Cosmological implications of the KATRIN experiment

The upcoming Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment will put unprecedented constraints on the absolute mass of the electron neutrino, \mnue. In this paper we investigate how this information on \mnue will affect our constraints on cosmological parameters. We consider two scenarios; one where \mnue=0 (i.e., no detection by KATRIN), and one where \mnue=0.3eV. We find that the constraints on \mnue from KATRIN will affect estimates of some important cosmological parameters significantly. For example, the significance of $n_s<1$ and the inferred value of $\Omega_\Lambda$ depend on the results from the KATRIN experiment.Comment: 13 page

Primordial non-Gaussianity from the large scale structure

Primordial non-Gaussianity is a potentially powerful discriminant of the physical mechanisms that generated the cosmological fluctuations observed today. Any detection of non-Gaussianity would have profound implications for our understanding of cosmic structure formation. In this paper, we review past and current efforts in the search for primordial non-Gaussianity in the large scale structure of the Universe.Comment: Invited review article for the CQG special issue on nonlinear cosmological perturbations

Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galaxy Clusters

Studies of galaxy clusters have proved crucial in helping to establish the standard model of cosmology, with a universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy. A theoretical basis that describes clusters as massive, multi-component, quasi-equilibrium systems is growing in its capability to interpret multi-wavelength observations of expanding scope and sensitivity. We review current cosmological results, including contributions to fundamental physics, obtained from observations of galaxy clusters. These results are consistent with and complementary to those from other methods. We highlight several areas of opportunity for the next few years, and emphasize the need for accurate modeling of survey selection and sources of systematic error. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require a multi-wavelength approach and the application of rigorous statistical frameworks, utilizing the combined strengths of observers, simulators and theorists.Comment: 53 pages, 21 figures. To appear in Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysic

The Peaks Formalism and the Formation of Cold Dark Matter Haloes

We use two cosmological simulations of structure formation to study the conditions under which dark matter haloes emerge from the linear density field. Our analysis focuses on matching sites of halo collapse to local density maxima, or "peaks", in the initial conditions of the simulations and provides a crucial test of the central ansatz of the peaks formalism. By identifying peaks on a variety of smoothed, linearly extrapolated density fields we demonstrate that as many as ~70% of well-resolved dark matter haloes form preferentially near peaks whose characteristic masses are similar to that of the halo, with more massive haloes showing a stronger tendency to reside near peaks initially. We identify a small but significant fraction of haloes that appear to evolve from peaks of substantially lower mass than that of the halo itself. We refer to these as "peakless haloes" for convenience. By contrasting directly the properties of these objects with the bulk of the proto-halo population we find two clear differences: 1) their initial shapes are significantly flatter and more elongated than the predominantly triaxial majority, and 2) they are, on average, more strongly compressed by tidal forces associated with their surrounding large scale structure. Using the two-point correlation function we show that peakless haloes tend to emerge from highly clustered regions of the initial density field implying that, at fixed mass, the accretion geometry and mass accretion histories of haloes in highly clustered environments differ significantly from those in the field. This may have important implications for understanding the origin of the halo assembly bias, of galaxy properties in dense environments and how environment affects the morphological transformation of galaxies near groups and rich galaxy clusters.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, published in MNRA

A GMBCG Galaxy Cluster Catalog of 55,424 Rich Clusters from SDSS DR7

We present a large catalog of optically selected galaxy clusters from the application of a new Gaussian Mixture Brightest Cluster Galaxy (GMBCG) algorithm to SDSS Data Release 7 data. The algorithm detects clusters by identifying the red sequence plus Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) feature, which is unique for galaxy clusters and does not exist among field galaxies. Red sequence clustering in color space is detected using an Error Corrected Gaussian Mixture Model. We run GMBCG on 8240 square degrees of photometric data from SDSS DR7 to assemble the largest ever optical galaxy cluster catalog, consisting of over 55,000 rich clusters across the redshift range from 0.1 < z < 0.55. We present Monte Carlo tests of completeness and purity and perform cross-matching with X-ray clusters and with the maxBCG sample at low redshift. These tests indicate high completeness and purity across the full redshift range for clusters with 15 or more members.Comment: Updated to match the published version. The catalog can be accessed from: http://home.fnal.gov/~jghao/gmbcg_sdss_catalog.htm

The Evolution of X-ray Clusters of Galaxies

Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in the study of the evolutionary trends of the population of galaxy clusters in the Universe. In this review we focus on observations in the X-ray band. X-ray surveys with the ROSAT satellite, supplemented by follow-up studies with ASCA and Beppo-SAX, have allowed an assessment of the evolution of the space density of clusters out to z~1, and the evolution of the physical properties of the intra-cluster medium out to z~0.5. With the advent of Chandra and Newton-XMM, and their unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution, these studies have been extended beyond redshift unity and have revealed the complexity of the thermodynamical structure of clusters. The properties of the intra-cluster gas are significantly affected by non-gravitational processes including star formation and Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) activity. Convincing evidence has emerged for modest evolution of both the bulk of the X-ray cluster population and their thermodynamical properties since redshift unity. Such an observational scenario is consistent with hierarchical models of structure formation in a flat low density universe with Omega_m=0.3 and sigma_8=0.7-0.8 for the normalization of the power spectrum. Basic methodologies for construction of X-ray-selected cluster samples are reviewed and implications of cluster evolution for cosmological models are discussed.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figures. Full resolution figures can be downloaded from http://www.eso.org/~prosati/ARAA

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales