597 research outputs found
Lack of clustering in low-redshift 21-cm intensity maps cross-correlated with 2dF galaxy densities
We report results from 21-cm intensity maps acquired from the Parkes radio
telescope and cross-correlated with galaxy maps from the 2dF galaxy survey. The
data span the redshift range and cover approximately 1,300
square degrees over two long fields. Cross correlation is detected at a
significance of . The amplitude of the cross-power spectrum is low
relative to the expected dark matter power spectrum, assuming a neutral
hydrogen (HI) bias and mass density equal to measurements from the ALFALFA
survey. The decrement is pronounced and statistically significant at small
scales. At , the cross power spectrum is more
than a factor of 6 lower than expected, with a significance of .
This decrement indicates either a lack of clustering of neutral hydrogen (HI),
a small correlation coefficient between optical galaxies and HI, or some
combination of the two. Separating 2dF into red and blue galaxies, we find that
red galaxies are much more weakly correlated with HI on scales, suggesting that HI is more associated with blue
star-forming galaxies and tends to avoid red galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; fixed typo in meta-data title and paper author
Erasing the Milky Way: new cleaning technique applied to GBT intensity mapping data
We present the first application of a new foreground removal pipeline to the current leading
H I intensity mapping data set, obtained by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). We study
the 15- and 1-h-field data of the GBT observations previously presented in Mausui et al.
and Switzer et al., covering about 41 deg2 at 0.6 < z < 1.0, for which cross-correlations
may be measured with the galaxy distribution of the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. In the
presented pipeline, we subtract the Galactic foreground continuum and the point-source contamination
using an independent component analysis technique (FASTICA), and develop a
Fourier-based optimal estimator to compute the temperature power spectrum of the intensity
maps and cross-correlation with the galaxy survey data. We show that FASTICA is a reliable
tool to subtract diffuse and point-source emission through the non-Gaussian nature of their
probability distributions. The temperature power spectra of the intensity maps are dominated
by instrumental noise on small scales which FASTICA, as a conservative subtraction technique
of non-Gaussian signals, cannot mitigate. However, we determine similar GBT-WiggleZ
cross-correlation measurements to those obtained by the singular value decomposition (SVD)
method, and confirm that foreground subtraction with FASTICA is robust against 21 cm signal
loss, as seen by the converged amplitude of these cross-correlation measurements. We conclude
that SVD and FASTICA are complementary methods to investigate the foregrounds and
noise systematics present in intensity mapping data sets
Using BBN in cosmological parameter extraction from CMB: a forecast for Planck
Data from future high-precision Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
measurements will be sensitive to the primordial Helium abundance . At the
same time, this parameter can be predicted from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN)
as a function of the baryon and radiation densities, as well as a neutrino
chemical potential. We suggest to use this information to impose a
self-consistent BBN prior on and determine its impact on parameter
inference from simulated Planck data. We find that this approach can
significantly improve bounds on cosmological parameters compared to an analysis
which treats as a free parameter, if the neutrino chemical potential is
taken to vanish. We demonstrate that fixing the Helium fraction to an arbitrary
value can seriously bias parameter estimates. Under the assumption of
degenerate BBN (i.e., letting the neutrino chemical potential vary), the
BBN prior's constraining power is somewhat weakened, but nevertheless allows us
to constrain with an accuracy that rivals bounds inferred from present
data on light element abundances.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor changes, matches published versio
Determination of z~0.8 neutral hydrogen fluctuations using the 21 cm intensity mapping auto-correlation
The large-scale distribution of neutral hydrogen in the Universe will be
luminous through its 21 cm emission. Here, for the first time, we use the
auto-power spectrum of 21 cm intensity fluctuations to constrain neutral
hydrogen fluctuations at z~0.8. Our data were acquired with the Green Bank
Telescope and span the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1 over two fields totalling ~41
deg. sq. and 190 h of radio integration time. The dominant synchrotron
foregrounds exceed the signal by ~10^3, but have fewer degrees of freedom and
can be removed efficiently. Even in the presence of residual foregrounds, the
auto-power can still be interpreted as an upper bound on the 21 cm signal. Our
previous measurements of the cross-correlation of 21 cm intensity and the
WiggleZ galaxy survey provide a lower bound. Through a Bayesian treatment of
signal and foregrounds, we can combine both fields in auto- and cross-power
into a measurement of Omega_HI b_HI = [0.62^{+0.23}_{-0.15}] * 10^{-3} at 68%
confidence with 9% systematic calibration uncertainty, where Omega_HI is the
neutral hydrogen (HI) fraction and b_HI is the HI bias parameter. We describe
observational challenges with the present data set and plans to overcome them.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. v2 as published; MNRASL (2013
Primordial helium recombination. I. Feedback, line transfer, and continuum opacity
Precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy on scales ℓ>500 will be available in the near future. Successful interpretation of these data is dependent on a detailed understanding of the damping tail and cosmological recombination of both hydrogen and helium. This paper and two companion papers are devoted to a precise calculation of helium recombination. We discuss several aspects of the standard recombination picture, and then include feedback, radiative transfer in He i lines with partial redistribution, and continuum opacity from H i photoionization. In agreement with past calculations, we find that He ii recombination proceeds in Saha equilibrium, whereas He i recombination is delayed relative to Saha due to the low rates connecting excited states of He i to the ground state. However, we find that at z<2200 the continuum absorption by the rapidly increasing H i population becomes effective at destroying photons in the He i 21Po-11S line, causing He i recombination to finish around z≃1800, much earlier than previously estimated
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the 600< ell <8000 Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 GHz
We present a measurement of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation observed at 148 GHz. The measurement uses
maps with 1.4' angular resolution made with data from the Atacama Cosmology
Telescope (ACT). The observations cover 228 square degrees of the southern sky,
in a 4.2-degree-wide strip centered on declination 53 degrees South. The CMB at
arcminute angular scales is particularly sensitive to the Silk damping scale,
to the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect from galaxy clusters, and to emission by
radio sources and dusty galaxies. After masking the 108 brightest point sources
in our maps, we estimate the power spectrum between 600 < \ell < 8000 using the
adaptive multi-taper method to minimize spectral leakage and maximize use of
the full data set. Our absolute calibration is based on observations of Uranus.
To verify the calibration and test the fidelity of our map at large angular
scales, we cross-correlate the ACT map to the WMAP map and recover the WMAP
power spectrum from 250 < ell < 1150. The power beyond the Silk damping tail of
the CMB is consistent with models of the emission from point sources. We
quantify the contribution of SZ clusters to the power spectrum by fitting to a
model normalized at sigma8 = 0.8. We constrain the model's amplitude ASZ < 1.63
(95% CL). If interpreted as a measurement of sigma8, this implies sigma8^SZ <
0.86 (95% CL) given our SZ model. A fit of ACT and WMAP five-year data jointly
to a 6-parameter LCDM model plus terms for point sources and the SZ effect is
consistent with these results.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
No Evidence of Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Viruses in Live Attenuated Human Vaccines
The association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related virus (XMRV) in prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome reported in previous studies remains controversial as these results have been questioned by recent data. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised regarding contamination of human vaccines as a possible source of introduction of XMRV and MLV into human populations. To address this possibility, we tested eight live attenuated human vaccines using generic PCR for XMRV and MLV sequences. Viral metagenomics using deep sequencing was also done to identify the possibility of other adventitious agents.All eight live attenuated vaccines, including Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) (SA-14-14-2), varicella (Varivax), measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR-II), measles (Attenuvax), rubella (Meruvax-II), rotavirus (Rotateq and Rotarix), and yellow fever virus were negative for XMRV and highly related MLV sequences. However, residual hamster DNA, but not RNA, containing novel endogenous gammaretrovirus sequences was detected in the JEV vaccine using PCR. Metagenomics analysis did not detect any adventitious viral sequences of public health concern. Intracisternal A particle sequences closest to those present in Syrian hamsters and not mice were also detected in the JEV SA-14-14-2 vaccine. Combined, these results are consistent with the production of the JEV vaccine in Syrian hamster cells.We found no evidence of XMRV and MLV in eight live attenuated human vaccines further supporting the safety of these vaccines. Our findings suggest that vaccines are an unlikely source of XMRV and MLV exposure in humans and are consistent with the mounting evidence on the absence of these viruses in humans
Extragalactic millimeter-wave point source catalog, number counts and statistics from 771 square degrees of the SPT-SZ Survey
We present a point source catalog from 771 square degrees of the South Pole
Telescope Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SPT-SZ) survey at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. We detect
1545 sources above 4.5 sigma significance in at least one band. Based on their
relative brightness between survey bands, we classify the sources into two
populations, one dominated by synchrotron emission from active galactic nuclei,
and one dominated by thermal emission from dust-enshrouded star-forming
galaxies. We find 1238 synchrotron and 307 dusty sources. We cross-match all
sources against external catalogs and find 189 unidentified synchrotron sources
and 189 unidentified dusty sources. The dusty sources without counterparts are
good candidates for high-redshift, strongly lensed submillimeter galaxies. We
derive number counts for each population from 1 Jy down to roughly 9, 5, and 11
mJy at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. We compare these counts with galaxy population
models and find that none of the models we consider for either population
provide a good fit to the measured counts in all three bands. The disparities
imply that these measurements will be an important input to the next generation
of millimeter-wave extragalactic source population models.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
Gravitational clustering of relic neutrinos and implications for their detection
We study the gravitational clustering of big bang relic neutrinos onto
existing cold dark matter (CDM) and baryonic structures within the flat
CDM model, using both numerical simulations and a semi-analytical
linear technique, with the aim of understanding the neutrinos' clustering
properties for direct detection purposes. In a comparative analysis, we find
that the linear technique systematically underestimates the amount of
clustering for a wide range of CDM halo and neutrino masses. This invalidates
earlier claims of the technique's applicability. We then compute the exact
phase space distribution of relic neutrinos in our neighbourhood at Earth, and
estimate the large scale neutrino density contrasts within the local
Greisen--Zatsepin--Kuzmin zone. With these findings, we discuss the
implications of gravitational neutrino clustering for scattering-based
detection methods, ranging from flux detection via Cavendish-type torsion
balances, to target detection using accelerator beams and cosmic rays. For
emission spectroscopy via resonant annihilation of extremely energetic cosmic
neutrinos on the relic neutrino background, we give new estimates for the
expected enhancement in the event rates in the direction of the Virgo cluster.Comment: 38 pages, 8 embedded figures, iopart.cls; v2: references added, minor
changes in text, to appear in JCA
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