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We study the SZ-effect-induced non-Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuation maps. If a CMB map is contaminated by the SZ effect of galaxies or galaxy clusters, the CMB maps should have similar non-Gaussian features as the galaxy and cluster fields. Using the WMAP data and 2MASS galaxy catalog we show that the non-Gaussianity of the 2MASS galaxies is imprinted on WMAP maps. The signature of non-Gaussianity can be seen with the 4^{th} order cross correlation between the wavelet variables of the WMAP maps and 2MASS clusters. The intensity of the 4^{th} order non-Gaussian features is found to be consistent with the contamination of the SZ effect of 2MASS galaxies. We also show that this non-Gaussianity can not be seen by the high order auto-correlation of the WMAP. This is because the SZ signals in the auto-correlations of the WMAP data generally is weaker than the WMAP-2MASS cross correlations by a factor f^2, which is the ratio between the powers of SZ effect map and the CMB fluctuations on the scale considered. Therefore, the ratio of high order auto-correlations of CMB maps to cross-correlations of the CMB maps and galaxy field would be effective to constrain the powers of SZ effect on various scales.
We estimate the power spectrum of SZ(Sunyaev-Zeldovich)-effect-induced temperature fluctuations on sub-degree scales by using the cross correlation between the three-year WMAP maps and 2MASS galaxy distribution. We produced the SZ effect maps by hydrodynamic simulation samples of the $Lambda$CDM model, and show that the SZ effect temperature fluctuations are highly non-Gaussian. The PDF of the temperature fluctuations has a long tail. More than 70% power of the SZ effect temperature fluctuations attributes to top $sim 1%$ wavelet modes (long tail events). On the other hand, the CMB temperature fluctuations basically are Gaussian. Although the mean power of CMB temperature fluctuations on sub-degree scales is much higher than that of SZ effect map, the SZ effect temperature fluctuations associated with top 2MASS clusters is comparable to the power of CMB temperature fluctuations on the same scales. Thus, from noisy WMAP maps, one can have a proper estimation of the SZ effect power at the positions of the top 2MASS clusters. The power spectrum given by these top wavelet modes is useful to constrain the parameter of density fluctuations amplitude $sigma_8$. We find that the power spectrum of these top wavelet modes of SZ effect on sub-degree scales basically is consistent with the simulation maps produced with $sigma_8=0.84$. The simulation samples of $sigma_8=0.74$ show, however, significant deviation from detected SZ power spectrum. It can be ruled out with confidence level 99% if all other cosmological parameters are the same as that given by the three-year WMAP results.
While both X-ray emission and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) temperature fluctuations are generated by the warm-hot gas in dark matter halos, the two observables have different dependence on the underlying physical properties, including the gas distribution. A cross-correlation between the soft X-ray background (SXRB) and the SZ sky may allow an additional probe on the distribution of warm-hot gas at intermediate angular scales and redshifts complementing studies involving clustering within SXRB and SZ separately. Using a halo approach, we investigate this cross-correlation analytically. The two contributions are correlated mildly with a correlation coefficient of $sim0.3$, and this relatively low correlation presents a significant challenge for its detection. The correlation, at small angular scales, is affected by the presence of radiative cooling or preheating and provides a probe on the thermal history of the hot gas in dark halos. While the correlation remains undetectable with CMB data from the WMAP satellite and X-ray background data from existing catalogs, upcoming observations with CMB missions such as Planck, for the SZ side, and an improved X-ray map of the large scale structure, such as the one planned with DUET mission, may provide a first opportunity for a reliable detection of this cross-correlation.
We present a search for non-Gaussianity in the WMAP first-year data using the two-point correlation function of maxima and minima in the temperature map. We find evidence for non-Gaussianity on large scales, whose origin appears to be associated with unsubstracted foregrounds, but which is not entirely clear. The signal appears to be associated most strongly with cold spots, and is more pronounced in the Southern galactic hemisphere. Removal of the region of sky near the galactic plane, or filtering out large-scale modes removes the signal. Analysis of individual frequency maps shows strongest signal in the 41GHz Q band. A study of difference maps tests the hypothesis that the non-Gaussianity is due to residual foregrounds and noise, but shows no significant detection. We suggest that the detection is due to large-scale residual foregrounds affecting more than one frequency band, but a primordial contribution from the Cosmic Microwave Background cannot be excluded.
We perform a cross-correlation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) using the third year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data with the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) galaxy map (about 828 000 galaxies with median redshift z ~ 0.07). One motivation is to detect the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, expected if the cosmic gravitational potential is time dependent; for example, as it is in a flat universe with a Dark Energy component. The measured spherical harmonic cross-correlation signal favours the ISW signal expected in the concordance LambdaCDM model over that of zero correlation, although both are consistent with the data within 2sigma. Within a flat LambdaCDM model we find a best fit value of Omega_Lambda=0.85 and Omega_Lambda < 0.89 (95% CL). The above limits assume a galaxy bias b_g(sigma_8/0.75) ~ 1.40 +/- 0.03, which we derived directly from the 2MASS auto-correlation. Another goal is to test if previously reported anomalies in the WMAP data are related to the galaxy distribution (the so-called ``Axis of Evil - AoE). No such anomaly is observed in the 2MASS data nor are there any observed AoE correlations between the 2MASS and WMAP3 data.
We explore the correlations between primordial non-Gaussianity and isocurvature perturbation. We sketch the generic relation between the bispectrum of the curvature perturbation and the cross-correlation power spectrum in the presence of explicit couplings between the inflaton and another light field which gives rise to isocurvature perturbation. Using a concrete model of a Peccei-Quinn type field with generic gravitational couplings, we illustrate explicitly how the primordial bispectrum correlates with the cross-correlation power spectrum. Assuming the resulting fnl ~ O(1), we find that the form of the correlation depends mostly upon the inflation model but only weakly on the axion parameters, even though fnl itself does depend heavily on the axion parameters.