arXiv subjects

J. Knoche

Publications and source records attributed to J. Knoche.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXXV. Probing the role of the magnetic field in the formation of structure in molecular clouds

Within ten nearby (d < 450 pc) Gould Belt molecular clouds we evaluate statistically the relative orientation between the magnetic field projected on the plane of sky, inferred from the polarized thermal emission of Galactic dust observed by Planck at 353 GHz, and the gas column density structures, quantified by the gradient of the column density, $N_H$. The selected regions, covering several degrees in size, are analyzed at an effective angular resolution of 10' FWHM, thus sampling physical scales from 0.4 to 40 pc in the nearest cloud. The column densities in the selected regions range from $N_H \approx 10^{21}$ to $10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$, and hence they correspond to the bulk of the molecular clouds. The relative orientation is evaluated pixel by pixel and analyzed in bins of column density using the novel statistical tool called "Histogram of Relative Orientations". Throughout this study, we assume that the polarized emission observed by Planck at 353 GHz is representative of the projected morphology of the magnetic field in each region, i.e., we assume a constant dust grain alignment efficiency, independent of the local environment. Within most clouds we find that the relative orientation changes progressively with increasing $N_H$, from preferentially parallel or having no preferred orientation to preferentially perpendicular. In simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in molecular clouds this trend in relative orientation is a signature of Alfvénic or sub-Alfvénic turbulence, implying that the magnetic field is significant for the gas dynamics at the scales probed by Planck. We compare the deduced magnetic field strength with estimates we obtain from other methods and discuss the implications of the Planck observations for the general picture of molecular cloud formation and evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXXIX. The Planck list of high-redshift source candidates

The Planck mission, thanks to its large frequency range and all-sky coverage, has a unique potential for systematically detecting the brightest, and rarest, submillimetre sources on the sky, including distant objects in the high-redshift Universe traced by their dust emission. A novel method, based on a component-separation procedure using a combination of Planck and IRAS data, has been applied to select the most luminous cold submm sources with spectral energy distributions peaking between 353 and 857GHz at 5' resolution. A total of 2151 Planck high-z source candidates (the PHZ) have been detected in the cleanest 26% of the sky, with flux density at 545GHz above 500mJy. Embedded in the cosmic infrared background close to the confusion limit, these high-z candidates exhibit colder colours than their surroundings, consistent with redshifts z>2, assuming a dust temperature of 35K and a spectral index of 1.5. First follow-up observations obtained from optical to submm have confirmed that this list consists of two distinct populations. A small fraction (around 3%) of the sources have been identified as strongly gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxies, which are amongst the brightest submm lensed objects (with flux density at 545GHz ranging from 350mJy up to 1Jy) at redshift 2 to 4. However, the vast majority of the PHZ sources appear as overdensities of dusty star-forming galaxies, having colours consistent with z>2, and may be considered as proto-cluster candidates. The PHZ provides an original sample, complementary to the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich Catalogue; by extending the population of the virialized massive galaxy clusters to a population of sources at z>1.5, the PHZ may contain the progenitors of today's clusters. Hence the PHZ opens a new window on the study of the early ages of structure formation, and the understanding of the intensively star-forming phase at high-z.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck 2013 results. XXXI. Consistency of the Planck data

The Planck design and scanning strategy provide many levels of redundancy that can be exploited to provide tests of internal consistency. One of the most important is the comparison of the 70GHz and 100GHz channels. Based on different instrument technologies, with feeds located differently in the focal plane, analysed independently by different teams using different software, and near the minimum of diffuse foreground emission, these channels are in effect two different experiments. The 143GHz channel has the lowest noise level on Planck, and is near the minimum of unresolved foreground emission. In this paper, we analyse the level of consistency achieved in the 2013 Planck data. We concentrate on comparisons between the 70/100/143GHz channel maps and power spectra, particularly over the angular scales of the first and second acoustic peaks, on maps masked for diffuse Galactic emission and for strong unresolved sources. Difference maps covering angular scales from 8deg-15arcmin are consistent with noise, and show no evidence of cosmic microwave background structure. Including small but important corrections for unresolved-source residuals, we demonstrate agreement between 70 and 100GHz power spectra averaged over 70<l<390 at the 0.8% level, and agreement between 143 and 100GHz power spectra of 0.4% over the same l range. These values are within and consistent with the overall uncertainties in calibration given in the Planck 2013 results. We also present results based on the 2013 likelihood analysis showing consistency at the 0.35% between the 100/143/217GHz power spectra. We analyse calibration procedures and beams to determine what fraction of these differences can be accounted for by known approximations or systematic errors that could be controlled even better in the future, reducing uncertainties still further. Several possible small improvements are described...(abridged)

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Planck 2013 results. XXVII. Doppler boosting of the CMB: Eppur si muove

Our velocity relative to the rest frame of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) generates a dipole temperature anisotropy on the sky which has been well measured for more than 30 years, and has an accepted amplitude of v/c = 0.00123, or v = 369km/s. In addition to this signal generated by Doppler boosting of the CMB monopole, our motion also modulates and aberrates the CMB temperature fluctuations (as well as every other source of radiation at cosmological distances). This is an order 0.1% effect applied to fluctuations which are already one part in roughly one hundred thousand, so it is quite small. Nevertheless, it becomes detectable with the all-sky coverage, high angular resolution, and low noise levels of the Planck satellite. Here we report a first measurement of this velocity signature using the aberration and modulation effects on the CMB temperature anisotropies, finding a component in the known dipole direction, (l,b)=(264, 48) [deg], of 384km/s +- 78km/s (stat.) +- 115km/s (syst.). This is a significant confirmation of the expected velocity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXXIII. Signature of the magnetic field geometry of interstellar filaments in dust polarization maps

Planck observations at 353GHz provide the first fully-sampled maps of the polarized dust emission towards interstellar filaments and their backgrounds. The polarization data provide insight on the structure of their magnetic field (B). We present the polarization maps of three nearby star forming filament of moderate column density (NH~10^22cm^-2): Musca, B211, and L1506. We use the spatial information to separate Stokes I, Q, and U of the filaments from those of their backgrounds, an essential step to measure the intrinsic polarization fraction (p) and angle (psi) of each emission component. We find that the polarization angles in the three filaments (psi_fil) are coherent along their lengths and not the same as in their backgrounds (psi_bg). The differences between psi_fil and psi_bg are 12deg, 6deg, and 54deg for Musca, B211, and L1506, respectively. These differences for Musca and L1506 are larger than the dispersions of psi, both along the filaments and in their backgrounds. The observed changes of psi are direct evidence for variations of the orientation of the plane of the sky (POS) projection of the B-field. As in previous studies, we find a decrease of several percent of p with NH. We show that the drop in p cannot be explained by random fluctuations of the orientation of B within the filaments because they are too small (sigma_psi<10deg). We recognize the degeneracy between dust alignment efficiency and the structure of B in causing variations in p, but we argue that the decrease of p from the backgrounds to the filaments results in part from depolarization associated with the 3D structure of B: both its orientation in the POS and with respect to the POS. We do not resolve the inner structure of the filaments, but at the smallest scales accessible with Planck (~0.2pc), the observed changes of psi and p hold information on the B-field structure within filaments.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXIII. Galactic plane emission components derived from Planck with ancillary data

Planck data when combined with ancillary data provide a unique opportunity to separate the diffuse emission components of the inner Galaxy. The purpose of the paper is to elucidate the morphology of the various emission components in the strong star-formation region lying inside the solar radius and to clarify the relationship between the various components. The region of the Galactic plane covered is l=300-0-60deg where star-formation is highest and the emission is strong enough to make meaningful component separation. The latitude widths in this longitude range lie between 1deg and 2deg, which correspond to FWHM z-widths of 100-200pc at a typical distance of 6kpc. The four emission components studied here are synchrotron, free-free, anomalous microwave emission (AME), and thermal (vibrational) dust emission. These components are identified by constructing spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at positions along the Galactic plane using the wide frequency coverage of Planck (28.4-857GHz) in combination with low-frequency radio data at 0.408-2.3GHz plus WMAP data at 23-94GHz, along with far-infrared (FIR) data from DIRBE and IRAS. The free-free component is determined from radio recombination line (RRL) data. AME is found to be comparable in brightness to the free-free emission on the Galactic plane in the frequency range 20-40GHz with a width in latitude similar to that of the thermal dust; it comprises 45+/-1% of the total 28.4GHz emission in the longitude range l=300-0-60deg. The free-free component is the narrowest, reflecting the fact that it is produced by current star-formation as traced by the narrow distribution of OB stars. It is the dominant emission on the plane between 60 and 100GHz. RRLs from this ionized gas are used to assess its distance, leading to a free-free z-width of FWHM ~100pc...(abridged)

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXII. Frequency dependence of thermal emission from Galactic dust in intensity and polarization

Planck has mapped the intensity and polarization of the sky at microwave frequencies with unprecedented sensitivity. We make use of the Planck 353 GHz I, Q, and U Stokes maps as dust templates, and cross-correlate them with the Planck and WMAP data at 12 frequencies from 23 to 353 GHz, over circular patches with 10 degree radius. The cross-correlation analysis is performed for both intensity and polarization data in a consistent manner. We use a mask that focuses our analysis on the diffuse interstellar medium at intermediate Galactic latitudes. We determine the spectral indices of dust emission in intensity and polarization between 100 and 353 GHz, for each sky-patch. The mean values, $1.59\pm0.02$ for polarization and $1.51\pm0.01$ for intensity, for a mean dust temperature of 19.6 K, are close, but significantly different ($3.6\,σ$). We determine the mean spectral energy distribution (SED) of the microwave emission, correlated with the 353 GHz dust templates, by averaging the results of the correlation over all sky-patches. We find that the mean SED increases for decreasing frequencies at $ν< 60$ GHz, for both intensity and polarization. The rise of the polarization SED towards low frequencies may be accounted for by a synchrotron component correlated with dust, with no need for any polarization of the anomalous microwave emission. We use a spectral model to separate the synchrotron and dust polarization and to characterize the spectral dependence of the dust polarization fraction. The polarization fraction ($p$) of the dust emission decreases by $(21\pm6)$ % from 353 to 70 GHz. The decrease of $p$ could indicate differences in polarization efficiency among components of interstellar dust (e.g., carbon versus silicate grains). Our observational results provide inputs to quantify and optimize the separation between Galactic and cosmological polarization.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXVII. High-redshift infrared galaxy overdensity candidates and lensed sources discovered by Planck and confirmed by Herschel-SPIRE

[Abridged] We use the Planck all-sky submm and mm maps to search for rare sources distinguished by extreme brightness, a few hundreds of mJy, and their potential for being situated at high redshift. These "cold" Planck sources, selected using the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) directly from the maps and from the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS), all satisfy the criterion of having their rest-frame far-infrared peak redshifted to the frequency range 353 and 857 GHz. This colour-selection favours galaxies in the redshift range z=2-4, which we consider as cold peaks in the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We perform a dedicated Herschel-SPIRE follow-up of 234 such Planck targets, finding a significant excess of red 350 and 500um sources, in comparison to reference SPIRE fields. About 94% of the SPIRE sources in the Planck fields are consistent with being overdensities of galaxies peaking at 350um. About 3% are candidate lensed systems, all 12 of which have secure spectroscopic confirmations, placing them at redshifts z>2.2. The galaxy overdensities are detected with high significance, half of the sample showing statistical significance above 10sigma. The SPIRE photometric redshifts of galaxies in overdensities suggest a peak at z~2. Under the Td=35K assumption, we derive an infrared (IR) luminosity for each SPIRE source of about 4x10^12 Lsun, yielding star formation rates of typically 700 Msun.yr^-1. If the observed overdensities are actual gravitationally-bound structures, the total total star formation rates reaches 7x10^3 Msun.yr^-1. Taken together, these sources show the signatures of high-z (z>$) protoclusters of intensively star-forming galaxies. All these observations confirm the uniqueness of our sample and demonstrate the ability of the all-sky Planck-HFI cold sources to select populations of cosmological and astrophysical interest for structure formation studies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXXII. The relative orientation between the magnetic field and structures traced by interstellar dust

The role of the magnetic field in the formation of the filamentary structures observed in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a debated topic. The Planck all-sky maps of linearly polarized emission from dust at 353GHz provide the required combination of imaging and statistics to study the correlation between the structures of the Galactic magnetic field and of interstellar matter, both in the diffuse ISM and in molecular clouds. The data reveal structures, or ridges, in the intensity map with counterparts in the Stokes Q and/or U maps. We focus on structures at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes with column density from $10^{20}$ to $10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$. We measure the magnetic field orientation on the plane of the sky from the polarization data, and present an algorithm to estimate the orientation of the ridges from the dust intensity map. We use analytical models to account for projection effects. Comparing polarization angles on and off the structures, we estimate the mean ratio between the strengths of the turbulent and mean components of the magnetic field to be between 0.6 and 1.0, with a preferred value of 0.8. We find that the ridges are preferentially aligned with the magnetic field measured on the structures. This trend becomes more striking for increasing polarization fraction and decreasing column density. We interpret the increase of alignment with polarization fraction as a consequence of projections effects. The decrease of alignment for high column density is not due to a loss of correlation between the structures and the geometry of the magnetic field. In molecular complexes, we observe structures perpendicular to the magnetic field, which cannot be accounted for by projection effects. We discuss our results in the context of models and MHD simulations, which describe the formation of structures in the magnetized ISM.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXVIII. Interstellar gas and dust in the Chamaeleon clouds as seen by Fermi LAT and Planck

Shortened abstract: Observations of the nearby Chamaeleon clouds in gamma rays with the Fermi Large Area Telescope and in thermal dust emission with Planck and IRAS have been used with the HI and CO radio data to (i) map the gas column densities in the different phases and at the dark neutral medium (DNM) transition between the HI-bright and CO-bright media; (ii) constrain the CO-to-$H_2$ conversion factor, $X_{CO}$; (iii) probe the dust properties per gas nucleon in each gas phase and spatially across the clouds. We have separated clouds in velocity in HI and CO emission and modelled the 0.4-100 GeV intensity, the dust optical depth at 353 GHz, the thermal radiance of the large grains, and an estimate of the dust extinction empirically corrected for the starlight intensity, $A_{VQ}$. The gamma-ray emissivity spectra confirm that the GeV-TeV cosmic rays uniformly permeate all gas phases up to the CO cores. The dust and cosmic rays reveal large amounts of DNM gas, with comparable spatial distributions and twice as much mass as in the CO-bright clouds. We give constraints on the HI-DNM-CO transitions and CO-dark $H_2$ fractions for separate clouds. The corrected extinction provides the best fit to the total gas traced by the gamma rays, but we find evidence for a rise in $A_{VQ}/N_H$ and a steep rise in opacity, with increasing $N_H$ and $H_2$ fraction, and with decreasing dust temperature. We observe less variations for the specific power of the grains, except for a decline by half in the CO cores. This combined information suggests grain evolution. The gamma rays and dust radiance yield consistent $X_{CO}$ estimates near $0.7\times10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ (K km/s)$^{-1}$. The other dust tracers yield biased values because of the grain opacity rise in the CO clouds. These results also confirm a factor of 2 difference between $X_{CO}$ estimates at pc and kpc scales.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Planck intermediate results. XXI. Comparison of polarized thermal emission from Galactic dust at 353 GHz with interstellar polarization in the visible

The Planck survey provides unprecedented full-sky coverage of the submillimetre polarized emission from Galactic dust, bringing new constraints on the properties of dust. The dust grains that emit the radiation seen by Planck in the submillimetre also extinguish and polarize starlight in the visible. Comparison of the polarization of the emission and of the interstellar polarization on selected lines of sight probed by stars provides unique new diagnostics of the emission and light scattering properties of dust. Using ancillary catalogues of interstellar polarization and extinction of starlight, we obtain the degree of polarization, $p_V$ , and the optical depth in the V band to the star, $τ_V$. Toward these stars we measure the submillimetre polarized intensity, $P_S$, and total intensity, $I_S$, in the Planck 353 GHz channel. For those lines of sight through the diffuse interstellar medium with comparable values of the estimated column density and polarization directions close to orthogonal, we correlate properties in the submillimetre and visible to find two ratios, $R_{S/V} = (P_S/I_S)/(p_V/τ_V)$ and $R_{P/p} = P_S/p_V$ , the latter focusing directly on the polarization properties of the aligned grain population alone. We find $R_{S/V}$ = 4.2, with statistical and systematic uncertainties 0.2 and 0.3, respectively, and $R_{P/p}$ = 5.4 MJy sr$^{-1}$, with uncertainties 0.2 and 0.3 MJy sr$^{-1}$, respectively. Our estimate of $R_{S/V}$ is compatible with predictions based on a range of polarizing dust models that have been developed for the diffuse interstellar medium. However, our estimate of $R_{P/p}$ is not compatible with predictions, which are too low by a factor of about 2.5. This more discriminating diagnostic, $R_{P/p}$, indicates that changes to the optical properties in the models of the aligned grain population are required.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planck 2015 results. VI. LFI mapmaking

This paper describes the mapmaking procedure applied to Planck LFI (Low Frequency Instrument) data. The mapmaking step takes as input the calibrated timelines and pointing information. The main products are sky maps of $I,Q$, and $U$ Stokes components. For the first time, we present polarization maps at LFI frequencies. The mapmaking algorithm is based on a destriping technique, enhanced with a noise prior. The Galactic region is masked to reduce errors arising from bandpass mismatch and high signal gradients. We apply horn-uniform radiometer weights to reduce effects of beam shape mismatch. The algorithm is the same as used for the 2013 release, apart from small changes in parameter settings. We validate the procedure through simulations. Special emphasis is put on the control of systematics, which is particularly important for accurate polarization analysis. We also produce low-resolution versions of the maps, and corresponding noise covariance matrices. These serve as input in later analysis steps and parameter estimation. The noise covariance matrices are validated through noise Monte Carlo simulations. The residual noise in the map products is characterized through analysis of half-ring maps, noise covariance matrices, and simulations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Planck 2015 results. XXII. A map of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

We have constructed all-sky y-maps of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect by applying specifically tailored component separation algorithms to the 30 to 857 GHz frequency channel maps from the Planck satellite survey. These reconstructed y-maps are delivered as part of the Planck 2015 release. The y-maps are characterised in terms of noise properties and residual foreground contamination, mainly thermal dust emission at large angular scales and CIB and extragalactic point sources at small angular scales. Specific masks are defined to minimize foreground residuals and systematics. Using these masks we compute the y-map angular power spectrum and higher order statistics. From these we conclude that the y-map is dominated by tSZ signal in the multipole range, 20-600. We compare the measured tSZ power spectrum and higher order statistics to various physically motivated models and discuss the implications of our results in terms of cluster physics and cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Planck intermediate results. XVIII The millimetre and sub-millimetre emission from planetary nebulae

Late stages of stellar evolution are characterized by copious mass-loss events whose signature is the formation of circumstellar envelopes (CSE). Planck multi-frequency measurements have provided relevant information on a sample of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) in the important and relatively unexplored observational band between 30 and 857GHz. Planck enables the assembly of comprehensive PNe spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from radio {\bf to} far-infrared frequencies. Modelling of the derived SEDs provides us with information on physical properties of CSEs and the mass content of both main components: ionised gas, traced by the free-free emission at cm--mm waves; and thermal dust, traced by the millimetre and far-IR emission. In particular, the amount of ionised gas and dust has been derived here. Such quantities have also been estimated for the very young PN CRL618, where the strong variability observed in its radio and millimetre emission has previously prevented the construction of its SED. A morphological study of the Helix Nebula has also been performed. Planck maps reveal, for the first time, the spatial distribution of the dust inside the envelope, allowing us to identify different components, the most interesting of which is a very extended component (up to 1pc) that may be related to a region where the slow expanding envelope is interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Planck intermediate results. XX. Comparison of polarized thermal emission from Galactic dust with simulations of MHD turbulence

Polarized emission observed by Planck HFI at 353 GHz towards a sample of nearby fields is presented, focusing on the statistics of polarization fractions $p$ and angles $ψ$. The polarization fractions and column densities in these nearby fields are representative of the range of values obtained over the whole sky. We find that: (i) the largest polarization fractions are reached in the most diffuse fields; (ii) the maximum polarization fraction $p_\mathrm{max}$ decreases with column density $N_\mathrm{H}$ in the more opaque fields with $N_\mathrm{H} > 10^{21}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$; and (iii) the polarization fraction along a given line of sight is correlated with the local spatial coherence of the polarization angle. These observations are compared to polarized emission maps computed in simulations of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) turbulence in which we assume a uniform intrinsic polarization fraction of the dust grains. We find that an estimate of this parameter may be recovered from the maximum polarization fraction $p_\mathrm{max}$ in diffuse regions where the magnetic field is ordered on large scales and perpendicular to the line of sight. This emphasizes the impact of anisotropies of the magnetic field on the emerging polarization signal. The decrease of the polarization fraction with column density in nearby molecular clouds is well reproduced in the simulations, indicating that it is essentially due to the turbulent structure of the magnetic field: an accumulation of variously polarized structures along the line of sight leads to such an anti-correlation. In the simulations, polarization fractions are also found to anti-correlate with the angle dispersion function $\mathcal{S}$. [abridged]

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Planck 2013 results. V. LFI calibration

We discuss the methods employed to photometrically calibrate the data acquired by the Low Frequency Instrument on Planck. Our calibration is based on a combination of the Orbital Dipole plus the Solar Dipole, caused respectively by the motion of the Planck spacecraft with respect to the Sun and by motion of the Solar System with respect to the CMB rest frame. The latter provides a signal of a few mK with the same spectrum as the CMB anisotropies and is visible throughout the mission. In this data release we rely on the characterization of the Solar Dipole as measured by WMAP. We also present preliminary results (at 44GHz only) on the study of the Orbital Dipole, which agree with the WMAP value of the Solar System speed within our uncertainties. We compute the calibration constant for each radiometer roughly once per hour, in order to keep track of changes in the detectors' gain. Since non-idealities in the optical response of the beams proved to be important, we implemented a fast convolution algorithm which considers the full beam response in estimating the signal generated by the dipole. Moreover, in order to further reduce the impact of residual systematics due to sidelobes, we estimated time variations in the calibration constant of the 30GHz radiometers (the ones with the largest sidelobes) using the signal of a reference load. We have estimated the calibration accuracy in two ways: we have run a set of simulations to assess the impact of statistical errors and systematic effects in the instrument and in the calibration procedure, and we have performed a number of consistency checks on the data and on the brightness temperature of Jupiter. Calibration errors for this data release are expected to be about 0.6% at 44 and 70 GHz, and 0.8% at 30 GHz. (Abriged.)

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

Planck intermediate results. XXVI. Optical identification and redshifts of Planck clusters with the RTT150 telescope

We present the results of approximately three years of observations of Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources with the Russian-Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150), as a part of the optical follow-up programme undertaken by the Planck collaboration. During this time period approximately 20% of all dark and grey clear time available at the telescope was devoted to observations of Planck objects. Some observations of distant clusters were also done at the 6-m Bolshoy Telescope Azimutal'ny (BTA) of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In total, deep, direct images of more than one hundred fields were obtained in multiple filters. We identified 47 previously unknown galaxy clusters, 41 of which are included in the Planck catalogue of SZ sources. The redshifts of 65 Planck clusters were measured spectroscopically and 14 more were measured photometrically. We discuss the details of cluster optical identifications and redshift measurements. We also present new spectroscopic redhifts for 39 Planck clusters that were not included in the Planck SZ source catalogue and are published here for the first time.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Planck intermediate results. XXIV. Constraints on variation of fundamental constants

Any variation of the fundamental physical constants, and more particularly of the fine structure constant, $α$, or of the mass of the electron, $m_e$, would affect the recombination history of the Universe and cause an imprint on the cosmic microwave background angular power spectra. We show that the Planck data allow one to improve the constraint on the time variation of the fine structure constant at redshift $z\sim 10^3$ by about a factor of 5 compared to WMAP data, as well as to break the degeneracy with the Hubble constant, $H_0$. In addition to $α$, we can set a constraint on the variation of the mass of the electron, $m_{\rm e}$, and on the simultaneous variation of the two constants. We examine in detail the degeneracies between fundamental constants and the cosmological parameters, in order to compare the limits obtained from Planck and WMAP and to determine the constraining power gained by including other cosmological probes. We conclude that independent time variations of the fine structure constant and of the mass of the electron are constrained by Planck to ${Δα}/α= (3.6\pm 3.7)\times10^{-3}$ and ${Δm_{\rm e}}/{m_{\rm e}}= (4 \pm 11)\times10^{-3}$ at the 68% confidence level. We also investigate the possibility of a spatial variation of the fine structure constant. The relative amplitude of a dipolar spatial variation of $α$ (corresponding to a gradient across our Hubble volume) is constrained to be $δα/α=(-2.4\pm 3.7)\times 10^{-2}$.

astro-ph.CO↗