One-electron atoms in screened modified gravity [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05659

In a large class of scalar-tensor theories that are potential candidates for dark energy, a non-minimal coupling between the scalar and the photon is possible. The presence of such an interaction grants us the exciting prospect of directly observing dark sector phenomenology in the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper investigates the behavior of one-electron atoms in this class of modified gravity models, exploring their viability as probes of deviations from general relativity in both laboratory and astrophysical settings. Building heavily on earlier studies, our main contribution is threefold: a thorough analysis finds additional fine structure corrections previously unaccounted for, which now predict a contribution to the Lamb shift larger by nearly four orders of magnitude. Secondly, we include the effects of the nuclear magnetic moment, allowing for the study of hyperfine structure and the 21 cm line, which hitherto have been unexplored in this context. Finally, we also examine how a background scalar leads to equivalence principle violations.

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L. Wong and A. Davis
Fri, 17 Mar 17
2/50

Comments: 10 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to PRD

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Primordial anisotropies from cosmic strings during inflation [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05714

In this work we study the imprints of a primordial cosmic string on inflationary power spectrum. Cosmic string induces two distinct contributions on curvature perturbations power spectrum. The first type of correction respects the translation invariance while violating isotropy. This generates quadrupolar statistical anisotropy in CMB maps which is constrained by the Planck data. The second contribution breaks both homogeneity and isotropy, generating a dipolar power asymmetry in variance of temperature fluctuations with its amplitude falling on small scales. We show that the strongest constraint on the tension of string is obtained from the quadrupolar anisotropy and argue that the mass scale of underlying theory responsible for the formation of string can not be much higher than the GUT scale. The predictions of string for the diagonal and off-diagonal components of CMB angular power spectrum are presented.

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S. Jazayeri, A. Sadr and H. Firouzjahi
Fri, 17 Mar 17
3/50

Comments: 25 pages, 6 figures

Constraining holographic cosmology using Planck data [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05385

Holographic cosmology offers a novel framework for describing the very early Universe in which cosmological predictions are expressed in terms of the observables of a three dimensional quantum field theory (QFT). This framework includes conventional slow-roll inflation, which is described in terms of a strongly coupled QFT, but it also allows for qualitatively new models for the very early Universe, where the dual QFT may be weakly coupled. The new models describe a universe which is non-geometric at early times. While standard slow-roll inflation leads to a (near-)power-law primordial power spectrum, perturbative superrenormalizable QFT’s yield a new holographic spectral shape. Here, we compare the two predictions against cosmological observations. We use CosmoMC to determine the best fit parameters, and MultiNest for Bayesian Evidence, comparing the likelihoods. We find that the dual QFT should be non-perturbative at the very low multipoles ($l \lesssim 30$), while for higher multipoles ($l \gtrsim 30$) the new holographic model, based on perturbative QFT, fits the data just as well as the standard power-law spectrum assumed in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. This finding opens the door to applications of non-perturbative QFT techniques, such as lattice simulations, to observational cosmology on gigaparsec scales and beyond.

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N. Afshordi, E. Gould and K. Skenderis
Fri, 17 Mar 17
9/50

Comments: 25 pages, 10 figures

A cross-correlation-based estimate of the galaxy luminosity function [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05326

We extend existing methods for using cross-correlations to derive redshift distributions for photometric galaxies, without using photometric redshifts. The model presented in this paper simultaneously yields highly accurate and unbiased redshift distributions and, for the first time, redshift-dependent luminosity functions, using only clustering information and the apparent magnitudes of the galaxies as input. In contrast to many existing techniques for recovering unbiased redshift distributions, the output of our method is not degenerate with the galaxy bias b(z), which is achieved by modelling the shape of the luminosity bias. We successfully apply our method to a mock galaxy survey and discuss the potential application of our model to real data.

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M. Daalen and M. White
Fri, 17 Mar 17
12/50

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

An extension of the Planck galaxy cluster catalogue [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05597

We present a catalogue of galaxy clusters detected in the Planck all-sky Compton parameter maps and identified using data from the WISE and SDSS surveys. The catalogue comprises about 3000 clusters in the SDSS fields. We expect the completeness of this catalogue to be high for clusters with masses larger than M_500 =~ 3×10^14 Msun, located at redshifts z<0.7. At redshifts above z=~0.4, the catalogue contains approximately an order of magnitude more clusters than the 2nd Planck Catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources in the same fields of the sky. This catalogue can be used for identification of massive galaxy clusters in future large cluster surveys, such as the SRG/eROSITA all-sky X-ray survey.

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R. Burenin
Fri, 17 Mar 17
31/50

Comments: Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters

Velocity-Density Correlations from the cosmicflows-3 Distance Catalog and the 2MASS Redshift Survey [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05324

The peculiar velocity of a mass tracer is on average aligned with the dipole modulation of the surrounding mass density field. We present a first measurement of the correlation between radial peculiar velocities of objects in the cosmicflows-3 catalog and the dipole moment of the 2MRS galaxy distribution in concentric spherical shells centered on these objects. Limiting the analysis to cosmicflows-3 objects with distances of $100 \rm Mpc h^{-1}$, the correlation function is detected at a confidence level $> 4\sigma$. The measurement is found consistent with the standard $\Lambda$CDM model at $< 1.7\sigma$ level. We formally derive the constraints $0.32<\Omega^{0.55}\sigma_8<0.48$ ($68\% $ confidence level) or equivalently $0.34<\Omega^{0.55}/b<0.52$, where $b$ is the galaxy bias factor. Deeper and improved peculiar velocity catalogs will substantially reduce the uncertainties, allowing tighter constraints from this type of correlations.

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A. Nusser
Fri, 17 Mar 17
40/50

Comments: 10 pages, 7 figures

Simulations of the Galaxy Cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 I: Thermal Model and Shock Properties [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05682

The giant radio relic in CIZA J2242.8+5301 is likely evidence of a Mpc sized shock in a massive merging galaxy cluster. However, the exact shock properties are still not clearly determined. In particular, the Mach number derived from the integrated radio spectrum exceeds the Mach number derived from the X-ray temperature jump by a factor of two. We present here a numerical study, aiming for a model that is consistent with the majority of observations of this galaxy cluster. We first show that in the northern shock upstream X-ray temperature and radio data are consistent with each other. We then derive progenitor masses for the system using standard density profiles, X-ray properties and the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. We find a class of models that is roughly consistent with weak lensing data, radio data and some of the X-ray data. Assuming a cool-core versus non-cool-core merger, we find a fiducial model with a total mass of $1.6 \times 10^{15}\,M_\odot$, a mass ratio of 1.76 and a Mach number that is consistent with estimates from the radio spectrum. We are not able to match X-ray derived Mach numbers, because even low mass models over-predict the X-ray derived shock speeds. We argue that deep X-ray observations of CIZA J2242.8+5301 will be able to test our model and potentially reconcile X-ray and radio derived Mach numbers in relics.

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J. Donnert, A. Beck, K. Dolag, et. al.
Fri, 17 Mar 17
48/50

Comments: 19 pages, 19 figures

Growth and dissolution of spherical density enhancements in SCDEW cosmologies [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05141

Strongly Coupled Dark Energy plus Warm dark matter (SCDEW) cosmologies are based on the finding of a conformally invariant (CI) attractor solution during the early radiative expansion, requiring then the stationary presence of $\sim 1\, \%$ of coupled-DM and DE, since inflationary reheating. In these models, coupled-DM fluctuations, even in the early radiative expansion, grow up to non-linearity, as shown in a previous associated paper. Such early non-linear stages are modelized here through the evolution of a top-hat density enhancement. As expected, its radius $R$ increases up to a maximum and then starts to decrease. Virial balance is reached when the coupled-DM density contrast is just 25-26 and DM density enhancement is $\cal O$$(10\, \%)$ of total density. We show that this is not an equilibrium configuration, for a fluctuation of coupled-DM as, afterwards, $R$ restarts to increase, until the fluctuation dissolves. We estimate the duration of the whole process, from horizon crossing to dissolution, and find $z_{horizon}/z_{erasing} \sim 3 \times 10^4$. Therefore, only fluctuations entering the horizon at $z \lesssim 10^9$-$10^{10}$ are able to accrete WDM with mass $\sim 100\, $eV -as soon as it becomes non-relativistic- so avoiding full disruption. Accordingly, SCDEW cosmologies, whose WDM has mass $\sim 100\, $eV, can preserve primeval fluctuations down to stellar mass scale.

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S. Bonometto and R. Mainini
Thu, 16 Mar 17
3/92

Comments: 16 pages, 8 figures

A search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04884

We report the result of a search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations. Both cases of massless and massive sterile neutrinos are considered in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. The cosmological observations used in this work include the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts data, the Planck lensing data, and the cosmic shear data. We find that the current observational data give a hint of the existence of massless sterile neutrino (as dark radiation) at the 1.44$\sigma$ level, and the consideration of an extra massless sterile neutrino can indeed relieve the tension between observations and improve the cosmological fit. For the case of massive sterile neutrino, the observations give a rather tight upper limit on the mass, which implies that actually a massless sterile neutrino is more favored. Our result is consistent with the recent result of neutrino oscillation experiment done by the Daya Bay and MINOS collaborations, as well as the recent result of cosmic ray experiment done by the IceCube collaboration.

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L. Feng, J. Zhang and X. Zhang
Thu, 16 Mar 17
19/92

Comments: 15 pages, 4 figures

Comment on "Strong Evidence for the Normal Neutrino Hierarchy" [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04585

In the preprint arxiv:1703.03425 “strong evidence” for the normal neutrino mass ordering is claimed. The authors obtain Bayesian odds of 42:1 in favour of the normal ordering. Their conclusion is based on adopting a flat logarithmic prior for the three neutrino masses. Such an assumption favours a hierarchical spectrum for the masses, which is much easier to accommodate for the normal mass ordering, and hence their prior assumption makes the inverted ordering much less likely a priori. We argue that the claimed “evidence” for normal ordering is almost entirely driven by the adopted prior and not due to the data itself.

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T. Schwetz, K. Freese, M. Gerbino, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
27/92

Comments: 2 pages, no figures, comment on arXiv:1703.03425

A general explanation on the correlation of dark matter halo spin with the large scale environment [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04726

Both simulations and observations have found that the spin of halo/galaxy is correlated with the large scale environment, and particularly the spin of halo flips in filament. A consistent picture of halo spin evolution in different environments is still lacked. Using N-body simulation we find that halo spin with its environment evolves continuously from sheet to cluster, and the flip of halo spin happens both in filament and nodes. For the flip in filament can be explained by halo formation time and the migrating time when its environment changes from sheet to filament. For low-mass haloes, they form first in sheets and migrate into filaments later, so their mass and spin growth inside filament are lower, and the original spin is still parallel to filament. For massive haloes, they migrate into filaments first, and most of their mass and spin growth are obtained in filaments, so the resulted spin is perpendicular to filament. Our results well explain the overall evolution of cosmic web in the cold dark matter model and can be tested using high-redshift data. The scenario can also be tested against alternative models of dark matter, such as warm/hot dark matter, where the structure formation will proceed in a different way.

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P. Wang and X. Kang
Thu, 16 Mar 17
31/92

Comments: 5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted by MNRAS Letters

Constraints on long-lived electrically charged massive particles from anomalous strong lens systems [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05145

We investigate anomalous strong lens systems, particularly the effects of weak lensing by structures in the line of sight, in models with long-lived electrically charged massive particles (CHAMPs). In such models, matter density perturbations are suppressed through the acoustic damping and the flux ratio of lens systems are impacted, from which we can constrain the nature of CHAMPs. For this purpose, first we perform $N$-body simulations and develop a fitting formula to obtain non-linear matter power spectra in models where cold neutral dark matter and CHAMPs coexist in the early Universe. By using the observed anomalous quadruple lens samples, we obtained the constraints on the lifetime ($\tau_{\rm Ch}$) and the mass density fraction ($r_{\rm Ch}$) of CHAMPs. We show that, for $r_{\rm Ch}=1$, the lifetime is bounded as $\tau_{\rm Ch} < 0.96\,$yr (95% confidence level), while a longer lifetime $\tau_{\rm Ch} = 10\,$yr is allowed when $r_{\rm Ch} < 0.5$ at the 95% confidence level. Implications of our result for particle physics models are also discussed.

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A. Kamada, K. Inoue, K. Kohri, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
38/92

Comments: 20 pages, 6 figures

Cosmic Voids in Evolving Dark Sector Cosmologies: the Low Redshift Universe [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04885

We present a comparison of void properties between the standard model of cosmology, $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM), and two alternative cosmological models with evolving and interacting dark sectors: a quintessence model ($\phi$CDM) and a Coupled Dark Matter-Dark Energy (CDE) model. Using $N$-body simulations of these models, we derive several measures of void statistics and properties, including distributions of void volume, ellipticity, prolateness, and average density. We find that the volume distribution derived from the CDE simulation deviates from the volume distribution derived from the $\Lambda$CDM simulation in the present-day universe, suggesting that the presence of a coupled dark sector could be observable through this statistic. We also find that the distributions of void ellipticity and prolateness are practically indistinguishable among the three models over the redshift range $z=0.0-1.0$, indicating that simple void shape statistics are insensitive to small changes in dark sector physics. Interestingly, we find that the distributions of average void density measured in each of the three simulations are distinct from each other. In particular, voids on average tend to be emptiest under a quintessence model, and densest under the $\Lambda$CDM model. Our results suggest that it is the scalar field present in both alternative models that causes emptier voids to form, while the coupling of the dark sector mitigates this effect by slowing down the evacuation of matter from voids.

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E. Adermann, P. Elahi, G. Lewis, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
41/92

Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS

First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$α$ forest data and hydrodynamical simulations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04683

We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of $\sim 1$ kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman-$\alpha$ flux power spectrum in these models and compare with the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the IGM that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to $5000\rm\,K$, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of $7.1\times 10^{-22}$ eV, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of $14.3\times 10^{-22}$ eV, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of $20\times 10^{-22}$ eV (2$\sigma$ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to $37.5\times 10^{-22}$ eV (2$\sigma$ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power-law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range $1-10 \times10^{-22}$ eV are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts on suggestions of significant astrophysical implications of FDM, in particular for solving the “small scale crisis” of cold dark matter models.

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V. Irsic, M. Viel, M. Haehnelt, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
45/92

Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures

A Preferred Mass Range for Primordial Black Hole Formation and Black Holes as Dark Matter Revisited [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04825

Bird, et. al. and Sasaki, et. al. have recently proposed the intriguing possibility that the black holes detected by LIGO could be all or part of the cosmological dark matter. This offers an alternative to WIMPs and axions, where dark matter could be comprised solely of Standard Model particles. The mass range lies within an observationally viable window and the predicted merger rate can be tested by future LIGO observations. In this paper, we argue that non-thermal histories favor production of black holes near this mass range — with heavier ones unlikely to form in the early universe and lighter black holes being diluted through late-time entropy production. We discuss how this prediction depends on the primordial power spectrum, the likelihood of black hole formation, and the underlying model parameters. We find the prediction for the preferred mass range to be rather robust assuming a blue spectral index less than two. We consider the resulting relic density in black holes, and using recent observational constraints, establish whether they could account for all of the dark matter today.

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J. Georg and S. Watson
Thu, 16 Mar 17
46/92

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures

Strongly Coupled Dark Energy with Warm dark matter vs. LCDM [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05139

Cosmologies including strongly Coupled (SC) Dark Energy (DE) and Warm dark matter (SCDEW) are based on a conformally invariant (CI) attractor solution modifying the early radiative expansion. Then, aside of radiation, a kinetic field $\Phi$ and a DM component account for a stationary fraction, $\sim 1\, \%$, of the total energy. SCDEW models alleviate conceptual problem of LCDM, while recovering its results, and even easing some LCDM problems, below the average galaxy scale. The CI expansion begins at the inflation end, when $\Phi$ (future DE) possibly plays a role in reheating, and ends at the Higgs’ scale. Afterwards, a number of viable options is open, allowing for the transition from the CI expansion to the present Universe. In this paper: (i) We show how the attractor is recovered when the spin degrees of freedom decreases. (ii) We perform a detailed comparison of CMB anisotropy and polarization spectra for SCDEW and LCDM, including tensor components, finding negligible discrepancies. (iii) Linear spectra exhibit a greater parameter dependence at large $k$’s, but are still consistent with data for suitable parameter choices. (iv) We also compare previous simulation results with fresh data on galaxy concentration. Finally, (v) we outline numerical difficulties at high $k$. This motivates a second related paper, where such problems are treated in a quantitative way.

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S. Bonometto, M. Mezzetti and R. Mainini
Thu, 16 Mar 17
55/92

Comments: 23 pages, 10 figures

Redshift drift of gravitational lensing [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05142

We investigate the effect of the redshift drift in strong gravitational lensing. The redshift drift produces a time variation of $i)$ the apparent position of a lensed source and $ii)$ the time delay among incoming signals from different images. We dub these effects as angular drift and time delay drift, respectively, and analyze their relevance in cosmology.

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O. Piattella and L. Giani
Thu, 16 Mar 17
67/92

Comments: 4 pages, 1 figure

Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation X. The small contribution of quasars to reionization [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04895

Motivated by recent measurements of the number density of faint AGN at high redshift, we investigate the contribution of quasars to reionization by tracking the growth of central supermassive black holes in an update of the {\sc Meraxes} semi-analytic model. The model is calibrated against the observed stellar mass function at $z{\sim}0.6{-}7$, the black hole mass function at $z{\lesssim}0.5$, the global ionizing emissivity at $z{\sim}2{-}5$, and the Thomson scattering optical depth. The model reproduces a Magorrian relation in agreement with observations at $z{<}0.5$, and predicts a decreasing black hole mass towards higher redshifts at fixed total stellar mass. With the implementation of an opening angle of $80$ degrees for quasar radiation, corresponding to an observable fraction of ${\sim}23.4$ per cent due to obscuration by dust, the model is able to reproduce the observed quasar luminosity function at $z{\sim}0.6{-}6$. The stellar light from galaxies hosting faint AGN contributes a significant or dominant fraction of the UV flux. At high redshift, the model is consistent with the bright end quasar luminosity function and suggests that the recent faint $z{\sim}4$ AGN sample compiled by \citet{Giallongo2015} includes a significant fraction of stellar light. Direct application of this luminosity function to the calculation of AGN ionizing emissivity consequently overestimates the number of ionizing photons produced by quasars by a factor of 3 at $z{\sim}6$. We conclude that quasars are unlikely to make a significant contribution to reionization.

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Y. Qin, S. Mutch, G. Poole, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
78/92

Comments: 20 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments are welcome

Priors on the effective Dark Energy equation of state in scalar-tensor theories [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05297

Constraining the Dark Energy (DE) equation of state, w, is one of the primary science goals of ongoing and future cosmological surveys. In practice, with imperfect data and incomplete redshift coverage, this requires making assumptions about the evolution of w with redshift z. These assumptions can be manifested in a choice of a specific parametric form, which can potentially bias the outcome, or else one can reconstruct w(z) non-parametrically, by specifying a prior covariance matrix that correlates values of w at different redshifts. In this work, we derive the theoretical prior covariance for the effective DE equation of state predicted by general scalar-tensor theories with second order equations of motion (Horndeski theories). This is achieved by generating a large ensemble of possible scalar-tensor theories using a Monte Carlo methodology, including the application of physical viability conditions. We also separately consider the special sub-case of the minimally coupled scalar field, or quintessence. The prior shows a preference for tracking behaviors in the most general case. Given the covariance matrix, theoretical priors on parameters of any specific parametrization of w(z) can also be readily derived by projection.

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M. Raveri, P. Bull, A. Silvestri, et. al.
Thu, 16 Mar 17
83/92

Comments: 13 pages, 5 figures

Degeneracy in the spectrum and bispectrum among featured inflaton potentials [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04621

We study the degeneracy of the primordial spectrum and bispectrum of the curvature perturbation in single field inflationary models with a class of features in the inflaton potential. The feature we consider is a discontinuous change in the shape of the potential and is controlled by a couple of parameters that describe the strength of the discontinuity and the change in the potential shape. This feature produces oscillations of the spectrum and bispectrum around the comoving scale $k=k_0$ that exits the horizon when the inflaton passes the discontinuity. We find that the effects on the spectrum and almost all configurations of the bispectrum including the squeezed limit depend on a single quantity which is a function of the two parameters defining the feature. This leads to a degeneracy, i.e. different features of the inflaton potential can produce the same observational effects. However, we find that the degeneracy in the bispectrum is removed at the equilateral limit around $k=k_0$. This can be used to discriminate different models which give the same spectrum.

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A. Cadavid, A. Romano and M. Sasaki
Thu, 16 Mar 17
84/92

Comments: N/A

The igmspec Database of Public Spectra Probing the Intergalactic Medium [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04695

We describe v02 of igmspec, a database of publically available ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared spectra that probe the intergalactic medium (IGM). This database, a child of the specdb repository in the specdb github organization, comprises 403277 unique sources and 434686 spectra obtained with the world’s greatest observatories. All of these data are distributed in a single ~25 GB HDF5 file maintained at the University of California Observatories and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The specdb software package includes Python scripts and modules for searching the source catalog and spectral datasets, and software links to the linetools package for spectral analysis. The repository also includes software to generate private spectral datasets that are compliant with International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) protocols and a Python-based interface for IVOA Simple Spectral Access queries. Future versions of igmspec will ingest other sources (e.g. gamma-ray burst afterglows) and other surveys as they become publicly available. The overall goal is to include every spectrum that effectively probes the IGM. Future databases of specdb may include publicly available galaxy spectra (exgalspec) and published supernovae spectra (snspec). The community is encouraged to join the effort on github: https://github.com/specdb

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J. Prochaska
Thu, 16 Mar 17
90/92

Comments: Accepted to Astronomy & Computing; 21 pages, 1 figure; join this https URL and clone this https URL

Massive Fields as Systematics for Single Field Inflation [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04477

During inflation, massive fields can contribute to the power spectrum of curvature perturbation via a dimension-5 operator. This contribution can be considered as a bias for the program of using $n_s$ and $r$ to select inflation models. Even the dimension-5 operator is suppressed by $\Lambda = M_p$, there is still a significant shift on the $n_s$-$r$ diagram if the massive fields have $m\sim H$. On the other hand, if the heavy degree of freedom appear only at the same energy scale as the suppression scale of the dimension-5 operator, then significant shift on the $n_s$-$r$ diagram takes place at $m=\Lambda \sim 70H$, which is around the inflationary time-translation symmetry breaking scale. Hence, the systematics from massive fields pose a greater challenge for future high precision experiments for inflationary model selection. This result can be thought of as the impact of UV sensitivity to inflationary observables.

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H. Jiang and Y. Wang
Tue, 14 Mar 17
11/74

Comments: 11 pages, 3 figures

Mass function of galaxy clusters in relativistic inhomogeneous cosmology [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04189

The current cosmological model ($\Lambda$CDM) with the underlying FLRW metric relies on the assumption of local isotropy, hence homogeneity of the Universe. Difficulties arise when one attempts to justify this model as an average description of the Universe from first principles of general relativity, since in general, the Einstein tensor built from the averaged metric is not equal to the averaged stress–energy tensor. In this context, the discrepancy between these quantities is called “cosmological backreaction” and has been the subject of scientific debate among cosmologists and relativists for more than $20$ years. Here we present one of the methods to tackle this problem, i.e. averaging the scalar parts of the Einstein equations, together with its application, the cosmological mass function of galaxy clusters.

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J. Ostrowski, T. Buchert and B. Roukema
Tue, 14 Mar 17
27/74

Comments: 4 pages, 1 figure

Is the cosmological dark sector better modeled by a generalized Chaplygin gas or by a scalar field? [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04149

Both scalar fields and (generalized) Chaplygin gases have been widely used separately to characterize the dark sector of the Universe. Here we investigate the cosmological background dynamics for a mixture of both these components and quantify the fractional abundances that are admitted by observational data from supernovae of type Ia and from the evolution of the Hubble rate.

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S. Campo, J. Fabris, R. Herrera, et. al.
Tue, 14 Mar 17
30/74

Comments: 15 pages, 5 figures

Precision Cosmology from Future Time Delays of Lensed Gravitational Wave and Electromagnetic Signals [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04151

The”standard-siren” approaches of gravitational wave cosmology appeal to the luminosity distance estimation from the GW observation which relies on the fine details of the waveform. We propose a new waveform independent strategy based on the systems where strongly lensed gravitational waves (GWs) and their electromagnetic (EM) counterparts can be detected simultaneously. With the images and redshifts observed in the EM domain combined with very precise measurements of time delays from lensed GW signals, we can achieve precise cosmography in the era of third-generation gravitational-wave detectors. In particular we demonstrate that the uncertainty of the Hubble constant $H_0$ determination from just $10$ such systems can decrease to $\sim0.4\%$ in a flat $\Lambda$CDM universe.

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K. Liao, X. Fan, X. Ding, et. al.
Tue, 14 Mar 17
51/74

Comments: N/A

Features in single field slow-roll inflation [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04375

We compare the effects of local features (LF) and branch features (BF) of the inflaton potential on the spectrum of primordial perturbations. We show that LF affect the spectrum in a narrow range of scales while BF produce a step between large and small scales with respect to the featureless spectrum. We comment on the possibility of distinguishing between these two types of feature models from the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation data.
We also show that there exists a quantitative similarity between the primordial spectra predicted by two of the BF potentials considered. This could lead to a degeneracy of their predicted CMB temperature spectra which could make difficult to discriminate between the models from a CMB analysis. We comment on the possibility that the degeneracy can be broken when higher order terms in the perturbations are considered. In this sense non-Gaussianity may play an important role in discerning between different inflationary models which predict similar spectra.

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A. Cadavid
Tue, 14 Mar 17
54/74

Comments: To be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series as the proceedings of the 70&70 Classical and Quantum Gravitation Party: Meeting with Two Latin American Masters on Theoretical Physics (Cartagena de Indias – Colombia, 28th-30th September, 2016)

X-ray Temperatures, Luminosities, and Masses From XMM-Newton Follow-up of the First Shear-selected Galaxy Cluster Sample [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04023

We continue the study of the first sample of shear-selected clusters (Wittman et al. 2006) from the initial 8.6 square degrees of the Deep Lens Survey (DLS, Wittman et al. 2002); a sample with well-defined selection criteria corresponding to the highest ranked shear peaks in the survey area. We aim to characterize the weak lensing selection by examining the sample’s X-ray properties. There are multiple X-ray clusters associated with nearly all the shear peaks: 14 X-ray clusters corresponding to seven DLS shear peaks. An additional three X-ray clusters cannot be definitively associated with shear peaks, mainly due to large positional offsets between the X-ray centroid and the shear peak. Here we report on the X-ray properties of the 17 X-ray clusters. The X-ray clusters display a wide range of luminosities and temperatures; the Lx-Tx relation we determine for the shear-associated X-ray clusters is consistent with X-ray cluster samples selected without regard to dynamical state, while it is inconsistent with self-similarity. For a subset of the sample, we measure X-ray masses using temperature as a proxy, and compare to weak lensing masses determined by the DLS team (Abate et al. 2009; Wittman et al. 2014). The resulting mass comparison is consistent with equality. The X-ray and weak lensing masses show considerable intrinsic scatter (~48%), which is consistent with X-ray selected samples when their X-ray and weak lensing masses are independently determined.

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A. Deshpande, J. Hughes and D. Wittman
Tue, 14 Mar 17
56/74

Comments: 14 pages, 4 figures

Order-unity argument for structure-generated "extra" expansion [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04191

Self-consistent treatment of cosmological structure formation and expansion within the context of classical general relativity may lead to “extra” expansion above that expected in a structureless universe. We argue that in comparison to an early-epoch, extrapolated Einstein-de Sitter model, about 10-15% “extra” expansion is sufficient at the present to render superfluous the “dark energy” 68% contribution to the energy density budget, and that this is observationally realistic.

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B. Roukema, J. Ostrowski, T. Buchert, et. al.
Tue, 14 Mar 17
67/74

Comments: 4 pages, 1 figure

Nonlinear Resonant Oscillation of Gravitational Potential Induced by Ultralight Axion in $f(R)$ Gravity [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03589

We study the ultralight axion dark matter with mass around $10^{-22}$ eV in $f(R)$ gravity which might resolve the dark energy problem. In particular, we focus on the fact that the pressure of the axion field oscillating in time produces oscillations of gravitational potentials. We show that the oscillation of the gravitational potential is sensitive to the model of gravity. Remarkably, we find that the detectability of the oscillation through the gravitational wave detectors can be significantly enhanced due to the nonlinear resonance between the ultralight axion and the scalaron.

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A. Aoki and J. Soda
Mon, 13 Mar 17
4/48

Comments: 19 pages, 4 figures

Effects on the CMB from magnetic field dissipation before recombination [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03650

Magnetic fields present before decoupling are damped due to radiative viscosity. This energy injection affects the thermal and ionization history of the cosmic plasma. The implications for the CMB anisotropies and polarization are investigated for different parameter choices of a non helical stochastic magnetic field. Assuming a Gaussian smoothing scale determined by the magnetic damping wave number at recombination it is found that magnetic fields with present day strength less than 0.1 nG and negative magnetic spectral indices have a sizeable effect on the CMB temperature anisotropies and polarization.

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K. Kunze
Mon, 13 Mar 17
13/48

Comments: 11 pages, 8 figures

LIGER: mock relativistic light-cones from Newtonian simulations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03407

We introduce a method to create mock galaxy catalogues in redshift space including general relativistic effects to linear order in the cosmological perturbations. We dub our method LIGER, short for `light cones with general relativity’. LIGER takes a (N-body or hydrodynamic) Newtonian simulation as an input and outputs the distribution of galaxies in comoving redshift space. This result is achieved making use of a coordinate transformation and simultaneously accounting for lensing magnification. The calculation includes both local corrections and terms that have been integrated along the line of sight. Our fast implementation allows the production of many realizations that can be used to forecast the performance of forthcoming wide-angle surveys and to estimate the covariance matrix of the observables. To facilitate this use, we also present a variant of LIGER designed for large-volume simulations with low mass resolution. In this case, the galaxy distribution on large scales is obtained by biasing the matter-density field. Finally, we present two sample applications of LIGER. First, we discuss the impact of weak gravitational lensing onto the angular clustering of galaxies in a Euclid-like survey. In agreement with previous analytical studies, we find that magnification bias can be measured with high confidence. Second, we focus on two generally neglected Doppler-induced effects: magnification and the change of number counts with redshift. We show that the corresponding redshift-space distortions can be detected at 5.5$\sigma$ significance with the completed Square Kilometre Array.

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M. Borzyszkowski, D. Bertacca and C. Porciani
Mon, 13 Mar 17
29/48

Comments: 16 pages, 12 figures, comments welcome

Light propagation in Swiss cheese models of random close-packed Szekeres structures: Effects of anisotropy and comparisons with perturbative results [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03572

Light propagation in two Swiss cheese models based on anisotropic Szekeres structures is studied and compared with light propagation in Swiss cheese models based on the Szekeres models’ underlying LTB models. The study shows that the anisotropy of the Szekeres models has only a small effect on quantities such as redshift-distance relations, projected shear and expansion rate along individual light rays. \newline\indent The average angular diameter distance to the last scattering surface is computed for each model. Contrary to earlier studies, the results obtained here are (mostly) in agreement with perturbative results. In particular, a small negative shift, $\delta D_A:=\frac{D_A-D_{A,bg}}{D_{A,bg}}$, in the angular diameter distance is obtained upon line-of-sight averaging in three of the four models. The results are, however, not statistically significant. In the fourth model, there is a small positive shift which has an especially small statistical significance. The line-of-sight averaged inverse magnification at $z = 1100$ is consistent with $1$ to a high level of confidence for all models, indicating that the area of the surface corresponding to $z = 1100$ is close to that of the background.

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S. Koksbang
Mon, 13 Mar 17
33/48

Comments: 13 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

Strong Evidence for the Normal Neutrino Hierarchy [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03425

The configuration of the three neutrino masses can take two forms, known as the normal and inverted hierarchies. We compute the Bayesian evidence associated with these two hierarchies. Previous studies found a mild preference for the normal hierarchy, and this was driven by the asymmetric manner in which cosmological data has confined the available parameter space. Here we identify the presence of a second asymmetry, which is imposed by data from neutrino oscillations. By combining constraints on the squared-mass splittings with the limit on the sum of neutrino masses of $\Sigma m_\nu < 0.13$ eV, we infer odds of 42:1 in favour of the normal hierarchy, which is classified as “strong” in the Jeffreys’ scale. We explore how these odds may evolve in light of higher precision cosmological data, and discuss the implications of this finding with regards to the nature of neutrinos.

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F. Simpson, R. Jimenez, C. Pena-Garay, et. al.
Mon, 13 Mar 17
42/48

Comments: Submitted to JCAP

KiDS-450: Tomographic Cross-Correlation of Galaxy Shear with {\it Planck} Lensing [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03383

We present the tomographic cross-correlation between galaxy lensing measured in the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-450) with overlapping lensing measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), as detected by Planck 2015. We compare our joint probe measurement to the theoretical expectation for a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, assuming the best-fitting cosmological parameters from the KiDS-450 cosmic shear and Planck CMB analyses. We find that our results are consistent within $1\sigma$ with the KiDS-450 cosmology, with an amplitude re-scaling parameter $A_{\rm KiDS} = 0.86 \pm 0.19$. Adopting a Planck cosmology, we find our results are consistent within $2\sigma$, with $A_{\it Planck} = 0.68 \pm 0.15$. We show that the agreement is improved in both cases when the contamination to the signal by intrinsic galaxy alignments is accounted for, increasing $A$ by $\sim 0.1$. This is the first tomographic analysis of the galaxy lensing — CMB lensing cross-correlation signal, and is based on five photometric redshift bins. We use this measurement as an independent validation of the multiplicative shear calibration and of the calibrated source redshift distribution at high redshifts. We find that constraints on these two quantities are strongly correlated when obtained from this technique, which should therefore not be considered as a stand-alone competitive calibration tool.

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J. Harnois-Deraps, T. Troster, N. Chisari, et. al.
Fri, 10 Mar 17
11/52

Comments: 14 pages, 11 figures

On the inadequacy of internal covariance estimation for super-sample covariance [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03337

We give an analytical understanding of how subsamples-based internal covariance estimators lead to biased estimates of the covariance due to underestimating the super-sample covariance (SSC). This includes jackknife and bootstrap as estimators for the full survey area, and subsampling as an estimator of the covariance of subsamples. The limitations of the jackknife covariance have been previously presented in the literature, basically because it is effectively a rescaling of the covariance of the subsample area. However we point out that subsampling is also biased but for a different reason: the subsamples are not independent, and the corresponding lack of power results in SSC underprediction. We develop the formalism in the case of cluster counts that allows to predict exactly the bias of each covariance estimator. We find significant effects for a small scale area or when a low number of subsamples is used, with auto-redshift biases ranging from 0.4% to 15% for subsampling and from 5% to 75% for jackknife covariance estimates. The cross-redshift covariance is even more affected, with biases ranging from 8% to 25% for subsampling and from 50% to 90% for jackknife. Due to the redshift evolution of the probe, the covariances cannot be debiased by a simple rescaling factor, and an exact debiasing has the same requirements as the full SSC prediction. These results thus disfavour the use of internal covariance estimators on data itself or a simulation, leaving analytical predictions and separate universe simulations as possible SSC predictors.

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F. Lacasa and M. Kunz
Fri, 10 Mar 17
27/52

Comments: 7 pages, 6 figures

Stellar-to-halo mass relation of cluster galaxies [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03348

In the hierarchical formation model, galaxy clusters grow by accretion of smaller groups or isolated galaxies. During the infall into the centre of a cluster, the properties of accreted galaxies change. In particular, both observations and numerical simulations suggest that its dark matter halo is stripped by the tidal forces of the host.
We use galaxy-galaxy weak lensing to measure the average mass of dark matter haloes of satellite galaxies as a function of projected distance to the centre of the host, for different stellar mass bins. Assuming that the stellar component of the galaxy is less disrupted by tidal stripping, stellar mass can be used as a proxy of the infall mass. We study the stellar to halo mass relation of satellites as a function of the cluster-centric distance to measure tidal stripping.
We use the shear catalogues of the DES science verification archive, the CFHTLenS and the CFHT Stripe 82 (CS82) surveys, and we select satellites from the redMaPPer catalogue of clusters. For galaxies located in the outskirts of clusters, we find a stellar to halo mass relation in good agreement with the theoretical expectations from \citet{moster2013} for central galaxies. In the centre of the cluster, we find that this relation is shifted to smaller halo mass for a given stellar mass. We interpret this finding as further evidence for tidal stripping of dark matter haloes in high density environments.

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A. Niemiec, E. Jullo, M. Limousin, et. al.
Fri, 10 Mar 17
30/52

Comments: 15 pages, 14 figures

Revealing modified gravity signal in matter and halo hierarchical clustering [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03395

We use a set of N-body simulations employing a modified gravity (MG) model with Vainshtein screening to study matter and halo hierarchical clustering. As test-case scenarios we consider two normal branch Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (nDGP) gravity models with mild and strong growth rate enhancement. We study higher-order correlation functions $\xi_n(R)$ up to $n=9$ and associated hierarchical amplitudes $S_n(R)\equiv\xi_n(R)/\sigma(R)^{2n-2}$. We find that the matter PDFs are strongly affected by the fifth-force on scales up to $50h^{-1}$Mpc, and the deviations from GR are maximised at $z=0$. For reduced cumulants $S_n$, we find that at small scales $R\leq10h^{-1}$Mpc the MG is characterised by lower values, with the deviation growing from $7\%$ in the reduced skewness up to even $40\%$ in $S_5$. To study the halo clustering we use a simple abundance matching and divide haloes into thee fixed number density samples. The halo two-point functions are weakly affected, with a relative boost of the order of a few percent appearing only at the smallest pair separations ($r\leq 5h^{-1}$Mpc). In contrast, we find a strong MG signal in $S_n(R)$’s, which are enhanced compared to GR. The strong model exhibits a $>3\sigma$ level signal at various scales for all halo samples and in all cumulants. In this context, we find that the reduced kurtosis to be an especially promising cosmological probe of MG. Even the mild nDGP model leaves a $3\sigma$ imprint at small scales $R\leq3h^{-1}$Mpc, while the stronger model deviates from a GR-signature at nearly all scales with a significance of $>5\sigma$. Since the signal is persistent in all halo samples and over a range of scales, we advocate that the reduced kurtosis estimated from galaxy catalogues can potentially constitute a strong MG-model discriminatory as well as GR self-consistency test.

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W. Hellwing, K. Koyama, B. Bose, et. al.
Fri, 10 Mar 17
49/52

Comments: 19 pages, 11 figures, comments are welcome

Effects of neutrino mass hierarchies on dynamical dark energy models [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02556

We investigate how three different possibilities of neutrino mass hierarchies, namely normal, inverted, and degenerate, can affect the observational constraints on three well known dynamical dark energy models, namely the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder, logarithmic, and the Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan parametrizations. In order to impose the observational constraints on the models, we performed a robust analysis using Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, Supernovae type Ia from Joint Light curve analysis, baryon acoustic oscillations distance measurements, redshift space distortion characterized by $f(z)\sigma_8(z)$ data, weak gravitational lensing data from Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey, and cosmic chronometers data plus the local value of the Hubble parameter. We find that the degenerate hierarchy scheme leads to significant variations on the model parameters in compared to other two neutrino mass hierarchies. It is observed that the fixation of a hierarchy scheme can play an important role in determining some crucial properties in the dynamical dark energy models. We also discussed that these dynamical dark energy models can assuage the current tension on the local Hubble parameter $H_0$.

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W. Yang, R. Nunes, S. Pan, et. al.
Thu, 9 Mar 17
14/54

Comments: 10 pages, 6 figures

First Steps Toward a Method for Estimating Cosmological Parameters using Strong Lensing, X-ray and Dynamics Total Mass Estimates [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02533

In this thesis we want to introduce the first steps towards realising a new method to investigate the cosmological parameters and conduct a detailed analysis of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416. Toward this end, we use the current model from Grillo et al. (2015) as a template and the publicly available lensing code Lenstool. This code has previously been used by Jauzac et al. (2014), Richard et al. (2014), Jauzac et al. (2015) and Caminha et al. (2016) to model MACS J0416 (Grillo et al. (2015) used GLEE). We created $10$ different models to cover a reasonable set of different approaches. In addition to the replication of the Grillo et al. (2015) models, with two cluster scale halos and 175 circular cluster member mass-density profiles, we created models using elliptical mass-density profiles for the cluster members and models where we optimize the cluster member scaling relation slopes. In order to investigate the viability of using the projected total mass estimate from different cosmological models to estimate the cosmological parameter values, we created 49 models each representing a different set of cosmological parameters.

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M. Hansen
Thu, 9 Mar 17
44/54

Comments: N/A

A direct method to compute the galaxy count angular correlation function including redshift-space distortions [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02818

In the near future, cosmology will enter the wide and deep galaxy survey area allowing high-precision studies of the large scale structure of the universe in three dimensions. To test cosmological models and determine their parameters accurately, it is natural to confront data with exact theoretical expectations expressed in the observational parameter space (angles and redshift). The data-driven galaxy number count fluctuations on redshift shells, can be used to build correlation functions $C(\theta; z_1, z_2)$ on and between shells which can probe the baryonic acoustic oscillations, the distance-redshift distortions as well as gravitational lensing and other relativistic effects. Transforming the model to the data space usually requires the computation of the angular power spectrum $C_\ell(z_1, z_2)$ but this appears as an artificial and inefficient step plagued by apodization issues. In this article we show that it is not necessary and present a compact expression for $C(\theta; z_1, z_2)$ that includes directly the leading density and redshift space distortions terms from the full linear theory. It can be evaluated using a fast integration method based on Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature and Chebyshev polynomial series. This new method to compute the correlation functions without any Limber approximation, allows us to produce and discuss maps of the correlation function directly in the observable space and is a significant step towards disentangling the data from the tested models.

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J. Campagne, S. Plaszczynski and J. Neveu
Thu, 9 Mar 17
49/54

Comments: Submitted to ApJ

From the core to the outskirts: structure analysis of three massive galaxy clusters [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02763

The hierarchical model of structure formation is a key prediction of the Lambda cold dark matter model, which can be tested by studying the large-scale environment and the substructure content of massive galaxy clusters. We present here a detailed analysis of the clusters RXCJ0225.9-4154, RXCJ0528.9-3927, and RXCJ2308.3-0211, as part of a sample of massive X-ray luminous clusters located at intermediate redshifts. We used a multiwavelength analysis, combining WFI photometric observations, VIMOS spectroscopy, and the X-ray surface brightness maps. We investigated the optical morphology of the clusters, we looked for significant counterparts in the residual X-ray emission, and we ran several tests to assess their dynamical state. We correlated the results to define various substructure features, to study their properties, and to quantify their influence on simple dynamical mass estimators. RXCJ0225 has a bimodal core, and two massive galaxy groups are located in its immediate surroundings; they are aligned in an elongated structure that is also detected in X-rays. RXCJ0528 is located in a poor environment; an X-ray centroid shift and the presence of two central BCGs provide mild evidence for a recent and active dynamical history. RXCJ2308 has complex central dynamics, and it is found at the core of a superstes-cluster. The complexity of the cluster’s central dynamics reflects the richness of its large-scale environment: RXCJ0225 and RXCJ2308 present a mass fraction in substructures larger than the typical 0.05-0.15, whereas the isolated cluster RXCJ0528 does not have any major substructures within its virial radius. The largest substructures are found in the cluster outskirts. The optical morphology of the clusters correlates with the orientation of their BCG, and with the position of the main axes of accretion.

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G. Foex, G. Chon and H. Bohringer
Thu, 9 Mar 17
52/54

Comments: N/A

Using angular pair upweighting to improve 3D clustering measurements [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02071

Three dimensional galaxy clustering measurements provide a wealth of cosmological information. However, obtaining spectra of galaxies is expensive, and surveys often only measure redshifts for a subsample of a target galaxy population. Provided that the spectroscopic data is representative, we argue that angular pair upweighting should be used in these situations to improve the 3D clustering measurements. We present a toy model showing mathematically how such a weighting can improve measurements, and provide a practical example of its application using mocks created for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Our analysis of mocks suggests that, if an angular clustering measurement is available over twice the area covered spectroscopically, weighting gives a $\sim$10-20% reduction of the variance of the monopole correlation function on the BAO scale.

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W. Percivall and D. Bianchi
Wed, 8 Mar 17
9/60

Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures

Constraints on warm dark matter from the ionization history of the Universe [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02302

In warm dark matter scenarios structure formation is suppressed on small scales with respect to the cold dark matter case, reducing the number of low-mass halos and the fraction of ionized gas at high redshifts and thus, delaying reionization. This has an impact on the ionization history of the Universe and measurements of the optical depth to reionization, of the evolution of the global fraction of ionized gas and of the thermal history of the intergalactic medium, can be used to set constraints on the mass of the dark matter particle. However, the suppression of the fraction of ionized medium in these scenarios can be partly compensated by varying other parameters, as the ionization efficiency or the minimum mass for which halos can host star-forming galaxies. Here we use different data sets regarding the ionization and thermal histories of the Universe and, taking into account the degeneracies from several astrophysical parameters, we obtain a lower bound on the mass of thermal warm dark matter candidates of $m_X > 1.3$ keV, or $m_s > 5.5$ keV for the case of sterile neutrinos non-resonantly produced in the early Universe, both at 90% confidence level.

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L. Lopez-Honorez, O. Mena, S. Palomares-Ruiz, et. al.
Wed, 8 Mar 17
34/60

Comments: 15 pages, 17 figures

Unbiased clustering estimation in the presence of missing observations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02070

In order to be efficient, spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys do not obtain redshifts for all galaxies in the population targeted. The missing galaxies are often clustered, commonly leading to a lower proportion of successful observations in dense regions. One example is the close-pair issue for SDSS spectroscopic galaxy surveys, which have a deficit of pairs of observed galaxies with angular separation closer than the hardware limit on placing neighbouring fibers. Spatially clustered missing observations will exist in the next generations of surveys. Various schemes have previously been suggested to mitigate these effects, but none works for all situations. We argue that the solution is to link the missing galaxies to those observed with statistically equivalent clustering properties, and that the best way to do this is to rerun the targeting algorithm, varying the angular position of the observations. Provided that every pair has a non-zero probability of being observed in one realisation of the algorithm, then a pair-upweighting scheme linking targets to successful observations, can correct these issues. We present such a scheme, and demonstrate its validity using realisations of an idealised simple survey strategy.

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D. Bianchi and W. Percival
Wed, 8 Mar 17
45/60

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures

Dark matter kinetic decoupling with a light particle [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02338

We argue that the acoustic damping of the matter power spectrum is not a generic feature of the kinetic decoupling of dark matter, but even the enhancement can be realized depending on the nature of the kinetic decoupling when compared to that in the standard cold dark matter model. We consider a model that exhibits a ${\it sudden}$ kinetic decoupling and investigate cosmological perturbations in the ${\it standard}$ cosmological background numerically in the model. We also give an analytic discussion in a simplified setup. Our results indicate that the nature of the kinetic decoupling could have a great impact on small scale density perturbations.

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A. Kamada and T. Takahashi
Wed, 8 Mar 17
49/60

Comments: 19 pages, 7 figures

Toward an Optimal Sampling of Peculiar Velocity Surveys For Wiener Filter Reconstructions [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02045

The Wiener Filter (WF) technique enables the reconstruction of density and velocity fields from observed radial peculiar velocities. This paper aims at identifying the optimal design of peculiar velocity surveys within the WF framework. The prime goal is to test the dependence of the quality of the reconstruction on the distribution and nature of data points. Mock datasets, extending to 250 Mpc/h, are drawn from a constrained simulation that mimics the local Universe to produce realistic mock catalogs. Reconstructed fields obtained with these mocks are compared to the reference simulation. Comparisons, including residual distributions, cell-to-cell and bulk velocities, imply that the presence of field data points is essential to properly measure the flows. The fields reconstructed from mocks that consist only of galaxy cluster data points exhibit poor quality bulk velocities. In addition, the quality of the reconstruction depends strongly on the grouping of individual data points into single points to suppress virial motions in high density regions. Conversely, the presence of a Zone of Avoidance hardly affects the reconstruction. For a given number of data points, a uniform sample does not score any better than a sample with decreasing number of data points with the distance. The best reconstructions are obtained with a grouped survey containing field galaxies: Assuming no error, they differ from the simulated field by less than 100 km/s up to the extreme edge of the catalogs or up to a distance of three times the mean distance of data points for non-uniform catalogs. The overall conclusions hold when errors are added.

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J. Sorce, Y. Hoffman and S. Gottlober
Wed, 8 Mar 17
55/60

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 12 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

Multipolar moments of weak lensing signal around clusters. Weighing filaments in harmonic space [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.01791

Context. Upcoming weak lensing surveys like Euclid will provide an unprecedented opportunity to quantify the geometry and topology of the cosmic web, in particular in the vicinity of lensing clusters. Aims. Understanding the connectivity of the cosmic web with unbiased mass tracers like weak lensing is of prime importance to probe the underlying cosmology, seek dynamical signatures of dark matter, and quantify environmental effects on galaxy formation. Methods. Mock catalogues of galaxy clusters are extracted from the N-body PLUS simulation. For each cluster, the aperture multipolar moments of the convergence are calculated in two annuli (inside and outside the virial radius). By stacking their modulus, a statistical estimator is built to characterise the angular mass distribution around clusters. The moments are compared to predictions from perturbation theory and spherical collapse. Results. The main weakly chromatic excess of multipolar power on large scales is understood as arising from the contraction of the primordial cosmic web driven by the growing potential well of the cluster. In the inner region, the initial quadrupole prevails, while centring suppresses odd multipoles, especially m=1. Predictions for the signal amplitude as a function of the cluster-centric distance, mass and redshift are presented. The prospects of measuring this signal are estimated for current and future lensing data sets. Inside the virial radius, multipoles up to m=8-12 can be measured at >10 sigma with 10 000 clusters at z=0.3. In the outer regions, around 4 Rvir, detection is possible up to m=8 but the noise from intervening large-scale structure dominates. Conclusions. The Euclid mission should provide all the necessary information to study the cosmic evolution of the connectivity of the cosmic web around lensing clusters using multipolar moments [abridged].

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C. Gouin, R. Gavazzi, S. Codis, et. al.
Tue, 7 Mar 17
19/66

Comments: Submitted to A&A, 14 pages, comments welcome

Gas sloshing in Abell 2204: Constraining the properties of the magnetized intracluster medium [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.01895

The rich galaxy cluster Abell 2204 exhibits edges in its X-ray surface brightness at $\sim 65$ and $35 {\rm~ kpc}$ west and east of its center, respectively. The presence of these edges, which were interpreted as sloshing cold fronts, implies that the intracluster medium was recently disturbed. We analyze the properties of the intracluster medium using multiple Chandra observations of Abell 2204. We find a density ratio $n_{\rm in}/n_{\rm out} = 2.05\pm0.05$ and a temperature ratio $T_{\rm out}/T_{\rm in} = 1.91\pm0.27$ (projected, or $1.87\pm0.56$ deprojected) across the western edge, and correspondingly $n_{\rm in}/n_{\rm out} = 1.96\pm0.05$ and $T_{\rm out}/T_{\rm in} =1.45\pm0.15$ (projected, or $1.25\pm0.26$ deprojected) across the eastern edge. These values are typical of cold fronts in galaxy clusters. This, together with the spiral pattern observed in the cluster core, supports the sloshing scenario for Abell 2204. No Kelvin-Helmholtz eddies are observed along the cold front surfaces, indicating that they are effectively suppressed by some physical mechanism. We argue that the suppression is likely facilitated by the magnetic fields amplified in the sloshing motion, and deduce from the measured gas properties that the magnetic field strength should be greater than $24\pm6$ $\mu$G and $32\pm8$ $\mu$G along the west and east cold fronts, respectively.

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H. Chen, C. Jones, F. Andrade-Santos, et. al.
Tue, 7 Mar 17
21/66

Comments: N/A

Probing the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy with Dynamical Dark Energy Model [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.01554

By using a dimensionless and varies parameter $\Delta = (m_3 -m_1) / (m_3 +m_1)$, which is used to determine the neutrinos mass hierarchy, we have investigated the impacts of dark energy on the mass hierarchy. Two typical dark energy models are considered: one is the $w$CDM model with a constant equation of state parameter $w$; the other is the CPL model with a parameterized time-varying equation of state $w=w_0+ w_a(1-a)$. Adopting the currently available cosmic observations, and comparing to the $\Lambda$CDM model, our study shows that the upper limits of the total neutrino mass $\sum_\nu m_\nu$ is much looser in the $w$CDM and CPL model. In the $w$CDM (or CPL) model the total mass of neutrinos is $\sum_\nu m_\nu < 0.142$ eV (or $\sum_\nu m_\nu < 0.179$ eV) for the normal mass hierarchy and $\sum_\nu m_\nu < 0.158$ eV ($\sum_\nu m_\nu < 0.198$ eV) for the inverted mass hierarchy at $95\%$ C.L.. The $w$CDM model is slightly favored the normal mass hierarchy, but CPL model has no sympathetic to either. Furthermore, the equation of state parameters of both dark energy models can influence the measurement of $\sum_\nu m_\nu$. Larger $\sum_\nu m_\nu$ may favor phantom dark energy for $w$CDM model, and an early phantom but late quintessence dark energy for CPL model.

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E. Li, H. Zhang, M. Du, et. al.
Tue, 7 Mar 17
37/66

Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures

Measuring the baryon fraction in cluster of galaxies with Kinematic Sunyeav Zeldovich and a Standard Candle [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02021

We propose a new method to use the Kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich for measuring the baryon fraction in cluster of galaxies. In this proposal we need a configuration that a supernova Type Ia resides in a brightest central galaxy of low redshift cluster of galaxy. We show that this supernova Type Ia can be used to measure the bulk velocity of a galaxy cluster in low redshifts where the main contribution to the standard candles distance modulus deviation from background prediction comes from peculiar velocity of the host. Then we argue that by the knowledge of the bulk flow of the galaxy cluster and the Cosmic microwave background photons temperature change due to kSZ, we can constrain the baryon fraction of galaxy cluster. The probability of this configuration for clusters in low redshift $z < 0.15$ is obtained. We estimate that in a conservative parameter estimation the large synoptic survey telescope can find $\sim 30$ galaxy clusters in low redshift with a bright central galaxy which host a type Ia Supernova. Finally, we show that the improving of the distance modulus measurement in future surveys is crucial to detect the baryon fraction of cluster with the proposed method.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Baghram
Tue, 7 Mar 17
48/66

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review D