2,276 research outputs found
High resolution spectroscopy of the three dimensional cosmic web with close QSO groups
We study the three-dimensional distribution of matter at z~2 using high
resolution spectra of QSO pairs and simulated spectra drawn from cosmological
hydro-dynamical simulations. We present a sample of 15 QSOs, corresponding to
21 baselines of angular separations evenly distributed between ~1 and 14
arcmin, observed with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) at
the European Southern Observatory-Very Large Telescope (ESO-VLT). The observed
correlation functions of the transmitted flux in the HI Lya forest transverse
to and along the line of sight are in agreement, implying that the distortions
in redshift space due to peculiar velocities are relatively small and - within
the relatively large error bars - not significant. The clustering signal is
significant up to velocity separations of ~300 km/s, corresponding to about 5
h^{-1} comoving Mpc. Compatibility at the 2 sigma level has been found both for
the Auto- and Cross-correlation functions and for the set of the Cross
correlation coefficients. The analysis focuses in particular on two QSO groups
of the sample. Searching for alignments in the redshift space between Lya
absorption lines belonging to different lines of sight, it has been possible to
discover the presence of a wide HI structures extending over about ten Mpc in
comoving space, and give constraints on the sizes of two cosmic under-dense
regions in the intergalactic medium.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, version matching the published on
Minimally Parametric Power Spectrum Reconstruction from the Lyman-alpha Forest
Current results from the Lyman alpha forest assume that the primordial power
spectrum of density perturbations follows a simple power law form, with
running. We present the first analysis of Lyman alpha data to study the effect
of relaxing this strong assumption on primordial and astrophysical constraints.
We perform a large suite of numerical simulations, using them to calibrate a
minimally parametric framework for describing the power spectrum. Combined with
cross-validation, a statistical technique which prevents over-fitting of the
data, this framework allows us to reconstruct the power spectrum shape without
strong prior assumptions. We find no evidence for deviation from
scale-invariance; our analysis also shows that current Lyman alpha data do not
have sufficient statistical power to robustly probe the shape of the power
spectrum at these scales. In contrast, the ongoing Baryon Oscillation Sky
Survey (BOSS) will be able to do so with high precision. Furthermore, this
near-future data will be able to break degeneracies between the power spectrum
shape and astrophysical parameters.Comment: 11 pages plus appendices, 8 figures. v2: matches version published in
MNRAS. Some clarifications to discussion and exposition, updated reference
Dark energy records in lensed cosmic microwave background
We consider the weak lensing effect induced by linear cosmological
perturbations on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization
anisotropies. We find that the amplitude of the lensing peak in the BB mode
power spectrum is a faithful tracer of the dark energy dynamics at the onset of
cosmic acceleration. This is due to two reasons. First, the lensing power is
non-zero only at intermediate redshifts between the observer and the source,
keeping record of the linear perturbation growth rate at the corresponding
epoch. Second, the BB lensing signal is expected to dominate over the other
sources. The lensing distortion on the TT and EE spectra do exhibit a similar
dependence on the dark energy dynamics, although those are dominated by primary
anisotropies. We investigate and quantify the effect by means of exact tracking
quintessence models, as well as parameterizing the dark energy equation of
state in terms of the present value () and its asymptotic value in the
past (); in the interval allowed by the present constraints on dark
energy, the variation of induces a significant change in the BB
mode lensing amplitude. A Fisher matrix analysis, under conservative
assumptions concerning the increase of the sample variance due to the lensing
non-Gaussian statistics, shows that a precision of order 10% on both
and is achievable by the future experiments probing a large sky
area with angular resolution and sensitivity appropriate to detect the lensing
effect on the CMB angular power spectrum. These results show that the CMB can
probe the differential redshift behavior of the dark energy equation of state,
beyond its average.Comment: New version including substantial text change, three more figures and
two more table
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Relativistic effects in Lyman-α forest
We present the calculation of the Lyman-alpha (Lyman-) transmitted
flux fluctuations with full relativistic corrections to the first order. Even
though several studies exist on relativistic effects in galaxy clustering, this
is the first study to extend the formalism to a different tracer of underlying
matter at unique redshift range (). Furthermore, we show a comprehensive
application of our calculations of the Quasar-Lyman- cross-correlation
function. Our results indicate that the signal of relativistic effects is
sizeable at Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale mainly due to the large
difference in density bias factors of our tracers. We construct an observable,
the anti-symmetric part of the cross-correlation function, that is dominated by
the relativistic signal and offers a new way to measure the relativistic terms
at relatively small scales. The analysis shows that relativistic effects are
important when considering cross-correlations between tracers with very
different biases, and should be included in the data analysis of the current
and future surveys. Moreover, the idea presented in this paper is highly
complementary to other techniques and observable trying to isolate the effect
of the relativistic corrections and thus test the validity of the theory of
gravity beyond the Newtonian regime
Probing 3-D matter distribution at z~2 with QSO multiple lines of sight
We investigate the 3-D matter distribution at z~2 with high resolution (R ~
40000) spectra of QSO pairs and groups obtained with the UVES spectrograph at
ESO VLT. Our sample is unique for the number density of objects and the variety
of separations, between 0.5 and 7 proper Mpc. We compute the real space
cross-correlation function of the Lyman-alpha forest transmitted fluxes. There
is a significant clustering signal up to ~2 proper Mpc, which is still present
when absorption lines with high column density (log N > 13.8) are excluded.Comment: Poster paper presented at the IAU Colloquium #199 on "Probing
Galaxies through Quasar Absorption Lines" held in Shanghai, China from March
14th to 18th, 200
Tomography of the intergalactic medium with Ly-alpha forests in close QSO pairs
We study the three-dimensional distribution of non virialised matter at z~2
using high resolution spectra of QSO pairs and simulated spectra drawn from
cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. We have collected the largest sample
of QSO pairs ever observed with UVES at the ESO-VLT, with angular separations
between ~1 and 14 arcmin. The observed correlation functions of the transmitted
flux in the HI Lyman alpha forest along and transverse to the lines of sight
are in good agreement implying that the distortions in redshift space due to
peculiar velocities are small. The clustering signal is significant up to
velocity separations of ~200 km/s, or about 3 h^{-1} comoving Mpc. The regions
at lower overdensity (rho/ < 6.5) are still clustered but on smaller
scales (Delta v < 100 km/s). The observed and simulated correlation functions
are compatible at the 3 sigma level. A better concordance is obtained when only
the low overdensity regions are selected for the analysis or when the effective
optical depth of the simulated spectra is increased artificially, suggesting a
deficiency of strong lines in the simulated spectra. We found that also a lower
value of the power-law index of the temperature-density relation for the Lyman
alpha forest gas improves the agreement between observed and simulated results.
If confirmed, this would be consistent with other observations favouring a late
HeII reionization epoch (at z~3). We remark the detection of a significant
clustering signal in the cross correlation coefficient at a transverse velocity
separation Delta v_{\perp} ~500 km/s whose origin needs further investigation.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, revised version matching the
accepted on
The impact of feedback on the low-redshift intergalactic medium
We analyse the evolution of the properties of the low-redshift Intergalactic Medium (IGM) using high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations that include a detailed chemical evolution model. We focus on the effects that two different forms of energy feedback, strong galactic winds driven by supernova explosion and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) powered by gas accretion onto super-massive black holes (BHs), have on the thermo- and chemo-dynamical properties of of the low redshift IGM. We find that feedback associated to winds (W) and BHs leave distinct signatures in both the chemical and thermal history of the baryons, especially at redshift z<3 [..] We present results for the enrichment in terms of mass and metallicity distributions for the WHIM phase, both as a function of density and temperature. Finally, we compute the evolution of the relative abundances between different heavy elements, namely Oxygen, Carbon and Iron. While both C/O and O/Fe evolve differently at high redshifts for different feedback models, their values are similar at z=0 [..]. The sensitivity of WHIM properties on the implemented feedback scheme could be important both for discriminating between different feedback physics and for detecting the WHIM with future far-UV and X-ray telescopes
Braneworld inflation from an effective field theory after WMAP three-year data
In light of the results from the WMAP three-year sky survey, we study an
inflationary model based on a single-field polynomial potential, with up to
quartic terms in the inflaton field. Our analysis is performed in the context
of the Randall-Sundrum II braneworld theory, and we consider both the
high-energy and low-energy (i.e. the standard cosmology case) limits of the
theory. We examine the parameter space of the model, which leads to both
large-field and small-field inflationary type solutions. We conclude that small
field inflation, for a potential with a negative mass square term, is in
general favored by current bounds on the tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio
rs.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; references updated and a few comments added;
final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
The sizes of mini-voids in the local universe: an argument in favor of a warm dark matter model?
Using high-resolution simulations within the Cold and Warm Dark Matter models
we study the evolution of small scale structure in the Local Volume, a sphere
of 8 Mpc radius around the Local Group. We compare the observed spectrum of
mini-voids in the Local Volume with the spectrum of mini-voids determined from
the simulations. We show that the \LWDM model can easily explain both the
observed spectrum of mini-voids and the presence of low-mass galaxies observed
in the Local Volume, provided that all haloes with circular velocities greater
than 20 km/s host galaxies. On the contrary within the LCDM model the
distribution of the simulated mini-voids reflects the observed one if haloes
with maximal circular velocities larger than 35 km/s host galaxies. This
assumption is in contradiction with observations of galaxies with circular
velocities as low as 20 km/s in our Local Universe. A potential problem of the
LWDM model could be the late formation of the haloes in which the gas can be
efficiently photo-evaporated. Thus star formation is suppressed and low-mass
haloes might not host any galaxy at all.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, version 2, subsection 3.1 added, accepted to
MNRA
The effect of Warm Dark Matter on galaxy properties: constraints from the stellar mass function and the Tully-Fisher relation
In this paper we combine high resolution N-body simulations with a semi
analytical model of galaxy formation to study the effects of a possible Warm
Dark Matter (WDM) component on the observable properties of galaxies. We
compare three WDM models with a dark matter mass of 0.5, 0.75 and 2.0 keV, with
the standard Cold Dark Matter case. For a fixed set of parameters describing
the baryonic physics the WDM models predict less galaxies at low (stellar)
masses, as expected due to the suppression of power on small scales, while no
substantial difference is found at the high mass end. However these differences
in the stellar mass function, vanish when different set of parameters are used
to describe the (largely unknown) galaxy formation processes. We show that is
possible to break this degeneracy between DM properties and the
parameterization of baryonic physics by combining observations on the stellar
mass function with the Tully-Fisher relation (the relation between stellar mass
and the rotation velocity at large galactic radii as probed by resolved HI
rotation curves). WDM models with a too warm candidate (m<0.75 keV) cannot
simultaneously reproduce the stellar mass function and the Tully-Fisher
relation. We conclude that accurate measurements of the galaxy stellar mass
function and the link between galaxies and dark matter haloes down to the very
low-mass end can give very tight constraints on the nature of DM candidates.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, minor changes, accepted for publication on Ap
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