arXiv subjects

A. Blanchard

Publications and source records attributed to A. Blanchard.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

The CMB temperature power spectrum from an improved analysis of the Archeops data

We present improved results on the measurement of the angular power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies using the data from the last Archeops flight. This refined analysis is obtained by using the 6 most sensitive photometric pixels in the CMB bands centered at 143 and 217 GHz and 20% of the sky, mostly clear of foregrounds. Using two different cross-correlation methods, we obtain very similar results for the angular power spectrum. Consistency checks are performed to test the robustness of these results paying particular attention to the foreground contamination level which remains well below the statistical uncertainties. The multipole range from l=10 to l=700 is covered with 25 bins, confirming strong evidence for a plateau at large angular scales (the Sachs-Wolfe plateau) followed by two acoustic peaks centered around l=220 and l=550 respectively. These data provide an independent confirmation, obtained at different frequencies, of the WMAP first year results.

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arXiv2005

Temperature and polarization angular power spectra of Galactic dust radiation at 353 GHz as measured by Archeops

We present the first measurement of temperature and polarization angular power spectra of the diffuse emission of Galactic dust at 353 GHz as seen by Archeops on 20% of the sky. The temperature angular power spectrum is compatible with that provided by the extrapolation to 353 GHz of IRAS and DIRBE maps using \cite{fds} model number 8. For Galactic latitudes $|b| \geq 5$ deg we report a 4 sigma detection of large scale ($3\leq \ell \leq 8$) temperature-polarization cross-correlation $(\ell+1)C_\ell^{TE}/2π= 76\pm 21 μ\rm{K_{RJ}}^2$ and set upper limits to the $E$ and $B$ modes at $11 μ\rm{K_{RJ}}^2$. For Galactic latitudes $|b| \geq 10$ deg, on the same angular scales, we report a 2 sigma detection of temperature-polarization cross-correlation $(\ell+1)C_\ell^{TE}/2π= 24\pm 13 μ\rm{K_{RJ}}^2$. These results are then extrapolated to 100 GHz to estimate the contamination in CMB measurements by polarized diffuse Galactic dust emission. The $TE$ signal is then $1.7\pm0.5$ and $0.5\pm0.3 μ\rm{K^2_{CMB}}$ for $|b| \geq 5$ and 10 deg. respectively. The upper limit on $E$ and $B$ becomes $0.2 μ\rm{K^2_{CMB}} (2σ)$. If polarized dust emission at higher Galactic latitude cuts is similar to the one we report here, then dust polarized radiation will be a major foreground for determining the polarization power spectra of the CMB at high frequencies above 100 GHz.

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arXiv2004

The CLEF-SSH simulation project

The CLEF-SSH simulation project is an international collaboration, involving the IAS, LATT and the University of Sussex, to produce large hydrodynamic simulations of large-scale structure that implement realistic models of radiative gas cooling and energy feedback. The objective is to use these simulations to study the physics of galaxy clusters and to construct maps of large angular size of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, for the preparation of future experiments. Here we present results from a first run, the CLEF hydrodynamics simulation, which features 2(428)^3 particles of gas and dark matter inside a comoving box with 200 Mpc/h on a side.

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arXiv2004

Clusters of Galaxies: New Results from the CLEF Hydrodynamics Simulation

Preliminary results are presented from the CLEF hydrodynamics simulation, a large (N=2(428)^3 particles within a 200 Mpc/h comoving box) simulation of the LCDM cosmology that includes both radiative cooling and a simple model for galactic feedback. Specifically, we focus on the X-ray properties of the simulated clusters at z=0 and demonstrate a reasonable level of agreement between simulated and observed cluster scaling relations.

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arXiv2004

Introducing BAX: a database for X-ray clusters and groups of galaxies

We present BAX, Base de Donnees Amas de Galaxies X (http://webast.ast.obs-mip.fr/bax), a multi-wavelength database dedicated to X-ray clusters and groups of galaxies allowing detailed information retrieval. BAX is designed to support astronomical research by providing access to published measurements of the main physical quantities and to the related bibliographic references: basic data stored in the database are cluster/group identifiers, equatorial coordinates, redshift, flux, X-ray luminosity (in the ROSAT band) and temperature, and links to additional linked parameters (in X-rays, such as spatial profile parameters, as well as SZ parameters of the hot gas, lensing measurements,and data at other wavelengths, such as optical and radio). The clusters and groups in BAX can be queried by the basic parameters as well as the linked parameters or combinations of these. We expect BAX to become an important tool for the astronomical community. BAX will optimize various aspects of the scientific analysis of X-ray clusters and groups of galaxies, from proposal planning to data collection, interpretation and publication, from both ground based facilities like MEGACAM (CFHT), VIRMOS (VLT) and space missions like XMM-Newton, Chandra and Planck.

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arXiv2004

The XMM--NEWTON Omega Project: I. The X-ray Luminosity - Temperature Relation at z>0.4

(abridged) We describe XMM-Newton Guaranteed Time observations of a sample of eight high redshift (0.45<z<0.62) clusters. The goal of these observations was to measure the luminosity and the temperature of the clusters to a precision of \~10%, leading to constraints on the possible evolution of the luminosity--temperature relation, and ultimately on the values of the matter density, Omega_M and, to a lesser extent, the cosmological constant Omega_L. The clusters were drawn from the SHARC and 160 Square Degree (160SD) ROSAT surveys. Here we describe our data analysis techniques and present, for the first time with XMM-Newton,Lx-Tx relation. For each of the eight clusters in the sample, we have measured total bolometric luminosities, performed beta-model fits to the radial surface profiles and made spectral fits to a single temperature isothermal model. We describe data analysis techniques that pay particular attention to background mitigation. Characterizing the Lx-Tx relation as Lx = L_{6} (T/6keV)^{alpha},we find L_{6}=16.8 +7.6/-5.2 10^{44} erg/s and alpha=2.7 +/-0.4 for a EdS H=50 cosmology at a typical redshift z =0.55. Comparing with the low redshift study by Markevitch, assuming L-T to evolve as (1+z)^A, we find A=0.68 +/-0.26 for the same cosmology and A=1.52 +0.26/-0.27 for a concordance cosmology. We conclude that there is now evidence from both XMM-Newton and Chandra for an evolutionary trend in the L-T relation. Our observations lend support to the robustness and completeness of the SHARC and 160SD surveys.

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arXiv2003

The XMM--NEWTON Omega Project: II.Cosmological implications from the high redshift L-T relation of X-ray clusters

The evolution with redshift of the temperature-luminosity relation of X-ray galaxy clusters is a key ingredient to break degeneracies in the interpretation of X-ray clusters redshift number counts. We therefore take advantage of the recent measurements of the temperature-luminosity relation of distant clusters observed with XMM-Newton and Chandra satellites to examine theoretical number counts expected for different available X-rays cluster samples, namely the RDCS, EMSS, SHARC, 160deg^2 and the MACS at redshift greater than 0.3. We derive these counts without any adjustment, using models previously normalized to the local temperature distribution function and to the high-z (z = 0.33) TDF. We find that these models having Omega_M in the range [0.85-1.] predict counts in remarkable agreement with the observed counts in the different samples. We illustrate that this conclusion is weakly sensitive to the various ingredients of the modeling. Therefore number counts provide a robust evidence of an evolving population. A realistic flat low density model (Omega_M = 0.3), normalized to the local abundance of clusters is found to overproduce cluster abundance at high redshift (above z = 0.5) by nearly an order of magnitude. This result is in conflict with the popular concordance model. The conflict could indicate a deviation from the expected scaling of the M-T relation with redshift.

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arXiv2003

First Detection of Polarization of the Submillimetre Diffuse Galactic Dust Emission by Archeops

We present the first determination of the Galactic polarized emission at 353 GHz by Archeops. The data were taken during the Arctic night of February 7, 2002 after the balloon--borne instrument was launched by CNES from the Swedish Esrange base near Kiruna. In addition to the 143 GHz and 217 GHz frequency bands dedicated to CMB studies, Archeops had one 545 GHz and six 353 GHz bolometers mounted in three polarization sensitive pairs that were used for Galactic foreground studies. We present maps of the I, Q, U Stokes parameters over 17% of the sky and with a 13 arcmin resolution at 353 GHz (850 microns). They show a significant Galactic large scale polarized emission coherent on the longitude ranges [100, 120] and [180, 200] deg. with a degree of polarization at the level of 4-5%, in agreement with expectations from starlight polarization measurements. Some regions in the Galactic plane (Gem OB1, Cassiopeia) show an even stronger degree of polarization in the range 10-20%. Those findings provide strong evidence for a powerful grain alignment mechanism throughout the interstellar medium and a coherent magnetic field coplanar to the Galactic plane. This magnetic field pervades even some dense clouds. Extrapolated to high Galactic latitude, these results indicate that interstellar dust polarized emission is the major foreground for PLANCK-HFI CMB polarization measurement.

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arXiv2003

Goodness--of--fit Statistics and CMB Data Sets

Application of a Goodness--of--fit (GOF) statistic is an essential element of parameter estimation. We discuss the computation of GOF when estimating parameters from anisotropy measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and we propose two GOF statistics to be used when employing approximate band--power likelihood functions. They are based on an approximate form for the distribution of band--power estimators that requires only minimal experimental information to construct. Monte Carlo simulations of CMB experiments show that the proposed form describes the true distributions quite well. We apply these GOF statistics to current CMB anisotropy data and discuss the results.

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arXiv2003

Cosmological constraints in Lambda-CDM and Quintessence paradigms with Archeops

We review the cosmological constraints put by the current CMB experiment including the recent ARCHEOPS data, in the framework of Lambda-CDM and quintessence paradigm. We show that well chosen combinations of constraints from different cosmological observations lead to precise measurements of cosmological parameters. The Universe seems flat with a 70 percents contribution of dark energy with an equation of state very close to those of the vacuum.

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arXiv2003

BAX: A dedicated X-Rays galaxy clusters Database

We present BAX, Base de Données amas de galaxies X (http://webast.ast.obs-mip.fr/bax), a project aiming at building a comprehensive database dedicated to X-rays clusters of galaxies allowing detailed information retrieval. BAX provides the user with {\it basic data} published in the literature on X-rays clusters of galaxies as well as with information concerning the physical properties in the X-rays domain or at other wavelengths. BAX allows individual studies on selected clusters as well as building up homogenous samples, from known X-rays clusters for which selection criteria are chosen through web interfaces. We expect BAX to become a useful tool for astronomy community in order to optimize the cluster science return using data from both ground based facilities like MEGACAM (CFHT), VIRMOS (VLT) and space missions like XMM, Chandra and Planck.

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arXiv2003

Cosmological constraints from Archeops

We analyze the cosmological constraints that Archeops places on adiabatic cold dark matter models with passive power-law initial fluctuations. Because its angular power spectrum has small bins in l and large l coverage down to COBE scales, Archeops provides a precise determination of the first acoustic peak in terms of position at multipole l_peak=220 +- 6, height and width. An analysis of Archeops data in combination with other CMB datasets constrains the baryon content of the Universe, Omega(b)h^2 = 0.022 (+0.003,-0.004), compatible with Big-Bang nucleosynthesis and with a similar accuracy. Using cosmological priors obtainedfrom recent non-CMB data leads to yet tighter constraints on the total density, e.g. Omega(tot)=1.00 (+0.03,-0.02) using the HST determination of the Hubble constant. An excellent absolute calibration consistency is found between Archeops and other CMB experiments, as well as with the previously quoted best fit model.The spectral index n is measured to be 1.04 (+0.10,-0.12) when the optical depth to reionization, tau, is allowed to vary as a free parameter, and 0.96 (+0.03,-0.04) when tau is fixed to zero, both in good agreement with inflation.

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arXiv2003

The Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Power Spectrum measured by Archeops

We present a determination by the Archeops experiment of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy in 16 bins over the multipole range l=15-350. Archeops was conceived as a precursor of the Planck HFI instrument by using the same optical design and the same technology for the detectors and their cooling. Archeops is a balloon-borne instrument consisting of a 1.5 m aperture diameter telescope and an array of 21 photometers maintained at ~100 mK that are operating in 4 frequency bands centered at 143, 217, 353 and 545 GHz. The data were taken during the Arctic night of February 7, 2002 after the instrument was launched by CNES from Esrange base (Sweden). The entire data cover ~ 30% of the sky.This first analysis was obtained with a small subset of the dataset using the most sensitive photometer in each CMB band (143 and 217 GHz) and 12.6% of the sky at galactic latitudes above 30 degrees where the foreground contamination is measured to be negligible. The large sky coverage and medium resolution (better than 15 arcminutes) provide for the first time a high signal-to-noise ratio determination of the power spectrum over angular scales that include both the first acoustic peak and scales probed by COBE/DMR. With a binning of Delta(l)=7 to 25 the error bars are dominated by sample variance for l below 200. A companion paper details the cosmological implications.

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arXiv2003

Cosmological Parameters: Fashion and Facts

We are at a specific period of modern cosmology, during which the large increase of the amount of data leads to the idea that the determination of cosmological parameters has been achieved with a rather good precision. There is a large consensus around the so-called concordance model. Indeed this model does fit an impressive set of independent data: CMB $C_l$ curve, most current matter density estimations, Hubble constant estimation from HST, apparent acceleration of the Universe, good matching of the power spectrum of matter fluctuations. However, the necessary introduction of a non zero cosmological constant is an extraordinary new mystery for physics, or more exactly the come back of one of the ghost of modern physics since its introduction by Einstein. Here, I would like to emphasize that some results are established beyond reasonable doubt, like the (nearly) flatness of the universe and the existence of a dark non-baryonic component of the Universe. But also that the evidence for a cosmological constant may not be as strong as needed to be considered as established beyond doubt. In this respect, I will argue that an Einstein-De Sitter universe might still be a viable option. Three global tests: 1) the evolution of the abundance of clusters with redshift 2) the baryon fraction measured in local clusters 3) apparent evolution of the baryon fraction with redshift might be consistent with a high matter density for the Universe in the range $0.6-1.$. I therefore conclude that the dominance of vacuum to the various density contributions to the Universe is presently an interesting and fascinating possibility, but it is still premature to consider it as an established scientific fact (abridged).

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arXiv2002

Cosmological parameters estimation in the Quintessence Paradigm

We present cosmological parameter constraints on flat cosmologies dominated by dark energy using various cosmological data including the recent Archeops angular power spectrum measurements. A likelihood analysis of the existing Cosmic Microwave Background data shows that the presence of dark energy is not requested, in the absence of further prior. This comes from the fact that there exist degeneracies among the various cosmological parameters constrained by the Cosmic Microwave Background. We found that there is a degeneracy in a combination of the Hubble parameter H_0 and of the dark energy equation of state parameter w_Q, but that w_Q is not correlated with the primordial index n of scalar fluctuations and the baryon content Omega_b h^2. Preferred primordial index is n = 0.95 \pm 0.05 (68%) and baryon content Omega_b h^2 = 0.021 \pm 0.003. Adding constraint on the amplitude of matter fluctuations on small scales, sigma_8, obtained from clusters abundance or weak lensing data may allow to break the degenaracies, although present-day systematics uncertainties do not allow firm conclusions yet. The further addition of the Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the local distance scale and of the high redshift supernovae data allows to obtain tight constraints. When these constraints are combined together we find that the amount of dark energy is 0.7^{+0.10}_{-0.07} (95% C.L.) and that its equation of state is very close to those of the vacuum: w_Q < -0.75 (> 95% C.L.). In no case do we find that quintessence is prefered over the classical cosmological constant, although robust data on sigma_8 might rapidly bring light on this important issue.

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arXiv2002

XMM-Newton observation of the distant (z=0.6) galaxy cluster RX J1120.1+4318

We report on a 20 ksec XMM observation of the distant cluster RXJ1120.1+4318, discovered at z=0.6 in the SHARC survey. The cluster has a regular spherical morphology, suggesting it is in a relaxed state. The combined fit of the EPIC/MOS&pn camera gives a cluster mean temperature of kT=5.3\pm0.5 keV with an iron abundance of 0.47\pm0.19. The temperature profile, measured for the first time at such a redshift, is consistent with an isothermal atmosphere up to half the virial radius. The surface brightness profile, measured nearly up to the virial radius, is well fitted by a beta-model, with beta =0.78[+0.06,-0.04] and a core radius of thetac = 0.44[+0.06,-0.04] arcmin. We compared the properties of RXJ1120.1+4318 with the properties of nearby clusters for two cosmological models: an Einstein - de Sitter Universe and a flat low density Universe with Omega0=0.3. For both models, the scaled emission measure profile beyond the core, the gas mass fraction and luminosity are consistent with the expectations of the self-similar model of cluster formation, although a slightly better agreement is obtained for a low density Universe. There is no evidence of a central cooling flow, in spite of the apparent relaxed state of the cluster. This is consistent with its estimated cooling time, larger than the age of the Universe at the cluster redshift. The entropy profile shows a flat core with a central entropy of ~ 140 keV cm^2, remarkably similar to the entropy floor observed in nearby clusters, and a rising profile beyond typically 0.1 virial radius. Implications of our results, in terms of non-gravitational physics in cluster formation, are discussed.

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arXiv2001

Cosmological Parameter Estimation from CMB and X-ray clusters

We present the results of a combined analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) and X-ray galaxy clusters baryon fraction to deduce constraints over 6 in flationnary cosmological parameters. Such a combination is necessary for breaki ng degeneracies inherent to the CMB.

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arXiv2001

The baryon fraction in X-Rays galaxy clusters revisited

One of the most direct way to constrain the matter density of the universe $Ω_M$ is to measure the baryon content in X-Rays clusters of galaxies. Typical value of the mean gas mass fraction is $\fg \sim 0.15h^{-3/2}$ which leads to $\omM <0.4$. In this talk I will discuss the issue of the gas fraction radial distribution inside a cluster and foccus on the apparent discrepancy between the theoretical shape predicted by numerical simulations and the observations. I will show that a significant part of this discrepancy is due to several systematics in both the gas mass and total mass determinations. Revising the gas as well as the binding masses removes such a discrepancy and results in a lower baryon mass fraction of $\fb(r_{500}) \sim 10 %$ (Sadat & Blanchard 2001). Finally, I will discuss the cosmological constraints we obtain when we combine the revised baryon fraction with primordial fluctuations.

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