Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Galaxy kinematics”

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 127 records · Page 7

Massive star-forming galaxies have converted most of their halo gas into stars

In the local Universe, the efficiency for converting baryonic gas into stars is very low. In dark matter halos where galaxies form and evolve, the average efficiency varies with galaxy stellar mass and has a maximum of about 20% for Milky-Way-like galaxies. The low efficiency at higher mass is believed to be the result of some quenching processes, such as the feedback from active galactic nuclei. We perform an analysis of weak lensing and satellite kinematics for SDSS central galaxies. Our results reveal that the efficiency is much higher, more than 60%, for a large population of massive star-forming galaxies around 10 11 M ⊙ . This suggests that these galaxies acquired most of the gas in their halos and converted it into stars without being significantly affected by quenching processes. This population of galaxies is not reproduced in current galaxy formation models, indicating that our understanding of galaxy formation is incomplete. The implications of our results on circumgalactic media, star-formation quenching, and disk galaxy rotation curves are discussed. We also examine systematic uncertainties in halo-mass and stellar-mass measurements that might influence our results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Formation of S0s in extreme environments Ⅲ: the role of environment in the formation pathways

It is well established that there are at least two main channels to form lenticular (or S0) galaxies. The first, which we name ‘faded spiral’ scenario, includes quenching events that led to consumption or removal of gas from a spiral progenitor. The second, which we call ‘merger’ scenario, includes merger-like events and interactions between galaxies. Each scenario leaves characteristic signatures in the newly formed lenticular galaxy. However, the conditions that trigger one mechanism over another are still unknown. This paper is the third of a series aimed at understanding the role of the environment in the formation of lenticular galaxies. In this study, we combine the kinematics, morphology, and properties of the stellar populations of 329 S0s from the SAMI and MaNGA surveys in order to highlight the role of the environment in the process. We divide the S0s into two classes (A and B) according to their global properties, that we can associate to the products of a faded spiral scenario (class A) or a merger scenario (class B). Here we then study how the various classes are distributed within different environments. Our study reveals that the ‘faded spiral’ pathway is the most efficient channel to produce S0s, and it becomes more efficient as the mass of the group or cluster or local density of galaxies increase. The merger pathway is also a viable channel, and its efficiency becomes higher with decreasing local density or environment mass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Unravelling the orbits of cluster galaxy populations according to their dominant gas ionization source

ABSTRACT We investigate the kinematical and dynamical properties of cluster galaxy populations classified according to their dominant source of gas ionization, namely: star-forming (SF) galaxies, optical active galactic nuclei (AGNs), mixed SF plus AGN ionization (transition objects, T), and quiescent (Q) galaxies. We stack 8892 member galaxies from 336 relaxed galaxy clusters to build an ensemble cluster and estimate the observed projected profiles of numerical density and velocity dispersion, $\sigma _P(R)$, of each galaxy population. The MAMPOSSt code and the Jeans equations inversion technique are used to constrain the velocity anisotropy profiles of the galaxy populations in both parametric and non-parametric ways. We find that Q (SF) galaxies display the lowest (highest) typical cluster-centric distances and velocity dispersion values. Transition galaxies are more concentrated and tend to exhibit lower velocity dispersion values than SF galaxies. Galaxies that host an optical AGN are as concentrated as Q galaxies but display velocity dispersion values similar to those of the SF population. MAMPOSSt is able to find equilibrium solutions that successfully recover the observed $\sigma _P(R)$ profile only for the Q, T, and AGN populations. We find that the orbits of all populations are consistent with isotropy in the inner regions, becoming increasingly radial with the distance from the cluster centre. These results suggest that Q galaxies are in equilibrium within their clusters, while SF galaxies have more recently arrived in the cluster environment. Finally, the T and AGN populations appear to be in an intermediate dynamical state between those of the SF and Q populations.

Valk, Greique A. (ORCID:0009000827731299)↗

The kinematic properties of Milky Way stellar halo populations

ABSTRACT In the Gaia era, stellar kinematics are extensively used to study Galactic halo stellar populations, to search for halo structures, and to characterize the interface between the halo and hot disc populations. We use distribution function-based models of modern data sets with 6D phase space data to qualitatively describe a variety of kinematic spaces commonly used in the study of the Galactic halo. Furthermore, we quantitatively assess how well each kinematic space can separate radially anisotropic from isotropic halo populations. We find that scaled action space (the ‘action diamond’) is superior to other commonly used kinematic spaces at this task. We present a new, easy to implement selection criterion for members of the radially anisotropic Gaia–Enceladus merger remnant. Assuming a 1:1 ratio of Gaia–Enceladus stars to more isotropic halo, we find our selection achieves a sample purity of 86 per cent in our models with respect to contamination from the more isotropic halo. We compare this criterion to literature criteria, finding that it produces the highest purity in the resulting samples, at the expense of a modest reduction in completeness. We also show that selection biases that underlie nearly all contemporary spectroscopic data sets can noticeably impact the E−Lz distribution of samples in a manner that may be confused for real substructure. We conclude by providing recommendations for how authors should use stellar kinematics in the future to study the Galactic stellar halo.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Evidence for large baryonic feedback at low and intermediate redshifts from kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich observations with ACT and DESI photometric galaxies

Recent advances in cosmological observations have provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the distribution of baryons relative to the underlying matter. In this work, we show that the gas is more extended than the dark matter, and the amount of baryonic feedback at $z \lesssim 1$ disfavors low-feedback models such as that of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG compared with high-feedback models such as that of the original Illustris simulation. This has important implications for bridging the gap between theory and observations and understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Furthermore, a better grasp of the baryon-dark matter link is critical to future cosmological analyses, which are currently impeded by our limited knowledge of baryonic feedback. Here, we measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), stacked on the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) imaging survey. This is the first analysis to use photometric redshifts for reconstructing galaxy velocities. Due to the large number of galaxies comprising the DESI imaging survey, this is the highest signal-to-noise stacked kSZ measurement to date: we detect the signal at 13$σ$, finding strong evidence that the gas is more spread out than the dark matter, as well as a preference for larger feedback compared to some commonly used state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations. Here, our work opens up the possibility of recalibrating large hydrodynamical simulations using the kSZ effect. In addition, our findings highlight the importance of properly accounting for baryonic feedback with future surveys such as LSST through direct probes such as the kSZ, and shed light on long-standing enigmas in astrophysics, such as the “missing baryon” problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Weakly supervised anomaly detection in the Milky Way

ABSTRACT Large-scale astrophysics data sets present an opportunity for new machine learning techniques to identify regions of interest that might otherwise be overlooked by traditional searches. To this end, we demonstrate how Classification Without Labels (CWoLa), a weakly supervised anomaly detection method, can help identify cold stellar streams within the more than one billion Milky Way stars observed by the Gaia satellite. CWoLa operates without the use of labelled streams or knowledge of astrophysical principles. Instead, it uses a classifier to distinguish between mixed samples for which the proportions of signal and background samples are unknown. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that this computationally lightweight strategy is able to detect both simulated streams and the known stream GD-1 in data. Originally designed for high-energy collider physics, this technique may have broad applicability within astrophysics as well as other domains interested in identifying localized anomalies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Star-forming S0 Galaxies in SDSS-MaNGA: fading spirals or rejuvenated S0s?

ABSTRACT We investigate the origin of rare star formation in an otherwise red-and-dead population of S0 galaxies, using spatially resolved spectroscopy. Our sample consists of 120 low redshift (z < 0.1) star-forming S0 (SF-S0) galaxies from the SDSS-IV MaNGA DR15. We have selected this sample after a visual inspection of deep images from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys DR9 and the Subaru/HSC-SSP survey PDR3 to remove contamination from spiral galaxies. We also construct two control samples of star-forming spirals (SF-Sps) and quenched S0s (Q-S0s) to explore their evolutionary link with the star-forming S0s. To study star formation at resolved scales, we use dust-corrected H α luminosity and stellar density (Σ⋆) maps to construct radial profiles of star formation rate (SFR) surface density (ΣSFR) and specific SFR (sSFR). Examining these radial profiles, we find that star formation in SF-S0s is centrally dominated as opposed to disc-dominated star formation in spirals. We also compared various global (size–mass relation, bulge-to-total luminosity ratio) and local (central stellar velocity dispersion) properties of SF-S0s to those of the control sample galaxies. We find that SF-S0s are structurally similar to the quenched S0s and are different from star-forming spirals. We infer that SF-S0s are unlikely to be fading spirals. Inspecting stellar and gas velocity maps, we find that more than $50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the SF-S0 sample shows signs of recent galaxy interactions such as kinematic misalignment, counter-rotation, and unsettled kinematics. Based on these results, we conclude that in our sample of SF-S0s, star formation has been rejuvenated, with minor mergers likely to be a major driver.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Stars in the local galactic thick disc and halo in Gaia EDR3: a catalogue of half a million local main-sequence stars with photometric metallicities

We present a catalogue of 551 214 main-sequence stars in the local (d < 2 kpc) Galactic thick disc and halo, based on a search of stars with large proper motions ($\mu _{\rm tot} \gt 40.0~\rm mas\, yr^{-1}$) in the Gaia Early Data Release 3. We derive photometric metallicity calibrated from the colour–luminosity–metallicity distribution of 20 047 stars with spectroscopic metallicities, collected from various spectroscopic surveys, including SDSS SEGUE/APOGEE, GALAH DR3, and LAMOST DR6. We combine these results to construct an empirical colour–magnitude–metallicity grid, which can be used to estimate photometric metallicities for low-mass metal-poor stars of K and M subtypes from their absolute G magnitude and colour values. We find that low-mass, high-velocity stars in our catalogue share similar kinematics as reported in recent studies of more luminous Galactic halo stars. The pseudo-kinematic analysis of our sample recovers the main local halo structures, including the Gaia–Enceladus Stream and the Helmi stream; aside from these, the local halo stars appear to show a remarkably smooth distribution in velocity space. Since the future Gaia data release will provide radial velocity measurements for only a small number of our sample, our catalogue provides targets of high interest for the future spectroscopic observation programs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Star-forming S0 galaxies in the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey

ABSTRACT To investigate star-forming activities in early-type galaxies, we select a sample of 52 star-forming S0 galaxies (SFS0s) from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. We find that SFS0s have smaller stellar masses compared to normal S0s in MaNGA. After matching the stellar mass to select the control sample, we find that the mean Sérsic index of SFS0 bulges (1.76 ± 0.21) is significantly smaller than that of the control sample (2.57 ± 0.20), suggesting the existence of pseudo-bulges in SFS0s. After introducing the environmental information, SFS0s show smaller spin parameters in the field than in groups, while the control sample has no obvious difference in different environments, which may suggest different dynamical processes in SFS0s. Furthermore, with derived N/O and O/H abundance ratios, SFS0s in the field show nitrogen enrichment, providing evidence for the accretion of metal-poor gas in the field environment. To study the star-formation relation, we show that the slope of the spatially resolved star-formation main sequence is nearly 1.0 with MaNGA integral field unit data, confirming the self-regulation of star-formation activity on kpc scales.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Milky Way archaeology using RR Lyrae and type II Cepheids: II. High-velocity RR Lyrae stars and Milky Way mass

We report the discovery of high-velocity candidates among RR Lyrae stars found in the Milky Way halo. We identified nine RR Lyrae stars with Galactocentric velocities exceeding the local escape velocity based on the assumed Galaxy potential. Furthermore, based on a close examination of their orbits’, we ruled out their ejection location in the Milky Way disk and bulge. The spatial distribution revealed that seven out of nine pulsators overlap with the position of the Sagittarius stellar stream. Two out of these seven RR Lyrae stars can be tentatively linked to the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy on the basis of their orbits. Focusing on the high-velocity tail of the RR Lyrae velocity distribution, we estimated the escape velocity in the Solar neighborhood to be v esc = 512$_{-37}^{+94}$ km s -1 (4 to 12 kpc); and beyond the Solar neighborhood as v esc = 436$_{-22}^{+44}$ km s -1 and v esc = 393$_{-26}^{+53}$ km s -1 (for distances between 12 to 20 kpc and 20 to 28 kpc), respectively. We utilized three escape velocity estimates together with the local circular velocity to estimate the Milky Way mass. The resulting measurement M 200 = 0.83$_{-0.16}^{+0.29}$ x 10 12 M ⊙ falls on the lower end of the current Milky Way mass estimates, but once corrected for the likely bias in the escape velocity (an increase of approximately 10% in terms of the escape velocity), our mass estimate yields M 200 = 1.26$_{-0.22}^{+0.40}$ x 10 12 M ⊙ which is in agreement with estimates based on different diagnostics of the Milky Way (MW) mass. The MW mass of within 20 kpc then corresponds to M MW (r , 20 kpc) = 1.9$_{-0.1}^{+0.2}$ x 10 11 M ⊙ without any correction for bias, and M MW (r , 20 kpc) = 2.1$_{-0.1}^{+0.2}$ x 10 11 M ⊙ corrected for a likely offset in escape velocities.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Milky Way’s middle-aged inner ring

Aims. We investigate the metallicity, age, and orbital anatomy of the inner Milky Way, specifically focussing on the outer bar region. Methods. We integrated a sample of APOGEE DR16 inner Galaxy stars in a state of the art bar-bulge potential with a slow pattern speed and investigated the link between the resulting orbits and their [Fe/H] and ages. By superimposing the orbits, we built density, [Fe/H], and age maps of the inner Milky Way, which we divided further using the orbital parameters eccentricity, |Xmax|, and |Zmax|. Results. We find that at low heights from the Galactic plane, the Galactic bar gradually transitions into a radially thick, vertically thin, elongated inner ring with average solar [Fe/H]. This inner ring is mainly composed of stars with AstroNN ages between 4 and 9 Gyr with a peak in age between 6 and 8 Gyr, making the average age of the ring ~6 Gyr. The vertical thickness of the ring decreases markedly towards younger ages. We also find very large L4 Lagrange orbits that have average solar to super-solar metallicities and intermediate ages. Lastly, we confirm a clear X-shape in the [Fe/H] and density distributions at large Galactic heights. Conclusions. The orbital structure obtained for the APOGEE stars reveals that the Milky Way hosts an inner ring-like structure between the planar bar and corotation. This structure is on average metal rich, intermediately aged, and enhances the horizontal metallicity gradient along the bar’s major axis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

An AMUSING look at the host of the periodic nuclear transient ASASSN-14ko reveals a second AGN

ABSTRACT We present Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) integral-field spectroscopy of ESO 253−G003, which hosts a known active galactic nucleus (AGN) and the periodic nuclear transient ASASSN-14ko, observed as part of the All-weather MUse Supernova Integral-field of Nearby Galaxies survey. The MUSE observations reveal that the inner region hosts two AGN separated by $1.4\pm 0.1~\rm {kpc}$ (≈1${_{.}^{\prime\prime}}$7). The brighter nucleus has asymmetric broad permitted emission-line profiles and is associated with the archival AGN designation. The fainter nucleus does not have a broad emission-line component but exhibits other AGN characteristics, including $\hbox{$v_{\rm {FWHM}}$} \approx 700~\hbox{km~s$^{-1}$}$ forbidden line emission, $\rm{\log _{10}(\rm{[O\,\small {III}]}/\rm{H\beta})} \approx 1.1$, and high-excitation potential emission lines, such as [Fe vii] λ6086 and He ii λ4686. The host galaxy exhibits a disturbed morphology with large kpc-scale tidal features, potential outflows from both nuclei, and a likely superbubble. A circular relativistic disc model cannot reproduce the asymmetric broad emission-line profiles in the brighter nucleus, but two non-axisymmetric disc models provide good fits to the broad emission-line profiles: an elliptical disc model and a circular disc + spiral arm model. Implications for the periodic nuclear transient ASASSN-14ko are discussed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Using action space clustering to constrain the recent accretion history of Milky Way-like galaxies

ABSTRACT In the currently favoured cosmological paradigm galaxies form hierarchically through the accretion of satellites. Since a satellite is less massive than the host, its stars occupy a smaller volume in action space. Actions are conserved when the potential of the host halo changes adiabatically, so stars from an accreted satellite would remain clustered in action space as the host evolves. In this paper, we identify recently disrupted accreted satellites in three Milky Way-like disc galaxies from the cosmological baryonic FIRE-2 simulations by tracking satellites through simulation snapshots. We try to recover these satellites by applying the cluster analysis algorithm Enlink to the orbital actions of accreted star particles in the z = 0 snapshot. Even with completely error-free mock data we find that only 35 per cent (14/39) satellites are well recovered while the rest (25/39) are poorly recovered (i.e. either contaminated or split up). Most (10/14 ∼70 per cent) of the well-recovered satellites have infall times <7.1 Gyr ago and total mass >4 × 108M⊙ (stellar mass more than 1.2 × 106 M⊙, although our upper mass limit is likely to be resolution dependent). Since cosmological simulations predict that stellar haloes include a population of in situ stars, we test our ability to recover satellites when the data include 10–50 per cent in situ contamination. We find that most previously well-recovered satellites stay well recovered even with 50 per cent contamination. With the wealth of 6D phase space data becoming available we expect that cluster analysis in action space will be useful in identifying the majority of recently accreted and moderately massive satellites in the Milky Way.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Arp 58 and Arp 68: two M 51-type systems

ABSTRACT We study two M 51-type systems Arp 68 and Arp 58, which strongly differ by their stellar masses, gas content, and environment. Long-slit spectral observations obtained at the Russian 6-m telescope were used to trace the distributions of a line-of-sight (LOS) velocity and a gas-phase oxygen abundance along the spectral cuts. Two systems are compared by their observed properties. We found a very strong large-scale non-circular motion of gas in both systems and a kpc-size saw-edged velocity profile along the tidal spiral arm of Arp 68, probably caused by the gas outflow due to the stellar feedback. A deep decrease of LOS velocity is also found in the ‘hinge’ region in Arp 58, where the inner spiral arm transforms into the tidal spiral arm, which was predicted earlier for M 51-type galaxies. Local sites of star formation and the satellites are compared with the evolutionary models at the colour–colour diagrams. Unlike the spiral galaxy Arp 58, the main galaxy in Arp 68 system is experiencing an ongoing burst of star formation. Gas-phase metallicity estimates show that Arp 58 has a higher metal abundance and reveals a shallow negative radial gradient of the gas-phase oxygen abundance. The emission gas in Arp 68 has noticeably lower metallicity than it is expected for a given luminosity of this galaxy, which may be connected with its space position in the local void.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Sub-percentage measure of distances to redshift of 0.1 by a new cosmic ruler

ABSTRACT Distance-redshift diagrams probe expansion history of the Universe. We show that the stellar mass-binding energy (massE) relation of galaxies proposed in our previous study offers a new distance ruler at cosmic scales. By using elliptical galaxies in the main galaxy sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we construct a distance-redshift diagram over the redshift range from 0.05 to 0.2 with the massE ruler. The best-fit dark energy density is 0.675 ± 0.079 for flat Λ-cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, consistent with those by other probes. At the median redshift of 0.11, the median distance is estimated to have a fractional error of 0.34 per cent, much lower than those by supernova (SN) Ia and baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) and even exceeding their future capability at this redshift. The above low-$\mathit{ z}$ measurement is useful for probing dark energy that dominates at the late Universe. For a flat dark energy equation of state model (flat wCDM), the massE alone constrains w to an error that is only a factor of 2.2, 1.7, and 1.3 times larger than those by BAO, SN Ia, and cosmic microwave background (CMB), respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Wet compaction to a blue nugget: a critical phase in galaxy evolution

ABSTRACT We utilize high-resolution cosmological simulations to reveal that high-redshift galaxies tend to undergo a robust ‘wet compaction’ event when near a ‘golden’ stellar mass of $\sim \!\!10^{10}\, \rm M_\odot$ . This is a gaseous shrinkage to a compact star-forming phase, a ‘blue nugget’ (BN), followed by central quenching of star formation to a compact passive stellar bulge, a ‘red nugget’ (RN), and a buildup of an extended gaseous disc and ring. Such nuggets are observed at cosmic noon and seed today’s early-type galaxies. The compaction is triggered by a drastic loss of angular momentum due to, e.g. wet mergers, counter-rotating cold streams, or violent disc instability. The BN phase marks drastic transitions in the galaxy structural, compositional, and kinematic properties. The transitions are from star forming to quenched inside-out, from diffuse to compact with an extended disc or ring and a stellar envelope, from dark matter to baryon central dominance, from prolate to oblate stellar shape, from pressure to rotation support, from low to high metallicity, and from supernova to AGN feedback. The central black hole growth, first suppressed by supernova feedback when below the golden mass, is boosted by the compaction, and the black hole keeps growing once the halo is massive enough to lock in the supernova ejecta.

Lapiner, Sharon (ORCID:0009000409733232)↗

Nearby stellar substructures in the Galactic halo from DESI Milky Way Survey Year 1 Data Release

We report five nearby ($d_{\mathrm{helio}} < 5$ kpc) stellar substructures in the Galactic halo from a subset of 138 661 stars in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Milky Way Survey Year 1 Data Release. With an unsupervised clustering algorithm, HDBSCAN*, these substructures are independently identified in Integrals of Motion ($E_{\rm tot}$, $L_{\rm z}$, $\log {J_r}$, $\log {J_z}$) space and Galactocentric cylindrical velocity space ($V_{R}$, $V_{\phi }$, $V_{z}$). We associate all identified clusters with known nearby substructures (Helmi streams, M18-Cand10/MMH-1, Sequoia, Antaeus, and ED-2) previously reported in various studies. With metallicities precisely measured by DESI, we confirm that the Helmi streams, M18-Cand10, and ED-2 are chemically distinct from local halo stars. We have characterized the chemodynamic properties of each dynamic group, including their metallicity dispersions, to associate them with their progenitor types (globular cluster or dwarf galaxy). Our approach for searching substructures with HDBSCAN* reliably detects real substructures in the Galactic halo, suggesting that applying the same method can lead to the discovery of new substructures in future DESI data. With more stars from future DESI data releases and improved astrometry from the upcoming Gaia Data Release 4, we will have a more detailed blueprint of the Galactic halo, offering a significant improvement in our understanding of the formation and evolutionary history of the Milky Way Galaxy.

dynamics↗

An Improved Measurement of the Secondary Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies from the SPT-SZ + SPTpol Surveys

We report new measurements of millimeter-wave power spectra in the angular multipole range 2000 ≤ ℓ ≤ 11,000 (angular scales ). By adding 95 and 150 GHz data from the low-noise 500 deg 2 SPTpol survey to the SPT-SZ three-frequency 2540 deg 2 survey, we substantially reduce the uncertainties in these bands. These power spectra include contributions from the primary cosmic microwave background, cosmic infrared background, radio galaxies, and thermal and kinematic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effects. The data favor a thermal SZ (tSZ) power at 143 GHz of and a kinematic SZ (kSZ) power of . This is the first measurement of kSZ power at ≥3 σ . However, different assumptions about the CIB or SZ models can reduce the significance down to 2.4 σ in the worst case. We study the implications of the measured kSZ power for the epoch of reionization under the Calabrese et al. model for the kSZ power spectrum and find the duration of reionization to be ( at 95% confidence), when combined with our previously published tSZ bispectrum measurement. The upper limit tightens to if the assumed homogeneous kSZ power is increased by 25% (~0.5 μ K 2 ) and relaxes to if the homogeneous kSZ power is decreased by the same amount.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗