Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “cosmological measurements”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Current data are consistent with flat spatial hypersurfaces in the Λ CDM cosmological model but favor more lensing than the model predicts

Here, we study the performance of three pairs of tilted, and a pair of untilited, ΛCDM cosmological models, with three of these four pairs allowing for non-flat spatial hypersurfaces, against cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization power spectrum data (P18), measurements of the Planck 2018 lensing potential power spectrum (lensing), and a large compilation of non-CMB data (non-CMB). For the eight models, we measure cosmological parameters and study whether or not pairs of the data sets (as well as subsets of them) are mutually consistent in these models. Half of these models allow the lensing consistency parameter A L , which re-scales the gravitational potential power spectrum, to be an additional free parameter to be determined from data, while the other three have A L = 1 which is the theoretically expected value. The pair of untilted non-flat ΛCDM models are incompatible with P18 data. The tilted spatially-flat models assume the usual primordial spatial inhomogeneity power spectrum that is a power law in wave number. The tilted non-flat models assume either the primordial power spectrum used in the Planck group anal yses [Planck P(q)], that has recently been numerically shown to be a good approximation to what is quantum-mechanically generated from a particular choice of closed inflation model initial conditions, or a recently computed power spectrum [new P(q)] that quantum-mechanically follows from a different set of non-flat inflation model initial conditions. In the tilted non-flat models with A L = 1 we find differences between P18 data and non-CMB data cosmological parameter constraints, which are large enough to rule out the Planck P(q) model at 3σ but not the new P(q) model. No significant differences are found when cosmological parameter constraints obtained with two different data sets are compared within the standard tilted flat ΛCDM model. While both P18 data and non-CMB data separately favor a closed geometry, with spatial curvature density parameter Ω k < 0, when P18+non-CMB data are jointly analyzed the evidence in favor of non-flat hypersurfaces subsides. Differences between P18 data and non-CMB data cosmological constraints subside when A L is allowed to vary. From the most restrictive P18+lensing+non-CMB data combination we get almost model-independent constraints on the cosmological parameters and find that the A L > 1 option is preferred over the Ω k < 0 one, with the A L parameter, for all models, being larger than unity by ~ 2.5σ. According to the deviance information criterion, in the P18+lensing+non-CMB analysis, the varying A L option is on the verge of being strongly favored over the A L = 1 one, which could indicate a problem for the standard tilted flat ΛCDM model. These data are consistent with flat spatial hypersurfaces but more and better data could improve the constraints on Ω k and might alter this conclusion. Error bars on some cosmological parameters are significantly reduced when non-CMB data are used jointly with P18+lensing data. For example, in the tilted flat ΛCDM model for P18+lensing+non-CMB data the Hubble constant H 0 = 68.09 ± 0.38 km s -1 Mpc -1 , which is consistent with that from a median statistics analysis of a large compilation of H 0 measurements as well as with a number of local measurements of the cosmological expansion rate. This H 0 error bar is 31% smaller than that from P18+lensing data alone.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Unraveling cosmological anisotropies within stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds

Identifying the anisotropies in a cosmologically sourced stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) would be of significance in shedding light on the nature of primordial inhomogeneities. For example, if SGWB carries isocurvature fluctuations, it would provide evidence for a multi-field inflationary origin of these inhomogeneities. However, this is challenging in practice due to finite detector sensitivity and also the presence of the astrophysical foregrounds that can compete with the cosmological signal. In this work, we explore the prospects for measuring cosmological SGWB anisotropies in the presence of an astrophysical counterpart and detector noise. To illustrate the main idea, we perform a Fisher analysis using a well-motivated cosmological SGWB template corresponding to a first order phase transition, and an astrophysical SGWB template corresponding to extra-galactic binary mergers, and compute the uncertainty with which various parameters characterizing the isotropic and anisotropic components can be extracted. Finally, we also discuss some subtleties and caveats involving shot noise in the astrophysical foreground. Overall, we show that upcoming experiments, e.g., LISA, Taiji, Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and BBO, can all be effective in discovering plausible anisotropic cosmological SGWBs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cosmological limits on the neutrino mass sum for beyond-Λ⁢ CDM models

The sum of neutrino masses can be measured cosmologically, as the sub-eV particles behave as “hot” dark matter whose main effect is to suppress the clustering of matter compared to a universe with the same amount of purely cold dark matter. Current astronomical data provide an upper limit on ∑𝑚 𝜈 between 0.07–0.12 eV at 95% confidence, depending on the choice of data. This bound assumes that the cosmological model is Λ Cold Dark Matter (Λ⁢ CDM), where dark energy is a cosmological constant, the spatial geometry is flat, and the primordial fluctuations follow a pure power law. Here, we update studies on how the mass limit degrades if we relax these assumptions. To existing data from the Planck satellite we add new gravitational lensing data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the new Type Ia supernova sample from the Pantheon+survey, and baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. Using our fiducial data combination, described in the appendix, we find the neutrino mass limit is stable to most model extensions, with such extensions degrading the limit by less than 10%. We find a broadest bound of ∑𝑚 𝜈 < 0.19 eV at 95% confidence for a model with dynamical dark energy, although this scenario is not statistically preferred over the simpler Λ ⁢CDM model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: a measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra at 98 and 150 GHz

We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra of the CMB measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) from 5400 deg2 of the 2013–2016 survey, which covers >15000 deg2 at 98 and 150 GHz. For this analysis we adopt a blinding strategy to help avoid confirmation bias and, related to this, show numerous checks for systematic error done before unblinding. Using the likelihood for the cosmological analysis we constrain secondary sources of anisotropy and foreground emission, and derive a “CMB-only” spectrum that extends to ℓ=4000. At large angular scales, foreground emission at 150 GHz is ∼1% of TT and EE within our selected regions and consistent with that found by Planck. Using the same likelihood, we obtain the cosmological parameters for ΛCDM for the ACT data alone with a prior on the optical depth of τ=0.065±0.015. ΛCDM is a good fit. The best-fit model has a reduced χ2 of 1.07 (PTE=0.07) with H0=67.9±1.5 km/s/Mpc. We show that the lensing BB signal is consistent with ΛCDM and limit the celestial EB polarization angle to ψP =−0.07ˆ±0.09ˆ. We directly cross correlate ACT with Planck and observe generally good agreement but with some discrepancies in TE. All data on which this analysis is based will be publicly released.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Cosmological forecasts for future galaxy surveys with the linear point standard ruler: Toward consistent BAO analyses far from a fiducial cosmology

The linear point (LP) standard ruler was identified as the basis of a purely geometric method for exploiting the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). The LP exploits the BAO feature imprinted in the galaxy two-point correlation function to measure cosmological distances independent of any specific cosmological model. We forecast the expected precision of future and ongoing spectroscopic galaxy surveys to measure distances leveraging the linear point. We investigate the cosmological implications of our forecasted results. We focus in particular on a relevant working example: the detection of the late-time cosmic acceleration independent of other cosmological probes. Further, our findings show that, even within the Λ⁢CDM standard cosmological paradigm, estimated distances need to be reliable over a very wide parameter range in order to realize their maximum utility. This is particularly relevant if we aim to properly characterize cosmological tensions. The LP is a promising candidate approach to achieve this reliability. In contrast, widely employed procedures in BAO analysis estimate distances keeping fixed cosmological parameters to fiducial values close to cosmic-microwave-background constraints in flat-Λ⁢CDM. It is unclear whether they are purely geometric methods. Moreover, they rely on untested extrapolations to explore the parameter space away from those fiducial flat-Λ⁢CDM values. We recommend that all BAO methodologies be validated across the full range of models and parameters over which their results are quoted, first by means of linear predictions and then N -body simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Fisher Forecasting for the DESC with $\texttt{Augur}$

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) has begun its ten-year survey of the entire visible southern hemisphere. To ensure robust cosmological measurements, computationally inexpensive investigations of modeling choices must be made to gauge the performance of proposed cosmological analyses. In this paper, we introduce the $\texttt{Augur}$ tool of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), which provides Fisher forecasts for cosmological inference for the LSST using software frameworks designed for DESC science. We test the pipeline by comparing it to forecasts produced by external code and direct sampling of the posterior via nested sampling methods, finding good agreement between all methods. We additionally investigate a range of modeling and hyperparameter choices for a 3$\times$2pt investigation in harmonic space, providing users with diagnostics to obtain reliable forecasts. $\texttt{Augur}$ will be continually updated to be compatible with the other tools in the DESC software ecosystem as additional probes and functionality become available.

Rogozenski, Paul [Carnegie Mellon U.; Arizona U.] ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accuracy of environmental tracers and consequences for determining the Type Ia supernova magnitude step

Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are standardizable candles that allow us to measure the recent expansion rate of the Universe. Due to uncertainties in progenitor physics, potential astrophysical dependencies may bias cosmological measurements if not properly accounted for. The dependency of the intrinsic luminosity of SNe Ia with their host-galaxy environment is often used to standardize SNe Ia luminosity and is commonly parameterized as a step function. This functional form implicitly assumes two-populations of SNe Ia. In the literature, multiple environmental indicators have been considered, finding different, sometimes incompatible, step function amplitudes. We compare these indicators in the context of a two-populations model, based on their ability to distinguish the two populations. We show that local Hα-based specific star formation rate (lsSFR) and global stellar mass are better tracers than, for instance, host galaxy morphology. We show that tracer accuracy can explain the discrepancy between the observed SNe Ia step amplitudes found in the literature. Using lsSFR or global mass to identify the two populations can explain all other observations, though lsSFR is favoured. As lsSFR is strongly connected to age, our results favour a prompt and delayed population model. In any case, there exists two populations that differ in standardized magnitude by at least 0.121 ± 0.010 mag.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Understanding Type Ia Supernova Distance Biases by Simulating Spectral Variations

In the next decade, transient searches from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will increase the sample of known Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from ~10 3 to 10 5 . With this reduction of statistical uncertainties on cosmological measurements, new methods are needed to reduce systematic uncertainties. Here, characterizing the underlying spectroscopic evolution of SN Ia remains a major systematic uncertainty in current cosmological analyses, motivating a new simulation tool for the next era of SN Ia cosmology: Build Your Own Spectral Energy Distribution (byosed). byosed is used within the SNANA framework to simulate light curves by applying spectral variations to model SEDs, enabling flexible testing of possible systematic shifts in SN Ia distance measurements. We test the framework by comparing a nominal Roman SN Ia survey simulation using a baseline SED model to simulations using SEDs perturbed with byosed, and investigating the impact of ignoring specific SED features in the analysis. These features include semiempirical models of two possible, predicted relationships: between SN ejecta velocity and light-curve observables, and a redshift-dependent relationship between SN Hubble residuals and host-galaxy mass. We analyze each byosed simulation using the SALT2 and BEAMS with Bias Corrections framework, and estimate changes in the measured value of the dark-energy equation-of-state parameter, w. We find a difference of Δw = –0.023 for SN velocity and Δw = 0.021 for redshift-evolving host mass when compared to simulations without these features. By using byosed for SN Ia cosmology simulations, future analyses (e.g., the Rubin and Roman SN Ia samples) will have greater flexibility to constrain or reduce such SN Ia modeling uncertainties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The DESI DR1 Peculiar Velocity Survey: Mock Catalog

We describe the production of the official set of mock catalogs for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Peculiar Velocity Survey (DESI-PV) Data Release 1 (DR1). Our mock catalogs reproduce the Bright Galaxy Survey number density and clustering at low redshift $(z<0.1)$ and the DESI PV samples of Fundamental plane and Tully-Fisher distances, from which we derive peculiar velocities. We carefully match mock and data properties and we mimic measurements of distance indicators and peculiar velocities, which follow the same statistical properties as real data. Mock samples of type-Ia supernovae also complement the other two distance indicators. Our 675 available mock realizations were used consistently by our three different methodologies described in our companion papers that measure the growth rate of structure $fσ_8$ with DESI PV DR1. Those mocks allow us to perform precise tests of clustering models and uncertainty estimation to an unprecedented level of accuracy, and compute correlations between methodologies. The consensus value for the DESI DR1 PV growth rate measurement is $fσ_8 = 0.450 \pm 0.055$. This sample of mock catalogs represents the largest and most realistic set for cosmological measurements with peculiar velocities to date.

Bautista, J. [Marseille, CPPM]↗
DOE OSTI2024

Strong Lensing by Galaxies

Strong gravitational lensing at the galaxy scale is a valuable tool for various applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Some of the primary uses of galaxy-scale lensing are to study elliptical galaxies’ mass structure and evolution, constrain the stellar initial mass function, and measure cosmological parameters. Since the discovery of the first galaxy-scale lens in the 1980s, this field has made significant advancements in data quality and modeling techniques. In this review, we describe the most common methods for modeling lensing observables, especially imaging data, as they are the most accessible and informative source of lensing observables. We then summarize the primary findings from the literature on the astrophysical and cosmological applications of galaxy-scale lenses. We also discuss the current limitations of the data and methodologies and provide an outlook on the expected improvements in both areas in the near future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quasar UV/X-ray relation luminosity distances are shorter than reverberation-measured radius–luminosity relation luminosity distances

ABSTRACT We use measurements of 59/58 quasars (QSOs), over a redshift range 0.0041 ≤ z ≤ 1.686, to do a comparative study of the radius–luminosity (R − L) and X-ray−UV luminosity (LX − LUV) relations and the implication of these relations for cosmological parameter estimation. By simultaneously determining R − L or LX − LUV relation parameters and cosmological parameters in six different cosmological models, we find that both R − L and LX − LUV relations are standardizable but provide only weak cosmological parameter constraints, with LX − LUV relation data favouring larger current non-relativistic matter density parameter Ωm0 values than R − L relation data and most other available data. We derive LX − LUV and R − L luminosity distances for each of the sources in the six cosmological models and find that LX − LUV relation luminosity distances are shorter than R − L relation luminosity distances as well as standard flat ΛCDM model luminosity distances. This explains why LX − LUV relation QSO data favour larger Ωm0 values than do R − L relation QSO data or most other cosmological measurements. While our sample size is small and only spans a small z range, these results indicate that more work is needed to determine whether the LX − LUV relation can be used as a cosmological probe.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of Telescope Transmission Using a Collimated Beam Projector

With the increasingly large number of Type Ia supernova being detected by current-generation survey telescopes, and even more expected with the upcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the precision of cosmological measurements will become limited by systematic uncertainties in flux calibration rather than statistical noise. One major source of systematic error in determining SNe Ia color evolution (needed for distance estimation) is uncertainty in telescope transmission, both within and between surveys. We introduce here the Collimated Beam Projector (CBP), which is meant to measure a telescope transmission with collimated light. The collimated beam more closely mimics a stellar wave front as compared to flat-field-based instruments, allowing for more precise handling of systematic errors such as those from ghosting and filter angle-of-incidence dependence. As a proof of concept, we present CBP measurements of the StarDICE prototype telescope, achieving a standard (1σ) uncertainty of 3% on average over the full wavelength range measured with a single beam illumination.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Cosmological implications of axion-matter couplings

Axions and other light particles appear ubiquitously in physics beyond the Standard Model, with a variety of possible couplings to ordinary matter. Cosmology offers a unique probe of these particles as they can thermalize in the hot environment of the early universe for any such coupling. For sub-MeV particles, their entropy must leave a measurable cosmological signal, usually via the effective number of relativistic particles, N eff . Here, in this paper, we will revisit the cosmological constraints on the couplings of axions and other pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons to Standard Model fermions from thermalization below the electroweak scale, where these couplings are marginal and give contributions to the radiation density of ΔN eff > 0.027. We update the calculation of the production rates to eliminate unnecessary approximations and find that the cosmological bounds on these interactions are complementary to astrophysical constraints, e.g. from supernova SN 1987A. We additionally provide quantitative explanations for these bounds and their relationship.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dark matter trigger for early dark energy coincidence

Current cosmological measurements present a persistent tension in the value of the current cosmic expansion rate, the Hubble constant, as inferred from cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS) data compared to that inferred from the classical distance ladder. Early dark energy (EDE), whose cosmological role is localized in time around the epoch of matter-radiation equality just prior to the release of the CMB photons, is designed to resolve this "Hubble tension". However, the model introduces a new coincidence problem: Why should the EDE dynamics occur near matter-radiation equality if EDE is decoupled from both matter and radiation? The resolution of this problem may lie in an early dark sector (EDS), wherein the dark matter mass is dependent on the EDE scalar field. In this work, we construct such an EDS model and show that it naturally resolves the EDE coincidence problem at the background level without any fine-tuning of the coupling to dark matter or of the initial conditions. When fitting to current cosmological data, including that from the local distance ladder, CMB, and LSS, our EDS maximum-likelihood model performs comparably to EDE for resolving the Hubble tension. However, fitting the Planck CMB data requires a specific range of initial field positions to balance the scalar field fluctuations that drive acoustic oscillations, providing testable differences with other EDE models and a platform for future model-building.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Photometric Objects Around Cosmic Webs (PAC) Delineated in a Spectroscopic Survey. IV. High-precision Constraints on the Evolution of the Stellar–Halo Mass Relation at Redshift z < 0.7

Taking advantage of the Photometric objects Around Cosmic webs method developed in Paper I, we measure the excess surface density $\overline{n}$ 2 w p of the photometric objects around spectroscopic objects down to stellar masses 10 8.0 M ⊙ , 10 9.2 M ⊙ , and 10 9.8 M ⊙ in the redshift ranges of z s < 0.2, 0.2 < z s < 0.4, and 0.5 < z s < 0.7, respectively, using data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and spectroscopic samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (i.e., the Main, LOWZ, and CMASS samples). We model the measured in an N-body simulation, using the abundance matching method, and we constrain the stellar–halo mass relations (SHMRs) in the three redshift ranges to percent levels. With the accurate modeling, we demonstrate that the stellar mass scatter for a given halo mass is nearly a constant, and that the empirical form of Behroozi et al. describes the SHMR better than the double-power-law form at low mass. Our SHMR accurately captures the downsizing of massive galaxies from z s = 0.7, while it also indicates that small galaxies are still growing faster than their host halos. The galaxy stellar mass functions (GSMFs) from our modeling are in perfect agreement with the model-independent measurements in Paper III, although the current work extends the GSMFs to a much smaller stellar mass. Based on the GSMFs and the SHMRs, we derive the stellar mass completeness and halo occupation distributions for the LOWZ and CMASS samples, which are useful for correctly interpreting their cosmological measurements, such as galaxy–galaxy lensing and redshift space distortion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Supernova Cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey

This proposal requests supplemental funds to addresses our continued effort to carry out a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology analysis with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) data. DES is well underway to discovering and identifying thousands of SN Ia out to a cosmological redshift of z =1.2 over its 5-year survey, and will obtain the best constraints on dark energy and its possible evolution with redshift. We propose to develop two key analysis algorithms and tools that are critical for this achieving the goals: 1) a final photometry pipeline that uses novel techniques to extract unbiased SN fluxes from the images and 2) a robust statistical framework for measuring cosmological parameters from SN Ia light curves with well-characterized systematic uncertainties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: delensed power spectra and parameters

We present ΛCDM cosmological parameter constraints obtained from delensed microwave background power spectra. Lensing maps from a subset of DR4 data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) are used to undo the lensing effect in ACT spectra observed at 150 and 98 GHz. At 150 GHz, we remove the lensing distortion with an effective efficiency of 30% (TT), 30% (EE), 26% (TE) and 20% (BB); this results in detections of the delensing effect at 8.7σ (TT), 5.1σ (EE), 2.6σ (TE), and 2.4σ (BB) significance. The combination of 150 and 98 GHz TT, EE, and TE delensed spectra is well fit by a standard ΛCDM model. We also measure the shift in best-fit parameters when fitting delensed versus lensed spectra; while this shift does not inform our ability to measure cosmological parameters, it does provide a three-way consistency check among the lensing inferred from the best-fit parameters, the lensing in the CMB power spectrum, and the reconstructed lensing map. This shift is predicted to be zero when fitting with the correct model since both lensed and delensed spectra originate from the same region of sky. Furthermore, fitting with a ΛCDM model and marginalizing over foregrounds, we find that the shift in cosmological parameters is consistent with zero. Our results show that gravitational lensing of the microwave background is internally consistent within the framework of the standard cosmological model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Optical depth to reionization from perturbative 21 cm clustering

The optical depth τ is the least well determined parameter in the standard model of cosmology, and one whose precise value is important for both understanding reionization and for inferring fundamental physics from cosmological measurements. Here, we forecast how well future epoch of reionization experiments could constraint τ using a symmetries-based bias expansion that highlights the special role played by anisotropies in the power spectrum on large scales. Given a parametric model for the ionization evolution inspired by the physical behavior of more detailed reionization simulations, we find that future 21 cm experiments could place tight constraints on the timing and duration of reionization and hence constraints on τ that are competitive with proposed, space-based CMB missions provided they can measure k ≈ 0.1 h Mpc -1 with a clean foreground wedge across redshifts spanning the most active periods of reionization, corresponding to ionization fractions 0.2 ≲ x ≲ 0.8. Significantly improving upon existing CMB-based measurements with next-generation 21 cm surveys would require substantially longer observations (~ 5 years) than standard $\mathscr{O}$(1000 hour) integration times. Precise measurements of smaller scales will not improve constraints on τ until a better understanding of the astrophysics of reionization is achieved. In the presence of noise and foregrounds even future 21 cm experiments will struggle to constrain τ if the ionization evolution deviates significantly from simple parametric forms.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗