Cosmology of our universe
Physical laws of universe, structure and evolution of universe, and cosmological theories of universe
Chiu, H.-Y.↗
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Interaction Between Space Exploration, Science, and Technology
Interaction between space exploration, cosmology, meteorology, engineering, physical science, technology, and space research
TECHNOLOGY↗
Cosmology from random entanglement
We construct entangled microstates of a pair of holographic CFTs whose dual semiclassical description includes big bang-big crunch AdS cosmologies in spaces without boundaries. The cosmology is supported by inhomogeneous heavy matter and it partially purifies the bulk entanglement of two disconnected auxiliary AdS spacetimes. We show that the island formula for the fine grained entropy of one of the CFTs follows from a standard gravitational replica trick calculation. In generic settings, the cosmology is contained in the entanglement wedge of one of the two CFTs. We then investigate properties of the cosmology-to-boundary encoding map, and in particular, its non-isometric character. Restricting our attention to a specific class of states on the cosmology, we provide an explicit, and state-dependent, boundary representation of operators acting on the cosmology. Finally, under genericity assumptions, we argue for a non-isometric to approximately-isometric transition of the cosmology-to-boundary map for “simple” states on the cosmology as a function of the bulk entanglement, with tensor network toy models of our setup as a guide.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
A Review of the Physics of Comets and Its Experimental Investigation by an Instrumented Space Probe
Physics, chemistry, and cosmology review of comets and proposed space probe experiments
SPACE PROBE↗
Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier: Cosmic Microwave Background Measurements White Paper
This is a solicited whitepaper for the Snowmass 2021 community planning exercise. The paper focuses on measurements and science with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The CMB is foundational to our understanding of modern physics and continues to be a powerful tool driving our understanding of cosmology and particle physics. In this paper, we outline the broad and unique impact of CMB science for the High Energy Cosmic Frontier in the upcoming decade. We also describe the progression of ground-based CMB experiments, which shows that the community is prepared to develop the key capabilities and facilities needed to achieve these transformative CMB measurements.
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
EMPDF : inferring the Milky Way mass with data-driven distribution function in phase space
We introduce the emPDF (empirical distribution function), a novel dynamical modelling method that infers the gravitational potential from kinematic tracers with optimal statistical efficiency under the minimal assumption of steady state. emPDF determines the best-fitting potential by maximizing the similarity between instantaneous kinematics and the time-averaged phase-space distribution function (DF), which is empirically constructed from observation upon the theoretical foundation of oPDF (Han et al. 2016). This approach eliminates the need for presumed functional forms of DFs or orbit libraries required by conventional DF- or orbit-based methods. emPDF stands out for its flexibility, efficiency, and capability in handling observational effects, making it preferable to the popular Jeans equation or other minimal assumption methods, especially for the Milky Way (MW) outer halo where tracers often have limited sample size and poor data quality. We apply emPDF to infer the MW mass profile using Gaia DR3 data of satellite galaxies and globular clusters, obtaining enclosed masses of M (,r) = 26±8, 46±8, 90±13, and 149±40 x 10 10 M ⊙ at r = 30, 50, 100, and 200 kpc, respectively. These are consistent with the updated constraints from simulation-informed DF fitting (Li et al. 2020). While the simulation-informed DF offers superior precision owing to the additional information extracted from simulations, emPDF is independent of such supplementary knowledge and applicable to general tracer populations. emPDF is currently implemented for tracers with complete 6D kinematics within spherical potentials, but it can potentially be extended to address more general problems.
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)↗
Probing New physics with high-redshift quasars: axions and non-standard cosmology
The Hubble diagram of quasars, as candidates to “standardizable” candles, has been used to measure the expansion history of the Universe at late times, up to very high redshifts ( z ~ 7). It has been shown that this history, as inferred from the quasar dataset, deviates at ≳ 3 σ level from the concordance (ΛCDM) cosmology model preferred by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and other datasets. In this article, we investigate whether new physics beyond ΛCDM (BΛCDM) or beyond the Standard Model (BSM) could make the quasar data consistent with the concordance model. We first show that an effective redshift-dependent relation between the quasar UV and X-ray luminosities, complementing previous phenomenological work in the literature, can potentially remedy the discrepancy. Such a redshift dependence can be realized in a BSM model with axion-photon conversion in the intergalactic medium (IGM), although the preferred parameter space is in tension with various other astrophysical constraints on axions, at a level depending on the specific assumptions made regarding the IGM magnetic field. We briefly discuss a variation of the axion model that could evade these astrophysical constraints. On the other hand, we show that models beyond ΛCDM such as one with a varying dark energy equation of state ( w CDM) or the phenomenological cosmographic model with a polynomial expansion of the luminosity distance, cannot alleviate the tension. The code for our analysis, based on emcee [1] and corner.py [2], is publicly available at github.com/ChenSun-Phys/high_z_candles.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Semi-Analytic Forecasts for JWST– V. AGN Luminosity Functions and Helium Reionization at z= 2–7
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) forming in the early universe are thought to be the pri-mary source of hard ionizing photons contributing to the reionization of intergalactic helium. However, the number density and spectral properties of high-redshift AGN remain largely unconstrained. In this work, we make use of physically-informed mod-els calibrated with a wide variety of available observations to provide estimates for the role of AGN throughout the Epoch of Reionization. We present AGN luminosity functions in various bands between z= 2 to 7 predicted by the well-established Santa Cruz semi-analytic model, which includes modelling of black hole accretion and AGN feedback. We then combine the predicted AGN populations with a physical spectral model for self-consistent estimates of ionizing photon production rates, which depend on the mass and accretion rate of the accreting supermassive black hole. We then couple the predicted comoving ionizing emissivity with an analytic model to compute the subsequent reionization history of intergalactic helium and hydrogen. This work demonstrates the potential of coupling physically motivated analytic or semi-analytic techniques to capture multi-scale physical processes across a vast range of scales (here, from AGN accretion disks to cosmological scales). Our physical model predicts an in-trinsic ionizing photon budget well above many of the estimates in the literature, meaning that helium reionization can comfortably be accomplished even with a rel-atively low escape fraction. We also make predictions for the AGN populations that are expected to be detected in future James Webb Space Telescope surveys
L Y Aaron Yung↗
Assessing tension metrics with dark energy survey and Planck data
ABSTRACT Quantifying tensions – inconsistencies amongst measurements of cosmological parameters by different experiments – has emerged as a crucial part of modern cosmological data analysis. Statistically significant tensions between two experiments or cosmological probes may indicate new physics extending beyond the standard cosmological model and need to be promptly identified. We apply several tension estimators proposed in the literature to the dark energy survey (DES) large-scale structure measurement and Planck cosmic microwave background data. We first evaluate the responsiveness of these metrics to an input tension artificially introduced between the two, using synthetic DES data. We then apply the metrics to the comparison of Planck and actual DES Year 1 data. We find that the parameter differences, Eigentension, and Suspiciousness metrics all yield similar results on both simulated and real data, while the Bayes ratio is inconsistent with the rest due to its dependence on the prior volume. Using these metrics, we calculate the tension between DES Year 1 3 × 2pt and Planck, finding the surveys to be in ∼2.3σ tension under the ΛCDM paradigm. This suite of metrics provides a toolset for robustly testing tensions in the DES Year 3 data and beyond.
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
Analytic bounds on late-time axion-scalar cosmologies
The cosmological dynamics of multiple scalar/pseudoscalar fields are difficult to solve, especially when the field-space metric is curved. This presents a challenge in determining whether a given model can support cosmic acceleration, without solving for the on-shell solution. In this work, we present bounds on late-time FLRW-cosmologies in classes of theories that involve arbitrary numbers of scalar and pseudoscalar fields coupled both kinetically (leading to a curved field space metric) and through scalar potentials. Such bounds are proven analytically, independently of initial conditions, with no approximation in the field equations and without referring to explicit solutions. Besides their broad applications to cosmological model building, our bounds can be applied to studying asymptotic cosmologies of certain classes of string compactifications.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Cosmological analysis of the DESI DR1 Lyα 1D power spectrum
We present the cosmological analysis of the one-dimensional Lyman-α flux power spectrum from the first data release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We capture the dependence of the signal on cosmology and intergalactic medium physics using an emulator trained on a cosmological suite of hydrodynamical simulations, and we correct its predictions for the impact of astrophysical contaminants and systematics, many of these not considered in previous analyses. We employ this framework to constrain the amplitude and logarithmic slope of the linear matter power spectrum at k ★ = 0.009 km -1 s and redshift z = 3, obtaining Δ 2 ★ = 0.379 ± 0.032 and n ★ = -2.309 ± 0.019 https://github.com/igmhub/cobaya_lya_p1d. The robustness of these constraints is validated through the analysis of mocks and a large number of alternative data analysis variations, with cosmological parameters kept blinded throughout the validation process. We then combine our results with constraints from DESI BAO and temperature, polarization, and lensing measurements from Planck, ACT, and SPT-3G to set constraints on ΛCDM extensions. While our measurements do not significantly tighten the limits on the sum of neutrino masses from the combination of these probes, they sharpen the constraints on the effective number of relativistic species, N eff = 3.02 ± 0.10, the running of the spectral index, α s = 0.0014 ± 0.0041, and the running of the running, β s = -0.0006 ± 0.0048, by a factor of 1.18, 1.27, and 1.90, respectively. We conclude by outlining the improvements needed to fully reach the level of confidence implied by these uncertainties.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Deep learning insights into cosmological structure formation
The evolution of linear initial conditions present in the early Universe into extended halos of dark matter at late times can be computed using cosmological simulations. However, a theoretical understanding of this complex process remains elusive; in particular, the role of anisotropic information in the initial conditions in establishing the final mass of dark matter halos remains a long-standing puzzle. Here, we build a deep learning framework to investigate this question. We train a three-dimensional convolutional neural network to predict the mass of dark matter halos from the initial conditions, and quantify in full generality the amounts of information in the isotropic and anisotropic aspects of the initial density field about final halo masses. We find that anisotropies add a small, albeit statistically significant amount of information over that contained within spherical averages of the density field about final halo mass. However, the overall scatter in the final mass predictions does not change qualitatively with this additional information, only decreasing from 0.9 dex to 0.7 dex. Given such a small improvement, our results demonstrate that isotropic aspects of the initial density field essentially saturate the relevant information about final halo mass. Therefore, instead of searching for information directly encoded in initial conditions anisotropies, a more promising route to accurate, fast halo mass predictions is to add approximate dynamical information based e.g. on perturbation theory. More broadly, our results indicate that deep learning frameworks can provide a powerful tool for extracting physical insight into cosmological structure formation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
Particle Dark Matter Across Scales (Final Technical Report)
The research supported by this DOE grant investigated the nature of dark matter, particularly its particle properties and astrophysical manifestations, over the period of 2018 to 2024. The proposal focused on leveraging astrophysical probes, cosmological models, and high-resolution simulations to further our understanding of dark matter, its possible interactions, and the theoretical models that could explain its properties. This research directly contributes to the DOE's mission of exploring the fundamental constituents of the universe, advancing particle physics, and using cosmological and astrophysical observations to detect dark matter.
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
High Energy Theory and Cosmology Workshops at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Michigan
This award partially supported a workshop and a summer school held at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Funds were primarily used to support the travel of external participants. The programs were substantially delayed owing to the pandemic. The symposium was initially slated for Spring 2020. The 2023 Michigan Cosmology Summer School was held June 5-9 2023 in Ann Arbor Michigan. There were about 150 in-person international participants (of whom about 35Nine external lecturers listed below delivered a series of lectures ranging on topics from “Measuring and Mapping Cosmic Shear” to “Dark Dark Energy and Modified Gravity.” Many archived version of the slides and videos of the lectures may be found at https://johannesulf.github.io/cosmology-school-2023/program.html
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
Weak lensing in DES Y3: redshift distributions, shape catalogue, and mass mapping
The size of galaxy surveys have rapidly escalated with time, growing from thousands of galaxies of the first pioneering surveys to current and future surveys (DES, KiDS, HSC, LSST, Euclid, WFIRST), which map (or plan to map) a few hundreds millions of galaxies. These ambitious programs have the potential to answer many open questions in Cosmology (or, depending on their results, to open new exciting scenarios, involving new physics beyond the standard cosmological model and the standard model of particle physics). In particular, this thesis focuses on the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3), which comprises 100 million galaxies observed in 5 different optical bands over 5000 square degrees of the southern hemisphere. DES and the data set used in this thesis are discussed in detail in Chapter 3, which together with Chapter 1 and 2 constitutes Part I of this thesis. The scientifically positive outcome of DES and other photometric galaxy surveys goes h and in h and with a supreme understanding of the data, of the observational systematics affecting the measurements, and of the limits of the theoretical modelling of the observables. One of the main challenge of galaxy photometric surveys like DES is to correctly estimate the distance to the galaxies. Photometric surveys observe the galaxies in a limited number of broad optical bands, and the estimate of their \textit{redshifts} is somewhat uncertain, which constitutes one of the main limiting factor of their cosmological analyses. Part II and its Chapter 4 are devoted to a new auxiliary technique recently developed that allows to infer (or calibrate) redshift distributions exploiting cross-correlation with small reference samples with secure redshifts. The so called ``clustering-redshift'' method is discussed in depth, as well as its role in the overall DES Y3 redshift calibration strategy. Part III and Chapter 5 are devoted to another key aspect of photometric surveys, that enables the stu dy of weak gravitational lensing: the shape catalogue. The official DES Y3 shape catalogue is presented, together with all the systematic tests performed to validate it such that it can be considered science-ready. Last, part IV focuses on how to use weak gravitational lensing and the DES Y3 shape catalogue to create weak lensing mass maps, i.e., maps of the mass distribution of the Universe. Chapter 6 discusses different map making techniques, whereas Chapter 7 presents a simulated cosmological analysis using the high order moments of the mass maps.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Manifestly causal in-in perturbation theory about the interacting vacuum
In-In perturbation theory is a vital tool for cosmology and nonequilibrium physics. Here, we reconcile an apparent conflict between two of its important aspects with particular relevance to De Sitter/inflationary contexts: (i) the need to slightly deform unitary time evolution with an iϵ prescription that projects the free (“Bunch-Davies”) vacuum onto the interacting vacuum and renders vertex integrals well-defined, and (ii) Weinberg’s “nested commutator” reformulation of in-in perturbation theory which makes manifest the constraints of causality within expectation values of local operators, assuming exact unitarity. We show that a modified iϵ prescription maintains the exact unitarity on which the derivation of (ii) rests, while nontrivially agreeing with (i) to all orders of perturbation theory.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Cosmology at high redshift — a probe of fundamental physics
An observational program focused on the high redshift (2<z<6) Universe has the opportunity to dramatically improve over upcoming LSS and CMB surveys on measurements of both the standard cosmological model and its extensions. Using a Fisher matrix formalism that builds upon recent advances in Lagrangian perturbation theory, we forecast constraints for future spectroscopic and 21-cm surveys on the standard cosmological model, curvature, neutrino mass, relativistic species, primordial features, primordial non-Gaussianity, dynamical dark energy, and gravitational slip. We compare these constraints with those achievable by current or near-future surveys such as DESI and Euclid, all under the same forecasting formalism, and compare our formalism with traditional linear methods. Here, our Python code FishLSS — used to calculate the Fisher information of the full shape power spectrum, CMB lensing, the cross-correlation of CMB lensing with galaxies, and combinations thereof — is publicly available.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Possible hints of sterile neutrinos in recent measurements of the Hubble parameter
Local Universe observations find a value of the Hubble constant H 0 that is larger than the value inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background and other early Universe measurements, assuming known physics and the ΛCDM cosmological model. We show that additional radiation in active neutrinos produced just before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis by an unstable sterile neutrino with mass m s = O(10) MeV can alleviate this discrepancy. Furthermore, the necessary masses and couplings of the sterile neutrino, assuming it mixes primarily with ν τ and/or ν μ neutrinos, are within reach of Super-Kamiokande as well as upcoming laboratory experiments such as NA62 and DUNE.
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗