Population III stars that die as pair-instability supernovae are usually thought to fall in the mass range of 140 - 260 M$_{odot}$. But several lines of work have now shown that rotation can build up the He cores needed to encounter the pair instabil
ity at stellar masses as low as 90 $_{odot}$. Depending on the slope of the initial mass function of Population III stars, there could be 4 - 5 times as many stars from 90 - 140 $_{odot}$ in the primordial universe than in the usually accepted range. We present numerical simulations of the pair-instability explosions of such stars performed with the MESA, FLASH and RAGE codes. We find that they will be visible to supernova factories such as Pan-STARRS and LSST in the optical out to z $sim$ 1 - 2 and to JWST and the 30 m-class telescopes in the NIR out to $z sim$ 7 - 10. Such explosions will thus probe the stellar populations of the first galaxies and cosmic star formation rates in the era of cosmological reionization. These supernovae are also easily distinguished from more massive pair-instability explosions, underscoring the fact that there is far greater variety to the light curves of these events than previously understood.
We present novel statistical tools to cross-correlate frequency cleaned thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) maps and tomographic weak lensing (wl) convergence maps. Moving beyond the lowest order cross-correlation, we introduce a hierarchy of mixed highe
r-order statistics, the cumulants and cumulant correlators, to analyze non-Gaussianity in real space, as well as corresponding polyspectra in the harmonic domain. Using these moments, we derive analytical expressions for the joint two-point probability distribution function (2PDF) for smoothed tSZ (y_s) and convergence (kappa_s) maps. The presence of tomographic information allows us to study the evolution of higher order {em mixed} tSZ-weak lensing statistics with redshift. We express the joint PDFs p_{kappa y}(kappa_s,y_s) in terms of individual one-point PDFs (p_{kappa}(kappa_s), p_y(y_s)) and the relevant bias functions (b_{kappa}(kappa_s), b_y(y_s)). Analytical results for two different regimes are presented that correspond to the small and large angular smoothing scales. Results are also obtained for corresponding {em hot spots} in the tSZ and convergence maps. In addition to results based on hierarchical techniques and perturbative methods, we present results of calculations based on the lognormal approximation. The analytical expressions derived here are generic and applicable to cross-correlation studies of arbitrary tracers of large scale structure including e.g. that of tSZ and soft X-ray background.
At high angular frequencies, beyond the damping tail of the primary power spectrum, the dominant contribution to the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations is the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect. We invest
igate various important statistical properties of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich maps, using well-motivated models for dark matter clustering to construct statistical descriptions of the tSZ effect to all orders enabling us to determine the entire probability distribution function (PDF). Any generic deterministic biasing scheme can be incorporated in our analysis and the effects of projection, biasing and the underlying density distribution can be analysed separately and transparently in this approach. We introduce the cumulant correlators as tools to analyse tSZ catalogs and relate them to corresponding statistical descriptors of the underlying density distribution. The statistics of hot spots in frequency-cleaned tSZ maps are also developed in a self-consistent way to an arbitrary order, to obtain results complementary to those found using the halo model. We also consider different beam sizes, to check the extent to which the PDF can be extracted from various observational configurations. The formalism is presented with two specific models for underlying matter clustering: (1) the hierarchical ansatz; and (2) the lognormal distribution. We find both models to be in very good agreement with the simulation results, though the lognormal model has an edge over the hierarchical model.
At high angular frequencies the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect constitutes the dominant signal in the CMB sky. The tSZ effect is caused by large scale pressure fluctuations in the baryonic distribution in the Universe so its statistical prope
rties provide estimates of corresponding properties of the projected 3D pressure fluctuations. Its power spectrum is a sensitive probe of the density fluctuations, and the bispectrum can be used to separate the bias associated with pressure. The bispectrum is often probed with a one-point real-space analogue, the skewness. In addition to the skewness the morphological properties, as probed by the well known Minkowski Functionals (MFs), also require the generalized one-point statistics, which at the lowest order are identical to the skewness parameters. The concept of generalized skewness parameters can be extended to define a set of three associated generalized skew-spectra. We use these skew-spectra to probe the morphology of the tSZ sky or the y-sky. We show how these power spectra can be recovered from the data in the presence of arbitrary mask and noise templates using the well known Pseudo-Cl (PCL) approach for arbitrary beam shape. We also employ an approach based on the halo model to compute the tSZ bispectrum. The bispectrum from each of these models is then used to construct the generalized skew-spectra. We consider the performance of an all-sky survey with Planck-type noise and compare the results against a noise-free ideal experiment using a range of smoothing angles. We find that the skew-spectra can be estimated with very high signal-to-noise ratio from future frequency cleaned tSZ maps that will be available from experiments such as Planck. This will allow their mode by mode estimation for a wide range of angular frequencies and will help us to differentiate them from various other sources of non-Gaussianity.
We present a new harmonic-domain approach for extracting morphological information, in the form of Minkowski Functionals (MFs), from weak lensing (WL) convergence maps. Using a perturbative expansion of the MFs, which is expected to be valid for the
range of angular scales probed by most current weak-lensing surveys, we show that the study of three generalized skewness parameters is equivalent to the study of the three MFs defined in two dimensions. We then extend these skewness parameters to three associated skew-spectra which carry more information about the convergence bispectrum than their one-point counterparts. We discuss various issues such as noise and incomplete sky coverage in the context of estimation of these skew-spectra from realistic data. Our technique provides an alternative to the pixel-space approaches typically used in the estimation of MFs, and it can be particularly useful in the presence of masks with non-trivial topology. Analytical modeling of weak lensing statistics relies on an accurate modeling of the statistics of underlying density distribution. We apply three different formalisms to model the underlying dark-matter bispectrum: the hierarchical ansatz, halo model and a fitting function based on numerical simulations; MFs resulting from each of these formalisms are computed and compared. We investigate the extent to witch late-time gravity-induced non-Gaussianity (to which weak lensing is primarily sensitive) can be separated from primordial non-Gaussianity and how this separation depends on source redshift and angular scale.
The extragalactic background light at far-infrared wavelengths originates from optically-faint, dusty, star-forming galaxies in the universe with star-formation rates at the level of a few hundred solar masses per year. Due to the relatively poor spa
tial resolution of far-infrared telescopes, the faint sub-millimetre galaxies are challenging to study individually. Instead, their average properties can be studied using statistics such as the angular power spectrum of the background intensity variations. A previous attempt at measuring this power spectrum resulted in the suggestion that the clustering amplitude is below the level computed with a simple ansatz based on a halo model. Here we report a clear detection of the excess clustering over the linear prediction at arcminute angular scales in the power spectrum of brightness fluctuations at 250, 350, and 500 microns. From this excess, we find that sub-millimetre galaxies are located in dark matter halos with a minimum mass of log[M_min/M_sun ]= 11.5^+0.7_-0.2 at 350 microns. This minimum dark matter halo mass corresponds to the most efficient mass scale for star formation in the universe, and is lower than that predicted by semi-analytical models for galaxy formation.
The temperature fluctuations and polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are now a well-known probe of the Universe at an infant age of 400,000 years. During the transit to us from the surface of last scattering, the CMB photons are exp
ected to undergo modifications induced by the intervening large-scale structure. Among the expected secondary effects is the weak gravitational lensing of the CMB by the foreground dark matter distribution. We derive a quadratic estimator that uses the non-Gaussianities generated by the lensing effect at the four-point function level to extract the power spectrum of lensing potential fluctuations integrated out to z ~ 1100 with peak contributions from potential fluctuations at z of 2 to 3. Using WMAP 7-year temperature maps, we report the first direct constraints of this lensing potential power spectrum and find that it has an amplitude of A_L = 0.96 +/- 0.60, 1.06 +/- 0.69 and 0.97 +/- 0.47 using the W, V and W+V bands, respectively.
We generalize the concept of the ordinary skew-spectrum to probe the effect of non-Gaussianity on the morphology of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps in several domains: in real-space (where they are commonly known as cumulant-correlators), and
in harmonic and needlet bases. The essential aim is to retain more information than normally contained in these statistics, in order to assist in determining the source of any measured non-Gaussianity, in the same spirit as Munshi & Heavens (2010) skew-spectra were used to identify foreground contaminants to the CMB bispectrum in Planck data. Using a perturbative series to construct the Minkowski Functionals (MFs), we provide a pseudo-Cl based approach in both harmonic and needlet representations to estimate these spectra in the presence of a mask and inhomogeneous noise. Assuming homogeneous noise we present approx- imate expressions for error covariance for the purpose of joint estimation of these spectra. We present specific results for four different models of primordial non-Gaussianity local, equilateral, orthogonal and enfolded models, as well as non-Gaussianity caused by unsubtracted point sources. Closed form results of next-order corrections to MFs too are obtained in terms of a quadruplet of kurt-spectra. We also use the method of modal decomposition of the bispectrum and trispectrum to reconstruct the MFs as an alternative method of reconstruction of morphological properties of CMB maps. Finally, we introduce the odd-parity skew-spectra to probe the odd-parity bispectrum and its impact on the morphology of the CMB sky. Although developed for the CMB, the generic results obtained here can be useful in other areas of cosmology.
We study the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) and the power spectrum of Galactic cirrus emission observed in the 14 deg^2 Science Demonstration Phase field of the Herschel-ATLAS using Herschel and IRAS data from 100 to 500 um. We compare the SPIRE
250, 350 and 500um maps with IRAS 100um emission, binned in 6 pixels. We assume a modified black-body SED with dust emissivity parameter beta (F ~ lambda^(-beta)) and a single dust temperature T_d, and find that the dust temperature and emissivity index varies over the science demonstration field as 10< T_rm < 25 K and 1 < beta< 4. The latter values are somewhat higher than the range of beta often quoted in the literature (1< beta< 2). We estimate the mean values of these parameters to be T_d=19.0 +/- 2.4 K and beta = 1.4 +/- 0.4. In regions of bright cirrus emission, we find that the dust has similar temperatures with T_d = 18.0 +/- 2.5 K, and similar values of beta, ranging from 1.4 +- 0.5 to 1.9+/- 0.5. We show that T_d and beta associated with diffuse cirrus emission are anti-correlated and can be described by the relationship: beta(T_d) = NT_d^alpha with [N=116+/-38, alpha=-1.4+/1 0.1]. The strong correlation found in this analysis is not just limited to high density clumps of cirrus emission as seen in previous studies, but is also seen in diffuse cirrus in low density regions. To provide an independent measure of $T_{rm d}$ and $beta$, we obtain the angular power spectrum of the cirrus emission in the {it IRAS} and SPIRE maps, which is consistent with a power spectrum of the form P(k)=P_0(k/k_0)^gamma where gamma = ^a H R2.6+/-m 0.2 for scales of 50-200 in the SPIRE maps. The cirrus rms fluctuation amplitude at angular scales of 100 is consistent with a modified blackbody SED with T_d = 20.1+/- 0.9 K and beta = 1.3+/- 0.2, in agreement with the values obtained above.
A large sub-mm survey with Herschel will enable many exciting science opportunities, especially in an era of wide-field optical and radio surveys and high resolution cosmic microwave background experiments. The Herschel-SPIRE Legacy Survey (HSLS), wi
ll lead to imaging data over 4000 sq. degrees at 250, 350, and 500 micron. Major Goals of HSLS are: (a) produce a catalog of 2.5 to 3 million galaxies down to 26, 27 and 33 mJy (50% completeness; 5 sigma confusion noise) at 250, 350 and 500 micron, respectively, in the southern hemisphere (3000 sq. degrees) and in an equatorial strip (1000 sq. degrees), areas which have extensive multi-wavelength coverage and are easily accessible from ALMA. Two thirds of the of the sources are expected to be at z > 1, one third at z > 2 and about a 1000 at z > 5. (b) Remove point source confusion in secondary anisotropy studies with Planck and ground-based CMB data. (c) Find at least 1200 strongly lensed bright sub-mm sources leading to a 2% test of general relativity. (d) Identify 200 proto-cluster regions at z of 2 and perform an unbiased study of the environmental dependence of star formation. (e) Perform an unbiased survey for star formation and dust at high Galactic latitude and make a census of debris disks and dust around AGB stars and white dwarfs.
