SCoPE: An efficient method of Cosmological Parameter Estimation

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler is widely used for cosmological parameter estimation from CMB and other data. However, due to the intrinsic serial nature of the MCMC sampler, convergence is often very slow. Here we present a fast and independently written Monte Carlo method for cosmological parameter estimation named as Slick Cosmological Parameter Estimator (SCoPE), that employs delayed rejection to increase the acceptance rate of a chain, and pre-fetching that helps an individual chain to run on parallel CPUs. An inter-chain covariance update is also incorporated to prevent clustering of the chains allowing faster and better mixing of the chains. We use an adaptive method for covariance calculation to calculate and update the covariance automatically as the chains progress. Our analysis shows that the acceptance probability of each step in SCoPE is more than $95\%$ and the convergence of the chains are faster. Using SCoPE, we carry out some cosmological parameter estimations with different cosmological models using WMAP-9 and Planck results. One of the current research interests in cosmology is quantifying the nature of dark energy. We analyze the cosmological parameters from two illustrative commonly used parameterisations of dark energy models. We also asses primordial helium fraction in the universe can be constrained by the present CMB data from WMAP-9 and Planck. The results from our MCMC analysis on the one hand helps us to understand the workability of the SCoPE better, on the other hand it provides a completely independent estimation of cosmological parameters from WMAP-9 and Planck data.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Suppressing CMB low multipoles with ISW effect

Recent results of Planck data reveal that the power in the low multipoles of the CMB angular power spectrum, approximately up to $l=30$, is significantly lower than the theoretically predicted in the best fit $\Lambda$CDM model. In this paper we investigate the possibility of invoking the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect to explain this power deficit at low multipoles. The ISW effect that originates from the late time expansion history of the universe is rich in possibilities given the limited understanding of the origin of dark energy (DE). It is a common understanding that the ISW effect adds to the power at the low multipoles of the CMB angular power spectrum. In this paper we carry out an analytic study to show that there are some expansion histories in which the ISW effect, instead of adding power, provides negative contribution to the power at low multipoles. Guided by the analytic study, we present examples of the features required in the late time expansion history of the universe that could explain the power deficiency through the ISW effect. We also show that an ISW origin of power deficiency is consistent, at present, with other cosmological observations that probe the expansion history such as distance modulus, matter power spectrum and the evolution of cluster number count. We also show that the ISW effect may be distinguished from power deficit originating from features in the PPS using the measurements of the CMB polarization spectrum at low multipoles expected from Planck. We conclude that the power at low multipoles of the CMB anisotropy could well be closely linked to Dark Energy puzzle in cosmology and this observation could be actually pointing to richer phenomenology of DE beyond the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. (abbreviated)Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Revised cosmological parameters after BICEP 2 and BOSS

Estimation of parameters of the \lq standard\rq \,model of cosmology have dramatically improved over past few decades due to increasingly exquisite measurements made by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments. Recent data from Planck matches well with the minimal $\Lambda$CDM model. A likelihood analysis using Planck, WMAP and a selection of high resolution experiments (highL), tensor to scalar ratio $r_{0.002}$ is found to be $<0.11$ when $dn_{s}/d\ln k = 0$. Planck also imposes an upper bound on neutrino mass $\sum m_\nu<0.23\,$eV using Planck+WMAP+highL+BAO likelihood. However, recently results from BICEP 2 claims the detection of $r= 0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ from polarization spectra. Further, results from SDSS-III BOSS large scale galaxy survey constrains the total neutrino mass to $\sum m_\nu=0.36 \pm 0.10$ eV. It is important to study the consequences of these new measurements on other cosmological parameters. In this paper we assess the revised constraints on cosmological parameters in light of these two measurements that are in some tension with the constraints from Planck. Using the prior on $\sum m_\nu$ as measured by SDSS-III BOSS and BICEP 2 likelihood, we find that the model with running spectral index ($dn_{s}/d\ln k \neq 0$) leads to a value of $A_L>1$ at $3.1 \sigma$. But, the model with $dn_{s}/d\ln k =0$ makes $A_L$ consistent with $1$, at $2.1\sigma$ and also shows that $N_{\rm eff}$ is consistent with its theoretical value of $3.046$ at around $2\sigma$. Therefore, the analysis in this paper shows that the model with $dn_{s}/d\ln k =0$ gives consistency with other cosmological parameters ($N_{\rm eff}$ and $A_L$ ) when the current limits on $\sum m_\nu$ and $r_{0.05}$ are considered. However, on reducing the value of $r_{0.05}$, the model with non-zero $dn_{s}/d\ln k$ gives consistent result of $A_L =1$ [abridged].Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Matches the published versio

ISW effect as probe of features in the expansion history of the Universe

In this paper, using and implementing a new line of sight CMB code, called CMBAns [1], that allows us to modify H(z) for any given feature at any redshift we study the effect of changes in the expansion history of the Universe on the CMB power spectrum. Motivated by the detailed analytical calculations of the effects of the changes in H(z) on ISW plateau and CMB low multipoles, we study two phenomenological parametric form of the expansion history using WMAP data and through MCMC analysis. Our MCMC analysis shows that the standard LCDM cosmological model is consistent with the CMB data allowing the expansion history of the Universe vary around this model at different redshifts. However, our analysis also shows that a decaying dark energy model proposed in [2] has in fact a marginally better fit than the standard cosmological constant model to CMB data. Concordance of our studies here with the previous analysis showing that Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and supernovae data (SN Ia) also prefer mildly this decaying dark energy model to LCDM, makes this finding interesting and worth further investigation.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, discussions extended, references added, results unchanged, matches final version published in JCA

The Status and Impact of Technostress on Library Professionals: A Study among the Professionals of the Selected Private College Libraries in North Bengal

The article sought to examine the causes, symptoms and reducing strategies of technostress among the library professionals of the selected Private College Libraries in North Bengal. The descriptive survey method was employed using the questionnaire to collect data from the 52 respondents in ten higher education institutions in the northern region of West Bengal. The gathered data were analyzed by using the Likert scale and mean value calculation. The findings of the investigation show that library professionals experience technostress to a great extent. It was identified that the major cause of technostress was information overload. Different reducing strategies of technostress also revealed through this study