No Arabic abstract
The Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect is a large-angle modulation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), generated when CMB photons traverse evolving potential wells associated with large scale structure (LSS). Recent efforts have been made to reconstruct maps of the ISW signal using information from surveys of galaxies and other LSS tracers, but investigation into how survey systematics affect their reliability has so far been limited. Using simulated ISW and LSS maps, we study the impact of galaxy survey properties and systematic errors on the accuracy of reconstructed ISW signal. We find that systematics that affect the observed distribution of galaxies along the line of sight, such as photo-z and bias-evolution related errors, have a relatively minor impact on reconstruction quality. In contrast, however, we find that direction-dependent calibration errors can be very harmful. Specifically, we find that in order to avoid significant degradation of our reconstruction quality statistics, direction-dependent number density fluctuations due to systematics must be controlled so that their variance is smaller than $10^{-6}$ (which corresponds to a 0.1% calibration). Additionally, we explore the implications of our results for attempts to use reconstructed ISW maps to shed light on the origin of large-angle CMB alignments. We find that there is only a weak correlation between the true and reconstructed angular momentum dispersion, which quantifies alignment, even for reconstructed ISW maps which are fairly accurate overall.
Galaxy redshift surveys are one of the pillars of the current standard cosmological model and remain a key tool in the experimental effort to understand the origin of cosmic acceleration. To this end, the next generation of surveys aim at achieving sub-percent precision in the measurement of the equation of state of dark energy $w(z)$ and the growth rate of structure $f(z)$. This however requires comparable control over systematic errors, stressing the need for improved modelling methods. In this contribution we review at the introductory level some highlights of the work done in this direction by the {it Darklight} project. Supported by an ERC Advanced Grant, {it Darklight} developed novel techniques for clustering analysis, which were tested through numerical simulations before being finally applied to galaxy data as in particular those of the recently completed VIPERS redshift survey. We focus in particular on: (a) advances on estimating the growth rate of structure from redshift-space distortions; (b) parameter estimation through global Bayesian reconstruction of the density field from survey data; (c) impact of massive neutrinos on large-scale structure measurements. Overall, {it Darklight} has contributed to paving the way for forthcoming high-precision experiments, such as {it Euclid}, the next ESA cosmological mission.
We test the mutual consistency between the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the eBOSS SDSS final release, as well as the Pantheon supernova compilation in a model independent fashion using Gaussian process regression. We also test their joint consistency with the $Lambda$CDM model, also in a model independent fashion. We also use Gaussian process regression to reconstruct the expansion history that is preferred by these two datasets. While this methodology finds no significant preference for model flexibility beyond $Lambda$CDM, we are able to generate a number of reconstructed expansion histories that fit the data better than the best-fit $Lambda$CDM model. These example expansion histories may point the way towards modifications to $Lambda$CDM. We also constrain the parameters $Omega_k$ and $H_0r_d$ both with $Lambda$CDM and with Gaussian process regression. We find that $H_0r_d =10030 pm 130$ km/s and $Omega_k = 0.05 pm 0.10$ for $Lambda$CDM and that $H_0r_d = 10040 pm 140$ km/s and $Omega_k = 0.02 pm 0.20$ for the Gaussian process case.
It is well known that Thomson scattering of CMB photons in galaxy clusters introduces new anisotropies in the CMB radiation field, but however little attention is payed to the fraction of CMB photons that are scattered off the line of sight, causing a slight blurring of the CMB anisotropies present at the moment of scattering. In this work we study this {it blurring} effect, and find that it has a non-negligible impact on estimations of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect: it induces a 10% correction in 20-40% of the clusters/groups, and a 100% correction in $sim 5$% of the clusters in an ideal (noiseless) experiment. We explore the possibility of using this blurring term to probe the CMB anisotropy field at different epochs in our Universe. In particular, we study the required precision in the removal of the kSZ that enables detecting the blurring term $-tau_T delta T / T_0$ in galaxy cluster populations placed at different redshift shells. By mapping this term in those shells, we would provide a tomographic probe for the growth of the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect (ISW) during the late evolutionary stages of the Universe. We find that the required precision of the cluster peculiar velocity removal is of the order of 100 -- 200 km s$^{-1}$ in the redshift range 0.2 -- 0.8, after assuming that all clusters more massive than 10$^{14}$ h$^{-1}$ M$_{odot}$ are observable. These errors are comparable to the total expected linear line of sight velocity dispersion for clusters in WMAPV cosmogony, and correspond to a residual level of roughly 900 -- 1800 $tau_T mu$K per cluster, including all types of contaminants and systematics. Were this precision requirement achieved, then independent constraints on the intrinsic cosmological dipole would be simultaneously provided.
Subhalos at subgalactic scales ($Mlesssim 10^7 M_odot$ or $kgtrsim 10^3 ,{rm Mpc}^{-1}$) are pristine test beds of dark matter (DM). However, they are too small, diffuse and dark to be visible, in any existing observations. In this paper, we develop a complete formalism for weak and strong diffractive lensing, which can be used to probe such subhalos with chirping gravitational waves (GWs). Also, we show that Navarro-Frenk-White(NFW) subhalos in this mass range can indeed be detected individually, albeit at a rate of ${cal O}(10)$ or less per year at BBO and others limited by small merger rates and large required SNR $gtrsim 1/gamma(r_0) sim 10^3$. It becomes possible as NFW scale radii $r_0$ are of the right size comparable to the GW Fresnel length $r_F$, and unlike all existing probes, their lensing is more sensitive to lighter subhalos. Remarkably, our formalism further reveals that the frequency dependence of weak lensing (which is actually the detectable effect) is due to shear $gamma$ at $r_F$. Not only is it consistent with an approximate scaling invariance, but it also offers a new way to measure the mass profile at a successively smaller scale of chirping $r_F propto f^{-1/2}$. Meanwhile, strong diffraction that produces a blurred Einstein ring has a universal frequency dependence, allowing only detections. These are further demonstrated through semianalytic discussions of power-law profiles. Our developments for a single lens can be generalized and will promote diffractive lensing to a more concrete and promising physics in probing DM and small-scale structures.
In a flat universe dominated by dark energy, the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect can be detected as a large-angle cross-correlation between the CMB and a tracer of large scale structure. We investigate whether the inconclusive ISW signal derived from 2MASS galaxy maps can be improved upon by including photometric redshifts for the 2MASS galaxies. These redshifts are derived by matching the 2MASS data with optical catalogues generated from SuperCOSMOS scans of major photographic sky surveys. We find no significant ISW signal in this analysis; an ISW effect of the form expected in a LambdaCDM universe is only weakly preferred over no correlation, with a likelihood ratio of 1.5:1. We consider ISW detection prospects for future large scale structure surveys with fainter magnitude limits and greater survey depth; even with the best possible data, the ISW cross-correlation signal would be expected to evade detection in >~ 10% of cases.