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J. S. Alcaniz

Publications and source records attributed to J. S. Alcaniz.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Constraints on the duality relation from ACT cluster data

The cosmic distance-duality relation (CDDR), $d_L(z) (1 + z)^{2}/d_{A}(z) = η$, where $η= 1$ and $d_L(z)$ and $d_A(z)$ are, respectively, the luminosity and the angular diameter distances, holds as long as the number of photons is conserved and gravity is described by a metric theory. Testing such hypotheses is, therefore, an important task for both cosmology and fundamental physics. In this paper we use 91 measurements of the gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters recently reported by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) survey along with type Ia supernovae observations of the Union2.1 compilation to probe a possible deviation from the value $η= 1$. Although in agreement with the standard hyphothesis, we find that this combination of data tends to favor negative values of $η$ which might be associated with some physical processes increasing the number of photons and modifying the above relation to $d_L < (1+z)^2d_A$.

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Consistent nonadditive approach and nuclear equation of state

By using a $q$-calculus, the Walecka many-body field theory was studied in the context of the Tsallis framework. The most important aspect of the application of the $q$-calculus to the nonadditive formulation of QHD-I is that it naturally emerges as a thermodynamically consistent theory.

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Model-independent constraints on the cosmic opacity

We use current measurements of the expansion rate $H(z)$ and cosmic background radiation bounds on the spatial curvature of the Universe to impose cosmological model-independent constraints on cosmic opacity. To perform our analyses, we compare opacity-free distance modulus from $H(z)$ data with those from two supernovae Ia compilations: the Union2.1 plus the most distant spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia (SNe Ia SCP-0401 $z=1.713$) and two Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) subsamples. The influence of different SNe Ia light-curve fitters (SALT2 and MLCS2K2) on the results is also verified. We find that a completely transparent universe is in agreement with the largest sample in our analysis (Union 2.1 plus SNe Ia SCP-0401). For SDSS sample a such universe it is compatible at $< 1.5σ$ level regardless the SNe Ia light-curve fitting used.

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J-PAS: The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) is a narrow band, very wide field Cosmological Survey to be carried out from the Javalambre Observatory in Spain with a purpose-built, dedicated 2.5m telescope and a 4.7 sq.deg. camera with 1.2Gpix. Starting in late 2015, J-PAS will observe 8500sq.deg. of Northern Sky and measure $0.003(1+z)$ photo-z for $9\times10^7$ LRG and ELG galaxies plus several million QSOs, sampling an effective volume of $\sim 14$ Gpc$^3$ up to $z=1.3$ and becoming the first radial BAO experiment to reach Stage IV. J-PAS will detect $7\times 10^5$ galaxy clusters and groups, setting constrains on Dark Energy which rival those obtained from its BAO measurements. Thanks to the superb characteristics of the site (seeing ~0.7 arcsec), J-PAS is expected to obtain a deep, sub-arcsec image of the Northern sky, which combined with its unique photo-z precision will produce one of the most powerful cosmological lensing surveys before the arrival of Euclid. J-PAS unprecedented spectral time domain information will enable a self-contained SN survey that, without the need for external spectroscopic follow-up, will detect, classify and measure $σ_z\sim 0.5\%$ redshifts for $\sim 4000$ SNeIa and $\sim 900$ core-collapse SNe. The key to the J-PAS potential is its innovative approach: a contiguous system of 54 filters with $145Å$ width, placed $100Å$ apart over a multi-degree FoV is a powerful "redshift machine", with the survey speed of a 4000 multiplexing low resolution spectrograph, but many times cheaper and much faster to build. The J-PAS camera is equivalent to a 4.7 sq.deg. "IFU" and it will produce a time-resolved, 3D image of the Northern Sky with a very wide range of Astrophysical applications in Galaxy Evolution, the nearby Universe and the study of resolved stellar populations.

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Forecasting cosmological constraints from age of high-z galaxies

We perform Monte Carlo simulations based on current age estimates of high-z objects to forecast constraints on the equation of state (EoS) of the dark energy. In our analysis, we use two different EoS parameterizations, namely, the so-called CPL and its uncorrelated form and calculate the improvements on the figure of merit for both cases. Although there is a clear dependence of the FoM with the size and accuracy of the synthetic age samples, we find that the most substantial gain in FoM comes from a joint analysis involving age and baryon acoustic oscillation data.

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General treatment for dark energy thermodynamics

In this work we discuss a general approach for the dark energy thermodynamics considering a varying equation of state (EoS) parameter of the type $ω(a)=ω_0+F(a)$ and taking into account the role of a non-zero chemical potential $μ$. We derive generalized expressions for the entropy density, chemical potential and dark energy temperature $T$ and use the positiveness of the entropy to impose thermodynamic bounds on the EoS parameter $ω(a)$. In particular, we find that a phantom-like behavior $ω(a)< -1$ is allowed only when the chemical potential assumes negative values ($μ<0$).

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Forecasting constraints on the cosmic duality relation with galaxy clusters

One of the fundamental hypotheses in observational cosmology is the validity of the so-called cosmic distance-duality relation (CDDR). In this paper, we perform Monte Carlo simulations based on the method developed in Holanda, Goncalves & Alcaniz (2012) [JCAP 1206 (2012) 022] to answer the following question: what is the number of galaxy clusters observations N_{crit} needed to check the validity of this relation at a given confidence level? At 2σ, we find that N_{crit} should be increased at least by a factor of 5 relative to the current sample size if we assume the current observational uncertainty σ_{obs}. Reducing this latter quantity by a factor of 2, we show that the present number of data would be already enough to check the validity of the CDDR at 2σ.

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Cosmography with the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and X-ray data

Cosmography provides a direct method to map the expansion history of the Universe in a model-independent way. Recently, different kinds of observations have been used in cosmographic analyses, such as SNe Ia and gamma ray bursts measurements, weak and strong lensing, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, etc. In this work we examine the prospects for constraining cosmographic parameters from current and future measurements of galaxy clusters distances based on their Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) and X-ray observations. By assuming the current observational error distribution, we perform Monte Carlo simulations based on a well-behaved parameterization for the deceleration parameter to generate samples with different characteristics and study the improvement on the determination of the cosmographic parameters from upcoming data. The influence of galaxy clusters (GC) morphologies on the $H_0- q_0$ plane is also investigated.

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Probing interaction in the dark sector

A phenomenological attempt at alleviating the so-called coincidence problem is to allow the dark matter and dark energy to interact. By assuming a coupled quintessence scenario characterized by an interaction parameter $ε$, we investigate the precision in the measurements of the expansion rate $H(z)$ required by future experiments in order to detect a possible deviation from the standard $Λ$CDM model ($ε= 0$). We perform our analyses at two levels, namely: through Monte Carlo simulations based on $ε$CDM models, in which $H(z)$ samples with different accuracies are generated and through an analytic method that calculates the error propagation of $ε$ as a function of the error in $H(z)$. We show that our analytical approach traces simulations accurately and find that to detect an interaction {using $H(z)$ data only, these must reach an accuracy better than 1%.

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A cosmological concordance model with dynamical vacuum term

We demonstrate that creation of dark-matter particles at a constant rate implies the existence of a cosmological term that decays linearly with the Hubble rate. We discuss the cosmological model that arises in this context and test it against observations of the first acoustic peak in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum, the Hubble diagram for supernovas of type Ia (SNIa), the distance scale of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the distribution of large scale structures (LSS). We show that a good concordance is obtained, albeit with a higher value of the present matter abundance than in the ΛCDM model. We also comment on general features of the CMB anisotropy spectrum and on the cosmic coincidence problem.

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Cosmology with Hu-Sawicki gravity in Palatini Formalism

Cosmological models based on f(R)-gravity may exhibit a natural acceleration mechanism without introducing a dark energy component. In this paper, we investigate cosmological consequences of the so-called Hu-Sawicki f(R)-gravity in the Palatini formalism. We derive theoretical constraints on the model parameters and perform a statistical analysis to determine the parametric space allowed by current observational data. We find that this class of models is indistinguishable from the standard ΛCDM model at the background level. Differently, from previous results in the metric approach, we show that these scenarios are able to produce the sequence of radiation-dominated, matter-dominated, and accelerating periods without need of dark energy.

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A test for cosmic distance duality

Testing the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR) constitutes an important task for cosmology and fundamental physics since any violation of it would be a clear evidence of new physics. In this {\it Letter}, we propose a new test for the CDDR using only measurements of the gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters from Sunyaev-Zeldovich ($f_{SZE}$) and X-ray surface brightness ($f_{X-ray}$) observations. We show that the relation between current $f_{X-ray}$ and $f_{SZE}$ observations is given by $f_{SZE}=ηf_{X-ray}$, where $η$ quantifies deviations from the CDDR. Since this latter expression is valid for the same object in a given galaxy cluster sample, the method proposed removes possible contaminations from different systematics error sources and redshift differences involved in luminosity and angular diameter distance measurements. We apply this cosmological model-independent methodology to the most recent $f_{X-ray}$ and $f_{SZE}$ data and show that no significant violation of the CDDR is found.

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An interacting model for the cosmological dark sector

We discuss a new interacting model for the cosmological dark sector in which the attenuated dilution of cold dark matter scales as $a^{-3}f(a)$, where f(a) is an arbitrary function of the cosmic scale factor $a$. From thermodynamic arguments, we show that f(a) is proportional to entropy source of the particle creation process. In order to investigate the cosmological consequences of this kind of interacting models, we expand f(a) in a power series and viable cosmological solutions are obtained. Finally, we use current observational data to place constraints on the interacting function f(a).

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Testing the cosmic distance duality with X-ray gas mass fraction and supernovae data

In this paper we discuss a new cosmological model-independent test for the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR), $η= D_{L}(L)(1+z)^{-2}/D_{A}(z)=1$, where $D_{A}(z)$ and $D_{L}(z)$ are the angular and luminosity distances, respectively. Using the general expression for X-ray gas mass fraction ($f_{gas}$) of galaxy clusters, $f_{gas} \propto D_L{D_A}^{1/2}$, we show that $f_{gas}$ observations jointly with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data furnish a validity test for the CDDR. To perform our analysis we use 38 $f_{gas}$ measurements recently studied by two groups considering different assumptions to describe the clusters (La Roque {\it{et al.}} 2006 and Ettori {\it{et al.}} 2009) and two subsamples of SNe Ia distance luminosity extracted from the Union2 compilation. In our test we consider the $η$ parameter as a function of the redshift parameterized by two different functional forms. It is found that the La Roque {\it{et al.}} (2006) sample is in perfect agreement with the duality relation ($η= 1$) whereas the Ettori {\it{et al.}} (2009) sample presents a significant conflict.

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Observational tests for Λ(t)CDM cosmology

We investigate the observational viability of a class of cosmological models in which the vacuum energy density decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, resulting in a production of cold dark matter particles at late times. Similarly to the flat ΛCDM case, there is only one free parameter to be adjusted by the data in this class of Λ(t)CDM scenarios, namely, the matter density parameter. To perform our analysis we use three of the most recent SNe Ia compilation sets (Union2, SDSS and Constitution) along with the current measurements of distance to the BAO peaks at z = 0.2 and z = 0.35 and the position of the first acoustic peak of the CMB power spectrum. We show that in terms of $χ^2$ statistics both models provide good fits to the data and similar results. A quantitative analysis discussing the differences in parameter estimation due to SNe light-curve fitting methods (SALT2 and MLCS2k2) is studied using the current SDSS and Constitution SNe Ia compilations. A matter power spectrum analysis using the 2dFGRS is also performed, providing a very good concordance with the constraints from the SDSS and Constitution MLCS2k2 data.

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Scalar field description of a parametric model of dark energy

We investigate theoretical and observational aspects of a time-dependent parameterization for the dark energy equation of state (EoS) $w(z)$, which is a well behaved function of the redshift $z$ over the entire cosmological evolution, i.e., $z \in [-1,\infty)$. By using a theoretical algorithm of constructing the quintessence potential directly from the effective EoS parameter, we derive and discuss the general features of the resulting potential for this $w(z)$ function. Since the parameterization here discussed allows us to divide the parametric plane in defined regions associated to distinct classes of dark energy models, we use the most recent observations from type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillation peak and Cosmic Microwave Background shift parameter to check which class is observationally prefered. We show that the largest portion of the confidence contours lies into the region corresponding to a possible crossing of the so-called phanton divide line at some point of the cosmic evolution.

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Time and distance constraints on accelerating cosmological models

The absence of guidance from fundamental physics about the mechanism behind cosmic acceleration has given rise to a number of alternative cosmological scenarios. These are based either on modifications of general relativistic gravitation theory on large scales or on the existence of new fields in Nature. In this paper we investigate the observational viability of some accelerating cosmological models in light of 32 age measurements of passively evolving galaxies as a function of redshift and recent estimates of the product of the cosmic microwave background acoustic scale and the baryonic acoustic oscillation peak scale. By using information-criteria model selection, we select the best-fit models and rank the alternative scenarios. We show that some of these models may provide a better fit to the data than does the current standard cosmological constant dominated ($Λ$CDM) model.

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Thermodynamics and dark energy

A significant observational effort has been directed to unveil the nature of the so-called dark energy. However, given the large number of theoretical possibilities, it is possible that such a task cannot be performed on the basis only of the observational data. In this article we discuss some thermodynamic properties of this energy component by assuming that its constituents are massless quanta with a general time-dependent equation-of-state parameter $ω(z)=ω_0 + ω_a f(z)$, where $ω_0$ and $ω_a$ are constants and $f(z)$ may assume different forms. We show that very restrictive bounds can be placed on the $w_0$ - $w_a$ space when current observational data are combined with the thermodynamic constraints derived.

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