216 research outputs found
Magnetic fields and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in galaxy clusters
In this work we study the contribution of magnetic fields to the Sunyaev
Zeldovich (SZ) effect in the intracluster medium. In particular we calculate
the SZ angular power spectrum and the central temperature decrement. The effect
of magnetic fields is included in the hydrostatic equilibrium equation by
splitting the Lorentz force into two terms one being the force due to magnetic
pressure which acts outwards and the other being magnetic tension which acts
inwards. A perturbative approach is adopted to solve for the gas density
profile for weak magnetic fields (< 4 micro G}). This leads to an enhancement
of the gas density in the central regions for nearly radial magnetic field
configurations. Previous works had considered the force due to magnetic
pressure alone which is the case only for a special set of field
configurations. However, we see that there exists possible sets of
configurations of ICM magnetic fields where the force due to magnetic tension
will dominate. Subsequently, this effect is extrapolated for typical field
strengths (~ 10 micro G) and scaling arguments are used to estimate the angular
power due to secondary anisotropies at cluster scales. In particular we find
that it is possible to explain the excess power reported by CMB experiments
like CBI, BIMA, ACBAR at l > 2000 with sigma_8 ~ 0.8 (WMAP 5 year data) for
typical cluster magnetic fields. In addition we also see that the magnetic
field effect on the SZ temperature decrement is more pronounced for low mass
clusters ( ~ 2 keV). Future SZ detections of low mass clusters at few arc
second resolution will be able to probe this effect more precisely. Thus, it
will be instructive to explore the implications of this model in greater detail
in future works.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure
Large Scale Pressure Fluctuations and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect associated with pressure fluctuations of
the large scale structure gas distribution will be probed with current and
upcoming wide-field small angular scale cosmic microwave background
experiments. We study the generation of pressure fluctuations by baryons which
are present in virialized dark matter halos and by baryons present in small
overdensities. For collapsed halos, assuming the gas distribution is in
hydrostatic equilibrium with matter density distribution, we predict the
pressure power spectrum and bispectrum associated with the large scale
structure gas distribution by extending the dark matter halo approach which
describes the density field in terms of correlations between and within halos.
The projected pressure power spectrum allows a determination of the resulting
SZ power spectrum due to virialized structures. The unshocked photoionized
baryons present in smaller overdensities trace the Jeans-scale smoothed dark
matter distribution. They provide a lower limit to the SZ effect due to large
scale structure in the absence of massive collapsed halos. We extend our
calculations to discuss higher order statistics, such as bispectrum and
skewness in SZ data. The SZ-weak lensing cross-correlation is suggested as a
probe of correlations between dark matter and baryon density fields, while the
probability distribution functions of peak statistics of SZ halos in wide field
CMB data can be used as a probe of cosmology and non-Gaussian evolution of
large scale structure pressure fluctuations.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures; Revised with expanded discussions. Phys. Rev. D.
(in press
Redshifting Rings of Power
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) has provided a precise template for
features in the linear power spectrum: the matter-radiation turnover, sound
horizon drop, and acoustic oscillations. In a two dimensional power spectrum in
redshift and angular space, the features appear as distorted rings, and yield
simultaneous, purely geometric, measures of the Hubble parameter H(z) and
angular diameter distance D_A(z) via an absolute version of the
Alcock-Paczynski test. Employing a simple Fisher matrix tool, we explore how
future surveys can exploit these rings of power for dark energy studies. High-z
CMB determinations of H and D_A are best complemented at moderate to low
redshift (z < 0.5) with a population of objects that are at least as abundant
as clusters of galaxies. We find that a sample similar to that of the ongoing
SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) survey can achieve statistical errors at the ~5%
level for D_A(z) and H(z) in several redshift bins. This, in turn, implies
errors of sigma(w)=0.03-0.05 for a constant dark energy equation of state in a
flat universe. Deep galaxy cluster surveys such as the planned South Pole
Telescope (SPT) survey, can extend this test out to z~1 or as far as redshift
followup is available. We find that the expected constraints are at the
sigma(w)=0.04-0.08 level, comparable to galaxies and complementary in redshift
coverage.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures submitted to PR
Probing Primordial Non-Gaussianity with Large-Scale Structure
We consider primordial non-Gaussianity due to quadratic corrections in the
gravitational potential parametrized by a non-linear coupling parameter fnl. We
study constraints on fnl from measurements of the galaxy bispectrum in redshift
surveys. Using estimates for idealized survey geometries of the 2dF and SDSS
surveys and realistic ones from SDSS mock catalogs, we show that it is possible
to probe |fnl|~100, after marginalization over bias parameters. We apply our
methods to the galaxy bispectrum measured from the PSCz survey, and obtain a
2sigma-constraint |fnl|< 1800. We estimate that an all sky redshift survey up
to z~1 can probe |fnl|~1. We also consider the use of cluster abundance to
constrain fnl and find that in order to be sensitive to |fnl|~100, cluster
masses need to be determined with an accuracy of a few percent, assuming
perfect knowledge of the mass function and cosmological parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Constraining the dark energy with galaxy clusters X-ray data
The equation of state characterizing the dark energy component is constrained
by combining Chandra observations of the X-ray luminosity of galaxy clusters
with independent measurements of the baryonic matter density and the latest
measurements of the Hubble parameter as given by the HST key project. By
assuming a spatially flat scenario driven by a "quintessence" component with an
equation of state we place the following limits on the
cosmological parameters and : (i) and (1) if the
equation of state of the dark energy is restricted to the interval (\emph{usual} quintessence) and (ii) and
() if violates the null energy condition and assume values (\emph{extended} quintessence or ``phantom'' energy). These results are in
good agreement with independent studies based on supernovae observations,
large-scale structure and the anisotropies of the cosmic background radiation.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTe
DT/T beyond linear theory
The major contribution to the anisotropy of the temperature of the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is believed to come from the interaction
of linear density perturbations with the radiation previous to the decoupling
time. Assuming a standard thermal history for the gas after recombination, only
the gravitational field produced by the linear density perturbations present on
a universe can generate anisotropies at low z (these
anisotropies would manifest on large angular scales). However, secondary
anisotropies are inevitably produced during the nonlinear evolution of matter
at late times even in a universe with a standard thermal history. Two effects
associated to this nonlinear phase can give rise to new anisotropies: the
time-varying gravitational potential of nonlinear structures (Rees-Sciama RS
effect) and the inverse Compton scattering of the microwave photons with hot
electrons in clusters of galaxies (Sunyaev-Zeldovich SZ effect). These two
effects can produce distinct imprints on the CMB temperature anisotropy. We
discuss the amplitude of the anisotropies expected and the relevant angular
scales in different cosmological scenarios. Future sensitive experiments will
be able to probe the CMB anisotropies beyong the first order primary
contribution.Comment: plain tex, 16 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Laredo Advance
School on Astrophysics "The universe at high-z, large-scale structure and the
cosmic microwave background". To be publised by Springer-Verla
Status of CMB Polarization Measurements from DASI and Other Experiments
We review the current status and future plans for polarization measurements
of the cosmic microwave background radiation, as well as the cosmology these
measurements will address. After a long period of increasingly sensitive upper
limits, the DASI experiment has detected the E-mode polarization and both the
DASI and WMAP experiments have detected the TE correlation. These detections
provide confirmation of the standard model of adiabatic primordial density
fluctuations consistent with inflationary models. The WMAP TE correlation on
large angular scales provides direct evidence of significant reionization at
higher redshifts than had previously been supposed. These detections mark the
beginning of a new era in CMB measurements and the rich cosmology that can be
gleaned from them.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures; To be published in the proceedings of "The
Cosmic Microwave Background and its Polarization", New Astronomy Reviews,
(eds. S. Hanany and K.A. Olive
Inflation Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure
Fluctuations in the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe each contain clues about the nature of the earliest moments of time. The next generation of CMB and large-scale structure (LSS) experiments are poised to test the leading paradigm for these earliest moments---the theory of cosmic inflation---and to detect the imprints of the inflationary epoch, thereby dramatically increasing our understanding of fundamental physics and the early universe. A future CMB experiment with sufficient angular resolution and frequency coverage that surveys at least 1 of the sky to a depth of 1 uK-arcmin can deliver a constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio that will either result in a 5-sigma measurement of the energy scale of inflation or rule out all large-field inflation models, even in the presence of foregrounds and the gravitational lensing B-mode signal. LSS experiments, particularly spectroscopic surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, will complement the CMB effort by improving current constraints on running of the spectral index by up to a factor of four, improving constraints on curvature by a factor of ten, and providing non-Gaussianity constraints that are competitive with the current CMB bounds
Local Scale-Dependent Non-Gaussian Curvature Perturbations at Cubic Order
We calculate non-Gaussianities in the bispectrum and trispectrum arising from
the cubic term in the local expansion of the scalar curvature perturbation. We
compute to three-loop order and for general momenta. A procedure for evaluating
the leading behavior of the resulting loop-integrals is developed and
discussed. Finally, we survey unique non-linear signals which could arise from
the cubic term in the squeezed limit. In particular, it is shown that loop
corrections can cause to change sign as the momentum scale is
varied. There also exists a momentum limit where can be
realized.Comment: Published in JCA
New constraints on H_0 and Omega_M from SZE/X-RAY data and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
The Hubble constant, , sets the scale of the size and age of the
Universe and its determination from independent methods is still worthwhile to
be investigated. In this article, by using the Sunyaev-Zel`dovich effect and
X-ray surface brightness data from 38 galaxy clusters observed by Bonamente
{\it{et al.}} (2006), we obtain a new estimate of in the context of a
flat CDM model. There is a degeneracy on the mass density parameter
() which is broken by applying a joint analysis involving the
baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) as given by Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).
This happens because the BAO signature does not depend on . Our basic
finding is that a joint analysis involving these tests yield km s Mpc and
. Since the hypothesis of spherical geometry
assumed by Bonamente {\it {et al.}} is questionable, we have also compared the
above results to a recent work where a sample of triaxial galaxy clusters has
been considered.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted version in the general
relativity and gravitatio
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