1,168 research outputs found
Cosmological parameter estimation with large scale structure and supernovae data
Most cosmological parameter estimations are based on the same set of
observations and are therefore not independent. Here, we test the consistency
of parameter estimations using a combination of large-scale structure and
supernovae data, without cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. We combine
observations from the IRAS 1.2 Jy and Las Campanas redshift surveys, galaxy
peculiar velocities and measurements of type Ia supernovae to obtain
h=0.57_{-0.14}^{+0.15}, Omega_m=0.28+/-0.05 and sigma_8=0.87_{-0.05}^{+0.04} in
agreement with the constraints from observations of the CMB anisotropies by the
WMAP satellite. We also compare results from different subsets of data in order
to investigate the effect of priors and residual errors in the data. We find
that some parameters are consistently well constrained whereas others are
consistently ill-determined, or even yield poorly consistent results, thereby
illustrating the importance of priors and data contributions.Comment: (1) Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge Unviersity,
UK (2) Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Roma "La Sapienza", Ital
Constraining Variations in the Fine Structure Constant in the presence of Early Dark Energy
We discuss present and future cosmological constraints on variations of the
fine structure constant induced by an early dark energy component
having the simplest allowed (linear) coupling to electromagnetism. We find that
current cosmological data show no variation of the fine structure constant at
recombination respect to the present-day value, with / =
0.975 \pm 0.020 at 95 % c.l., constraining the energy density in early dark
energy to < 0.060 at 95 % c.l.. Moreover, we consider constraints on
the parameter quantifying the strength of the coupling by the scalar field. We
find that current cosmological constraints on the coupling are about 20 times
weaker than those obtainable locally (which come from Equivalence Principle
tests). However forthcoming or future missions, such as Planck Surveyor and
CMBPol, can match and possibly even surpass the sensitivity of current local
tests.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
New Constraints on variations of the fine structure constant from CMB anisotropies
We demonstrate that recent measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background
temperature and polarization anisotropy made by the ACBAR, QUAD and BICEP
experiments substantially improve the cosmological constraints on possible
variations of the fine structure constant in the early universe. This data,
combined with the five year observations from the WMAP mission yield the
constraint alpha/alpha_0 = 0.987 \pm 0.012 at 68% c.l.. The inclusion of the
new HST constraints on the Hubble constant further increases the accuracy to
alpha/alpha_0 = 1.001 \pm 0.007 at 68% c.l., bringing possible deviations from
the current value below the 1% level and improving previous constraints by a
factor 3.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
An improved limit on the neutrino mass with CMB and redshift-dependent halo bias-mass relations from SDSS, DEEP2, and Lyman-Break Galaxies
We use measurements of luminosity-dependent galaxy bias at several different
redshifts, SDSS at , DEEP2 at and LBGs at , combined with
WMAP five-year cosmic microwave background anisotropy data and SDSS Red
Luminous Galaxy survey three-dimensional clustering power spectrum to put
constraints on cosmological parameters. Fitting this combined dataset, we show
that the luminosity-dependent bias data that probe the relation between halo
bias and halo mass and its redshift evolution are very sensitive to sum of the
neutrino masses: in particular we obtain the upper limit of eV at the 95% confidence level for a
model, with a equal to (1). When we
allow the dark energy equation of state parameter to vary we find
for a general model with the 95% confidence
level upper limit on the neutrino masses at eV. The
constraint on the dark energy equation of state further improves to
when using also ACBAR and supernovae Union data, in addition
to above, with a prior on the Hubble constant from the Hubble Space Telescope.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR
Future CMB Constraints on Early, Cold, or Stressed Dark Energy
We investigate future constraints on early dark energy (EDE) achievable by
the Planck and CMBPol experiments, including cosmic microwave background (CMB)
lensing. For the dark energy, we include the possibility of clustering through
a sound speed c_s^2 <1 (cold dark energy) and anisotropic stresses
parameterized with a viscosity parameter c_vis^2. We discuss the degeneracies
between cosmological parameters and EDE parameters. In particular we show that
the presence of anisotropic stresses in EDE models can substantially undermine
the determination of the EDE sound speed parameter c_s^2. The constraints on
EDE primordial energy density are however unaffected. We also calculate the
future CMB constraints on neutrino masses and find that they are weakened by a
factor of 2 when allowing for the presence of EDE, and highly biased if it is
incorrectly ignored.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figure
The Fine Structure Constant and the CMB Damping Scale
The recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies at
arcminute angular scales performed by the ACT and SPT experiments are probing
the damping regime of CMB fluctuations. The analysis of these datasets
unexpectedly suggests that the effective number of relativistic degrees of
freedom is larger than the standard value of Neff = 3.04, and inconsistent with
it at more than two standard deviations. In this paper we study the role of a
mechanism that could affect the shape of the CMB angular fluctuations at those
scales, namely a change in the recombination process through variations in the
fine structure constant. We show that the new CMB data significantly improve
the previous constraints on variations of {\alpha}, with {\alpha}/{\alpha}0 =
0.984 \pm 0.005, i.e. hinting also to a more than two standard deviation from
the current, local, value {\alpha}0. A significant degeneracy is present
between {\alpha} and Neff, and when variations in the latter are allowed the
constraints on {\alpha} are relaxed and again consistent with the standard
value. Deviations of either parameter from their standard values would imply
the presence of new, currently unknown physics.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Constraints on a New Post-General Relativity Cosmological Parameter
A new cosmological variable is introduced which characterizes the degree of
departure from Einstein's General Relativity (GR) with a cosmological constant.
The new parameter, \varpi, is the cosmological analog of \gamma, the
parametrized post-Newtonian variable which measures the amount of spacetime
curvature per unit mass. In the cosmological context, \varpi measures the
difference between the Newtonian and longitudinal potentials in response to the
same matter sources, as occurs in certain scalar-tensor theories of gravity.
Equivalently, \varpi measures the scalar shear fluctuation in a dark energy
component. In the context of a "vanilla" LCDM background cosmology, a non-zero
\varpi signals a departure from GR or a fluctuating cosmological constant.
Using a phenomenological model for the time evolution \varpi=\varpi_0
\rho_{DE}/\rho_{M} which depends on the ratio of energy density in the
cosmological constant to the matter density at each epoch, it is shown that the
observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies limit the
overall normalization constant to be -0.4 < \varpi_0 < 0.1 at the 95%
confidence level. Existing measurements of the cross-correlations of the CMB
with large-scale structure further limit \varpi_0 > -0.2 at the 95% CL. In the
future, integrated Sachs-Wolfe and weak lensing measurements can more tightly
constrain \varpi_0, providing a valuable clue to the nature of dark energy and
the validity of GR.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; added reference
Determining the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy with Cosmology
The combination of current large scale structure and cosmic microwave
background (CMB) anisotropies data can place strong constraints on the sum of
the neutrino masses. Here we show that future cosmic shear experiments, in
combination with CMB constraints, can provide the statistical accuracy required
to answer questions about differences in the mass of individual neutrino
species. Allowing for the possibility that masses are non-degenerate we combine
Fisher matrix forecasts for a weak lensing survey like Euclid with those for
the forthcoming Planck experiment. Under the assumption that neutrino mass
splitting is described by a normal hierarchy we find that the combination
Planck and Euclid will possibly reach enough sensitivity to put a constraint on
the mass of a single species. Using a Bayesian evidence calculation we find
that such future experiments could provide strong evidence for either a normal
or an inverted neutrino hierachy. Finally we show that if a particular neutrino
hierachy is assumed then this could bias cosmological parameter constraints,
for example the dark energy equation of state parameter, by > 1\sigma, and the
sum of masses by 2.3\sigma.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 3 table
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