arXiv subjects

Blake D. Sherwin

Publications and source records attributed to Blake D. Sherwin.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Improving Small-Scale CMB Lensing Reconstruction

Over the past decade, the gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has become a powerful tool for probing the matter distribution in the Universe. The standard technique used to reconstruct the CMB lensing signal employs the quadratic estimator (QE) method, which has recently been shown to be suboptimal for lensing measurements on very small scales in temperature and polarization data. We implement a simple, more optimal method for the small-scale regime, which involves taking the direct inverse of the background gradient. We derive new techniques to make continuous maps of lensing using this "Gradient-Inversion" (GI) method and validate our method with simulated data, finding good agreement with predictions. For idealized simulations of lensing cross- and autospectra that neglect foregrounds, we demonstrate that our method performs significantly better than previous quadratic estimator methods in temperature; at $L=5000-9000$, it reduces errors on the lensing auto-power spectrum by a factor of $\sim 4$ for both idealized CMB-S4 and Simons Observatory-like experiments and by a factor of $\sim 2.6$ for cross-correlations of CMB-S4-like lensing reconstruction and the true lensing field. We caution that the level of the neglected small-scale foreground power, while low in polarization, is very high in temperature; though we briefly outline foreground mitigation methods, further work on this topic is required. Nevertheless, our results show the future potential for improved small-scale CMB lensing measurements, which could provide stronger constraints on cosmological parameters and astrophysics at high redshifts.

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arXiv2019

Reconstructing Small Scale Lenses from the Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Fluctuations

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing is a powerful probe of the matter distribution in the Universe. The standard quadratic estimator, which is typically used to measure the lensing signal, is known to be suboptimal for low-noise polarization data from next-generation experiments. In this paper we explain why the quadratic estimator will also be suboptimal for measuring lensing on very small scales, even for measurements in temperature where this estimator typically performs well. Though maximum likelihood methods could be implemented to improve performance, we explore a much simpler solution, revisiting a previously proposed method to measure lensing which involves a direct inversion of the background gradient. An important application of this simple formalism is the measurement of cluster masses with CMB lensing. We find that directly applying a gradient inversion matched filter to simulated lensed images of the CMB can tighten constraints on cluster masses compared to the quadratic estimator. While the difference is not relevant for existing surveys, for future surveys it can translate to significant improvements in mass calibration for distant clusters, where galaxy lensing calibration is ineffective due to the lack of enough resolved background galaxies. Improvements can be as large as $\sim 50\%$ for a cluster at $z = 2$ and a next-generation CMB experiment with 1$μ$K-arcmin noise, and over an order of magnitude for lower noise levels. For future surveys, this simple matched-filter or gradient inversion method approaches the performance of maximum likelihood methods, at a fraction of the computational cost.

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arXiv2019

Constraining the Rotational Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in Massive Galaxy Clusters

We constrain the rotational kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (rkSZ) effect in Planck data using a sample of rotating galaxy clusters identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We extract cluster-centered cutouts from Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps that have been cleaned of thermal SZ signal. Using previous constraints on the cluster rotation vectors determined from the motions of galaxies, we fit for the amplitude of the rkSZ effect in the CMB cutouts, marginalizing over parameters describing the cluster electron distribution. We also employ an alternative, less model-dependent approach to measuring the rkSZ signal that involves measuring the dipole induced by the rkSZ in rotation velocity-oriented CMB stacks. In both cases, we find roughly $2σ$ evidence for a rkSZ signal consistent with the expected amplitude and morphology. We comment on future directions for measurements of the rkSZ signal.

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arXiv2019

Non-Gaussianity of secondary anisotropies from ACTPol and Planck

Most secondary sources of cosmic microwave background anisotropy (radio sources, dusty galaxies -DSFGs-, thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich -tSZ- distortions from hot gas, and gravitational lensing) are highly non-Gaussian. Statistics beyond the power spectrum are therefore potentially important sources of information about the physics of these processes. We combine data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and with data from the Planck satellite (only using Planck data in the overlapping region) to constrain the amplitudes of a set of theoretical bispectrum templates from the tSZ effect, DSFGs, gravitational lensing, and radio galaxies. We make a strong detection of radio galaxies (>5$σ$) and have hints of non-Gaussianity arising from the tSZ effect, DSFGs, from cross-correlations between the tSZ effect and DSFGs and from cross-correlations among the tSZ effect, DSFGs and radio galaxies. These results suggest that the same halos host radio sources, DSFGs, and have tSZ signal. We present a new method to calculate the non-Gaussian contributions to the template covariances. Using this method we find significant non-Gaussian contributions to the variance and covariance of our templates, with templates involving the tSZ effect most effected. Strong degeneracies exist between the various sources at the current noise levels. In light of these degeneracies, combined with theoretical uncertainty in the templates, these results are a demonstration of this technique. With these caveats, we demonstrate the utility of future bispectrum measurements by using the tSZ bispectrum measurement to constrain a combination of the amplitude of matter fluctuations and the matter density to be $σ_8 Ω_m^{0.17}=0.65^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$. Improvements in signal to noise from upcoming observations will enable the separation of bispectrum components and robust constraints on cosmological parameters.

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arXiv2019

The Impact of Wrong Assumptions in BAO Reconstruction

The process of density field reconstruction enhances the statistical power of distance scale measurements using baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). During this process a fiducial cosmology is assumed in order to convert sky coordinates and redshifts into distances; fiducial bias and redshift-space-distortion parameters are also assumed in this procedure. We analytically assess the impact of incorrect cosmology and bias assumptions on the post-reconstruction power spectra using low-order Lagrangian perturbation theory, deriving general expressions for the incorrectly reconstructed spectra. We find that the BAO peak location appears to shift only by a negligible amount due to wrong assumptions made during reconstruction. However, the shape of the BAO peak and the quadrupole amplitude can be affected by such errors (at the percent- and five-percent-level respectively), which potentially could cause small biases in parameter inference for future surveys; we outline solutions to such complications.

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arXiv2018

Towards Neutrino Mass from Cosmology without Optical Depth Information

With low redshift probes reaching unprecedented precision, uncertainty of the CMB optical depth is expected to be the limiting factor for future cosmological neutrino mass constraints. In this paper, we discuss to what extent combinations of CMB lensing and galaxy surveys measurements at low redshifts $z\sim 0.5-5$ will be able to make competitive neutrino mass measurements without relying on any optical depth constraints. We find that the combination of LSST galaxies and CMB-S4 lensing should be able to achieve constraints on the neutrino mass sum of 25meV without optical depth information, an independent measurement that is competitive with or slightly better than the constraint of 30meV possible with CMB-S4 and present-day optical depth measurements. These constraints originate both in structure growth probed by cross-correlation tomography over a wide redshift range as well as, most importantly, the shape of the galaxy power spectrum measured over a large volume. We caution that possible complications such as higher-order biasing and systematic errors in the analysis of high redshift galaxy clustering are only briefly discussed and may be non-negligible. Nevertheless, our results show that new kinds of high-precision neutrino mass measurements at and beyond the present-day optical depth limit may be possible.

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arXiv2018

Detection and Removal of B-mode Dust Foregrounds with Signatures of Statistical Anisotropy

Searches for inflationary gravitational wave signals in the CMB B-mode polarisation are expected to reach unprecedented power over the next decade. A major difficulty in these ongoing searches is that galactic foregrounds such as dust can easily mimic inflationary signals. Though typically foregrounds are separated from primordial signals using the foregrounds' different frequency dependence, in this paper we investigate instead the extent to which the galactic dust B-modes' statistical anisotropy can be used to distinguish them from inflationary B-modes, building on the work of Kamionkowski and Kovetz (2014). In our work, we extend existing anisotropy estimators and apply them to simulations of polarised dust to forecast their performance for future experiments. Considering the application of this method as a null-test for dust contamination to CMB-S4, we find that we can detect residual dust levels corresponding to $r\sim0.001$ at $2σ$, which implies that statistical anisotropy estimators will be a powerful diagnostic for foreground residuals (though our results show some dependence on the dust simulation used). Finally, considering applications beyond a simple null test, we demonstrate how anisotropy statistics can be used to construct an estimate of the dust B-mode map, which could potentially be used to clean the B-mode sky.

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arXiv2018

On the effect of non-Gaussian lensing deflections on CMB lensing measurements

We investigate the impact of non-Gaussian lensing deflections on measurements of the CMB lensing power spectrum. We find that the false assumption of their Gaussianity significantly biases these measurements in current and future experiments at the percent level. The bias is detected by comparing CMB lensing reconstructions from simulated CMB data lensed with Gaussian deflection fields to reconstructions from simulations lensed with fully non-Gaussian deflection fields. The non-Gaussian deflections are produced by ray-tracing through snapshots of an N-body simulation and capture both the non-Gaussianity induced by non-linear structure formation and by multiple correlated deflections. We find that the amplitude of the measured bias is in agreement with analytical predictions by Böhm et al. 2016. The bias is largest in temperature-based measurements and we do not find evidence for it in measurements from a combination of polarization fields ($EB,EB$). We argue that the non-Gaussian bias should be even more important for measurements of cross-correlations of CMB lensing with low-redshift tracers of large-scale structure.

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arXiv2017

Multitracer CMB delensing maps from Planck and WISE data

Delensing, the removal of the limiting lensing B-mode background, is crucial for the success of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys in constraining inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). In recent work, delensing with large-scale structure tracers has emerged as a promising method both for improving constraints on IGWs and for testing delensing methods for future use. However, the delensing fractions (i.e., the fraction of the lensing-B mode power removed) achieved by recent efforts have been only $20-30\%$. In this work, we provide a detailed characterization of a full-sky, dust-cleaned cosmic infrared background (CIB) map for delensing and construct a further-improved delensing template by adding additional tracers to increase delensing performance. In particular, we build a multitracer delensing template by combining the dust-cleaned Planck CIB map with a reconstructed CMB lensing map from Planck and a galaxy number density map from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. For this combination, we calculate the relevant weightings by fitting smooth templates to measurements of all the cross- and auto-spectra of these maps. On a large fraction of the sky ($f_\mathrm{sky}=0.43$), we demonstrate that our maps are capable of providing a delensing factor of $43 \pm 1\%$; using a more restrictive mask ($f_\mathrm{sky}=0.11$), the delensing factor reaches $48 \pm 1\%$. For low-noise surveys, our delensing maps, which cover much of the sky, can thus improve constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$) by nearly a factor of 2. The delensing tracer maps are made publicly available, and we encourage their use in ongoing and upcoming B-mode surveys.

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arXiv2017

Optimization Study for the Experimental Configuration of CMB-S4

The CMB Stage 4 (CMB-S4) experiment is a next-generation, ground-based experiment that will measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization to unprecedented accuracy, probing the signature of inflation, the nature of cosmic neutrinos, relativistic thermal relics in the early universe, and the evolution of the universe. To advance the progress towards designing the instrument for CMB-S4, we have established a framework to optimize the instrumental configuration to maximize its scientific output. In this paper, we report our first results from this framework, using simplified instrumental and cost models. We have primarily studied two classes of instrumental configurations: arrays of large aperture telescopes with diameters ranging from 2-10 m, and hybrid arrays that combine small-aperture telescopes (0.5 m diameter) with large-aperture telescopes. We explore performance as a function of the telescope aperture size, the distribution of the detectors into different microwave frequencies, the survey strategy and survey area, the low-frequency noise performance, and the balance between small and large aperture telescopes for the hybrid configurations. We also examine the impact from the uncertainties of the instrumental model. There are several areas that deserve further improvement. In our forecasting framework, we adopt a simple two-component foregrounds model with spacially varying power-law spectral indices. We estimate delensing performance statistically and ignore possible non-idealities. Instrumental systematics, which is not accounted for in our study, may influence the design. Further study of the instrumental and cost models will be one of the main areas of study by the whole CMB-S4 community. We hope that our framework will be useful for estimating the influence of these improvement in future, and we will incorporate them in order to improve the optimization further.

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arXiv2017

Cosmological Parameters from pre-Planck CMB Measurements: a 2017 Update

We present cosmological constraints from the combination of the full mission 9-year WMAP release and small-scale temperature data from the pre-Planck ACT and SPT generation of instruments. This is an update of the analysis presented in Calabrese et al. 2013 and highlights the impact on $Λ$CDM cosmology of a 0.06 eV massive neutrino - which was assumed in the Planck analysis but not in the ACT/SPT analyses - and a Planck-cleaned measurement of the optical depth to reionization. We show that cosmological constraints are now strong enough that small differences in assumptions about reionization and neutrino mass give systematic differences which are clearly detectable in the data. We recommend that these updated results be used when comparing cosmological constraints from WMAP, ACT and SPT with other surveys or with current and future full-mission Planck cosmology. Cosmological parameter chains are publicly available on the NASA's LAMBDA data archive.

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arXiv2016

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

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.

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arXiv2016

CMB Lensing Beyond the Power Spectrum: Cosmological Constraints from the One-Point PDF and Peak Counts

Unprecedentedly precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) data are expected from ongoing and near-future CMB Stage-III and IV surveys, which will yield reconstructed CMB lensing maps with effective resolution approaching several arcminutes. The small-scale CMB lensing fluctuations receive non-negligible contributions from nonlinear structure in the late-time density field. These fluctuations are not fully characterized by traditional two-point statistics, such as the power spectrum. Here, we use $N$-body ray-tracing simulations of CMB lensing maps to examine two higher-order statistics: the lensing convergence one-point probability distribution function (PDF) and peak counts. We show that these statistics contain significant information not captured by the two-point function, and provide specific forecasts for the ongoing Stage-III Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope (AdvACT) experiment. Considering only the temperature-based reconstruction estimator, we forecast 9$σ$ (PDF) and 6$σ$ (peaks) detections of these statistics with AdvACT. Our simulation pipeline fully accounts for the non-Gaussianity of the lensing reconstruction noise, which is significant and cannot be neglected. Combining the power spectrum, PDF, and peak counts for AdvACT will tighten cosmological constraints in the $Ω_m$-$σ_8$ plane by $\approx 30\%$, compared to using the power spectrum alone.

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arXiv2016

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales.

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arXiv2016

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Spectra and Parameters

We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol). We analyze night-time data collected during 2013-14 using two detector arrays at 149 GHz, from 548 deg$^2$ of sky on the celestial equator. We use these spectra, and the spectra measured with the MBAC camera on ACT from 2008-10, in combination with Planck and WMAP data to estimate cosmological parameters from the temperature, polarization, and temperature-polarization cross-correlations. We find the new ACTPol data to be consistent with the LCDM model. The ACTPol temperature-polarization cross-spectrum now provides stronger constraints on multiple parameters than the ACTPol temperature spectrum, including the baryon density, the acoustic peak angular scale, and the derived Hubble constant. Adding the new data to planck temperature data tightens the limits on damping tail parameters, for example reducing the joint uncertainty on the number of neutrino species and the primordial helium fraction by 20%.

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arXiv2016

Demonstration of cosmic microwave background delensing using the cosmic infrared background

Delensing is an increasingly important technique to reverse the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and thus reveal primordial signals the lensing may obscure. We present a first demonstration of delensing on Planck temperature maps using the cosmic infrared background (CIB). Reversing the lensing deflections in Planck CMB temperature maps using a linear combination of the 545 and 857GHz maps as a lensing tracer, we find that the lensing effects in the temperature power spectrum are reduced in a manner consistent with theoretical expectations. In particular, the characteristic sharpening of the acoustic peaks of the temperature power spectrum resulting from successful delensing is detected at a significance of 16$\rmσ$, with an amplitude of $A_{\rm{delens}} = 1.12 \pm 0.07$ relative to the expected value of unity. This first demonstration on data of CIB delensing, and of delensing techniques in general, is significant because lensing removal will soon be essential for achieving high-precision constraints on inflationary B-mode polarization.

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arXiv2016

A bias to CMB lensing measurements from the bispectrum of large-scale structure

The rapidly improving precision of measurements of gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) also requires a corresponding increase in the precision of theoretical modeling. A commonly made approximation is to model the CMB deflection angle or lensing potential as a Gaussian random field. In this paper, however, we analytically quantify the influence of the non-Gaussianity of large-scale structure lenses, arising from nonlinear structure formation, on CMB lensing measurements. In particular, evaluating the impact of the non-zero bispectrum of large-scale structure on the relevant CMB four-point correlation functions, we find that there is a bias to estimates of the CMB lensing power spectrum. For temperature-based lensing reconstruction with CMB Stage-III and Stage-IV experiments, we find that this lensing power spectrum bias is negative and is of order one percent of the signal. This corresponds to a shift of multiple standard deviations for these upcoming experiments. We caution, however, that our numerical calculation only evaluates two of the largest bias terms and thus only provides an approximate estimate of the full bias. We conclude that further investigation into lensing biases from nonlinear structure formation is required and that these biases should be accounted for in future lensing analyses.

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arXiv2016

Eliminating the optical depth nuisance from the CMB with 21 cm cosmology

Amongst standard model parameters that are constrained by cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations, the optical depth $τ$ stands out as a nuisance parameter. While $τ$ provides some crude limits on reionization, it also degrades constraints on other cosmological parameters. Here we explore how 21 cm cosmology---as a direct probe of reionization---can be used to independently predict $τ$ in an effort to improve CMB parameter constraints. We develop two complementary schemes for doing so. The first uses 21 cm power spectrum observations in conjunction with semi-analytic simulations to predict $τ$. The other uses global 21 cm measurements to directly constrain low redshift (post-reheating) contributions to $τ$ in a relatively model-independent way. Forecasting the performance of the upcoming Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array, we find that significant reductions in the errors on $τ$ can be achieved. These results are particularly effective at breaking the CMB degeneracy between $τ$ and the amplitude of the primordial fluctuation spectrum $A_s$, with errors on $\ln (10^{10} A_s)$ reduced by up to a factor of four. Stage 4 CMB constraints on the neutrino mass sum are also improved, with errors potentially reduced to $12\,\textrm{meV}$ regardless of whether CMB experiments can precisely measure the reionization bump in polarization power spectra. Observations of the 21 cm line are therefore capable of improving not only our understanding of reionization astrophysics, but also of cosmology in general.

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