Non-Gaussian Aspects of Thermal and Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effects

We discuss non-Gaussian effects associated with the local large-scale structure contributions to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. The non-Gaussianities associated with the SZ effect arise from the existence of a significant four-point correlation function in large scale pressure fluctuations. Using the full covariance matrix of the SZ thermal power spectrum, we study astrophysical uses of the SZ effect and discuss the extent to which gas properties can be derived from a measurement of the SZ power spectrum. With the SZ thermal effect separated in temperature fluctuations using its frequency information, the kinetic SZ effect is expected to dominate the CMB temperature fluctuations at small angular scales. The presence of the SZ kinetic effect can be determined through a cross-correlation between the SZ thermal and a CMB map at small scales. We suggest a statistic that can be used to study the correlation between pressure traced by the SZ thermal effect and the baryons traced by the SZ kinetic effect involving the cross-power spectrum constructed through squared temperatures instead of the usual temperature itself. Through a signal-to-noise calculation, we show that future small angular scale multi-frequency CMB experiments, sensitive to multipoles of a few thousand, will be able to measure the cross-correlation of SZ thermal and SZ kinetic effect through a temperature squared power spectrum (abridged).Comment: 27 PRD Pages, 15 figures; Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Extragalactic Background Light: Measurements and Applications

This review covers the measurements related to the extragalactic background light (EBL) intensity from gamma-rays to radio in the electromagnetic spectrum over 20 decades in the wavelength. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) remains the best measured spectrum with an accuracy better than 1%. The measurements related to the cosmic optical background (COB), centered at 1 microns, are impacted by the large zodiacal light associated with interplanetary dust in the inner Solar system. The best measurements of COB come from an indirect technique involving Gamma-ray spectra of bright blazars with an absorption feature resulting from pair-production off of COB photons. The cosmic infrared background (CIB) peaking at around 100 microns established an energetically important background with an intensity comparable to the optical background. This discovery paved the path for large aperture far-infrared and sub-millimeter observations resulting in the discovery of dusty, starbursting galaxies. Their role in galaxy formation and evolution remains an active area of research in modern-day astrophysics. The extreme UV background remains mostly unexplored and will be a challenge to measure due to the high Galactic background and absorption of extragalactic photons by the intergalactic medium at these EUV/soft X-ray energies. We also summarize our understanding of the spatial anisotropies and angular power spectra of intensity fluctuations. We motivate a precise direct measurement of the COB between 0.1 to 5 microns using a small aperture telescope observing either from the outer Solar system, at distances of 5 AU or more, or out of the ecliptic plane. Other future applications include improving our understanding of the background at TeV energies and spectral distortions of CMB and CIB.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures; invited review for Royal Society Open Science (RSOS), see http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org. Electronic files and data related to Figure 1 are available at http://herschel.uci.ed

Primordial Gravitational Waves and Inflation: CMB and Direct Detection With Space-Based Laser Interferometers

The curl-modes of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization probe horizon-scale primordial gravitational waves related to inflation. A significant source of confusion is expected from a lensing conversion of polarization related to density perturbations to the curl mode, during the propagation of photons through the large scale structure. Either high resolution CMB anisotropy observations or 21 cm fluctuations at redshifts 30 and higher can be used to delens polarization data and to separate gravitational-wave polarization signature from that of cosmic-shear related signal. Separations based on proposed lensing reconstruction techniques for reasonable future experiments allow the possibility to probe inflationary energy scales down to 10^15 GeV. Beyond CMB polarization, at frequencies between 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz, space-based laser interferometers can also be used to probe the inflationary gravitational wave background. The confusion here is related to the removal of merging neutron star binaries at cosmological distances. Given the low merger rate and the rapid evolution of the gravitational wave frequency across this band, reliable removal techniques can be constructed. We discuss issues related to joint constraints that can be placed on the inflationary models based on CMB polarization information and space-based interferometers such as the Big Bang Observer.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures. Review article based on invited lectures at the Daniel Chalonge International School of Astrophysics: WMAP and the Early Universe, Observatoire de Paris, December 2004. To appear in proceedings (Eds. N. G. Sanchez & H. J. De Vega