The merger scenario of two galaxy subclusters to form the massive galaxy cluster 'El Gordo' is investigated using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. Idealized cluster models are used to initialize the states of both subclusters prior to the merger, assuming the commonly used Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) dark matter (DM) density profile and solving the hydrostatic equilibrium equation for a {\beta}-model with {\beta} = 0.6 to obtain the gas density profile. The impact parameter (P) and zero-energy orbit fraction ({\epsilon}) of the two merging subclusters are varied to put constraints on the space of parameter values which result in projections of X-ray luminosity, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, and DM density that correlate well with observational features of 'El Gordo'. We are able to reproduce the remarkable wake-like feature seen in X-ray observations that trails after the secondary (bullet) subcluster as well as the rough shape of the combined cluster with P ~ 800 kpc and {\epsilon} = 0.6, which corroborate the results of prior simulations that support an off-axis, high-speed collision as the merger scenario. We argue that the large separation distance between the mass centers of the two subclusters in this merger scenario may be resolved by finding a better fit for other parameters in the idealized subcluster models.
Models that seek to explain cosmic acceleration through modifications to
General Relativity (GR) evade stringent Solar System constraints through a
restoring, screening mechanism. Down-weighting the high density, screened
regions in favor of the low density, unscreened ones offers the potential to
enhance the amount of information carried in such modified gravity models.
In this work, we assess the performance of a new "marked" transformation and
perform a systematic comparison with the clipping and logarithmic
transformations, in the context of $\Lambda$CDM and the symmetron and $f(R)$
modified gravity models. Performance is measured in terms of the boost in the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for these models relative to the statistics derived
from the standard density distribution. We find that all three statistics
provide improved SNR boosts over the basic density statistics. The model
parameters for the "marked" and clipped transformation that best enhance
signals and the SNR boosts are determined. When including scales $k>3 h/Mpc$ we
find that the clipped transformation produces the highest SNR boost, while for
a more conservative scenario, considering scales down to $\sim$1-2$h/Mpc$, we
find that the marked transformation performs best. We also show that the mark
is useful both as a Fourier and real space transformation; a marked correlation
function also enhances the SNR relative to the standard correlation function,
and can on mildly non-linear scales show a significant difference between the
$\Lambda$CDM and the modified gravity models.
Our results demonstrate how a series of simple analytical transformations
could dramatically increase the predicted information extracted on deviations
from GR, from large-scale surveys, and give the prospect for a potential
detection much more feasible.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) places strong constraints on models of dark matter (DM) that deviate from standard cold DM (CDM), and on initial conditions beyond the scalar adiabatic mode. Here, the full \textit{Planck} data set (including temperature, $E$-mode polarisation, and lensing deflection) is used to test the possibility that some fraction of the DM is composed of ultralight axions (ULAs). This represents the first use of CMB lensing to test the ULA model. We find no evidence for a ULA component in the mass range $10^{-33}\leq m_a\leq 10^{-24}\text{ eV}$. We put percent-level constraints on the ULA contribution to the DM, improving by up to a factor of two compared to the case with temperature anisotropies alone. Axion DM also provides a low-energy window onto the high-energy physics of inflation through the interplay between the vacuum misalignment production of axions and isocurvature perturbations. We perform the first systematic investigation into the parameter space of ULA isocurvature, using an accurate isocurvature transfer function at all $m_{a}$ values. We precisely identify a "window of co-existence" for $10^{-25}\text{ eV}\leq m_a\leq10^{-24}\text{ eV}$ where the data allow, simultaneously, a $\sim10\%$ contribution of ULAs to the DM, and $\sim 1\%$ contributions of isocurvature and tensors to the CMB power. ULAs in this window (and \textit{all} lighter ULAs) are shown to be consistent with a large inflationary Hubble parameter, $H_I\sim 10^{14}\text{ GeV}$. The window of co-existence will be fully probed by proposed CMB-S4 observations with increased accuracy in the high-$\ell$ lensing power and low-$\ell$ $E$ and $B$-mode polarisation. If ULAs in the window exist, this could allow for two independent measurements of $H_I$ in the CMB using the axion DM content and isocurvature, and the tensor contribution to $B$-modes.
Everpresent $\Lambda$ is a cosmological scenario in which the observed cosmological "constant" $\Lambda$ fluctuates between positive and negative values with a vanishing mean, and with a magnitude comparable to the critical density at any epoch. In accord with a longstanding heuristic prediction of causal set theory, it postulates that $\Lambda$ is a stochastic function of cosmic time that will vary from one realization of the scenario to another. Herein, we consider two models of "dark energy" that exhibit these features. Via Monte Carlo Markov chains, we explore the space of cosmological parameters and the set of stochastic realizations of these models, finding that Everpresent $\Lambda$ can fit the current cosmological observations as well as the $\Lambda$CDM model does. Furthermore, it removes observational tensions with $\Lambda$CDM, for low redshift measurements of Hubble constant, and the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) in Lyman-$\alpha$ forest at $z\sim 2-3$. However, we also find that Everpresent $\Lambda$ does not significantly help with the growth of ultramassive black holes at high redshift, and the Lithium problem in Big Bang Nuclesynthesis. Future measurements of "dark energy" at high redshifts will further test the viability of Everpresent $\Lambda$ as an alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology.
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We report constraints on the global $21$ cm signal due to neutral hydrogen at redshifts $14.8 \geq z \geq 6.5$. We derive our constraints from low foreground observations of the average sky brightness spectrum conducted with the EDGES High-Band instrument between September $7$ and October $26$, $2015$. Observations were calibrated by accounting for the effects of antenna beam chromaticity, antenna and ground losses, signal reflections, and receiver parameters. We evaluate the consistency between the spectrum and phenomenological models for the global $21$ cm signal. For tanh-based representations of the ionization history during the epoch of reionization, we rule out, at $\geq2\sigma$ significance, models with duration of up to $\Delta z = 1$ at $z\approx8.5$ and higher than $\Delta z = 0.4$ across most of the observed redshift range under the usual assumption that the $21$ cm spin temperature is much larger than the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) during reionization. We also investigate a `cold' IGM scenario that assumes perfect Ly$\alpha$ coupling of the $21$ cm spin temperature to the temperature of the intergalactic medium (IGM), but that the IGM is not heated by early stars or stellar remants. Under this assumption, we reject tanh-based reionization models of duration $\Delta z \lesssim 2$ over most of the observed redshift range. Finally, we explore and reject a broad range of Gaussian models for the $21$ cm absorption feature expected in the First Light era. As an example, we reject $100$ mK Gaussians with duration (full width at half maximum) $\Delta z \leq 4$ over the range $14.2\geq z\geq 6.5$ at $\geq2\sigma$ significance.
We study a sample of 19 galaxy clusters in the redshift range $0.15<z<0.30$ with highly complete spectroscopic membership catalogues (to $K < K^{\ast}(\rm z)+1.5$) from the Arizona Cluster Redshift Survey (ACReS); individual weak-lensing masses and near-infrared data from the Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS); and optical photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We fit the scaling relations between total cluster luminosity in each of six bandpasses (${\it grizJK}$) and cluster mass, finding cluster luminosity to be a promising mass proxy with low intrinsic scatter $\sigma_{\ln L|M}$ of only $\sim 10-20$ per cent for all relations. At fixed overdensity radius, the intercept increases with wavelength, consistent with an old stellar population. The scatter and slope are consistent across all wavelengths, suggesting that cluster colour is not a function of mass. Comparing colour with indicators of the level of disturbance in the cluster, we find a narrower variety in the cluster colours of 'disturbed' clusters than of 'undisturbed' clusters. This trend is more pronounced with indicators sensitive to the initial stages of a cluster merger, e.g. the Dressler Schectman statistic. We interpret this as possible evidence that the total cluster star formation rate is 'standardised' in mergers, perhaps through a process such as a system-wide shock in the intracluster medium.
Accurate shape measurements are essential to infer cosmological parameters from large area weak gravitational lensing studies. The compact diffraction-limited point-spread function (PSF) in space-based observations is greatly beneficial, but its chromaticity for a broad band observation can lead to new subtle effects that could hitherto be ignored: the PSF of a galaxy is no longer uniquely defined and spatial variations in the colours of galaxies result in biases in the inferred lensing signal. Taking Euclid as a reference, we show that this colourgradient bias (CG bias) can be quantified with high accuracy using available multi-colour Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data. In particular we study how noise in the HST observations might impact such measurements and find this to be negligible. We determine the CG bias using HST observations in the F606W and F814W filters and observe a correlation with the colour, in line with expectations, whereas the dependence with redshift is weak. The biases for individual galaxies are generally well below 1%, which may be reduced further using morphological information from the Euclid data. Our results demonstrate that CG bias should not be ignored, but it is possible to determine its amplitude with sufficient precision, so that it will not significantly bias the weak lensing measurements using Euclid data.
We compute the tensor spectral index $n_t$, tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, consistency relation and other inflation parameters in the general monomial multifield slow-roll inflation models with potentials $V \sim\sum_i\lambda_i \left|\phi_i\right|^{p_i}$ analytically. The general models give a novel relation that the tensor and scalar spectral index $n_t$, $n_s$ and also the consistency relation $n_t/r$ are all nearly proportional to the logarithm of the number of fields $N_f$ when $N_f$ is getting extremely large with the order of magnitude around $\mathcal{O}(10^{40})$. Requiring the slow variation parameter $\epsilon\lesssim 0.1$ then gives the upper bound of $N_f$ with $N_f\lesssim N_*e^{ZN_*}$ where $N_*$ is the number of e-foldings before the end of inflation and $Z$ is a value depends on the specific probability distributions of $\lambda_i$ and $p_i$. We also find a relation between the inflationary observables which is independent of the specific probability distributions. Besides, $n_t/r$ is differ from the single-field result $-1/8$ with substantial probability except for a few very special cases. In the end, we derive theoretical bounds for tensor-to-scalar ratio $r>2/N_*$ ($r\gtrsim0.03$) and for $n_t$ which can be tested by observation in the near future.
Measuring the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation field is one of the main goals in modern cosmology. However, the so called $B$-mode polarisation can be generated by different sources besides the primary one predicted by inflationary theories, known as secondary $B$-mode signal. Among them, CMB lensing and astrophysical foregrounds play an important role. Moreover, a partial sky analysis leads to a leakage between $E$-modes and $B$-modes. In this article, we use the well known Minkowski functionals (MF) statistics to study the significance of this leakage in the CMB lensing $B$-mode signal. We find that the MF can detect the $E$-to-$B$ leakage contamination, thus it should not be neglected in future CMB data analysis.
In both WMAP and Planck observations on the temperature anisotropy of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation a number of large-scale anomalies were discovered in the past years, including the CMB parity asymmetry in the low multipoles. By defining a directional statistics, we find that the CMB parity asymmetry is directional dependent, and the preferred axis is stable, which means that it is independent of the chosen CMB map, the definition of the statistic, or the CMB masks. Meanwhile, we find that this preferred axis strongly aligns with those of the CMB quadrupole, octopole, as well as those of other large-scale observations. In addition, all of them aligns with the CMB kinematic dipole, which hints to the non-cosmological origin of these directional anomalies in cosmological observations.
The detection of redshifted 21cm-line signal from neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) is complicated by intense foregrounds such as galactic synchrotron and extragalactic radio galaxies. The 21cm-Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter(LAE) cross-correlation is one of the tools to reduce the foreground effects because the foreground emission from such radio sources is statistically independent of LAE distribution. LAE surveys during the EoR is ongoing at redshift $z=6.6$ and $7.3$ by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), and Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) will provide precise redshift information of the LAEs discovered by the HSC survey. In this paper, we investigate the detectability of the 21cm-signal with the 21cm-LAE cross-correlation by using our improved reionization simulations that are consistent with the neutral hydrogen fraction at $z\sim6$ indicated by QSO spectra and the observed Thompson scattering optical depth. We also focus on the error budget and evaluate it quantitatively in order to consider a strategy to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we explore an expansion of the LAE survey to suggest optimal survey parameters and show a potential to measure a characteristic size of ionized bubbles via the turnover scale of the cross-power spectrum. As a result, we find that the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has ability to detect the cross-power spectrum signal on large scales by combining LAE Deep field survey of HSC. Especially, we show that the sensitivity is improved dramatically at small scales by adding redshift information from the PFS measurements. Finally, we find that a wider LAE survey is better than a deeper survey with a fixed observation time in order to detect the cross-spectrum and that Square Kilometre Array (SKA) has a potential to measure the turnover scale with an accuracy of $6\times10^{-3}~{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$.
The cosmic merger rate density of black hole binaries (BHBs) can give us an essential clue to constraining the formation channels of BHBs, in light of current and forthcoming gravitational wave detections. Following a Monte Carlo approach, we couple new population-synthesis models of BHBs with the Illustris cosmological simulation, to study the cosmic history of BHB mergers. We explore six population-synthesis models, varying the prescriptions for supernovae, common envelope, and natal kicks. In most considered models, the cosmic BHB merger rate follows the same trend as the cosmic star formation rate. The normalization of the cosmic BHB merger rate strongly depends on the treatment of common envelope and on the distribution of natal kicks. We find that most BHBs merging within LIGO's instrumental horizon come from relatively metal-poor progenitors (<0.2 Zsun). The total masses of merging BHBs span a large range of values, from ~6 to ~82 Msun. In our fiducial model, merging BHBs consistent with GW150914, GW151226 and GW170104 represent ~6, 3, and 12 per cent of all BHBs merging within the LIGO horizon, respectively. The heavy systems, like GW150914, come from metal-poor progenitors (<0.15 Zsun). Most GW150914-like systems merging in the local Universe appear to have formed at high redshift, with a long delay time. In contrast, GW151226-like systems form and merge all the way through the cosmic history, from progenitors with a broad range of metallicities. Future detections will be crucial to put constraints on common envelope, on natal kicks, and on the BHB mass function.
As is well known, some aspects of General Relativity and Cosmology can be reproduced without even using Einstein's equation. As an illustration, the 0 - 0 component of the Schwarzschild space can be obtained by the requirement that the geodesic of slowly mov- ing particles match the Newtonian equation. Given this result, we shall show here that the remaining component (grr) can be obtained by requiring that the inside of a Newtonian ball of dust matched at a free falling radius with the external space of unspecified type. This matching determines the external space to be of Schwarzschild type. By this, it is also possi- ble to determine that the constant of integration that appears in the Newtonian Cosmology, coincides with the spatial curvature of the FLRW metric. All we assumed was some classical boundary conditions and basic assumptions.
We report here the results of searching for inelastic scattering of dark matter (initial and final state dark matter particles differ by a small mass splitting) with nucleon with the first 79.6-day of PandaX-II data (Run 9). We set the upper limits for the spin independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section up to a mass splitting of 300 keV/c$^2$ at two benchmark dark matter masses of 1 and 10 TeV/c$^2$. The result does not support the hypothesis that the high energy recoil events in CRESST were resulted from the inelastic scattering between WIMPs and tungsten nuclei.
We review the status of the Starobinsky-like models for inflation beyond minimal gravity and discuss the unitarity problem due to the presence of a large non-minimal gravity coupling. We show that the induced gravity models allow for a self-consistent description of inflation and discuss the implications of the inflaton couplings to the Higgs field in the Standard Model.
The string theory predicts many light fields called moduli and axions, which cause a cosmological problem due to the overproduction of their coherent oscillation after inflation. One of the prominent solutions is an adiabatic suppression mechanism, which, however, is non-trivial to achieve in the case of axions because it necessitates a large effective mass term which decreases as a function of time. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we provide an analytic method to calculate the cosmological abundance of coherent oscillation in a general situation under the adiabatic suppression mechanism. Secondly, we apply our method to some concrete examples, including the one where a string axion acquires a large effective mass due to the Witten effect in the presence of hidden monopoles.
We study one loop quantum gravitational corrections to the long range force induced by the exchange of a massless scalar between two massive scalars. The various diagrams contributing to the flat space S-matrix are evaluated in a general covariant gauge and we show that dependence on the gauge parameters cancels at a point considerably {\it before} forming the full S-matrix, which is unobservable in cosmology. It is possible to interpret our computation as a solution to the effective field equations --- which could be done even in cosmology --- but taking account of quantum gravitational corrections from the source and from the observer.
We study a generalized nonlocal theory of gravity which, in specific limits, can become either the curvature non-local or teleparallel non-local theory. Using the Noether Symmetry Approach, we find that the coupling functions coming from the non-local terms are constrained to be either exponential or linear in form. It is well known that in some non-local theories, a certain kind of exponential non-local couplings are needed in order to achieve a renormalizable theory. In this paper, we explicitly show that this kind of coupling does not need to by introduced by hand, instead, it appears naturally from the symmetries of the Lagrangian in flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology. Finally, we find de-Sitter and power law cosmological solutions for different nonlocal theories. The symmetries for the generalized non-local theory is also found and some cosmological solutions are also achieved under the full theory.
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Fast Radio bursts (FRBs) are bright transients with millisecond duration at $\sim$ GHz frequencies, whose physical origin is subject to intense debate. Most FRBs are located at high galactic latitudes and have anomalously large dispersion measures (DMs). Attributing DM to an intergalactic medium origin, the corresponding redshifts z are around $0.5-1$. In this case, FRBs have great chance to be gravitationally lensed by intervening galaxies. Since in a lensed FRB system, the time delay between images can be measured to extremely high precision because of the large ratio $\sim10^9$ between the typical galaxy-lensing delay time $\sim\mathcal{O}$(10 days) and the narrow width of the bursts $\sim\mathcal{O}$(ms), we propose accurate measurements of time delays between images of lensed FRBs as a powerful probe for precision cosmology. Here we show that, within the flat $\Lambda$CDM model, the Hubble constant $H_0$ can be constrained with an uncertainty of $0.48\%$ from accurate measurements of time delays of 10 such systems. More importantly, on the basis of the distance sum rule, the cosmic curvature will be constrained to a precision of $\sim0.056$ in a model-independent way. Such a direct and model-independent constraint on the cosmic curvature will provide a stringent direct test for the validity of the Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric and break the intractable degeneracy between the cosmic curvature and dark energy, offering the opportunity in investigating the nature of dark sectors of the universe.
Galaxy cluster velocity correlations and mass distributions are sensitive probes of cosmology and the growth of structure. Upcoming microwave surveys will enable extraction of velocities and temperatures from many individual clusters for the first time. We forecast constraints on peculiar velocities, electron temperatures, and optical depths of galaxy clusters obtainable with upcoming multi-frequency measurements of the kinematic, thermal, and relativistic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects. The forecasted constraints are compared for different measurement configurations with frequency bands between 90 GHz and 1 THz, and for different survey strategies for the 6-meter CCAT-prime telescope. We study methods for improving cluster constraints by removing emission from dusty star forming galaxies, and by using X-ray temperature priors from eROSITA. Cluster constraints are forecast for several model cluster masses. A sensitivity optimization for seven frequency bands is presented for a CCAT-prime first light instrument and a next generation instrument that takes advantage of the large optical throughput of CCAT-prime. We find that CCAT-prime observations are expected to enable measurement and separation of the SZ effects to characterize the velocity, temperature, and optical depth of individual massive clusters ($\sim10^{15}\,M_\odot$). Submillimeter measurements are shown to play an important role in separating these components from dusty galaxy contamination. Using a modular instrument configuration with similar optical throughput for each detector array, we develop a rule of thumb for the number of detector arrays desired at each frequency to optimize extraction of these signals. Our results are relevant for a future "Stage IV" cosmic microwave background survey, which could enable galaxy cluster measurements over a larger range of masses and redshifts than will be accessible by other experiments.
The presence of additional particles during inflation leads to non-Gaussianity in late-time correlators of primordial curvature perturbations. The shape and amplitude of this signal depend on the mass and spin of the extra particles. Constraints on this distinct form of primordial non-Gaussianity, therefore, provide a wealth of information on the particle content during inflation. We investigate the potential of upcoming galaxy surveys in constraining such a signature through its impact on the observed galaxy power spectrum. Primordial non-Gaussianity of various shapes induces a scale-dependent bias on tracers of large-scale structure, such as galaxies. Using this signature we obtain constraints on massive particles during inflation, which can have non-zero spins. In particular, we show that the prospects for constraining particles with spins 0 and 1 are promising, while constraining particles with spin 2 from power spectrum alone seems challenging. We show that the multi-tracer technique can significantly improve the constraints from the power spectrum by at least an order of magnitude. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of non-linearities due to gravitational evolution on the forecasted constraints on the masses of the extra particles and the amplitudes of the imprinted non-Gaussian signal. We find that gravitational evolution affects the constraints by less than a factor of 2.
To date, the only limit on graviton mass using galaxy clusters was obtained by Goldhaber and Nieto in 1974, using the fact that the orbits of galaxy clusters are bound and closed, and extend up to 580 kpc. From positing that only a Newtonian potential gives rise to such stable bound orbits, a limit on the graviton mass $m_g<10^{-29}$ eV was obtained (PRD 9,1119, 1974). Recently, it has been shown that one can get closed bound orbits for a whole class of non-Newtonian potentials (arXiv:1707.04937 and arXiv:1705.02444), thus invalidating the main \emph{ansatz} used in Goldhaber and Nieto to obtain the graviton mass bound. In order to obtain a revised estimate using galaxy clusters, we use dynamical mass models of the Abell 1689 (A1689) galaxy cluster to check their compatibility with a Yukawa gravitational potential. We assume mass models for the gas, dark matter, and galaxies for A1689 from arXiv:1703.10219 and arXiv:1610.01543, who used this cluster to test various alternate gravity theories, which dispense with the need for dark matter. We quantify the deviations in the acceleration profile using these mass models, assuming a Yukawa potential and that obtained assuming a Newtonian potential, by calculating the $\chi^2$ residuals between the two profiles. The 90\% c.l. upper limit on the graviton mass corresponds to the minimum mass for which $\Delta \chi^2>2.71$. Our estimated 90\% c.l. bound on the graviton mass ($m_g$) is thereby given by, $m_g < 1.64 \times 10^{-29}$ eV or in terms of the graviton Compton wavelength, $\lambda_g>7.6 \times 10^{19}$ km.
We develop the first algorithm able to jointly compute the maximum {\it a posteriori} estimate of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization fields, the gravitational potential by which they are lensed, and cosmological parameters such as the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$. This is an important step towards sampling from the joint posterior probability function of these quantities, which, assuming Gaussianity of the CMB fields and lensing potential, contains all available cosmological information and would yield theoretically optimal constraints. Attaining such optimal constraints will be crucial for next-generation CMB surveys like CMB-S4, where limits on $r$ could be improved by factors of a few over currently used sub-optimal quadratic estimators. The maximization procedure described here depends on a newly developed lensing algorithm, which we term \textsc{LenseFlow}, and which lenses a map by solving a system of ordinary differential equations. This description has conceptual advantages, such as allowing us to give a simple non-perturbative proof that the lensing determinant is equal to unity in the weak-lensing regime. The algorithm itself maintains this property even on pixelized maps, which is crucial for our purposes and unique to \textsc{LenseFlow} as compared to other lensing algorithms we have tested. It also has other useful properties such as that it can be trivially inverted (i.e. delensing) for the same computational cost as the forward operation, and can be used to compute lensing adjoint, Jacobian, and Hessian operators. We test and validate the maximization procedure on flat-sky simulations covering up to 600\,deg$^2$ with non-uniform noise and masking.
We report on a search for ultra-low-mass axion-like dark matter by analysing the ratio of the spin-precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and $^{199}$Hg atoms for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron and an axion-wind spin-precession effect. No signal consistent with dark matter is observed for the axion mass range $10^{-24}~\textrm{eV} \le m_a \le 10^{-17}~\textrm{eV}$. Our null result sets the first laboratory constraints on the coupling of axion dark matter to gluons, which improve on astrophysical limits by up to 3 orders of magnitude, and also improves on previous laboratory constraints on the axion coupling to nucleons by up to a factor of 40.
The SKA era is set to revolutionize our understanding of neutral hydrogen (HI) in individual galaxies out to redshifts of z~0.8; and in the z > 6 intergalactic medium through the detection and imaging of cosmic reionization. Direct HI number density constraints will, nonetheless, remain relatively weak out to cosmic noon (z~2) - the epoch of peak star formation and black hole accretion - and beyond. However, as was demonstrated from the 1990s with molecular line observations, this can be overcome by utilising the natural amplification afforded by strong gravitational lensing, which results in an effective increase in integration time by the square of the total magnification (\mu^2) for an unresolved source. Here we outline how a dedicated lensed HI survey will leverage MeerKAT's high sensitivity, frequency coverage, large instantaneous bandwidth, and high dynamic range imaging to enable a lasting legacy of high-redshift HI emission detections well into the SKA era. This survey will not only provide high-impact, rapid-turnaround MeerKAT science commissioning results, but also unveil Milky Way-like systems towards cosmic noon which is not possible with any other SKA precursors/pathfinders. An ambitious lensed HI survey will therefore make a significant impact from MeerKAT commissioning all the way through to the full SKA era, and provide a more complete picture of the HI history of the Universe.
We study viable small-field Coleman-Weinberg (CW) inflation models with a help of a non-minimal coupling to gravity. The simplest small-field CW inflation model (with a low scale potential minimum) is incompatible with the cosmological constraint on the scalar spectral index. However, there are possibilities to make the model realistic. First, we revisit the CW inflation model supplemented with a linear potential term. We next consider the CW inflation model with a logarithmic non-minimal coupling, and illustrate that the model can open a new viable parameter space which includes that of the model with a liner potential term. We also show parameter spaces where the Hubble scale during the inflation can be smaller than $10^{-6} $ GeV, $10^9$ GeV, and $10^{10}$ GeV for the number of $e$-folds of $40,~50$, and $60$ respectively, with other cosmological constraints being satisfied.
Contributions of the Pierre Auger Collaboration to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017), 12-20 July 2017, Bexco, Busan, Korea.
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The cosmic proper distance $d_P$ is a fundamental distance in the universe. Unlike the luminosity and angular diameter distances which correspond to the angular size, the proper distance is the length of light path from the source to observer. However, the proper distance has not been measured before. The recent redshift measurement of a repeat fast radio burst (FRB) can shed light on the proper distance. Indeed, we show that the proper distance-redshift relation can be derived from dispersion measures (DMs) of FRBs with measured redshifts. From Monte Carlo simulations, we find that about 500 FRBs with DM and redshift measurements can tightly constrain the proper distance-redshift relation. We also show that the curvature of our universe can be constrained with a model-independent method using this derived proper distance-redshift relation and the observed angular diameter distances. Due to high event rate of FRBs, hundreds of FRBs can be discovered in future by upcoming instruments. So the proper distance will play an important role in investigating the accelerating expansion and the geometry of the universe.
We show that the most distant X-ray detected cluster known to date, ClJ1001 at z=2.506, hosts a strong overdensity of radio sources. Six of them are individually detected (within 10") in deep 0.75" resolution VLA 3GHz imaging, with S(3GHz)>8uJy. Of the six, AGN likely affects the radio emission in two galaxies while star formation is the dominant source powering the remaining four. We searched for cluster candidates over the full COSMOS 2-square degree field using radio-detected 3GHz sources and looking for peaks in Sigma5 density maps. ClJ1001 is the strongest overdensity by far with >10sigma, with a simple z_phot>1.5 preselection. A cruder photometric rejection of z<1 radio foregrounds leaves ClJ1001 as the second strongest overdensity, while even using all radio sources ClJ1001 remains among the four strongest projected overdensities. We conclude that there are great prospects for future, deep and wide-area radio surveys to discover large samples of the first generation of forming galaxy clusters. In these remarkable structures widespread star formation and AGN activity of massive galaxy cluster members, residing within the inner cluster core, will ultimately lead to radio continuum as one of the most effective means for their identification, with detection rates expected in the ballpark of 0.1-1 per square degree at z>2.5. Samples of hundreds such high-redshift clusters could potentially constrain cosmological parameters and test cluster and galaxy formation models.
We report a new search of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using the combined low background data sets in 2016 and 2017 from the PandaX-II experiment in China. The latest data set contains a new exposure of 77.1 live day, with the background reduced to a level of 0.8$\times10^{-3}$ evt/kg/day, improved by a factor of 2.5 in comparison to the previous run in 2016. No excess events were found above the expected background. With a total exposure of 5.4$\times10^4$ kg day, the most stringent upper limit on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section was set for a WIMP with mass larger than 100 GeV/c$^2$, with the lowest exclusion at 8.6$\times10^{-47}$ cm$^2$ at 40 GeV/c$^2$.
In this brief review, we examine the theoretical consistency and viability of phantom dark energy. Almost all data sets from cosmological probes are compatible with dark energy of the phantom variety (i.e., equation-of-state parameter $w<-1$) and may even favor evolving dark energy, and since we expect every physical entity to have some kind of field description, we set out to examine the case for phantom dark energy as a field theory. We discuss the many attempts at frameworks that may mitigate and eliminate theoretical pathologies associated with phantom dark energy. We also examine frameworks that provide an apparent measurement $w<-1$ while avoiding the need for a phantom field theory.
Measurement of $\sigma_8$ from large scale structure observations show a discordance with the extrapolated $\sigma_8$ from Planck CMB parameters using $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Similar discordance is found in the value of $H_0$ and $\Omega_m$. In this paper, we show that the presence of viscosity, shear or bulk or combination of both, can remove the above mentioned conflicts simultaneously. This indicates that the data from Planck CMB observation and different LSS observations prefer small but non-zero amount of viscosity in cold dark matter fluid.
We compute the running of the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in String Gas Cosmology, making use of a smooth parametrization of the transition between the early Hagedorn phase and the later radiation phase. We find that the running has the same sign as in simple models of single scalar field inflation. Its magnitude is proportional to $(1 - n_s)$ ($n_s$ being the slope index of the spectrum), and it is thus parametrically larger than for inflationary cosmology, where it is proportional to $(1 - n_s)^2$.
The XENON1T experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the first WIMP dark matter detector operating with a liquid xenon target mass above the ton-scale. Out of its 3.2t liquid xenon inventory, 2.0t constitute the active target of the dual-phase time projection chamber. The scintillation and ionization signals from particle interactions are detected with low-background photomultipliers. This article describes the XENON1T instrument and its subsystems as well as strategies to achieve an unprecedented low background level. First results on the detector response and the performance of the subsystems are also presented.
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We observed the galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 with the Sardinia Radio Telescope to provide new constraints on its spectral properties at high frequency. We conducted observations in three frequency bands centred at 1.4 GHz, 6.6 GHz and 19 GHz, resulting in beam resolutions of 14$^{\prime}$, 2.9$^{\prime}$ and 1$^{\prime}$ respectively. These single-dish data were also combined with archival interferometric observations at 1.4 and 1.7 GHz. From the combined images, we measured a flux density of ${\rm S_{1.4GHz}=(158.3\pm9.6)\,mJy}$ for the central radio halo and ${\rm S_{1.4GHz}=(126\pm8)\,mJy}$ and ${\rm S_{1.4GHz}=(11.7\pm0.7)\,mJy}$ for the northern and the southern relic respectively. After the spectral modelling of the discrete sources, we measured at 6.6 GHz ${\rm S_{6.6GHz}=(17.1\pm1.2)\,mJy}$ and ${\rm S_{6.6GHz}=(0.6\pm0.3)\,mJy}$ for the northern and southern relic respectively. Assuming simple diffusive shock acceleration, we interpret measurements of the northern relic with a continuous injection model represented by a broken power-law. This yields an injection spectral index ${\rm \alpha_{inj}=0.7\pm0.1}$ and a Mach number ${\rm M=3.3\pm0.9}$, consistent with recent X-ray estimates. Unlike other studies of the same object, no significant steepening of the relic radio emission is seen in data up to 8.35 GHz. By fitting the southern relic spectrum with a simple power-law (${\rm S_{\nu}\propto\nu^{-\alpha}}$) we obtained a spectral index ${\rm \alpha\approx1.9}$ corresponding to a Mach number (${\rm M\approx1.8}$) in agreement with X-ray estimates. Finally, we evaluated the rotation measure of the northern relic at 6.6 GHz. These results provide new insights on the magnetic structure of the relic, but further observations are needed to clarify the nature of the observed Faraday rotation.
We extend the transport framework for numerically evaluating the power spectrum and bispectrum in multi-field inflation to the case of a curved field-space metric. This method naturally accounts for all sub- and super-horizon tree level effects, including those induced by the curvature of the field-space. We present an open source implementation of our equations in an extension of the publicly available PyTransport code. Finally we illustrate how our technique is applied to examples of inflationary models with a non-trivial field-space metric.
Observations of relaxed, massive and distant clusters can provide important tests of standard cosmological models e.g. using the gas mass fraction. We study the very luminous, high redshift ($z=0.902$) galaxy cluster ClJ120958.9+495352 using XMM-Newton data and measure the temperature profile and cooling time to investigate the dynamical status with respect to the presence of a cool core as well as global cluster properties. We use HST weak lensing data to estimate its total mass and determine the gas mass fraction. We perform a spectral analysis using an XMM-Newton observation of 15ks cleaned exposure time. As the treatment of the background is crucial, we use two different approaches to account for the background emission to verify our results. We account for point-spread-function effects and deproject our results to estimate the gas mass fraction of the cluster. We measure weak lensing galaxy shapes from mosaic HST/ACS imaging and select background galaxies photometrically in combination with WHT/ACAM imaging. The X-ray luminosity of ClJ120958.9+495352 in the 0.1-2.4keV band estimated from our XMM-Newton data is $L_X = (18.7_{-1.2}^{+1.3})\times10^{44}$erg/s and thus it is one of the most X-ray luminous clusters known at similarly high redshift. We find clear indications for the presence of a cool core from the temperature profile and the central cooling time, which is very rare at such high redshifts. Based on the weak lensing analysis we estimate a cluster mass of $M_\mathrm{500}/10^{14}M_\odot=4.4^{+2.2}_{-2.0}(\mathrm{stat.})\pm0.6(\mathrm{sys.})$ and a gas mass fraction of $f_\mathrm{gas,2500} = 0.11_{-0.03}^{+0.06}$ in good agreement with previous findings for high redshift and local clusters.
In this paper we will highlight how a simple vacuum energy dominated inflection-point inflation can match the current data from cosmic microwave background radiation, and predict large primordial tensor to scalar ratio, $r \sim \mathcal{O}(10^{-3}-10^{-2})$, with observable second order gravitational wave background, which can be potentially detectable from future experiments, such as DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO), Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (eLISA), Cosmic Explorer (CE), and Big Bang Observatory (BBO).
The diffuse soft X-ray emissivity from galactic winds is computed during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We consider two analytic models, a pressure-driven wind and a superbubble model, and a 3D cosmological simulation including gas dynamics from the First Billion Years (FiBY) project. The analytic models are normalized to match the diffuse X-ray emissivity of star-forming galaxies in the nearby Universe. The cosmological simulation uses physically motivated star formation and wind prescriptions, and includes radiative transfer corrections. The models and the simulation all are found to produce sufficient heating of the Intergalactic Medium to be detectable by current and planned radio facilities through 21 cm measurements during the EoR. While the analytic models predict a 21 cm emission signal relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background sets in by $z_{\rm trans} \simeq 8 - 10$, the predicted signal in the FiBY simulation remains in absorption until reionization completes. The 21 cm absorption differential brightness temperature reaches a minimum of $\Delta T \simeq -130$ to $-200$ mK, depending on model. Allowing for additional heat from high mass X-ray binaries pushes the transition to emission to $z_{\rm trans} \simeq 10 - 12$, with shallower absorption signatures having a minimum of $\Delta T \simeq -110$ to $-140$ mK. The 21 cm signal may be a means of distinguishing between the wind models, with the superbubble model favouring earlier reheating. While an early transition to emission may indicate X-ray binaries dominate the reheating, a transition to emission as early as $z_{\rm trans} > 12$ would suggest the presence of additional heat sources.
The relation between a cosmological halo concentration and its mass (cMr) is a powerful tool to constrain cosmological models of halo formation and evolution. On the scale of galaxy clusters the cMr has so far been determined mostly with X-ray and gravitational lensing data. The use of independent techniques is helpful in assessing possible systematics. Here we provide one of the few determinations of the cMr by the dynamical analysis of the projected-phase-space distribution of cluster members. Based on the WINGS and OmegaWINGS data sets, we used the Jeans analysis with the MAMPOSSt technique to determine masses and concentrations for 49 nearby clusters, each of which has ~60 spectroscopic members or more within the virial region, after removal of substructures. Our cMr is in statistical agreement with theoretical predictions based on LambdaCDM cosmological simulations. Our cMr is different from most previous observational determinations because of its flatter slope and lower normalization. It is however in agreement with two recent cMr obtained using the lensing technique on the CLASH and LoCuSS cluster data sets. In the future we will extend our analysis to galaxy systems of lower mass and at higher redshifts.
This work presents $\tt AutoLens$, the first entirely automated modeling suite for the analysis of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses. $\tt AutoLens$ simultaneously models the lens galaxy's light and mass whilst reconstructing the extended source galaxy on an adaptive pixel-grid. The method's approach to source-plane discretization is amorphous, adapting its clustering and regularization to the intrinsic properties of the lensed source. The lens's light is fitted using a superposition of Sersic functions, allowing $\tt AutoLens$ to cleanly deblend its light from the source. Single component mass models representing the lens's total mass density profile are demonstrated, which in conjunction with light modeling can detect central images using a centrally cored profile. Decomposed mass modeling is also shown, which can fully decouple a lens's light and dark matter and determine whether the two component are geometrically aligned. The complexity of the light and mass models are automatically chosen via Bayesian model comparison. These steps form $\tt AutoLens$'s automated analysis pipeline, such that all results in this work are generated without any user-intervention. This is rigorously tested on a large suite of simulated images, assessing its performance on a broad range of lens profiles, source morphologies and lensing geometries. The method's performance is excellent, with accurate light, mass and source profiles inferred for data sets representative of both existing Hubble imaging and future Euclid wide-field observations.
Future generation of gravitational wave detectors will have the sensitivity to detect gravitational wave events at redshifts far beyond any detectable electromagnetic sources. We show that if the observed event rate is greater than one event per year at redshifts z > 40, then the probability distribution of primordial density fluctuations must be significantly non-Gaussian or the events originate from primordial black holes. The nature of the excess events can be determined from the redshift distribution of the merger rate.
Future high-resolution measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will produce catalogs of tens of thousands of galaxy clusters through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect. We forecast how well different configurations of a CMB Stage-4 experiment can constrain cosmological parameters, in particular the amplitude of structure as a function of redshift $\sigma_8(z)$, the sum of neutrino masses $\Sigma m_{\nu}$, and the dark energy equation of state $w(z)$. A key element of this effort is calibrating the tSZ scaling relation by measuring the lensing signal around clusters. We examine how the mass calibration from future optical surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey (LSST) compares with a purely internal calibration using lensing of the CMB itself. We find that, due to its high-redshift leverage, internal calibration gives constraints on cosmological parameters comparable to the optical calibration, and can be used as a cross-check of systematics in the optical measurement. We also show that in contrast to the constraints using the CMB lensing power spectrum, lensing-calibrated tSZ cluster counts can detect a minimal $\Sigma m_{\nu}$ at the 3-5$\sigma$ level even when the dark energy equation of state is freed up.
Recently Wei et al (arXiv:1612.09425) have found evidence for a transition from positive time lags to negative time lags in the spectral lag data of GRB 160625B. They have fit these observed lags to a sum of two components: an assumed functional form for intrinsic time lag due to astrophysical mechanisms and an energy-dependent speed of light due to quadratic and linear Loren tz invariance violation (LIV) models. Here, we examine the statistical significance of the evidence for a transition to nega tive time lags. Such a transition, even if present in GRB 160625B, cannot be due to an energy dependent speed of light as th is would contradict previous limits by some 3-4 orders of magnitude, and must therefore be of intrinsic astrophysical origin . We use three different model comparison techniques: a frequentist test and two information based criteria (AIC and BIC). From the frequentist model comparison test, we find that the evidence for transition in the spectral lag data is favored at $3.05\sigma$ and $3.74\sigma$ for the linear and quadratic models respectively. We find that $\Delta$AIC and $\Delta$BIC have values $\gtrsim$ 10 for the spectral lag transition that was motivated as being due to quadratic Lorentz invariance vio lating model pointing to "decisive evidence". We note however that none of the three models (including the model of intr insic astrophysical emission) provide a good fit to the data.
The stellar initial mas function (IMF) has been described as being invariant, bottom heavy or top-heavy in extremely dense star burst conditions. To provide usable observable diagnostic we calculate redshift dependent spectral energy distributions of stellar populations in extreme star burst clusters which are likely to have been the precursors of present day massive globular clusters (GCs) and of ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs). The retention fraction of stellar remnants is taken into account to asses the mass to light ratios of the ageing star-burst. Their redshift dependent photometric properties are calculated as predictions for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations. While the present day GCs and UCDs are largely degenerate concerning bottom-heavy or top-heavy IMFs, a metallicity- and density-dependent top-heavy IMF implies the most massive UCDs, at ages <100 Myr, to appear as objects with quasar-like luminosities with a 0.1-10% variability on a monthly time scale due to core collapse supernovae.
Conformal and Disformal couplings between a scalar field and matter occur naturally in general scalar-tensor theories. In D-brane models of cosmology and particle physics, these couplings originate from the D-brane action describing the dynamics of its transverse (the scalar) and longitudinal (matter) fluctuations, which are thus coupled. During the post-inflationary regime and before the onset of big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), these couplings can modify the expansion rate felt by matter, changing the predictions for the thermal relic abundance of dark matter particles and thus the annihilation rate required to satisfy the dark matter content today. We study the D-brane-like conformal and disformal couplings effect on the expansion rate of the universe prior to BBN and its impact on the dark matter relic abundance and annihilation rate. For a purely disformal coupling, the expansion rate is always enhanced with respect to the standard one. This gives rise to larger cross-sections when compared to the standard thermal prediction for a range of dark matter masses, which will be probed by future experiments. In a D-brane-like scenario, the scale at which the expansion rate enhancement occurs depends on the string coupling and the string scale.
The Hitomi X-ray observatory made the first direct measurements of galaxy cluster gas motions with its observations of Perseus, which implied that the core of Perseus is fairly "quiescent", with velocities less than $\sim$200 km s$^{-1}$, despite the fact that the core of Perseus possesses an active galactic nucleus and sloshing cold fronts. Building on previous work, we use synthetic Hitomi/SXS observations of the hot plasma of a simulated cluster with different viscosities and sloshing gas motions to analyze its velocity structure in a similar fashion. We find that sloshing motions can produce line shifts and widths similar to those measured by Hitomi in Perseus, and that these measurements are very similar regardless of the value of the ICM viscosity, because viscous effects only reveal themselves clearly on length scales smaller than the equivalent length scale of the SXS $\sim$1' PSF. The PSF biases the line shift of regions near the core as much as $\sim 40-50$ km s$^{-1}$, indicating that it is crucial to model this effect carefully, as noted by previous investigations. We also infer that if sloshing motions dominate the observed line-of-sight velocity gradient, Perseus must be observed from a line of sight which is at least somewhat inclined from the plane of these motions, but not so inclined that the spiral pattern is no longer visible. Finally, we find that assuming isotropy of motions can underestimate the total velocity and kinetic energy of the core in our simulation by as much as $\sim$60%, depending on the line of sight. Despite this, the total kinetic energy in our simulated cluster core is still less than 10% of the thermal energy in the core, in agreement with the Hitomi observations.
The structure and kinematics of the broad line region (BLR) in quasars are
still not well established. One popular BLR model is the disk-wind model that
offers a geometric unification of a quasar based on the angle of viewing. We
construct a simple kinematical disk-wind model with a narrow outflowing wind
angle. The model is combined with radiative transfer in the Sobolev, or high
velocity, limit. We examine how angle of viewing affects the observed
characteristics of the emission line, especially the line widths and velocity
offsets. The line profiles exhibit distinct properties depending on the
orientation, wind opening angle, and region of the wind where the emission
arises.
At low inclination angle (close to face-on), we find the shape of the
emission line is asymmetric with narrow width and significantly blueshifted. As
the inclination angle increases (close to edge-on), the line profile becomes
more symmetric, broader, and less blueshifted. Additionally, lines that arise
close to the base of the disk wind, near the accretion disk, tend to be broad
and symmetric. The relative increase in blueshift of the emission line with
increasing wind vertical distance is larger for polar winds compared with
equatorial winds. By considering the optical thickness of the wind,
single-peaked line profiles are recovered for the intermediate and equatorial
outflowing wind. The model is able to reproduce a faster response in either the
red and blue sides of the line profile found in reverberation mapping studies.
A quicker response in the red side is achieved in the model with a polar wind
and intermediate wind opening angle at low viewing angle. The blue side
response is faster for an equatorial wind seen at high inclination.
We elucidate the counting of the relevant small parameters in inflationary perturbation theory. Doing this allows for an explicit delineation of the domain of validity of the semi-classical approximation to gravity used in the calculation of inflationary correlation functions. We derive an expression for the dependence of correlation functions of inflationary perturbations on the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon = -\dot{H}/H^2$, as well as on $H/M_p$, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter during inflation. Our analysis is valid for single-field models in which the inflaton can traverse a Planck-sized range in field values and where all slow-roll parameters have approximately the same magnitude. As an application, we use our expression to seek the boundaries of the domain of validity of inflationary perturbation theory for regimes where this is potentially problematic: models with small speed of sound and models allowing eternal inflation.
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field-of-view observatory sensitive to 0.5 TeV - 100 TeV gamma-rays and cosmic-rays in the State of Puebla, Mexico at an altitude of 4100m. The HAWC observatory performed an indirect search for dark matter via GeV-TeV photons resulting from dark matter annihilation and decay considering various sources, including dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs), the M31 galaxy and the Virgo cluster, as well as a combined limit using the dSphs. HAWC has not seen statistically significant excess from these sources. We searched for dark matter annihilation and decay at dark matter masses above 1 TeV. We will present the annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime limits.
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