No Arabic abstract
Combined with X-ray imaging and spectral data, observations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) can be used to determine direct distances to galaxy clusters. These distances are independent of the extragalactic distance ladder and do not rely on clusters being standard candles or rulers. Observations of the SZE have progressed from upper limits to high signal-to-noise ratio detections and imaging of the SZE. SZE/X-ray determined distances to galaxy clusters are beginning to trace out the theoretical angular-diameter distance relation. The current ensemble of 41 SZE/X-ray distances to galaxy clusters imply a Hubble constant of H_0~ 61 +/- 3 +/- 18 km s-1 Mpc-1, where the uncertainties are statistical followed by systematic at 68% confidence. With a sample of high-redshift galaxy clusters, SZE/X-ray distances can be used to measure the geometry of the Universe.
One of the most important and poorly-understood issues in structure formation is the role of outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN). Using large-scale cosmological simulations, we compute the impact of such outflows on the small-scale distribution of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Like gravitationally-heated structures, AGN outflows induce CMB distortions both through thermal motions and peculiar velocities, by processes known as the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effects, respectively. For AGN outflows the thermal SZ effect is dominant, doubling the angular power spectrum on arcminute scales. But the most distinct imprint of AGN feedback is a substantial increase in the thermal SZ distortions around elliptical galaxies, post-starburst ellipticals, and quasars, which is linearly proportional to the outflow energy. While point source subtraction is difficult for quasars, we show that by appropriately stacking microwave measurements around early-type galaxies, the new generation of small-scale microwave telescopes will be able to directly measure AGN feedback at the level important for current theoretical models.
We investigate a recently proposed method for measuring the Hubble constant from gravitational wave detections of binary black hole coalescences without electromagnetic counterparts. In the absence of a direct redshift measurement, the missing information on the left-hand side of the Hubble-Lema^itre law is provided by the statistical knowledge on the redshift distribution of sources. We assume that source distribution in redshift depends on just one unknown hyper-parameter, modeling our ignorance of the astrophysical binary black hole distribution. With tens of thousands of these black sirens -- a realistic figure for the third generation detectors Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer -- an observational constraint on the value of the Hubble parameter at percent level can be obtained. This method has the advantage of not relying on electromagnetic counterparts, which accompany a very small fraction of gravitational wave detections, nor on often unavailable or incomplete galaxy catalogs.
Studying galaxy clusters through their Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background has many important advantages. The total SZ signal is an accurate and precise tracer of the total pressure in the intra-cluster medium and of cluster mass, the key observable for using clusters as cosmological probes. Band 5 observations with SKA-MID towards cluster surveys from the next generation of X-ray telescopes such as e-ROSITA and from Euclid will provide the robust mass estimates required to exploit these samples. This will be especially important for high redshift systems, arising from the SZs unique independence to redshift. In addition, galaxy clusters are very interesting astrophysical systems in their own right, and the SKAs excellent surface brightness sensitivity down to small angular scales will allow us to explore the detailed gas physics of the intra-cluster medium.
Kilonovae produced by the coalescence of compact binaries with at least one neutron star are promising standard sirens for an independent measurement of the Hubble constant ($H_0$). Through their detection via follow-up of gravitational-wave (GW), short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) or optical surveys, a large sample of kilonovae (even without GW data) can be used for $H_0$ contraints. Here, we show measurement of $H_0$ using light curves associated with four sGRBs, assuming these are attributable to kilonovae, combined with GW170817. Including a systematic uncertainty on the models that is as large as the statistical ones, we find $H_0 = 73.8^{+6.3}_{-5.8}$,$mathrm{km}$ $mathrm{s}^{-1}$ $mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $H_0 = 71.2^{+3.2}_{-3.1}$,$mathrm{km}$ $mathrm{s}^{-1}$ $mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for two different kilonova models that are consistent with the local and inverse-distance ladder measurements. For a given model, this measurement is about a factor of 2-3 more precise than the standard-siren measurement for GW170817 using only GWs.
Cosmography provides a direct method to map the expansion history of the Universe in a model-independent way. Recently, different kinds of observations have been used in cosmographic analyses, such as SNe Ia and gamma ray bursts measurements, weak and strong lensing, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, etc. In this work we examine the prospects for constraining cosmographic parameters from current and future measurements of galaxy clusters distances based on their Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) and X-ray observations. By assuming the current observational error distribution, we perform Monte Carlo simulations based on a well-behaved parameterization for the deceleration parameter to generate samples with different characteristics and study the improvement on the determination of the cosmographic parameters from upcoming data. The influence of galaxy clusters (GC) morphologies on the $H_0- q_0$ plane is also investigated.