278 research outputs found

    Formation and Evaporation of a Naked Singularity in 2D Gravity

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    We describe a classical configuration of conformal matter forming a naked singularity and discuss its subsequent Hawking evaporation within the context of two dimensional dilaton gravity. The one loop analysis is credible for a large mass naked singularity and suggests the existence of a weak cosmological censorship that would cause it to explode into radiation upon forming. (Hardcopies of figures available on request)Comment: 10 pages, PHYZZX, preprint UATP-93/0

    Precision Epoch of Reionization studies with next-generation CMB experiments

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    Future arcminute resolution polarization data from ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations can be used to estimate the contribution to the temperature power spectrum from the primary anisotropies and to uncover the signature of reionization near =1500\ell=1500 in the small angular-scale temperature measurements. Our projections are based on combining expected small-scale E-mode polarization measurements from Advanced ACTPol in the range 300<<3000300<\ell<3000 with simulated temperature data from the full Planck mission in the low and intermediate \ell region, 2<<20002<\ell<2000. We show that the six basic cosmological parameters determined from this combination of data will predict the underlying primordial temperature spectrum at high multipoles to better than 1%1\% accuracy. Assuming an efficient cleaning from multi-frequency channels of most foregrounds in the temperature data, we investigate the sensitivity to the only residual secondary component, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) term. The CMB polarization is used to break degeneracies between primordial and secondary terms present in temperature and, in effect, to remove from the temperature data all but the residual kSZ term. We estimate a 15σ15 \sigma detection of the diffuse homogeneous kSZ signal from expected AdvACT temperature data at >1500\ell>1500, leading to a measurement of the amplitude of matter density fluctuations, σ8\sigma_8, at 1%1\% precision. Alternatively, by exploring the reionization signal encoded in the patchy kSZ measurements, we bound the time and duration of the reionization with σ(zre)=1.1\sigma(z_{\rm re})=1.1 and σ(Δzre)=0.2\sigma(\Delta z_{\rm re})=0.2. We find that these constraints degrade rapidly with large beam sizes, which highlights the importance of arcminute-scale resolution for future CMB surveys.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

    Survey strategy optimization for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

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    In recent years there have been significant improvements in the sensitivity and the angular resolution of the instruments dedicated to the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). ACTPol is the first polarization receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and is observing the CMB sky with arcmin resolution over about 2000 sq. deg. Its upgrade, Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT), will observe the CMB in five frequency bands and over a larger area of the sky. We describe the optimization and implementation of the ACTPol and AdvACT surveys. The selection of the observed fields is driven mainly by the science goals, that is, small angular scale CMB measurements, B-mode measurements and cross-correlation studies. For the ACTPol survey we have observed patches of the southern galactic sky with low galactic foreground emissions which were also chosen to maximize the overlap with several galaxy surveys to allow unique cross-correlation studies. A wider field in the northern galactic cap ensured significant additional overlap with the BOSS spectroscopic survey. The exact shapes and footprints of the fields were optimized to achieve uniform coverage and to obtain cross-linked maps by observing the fields with different scan directions. We have maximized the efficiency of the survey by implementing a close to 24 hour observing strategy, switching between daytime and nighttime observing plans and minimizing the telescope idle time. We describe the challenges represented by the survey optimization for the significantly wider area observed by AdvACT, which will observe roughly half of the low-foreground sky. The survey strategies described here may prove useful for planning future ground-based CMB surveys, such as the Simons Observatory and CMB Stage IV surveys.Comment: 14 Pages, 9 Figures, 4 Table

    Breakdown of the semiclassical approximation at the black hole horizon

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    The definition of matter states on spacelike hypersurfaces of a 1+1 dimensional black hole spacetime is considered. The effect of small quantum fluctuations of the mass of the black hole due to the quantum nature of the infalling matter is taken into account. It is then shown that the usual approximation of treating the gravitational field as a classical background on which matter is quantized, breaks down near the black hole horizon. Specifically, on any hypersurface that captures both infalling matter near the horizon and Hawking radiation, quantum fluctuations in the background geometry become important, and a semiclassical calculation is inconsistent. An estimate of the size of correlations between the matter and gravity states shows that they are so strong that a fluctuation in the black hole mass of order exp[-M/M_{Planck}] produces a macroscopic change in the matter state.Comment: Latex, 31 pages + 5 uuencoded figure

    Detection of the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect with BOSS DR11 and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

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    We present a new measurement of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Using 600 square degrees of overlapping sky area, we evaluate the mean pairwise baryon momentum associated with the positions of 50,000 bright galaxies in the BOSS DR11 Large Scale Structure catalog. A non-zero signal arises from the large-scale motions of halos containing the sample galaxies. The data fits an analytical signal model well, with the optical depth to microwave photon scattering as a free parameter determining the overall signal amplitude. We estimate the covariance matrix of the mean pairwise momentum as a function of galaxy separation, using microwave sky simulations, jackknife evaluation, and bootstrap estimates. The most conservative simulation-based errors give signal-to-noise estimates between 3.6 and 4.1 for varying galaxy luminosity cuts. We discuss how the other error determinations can lead to higher signal-to-noise values, and consider the impact of several possible systematic errors. Estimates of the optical depth from the average thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal at the sample galaxy positions are broadly consistent with those obtained from the mean pairwise momentum signal.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Spectra and Parameters

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    We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol). We analyze night-time data collected during 2013-14 using two detector arrays at 149 GHz, from 548 deg2^2 of sky on the celestial equator. We use these spectra, and the spectra measured with the MBAC camera on ACT from 2008-10, in combination with Planck and WMAP data to estimate cosmological parameters from the temperature, polarization, and temperature-polarization cross-correlations. We find the new ACTPol data to be consistent with the LCDM model. The ACTPol temperature-polarization cross-spectrum now provides stronger constraints on multiple parameters than the ACTPol temperature spectrum, including the baryon density, the acoustic peak angular scale, and the derived Hubble constant. Adding the new data to planck temperature data tightens the limits on damping tail parameters, for example reducing the joint uncertainty on the number of neutrino species and the primordial helium fraction by 20%.Comment: 23 pages, 25 figure

    Epithelial atypia in biopsies performed for microcalcifications. Practical considerations about 2,833 serially sectioned surgical biopsies with a long follow-up

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    This study analyzes the occurrence of epithelial atypia in 2,833 serially sectioned surgical breast biopsies (SB) performed for microcalcifications (median number of blocks per SB:26) and the occurrence of subsequent cancer after an initial diagnosis of epithelial atypia (median follow-up 160 months). Epithelial atypia (flat epithelial atypia, atypical ductal hyperplasia, and lobular neoplasia) were found in 971 SB, with and without a concomitant cancer in 301 (31%) and 670 (69%) SB, respectively. Thus, isolated epithelial atypia were found in 670 out of the 2,833 SB (23%). Concomitant cancers corresponded to ductal carcinomas in situ and micro-invasive (77%), invasive ductal carcinomas not otherwise specified (15%), invasive lobular carcinomas (4%), and tubular carcinomas (4%). Fifteen out of the 443 patients with isolated epithelial atypia developed a subsequent ipsilateral (n = 14) and contralateral (n = 1) invasive cancer. The high slide rating might explain the high percentages of epithelial atypia and concomitant cancers and the low percentage of subsequent cancer after a diagnosis of epithelial atypia as a single lesion. Epithelial atypia could be more a risk marker of concomitant than subsequent cancer

    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: measuring radio galaxy bias through cross-correlation with lensing

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    We correlate the positions of radio galaxies in the FIRST survey with the cosmic microwave background lensing convergence estimated from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope over 470 deg2 to determine the bias of these galaxies. We remove optically cross-matched sources below redshift z = 0.2 to preferentially select active galactic nuclei (AGN). We measure the angular cross-power spectrum Cκg l at 4.4σ significance in the multipole range 100 < l < 3000, corresponding to physical scales within ≈2–60 Mpc at an effective redshift zeff = 1.5. Modelling the AGN population with a redshift-dependent bias, the cross-spectrum is well fitted by the Planck best-fitting � cold dark matter cosmological model. Fixing the cosmology and assumed redshift distribution of sources, we fit for the overall bias model normalization, finding b(zeff) = 3.5 ± 0.8 for the full galaxy sample and b(zeff) = 4.0 ± 1.1(3.0 ± 1.1) for sources brighter (fainter) than 2.5 mJy. This measurement characterizes the typical halo mass of radio-loud AGN: we find log(Mhalo/ M) = 13.6+0.3 −0.4
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