The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Lensing Power Spectrum

Blake D. Sherwin; Alexander van Engelen; Neelima Sehgal; Mathew Madhavacheril; Graeme E. Addison; Simone Aiola; Rupert Allison; Nicholas Battaglia; James A. Beall; Daniel T. Becker; J. Richard Bond; Erminia Calabrese; Rahul Datta; Mark J. Devlin; Rolando Dunner; Joanna Dunkley; Anna E. Fox; Patricio Gallardo; Mark Halpern; Matthew Hasselfield; Shawn Henderson; J. Colin Hill; Gene C. Hilton; Johannes Hubmayr; John P. Hughes; Adam D. Hincks; Renee Hlozek; Kevin M. Huffenberger; Brian Koopman; Arthur Kosowsky; Thibaut Louis; Loic Maurin; Jeff McMahon; Kavilan Moodley; Sigurd Naess; Federico Nati; Laura Newburgh; Michael D. Niemack; Lyman A. Page; Jonathan Sievers; David N. Spergel; Suzanne T. Staggs; Robert J. Thornton; Jeff Van Lanen; Eve Vavagiakis; Edward J. Wollack

doi:10.1103/physrevd.95.123529

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1611.09753

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Lensing Power Spectrum

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We report a measurement of the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing from two seasons of Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) CMB data. The CMB lensing power spectrum is extracted from both temperature and polarization data using quadratic estimators. We obtain results that are consistent with the expectation from the best-fit Planck LCDM model over a range of multipoles L=80-2100, with an amplitude of lensing A_lens = 1.06 +/- 0.15 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (sys.) relative to Planck. Our measurement of the CMB lensing power spectrum gives sigma_8 Omega_m^0.25 = 0.643 +/- 0.054; including baryon acoustic oscillation scale data, we constrain the amplitude of density fluctuations to be sigma_8 = 0.831 +/- 0.053. We also update constraints on the neutrino mass sum. We verify our lensing measurement with a number of null tests and systematic checks, finding no evidence of significant systematic errors. This measurement relies on a small fraction of the ACTPol data already taken; more precise lensing results can therefore be expected from the full ACTPol dataset.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.CO

Keep this discovery

BibTeX RIS

Blake D. Sherwin, Alexander van Engelen, Neelima Sehgal, Mathew Madhavacheril, Graeme E. Addison, Simone Aiola, Rupert Allison, Nicholas Battaglia, James A. Beall, Daniel T. Becker, J. Richard Bond, Erminia Calabrese, Rahul Datta, Mark J. Devlin, Rolando Dunner, Joanna Dunkley, Anna E. Fox, Patricio Gallardo, Mark Halpern, Matthew Hasselfield, Shawn Henderson, J. Colin Hill, Gene C. Hilton, Johannes Hubmayr, John P. Hughes, Adam D. Hincks, Renee Hlozek, Kevin M. Huffenberger, Brian Koopman, Arthur Kosowsky, Thibaut Louis, Loic Maurin, Jeff McMahon, Kavilan Moodley, Sigurd Naess, Federico Nati, Laura Newburgh, Michael D. Niemack, Lyman A. Page, Jonathan Sievers, David N. Spergel, Suzanne T. Staggs, Robert J. Thornton, Jeff Van Lanen, Eve Vavagiakis, Edward J. Wollack. 2016-11-29. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Lensing Power Spectrum. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.95.123529

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Constraining spinning primordial black holes with interstellar dust heating

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and their cosmic abundance is constrained by a variety of observational probes. PBHs in the mass range $10^{15}\,\text{g}\,{-}\,10^{17}\,\text{g}$ are evaporating today via Hawking radiation, a process that can heat interstellar dust and modify its thermal emission. Recent studies have used this effect to place constraints on the abundance of non-spinning PBHs. We extend this approach by investigating the influence of PBH spin on dust-heating constraints. Furthermore, we account for secondary photons that originate not only from the decay of gauge bosons but also from the decay of hadrons produced via the fragmentation of primary quarks and gluons emitted through Hawking radiation. By comparing the dust heating rate induced by spinning PBHs with the maximum cooling rate of dust, considering both silicate and graphite grains, we derive new upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in the form of PBHs, $f_{\rm PBH}$. Our results show that the constraints depend on both PBH mass and spin. Smaller PBHs with higher spin yield stronger limits. For example, in the cases we investigated, the strongest constraint is $f_{\rm PBH} \sim 1.5 \times 10^{-4}$ for $M_{\rm PBH} = 10^{15}{\rm g}$ and spin parameter $a_{*} = 0.9999$. Although these limits are less stringent than existing constraints in the same mass range, they provide a distinct and complementary approach to constraining the abundance of PBHs.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Two-parameter continuous deformation of Starobinsky inflation as a bridge between Planck and ACT DESI data with $N_\star\in(50,60)$

We present a family of plateau-type inflationary potentials, eq.~\eqref{Vgeneral}, and analyze a two-parameter $\alpha\beta$-Starobinsky specialization that interpolates continuously between a \emph{maximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_0$) and a \emph{submaximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_\infty 0$ with $x_\star\gg 1/\beta$ the slow-roll scaling laws change to $n_s\simeq 1-\frac{4}{3N_\star},\, r\simeq\mathcal{C}(\alpha,\beta)\,N_\star^{-4/3},$ with an explicit coefficient $\mathcal{C}(\alpha,\beta)$ set by the plateau truncation. This deformation lifts $n_s$ at fixed $N_\star$ while further suppressing $r$, reconciling the Planck~2018 constraint $n_s=0.9649\pm0.0042$ (68\% CL) and BICEP/Keck18 data $r_{0.05}<0.036$ (95\% CL), with the higher central values $n_s\sim0.97$--$0.98$ preferred by ACT+DESI~DR2 (BAO), within the theoretically motivated interval $N_\star\in(50,60)$ and without exotic reheating. We provide an exact identity for $V/V'$ enabling analytic control of $N_\star$, a practical crossover criterion $\beta\,x_\star\ll1$ vs.\ $\gg1$, and a transparent mapping between $(\alpha,\beta)$ and the observables $(n_s,r,N_\star)$. These yield sharp, testable signatures, particularly the softened $N_\star$-scaling of $r$, that distinguish a maximal from a submaximal plateau with upcoming CMB and LSS data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

A Tale of Two Gauges: Effective Field Theory for Relativistic Behavior of Cosmological Axions

In this work, we present a formalism to model the relativistic behavior of axions. The relativistic behavior of axions is surprisingly difficult to model precisely, as it involves oscillations on timescales much shorter than the Hubble timescale. To overcome this challenge, one typically resorts to some form of effective treatment, focusing only on the time-averaged description of the exact oscillations. Salehian, Namjoo & Kaiser provide a systematic framework for such treatment, based on the effective field theory formalism. While the aforementioned study was formulated for axion perturbations in the Newtonian gauge with no anisotropic stress, we extend the formalism to the synchronous gauge that is more conventionally used for numerical implementation in a realistic cosmological setting. Unlike their work, however, we propose a fluid interpretation in which the axion field can be identified as a perfect fluid at all times, both in the exact and effective regimes. Moreover, we present the effective field theory for the Newtonian gauge with non-zero anisotropic stress, making the original formulation more general and useful for scenarios where the matter content of the universe is multi-component. These results lay the theoretical foundation for a companion paper where we discuss how the axion field should be incorporated alongside other species in common cosmological Boltzmann solvers.

astro-ph.CO↗