arXiv subjects

Marc Kamionkowski

Publications and source records attributed to Marc Kamionkowski.

At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources

arXiv2001

Tests for primordial non-Gaussianity

We investigate the relative sensitivities of several tests for deviations from Gaussianity in the primordial distribution of density perturbations. We consider models for non-Gaussianity that mimic that which comes from inflation as well as that which comes from topological defects. The tests we consider involve the cosmic microwave background (CMB), large-scale structure (LSS), high-redshift galaxies, and the abundances and properties of clusters. We find that the CMB is superior at finding non-Gaussianity in the primordial gravitational potential (as inflation would produce), while observations of high-redshift galaxies are much better suited to find non-Gaussianity that resembles that expected from topological defects. We derive a simple expression that relates the abundance of high-redshift objects in non-Gaussian models to the primordial skewness.

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arXiv2001

Galactosynthesis Predictions at High Redshift

We predict the Tully-Fisher (TF) and surface-brightness--magnitude relation for disk galaxies at z=3 and discuss the origin of these scaling relations and their scatter. We show that the variation of the TF relation with redshift can be a potentially powerful discriminator of galaxy-formation models. In particular, the TF relation at high redshift might be used to break parameter degeneracies among galactosynthesis models at z=0, as well as to constrain the redshift distribution of collapsing dark-matter halos, the star-formation history and baryon fraction in the disk, and the distribution of halo spins.

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arXiv2001

A Dark-Matter Spike at the Galactic Center?

The past growth of the central black hole (BH) might have enhanced the density of cold dark matter halo particles at the Galactic center. We compute this effect in realistic growth models of the present (2-3)*10**6 solar mass BH from a low-mass seed BH, with special attention to dynamical modeling in a realistic galaxy environment with merger and orbital decay of a seed BH formed generally outside the exact center of the halo. An intriguing ``very-dense spike'' of dark matter has been claimed in models of Gondolo and Silk with density high enough to contradict with experimental upper bounds of neutralino annihilation radiation. This ``spike'' disappears completely or is greatly weakened when we include important dynamical processes neglected in their idealized/restrictive picture with cold particles surrounding an at-the-center zero-seed adiabaticly-growing BH. For the seed BH to spiral in and settle to the center within a Hubble time by dynamical friction, the seed mass must be at least a significant fraction of the present BH. Any subsequent at-the-center growth of the BH and steepening of the central Keplerian potential well can squeeze the halo density distribution only mildly, whether the squeezing happens adiabatically or instantaneously.

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arXiv2000

Detection of Gravitational Waves from Inflation

Recent measurements of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicate that the Universe is flat and that large-scale structure grew via gravitational infall from primordial adiabatic perturbations. Both of these observations seem to indicate that we are on the right track with inflation. But what is the new physics responsible for inflation? This question can be answered with observations of the polarization of the CMB. Inflation predicts robustly the existence of a stochastic background of cosmological gravitational waves with an amplitude proportional to the square of the energy scale of inflation. This gravitational-wave background induces a unique signature in the polarization of the CMB. If inflation took place at an energy scale much smaller than that of grand unification, then the signal will be too small to be detectable. However, if inflation had something to do with grand unification or Planck-scale physics, then the signal is conceivably detectable in the optimistic case by the Planck satellite, or if not, then by a dedicated post-Planck CMB polarization experiment. Realistic developments in detector technology as well as a proper scan strategy could produce such a post-Planck experiment that would improve on Planck's sensitivity to the gravitational-wave background by several orders of magnitude in a decade timescale.

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arXiv2000

Spin-Dependent WIMPs in DAMA?

We investigate whether the annual modulation observed in the DAMA experiment can be due to a weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) with an axial-vector (spin-dependent; SD) coupling to nuclei. We evaluate the SD WIMP-proton cross section under the assumption that such scattering accounts for the DAMA modulation, and we do the same for a SD WIMP-neutron cross section. We show that SD WIMP-proton scattering is ruled out in a model-independent fashion by null searches for energetic neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Sun, and that SD WIMP-neutron scattering is ruled out for WIMP masses > 20 GeV by the null result with the DAMA Xe detector. A SD WIMP with mass < 20 GeV is still compatible, but only if the SD WIMP-neutron interaction is four orders of magnitude greater than the WIMP-proton interaction.

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arXiv2000

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Galaxy Alignment

We show with analytic models that the assumption of uncorrelated intrinsic ellipticities of target sources that is usually made in searches for weak gravitational lensing due to large-scale mass inhomogeneities (``field lensing'') is unwarranted. If the orientation of the galaxy image is determined either by the angular momentum or the shape of the halo in which it forms, then the image should be aligned preferentially with the component of the tidal gravitational field perpendicular to the line of sight. Long-range correlations in the tidal field will thus lead to long-range ellipticity-ellipticity correlations that mimic the shear correlations due to weak gravitational lensing. We calculate the ellipticity-ellipticity correlation expected if halo shapes determine the observed galaxy shape, and we discuss uncertainties (which are still considerable) in the predicted amplitude of this correlation. The ellipticity-ellipticity correlation induced by angular momenta should be smaller. We consider several methods for discriminating between the weak-lensing (extrinsic) and intrinsic correlations, including the use of redshift information. An ellipticity--tidal-field correlation also implies the existence of an alignment of images of galaxies near clusters. Although the intrinsic alignment may complicate the interpretation of field-lensing results, it is inherently interesting as it may shed light on galaxy formation as well as on structure formation.

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arXiv2000

Two Ways of Biasing Galaxy Formation

We calculate the galaxy bispectrum in both real and redshift space adopting the most common prescriptions for local Eulerian biasing and Lagrangian evolving-bias model. We show that the two biasing schemes make measurably different predictions for these clustering statistics. The Eulerian prescription implies that the galaxy distribution depends only on the present-day local mass distribution, while its Lagrangian counterpart relates the current galaxy distribution to the mass distribution at an earlier epoch when galaxies first formed. Detailed measurement of the galaxy bispectrum (of its reduced amplitude) can help establish whether galaxy positions are determined by the current mass distribution or an earlier mass distribution.

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arXiv2000

Velocity distributions and annual-modulation signatures of weakly-interacting massive particles

An annual modulation in the event rate of the NaI detector of the DAMA collaboration has been used to infer the existence of particle dark matter in the Galactic halo. Bounds on the WIMP mass and WIMP-nucleon cross section have been derived. These analyses have assumed that the local dark-matter velocity distribution is either isotropic or has some bulk rotation. Here we consider the effects of possible structure in the WIMP velocity distribution on the annual-modulation amplitude. We show that if we allow for a locally anisotropic velocity dispersion tensor, the interpretation of direct detection experiments could be altered significantly. We also show that uncertainties in the velocity distribution that arise from uncertainties in the radial density profile are less important if the velocity dispersion is assumed to be isotropic.

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arXiv2000

Galactosynthesis: Halo Histories, Star Formation, and Disks

We investigate the effects of a variety of ingredients that must enter into a realistic model for disk-galaxy formation, focusing primarily on the Tully-Fisher (TF) relation and its scatter in several wavebands. Our main findings are: (a) the slope, normalization, and scatter of the TF relation across various wavebands is determined {\em both} by halo properties and star formation in the disk; (b) TF scatter owes primarily to the spread in formation redshifts. The scatter can be measurably reduced by chemical evolution, and also in some cases by the weak anti-correlation between peak height and spin; (c) multi-wavelength constraints can be important in distinguishing between models which appear to fit the TF relation in I or K; (d) successful models seem to require that the bulk of disk formation cannot occur too early (z>2) or too late (z<0.5), and are inconsistent with high values of $Ω_0$; (e) a realistic model with the above ingredients can reasonably reproduce the observed z=0 TF relation in {\em all} bands (B, R, I, and K). It can also account for the z=1 B-band TF relation and yield rough agreement with the local B and K luminosity functions and B-band surface-brightness--magnitude relation. The remarkable agreement with observations suggests that the amount of gas that is expelled or poured into a disk galaxy must be small, and that the specific angular momentum of the baryons must roughly equal that of the halo; there is little room for angular momentum transfer. In an appendix we present analytic fits to stellar-population synthesis models.

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arXiv2000

The Second Peak: The Dark-Energy Density and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Supernova evidence for a negative-pressure dark energy (e.g., cosmological constant or quintessence) that contributes a fraction $Ω_Λ\simeq0.7$ of closure density has been bolstered by the discrepancy between the total density, $Ω_{\rm tot}\simeq1$, suggested by the location of the first peak in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum and the nonrelativistic-matter density $Ω_m\simeq0.3$ obtained from dynamical measurements. Here we show that the impending identification of the location of the {\it second} peak in the CMB power spectrum will provide an immediate and independent probe of the dark-energy density. As an aside, we show how the measured height of the first peak probably already points toward a low matter density and places upper limits to the reionization optical depth and gravitational-wave amplitude.

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arXiv1999

The dearth of halo dwarf galaxies: is there power on short scales?

N-body simulations of structure formation with scale-invariant primordial perturbations show significantly more virialized objects of dwarf-galaxy mass in a typical galactic halo than are observed around the Milky Way. We show that the dearth of observed dwarf galaxies could be explained by a dramatic downturn in the power spectrum at small distance scales. This suppression of small-scale power might also help mitigate the disagreement between cuspy simulated halos and smooth observed halos, while remaining consistent with Lyman-alpha-forest constraints on small-scale power. Such a spectrum could arise in inflationary models with broken scale invariance.

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arXiv1999

Testing linear-theory predictions of galaxy formation

The angular momentum of galaxies is routinely ascribed to a process of tidal torques acting during the early stages of gravitational collapse, and is predicted from the initial mass distribution using second-order perturbation theory and the Zel'dovich approximation. We have tested this theory for a flat hierarchical cosmogony using a large N-body simulation with sufficient dynamic range to include tidal fields, allow resolution of individual galaxies, and thereby expand on previous studies. We find relatively good correlation between the predictions of linear theory and actual galaxy evolution. While structure formation from early times is a complex history of hierarchical merging, salient features are well described by the simple spherical-collapse model. Most notably, we test several methods for determining the turnaround epoch, and find that turnaround is succesfully described by the spherical collapse model. The angular momentum of collapsing structures grows linearly until turnaround, as predicted, and continues quasi-linearly until shell crossing. The predicted angular momentum for well-resolved galaxies at turnaround overestimates the true turnaround and final values by a factor of ~3 with a scatter of ~70 percent, and only marginally yields the correct direction of the angular momentum vector. We recover the prediction that final angular momentum scales as mass to the 5/3 power. We find that mass and angular momentum also vary proportionally with peak height.

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arXiv1999

A Polarization Pursuers' Guide

We calculate the detectability of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as a function of the sky coverage, angular resolution, and instrumental sensitivity for a hypothetical experiment. We consider the gradient component of the polarization from density perturbations (scalar modes) and the curl component from gravitational waves (tensor modes). We show that the amplitude (and thus the detectability) of the polarization from density perturbations is roughly the same in any model as long as the model fits the big-bang-nucleosynthesis (BBN) baryon density and degree-scale anisotropy measurements. The degree-scale polarization is smaller (and accordingly more difficult to detect) if the baryon density is higher. In some cases, the signal-to-noise for polarization (both from scalar and tensor modes) may be improved in a fixed-time experiment with a smaller survey area.

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arXiv1999

The Cosmic Microwave Background Bispectrum and Inflation

We derive an expression for the non-Gaussian cosmic-microwave-background (CMB) statistic $I_l^3$ defined recently by Ferreira, Magueijo, and Górski in terms of the slow-roll-inflation parameters $ε$ and $η$. This result shows that a nonzero value of $I_l^3$ in COBE would rule out single-field slow-roll inflation. A sharp change in the slope of the inflaton potential could increase the predicted value of $I_l^3$, but not significantly. This further suggests that it will be difficult to account for such a detection in multiple-field models in which density perturbations are produced by quantum fluctuations in the scalar field driving inflation. An Appendix shows how to evaluate an integral that is needed in our calculation as well as in more general calculations of CMB bispectra.

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arXiv1999

Cosmological Signature of New Parity-Violating Interactions

Does Nature yield any manifestations of parity violation other than those observed in weak interactions? A map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization will provide a new signature of P violation. We give two examples of new P violating interactions, which may have something to do with Planck-scale physics, inflation, and/or quintessence, that would give rise to such a signature. Although these effects would most likely elude detection by MAP and the Planck Surveyor, they may be detectable with a future dedicated CMB polarization experiment.

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arXiv1999

Large-scale structure, the cosmic microwave background, and primordial non-gaussianity

Since cosmic-microwave-background (CMB) and large-scale-structure (LSS) data will shortly improve dramatically with the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) and Planck Surveyor, and the Anglo-Australian 2-Degree Field (2dF) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), respectively, it is timely to ask which of the CMB or LSS will provide a better probe of primordial non-gaussianity. In this paper we consider this question, using the bispectrum as a discriminating statistic. We consider several non-gaussian models and find that in each case the CMB will provide a better probe of primordial non-gaussianity. Since the bispectrum is the lowest-order statistic expected to arise in a generic non-gaussian model, our results suggest that if CMB maps appear gaussian, then apparent deviations from gaussian initial conditions in galaxy surveys can be attributed with confidence to the effects of biasing. We demonstrate this precisely for the spatial bispectrum induced by local non-linear biasing.

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arXiv1999

Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature and Polarization Anisotropy in Brans-Dicke Cosmology

We develop a formalism for calculating cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies in cosmological models with Brans-Dicke gravity. We then modify publicly available Boltzmann codes to calculate numerically the temperature and polarization power spectra. Results are illustrated with a few representative models. Comparing with the general-relativistic model with the same cosmological parameters, both the amplitude and the width of the acoustic peaks are different in the Brans-Dicke models. We use a covariance-matrix calculation to investigate whether the effects of Brans-Dicke gravity are degenerate with those of variation in other cosmological parameters and to simultaneously determine whether forthcoming CMB maps might be able to distinguish Brans-Dicke and general-relativistic cosmology. Although the predicted power spectra for plausible Brans-Dicke models differ from those in general relativity only slightly, we find that MAP and/or the Planck Surveyor may in principle provide a test of Brans-Dicke theory that is competitive to solar-system tests. For example, if all other parameters except for the CMB normalization are fixed, a value of the Brans-Dicke parameter omega as large as 500 could be identified with MAP, and for Planck, values as large as omega \simeq3000 could be identified; these sensitivities are decreased roughly by a factor of 3 if we marginalize over the baryon density, Hubble constant, spectral index, and reionization optical depth. In more general scalar-tensor theories, omega may evolve with time, and in this case, the CMB probe would be complementary to that from solar-system tests.

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arXiv1999

New Constraint on Open Cold-Dark-Matter Models

We calculate the large-angle cross-correlation between the cosmic-microwave-background (CMB) temperature and the x-ray-background (XRB) intensity expected in an open Universe with cold dark matter (CDM) and a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations. Results are presented as a function of the nonrelativistic-matter density $Ω_0$ (in units of the critical density) and the x-ray bias $b_x$ (evaluated at a redshift $z\simeq1$ in evolving-bias models) for both an open Universe and a flat cosmological-constant Universe. Recent experimental upper limits to the amplitude of this cross-correlation provide a new constraint to the $Ω_0$-$b_x$ parameter space that open-CDM models (and the open-inflation models that produce them) must satisfy.

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