600 research outputs found
Using a Primordial Gravitational Wave Background to Illuminate New Physics
A primordial spectrum of gravitational waves serves as a backlight to the
relativistic degrees of freedom of the cosmological fluid. Any change in the
particle physics content, due to a change of phase or freeze-out of a species,
will leave a characteristic imprint on an otherwise featureless primordial
spectrum of gravitational waves and indicate its early-Universe provenance. We
show that a gravitational wave detector such as the Laser Interferometer Space
Antenna would be sensitive to physics near 100 TeV in the presence of a
sufficiently strong primordial spectrum. Such a detection could complement
searches at newly proposed 100 km circumference accelerators such as the Future
Circular Collider at CERN and the Super Proton-Proton Collider in China,
thereby providing insight into a host of beyond Standard Model issues,
including the hierarchy problem, dark matter, and baryogenesis.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; added reference
Large-Scale Bulk Motions Complicate the Hubble Diagram
We investigate the extent to which correlated distortions of the luminosity
distance-redshift relation due to large-scale bulk flows limit the precision
with which cosmological parameters can be measured. In particular, peculiar
velocities of type 1a supernovae at low redshifts may prevent a sufficient
calibration of the Hubble diagram necessary to measure the dark energy equation
of state to better than 10%, and diminish the resolution of the equation of
state time-derivative projected for planned surveys. We consider similar
distortions of the angular-diameter distance, as well as the Hubble constant.
We show that the measurement of correlations in the large-scale bulk flow at
low redshifts using these distance indicators may be possible with a cumulative
signal-to-noise ratio of order 7 in a survey of 300 type 1a supernovae spread
over 20,000 square degrees.Comment: 6 pages; 4 figure
Non-Gaussianity from Self-Ordering Scalar Fields
The Universe may harbor relics of the post-inflationary epoch in the form of
a network of self-ordered scalar fields. Such fossils, while consistent with
current cosmological data at trace levels, may leave too weak an imprint on the
cosmic microwave background and the large-scale distribution of matter to allow
for direct detection. The non-Gaussian statistics of the density perturbations
induced by these fields, however, permit a direct means to probe for these
relics. Here we calculate the bispectrum that arises in models of self-ordered
scalar fields. We find a compact analytic expression for the bispectrum,
evaluate it numerically, and provide a simple approximation that may be useful
for data analysis. The bispectrum is largest for triangles that are aligned
(have edges ) as opposed to the local-model
bispectrum, which peaks for squeezed triangles (), and
the equilateral bispectrum, which peaks at . We
estimate that this non-Gaussianity should be detectable by the Planck satellite
if the contribution from self-ordering scalar fields to primordial
perturbations is near the current upper limit.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
Expansion, Geometry, and Gravity
In general-relativistic cosmological models, the expansion history, matter
content, and geometry are closely intertwined. In this brief paper, we clarify
the distinction between the effects of geometry and expansion history on the
luminosity distance. We show that the cubic correction to the Hubble law,
measured recently with high-redshift supernovae, is the first cosmological
measurement, apart from the cosmic microwave background, that probes directly
the effects of spatial curvature. We illustrate the distinction between
geometry and expansion with a toy model for which the supernova results already
indicate a curvature radius larger than the Hubble distance.Comment: 4 pages, 1 color figur
Back to the Future: Surveying the Northern Hemisphere and Reprocessing the Southern TESS Data Set
TESS launched 18 April 2018 to conduct a two-year, near all-sky survey for at least 50 small, nearby exoplanets for which masses can be ascertained and whose atmospheres can be characterized by ground- and space-based follow-on observations. TESS has completed its survey of the southern hemisphere and begun its survey of the northern hemisphere, identifying >1000 candidate exoplanets and unveiling a plethora of exciting non-exoplanet astrophysics results, such as asteroseismology, asteroids, and supernova. The TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC) processes the data downlinked every two weeks to generate a range of data products hosted at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). For each sector (~1 month) of observations, the SPOC calibrates the image data for both 30-min Full Frame Images (FFIs) and up to 20,000 pre-selected 2-min target star postage stamps. Data products for the 2-min targets include simple aperture photometry and systematic error-corrected flux time series. The SPOC also conducts searches for transiting exoplanets in the 2-min data for each sector and generates Data Validation time series and associated reports for each transit-like feature identified in the search. Multi-sector searches for exoplanets are conducted periodically to discover longer period planets, including those in the James Webb Continuous Viewing Zone (CVZ), which are observed for up to one year. Starting with Sector 8, scattered light from the Earth and Moon contaminated significant portions of the data in each orbit. We have developed algorithms for automated identification of the scattered light features at the individual target level. Previously, data for all stars on a CCD affected by scattered light were manually excluded. The automated flagging will allow us to retain significantly more data for stars that are not affected by the scattered light even though it is occurring elsewhere on the CCD. We also discuss enhancements to the SPOC pipeline and the newly available FFI light curves. The TESS Mission is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate as an Astrophysics Explorer Mission
Surface irradiances consistent with CERES-derived top-of-atmosphere shortwave and longwave irradiances
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Climate 26 (2013): 2719–2740, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00436.1.The estimate of surface irradiance on a global scale is possible through radiative transfer calculations using satellite-retrieved surface, cloud, and aerosol properties as input. Computed top-of-atmosphere (TOA) irradiances, however, do not necessarily agree with observation-based values, for example, from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). This paper presents a method to determine surface irradiances using observational constraints of TOA irradiance from CERES. A Lagrange multiplier procedure is used to objectively adjust inputs based on their uncertainties such that the computed TOA irradiance is consistent with CERES-derived irradiance to within the uncertainty. These input adjustments are then used to determine surface irradiance adjustments. Observations by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), CloudSat, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that are a part of the NASA A-Train constellation provide the uncertainty estimates. A comparison with surface observations from a number of sites shows that the bias [root-mean-square (RMS) difference] between computed and observed monthly mean irradiances calculated with 10 years of data is 4.7 (13.3) W m−2 for downward shortwave and −2.5 (7.1) W m−2 for downward longwave irradiances over ocean and −1.7 (7.8) W m−2 for downward shortwave and −1.0 (7.6) W m−2 for downward longwave irradiances over land. The bias and RMS error for the downward longwave and shortwave irradiances over ocean are decreased from those without constraint. Similarly, the bias and RMS error for downward longwave over land improves, although the constraint does not improve downward shortwave over land. This study demonstrates how synergetic use of multiple instruments (CERES, MODIS, CALIPSO, CloudSat, AIRS, and geostationary satellites) improves the accuracy of surface irradiance computations.The work was supported
by theNASACERES and, in part, Energy Water
Cycle Study (NEWS) projects.2013-11-0
The Vulcan Photometer: A Dedicated Photometer for Extrasolar Planet Searches
A small CCD photometer dedicated to the detection of extrasolar planets has been developed and put into operation at Mount Hamilton, California. It simultaneously monitors 6000 stars brighter than 13th magnitude in its 49 deg2 field of view. Observations are conducted all night every clear night of the year. A single field is monitored at a cadence of eight images per hour for a period of about 3 months. When the data are folded for the purpose of discovering low-amplitude transits, transit amplitudes of 1% are readily detected. This precision is sufficient to find Jovian-size planets orbiting solar-like stars, which have signal amplitudes from 1% to 2% depending on the inflation of the planet’s atmosphere and the size of the star. An investigation of possible noise sources indicates that neither star field crowding, scintillation noise, nor photon shot noise are the major noise sources for stars brighter than visual magnitude 11.6. Over one hundred variable stars have been found in each star field. About 50 of these stars are eclipsing binary stars, several with transit amplitudes of only a few percent. Three stars that showed only primary transits were examined with high-precision spectroscopy. Two were found to be nearly identical stars in binary pairs orbiting at double the photometric period. Spectroscopic observations showed the third star to be a high mass ratio single-lined binary. On 1999 November 22 the transit of a planet orbiting HD 209458 was observed and the predicted amplitude and immersion times were confirmed. These observations show that the photometer and the data reduction and analysis algorithms have the necessary precision to find companions with the expected area ratio for Jovian-size planets orbiting solar-like stars
Non-Commutative Inflation
We show how a radiation dominated universe subject to space-time quantization
may give rise to inflation as the radiation temperature exceeds the Planck
temperature. We consider dispersion relations with a maximal momentum (i.e. a
mimimum Compton wavelength, or quantum of space), noting that some of these
lead to a trans-Planckian branch where energy increases with decreasing
momenta. This feature translates into negative radiation pressure and, in
well-defined circumstances, into an inflationary equation of state. We thus
realize the inflationary scenario without the aid of an inflaton field. As the
radiation cools down below the Planck temperature, inflation gracefully exits
into a standard Big Bang universe, dispensing with a period of reheating.
Thermal fluctuations in the radiation bath will in this case generate curvature
fluctuations on cosmological scales whose amplitude and spectrum can be tuned
to agree with observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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