic sensitivity to the mass of the heavy particles in the infrared regime. The consequence of such a running to the fine-tuning problem with the measured value of the Cosmological Constant is analyzed and the constraint on the mass spectrum of a given model is derived. We show that in the Standard Model (SM) this fine-tuning constraint is not satisfied while in the massless theories this constraint formally coincides with the well known Veltman condition. We also provide a remarkably simple extension of the SM where saturation of this constraint enables us to predict the radiative Higgs mass correctly. Generalization to constant curvature spaces is also given.
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The Cosmological Constant $\Lambda$, in different incarnations, has been with us for 100 years. Many surveys of dark energy are underway, indicating so far that the data are consistent with a dark energy equation of state of $w=-1$, i.e. a $\Lambda$ term in Einstein's equation, although time variation of $w$ is not yet ruled out. The ball is now back in the theoreticians' court, to explain the physical meaning of $\Lambda$. We discuss sociological aspects of this field, in particular to what extent the agreement on the cold dark matter + $\Lambda$ concordance model is a result of the globalization of research and over-communication.
We present a new upper limit on CMB circular polarization from the 2015 flight of SPIDER, a balloon-borne telescope designed to search for $B$-mode linear polarization from cosmic inflation. Although the level of circular polarization in the CMB is predicted to be very small, experimental limits provide a valuable test of the underlying models. By exploiting the non-zero circular-to-linear polarization coupling of the HWP polarization modulators, data from SPIDER's 2015 Antarctic flight provides a constraint on Stokes $V$ at 95 and 150 GHz from $33<\ell<307$. No other limits exist over this full range of angular scales, and SPIDER improves upon the previous limit by several orders of magnitude, providing 95% C.L. constraints on $\ell (\ell+1)C_{\ell}^{VV}/(2\pi)$ ranging from 141 $\mu K ^2$ to 203 $\mu K ^2$ at 150 GHz for a thermal CMB spectrum. As linear CMB polarization experiments become increasingly sensitive, the techniques described in this paper can be applied to obtain stronger constraints on circular polarization.
Weak-lensing (WL) peak counts provide a straightforward way to constrain cosmology, and results have been shown promising. However, the importance of understanding and dealing with systematics increases as data quality reaches an unprecedented level. One of the sources of systematics is the convergence-shear inversion. This effect, inevitable from observations, is usually neglected by theoretical peak models. Thus, it could have an impact on cosmological results. In this letter, we study the bias from neglecting the inversion and find it small but not negligible. The cosmological dependence of this bias is difficult to model and depends on the filter size. We also show the evolution of parameter constraints. Although weak biases arise in individual peak bins, the bias can reach 2-sigma for the dark energy equation of state w0. Therefore, we suggest that the inversion cannot be ignored and that inversion-free approaches, such as aperture mass, would be a more suitable tool to study weak-lensing peak counts.
We describe the algorithm used to select the Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) sample at $z \sim 0.85$ for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV, using photometric data from the DECam Legacy Survey. Our selection is based on a selection box in the $g-r$ vs. $r-z$ colour-colour space and a cut on the $g$-band magnitude, to favour galaxies in the desired redshift range with strong [OII] emission. It provides a target density of 200 deg$^{-2}$ on the North Galactic Cap (NGC) and of 240 deg$^{-2}$ on the South Galactic Cap (SGC), where we use a larger selection box because of deeper imaging. We demonstrate that this selection passes the eBOSS requirements in terms of homogeneity. About 50,000 ELGs have been observed since the observations have started in 2016, September. These roughly match the expected redshift distribution, though the measured efficiency is slightly lower than expected. The efficiency can be increased by enlarging the redshift range and with incoming pipeline improvement. The cosmological forecast based on these first data predict $\sigma_{D_V}/D_V = 0.023$, in agreement with previous forecasts. Lastly, we present the stellar population properties of the ELG SGC sample. Once observations are completed, this sample will be suited to provide a cosmological analysis at $z \sim 0.85$, and will pave the way for the next decade of massive spectroscopic cosmological surveys, which heavily rely on ELGs. The target catalogue over the SGC will be released along with DR14.
Secret contact interactions among eV sterile neutrinos, mediated by a massive gauge boson $X$ (with $M_X \ll M_W$), and characterized by a gauge coupling $g_X$, have been proposed as a mean to reconcile cosmological observations and short-baseline laboratory anomalies. We constrain this scenario using the latest Planck data on Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies, and measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We consistently include the effect of secret interactions on cosmological perturbations, namely the increased density and pressure fluctuations in the neutrino fluid, and still find a severe tension between the secret interaction framework and cosmology. In fact, taking into account neutrino scattering via secret interactions, we derive our own mass bound on sterile neutrinos and find (at 95% CL) $m_s < 0.82$ eV or $m_s < 0.29$ eV from Planck alone or in combination with BAO, respectively. These limits confirm the discrepancy with the laboratory anomalies. Moreover, we constrain, in the limit of contact interaction, the effective strength $G_X$ to be $ < 2.8 (2.0) \times 10^{10}\,G_F$ from Planck (Planck+BAO). This result, together with the mass bound, strongly disfavours the region with $M_X \sim 0.1$ MeV and relatively large coupling $g_X\sim 10^{-1}$, previously indicated as a possible solution to the small scale dark matter problem.
We clarify that a result recently stated by Kaiser [ arXiv:1703.08809v1 ] is contained in a theorem of Buchert and Ehlers that is widely known for its main result: that there is no global kinematical backreaction in Newtonian cosmology. Kaiser cites this paper but incompletely restates its content. He makes further claims, which cannot be proven beyond the limited context of Newtonian cosmology in which the theorem applies.
The observed dipole anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature is much larger than the fluctuations observed on smaller scales and is dominated by the kinematic contribution from the Doppler shifting of the monopole due to our motion with respect to the CMB rest frame. In addition to this kinematic component, there is expected to be an intrinsic contribution with an amplitude about two orders of magnitude smaller. Here we explore a method whereby the intrinsic CMB dipole can be reconstructed through observation of temperature fluctuations on small scales which result from gravitational lensing. Though the experimental requirements pose practical challenges, we show that one can in principle achieve a cosmic variance limited measurement of the primary dipole using the reconstruction method we describe. Since the primary CMB dipole is sensitive to the largest observable scales, such a measurement would have a number of interesting applications for early universe physics, including testing large-scale anomalies, extending the lever-arm for measuring local non-Gaussianity, and constraining isocurvature fluctuations on super-horizon scales.
We quantify the correlations between gas-phase and stellar metallicities and global properties of galaxies, such as stellar mass, halo mass, age and gas fraction, in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. The high-resolution EAGLE simulation (recalibrated model) broadly reproduces the observed trends for the stellar mass-gas metallicity relation based on star-forming (SF) gas abundances ($M_*-Z_{\rm SF,gas}$ relation) below $z = 3$, where large data sets are available. The simulated $M_*-Z_{\rm SF,gas}$ relation exhibits strong evolution in low-mass galaxies (increasing by $\approx 0.5$ dex at $\sim 10^9 {\rm M}_{\odot}$ since $z = 3$), in agreement with some recent data. At stellar masses $> 10^{10.5} {\rm M}_{\odot}$, the sequence converges to an asymptotic value at early times. The simulated relation between stellar mass, metallicity and star formation rate at $z \lesssim 5$ agrees remarkably well with the observed fundamental metallicity relation. At a given stellar mass, higher metallicities are associated with lower specific star formation rates, lower gas fractions and older stellar populations. The fundamental parameter that best correlates with the metal content, in the simulations, is the gas fraction. The simulated gas fraction-metallicity relation exhibits small scatter and does not evolve significantly since $z = 3$. In order to better understand the origin of these correlations, we analyse a set of lower resolution simulations in which feedback parameters are varied. We find that the slope of the simulated $M_*-Z_{\rm SF,gas}$ relation is mostly determined by stellar feedback at low stellar masses ($M_* \lesssim 10^{10} {\rm M}_{\odot}$), and at high masses ($M_* \gtrsim 10^{10} {\rm M}_{\odot}$) by the feedback from active galactic nuclei.
The localization of the repeating FRB 121102 to a low-metallicity dwarf galaxy at $z=0.193$, and its association with a quiescent radio source, suggests the possibility that FRBs originate from magnetars, formed by the unusual supernovae in such galaxies. We investigate this via a comparison of magnetar birth rates, the FRB volumetric rate, and host galaxy demographics. We calculate average volumetric rates of possible millisecond magnetar production channels such as superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), long and short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and general magnetar production via core-collapse supernovae. For each channel we also explore the expected host galaxy demographics using their known properties. We determine for the first time the number density of FRB emitters (the product of their volumetric birthrate and lifetime), $R_{\rm FRB}\tau\approx 10^4$Gpc$^{-3}$, assuming that FRBs are predominantly emitted from repetitive sources similar to FRB 121102 and adopting a beaming factor of 0.1. By comparing rates we find that production via rare channels (SLSNe, GRBs) implies a typical FRB lifetime of $\approx$30-300 yr, in good agreement with other lines of argument. The total energy emitted over this time is consistent with the available energy stored in the magnetic field. On the other hand, any relation to magnetars produced via normal core-collapse supernovae leads to a very short lifetime of $\approx$0.5yr, in conflict with both theory and observation. We demonstrate that due to the diverse host galaxy distributions of the different progenitor channels, many possible sources of FRB birth can be ruled out with $\lesssim 10$ host galaxy identifications. Conversely, targeted searches of galaxies that have previously hosted decades-old SLSNe and GRBs may be a fruitful strategy for discovering new FRBs and related quiescent radio sources, and determining the nature of their progenitors.
Any interpretation of the astrophysical neutrinos discovered by IceCube must accommodate a variety of multimessenger constraints. We address implications of these neutrinos being produced in transient sources, principally if buried within supernovae so that gamma rays are absorbed by the star. This would alleviate tension with the isotropic Fermi GeV background that >10 TeV neutrinos rival in detected energy flux. We find that IceCube data constrain transient properties, implying buried GeV-TeV electromagnetic emission near or exceeding canonical SN explosion energies of ~10^51 erg, indicative of an origin within superluminous SNe. TeV neutrino bursts with dozens of IceCube events -- which would be of great use for understanding r-process nucleosynthesis and more -- may be just around the corner if they are a primary component of the flux.
We study the disk-jet connection in supermassive black holes by investigating the properties of their optical and radio emissions utilizing the SDSS-DR7 and the NVSS catalogs. Our sample contains 7017 radio-loud quasars with detection both at 1.4~GHz and SDSS optical spectrum. Using this radio-loud quasar sample, we investigate the correlation among the jet power ($P_{\rm jet}$), the bolometric disk luminosity ($L_{\rm disk}$), and the black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) in the standard accretion disk regime. We find that the jet powers correlate with the bolometric disk luminosities as $\log P_{\rm jet} = (0.96\pm0.012)\log L_{\rm disk} + (0.79 \pm 0.55)$. This suggests that the jet production efficiency of $\eta_{\rm jet}\simeq1.1_{-0.76}^{+2.6}\times10^{-2}$ assuming the disk radiative efficiency of $0.1$ implying low black hole spin parameters and/or low magnetic flux for radio-loud quasars. But it can be also due to dependence of the efficiency on geometrical thickness of the accretion flow which is expected to be small for quasars accreting at the disk Eddington ratios $0.01 \lesssim \lambda \lesssim 0.3$. This low jet production efficiency does not significantly increase even if we set the disk radiative efficiency of 0.3. We also investigate the fundamental plane in our samples among $P_{\rm jet}$, $L_{\rm disk}$, and $M_{\rm BH}$. We could not find a statistically significant fundamental plane for radio-loud quasars in the standard accretion regime.
We calculate a dipole-dipole potential between fermions mediated by a light pseudoscalar, axion, paying a particular attention to the overall sign. While the sign of the potential is physical and important for experiments to discover or constrain the axion coupling to fermions, there is often a sign error in the literature. The purpose of this short note is to clarify the sign issue of the axion-mediated dipole-dipole potential.
The information entropy is here investigated in the context of early and late cosmology under the hypothesis that distinct phases of universe evolution are entangled between them. The approach is based on the \emph{entangled state ansatz}, representing a coarse-grained definition of primordial \emph{dark temperature} associated to an \emph{effective entangled energy density}. The dark temperature definition comes from assuming either Von Neumann or linear entropy as sources of cosmological thermodynamics. We interpret the involved information entropies by means of probabilities of forming structures during cosmic evolution. Following this recipe, we propose that quantum entropy is simply associated to the thermodynamical entropy and we investigate the consequences of our approach using the adiabatic sound speed. As byproducts, we analyze two phases of universe evolution: the late and early stages. To do so, we first recover that dark energy reduces to a pure cosmological constant, as zero-order entanglement contribution, and second that inflation is well-described by means of an effective potential. In both cases, we infer numerical limits which are compatible with current observations.
We present basic data and modeling for a survey of the cool, photo-ionized Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM) of low-redshift galaxies using far-UV QSO absorption line probes. This survey consists of "targeted" and "serendipitous" CGM subsamples, originally described in Stocke et al. (2013, Paper 1). The targeted subsample probes low-luminosity, late-type galaxies at $z<0.02$ with small impact parameters ($\langle\rho\rangle = 71$ kpc), and the serendipitous subsample probes higher luminosity galaxies at $z\lesssim0.2$ with larger impact parameters ($\langle\rho\rangle = 222$ kpc). HST and FUSE UV spectroscopy of the absorbers and basic data for the associated galaxies, derived from ground-based imaging and spectroscopy, are presented. We find broad agreement with the COS-Halos results, but our sample shows no evidence for changing ionization parameter or hydrogen density with distance from the CGM host galaxy, probably because the COS-Halos survey probes the CGM at smaller impact parameters. We find at least two passive galaxies with H I and metal-line absorption, confirming the intriguing COS-Halos result that galaxies sometimes have cool gas halos despite no on-going star formation. Using a new methodology for fitting H I absorption complexes, we confirm the CGM cool gas mass of Paper 1, but this value is significantly smaller than found by the COS-Halos survey. We trace much of this difference to the specific values of the low-$z$ meta-galactic ionization rate assumed. After accounting for this difference, a best-value for the CGM cool gas mass is found by combining the results of both surveys to obtain $\log{(M/M_{\odot})}=10.5\pm0.3$, or ~30% of the total baryon reservoir of an $L \geq L^*$, star-forming galaxy.
We compute cosmological perturbations for a generic self gravitating media described four derivatively coupled scalar fields. Depending on the internal scalar s symmetries, one can obtain perfect fluids, superfluids, solid and supersolids media. Symmetries dictate both dynamical and thermodynamical properties of the media. Generically, scalar perturbations include, besides the gravitational potential, an additional nonadiabatic mode associated with fluctuations of the entropy per particle sigma. While perfect fluids and solids are adiabatic with sigma constant in time, superfluids and supersolids feature a nontrivial dynamics for sigma. Special classes of isentropic media with zero sigma can also be found. Tensor modes become massive for solid and supersolid. Such an effective approach can be used to give a very general and symmetry driven modeling of the dark sector.
Giant radio galaxies (GRGs) are one of the largest astrophysical sources in the Universe with an overall projected linear size of ~0.7 Mpc or more. Last six decades of radio astronomy research has led to the detection of thousands of radio galaxies. But only ~ 300 of them can be classified as GRGs. The reasons behind their large size and rarity are unknown. We carried out a systematic search for these radio giants and found a large sample of GRGs. In this paper, we report the discovery of 25 GRGs from NVSS, in the redshift range (z) ~ 0.07 to 0.67. Their physical sizes range from ~0.8 Mpc to ~4 Mpc. Eight of these GRGs have sizes greater than 2Mpc which is a rarity. In this paper, for the first time, we investigate the mid-IR properties of the optical hosts of the GRGs and classify them securely into various AGN types using the WISE mid-IR colours. Using radio and IR data, four of the hosts of GRGs were observed to be radio loud quasars that extend up to 2 Mpc in radio size. These GRGs missed detection in earlier searches possibly because of their highly diffuse nature, low surface brightness and lack of optical data. The new GRGs are a significant addition to the existing sample that will contribute to better understanding of the physical properties of radio giants.
Frolop and Scott (2016) claim significant 1-1 correspondence between anomalies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the digits of pi, which they call 'Pi in the Sky'. They have without attribution republished the famous work of Joe Hill (Hill 1911), who first proposed this idea, then repudiated it.
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Dynamical dark energy has been recently suggested as a promising and physical way to solve the 3.4 sigma tension on the value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ between the direct measurement of Riess et al. (2016) (R16, hereafter) and the indirect constraint from Cosmic Microwave Anisotropies obtained by the Planck satellite under the assumption of a $\Lambda$CDM model. In this paper, by parameterizing dark energy evolution using the $w_0$-$w_a$ approach, and considering a $12$ parameter extended scenario, we find that: a) the tension on the Hubble constant can indeed be solved with dynamical dark energy, b) a cosmological constant is ruled out at more than $95 \%$ c.l. by the Planck+R16 dataset, and c) all of the standard quintessence and half of the "downward going" dark energy model space (characterized by an equation of state that decreases with time) is also excluded at more than $95 \%$ c.l. These results are further confirmed when cosmic shear, CMB lensing, or SN~Ia luminosity distance data are also included. However, tension remains with the BAO dataset. A cosmological constant and small portion of the freezing quintessence models are still in agreement with the Planck+R16+BAO dataset at between 68\% and 95\% c.l. Conversely, for Planck plus a phenomenological $H_0$ prior, both thawing and freezing quintessence models prefer a Hubble constant of less than 70 km/s/Mpc. The general conclusions hold also when considering models with non-zero spatial curvature.
This work extends the Elsner & Wandelt (2013) iterative method for efficient, preconditioner-free Wiener filtering to cases in which the noise covariance matrix is dense, but can be decomposed into a sum whose parts are sparse in convenient bases. The new method, which uses multiple messenger fields, reproduces Wiener filter solutions for test problems, and we apply it to a case beyond the reach of the Elsner & Wandelt (2013) method. We compute the Wiener filter solution for a simulated Cosmic Microwave Background map that contains spatially-varying, uncorrelated noise, isotropic $1/f$ noise, and large-scale horizontal stripes (like those caused by the atmospheric noise). We discuss simple extensions that can filter contaminated modes or inverse-noise filter the data. These techniques help to address complications in the noise properties of maps from current and future generations of ground-based Microwave Background experiments, like Advanced ACTPol, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4.
We study the consistency of 150 GHz data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and 143 GHz data from the \textit{Planck} satellite over the 2540 $\text{deg}^2$ patch of sky covered by the SPT-SZ survey. We first visually compare the maps and find that the map residuals appear consistent with noise after we account for differences in angular resolution and filtering. To make a more quantitative comparison, we calculate (1) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of SPT 150 GHz data, (2) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of \textit{Planck} 143 GHz data, and (3) the cross-spectrum between SPT 150 GHz and \textit{Planck} 143 GHz data. We find the three cross-spectra are well-fit (PTE = 0.30) by the null hypothesis in which both experiments have measured the same sky map up to a single free parameter characterizing the relative calibration between the two. As a by-product of this analysis, we improve the calibration of SPT data by nearly an order of magnitude, from 2.6\% to 0.3\% in power; the best-fit power calibration factor relative to the most recent published SPT calibration is $1.0174 \pm 0.0033$. Finally, we compare all three cross-spectra to the full-sky \textit{Planck} $143 \times 143$ power spectrum and find a hint ($\sim$1.5$\sigma$) for differences in the power spectrum of the SPT-SZ footprint and the full-sky power spectrum, which we model and fit as a power law in the spectrum. The best-fit value of this tilt is consistent between the three cross-spectra in the SPT-SZ footprint, implying that the source of this tilt---assuming it is real---is a sample variance fluctuation in the SPT-SZ region relative to the full sky. Despite the precision of our tests, we find no evidence for systematic errors in either data set. The consistency of cosmological parameters derived from these datasets is discussed in a companion paper.
We present a test to quantify how well some approximate methods, designed to reproduce the mildly non-linear evolution of perturbations, are able to reproduce the clustering of DM halos once the grouping of particles into halos is defined and kept fixed. The following methods have been considered: Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (LPT) up to third order, Truncated LPT, Augmented LPT, MUSCLE and COLA. The test runs as follows: halos are defined by applying a friends-of-friends (FoF) halo finder to the output of an N-body simulation. The approximate methods are then applied to the same initial conditions of the simulation, producing for all particles displacements from their starting position and velocities. The position and velocity of each halo are computed by averaging over the particles that belong to that halo, according to the FoF halo finder. This procedure allows us to perform a well-posed test of how clustering of the matter density and halo density fields are recovered, without asking to the approximate method an accurate reconstruction of halos. We have considered the results at $z=0,0.5,1$, and we have analysed power spectrum in real and redshift space, object-by-object difference in position and velocity, density Probability Distribution Function (PDF) and its moments, phase difference of Fourier modes. We find that higher LPT orders are generally able to better reproduce the clustering of halos, while little or no improvement is found for the matter density field when going to 2LPT and 3LPT. Augmentation provides some improvement when coupled with 2LPT, while its effect is limited when coupled with 3LPT. Little improvement is brought by MUSCLE with respect to Augmentation. The more expensive particle-mesh code COLA outperforms all LPT methods [abridged]
Coupling between sub- and super-Hubble modes can affect the locally observed statistics of our universe. In the context of Quasi-Single Field Inflation, we can compute correlation functions and derive the influence of those unobservable modes on observed correlation functions as well as on the inferred cosmological parameters. We study how different classes of diagrams affect the bispectrum in the squeezed limit; in particular, while contact-like diagrams leave the scaling between the long and short modes unchanged, exchange-like diagrams do modify the shape of the bispectrum. We show that the mass of the hidden sector field can hence be biased by an unavoidable cosmic variance that can reach a 1-$\sigma$ uncertainty of $\mathcal{O}(10\%)$ for a weakly non-Gaussian universe. Finally, we go beyond the bispectrum and show how couplings between unobservable and observable modes can affect generic correlation functions with arbitrary order non-derivative self-interactions.
We review the effect of the commonly-used Limber and flat-sky approximations on the calculation of shear power spectra and correlation functions for galaxy weak lensing. These approximations are accurate at small scales, but it has been claimed recently that their impact on low multipoles could lead to an increase in the amplitude of the mass fluctuations inferred from surveys such as CFHTLenS, reducing the tension between galaxy weak lensing and the amplitude determined by Planck from observations of the cosmic microwave background. Here, we explore the impact of these approximations on cosmological parameters derived from weak lensing surveys, using the CFHTLenS data as a test case. We conclude that the use of small-angle approximations for cosmological parameter estimation is negligible for current data, and does not contribute to the tension between current weak lensing surveys and Planck.
Despite all fundamental objections against Newtonian concepts in cosmology, the Friedmann equation derives from these in an astoundingly simple way through application of the shell theorem and conservation of Newtonian energy in an infinite universe. However, Friedmann universes in general posses a finite gravitational horizon, as a result of which the application of the shell theorem fails and the Newtonian derivation collapses. We show that in the presence of a gravitational horizon the Friedmann equation can be derived from a Machian definition of kinetic energy, without invoking the shell theorem. Whereas in the Newtonian case total energy translates to curvature energy density, in the Machian case total energy takes on different identities, depending on the evolution of the horizon; we show that in the de Sitter universe Machian total energy density is constant, i.e. appears as cosmological constant.
The space-based Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be able to observe the gravitational-wave signals from systems comprised of a massive black hole and a stellar-mass compact object. These systems are known as extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) and are expected to complete $\sim 10^4-10^5$ cycles in band, thus allowing exquisite measurements of their parameters. In this work, we attempt to quantify the astrophysical uncertainties affecting the predictions for the number of EMRIs detectable by LISA, and find that competing astrophysical assumptions produce a variance of about three orders of magnitude in the expected intrinsic EMRI rate. However, we find that irrespective of the astrophysical model, at least a few EMRIs per year should be detectable by the LISA mission, with up to a few thousands per year under the most optimistic astrophysical assumptions. We also investigate the precision with which LISA will be able to extract the parameters of these sources. We find that typical fractional statistical errors with which the intrinsic parameters (redshifted masses, massive black hole spin and orbital eccentricity) can be recovered are $\sim 10^{-6}$--$10^{-4}$. Luminosity distance (which is required to infer true masses) is inferred to about $10\%$ precision and sky position is localized to a few square degrees, while tests of the multipolar structure of the Kerr metric can be performed to percent-level precision or better.
One of the key astrophysical sources for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) are the inspirals of stellar-origin compact objects into massive black holes in the centres of galaxies. These extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) have great potential for astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. In this paper we describe the likely numbers and properties of EMRI events that LISA will observe. We present the first results computed for the 2.5 Gm interferometer that was the new baseline mission submitted in January 2017 in response to the ESA L3 mission call. In addition, we attempt to quantify the astrophysical uncertainties in EMRI event rate estimates by considering a range of different models for the astrophysical population. We present both likely event rates and estimates for the precision with which the parameters of the observed sources could be measured. We finish by discussing the implications of these results for science using EMRIs.
We argue that the preferred classical variables that emerge from a pure quantum state are determined by its entanglement structure in the form of redundant records: information shared between many subsystems. Focusing on the early universe, we ask how classical metric perturbations emerge from vacuum fluctuations in an inflationary background. We show that the squeezing of the quantum state for super-horizon modes, along with minimal gravitational interactions, leads to decoherence and to an exponential number of records of metric fluctuations on very large scales, $\lambda/\lambda_{\rm Hubble}>\Delta_\zeta^{-2/3}$, where $\Delta_\zeta\lesssim 10^{-5}$ is the amplitude of scalar metric fluctuations. This determines a preferred decomposition of the inflationary wavefunction into orthogonal "branches" corresponding to classical metric perturbations, which defines an inflationary entropy production rate and accounts for the emergence of stochastic, inhomogeneous spacetime geometry.
Recent quasar surveys have revealed that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) rarely exceed a mass of $M_{\rm BH} \sim {\rm a~few}\times10^{10}~M_{\odot}$ during the entire cosmic history. It has been argued that quenching of the BH growth is caused by a transition of a nuclear accretion disk into an advection dominated accretion flow, with which strong outflows and/or jets are likely to be associated. We investigate a relation between the maximum mass of SMBHs and the radio-loudness of quasars with a well-defined sample of $\sim 10^5$ quasars at a redshift range of $0<z<2$, obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys DR7 catalog. We find that the number fraction of the radio-loud (RL) quasars increases above a threshold of $M_{\rm BH} \simeq 10^{9.5}~M_{\odot}$, independent of their redshifts. Moreover, the number fraction of RL quasars with lower Eddington ratios (out of the whole RL quasars), indicating lower accretion rates, increases above the critical BH mass. These observational trends can be natural consequences of the proposed scenario of suppressing BH growth around the apparent maximum mass of $\sim 10^{10}~M_{\odot}$. The ongoing VLA Sky Survey in radio will allow us to estimate of the exact number fraction of RL quasars more precisely, which gives further insights to understand quenching processes for BH growth.
Recent detailed observations of the radio-loud quasar 3C 186 indicate the possibility that a supermassive recoiling black hole is moving away from the host galaxy at a speed of nearly 2100km/s. If this is the case, we can model the mass ratio and spins of the progenitor binary black hole using the results of numerical relativity simulations. We find that the black holes in the progenitor must have comparable masses with a mass ratio $q=m_1/m_2>1/4$ and the spin of the primary black hole must be $\alpha_2=S_2/m_2^2>0.4$. The final remnant of the merger is bounded by $\alpha_f>0.45$ and at least $4\%$ of the total mass of the binary system is radiated into gravitational waves. We consider four different pre-merger scenarios that further narrow those values. Assuming, for instance, a cold accretion driven merger model, we find that the binary had comparable masses with $q=0.70^{+0.29}_{-0.21}$ and the normalized spins of the larger and smaller black holes were $\alpha_2=0.94^{+0.06}_{-0.22}$ and $\alpha_1=0.95^{+0.05}_{-0.09}$. We can also estimate the final recoiling black hole spin $\alpha_f=0.93^{+0.02}_{-0.03}$ and that the system radiated $9.6^{+0.8}_{-1.4}\%$ of its total mass, making the merger of those black holes the most energetic event ever observed.
We study the production of CMB circular ("V-mode") polarization in axion inflation coupled to fermions and gauge fields, with special attention paid to (p)reheating. We construct the power spectrum of V-mode anisotropies, and find a blue-tilted spectrum with index $n_V=4$. This is independent of the dominant decay channel of the inflaton (direct fermion vs. direct photon production). We discuss prospects for detection by CMB experiments.
We continue a comprehensive numerical study of semilocal string networks and their cosmological evolution. These can be thought of as hybrid networks comprised of (non-topological) string segments, whose core structure is similar to that of Abelian Higgs vortices, and whose ends have long--range interactions and behaviour similar to that of global monopoles. Our study provides further evidence of a linear scaling regime, already reported in previous studies, for the typical length scale and velocity of the network. We introduce a new algorithm to identify the position of the segment cores. This allows us to determine the length and velocity of each individual segment and follow their evolution in time. We study the statistical distribution of segment lengths and velocities for radiation- and matter-dominated evolution in the regime where the strings are stable. Our segment detection algorithm gives higher length values than previous studies based on indirect detection methods. The statistical distribution shows no evidence of (anti)correlation between the speed and the length of the segments.
Thermal corrections in classically conformal models typically induce a strong first-order electroweak phase transition, thereby resulting in a stochastic gravitational background that could be detectable at gravitational wave observatories. After reviewing the basics of classically conformal scenarios, in this paper we investigate the phase transition dynamics in a thermal environment and the related gravitational wave phenomenology within the framework of scalar conformal extensions of the Standard Model. We find that minimal extensions involving only one additional scalar field struggle to reproduce the correct phase transition dynamics once thermal corrections are accounted for. Next-to-minimal models, instead, yield the desired electroweak symmetry breaking and typically result in a very strong gravitational wave signal.
We study a tachyon cosmological model based on the dynamics of a 3-brane in the bulk of the second Randall-Sundrum model extended to more general warp functions. A well known prototype of such a generalization is the bulk with a selfinteracting scalar field. As a consequence of a generalized bulk geometry the cosmology on the observer brane is modified by the scale dependent four-dimensional gravitational constant. In particular we study a power law warp factor which generates an inverse power-law potential $V\propto \varphi^{-n}$ of the tachyon field $\varphi$. We find a critical power $n_{\rm cr}$ that divides two subclasses with distinct asymptotic behaviors: a dust universe for $n>n_{\rm cr}$ and a quasi de Sitter universe for $0<n<n_{\rm cr}$.
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We present results from Suzaku Key Project observations of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest galaxy cluster to us, mapping its X-ray properties along four long `arms' extending beyond the virial radius. The entropy profiles along all four azimuths increase with radius, then level out beyond $0.5r_{200}$, while the average pressure at large radii exceeds Planck Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements. These results can be explained by enhanced gas density fluctuations (clumping) in the cluster's outskirts. Using a standard Navarro, Frenk and White (1997) model, we estimate a virial mass, radius, and concentration parameter of $M_{200}=1.05\pm0.02\times10^{14}$ M$_\odot$, $r_{200}=974.1\pm5.7$ kpc, and $c = 8.8 \pm0.2$, respectively. The inferred cumulative baryon fraction exceeds the cosmic mean at $r\sim r_{200}$ along the major axis, suggesting enhanced gas clumping possibly sourced by a candidate large-scale structure filament along the north-south direction. The Suzaku data reveal a large-scale sloshing pattern, with two new cold fronts detected at radii of 233 kpc and 280 kpc along the western and southern arms, respectively. Two high-temperature regions are also identified 1 Mpc towards the south and 605 kpc towards the west of M87, likely representing shocks associated with the ongoing cluster growth. Although systematic uncertainties in measuring the metallicity for low temperature plasma remain, the data at large radii appear consistent with a uniform metal distribution on scales of $\sim 90\times180$ kpc and larger, providing additional support for the early chemical enrichment scenario driven by galactic winds at redshifts of 2-3.
We consider inflationary magnetogenesis where the conformal symmetry is broken by the term $f^2(\phi) F_{\alpha\beta} F^{\alpha\beta}$. We assume that the magnetic field power spectrum on the observable range of scales today is a power law. This fixes $f$ to be close to a power law in conformal time in the window during inflation when the modes observed today are generated. In contrast to previous work, we do not make any assumptions about the form of $f$ outside this window, beyond avoiding strong coupling and large backreaction both at the background and perturbative level. We cover all possible reheating histories. We find the limit $\delta_{B_0} < 5 \times10^{-15} \left( \frac{r}{0.07} \right)^{1/2} \kappa \mathrm{G}$ for the magnetic field today, where $r$ is the tensor-to-scalar ratio and $\kappa$ is a constant related to the form of $f$. This estimate has an uncertainty of one order of magnitude related to our approximations. The parameter $\kappa$ is $<100$, and values $\gtrsim1$ require a highly fine-tuned form of $f$; typical values are orders of magnitude smaller.
In earlier work we showed that a frame dependent effective action motivated by the postulates of three-space general coordinate invariance and Weyl scaling invariance exactly mimics a cosmological constant in Roberston-Walker (RW) spacetimes. Here we study the implications of this effective action for small fluctuations around a spatially flat RW background geometry. The equations for the conserving extension of the modified stress-energy tensor can be integrated in closed form, and involve only the metric perturbation $h_{00}$. Hence the equations for tensor and vector perturbations are unmodified, but there are Hubble scale additions to the scalar perturbation equations, which nonetheless admit no propagating wave solutions. Consequently, there are no modifications to standard gravitational wave propagation theory, but there may be significant implications for early universe structure formation, We give a self-contained discussion, including an analysis of the restricted class of gauge transformations that act when a frame dependent effective action is present.
Recently, the CIII] and CIV emission lines have been observed in galaxies in the early Universe ($z>5$), providing new ways to measure their redshift and study their stellar populations and AGN. We explore the first blind CII], CIII] and CIV survey ($z\sim0.68, 1.05, 1.53$, respectively) presented in Stroe et al. (2017). We derive luminosity functions (LF) and study properties of CII], CIII] and CIV line emitters through comparisons to the LFs of H$\alpha$ and Ly$\alpha$ emitters, UV selected star forming (SF) galaxies and quasars at similar redshifts. The CII] LF at $z\sim0.68$ is equally well described by a Schechter or a power-law LF, characteristic of a mixture of SF and AGN activity. The CIII] LF ($z\sim1.05$) is consistent to a scaled down version of the Schechter H$\alpha$ and Ly$\alpha$ LF at their redshift, indicating a SF origin. In stark contrast, the CIV LF at $z\sim1.53$ is well fit by a power-law, quasar-like LF. We find that the brightest UV sources ($M_{UV}<-22$) will universally have CIII] and CIV emission. However, on average, CIII] and CIV are not as abundant as H$\alpha$ or Ly$\alpha$ emitters at the same redshift, with cosmic average ratios of $\sim0.02-0.06$ to H$\alpha$ and $\sim0.01-0.1$ to intrinsic Ly$\alpha$. We predict that the CIII] and CIV lines can only be truly competitive in confirming high redshift candidates when the hosts are intrinsically bright and the effective Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction is below 1 per cent. While CIII] and CIV were proposed as good tracers of young, relatively low-metallicity galaxies typical of the early Universe, we find that, at least at $z\sim1.5$, CIV is exclusively hosted by AGN/quasars.
We provide a compact and unified treatment of power spectrum observables for the effective field theory (EFT) of inflation with the complete set of operators that lead to second-order equations of motion in metric perturbations in both space and time derivatives, including Horndeski and GLPV theories. We relate the EFT operators in ADM form to the four additional free functions of time in the scalar and tensor equations. Using the generalized slow roll formalism, we show that each power spectrum can be described by an integral over a single source that is a function of its respective sound horizon. With this correspondence, existing model independent constraints on the source function can be simply reinterpreted in the more general inflationary context. By expanding these sources around an optimized freeze-out epoch, we also provide characterizations of these spectra in terms of five slow-roll hierarchies whose leading order forms are compact and accurate as long as EFT coefficients vary only on timescales greater than an efold. We also clarify the relationship between the unitary gauge observables employed in the EFT and the comoving gauge observables of the post-inflationary universe.
We show that some or all of the inventory of $r$-process nucleosynthesis can be produced in interactions of primordial black holes (PBHs) with neutron stars (NSs) if PBHs with masses ${10}^{-14}\,{\rm M}_\odot < {\rm M}_{\rm PBH} < {10}^{-8}\,{\rm M}_\odot$ make up a few percent or more of the dark matter. A PBH captured by a neutron star (NS) sinks to the center of the NS and consumes it from the inside. When this occurs in a rotating millisecond-period NS, the resulting spin-up ejects $\sim 0.1-0.5\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ of relatively cold neutron-rich material. This ejection process and the accompanying decompression and decay of nuclear matter can produce electromagnetic transients, such as a kilonova-type afterglow and fast radio bursts. These transients are not accompanied by significant gravitational radiation or neutrinos, allowing such events to be differentiated from compact object mergers occurring within the distance sensitivity limits of gravitational wave observatories. The PBH-NS destruction scenario is consistent with pulsar and NS statistics, the dark matter content and spatial distributions in the Galaxy and Ultra Faint Dwarfs (UFD), as well as with the $r$-process content and evolution histories in these sites. Ejected matter is heated by beta decay, which leads to emission of positrons in an amount consistent with the observed 511-keV line from the Galactic Center.
This paper presents the first derivation of the quadratic action for curvature perturbations, $\zeta$, within the framework of cuscuton gravity. We study the scalar cosmological perturbations sourced by a canonical single scalar field in the presence of cuscuton field. We identify $\zeta$ as comoving curvature with respect to the source field and we show that it retains its conservation characteristic on super horizon scales. The result provides an explicit proof that cuscuton modification of gravity around Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric is ghost free. We also investigate the potential development of other instabilities in cuscuton models. We find that in a large class of these models, there is no generic instability problem. However, depending on the details of slow-roll parameters, specific models may display gradient instabilities.
We identify a halo substructure in the Tycho Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) dataset, cross-matched with the RAVE-on data release. After quality cuts, the stars with large radial action ($J_R > 800$ kms$^{-1}$ kpc) are extracted. A subset of these stars is clustered in longitude and velocity and can be selected with further cuts. The 14 stars are centered on $(X,Y,Z) \approx (9.0,-1.0,-0.6)$ kpc and form a coherently moving structure in the halo with median $(v_R,v_\phi,v_z) = (167.33,0.86,-94.85)$ kms$^{-1}$. They are all metal-poor giants with median [Fe/H] $=-0.83$. To guard against the effects of distance errors, we compute spectrophotometric distances for the 8 out of 14 stars where this is possible. We find that 6 of the stars are still comoving. These 6 stars also have a much tighter [Fe/H] distribution $\sim -0.7$ with one exception ([Fe/H] = -2.12). We conclude that the existence of the comoving cluster is stable against changes in distance estimation and conjecture that this is the dissolving remnant of a long-ago accreted globular cluster.
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Galaxy clusters are the most recent products of hierarchical accretion over cosmological scales. The gas accreted from the cosmic field is thermalized inside the cluster halo. Gas entropy and pressure are expected to have a self-similar behaviour with their radial distribution following a power law and a generalized Navarro-Frenk-White profile, respectively. This has been shown also in many different hydrodynamical simulations. We derive the spatially-resolved thermodynamical properties of 47 X-ray galaxy clusters observed with Chandra in the redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2, the largest sample investigated so far in this redshift range with X-rays spectroscopy, with a particular care in reconstructing the gas entropy and pressure radial profiles. We search for deviation from the self-similar behaviour and look for possible evolution with redshift. The entropy and pressure profiles lie very close to the baseline prediction from gravitational structure formation. We show that these profiles deviate from the baseline prediction as function of redshift, in particular at z > 0.75, where, in the central regions, we observe higher values of the entropy (by a factor of 2.2) and systematically lower estimates (by a factor of 2.5) of the pressure. The effective polytropic index, which retains informations about the thermal distribution of the gas, shows a slight linear positive evolution with the redshift and the concentration of the dark matter distribution. A prevalence of non-cool-core, disturbed systems, as we observe at higher redshifts, can explain such behaviours.
Theory testing in the physical sciences has been revolutionized in recent decades by Bayesian approaches to probability theory. Here, I will consider Bayesian approaches to theory extensions, that is, theories like inflation which aim to provide a deeper explanation for some aspect of our models (in this case, the standard model of cosmology) that seem unnatural or fine-tuned. In particular, I will consider how cosmologists can test the multiverse using observations of this universe.
The Chaplygin gas cosmology provides a prime example for the class of unified dark matter models, which substitute the two dark components of the standard cosmological LCDM concordance model by a single dark component. We analyse the admissible parameter space of the generalised Chaplygin gas model with respect to recent cosmological observations as the SN Ia Union 2.1 compilation of the Supernova Cosmology Project, the data of the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey (BOSS) of the third Sloan digital sky survey (SDSS-III) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data of the Planck 2015 data release. Emphasis is put on a detailed CMB analysis by comparing the theoretical angular power spectra with the CMB data using the Planck likelihood code, which goes beyond an analysis employing only a compressed likelihood. Furthermore, the importance of the BOSS Lyman alpha forest BAO measurements is investigated. It is found that only Chaplygin gas cosmologies very close to the LCDM model are favoured by these data.
In order to explore the generic properties of a backreaction model to explain the observations of the Universe, we exploit two metrics to describe the late time Universe. Since the standard FLRW metric cannot precisely describe the late time Universe on small scales, the template metric with an evolving curvature parameter is employed. However, we doubt that the evolving curvature parameter also obeys the scaling law, thus we make use of observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) to constrain parameters in dust cosmology to testify it. First, in FLRW model, after getting best-fit constraints of $\Omega^{{\mathcal{D}}_0}_m = 0.25^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$, $n = 0.02^{+0.69}_{-0.66}$, and $H_{\mathcal{D}_0} = 70.54^{+4.24}_{-3.97}\ {\rm km/s/Mpc}$, evolutions of parameters are studied. Second, in template metric context, by marginalizing over $H_{\mathcal{D}_0}$ as a prior of uniform distribution, we obtain the best-fit values as $n=-1.22^{+0.68}_{-0.41}$ and ${{\Omega}_{m}^{\mathcal{D}_{0}}}=0.12^{+0.04}_{-0.02}$. Moreover, we utilize three different Gaussian priors of $H_{\mathcal{D}_0}$, which result in different best-fits of $n$, but almost the same best-fit value of ${{\Omega}_{m}^{\mathcal{D}_{0}}}\sim0.12$. With these constraints, evolutions of the effective deceleration parameter $q^{\mathcal{D}}$ indicate that the backreaction can account for the accelerated expansion of the Universe without involving extra dark energy component in the scaling solution context. However, the results also imply that the prescription of the geometrical instantaneous spatially-constant curvature $\kappa_{\mathcal{D}}$ of the template metric is insufficient and should be improved.
(shortened) We determine the transformation matrix T that maps multiple images with resolved features onto one another and that is based on a Taylor-expanded lensing potential close to a point on the critical curve within our model-independent lens characterisation approach. From T, the same information about the critical curve at fold and cusp points is derived as determined by the quadrupole moment of the individual images as observables. In addition, we read off the relative parities between the images, so that the parity of all images is determined, when one is known. We compare all retrievable ratios of potential derivatives to the actual ones and to those obtained by using the quadrupole moment as observable for two and three image configurations generated by a galaxy-cluster scale singular isothermal ellipse. We conclude that using the quadrupole moments as observables, the properties of the critical curve at the cusp points are retrieved to higher accuracy, at the fold points to lower accuracy, and the ratios of second order potential derivatives to comparable accuracy. We show that the approach using ratios of convergences and reduced shear is equivalent to ours close to the critical curve but yields more accurate results and is more robust because it does not require a special coordinate system like the approach using potential derivatives. T is determined by mapping manually assigned reference points in the images onto each other. If the assignment of reference points is subject to measurement uncertainties under noise, we find that the confidence intervals of the lens parameters can be as large as the values, when the uncertainties are larger than one pixel. Observed multiple images with resolved features are more extended than unresolved ones, so that higher order moments should be taken into account to improve the reconstruction.
Sterile neutrino dark matter is expected to suppress structure formation at small astrophysical scales. The details of the suppression depend on the sterile neutrino production mechanism in the early universe. In this proceeding, we focus on the most popular cases of resonant production (via the mixing between active and sterile neutrinos) and scalar decay production (via the decay of a hypothetical scalar singlet). We first review current constraints from structure formation before discussing how the sterile neutrino dark matter hypothesis can alleviate the overabundance problem of dwarf galaxies in the local universe.
Imaging surveys of galaxies will have a high number density and angular resolution yet a poor redshift precision. Intensity maps of neutral hydrogen (HI) will have accurate redshift resolution yet will not resolve individual sources. Using this complementarity, we show how the clustering redshifts approach, proposed for spectroscopic surveys can also be used in combination with intensity mapping observations to calibrate the redshift distribution of galaxies in an imaging survey and, as a result, reduce uncertainties in photometric redshift measurements. We show how the intensity mapping surveys to be carried out with the MeerKAT, HIRAX and SKA instruments can improve photometric redshift uncertainties to well below the requirements of DES and LSST. The effectiveness of this method as a function of instrumental parameters, foreground subtraction and other potential systematic errors is discussed in detail.
We use idealized three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of global galactic discs to study the launching of galactic winds by supernovae (SNe). The simulations resolve the cooling radii of the majority of supernova remnants (SNRs) and thus self-consistently capture how SNe drive galactic winds. We find that SNe launch highly supersonic winds with properties that agree reasonably well with expectations from analytic models. The energy loading ($\eta_E = \dot{E}_{\rm wind} / \dot{E}_{\rm SN}$) of the winds in our simulations are well converged with spatial resolution while the wind mass loading ($\eta_M = \dot{M}_{\rm wind} / \dot{M}_\star$) decreases with resolution at the resolutions we achieve. We present a simple analytic model based on the concept that SNRs with cooling radii greater than the local scale height breakout of the disc and power the wind. This model successfully explains the dependence (or lack thereof) of $\eta_E$ (and by extension $\eta_M$) on the gas surface density, star formation efficiency, disc radius, and the clustering of SNe. The winds in the majority of our simulations are weaker than expected in reality, likely due to the fact that we seed SNe preferentially at density peaks. Clustering SNe in time and space substantially increases the wind power.
The recent direct observation of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes opens up the possibility of exploring the theory of gravity in the strong regime at an unprecedented level. It is therefore interesting to explore which modifications of General Relativity (GR) could be detected. We construct an Effective Field Theory (EFT) satisfying the following requirements. It is testable with GW observations; it is consistent with other experiments, including short distance tests of GR; it agrees with widely accepted principles of physics, such as locality, causality and unitarity; and it does not involve new light degrees of freedom. The most general theory satisfying these requirements corresponds to adding to the GR Lagrangian three operators that are quartic in the Riemann tensor, suppressed by a scale comparable to the curvature of the observed merging binaries, plus higher order terms. The presence of these operators modifies the gravitational potential between the compact objects, as well as their effective mass and current quadrupoles, ultimately correcting the waveform of the emitted GW.
During the first observing run of LIGO, two gravitational wave events and one lower-significance trigger (LVT151012) were reported by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. At the time of LVT151012, the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) was pointing at a region of the sky coincident with the high localization probability area of the event and thus permitted us to search for its electromagnetic counterpart (both prompt and afterglow emission). The imaging instruments on-board INTEGRAL (IBIS/ISGRI, IBIS/PICsIT, SPI, and the two JEM-X modules) have been exploited to attempt the detection of any electromagnetic emission associated with LVT151012 over 3 decades in energy (from 3 keV to 8 MeV). The omni-directional instruments on-board the satellite, i.e. the SPI-ACS and IBIS monitored the entire LVT151012 localization region at energies above 75 keV. We did not find any significant transient source that was spatially and/or temporally coincident with LVT151012, obtaining tight upper limits on the associated hard X-ray and $\gamma$-ray radiation. For typical spectral models, the upper limits on the fluence of the emission from any 1 s long-lasting counterpart of LVT151012 ranges from $F_{\gamma}=$3.5$\times$10$^{-8}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ (20 - 200 keV) to $F_{\gamma}$=7.1$\times$10$^{-7}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ (75 - 2000 keV), constraining the ratio of the isotropic equivalent energy released in the electromagnetic emission to the total energy of the gravitational waves: $E_{75-2000~keV}/E_{GW}<$4.4$\times$10$^{-5}$. Finally, we provide an exhaustive summary of the capabilities of all instruments on-board INTEGRAL to hunt for $\gamma$-ray counterparts of gravitational wave events, exploiting both serendipitous and pointed follow-up observations. This will serve as a reference for all future searches.
We study the effects of black hole dark matter on the dynamical evolution of stars in dwarf galaxies. We find that mass segregation leads to a depletion of stars in the center of dwarf galaxies and the appearance of a ring in the projected stellar surface density profile. Using Segue 1 as an example we show that current observations of the projected surface stellar density rule out at the 99.9% confidence level the possibility that more than 4% of the dark matter is composed of black holes with a mass of few tens of solar masses.
The contribution of one loop milli-charged fermion vacuum polarization in cosmic magnetic field to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is considered. Exact and perturbative solution of the density matrix equations of motion in terms of the Stokes parameters are presented. For linearly polarized CMB at decoupling time, it is shown that propagation of CMB photons in cosmic magnetic field would generate elliptic polarization (circular and linear) of the CMB due to milli-charged fermion vacuum polarization. Analytic expressions for the degree of circular polarization and rotation angle of polarization plane of the CMB are presented. Depending on the ratio of milli-charged fermion relative charge to mass, $\epsilon/m_\epsilon$, and CMB observation frequency, it is shown that the acquired CMB degree of circular polarization could be of the order of magnitude $P_C(T_0)\sim 10^{-10}- 10^{-6}$ in the best scenario. The mechanism considered in this work generates CMB polarization even in the case when the CMB is initially in thermal equilibrium. Limits on the magnetic field amplitude due to prior decoupling CMB polarization are presented.
We analyze the polarization states of gravitational waves in Horndeski theory. In addition to the familiar plus and cross modes appearing in Einstein's general relativity, there is one more polarization state which is the mixture of the transverse breathing and longitudinal modes. The additional mode is excited by the massive scalar field. In the massless limit, the longitudinal mode disappears, while the breathing one persists. The upper bound on the graviton mass severely constrains the amplitude of the longitudinal mode, which makes its detection highly unlikely by the ground-based or space-borne interferometers in the near future. However, pulsar timing arrays might be able to observe the longitudinal mode.
We investigate the mass loss of galaxies in groups and clusters with high-resolution DM simulations. We detect weak mass segregation in the inner regions of group/cluster haloes, consistent with observational findings. This applies to samples of galaxy analogues selected using either their present-day mass or past maximum (peak) mass. We find a strong radial trend in the fractional mass lost by the galaxies since peak, independent of their mass. This suggests that segregation is due to massive galaxies having formed closer to the halo centres and not the preferential destruction of smaller galaxies near halo centres. We divide our sample into galaxies that were accreted as a group vs. as a single, distinct halo. We find strong evidence for preprocessing -- the grouped galaxies lose $\sim 35-45\%$ of their peak mass before being accreted onto their final host haloes, compared to single galaxies which lose $\sim12\%$. After accretion, however, the single galaxies lose more mass compared to the grouped ones. These results are consistent with a scenario in which grouped galaxies are preprocessed in smaller haloes while single galaxies `catch up' in terms of total mass loss once they are accreted onto the final host halo. The fractional mass loss is mostly independent of the galaxy mass and host mass, and increases with amount of time spent in a dense environment.
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