1,290 research outputs found
Numerical Methods in Cosmological Global Texture Simulations
Numerical simulations of the evolution of a global topological defect field
have two characteristic length scales --- one macrophysical, of order the field
correlation length, and the other microphysical, of order the field width. The
situation currently of most interest to particle cosmologists involves the
behaviour of a GUT-scale defect field at the epoch of decoupling, where the
ratio of these scales is typically of order . Such a ratio is
unrealisable in numerical work, and we consider the approximations which may be
employed to deal with this. Focusing on the case of global texture we outline
the implementation of the associated algorithms, and in particular note the
subtleties involved in handling texture unwinding events. Comparing the results
in each approach then establishes that, subject to certain constraints on the
minimum grid resolution, the methods described are both robust and consistent
with one another.Comment: LaTeX, IMPERIAL/TP/93-94/2
On Random Bubble Lattices
We study random bubble lattices which can be produced by processes such as
first order phase transitions, and derive characteristics that are important
for understanding the percolation of distinct varieties of bubbles. The results
are relevant to the formation of topological defects as they show that infinite
domain walls and strings will be produced during appropriate first order
transitions, and that the most suitable regular lattice to study defect
formation in three dimensions is a face centered cubic lattice. Another
application of our work is to the distribution of voids in the large-scale
structure of the universe. We argue that the present universe is more akin to a
system undergoing a first-order phase transition than to one that is
crystallizing, as is implicit in the Voronoi foam description. Based on the
picture of a bubbly universe, we predict a mean coordination number for the
voids of 13.4. The mean coordination number may also be used as a tool to
distinguish between different scenarios for structure formation.Comment: several modifications including new abstract, comparison with froth
models, asymptotics of coordination number distribution, further discussion
of biased defects, and relevance to large-scale structur
On The Absence Of Open Strings In A Lattice-Free Simulation Of Cosmic String Formation
Lattice-based string formation algorithms can, at least in principle, be
reduced to the study of the statistics of the corresponding aperiodic random
walk. Since in three or more dimensions such walks are transient this approach
necessarily generates a population of open strings. To investigate whether open
strings are an artefact of the lattice we develop an alternative lattice-free
simulation of string formation. Replacing the lattice with a graph generated by
a minimal dynamical model of a first order phase transition we obtain results
consistent with the hypothesis that the energy density in string is due to a
scale-invariant Brownian distribution of closed loops alone.Comment: 9 pages ReVTeX, 1 Postscript figure, minor changes for publicatio
Determining Foreground Contamination in CMB Observations: Diffuse Galactic Emission in the MAXIMA-I Field
Observations of the CMB can be contaminated by diffuse foreground emission
from sources such as Galactic dust and synchrotron radiation. In these cases,
the morphology of the contaminating source is known from observations at
different frequencies, but not its amplitude at the frequency of interest for
the CMB. We develop a technique for accounting for the effects of such emission
in this case, and for simultaneously estimating the foreground amplitude in the
CMB observations. We apply the technique to CMB data from the MAXIMA-1
experiment, using maps of Galactic dust emission from combinations of IRAS and
DIRBE observations, as well as compilations of Galactic synchrotron emission
observations. The spectrum of the dust emission over the 150--450 GHz observed
by MAXIMA is consistent with preferred models but the effect on CMB power
spectrum observations is negligible.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal. Monor changes to match the published versio
Estimate of the Cosmological Bispectrum from the MAXIMA-1 Cosmic Microwave Background Map
We use the measurement of the cosmic microwave background taken during the
MAXIMA-1 flight to estimate the bispectrum of cosmological perturbations. We
propose an estimator for the bispectrum that is appropriate in the flat sky
approximation, apply it to the MAXIMA-1 data and evaluate errors using
bootstrap methods. We compare the estimated value with what would be expected
if the sky signal were Gaussian and find that it is indeed consistent, with a
per degree of freedom of approximately unity. This measurement places
constraints on models of inflation.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. New version to match paper accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Non-diagonal terms included leading to new
limits on f_N
Fast, exact CMB power spectrum estimation for a certain class of observational strategies
We describe a class of observational strategies for probing the anisotropies
in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) where the instrument scans on rings
which can be combined into an n-torus, the {\em ring torus}. This class has the
remarkable property that it allows exact maximum likelihood power spectrum
estimation in of order operations (if the size of the data set is )
under circumstances which would previously have made this analysis intractable:
correlated receiver noise, arbitrary asymmetric beam shapes and far side lobes,
non-uniform distribution of integration time on the sky and partial sky
coverage. This ease of computation gives us an important theoretical tool for
understanding the impact of instrumental effects on CMB observables and hence
for the design and analysis of the CMB observations of the future. There are
members of this class which closely approximate the MAP and Planck satellite
missions. We present a numerical example where we apply our ring torus methods
to a simulated data set from a CMB mission covering a 20 degree patch on the
sky to compute the maximum likelihood estimate of the power spectrum
with unprecedented efficiency.Comment: RevTeX, 14 pages, 5 figures. A full resolution version of Figure 1
and additional materials are at http://feynman.princeton.edu/~bwandelt/RT
Making Maps Of The Cosmic Microwave Background: The MAXIMA Example
This work describes Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data analysis
algorithms and their implementations, developed to produce a pixelized map of
the sky and a corresponding pixel-pixel noise correlation matrix from time
ordered data for a CMB mapping experiment. We discuss in turn algorithms for
estimating noise properties from the time ordered data, techniques for
manipulating the time ordered data, and a number of variants of the maximum
likelihood map-making procedure. We pay particular attention to issues
pertinent to real CMB data, and present ways of incorporating them within the
framework of maximum likelihood map-making. Making a map of the sky is shown to
be not only an intermediate step rendering an image of the sky, but also an
important diagnostic stage, when tests for and/or removal of systematic effects
can efficiently be performed. The case under study is the MAXIMA data set.
However, the methods discussed are expected to be applicable to the analysis of
other current and forthcoming CMB experiments.Comment: Replaced to match the published version, only minor change
Collapse of topological texture
We study analytically the process of a topological texture collapse in the
approximation of a scaling ansatz in the nonlinear sigma-model. In this
approximation we show that in flat space-time topological texture eventually
collapses while in the case of spatially flat expanding universe its fate
depends on the rate of expansion. If the universe is inflationary, then there
is a possibility that texture will expand eternally; in the case of exponential
inflation the texture may also shrink or expand eternally to a finite limiting
size, although this behavior is degenerate. In the case of power law
noninflationary expansion topological texture eventually collapses. In a cold
matter dominated universe we find that texture which is formed comoving with
the universe expansion starts collapsing when its spatial size becomes
comparable to the Hubble size, which result is in agreement with the previous
considerations. In the nonlinear sigma-model approximation we consider also the
final stage of the collapsing ellipsoidal topological texture. We show that
during collapse of such a texture at least two of its principal dimensions
shrink to zero in a similar way, so that their ratio remains finite. The third
dimension may remain finite (collapse of cigar type), or it may also shrink to
zero similar to the other two dimensions (collapse of scaling type), or shrink
to zero similar to the product of the remaining two dimensions (collapse of
pancake type).Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev.
The evolution of a network of cosmic string loops
We set up and analyse a model for the non-equilibrium evolution of a network
of cosmic strings initially containing only loops and no infinite strings. Due
to this particular initial condition, our analytical approach differs
significantly from existing ones. We describe the average properties of the
network in terms of the distribution function n(l,t) dl, the average number of
loops per unit volume with physical length between l and l + dl at time t. The
dynamical processes which change the length of loops are then estimated and an
equation, which we call the `rate equation', is derived for (dn/dt). In a
non-expanding universe, the loops should reach the equilibrium distribution
predicted by string statistical mechanics. Analysis of the rate equation gives
results consistent with this. We then study the rate equation in an expanding
universe and suggest that three different final states are possible for the
evolving loop network, each of which may well be realised for some initial
conditions. If the initial energy density in loops in the radiation era is low,
then the loops rapidly disappear. For large initial energy densities, we expect
that either infinite strings are formed or that the loops tend towards a
scaling solution in the radiation era and then rapidly disappear in the matter
era. Such a scenario may be relevant given recent work highlighting the
problems with structure formation from the standard cosmic string scenario.Comment: LaTeX, 27 pages, 10 figures included as .eps file
Measurement of a Peak in the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum from the North American test flight of BOOMERANG
We describe a measurement of the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in
the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from 0.3 degrees to ~10 degrees from the
North American test flight of the BOOMERANG experiment. BOOMERANG is a
balloon-borne telescope with a bolometric receiver designed to map CMB
anisotropies on a Long Duration Balloon flight. During a 6-hour test flight of
a prototype system in 1997, we mapped > 200 square degrees at high galactic
latitudes in two bands centered at 90 and 150 GHz with a resolution of 26 and
16.6 arcmin FWHM respectively. Analysis of the maps gives a power spectrum with
a peak at angular scales of ~1 degree with an amplitude ~70 uK.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure LaTeX, emulateapj.st
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