Likelihood Functions for Galaxy Cluster Surveys

Galaxy cluster surveys offer great promise for measuring cosmological parameters, but survey analysis methods have not been widely studied. Using methods developed decades ago for galaxy clustering studies, it is shown that nearly exact likelihood functions can be written down for galaxy cluster surveys. The sparse sampling of the density field by galaxy clusters allows simplifications that are not possible for galaxy surveys. An application to counts in cells is explicitly tested using cluster catalogs from numerical simulations and it is found that the calculated probability distributions are very accurate at masses above several times 10^{14}h^{-1} solar masses at z=0 and lower masses at higher redshift.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, updated key referenc

The unusual smoothness of the extragalactic unresolved radio background

If the radio background is coming from cosmological sources, there should be some amount of clustering due to the large scale structure in the universe. Simple models for the expected clustering combined with the recent measurement by ARCADE-2 of the mean extragalactic temperature lead to predicted clustering levels that are substantially above upper limits from searches for anisotropy on arcminute scales using ATCA and the VLA. The rms temperature variations in the cosmic radio background appear to be more than a factor of 10 smaller (in temperature) than the fluctuations in the cosmic infrared background. It is therefore extremely unlikely that this background comes from galaxies, galaxy clusters, or any sources that trace dark matter halos at z<5, unless typical sources are smooth on arcminute scales, requiring typical sizes of several Mpc.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Radio Point Sources and the Thermal SZ Power Spectrum

Radio point sources are strongly correlated with clusters of galaxies, so a significant fraction of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signal could be affected by point source contamination. Based on empirical estimates of the radio galaxy population, it is shown that the rms temperature fluctuations of the thermal SZ effect could be underestimated by as much as 30% at an observing frequency of 30 GHz at l>1000. The effect is larger at higher multipoles. If the recent report of excess power at small angular scales is to be explained by the thermal SZ effect, then radio point sources at an observing frequency of 30 GHz must be a surprisingly weak contaminant of the SZ effect for low-mass clusters.Comment: 5 pages, minor changes to match accepted ApJ versio

Searching for patchy reionization from cosmic microwave background with hybrid quadratic estimators

We propose a hybrid quadratic estimator to measure cross correlations between gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and differential screening effects arising from fluctuations in the electron column density, such as could arise from patchy reionization. The hybrid quadratic estimators are validated by simulated data sets with both Planck and CMB-Stage 4 (CMB-S4) instrumental properties and found to be able to recover the cross-power spectra with almost no biases. We apply this technique to Planck 2015 temperature data and obtain cross-power spectra between gravitational lensing and differential screening effects. Planck data alone cannot detect the patchy-reionization-induced cross-power spectrum but future experiment like CMB-S4 will be able to robustly measure the expected signal and deliver new insights on reionization.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

An excess of non-Gaussian fluctuations in the cosmic infrared background consistent with gravitational lensing

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) is gravitationally lensed. A quadratic-estimator technique that is inherited from lensing analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be applied to detect the CIB lensing effects. However, the CIB fluctuations are intrinsically strongly non-Gaussian, making CIB lensing reconstruction highly biased. We perform numerical simulations to estimate the intrinsic non-Gaussianity and establish a cross-correlation approach to precisely extract the CIB lensing signal from raw data. We apply this technique to CIB data from the Planck satellite and cross-correlate the resulting lensing estimate with the CIB data, galaxy number counts and the CMB lensing potential. We detect an excess that is consistent with a lensing contribution at $>4\sigma$.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Enhanced global signal of neutral hydrogen due to excess radiation at cosmic dawn

We revisit the global 21cm signal calculation incorporating a possible radio background at early times, and find that the global 21cm signal shows a much stronger absorption feature, which could enhance detection prospects for future 21 cm experiments. In light of recent reports of a possible low-frequency excess radio background, we propose that detailed 21 cm calculations should include a possible early radio background.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A Method for Mapping the Temperature Profile of X-ray Clusters Through Radio Observations

Many of the most luminous extragalactic radio sources are located at the centers of X-ray clusters, and so their radiation must be scattered by the surrounding hot gas. We show that radio observations of the highly-polarized scattered radiation (which depends on the electron density distribution) in combination with the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (which measures the electron pressure distribution), can be used to determine the radial profile of the electron temperature within the host cluster. The sensitivity levels expected from current instruments will allow radio measurements of mass-weighted cluster temperature profiles to better than roughly 1 keV accuracy, as long as the central radio source is steady over several million years. Variable or beamed sources will leave observable signatures in the scattered emission. For clusters with a central point source brighter than about 1 mJy, the scattered polarization signal is stronger than competing effects due to the cosmic microwave background.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to be submitted to ApJ

The Polarization Signature of Local Bulk Flows

A large peculiar velocity of the intergalactic medium produces a Doppler shift of the cosmic microwave background with a frequency-dependent quadrupole term. This quadrupole will act as a source for polarization of the cosmic microwave background, creating a large-scale polarization anisotropy if the bulk flow is local and coherent on large scales. In the case where we are near the center of the moving region, the polarization signal is a pure quadrupole. We show that the signal is small, but detectable with future experiments for bulk flows as large as some recent reports.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by Ap

Detecting Electron Density Fluctuations from Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization using a Bispectrum Approach

Recent progress in high sensitivity Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiments opens up a window on large scale structure (LSS), as CMB polarization fluctuations on small angular scales can arise from a combination of LSS and ionization fluctuations in the late universe. Gravitational lensing effects can be extracted from CMB datasets with quadratic estimators but reconstructions of electron density fluctuations (EDFs) with quadratic estimators are found to be significantly biased by the much larger lensing effects in the secondary CMB fluctuations. In this paper we establish a bispectrum formalism using tracers of LSS to extract the subdominant EDFs from CMB polarization data. We find that this bispectrum can effectively reconstruct angular band-powers of cross correlation between EDFs and LSS tracers. Next generation CMB polarization experiments in conjunction with galaxy surveys and cosmic infrared background experiments can detect signatures of EDFs with high significance.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Globular Cluster Microlensing: Globular Clusters as Microlensing Targets

We investigate the possibility of using globular clusters as targets for microlensing searches. Such searches will be challenging and require more powerful telescopes than now employed, but are feasible in the 0 future. Although expected event rates are low, we show that the wide variety of lines of sight to globular clusters greatly enhances the ability to distinguish between halo models using microlensing observations as compared to LMC/SMC observations alone.Comment: 6 pages, uses mn.sty, 2 figure