arXiv subjects

Laura Newburgh

Publications and source records attributed to Laura Newburgh.

60 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: measuring radio galaxy bias through cross-correlation with lensing

We correlate the positions of radio galaxies in the FIRST survey with the CMB lensing convergence estimated from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope over 470 square degrees to determine the bias of these galaxies. We remove optically cross-matched sources below redshift $z=0.2$ to preferentially select Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We measure the angular cross-power spectrum $C_l^{κg}$ at $4.4σ$ significance in the multipole range $100<l<3000$, corresponding to physical scales between $\approx$ 2--60 Mpc at an effective redshift $z_{\rm eff}= 1.5$. Modelling the AGN population with a redshift-dependent bias, the cross-spectrum is well fit by the Planck best-fit $Λ$CDM cosmological model. Fixing the cosmology we fit for the overall bias model normalization, finding $b(z_{\rm eff}) = 3.5 \pm 0.8$ for the full galaxy sample, and $b(z_{\rm eff})=4.0\pm1.1 (3.0\pm1.1)$ for sources brighter (fainter) than 2.5 mJy. This measurement characterizes the typical halo mass of radio-loud AGN: we find $\log(M_{\rm halo} / M_\odot) = 13.6^{+0.3}_{-0.4}$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Lensing of CMB Temperature and Polarization Derived from Cosmic Infrared Background Cross-Correlation

We present a measurement of the gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization fields obtained by cross-correlating the reconstructed convergence signal from the first season of ACTPol data at 146 GHz with Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) fluctuations measured using the Planck satellite. Using an overlap area of 206 square degrees, we detect gravitational lensing of the CMB polarization by large-scale structure at a statistical significance of 4.5 sigma. Combining both CMB temperature and polarization data gives a lensing detection at 9.1 sigma significance. A B-mode polarization lensing signal is present with a significance of 3.2 sigma. We also present the first measurement of CMB lensing--CIB correlation at small scales corresponding to l > 2000. Null tests and systematic checks show that our results are not significantly biased by astrophysical or instrumental systematic effects, including Galactic dust. Fitting our measurements to the best-fit lensing-CIB cross power spectrum measured in Planck data, scaled by an amplitude A, gives A=1.02 +0.12/-0.18 (stat.) +/-0.06(syst.), consistent with the Planck results.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: CMB Polarization at $200<\ell<9000$

We report on measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and celestial polarization at 146 GHz made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) in its first three months of observing. Four regions of sky covering a total of 270 square degrees were mapped with an angular resolution of $1.3'$. The map noise levels in the four regions are between 11 and 17 $μ$K-arcmin. We present TT, TE, EE, TB, EB, and BB power spectra from three of these regions. The observed E-mode polarization power spectrum, displaying six acoustic peaks in the range $200<\ell<3000$, is an excellent fit to the prediction of the best-fit cosmological models from WMAP9+ACT and Planck data. The polarization power spectrum, which mainly reflects primordial plasma velocity perturbations, provides an independent determination of cosmological parameters consistent with those based on the temperature power spectrum, which results mostly from primordial density perturbations. We find that without masking any point sources in the EE data at $\ell<9000$, the Poisson tail of the EE power spectrum due to polarized point sources has an amplitude less than $2.4$ $μ$K$^2$ at $\ell = 3000$ at 95\% confidence. Finally, we report that the Crab Nebula, an important polarization calibration source at microwave frequencies, has 8.7\% polarization with an angle of $150.7^\circ \pm 0.6^\circ$ when smoothed with a $5'$ Gaussian beam.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Precision Epoch of Reionization studies with next-generation CMB experiments

Future arcminute resolution polarization data from ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations can be used to estimate the contribution to the temperature power spectrum from the primary anisotropies and to uncover the signature of reionization near $\ell=1500$ in the small angular-scale temperature measurements. Our projections are based on combining expected small-scale E-mode polarization measurements from Advanced ACTPol in the range $300<\ell<3000$ with simulated temperature data from the full Planck mission in the low and intermediate $\ell$ region, $2<\ell<2000$. We show that the six basic cosmological parameters determined from this combination of data will predict the underlying primordial temperature spectrum at high multipoles to better than $1\%$ accuracy. Assuming an efficient cleaning from multi-frequency channels of most foregrounds in the temperature data, we investigate the sensitivity to the only residual secondary component, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) term. The CMB polarization is used to break degeneracies between primordial and secondary terms present in temperature and, in effect, to remove from the temperature data all but the residual kSZ term. We estimate a $15 σ$ detection of the diffuse homogeneous kSZ signal from expected AdvACT temperature data at $\ell>1500$, leading to a measurement of the amplitude of matter density fluctuations, $σ_8$, at $1\%$ precision. Alternatively, by exploring the reionization signal encoded in the patchy kSZ measurements, we bound the time and duration of the reionization with $σ(z_{\rm re})=1.1$ and $σ(Δz_{\rm re})=0.2$. We find that these constraints degrade rapidly with large beam sizes, which highlights the importance of arcminute-scale resolution for future CMB surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Horn Coupled Multichroic Polarimeters for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarization Experiment

Multichroic polarization sensitive detectors enable increased sensitivity and spectral coverage for observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). An array optimized for dual frequency detectors can provide 1.7 times gain in sensitivity compared to a single frequency array. We present the design and measurements of horn coupled multichroic polarimeters encompassing the 90 and 150 GHz frequency bands and discuss our plans to field an array of these detectors as part of the ACTPol project.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

Cosmological Parameters from Pre-Planck CMB Measurements

Recent data from the WMAP, ACT and SPT experiments provide precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature power spectrum over a wide range of angular scales. The combination of these observations is well fit by the standard, spatially flat LCDM cosmological model, constraining six free parameters to within a few percent. The scalar spectral index, n_s = 0.9690 +/- 0.0089, is less than unity at the 3.6 sigma level, consistent with simple models of inflation. The damping tail of the power spectrum at high resolution, combined with the amplitude of gravitational lensing measured by ACT and SPT, constrains the effective number of relativistic species to be N_eff = 3.28 +/- 0.40, in agreement with the standard model's three species of light neutrinos.

astro-ph.CO↗