595 research outputs found
A new cosmic microwave background constraint to primordial gravitational waves
Primordial gravitational waves (GWs) with frequencies > 10^{-15} Hz
contribute to the radiation density of the Universe at the time of decoupling
of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The effects of this GW background on
the CMB and matter power spectra are identical to those due to massless
neutrinos, unless the initial density-perturbation amplitude for the
gravitational-wave gas is non-adiabatic, as may occur if such GWs are produced
during inflation or some post-inflation phase transition. In either case,
current observations provide a constraint to the GW amplitude that competes
with that from big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), although it extends to much
lower frequencies (~10^{-15} Hz rather than the ~10^{-10} Hz lower limit from
BBN): at 95% confidence-level, Omega_gw h^2 < 6.9 x 10^{-6} for homogeneous
(i.e., non-adiabatic) initial conditions. Future CMB experiments, like Planck
and CMBPol, should allow sensitivities to Omega_gw h^2 < 1.4 x 10^{-6} and
Omega_gw h^2 < 5 x 10^{-7}, respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Galactic Substructure and Dark Matter Annihilation in the Milky Way Halo
We study the effects of substructure on the rate of dark-matter annihilation
in the Galactic halo. We use an analytic model for substructure that can extend
numerical simulation results to scales too small to be resolved by the
simulations. We first calibrate the analytic model to numerical simulations,
and then determine the annihilation boost factor, for standard WIMP models as
well as those with Sommerfeld (or other) enhancements, as a function of
Galactocentric radius in the Milky Way. We provide an estimate of the
dependence of the gamma-ray intensity of WIMP annihilation as a function of
angular distance from the Galactic center. This methodology, coupled with
future numerical simulation results can be a powerful tool that can be used to
constrain WIMP properties using Fermi all-sky data.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D; added a few
reference
Galactic Substructure and Energetic Neutrinos from the Sun and the Earth
We consider the effects of Galactic substructure on energetic neutrinos from
annihilation of weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that have been
captured by the Sun and Earth. Substructure gives rise to a time-varying
capture rate and thus to time variation in the annihilation rate and resulting
energetic-neutrino flux. However, there may be a time lag between the capture
and annihilation rates. The energetic-neutrino flux may then be determined by
the density of dark matter in the Solar System's past trajectory, rather than
the local density. The signature of such an effect may be sought in the ratio
of the direct- to indirect-detection rates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Replaced with version accepted for publicatio
The Contribution of the First Stars to the Cosmic Infrared Background
We calculate the contribution to the cosmic infrared background from very
massive metal-free stars at high redshift. We explore two plausible
star-formation models and two limiting cases for the reprocessing of the
ionizing stellar emission. We find that Population III stars may contribute
significantly to the cosmic near-infrared background if the following
conditions are met: (i) The first stars were massive, with M > ~100 M_sun. (ii)
Molecular hydrogen can cool baryons in low-mass haloes. (iii) Pop III star
formation is ongoing, and not shut off through negative feedback effects. (iv)
Virialized haloes form stars at about 40 per cent efficiency up to the redshift
of reionization, z~7. (v) The escape fraction of the ionizing radiation into
the intergalactic medium is small. (vi) Nearly all of the stars end up in
massive black holes without contributing to the metal enrichment of the
Universe.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, expanded discussion, added mid-IR to Fig 6,
MNRAS in pres
Pure pseudo-C_l estimators for CMB B-modes
Fast heuristically weighted, or pseudo-C_l, estimators are a frequently used
method for estimating power spectra in CMB surveys with large numbers of
pixels. Recently, Challinor & Chon showed that the E-B mixing in these
estimators can become a dominant contaminant at low noise levels, ultimately
limiting the gravity wave signal which can be detected on a finite patch of
sky. We define a modified version of the estimators which eliminates E-B mixing
and is near-optimal at all noise levels.Comment: 9 pages and 3 figures; Proceedings of the Fundamental Physics With
CMB workshop, UC Irvine, March 23-25, 2006, to be published in New Astronomy
Review
Geometry and Statistics of Cosmic Microwave Polarization
Geometrical and statistical properties of polarization of CMB are analyzed.
Singular points of the vector field which describes CMB polarization are found
and classified. Statistical distribution of the singularities is studied. A
possible signature of tensor perturbations in CMB polarization is discussed.
For a further analysis of CMB statistics Minkowski functionals are used, which
present a technically simple method to search for deviations from a Gaussian
distribution.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, submitted in Int.J.Mod.Phys.
First CMB Constraints on Direction-Dependent Cosmological Birefringence from WMAP-7
A Chern-Simons coupling of a new scalar field to electromagnetism may give
rise to cosmological birefringence, a rotation of the linear polarization of
electromagnetic waves as they propagate over cosmological distances. Prior work
has sought this rotation, assuming the rotation angle to be uniform across the
sky, by looking for the parity-violating TB and EB correlations a uniform
rotation produces in the CMB temperature/polarization. However, if the scalar
field that gives rise to cosmological birefringence has spatial fluctuations,
then the rotation angle may vary across the sky. Here we search for
direction-dependent cosmological birefringence in the WMAP-7 data. We report
the first CMB constraint on the rotation-angle power spectrum for multipoles
between L = 0 and L = 512. We also obtain a 68% confidence-level upper limit of
1 degree on the square root of the quadrupole of a scale-invariant
rotation-angle power spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables; accepted to PR
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