Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrements with no clusters?

Abstract

Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrements in the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are produced by Thomson scattering of the CMB photons by the confined hot electrons in the Intra-Cluster Medium encountered along the line-of-sight. In this paper, we propose an alternate physical process that can produce detectable thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrements around quasars or quasar pairs in regions where no assembled, virialized clusters are detected either in the optical or X-ray wave-band. Invoking quasar outflows, we argue that both thermal and kinematic decrements can be produced by the baryons swept up by the mechanical luminosity of quasars. In contrast to the case of decrements produced by the hot electrons confined within the cluster potential, the magnitude of these quasar-outflow induced effects depend primarily on the luminosity of the QSO, and the physical scale of the outflow - which in turn depends both on the mean local density and the density gradient in the vicinity of the quasar. Quasar outflows produce (i) a frequency independent kinematic decrement ${ΔT/T} \sim {10^{-4}}$; (ii) a frequency dependent fluctuation in the intensity ${Δ{J_ν}/{J_ν}} \sim $ a 20% variation relative to ${ΔT/T}$, say at 15 GHz and 30 GHz; (iii) a temperature increment ${ΔT/T} \sim {10^{-4}}$ on the opposite side of the QSO; (iv) a linear polarization signal over 20'' at $\sim {10^{-7}}$ level; and therefore (v) patches of signal ${ΔT/T} \sim {10^{-4}}$ on degree scales.