CMB Polarization towards Clusters as a Probe of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect

The scattering of temperature anisotropy quadrupole by free electrons in galaxy clusters leads to a now well-known polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations. Using multi-frequency polarization data, one can extract the temperature quadrupole and separate it from the contaminant polarization associated with the kinematic quadrupole due to transverse motion of clusters. At low redshifts, the temperature quadrupole contains a significant contribution from the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (ISW) associated with the growth of density fluctuations. Using polarization data from a sample of clusters over a wide range in redshift, one can statistically establish the presence of the ISW effect and determine the redshift dependence of the ISW contribution to the rms quadrupole. Given the strong dependence of the ISW effect on the background cosmology, the cluster polarization can eventually be used as a probe of the dark energy.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

B-modes and the Nature of Inflation

Observations of the cosmic microwave background do not yet determine whether inflation was driven by a slowly-rolling scalar field or involved another physical mechanism. In this paper we discuss the prospects of using the power spectra of scalar and tensor modes to probe the nature of inflation. We focus on the leading modification to the slow-roll dynamics, which entails a sound speed $c_s$ for the scalar fluctuations. We derive analytically a lower bound on $c_s$ in terms of a given tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, taking into account the difference in the freeze-out times between the scalar and tensor modes. We find that any detection of primordial B-modes with $r > 0.01$ implies a lower bound on $c_s$ that is stronger than the bound derived from the absence of non-Gaussianity in the Planck data. For $r \gtrsim 0.1$, the bound would be tantalizingly close to a critical value for the sound speed, $(c_s)_\star = 0.47$ (corresponding to $(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm equil})_\star = -0.93$), which we show serves as a threshold for non-trivial dynamics beyond slow-roll. We also discuss how an order-one level of equilateral non-Gaussianity is a natural observational target for other extensions of the canonical paradigm.Comment: 25+7 pages, 9 figures. Published versio

From Wires to Cosmology

We provide a statistical framework for characterizing stochastic particle production in the early universe via a precise correspondence to current conduction in wires with impurities. Our approach is particularly useful when the microphysics is uncertain and the dynamics are complex, but only coarse-grained information is of interest. We study scenarios with multiple interacting fields and derive the evolution of the particle occupation numbers from a Fokker-Planck equation. At late times, the typical occupation numbers grow exponentially which is the analog of Anderson localization for disordered wires. Some statistical features of the occupation numbers show hints of universality in the limit of a large number of interactions and/or a large number of fields. For test cases, excellent agreement is found between our analytic results and numerical simulations.Comment: v3: minor changes and references added; matches published version in JCA

Phases of New Physics in the CMB

Fluctuations in the cosmic neutrino background are known to produce a phase shift in the acoustic peaks of the cosmic microwave background. It is through the sensitivity to this effect that the recent CMB data has provided a robust detection of free-streaming neutrinos. In this paper, we revisit the phase shift of the CMB anisotropy spectrum as a probe of new physics. The phase shift is particularly interesting because its physical origin is strongly constrained by the analytic properties of the Green's function of the gravitational potential. For adiabatic fluctuations, a phase shift requires modes that propagate faster than the speed of fluctuations in the photon-baryon plasma. This possibility is realized by free-streaming relativistic particles, such as neutrinos or other forms of dark radiation. Alternatively, a phase shift can arise from isocurvature fluctuations. We present simple models to illustrate each of these effects. We then provide observational constraints from the Planck temperature and polarization data on additional forms of radiation. We also forecast the capabilities of future CMB Stage IV experiments. Whenever possible, we give analytic interpretations of our results.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables; v2: minor corrections, references added; v3: corrected Planck parameter constraints, conclusions unchange