73 research outputs found
Detecting the Cold Spot as a Void with the Non-Diagonal Two-Point Function
The anomaly in the Cosmic Microwave Background known as the "Cold Spot" could
be due to the existence of an anomalously large spherical (few hundreds Mpc/h
radius) underdense region, called a "Void" for short. Such a structure would
have an impact on the CMB also at high multipoles l through Lensing. This would
then represent a unique signature of a Void. Modeling such an underdensity with
an LTB metric, we show that the Lensing effect leads to a large signal in the
non-diagonal two-point function, centered in the direction of the Cold Spot,
such that the Planck satellite will be able to confirm or rule out the Void
explanation for the Cold Spot, for any Void radius with a Signal-to-Noise ratio
of at least O(10).Comment: v1: 6 pages, 2 figures; v2: 6 pages, 2 figures, text improved, to
appear on JCA
Improved correction of VIPERS angular selection effects in clustering measurements
AbstractClustering estimates in galaxy redshift surveys need to account and correct for the way targets are selected from the general population, as to avoid biasing the measured values of cosmological parameters. The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) is no exception to this, involving slit collisions and masking effects. Pushed by the increasing precision of the measurements, e.g. of the growth rate f, we have been re-assessing these effects in detail. We present here an improved correction for the two-point correlation function, capable to recover the amplitude of the monopole of the two-point correlation function ξ(r) above 1 h-1 Mpc to better than 2
The integrated Sachs-Wolfe imprints of cosmic superstructures: a problem for \Lambda CDM
A crucial diagnostic of the \Lambda CDM cosmological model is the integrated
Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect of large-scale structure on the cosmic microwave
background (CMB). The ISW imprint of superstructures of size \sim100\;h^{-1}
Mpc at redshift has been detected with significance,
however it has been noted that the signal is much larger than expected. We
revisit the calculation using linear theory predictions in \Lambda CDM
cosmology for the number density of superstructures and their radial density
profile, and take possible selection effects into account. While our expected
signal is larger than previous estimates, it is still inconsistent by
with the observation. If the observed signal is indeed due to the
ISW effect then huge, extremely underdense voids are far more common in the
observed universe than predicted by \Lambda CDM.Comment: 3 figures. v3: minor additions for clearer explanations, conclusions
unchanged. Version to be published in JCA
Average luminosity distance in inhomogeneous universes
The paper studies the correction to the distance modulus induced by
inhomogeneities and averaged over all directions from a given observer. The
inhomogeneities are modeled as mass-compensated voids in random or regular
lattices within Swiss-cheese universes. Void radii below 300 Mpc are
considered, which are supported by current redshift surveys and limited by the
recently observed imprint such voids leave on CMB. The averaging over all
directions, performed by numerical ray tracing, is non-perturbative and
includes the supernovas inside the voids. Voids aligning along a certain
direction produce a cumulative gravitational lensing correction that increases
with their number. Such corrections are destroyed by the averaging over all
directions, even in non-randomized simple cubic void lattices. At low
redshifts, the average correction is not zero but decays with the peculiar
velocities and redshift. Its upper bound is provided by the maximal average
correction which assumes no random cancelations between different voids. It is
described well by a linear perturbation formula and, for the voids considered,
is 20% of the correction corresponding to the maximal peculiar velocity. The
average correction calculated in random and simple cubic void lattices is
severely damped below the predicted maximal one after a single void diameter.
That is traced to cancellations between the corrections from the fronts and
backs of different voids. All that implies that voids cannot imitate the effect
of dark energy unless they have radii and peculiar velocities much larger than
the currently observed. The results obtained allow one to readily predict the
redshift above which the direction-averaged fluctuation in the Hubble diagram
falls below a required precision and suggest a method to extract the background
Hubble constant from low redshift data without the need to correct for peculiar
velocities.Comment: 34 pages, 21 figures, matches the version accepted in JCA
A Theory of a Spot
We present a simple inflationary scenario that can produce arbitrarily large
spherical underdense or overdense regions embedded in a standard Lambda cold
dark matter paradigm, which we refer to as bubbles. We analyze the effect such
bubbles would have on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). For super-horizon
sized bubble in the vicinity of the last scattering surface, a signal is
imprinted onto CMB via a combination of Sach-Wolfe and an early integrated
Sach-Wolfe (ISW) effects. Smaller, sub-horizon sized bubbles at lower redshifts
(during matter domination and later) can imprint secondary anisotropies on the
CMB via Rees-Sciama, late-time ISW and Ostriker-Vishniac effects. Our scenario,
and arguably most similar inflationary models, produce bubbles which are
over/underdense in potential: in density such bubbles are characterized by
having a distinct wall with the interior staying at the cosmic mean density. We
show that such models can potentially, with only moderate fine tuning, explain
the \emph{cold spot}, a non-Gaussian feature identified in the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by several authors. However, more
detailed comparisons with current and future CMB data are necessary to confirm
(or rule out) this scenario.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures, added references and explanations, JCAP in
pres
The radial BAO scale and Cosmic Shear, a new observable for Inhomogeneous Cosmologies
As an alternative explanation of the dimming of distant supernovae it has
recently been advocated that we live in a special place in the Universe near
the centre of a large spherical void described by a Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB)
metric. In this scenario, the Universe is no longer homogeneous and isotropic,
and the apparent late time acceleration is actually a consequence of spatial
gradients. We propose in this paper a new observable, the normalized cosmic
shear, written in terms of directly observable quantities, and calculable in
arbitrary inhomogeneous cosmologies. This will allow future surveys to
determine whether we live in a homogeneous universe or not. In this paper we
also update our previous observational constraints from geometrical measures of
the background cosmology. We include the Union Supernovae data set of 307 Type
Ia supernovae, the CMB acoustic scale and the first measurement of the radial
baryon acoustic oscillation scale. Even though the new data sets are
significantly more constraining, LTB models -- albeit with slightly larger
voids -- are still in excellent agreement with observations, at chi^2/d.o.f. =
307.7/(310-4)=1.005. Together with the paper we also publish the updated
easyLTB code used for calculating the models and for comparing them to the
observations.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, the code can be downloaded at
http://www.phys.au.dk/~haugboel/software.shtm
Detection of a supervoid aligned with the cold spot of the cosmic microwave background
We use the WISE-2MASS infrared galaxy catalogue matched with Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) galaxies to search for a supervoid in the direction of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) cold spot (CS). Our imaging catalogue has median redshift z ≃ 0.14, and we obtain photometric redshifts from PS1 optical colours to create a tomographic map of the galaxy distribution. The radial profile centred on the CS shows a large low-density region, extending over tens of degrees. Motivated by previous CMB results, we test for underdensities within two angular radii, 5°, and 15°. The counts in photometric redshift bins show significantly low densities at high detection significance, ≳5σ and ≳6σ, respectively, for the two fiducial radii. The line-of-sight position of the deepest region of the void is z ≃ 0.15–0.25. Our data, combined with an earlier measurement by Granett, Szapudi & Neyrinck, are consistent with a large Rvoid = (220 ± 50) h−1 Mpc supervoid with δm ≃ −0.14 ± 0.04 centred at z = 0.22 ± 0.03. Such a supervoid, constituting at least a ≃3.3σ fluctuation in a Gaussian distribution of the Λ cold dark matter model, is a plausible cause for the CS
Dynamics of Void and its Shape in Redshift Space
We investigate the dynamics of a single spherical void embedded in a
Friedmann-Lema\^itre universe, and analyze the void shape in the redshift
space. We find that the void in the redshift space appears as an ellipse shape
elongated in the direction of the line of sight (i.e., an opposite deformation
to the Kaiser effect). Applying this result to observed void candidates at the
redshift z~1-2, it may provide us with a new method to evaluate the
cosmological parameters, in particular the value of a cosmological constant.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure
The High Redshift Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect
In this paper we rely on the quasar (QSO) catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey Data Release Six (SDSS DR6) of about one million photometrically
selected QSOs to compute the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect at high
redshift, aiming at constraining the behavior of the expansion rate and thus
the behaviour of dark energy at those epochs. This unique sample significantly
extends previous catalogs to higher redshifts while retaining high efficiency
in the selection algorithm. We compute the auto-correlation function (ACF) of
QSO number density from which we extract the bias and the stellar
contamination. We then calculate the cross-correlation function (CCF) between
QSO number density and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature
fluctuations in different subsamples: at high z>1.5 and low z<1.5 redshifts and
for two different choices of QSO in a conservative and in a more speculative
analysis. We find an overall evidence for a cross-correlation different from
zero at the 2.7\sigma level, while this evidence drops to 1.5\sigma at z>1.5.
We focus on the capabilities of the ISW to constrain the behaviour of the dark
energy component at high redshift both in the \LambdaCDM and Early Dark Energy
cosmologies, when the dark energy is substantially unconstrained by
observations. At present, the inclusion of the ISW data results in a poor
improvement compared to the obtained constraints from other cosmological
datasets. We study the capabilities of future high-redshift QSO survey and find
that the ISW signal can improve the constraints on the most important
cosmological parameters derived from Planck CMB data, including the high
redshift dark energy abundance, by a factor \sim 1.5.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, and 7 table
Results of Prevention of REStenosis with Tranilast and its Outcomes (PRESTO) trial
BACKGROUND: Restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a major problem affecting 15% to 30% of patients after stent placement. No oral agent has shown a beneficial effect on restenosis or on associated major adverse cardiovascular events. In limited trials, the oral agent tranilast has been shown to decrease the frequency of angiographic restenosis after PCI. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of tranilast (300 and 450 mg BID for 1 or 3 months), 11 484 patients were enrolled. Enrollment and drug were initiated within 4 hours after successful PCI of at least 1 vessel. The primary end point was the first occurrence of death, myocardial infarction, or ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization within 9 months and was 15.8% in the placebo group and 15.5% to 16.1% in the tranilast groups (P=0.77 to 0.81). Myocardial infarction was the only component of major adverse cardiovascular events to show some evidence of a reduction with tranilast (450 mg BID for 3 months): 1.1% versus 1.8% with placebo (P=0.061 for intent-to-treat population). The primary reason for not completing treatment was > or =1 hepatic laboratory test abnormality (11.4% versus 0.2% with placebo, P<0.01). In the angiographic substudy composed of 2018 patients, minimal lumen diameter (MLD) was measured by quantitative coronary angiography. At follow-up, MLD was 1.76+/-0.77 mm in the placebo group, which was not different from MLD in the tranilast groups (1.72 to 1.78+/-0.76 to 80 mm, P=0.49 to 0.89). In a subset of these patients (n=1107), intravascular ultrasound was performed at follow-up. Plaque volume was not different between the placebo and tranilast groups (39.3 versus 37.5 to 46.1 mm(3), respectively; P=0.16 to 0.72). CONCLUSIONS: Tranilast does not improve the quantitative measures of restenosis (angiographic and intravascular ultrasound) or its clinical sequelae
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