arXiv subjects

Eric R. Switzer

Publications and source records attributed to Eric R. Switzer.

67 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Detection of the Power Spectrum of Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

We report the first detection of the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background through a measurement of the four-point correlation function in the temperature maps made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We verify our detection by calculating the levels of potential contaminants and performing a number of null tests. The resulting convergence power spectrum at 2-degree angular scales measures the amplitude of matter density fluctuations on comoving length scales of around 100 Mpc at redshifts around 0.5 to 3. The measured amplitude of the signal agrees with Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmology predictions. Since the amplitude of the convergence power spectrum scales as the square of the amplitude of the density fluctuations, the 4-sigma detection of the lensing signal measures the amplitude of density fluctuations to 12%.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

The Steppenwolf: A proposal for a habitable planet in interstellar space

Rogue planets have been ejected from their planetary system. We investigate the possibility that a rogue planet could maintain a liquid ocean under layers of thermally-insulating water ice and frozen atmosphere as a result of geothermal heat flux. We find that a rogue planet of Earth-like composition and age could maintain a subglacial liquid ocean if it were ~3.5 times more massive than Earth. If a rogue planet had about ten times higher water mass fraction or a thick cryo-atmospheric layer, it would need to be only ~0.3 times the mass of Earth to maintain a liquid ocean. Such a planet could be detected from reflected solar radiation and its thermal emission could be characterized in the far-IR if it passed within O(1000) AU of Earth.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2011

Correlations in the (Sub)millimeter background from ACTxBLAST

We present measurements of the auto- and cross-frequency correlation power spectra of the cosmic (sub)millimeter background at: 250, 350, and 500 um (1200, 860, and 600 GHz) from observations made with the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope, BLAST; and at 1380 and 2030 um (218 and 148 GHz) from observations made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, ACT. The overlapping observations cover 8.6 deg^2 in an area relatively free of Galactic dust near the south ecliptic pole (SEP). The ACT bands are sensitive to radiation from the CMB, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect from galaxy clusters, and to emission by radio and dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), while the dominant contribution to the BLAST bands is from DSFGs. We confirm and extend the BLAST analysis of clustering with an independent pipeline, and also detect correlations between the ACT and BLAST maps at over 25sigma significance, which we interpret as a detection of the DSFGs in the ACT maps. In addition to a Poisson component in the cross-frequency power spectra, we detect a clustered signal at >4sigma, and using a model for the DSFG evolution and number counts, we successfully fit all our spectra with a linear clustering model and a bias that depends only on redshift and not on scale. Finally, the data are compared to, and generally agree with, phenomenological models for the DSFG population. This study represents a first of its kind, and demonstrates the constraining power of the cross-frequency correlation technique to constrain models for the DSFGs. Similar analyses with more data will impose tight constraints on future models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmology from Galaxy Clusters Detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We present constraints on cosmological parameters based on a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-selected galaxy clusters detected in a millimeter-wave survey by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The cluster sample used in this analysis consists of 9 optically-confirmed high-mass clusters comprising the high-significance end of the total cluster sample identified in 455 square degrees of sky surveyed during 2008 at 148 GHz. We focus on the most massive systems to reduce the degeneracy between unknown cluster astrophysics and cosmology derived from SZ surveys. We describe the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal with a 4-parameter fit. Marginalizing over the values of the parameters in this fit with conservative priors gives sigma_8 = 0.851 +/- 0.115 and w = -1.14 +/- 0.35 for a spatially-flat wCDM cosmological model with WMAP 7-year priors on cosmological parameters. This gives a modest improvement in statistical uncertainty over WMAP 7-year constraints alone. Fixing the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal to a fiducial relation obtained from numerical simulations and calibrated by X-ray observations, we find sigma_8 = 0.821 +/- 0.044 and w = -1.05 +/- 0.20. These results are consistent with constraints from WMAP 7 plus baryon acoustic oscillations plus type Ia supernoava which give sigma_8 = 0.802 +/- 0.038 and w = -0.98 +/- 0.053. A stacking analysis of the clusters in this sample compared to clusters simulated assuming the fiducial model also shows good agreement. These results suggest that, given the sample of clusters used here, both the astrophysics of massive clusters and the cosmological parameters derived from them are broadly consistent with current models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The HeI 584 A Forest as a Diagnostic of Helium Reionization

We discuss the potential of using the HeI 584 A forest to detect and study HeII reionization. Significant 584 A absorption is expected from intergalactic HeII regions, whereas there should be no detectable absorption from low density gas in HeIII regions. Unlike HeII Ly-alpha absorption (the subject of much recent study), the difficulty with using this transition to study HeII reionization is not saturation but rather that the absorption is weak. The Gunn-Peterson optical depth for this transition is tau ~ 0.1 x_{HeII} Delta^2 [(1+z)/5]^{9/2}, where x_{HeII} is the fraction of helium in HeII and Delta is the density in units of the cosmic mean. In addition, HeI 584 A absorption is contaminated by lower redshift HI Ly-alpha absorption with a comparable flux decrement. We estimate the requirements for a definitive detection of redshifted HeI absorption from low density gas (Delta ~ 1), which would indicate that HeII reionization was occurring. We find that this objective can be accomplished (using coeval HI Ly-alpha absorption to mask dense regions and in cross correlation) with a spectral resolution of 10^4 and a signal-to-noise ratio per resolution element of ~ 10. Such specifications may be achievable on a few known z ~ 3.5 quasar sightlines with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We also discuss how HeI absorption can be used to measure the hardness of the ionizing background above 13.6 eV.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 and 218 GHz from the 2008 Southern Survey

We present measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope at 148 GHz and 218 GHz, as well as the cross-frequency spectrum between the two channels. Our results clearly show the second through the seventh acoustic peaks in the CMB power spectrum. The measurements of these higher-order peaks provide an additional test of the ΛCDM cosmological model. At l > 3000, we detect power in excess of the primary anisotropy spectrum of the CMB. At lower multipoles 500 < l < 3000, we find evidence for gravitational lensing of the CMB in the power spectrum at the 2.8σ level. We also detect a low level of Galactic dust in our maps, which demonstrates that we can recover known faint, diffuse signals.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Calibration with WMAP Using Cross-Correlations

We present a new calibration method based on cross-correlations with WMAP and apply it to data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). ACT's observing strategy and map making procedure allows an unbiased reconstruction of the modes in the maps over a wide range of multipoles. By directly matching the ACT maps to WMAP observations in the multipole range of 400 < ell < 1000, we determine the absolute calibration with an uncertainty of 2% in temperature. The precise measurement of the calibration error directly impacts the uncertainties in the cosmological parameters estimated from the ACT power spectra. We also present a combined map based on ACT and WMAP data that has high signal-to-noise over a wide range of multipoles.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Redshifted intergalactic 3He+ 8.7 GHz hyperfine absorption

Motivated by recent interest in redshifted 21 cm emission of intergalactic hydrogen, we investigate the 8.7 GHz ^2S_{1/2} F=0-1 hyperfine transition of ^3He^+. While the primordial abundance of 3He relative to hydrogen is 10^-5, the hyperfine spontaneous decay rate is 680 times larger. Furthermore, the antenna temperature is much lower at the frequencies relevant for the ^3He^+ transition compared to that of z>6 21 cm emission. We find that the spin temperature of this 8.7 GHz line in the intergalactic medium is approximately the cosmic microwave background temperature, such that this transition is best observed in absorption against high-redshift, radio-bright quasars. We show that intergalactic 8.7 GHz absorption is a promising, unsaturated observable of the ionization history of intergalactic helium (for which HeII->HeIII reionization is believed to be complete at z~3) and of the primordial 3He abundance. Instruments must reach ~1 μJy RMS noise in bands of 1 MHz on a 1 Jy source to directly resolve this absorption. However, in combination with HI Lyαforest measurements, an instrument can statistically detect this absorption from z > 3 with 30 μJy RMS noise in 0.1 MHz spectral bands over 100 MHz, which may be within the reach of present instruments.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2008

Primordial helium recombination III: Thomson scattering, isotope shifts, and cumulative results

Upcoming precision measurements of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at high multipoles will need to be complemented by a more complete understanding of recombination, which determines the damping of anisotropies on these scales. This is the third in a series of papers describing an accurate theory of HeI and HeII recombination. Here we describe the effect of Thomson scattering, the $^3$He isotope shift, the contribution of rare decays, collisional processes, and peculiar motion. These effects are found to be negligible: Thomson and $^3$He scattering modify the free electron fraction $x_e$ at the level of several $\times 10^{-4}$. The uncertainty in the $2^3P^o-1^1S$ rate is significant, and for conservative estimates gives uncertainties in $x_e$ of order $10^{-3}$. We describe several convergence tests for the atomic level code and its inputs, derive an overall $C_\ell$ error budget, and relate shifts in $x_e(z)$ to the changes in $C_\ell$, which are at the level of 0.5% at $\ell =3000$. Finally, we summarize the main corrections developed thus far. The remaining uncertainty from known effects is $\sim 0.3%$ in $x_e$.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Primordial helium recombination I: feedback, line transfer, and continuum opacity

Precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy on scales $\ell > 500$ will be available in the near future. Successful interpretation of these data is dependent on a detailed understanding of the damping tail and cosmological recombination of both hydrogen and helium. This paper and two companion papers are devoted to a precise calculation of helium recombination. We discuss several aspects of the standard recombination picture, and then include feedback, radiative transfer in HeI lines with partial redistribution, and continuum opacity from HI photoionization. In agreement with past calculations, we find that HeII recombination proceeds in Saha equilibrium, whereas HeI recombination is delayed relative to Saha due to the low rates connecting excited states of HeI to the ground state. However, we find that at $z<2200$ the continuum absorption by the rapidly increasing HI population becomes effective at destroying photons in the HeI $2^1P^o-1^1S$ line, causing HeI recombination to finish around $z\approx 1800$, much earlier than previously estimated.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Primordial helium recombination II: two-photon processes

Interpretation of precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will require a detailed understanding of the recombination era, which determines such quantities as the acoustic oscillation scale and the Silk damping scale. This paper is the second in a series devoted to the subject of helium recombination, with a focus on two-photon processes in He I. The standard treatment of these processes includes only the spontaneous two-photon decay from the 2^1S level. We extend this treatment by including five additional effects, some of which have been suggested in recent papers but whose impact on He I recombination has not been fully quantified. These are: (i) stimulated two-photon decays; (ii) two-photon absorption of redshifted HeI line radiation; (iii) two-photon decays from highly excited levels in HeI (n^1S and n^1D, with n>=3); (iv) Raman scattering; and (v) the finite width of the 2^1P^o resonance. We find that effect (iii) is highly suppressed when one takes into account destructive interference between different intermediate states contributing to the two-photon decay amplitude. Overall, these effects are found to be insignificant: they modify the recombination history at the level of several parts in 10^4.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Ionizing radiation from hydrogen recombination strongly suppresses the lithium scattering signature in the CMB

It has been suggested that secondary CMB anisotropies generated by neutral lithium could open a new observational window into the universe around the redshift z ~ 400, and permit a determination of the primordial lithium abundance. The effect is due to resonant scattering in the allowed LiI doublet (2s ^2S_{1/2} - 2p ^2P_{1/2,3/2}), so its observability depends on the formation history of neutral lithium. Here we show that the ultraviolet photons produced during hydrogen recombination are sufficient to keep lithium in the LiII ionization stage in the relevant redshift range and suppress the neutral fraction by ~3 orders of magnitude from previous calculations, making the lithium signature unobservable.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

The Nonlinear Cosmological Matter Power Spectrum with Massive Neutrinos I: The Halo Model

Measurements of the linear power spectrum of galaxies have placed tight constraints on neutrino masses. We extend the framework of the halo model of cosmological nonlinear matter clustering to include the effect of massive neutrino infall into cold dark matter (CDM) halos. The magnitude of the effect of neutrino clustering for three degenerate mass neutrinos with m_nu=0.9 eV is of order ~1%, within the potential sensitivity of upcoming weak lensing surveys. In order to use these measurements to further constrain--or eventually detect--neutrino masses, accurate theoretical predictions of the nonlinear power spectrum in the presence of massive neutrinos will be needed, likely only possible through high-resolution multiple particle (neutrino, CDM and baryon) simulations.

astro-ph↗