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At least 775 records · Page 43

On the rms anisotropy at 7 deg and 10 deg observed in the COBE-DMR two year sky maps

The frequency-independent rms temperature fluctuations determined from the Cosmic Background Explorer-Differential Microwave Radiometer (COBE-DMR) two-year sky maps are used to infer the parameter Q(sub rms-PS), which characterizes the normalization of power-law models of primordial cosmological temperature anisotropy, for a forced fit to a scale-invariant Harrison-Zel'dovich (n = 1) spectral model. Using a joint analysis of the 7 deg and 10 deg 'cross'-rms derived from both the 53 and 90 GHz sky maps, we find Q(sub rms-PS) = 17.0(sub -2.1 sup +2.5) micro Kelvin when the low quadrupole is included, and Q(sub rms-PS) = 19.4(sub -2.1 sup +2.3) micro Kelvin excluding the quadrupole. These results are consistent with the n = 1 fits from more sensitive methods. The effect of the low quadrupole derived from the COBE-DMR data on the inferred Q(sub rms-PS) normalization is investigated. A bias to lower Q(sub rms-PS) is found when the quadrupole is included. The higher normalization for a forced n = 1 fit is then favored by the cross-rms technique.

Banday, A. J.↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Cosmology with moments of weak lensing mass maps

We present a cosmological analysis using the second and third moments of the weak lensing mass (convergence) maps from the first three years of data (Y3) data of the Dark Energy Survey. The survey spans an effective area of 4139 square degrees and uses the images of over 100 million galaxies to reconstruct the convergence field. The second moment of the convergence as a function of smoothing scale contains information similar to standard shear 2-point statistics. The third moment, or the skewness, contains additional non-Gaussian information. The data is analyzed in the context of the Λ CDM model, varying five cosmological parameters and 19 nuisance parameters modeling astrophysical and measurement systematics. Our modeling of the observables is completely analytical, and has been tested with simulations in our previous methodology study. We obtain a 1.7% measurement of the amplitude of fluctuations parameter S 8 ≡ σ 8 ( Ω m / 0.3 ) 0.5 = 0.784 ± 0.013 . The measurements are shown to be internally consistent across redshift bins, angular scales, and between second and third moments. In particular, the measured third moment is consistent with the expectation of gravitational clustering under the Λ CDM model. The addition of the third moment improves the constraints on S 8 and Ω m by ∼ 15 % and ∼ 25 % compared to an analysis that only uses second moments. We compare our results with Planck constraints from the cosmic microwave background, finding a 2.2 – 2.8 σ tension in the full parameter space, depending on the combination of moments considered. The third moment, independently, is in 2.8 σ tension with Planck, and thus provides a cross-check on the analyses of 2-point correlations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

WHERE ARE THE LOW-MASS POPULATION III STARS?

We study the number and the distribution of low-mass Population III (Pop III) stars in the Milky Way. In our numerical model, hierarchical formation of dark matter minihalos and Milky-Way-sized halos are followed by a high-resolution cosmological simulation. We model the Pop III formation in H{sub 2} cooling minihalos without metal under UV radiation of the Lyman–Werner bands. Assuming a Kroupa initial mass function (IMF) from 0.15 to 1.0 M {sub ⊙} for low-mass Pop III stars, as a working hypothesis, we try to constrain the theoretical models in reverse by current and future observations. We find that the survivors tend to concentrate on the center of halo and subhalos. We also evaluate the observability of Pop III survivors in the Milky Way and dwarf galaxies, and constraints on the number of Pop III survivors per minihalo. The higher latitude fields require lower sample sizes because of the high number density of stars in the galactic disk, the required sample sizes are comparable in the high- and middle-latitude fields by photometrically selecting low-metallicity stars with optimized narrow-band filters, and the required number of dwarf galaxies to find one Pop III survivor is less than 10 at <100 kpc for the tip of red giant stars. Provided that available observations have not detected any survivors, the formation models of low-mass Pop III stars with more than 10 stars per minihalo are already excluded. Furthermore, we discuss the way to constrain the IMF of Pop III stars at a high mass range of ≳10 M {sub ⊙}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Cosmological constraints from the tomographic cross-correlation of DESI Luminous Red Galaxies and Planck CMB lensing

We use luminous red galaxies selected from the imaging surveys that are being used for targeting by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) in combination with CMB lensing maps from the Planck collaboration to probe the amplitude of large-scale structure over 0.4 ≤ z ≤ 1. Our galaxy sample, with an angular number density of approximately 500 deg -2 over 18,000 sq.deg., is divided into 4 tomographic bins by photometric redshift and the redshift distributions are calibrated using spectroscopy from DESI. We fit the galaxy autospectra and galaxy-convergence cross-spectra using models based on cosmological perturbation theory, restricting to large scales that are expected to be well described by such models. Within the context of ΛCDM, combining all 4 samples and using priors on the background cosmology from supernova and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, we find S 8 = σ 8 (Ωm/0.3) 0.5 = 0.73 ± 0.03. This result is lower than the prediction of the ΛCDM model conditioned on the Planck data. Furthermore, our data prefer a slower growth of structure at low redshift than the model predictions, though at only modest significance.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

AMReX: a framework for block-structured adaptive mesh refinement

AMReX is a C++ software framework that supports the development of block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithms for solving systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) with complex boundary conditions on current and emerging architectures. AMR reduces the computational cost and memory footprint compared to a uniform mesh while preserving the local descriptions of different physical processes in complex multiphysics algorithms. Current AMReX-based application codes span a number of areas, including atmospheric modeling, astrophysics, combustion, cosmology, fluctuating hydrodynamics, multiphase flows, and particle accelerators. In particular, the AMReX-Astro GitHub repository holds a number of astrophysical modeling tools based on AMReX. The origins of AMReX trace back to the BoxLib software framework. AMReX supports a number of different time-stepping strategies and spatial discretizations. Solution strategies supported by AMReX range from level-by-level approaches (with or without subcycling in time) with multilevel synchronization to full-hierarchy approaches, and any combination thereof. User-defined kernels that operate on patches of data can be written in C++ or Fortran; there is also a Fortran-interface functionality which wraps the core C++ data structures and operations in Fortran wrappers so that an application code based on AMReX can be written entirely in Fortran.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Inverse construction of the ΛLTB model from a distance-redshift relation

Spherically symmetric dust universe models with a positive cosmological constant Λ, known as Λ-Lemaȋtre-Tolman-Bondi (ΛLTB) models, are considered. We report a method to construct the ΛLTB model from a given distance-redshift relation observed at the symmetry center. The spherical inhomogeneity is assumed to be composed of growing modes. We derive a set of ordinary differential equations for three functions of the redshift, which specify the spherical inhomogeneity. Once a distance-redshift relation is given, with careful treatment of possible singular points, we can uniquely determine the model by solving the differential equations for each value of Λ. As a demonstration, we fix the distance-redshift relation as that of the flat ΛCDM model with (Ω{sup dis}{sub m0}, Ω{sup dis}{sub Λ0})=(0.3,0.7), where Ω{sup dis}{sub m0} and Ω{sup dis}{sub Λ0} are the normalized matter density and the cosmological constant, respectively. Then, we construct the ΛLTB model for several values of Ω{sub Λ0}:=Λ/(3 H {sub 0}{sup 2}), where H {sub 0} is the present Hubble parameter observed at the symmetry center. We obtain void (over dense) structure around the symmetry center for Ω{sub Λ0} < Ω{sup dis}{sub Λ0}(Ω{sub Λ0} > Ω{sup dis}{sub Λ0}). We show the relation between the ratio Ω{sub Λ0}/Ω{sup dis}{sub Λ0} and the amplitude of the inhomogeneity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Thick strings, the liquid crystal blue phase, and cosmological large-scale structure

A phenomenological model based on the liquid crystal blue phase is proposed as a model for a late-time cosmological phase transition. Topological defects, in particular thick strings and/or domain walls, are presented as seeds for structure formation. It is shown that the observed large-scale structure, including quasi-periodic wall structure, can be well fitted in the model without violating the microwave background isotropy bound or the limits from induced gravitational waves and the millisecond pulsar timing. Furthermore, such late-time transitions can produce objects such as quasars at high redshifts. The model appears to work with either cold or hot dark matter.

Luo, Xiaochun↗

Early dark energy constraints with late-time expansion marginalization

Abstract Early dark energy (EDE) is an extension to the ΛCDM model that includes an additional energy density contribution near recombination. The model was proposed to reduce the tension between the measurements of the Hubble constantH 0 from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and from the local cosmic distance ladder. Some analyses in the recent literature have shown intriguing hints for EDE. However, this model increases the tension in the derived clustering of galaxies (as measured by the so-calledS 8 parameter) between CMB and large scale structure (LSS) measurements. This new tension limits the contribution of EDE during recombination, and thus its effect on the Hubble tension. In this work, we investigate whether the inclusion of a general, smooth late-time dark energy modification can increase back the EDE contribution when LSS data is included in the analysis. In order to generalize the late expansion with respect to the ΛCDM model, we substitute the cosmological constant by a late dark energy fluid model with a piecewise constant equation of state w(z) in redshift bins. We show that, when analysing this generalized model with combinations of CMB, LSS and type Ia supernovae data from several experiments no significant changes onS 8 and EDE parameter constraints is found. The contribution to the EDE fraction constraint with late-time expansion marginalization isf EDE = 0.067 +0.019 -0.027 using 3 redshift bins, with similar results for 5 and 10 redshift bins. This work shows that in order to solve simultaneously the Hubble andS 8 tensions, one needs a mechanism for increasing the clustering of matter at late times different from a simple change in the background evolution of late dark energy.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Footprints of the QCD Crossover on Cosmological Gravitational Waves at Pulsar Timing Arrays

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) have reported evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background at nanohertz frequencies, possibly originating in the early Universe. We show that the spectral shape of the low-frequency (causality) tail of GW signals sourced at temperatures around T ≳ 1 GeV is distinctively affected by confinement of strong interactions (QCD), due to the corresponding sharp decrease in the number of relativistic species, and significantly deviates from ∼ f 3 commonly adopted in the literature. Bayesian analyses in the NANOGrav 15 years and the previous international PTA datasets reveal a significant improvement in the fit with respect to cubic power-law spectra, previously employed for the causality tail. While no conclusion on the nature of the signal can be drawn at the moment, our results show that the inclusion of standard model effects on cosmological GWs can have a decisive impact on model selection. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Franciolini, Gabriele (ORCID:0000000268929145)↗

Hiding an elephant: heavy sterile neutrino with large mixing angle does not contradict cosmology

We study a model of a keV-scale sterile neutrino with a relatively large mixing with the Standard Model sector. Usual considerations predict active generation of such particles in the early Universe, which leads to constraints from the total Dark Matter density and absence of X-ray signal from sterile neutrino decay. These bounds together may deem any attempt of creation of the keV scale sterile neutrino in the laboratory unfeasible. We argue that for models with a hidden sector coupled to the sterile neutrino these bounds can be evaded, opening new perspectives for the direct studies at neutrino experiments such as Troitsk ν-mass and KATRIN. We estimate the generation of sterile neutrinos in scenarios with the hidden sector dynamics keeping the sterile neutrinos either massless or superheavy in the early Universe. In both cases the generation by oscillations from active neutrinos in plasma is suppressed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

On gravitational lenses and the cosmological evolution of quasars

A heuristic model for the effect of gravitational lenses on the apparent cosmological evolution of quasars is considered. The model satisfies the requirement of average flux conservation and has no net mean amplification. This requirement is shown to be numerically important in studying the effect. On the basis of the values of the evolution indicators calculated from the model, it is concluded that it is premature to assert that lensing plays an important role in affecting the apparent evolution. A qualitative, model independent observational test for the effect is suggested. The test estimates the distances where lensing is dominant. An application of this test to a complete sample of quasars indicates that lensing cannot completely account for the apparent evolution, except in an extreme situation.

Avni, Y.↗

The Borg Cube Simulation: Cosmological Hydrodynamics with CRK-SPH

A challenging requirement posed by next-generation observations is a firm theoretical grasp of the impact of baryons on structure formation. Cosmological hydrodynamic simulations modeling gas physics are vital in this regard. A high degree of modeling flexibility exists in this space, making it important to explore a range of methods in order to gauge the accuracy of simulation predictions. We present results from the first cosmological simulation using Conservative Reproducing Kernel Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (CRK-SPH). We employ two simulations: one evolved purely under gravity, and the other with nonradiative hydrodynamics. Each contains 2 × 2304 3 cold dark matter plus baryon particles in an 800 h -1 Mpc box. We compare statistics to previous nonradiative simulations including power spectra, mass functions, baryon fractions, and concentration. We find self-similar radial profiles of gas temperature, entropy, and pressure and show that a simple analytic model recovers these results to better than 40% over two orders of magnitude in mass. We quantify the level of nonthermal pressure support in halos and demonstrate that hydrostatic mass estimates are biased low by 24% (10%) for halos of mass 10 15 (10 13 ) h -1 M⊙. Here, we compute angular power spectra for the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effects and find good agreement with the low-ℓ Planck measurements. Finally, artificial scattering between particles of unequal mass is shown to have a large impact on the gravity-only run, and we highlight the importance of better understanding this issue in hydrodynamic applications. This is the first in a simulation campaign using CRK-SPH, with future work including subresolution gas treatments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Comparative analysis of cosmological simulations via angular power spectra

Cosmology is the study of the universe's origin, large-scale structure, and dynamics. One such area of study is understanding dark energy and dark matter. Dark matter has not been observed to interact with luminous matter other than through gravitational attractions, forming large scale structures observed throughout the universe. In this area, the primary model is the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model. This standard model consists of cosmological dark energy (Λ), cold dark matter (CDM), and normal luminous matter. We use Angular Power Spectra (APS) to compare simulated ΛCDM models with observed large-scale galaxy distributions from the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey (DELVE). After ensuring that the simulations can produce APS which match observational results, we vary cosmological parameters to constrain the allowed ranges of parameter values that are consistent with the observed data.

Feithen, William↗

An empirical approach to model selection: weak lensing and intrinsic alignments

ABSTRACT In cosmology, we routinely choose between models to describe our data, and can incur biases due to insufficient models or lose constraining power with overly complex models. In this paper, we propose an empirical approach to model selection that explicitly balances parameter bias against model complexity. Our method uses synthetic data to calibrate the relation between bias and the χ2 difference between models. This allows us to interpret χ2 values obtained from real data (even if catalogues are blinded) and choose a model accordingly. We apply our method to the problem of intrinsic alignments – one of the most significant weak lensing systematics, and a major contributor to the error budget in modern lensing surveys. Specifically, we consider the example of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3), and compare the commonly used non-linear alignment (NLA) and tidal alignment and tidal torque (TATT) models. The models are calibrated against bias in the Ωm–S8 plane. Once noise is accounted for, we find that it is possible to set a threshold Δχ2 that guarantees an analysis using NLA is unbiased at some specified level Nσ and confidence level. By contrast, we find that theoretically defined thresholds (based on, e.g. p-values for χ2) tend to be overly optimistic, and do not reliably rule out cosmological biases up to ∼1–2σ. Considering the real DES Y3 cosmic shear results, based on the reported difference in χ2 from NLA and TATT analyses, we find a roughly $30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ chance that were NLA to be the fiducial model, the results would be biased (in the Ωm–S8 plane) by more than 0.3σ. More broadly, the method we propose here is simple and general, and requires a relatively low level of resources. We foresee applications to future analyses as a model selection tool in many contexts.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Testing the parametric model for self-interacting dark matter using matched halos in cosmological simulations

Here, we systemically evaluate the performance of the self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) halo model proposed in Ref.Yang et al. (2023) with matched halos from high-resolution cosmological CDM and SIDM simulations. The model incorporates SIDM effects along mass evolution histories of CDM halos and it is applicable to both isolated halos and subhalos. We focus on the accuracy of the model in predicting halo density profiles at z = 0 and the evolution of maximum circular velocity. We find the model predictions agree with the simulations within 10%–50% for most of the simulated (sub)halos, 50%–100% for extreme cases. This indicates that the model effectively captures the gravothermal evolution of the halos with very strong, velocity-dependent self-interactions. For an example application, we apply the model to study the impact of various SIDM scenarios on strong lensing perturber systems, demonstrating its utility in predicting SIDM effects for small-scale structure analyses. Our findings confirm that the model is an effective tool for mapping CDM halos into their SIDM counterparts.

Yang, Daneng [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing↗

Comparative Analysis of Cosmological Simulations via Angular Power Spectra

Cosmology is the study of the universe's origin, large-scale structure, and dynamics. One such area of study is understanding dark energy and dark matter. Dark matter has not been observed to interact with luminous matter other than through gravitational attractions, forming large scale structures observed throughout the universe. In this area, the primary model is the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model. This standard model consists of cosmological dark energy (Λ), cold dark matter (CDM), and normal luminous matter. We use angular power spectra (APS) to compare simulated ΛCDM models with observed large-scale galaxy distributions from the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey (DELVE) [1]. After ensuring that the simulations can produce APS that match observational results, we vary cosmological parameters to constrain the allowed ranges of parameter values that are consistent with the observed data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Decaying sterile neutrinos and the short baseline oscillation anomalies

The MiniBooNE experiment has observed a significant excess of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam, in conflict with standard neutrino oscillations. We discuss the possibility that this excess is explained by a sterile neutrino with a mass ~1 keV that decays quickly back into active neutrinos plus a new light boson. This scenario satisfies terrestrial and cosmological constraints because it has neutrino self-interactions built-in. Accommodating also the LSND, reactor, and gallium anomalies is possible, but requires an extension of the model to avoid cosmological limits.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

On the cosmological evolution of the X-ray emission from quasars

The average dependence of the ratio of X-ray luminosity to optical luminosity as a function of redshift and optical luminosity for quasars is derived, and it is found that the explicit dependence of this ratio is predominantly on optical luminosity. For a wide class of models for the cosmological evolution of quasars, the results imply that the evolution of the X-ray luminosity function is weaker than the evolution of the optical luminosity function. Implications for physical models of quasars and for global properties of the quasar population are indicated.

Avni, Y.↗