arXiv subjects

Miguel Quartin

Publications and source records attributed to Miguel Quartin.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Interpreting the CMB aberration and Doppler measurements: boost or intrinsic dipole?

The aberration and Doppler coupling effects of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) were recently measured by the Planck satellite. The most straightforward interpretation leads to a direct detection of our peculiar velocity $β$, consistent with the measurement of the well-known dipole. In this paper we discuss the assumptions behind such interpretation. We show that Doppler-like couplings appear from two effects: our peculiar velocity and a second order large-scale effect due to the dipolar part of the gravitational potential. We find that the two effects are exactly degenerate but only if we assume second-order initial conditions from single-field Inflation. Thus, detecting a discrepancy in the value of $β$ from the dipole and the Doppler couplings implies the presence of a primordial non-Gaussianity. We also show that aberration-like signals likewise arise from two independent effects: our peculiar velocity and lensing due to a first order large-scale dipolar gravitational potential, independently on Gaussianity of the initial conditions. In general such effects are not degenerate and so a discrepancy between the measured $β$ from the dipole and aberration could be accounted for by a dipolar gravitational potential. Only through a fine-tuning of the radial profile of the potential it is possible to have a complete degeneracy with a boost effect. Finally we discuss that we also expect other signatures due to integrated second order terms, which may be further used to disentangle this scenario from a simple boost.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Turning noise into signal: learning from the scatter in the Hubble diagram

The supernova (SN) Hubble diagram residual contains valuable information on both the present matter power spectrum and its growth history. In this paper we show that this information can be retrieved with precision by combining both peculiar velocity and weak-lensing analysis on the data. To wit, peculiar velocity induces correlations on the nearby SN while lensing induces a non-Gaussian dispersion in faraway objects. We show that both effects have almost orthogonal degeneracies and discuss how they can be extracted simultaneously from the data. We analyze the JLA supernova catalog in a 14-dimensional parameter space, assuming a flexible growth-rate index $γ$. We arrive at the following marginalized constraints: $σ_8 = 0.65^{+0.23}_{-0.37}$ and $γ= 1.38^{+1.7}_{-0.65}$. Assuming instead GR as the correct gravitation theory (and thus $γ\equiv 0.55$), the constraints in $σ_8$ tighten further: $σ_8 = 0.40^{+0.21}_{-0.23}$. We show that these constraints complement well the ones obtained from other datasets and that they could improve substantially with more SNe.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Beyond $Λ$CDM: Problems, solutions, and the road ahead

Despite its continued observational successes, there is a persistent (and growing) interest in extending cosmology beyond the standard model, $Λ$CDM. This is motivated by a range of apparently serious theoretical issues, involving such questions as the cosmological constant problem, the particle nature of dark matter, the validity of general relativity on large scales, the existence of anomalies in the CMB and on small scales, and the predictivity and testability of the inflationary paradigm. In this paper, we summarize the current status of $Λ$CDM as a physical theory, and review investigations into possible alternatives along a number of different lines, with a particular focus on highlighting the most promising directions. While the fundamental problems are proving reluctant to yield, the study of alternative cosmologies has led to considerable progress, with much more to come if hopes about forthcoming high-precision observations and new theoretical ideas are fulfilled.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

The evolving perception of controversial movies

Polarization of opinion is an important feature of public debate on political, social and cultural topics. The availability of large internet databases of users' ratings has permitted quantitative analysis of polarization trends-for instance, previous studies have included analyses of controversial topics on Wikipedia, as well as the relationship between online reviews and a product's perceived quality. Here, we study the dynamics of polarization in the movie ratings collected by the Internet Movie database (IMDb) website in relation to films produced over the period 1915-2015. We define two statistical indexes, dubbed hard and soft controversiality, which quantify polarized and uniform rating distributions, respectively. We find that controversy decreases with popularity and that hard controversy is relatively rare. Our findings also suggest that more recent movies are more controversial than older ones and we detect a trend of "convergence to the mainstream" with a time scale of roughly 40-50 years. This phenomenon appears qualitatively different from trends observed in both online reviews of commercial products and in political debate, and we speculate that it may be connected with the absence of long-lived "echo chambers" in the cultural domain. This hypothesis can and should be tested by extending our analysis to other forms of cultural expression and/or to databases with different demographic user bases.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2015

Improving Planck calibration by including frequency-dependent relativistic corrections

The Planck satellite detectors are calibrated in the 2015 release using the "orbital dipole", which is the time-dependent dipole generated by the Doppler effect due to the motion of the satellite around the Sun. Such an effect has also relativistic time-dependent corrections of relative magnitude 10^(-3), due to coupling with the "solar dipole" (the motion of the Sun compared to the CMB rest frame), which are included in the data calibration by the Planck collaboration. We point out that such corrections are subject to a frequency-dependent multiplicative factor. This factor differs from unity especially at the highest frequencies, relevant for the HFI instrument. Since currently Planck calibration errors are dominated by systematics, to the point that polarization data is currently unreliable at large scales, such a correction can in principle be highly relevant for future data releases.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

On the proper kinetic quadrupole CMB removal and the quadrupole anomalies

It has been pointed out recently that the quadrupole-octopole alignment in the CMB data is significantly affected by the so-called kinetic Doppler quadrupole (DQ), which is the temperature quadrupole induced by our proper motion. Assuming our velocity is the dominant contribution to the CMB dipole we have v/c = beta = (1.231 +/- 0.003) * 10^{-3}, which leads to a non-negligible DQ of order beta^2. Here we stress that one should properly take into account that CMB data are usually not presented in true thermodynamic temperature, which induces a frequency dependent boost correction. The DQ must therefore be multiplied by a frequency-averaged factor, which we explicitly compute for several CMB maps finding that it varies between 1.67 and 2.47. This is often neglected in the literature and turns out to cause a small but non-negligible difference in the significance levels of some quadrupole-related statistics. For instance the alignment significance in the SMICA 2013 map goes from 2.3sigma to 3.3sigma, with the frequency dependent DQ, instead of 2.9sigma ignoring the frequency dependence in the DQ. Moreover as a result of a proper DQ removal, the agreement across different map-making techniques is improved.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Constraining the growth of perturbations with lensing of supernovae

A recently proposed technique allows one to constrain both the background and perturbation cosmological parameters through the distribution function of supernova Ia apparent magnitudes. Here we extend this technique to alternative cosmological scenarios, in which the growth of structure does not follow the $Λ$CDM prescription. We apply the method first to the supernova data provided by the JLA catalog combined with all the current independent redshift distortion data and with low-redshift cluster data from Chandra and show that although the supernovae alone are not very constraining, they help in reducing the confidence regions. Then we apply our method to future data from LSST and from a survey that approximates the Euclid satellite mission. In this case we show that the combined data are nicely complementary and can constrain the normalization $σ_8$ and the growth rate index $γ$ to within $0.6\%$ and $7\%$, respectively. In particular, the LSST supernova catalog is forecast to give the constraint $γ(σ_8/0.83)^{6.7} = 0.55 \pm 0.1$. We also report on constraints relative to a step-wise parametrization of the growth rate of structures. These results show that supernova lensing serves as a good cross-check on the measurement of perturbation parameters from more standard techniques.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

On the significance of power asymmetries in Planck CMB data at all scales

We perform an analysis of the CMB temperature data taken by the Planck satellite investigating if there is any significant deviation from cosmological isotropy. We look for differences in the spectrum between two opposite hemispheres and also for dipolar modulations. We propose a new way to avoid biases due to partial-sky coverage by producing a mask symmetrized in antipodal directions, in addition to the standard smoothing procedure. We also properly take into account both Doppler and aberration effects due to our peculiar velocity and the anisotropy of the noise, since these effects induce a significant hemispherical asymmetry. We are thus able to probe scales all the way to ell = 2000. After such treatment we find no evidence for significant hemispherical anomalies (i.e. deviations are less than 1.5 sigma when summing over all scales). Although among the larger scales there are sometimes higher discrepancies, these are always less than 3 sigma. We also find results on a dipolar modulation of the power spectrum. Along the hemispheres aligned with the most asymmetric direction for 2 <= ell <= 2000 we find a 3.3 sigma discrepancy when comparing to simulations. However, if we do not restrict ourselves to Planck's maximal asymmetry axis, which can only be known a posteriori, and compare Planck data with the modulation of simulations along their respective maximal asymmetry directions, the discrepancy goes down to less than 1 sigma (with, again, almost 3 sigma discrepancies in some low-ell modes). We thus conclude that no significant power asymmetries seem to be present in the full data set. Interestingly, without proper removal of Doppler and aberration effects one would find spurious anomalies at high ell, between 3 sigma and 5 sigma. Even when considering only ell < 600 we find that the boost is non-negligible and alleviates the discrepancy by roughly half-sigma.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

First measurement of $σ_8$ using supernova magnitudes only

A method was recently proposed which allows the conversion of the weak-lensing effects in the supernova Hubble diagram from noise into signal. Such signal is sensitive to the growth of structure in the universe, and in particular can be used as a measurement of $σ_8$ which is independent from more traditional methods such as those based on the CMB, cosmic shear or cluster abundance. We extend here that analysis to allow for intrinsic non-Gaussianities in the supernova PDF, and discuss how this can be best modelled using the Bayes Factor. Although it was shown that a precise measurement of $σ_8$ requires ~$10^5$ supernovae, current data already allows an important proof of principle. In particular we make use of the 732 supernovae with z < 1 of the recent JLA catalog and show that a simple treatment of intrinsic non-Gaussianities with a couple of nuisance parameters is enough for our method to yield the values $σ_8 = 0.84^{+0.28}_{-0.65}$ or $σ_8 < 1.45$ at a $2σ$ confidence level. This result is consistent with mock simulations and it is also in agreement with independent measurements and presents the first ever measurement of $σ_8$ using supernova magnitudes alone.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

CMB Aberration and Doppler Effects as a Source of Hemispherical Asymmetries

Our peculiar motion with respect to the CMB rest frame represents a preferred direction in the observed CMB sky since it induces an apparent deflection of the observed CMB photons (aberration) and a shift in their frequency (Doppler). Both effects distort the multipoles $a_{\ell m}$'s at all $\ell$'s. Such effects are real as it has been recently measured for the first time by Planck according to what was forecast in some recent papers. However, the common lore when estimating a power spectrum from CMB is to consider that Doppler affects only the $\ell=1$ multipole, neglecting any other corrections. In this work we use simulations of the CMB sky in a boosted frame with a peculiar velocity $β= v/c = 1.23 \times 10^{-3}$ in order to assess the impact of such effect on power spectrum estimations in different regions of the sky. We show that the boost induces a north-south asymmetry in the power spectrum which is highly significant and non-negligible, of about (0.58 $\pm$ 0.10)% for half-sky cuts when going up to $\ell$ = 2500. We suggest that these effects are relevant and may account for some of the north-south asymmetries seen in the Planck data, being especially important at small scales. Finally we analyze the particular case of the ACT experiment, which observed only a small fraction of the sky and show that it suffers a bias of about 1% on the power spectrum and of similar size on some cosmological parameters: for example the position of the peaks shifts by 0.5% and the overall amplitude of the spectrum is about 0.4% lower than a full-sky case.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Accurate Weak Lensing of Standard Candles. II. Measuring sigma8 with Supernovae

Soon the number of type Ia supernova (SN) measurements should exceed 100,000. Understanding the effect of weak lensing by matter structures on the supernova brightness will then be more important than ever. Although SN lensing is usually seen as a source of systematic noise, we will show that it can be in fact turned into signal. More precisely, the non-Gaussianity introduced by lensing in the SN Hubble diagram dispersion depends rather sensitively on the amplitude sigma8 of the matter power spectrum. By exploiting this relation, we are able to predict constraints on sigma8 of 7% (3%) for a catalog of 100,000 (500,000) SNe of average magnitude error 0.12 without having to assume that such intrinsic dispersion is known a priori. The intrinsic dispersion has been assumed to be Gaussian; possible intrinsic non-Gaussianities in the dataset (due to the SN themselves and/or to other transients) could be potentially dealt with by means of additional nuisance parameters describing higher moments of the intrinsic dispersion distribution function. This method is independent of and complementary to the standard methods based on CMB, cosmic shear or cluster abundance observables.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Accurate weak lensing of standard candles. I. Flexible cosmological fits

With the availability of thousands of type Ia supernovae in the near future the magnitude scatter induced by lensing will become a major issue as it affects parameter estimation. Current N-body simulations are too time consuming to be integrated in the likelihood analyses used for estimating the cosmological parameters. In this paper we show that in the weak lensing regime a statistical numerical approximation produces accurate results orders of magnitude faster. We write down simple fits to the second, third and fourth central moments of the lensing magnification probability distribution as a function of redshift, of the power spectrum normalization and of the present-day matter density. We also improve upon existing models of lensing variance and show that a shifted lognormal distribution fits well the numerical one. These fits can be easily employed in cosmological likelihood analyses. Moreover, our theoretical predictions make it possible to invert the problem and begin using supernovae lensing to constrain the cosmological parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Internal Robustness: systematic search for systematic bias in SN Ia data

A great deal of effort is currently being devoted to understanding, estimating and removing systematic errors in cosmological data. In the particular case of type Ia supernovae, systematics are starting to dominate the error budget. Here we propose a Bayesian tool for carrying out a systematic search for systematic contamination. This serves as an extension to the standard goodness-of-fit tests and allows not only to cross-check raw or processed data for the presence of systematics but also to pin-point the data that are most likely contaminated. We successfully test our tool with mock catalogues and conclude that the Union2.1 data do not possess a significant amount of systematics. Finally, we show that if one includes in Union2.1 the supernovae that originally failed the quality cuts, our tool signals the presence of systematics at over 3.8-sigma confidence level.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Real-time Cosmology

In recent years the possibility of measuring the temporal change of radial and transverse position of sources in the sky in real time have become conceivable thanks to the thoroughly improved technique applied to new astrometric and spectroscopic experiments, leading to the research domain we call Real-time cosmology. We review for the first time great part of the work done in this field, analysing both the theoretical framework and some endeavor to foresee the observational strategies and their capability to constrain models. We firstly focus on real time measurements of the overall redshift drift and angular separation shift in distant source, able to trace background cosmic expansion and large scale anisotropy, respectively. We then examine the possibility of employing the same kind of observations to probe peculiar and proper acceleration in clustered systems and therefore the gravitational potential. The last two sections are devoted to the short time future change of the cosmic microwave background, as well as to the temporal shift of the temperature anisotropy power spectrum and maps. We conclude revisiting in this context the effort made to forecast the power of upcoming experiments like CODEX, GAIA and PLANCK in providing these new observational tools.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Measuring our Peculiar Velocity by "Pre-deboosting" the CMB

It was recently shown that our peculiar velocity βwith respect to the CMB induces mixing among multipoles and off-diagonal correlations at all scales which can be used as a measurement of β, which is independent of the standard measurement using the CMB temperature dipole. The proposed techniques rely however on a perturbative expansion which breaks down for \ell \gtrsim 1/(β) \approx 800. Here we propose a technique which consists of deboosting the CMB temperature in the time-ordered data and show that it extends the validity of the perturbation analysis multipoles up to \ell \sim 10000. We also obtain accurate fitting functions for the mixing between multipoles valid in a full non-linear treatment. Finally we forecast the achievable precision with which these correlations can be measured in a number of current and future CMB missions. We show that Planck could measure the velocity with a precision of around 60 km/s, ACTPol in 4 years around 40 km/s, while proposed future experiments could further shrink this error bar by over a factor of around 2.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Measuring our peculiar velocity on the CMB with high-multipole off-diagonal correlations

Our peculiar velocity with respect to the CMB rest frame is known to induce a large dipole in the CMB. However, the motion of an observer has also the effect of distorting the anisotropies at all scales, as shown by Challinor and Van Leeuwen (2002), due to aberration and Doppler effects. We propose to measure independently our local motion by using off-diagonal two-point correlation functions for high multipoles. We study the observability of the signal for temperature and polarization anisotropies. We point out that Planck can measure the velocity $β$ with an error of about 30% and the direction with an error of about 20 degrees. This method constitutes a cross-check, which can be useful to verify that our CMB dipole is due mainly to our velocity or to disentangle the velocity from other possible intrinsic sources. Although in this paper we focus on our peculiar velocity, a similar effect would result also from other intrinsic vectorial distortion of the CMB which would induce a dipolar lensing. Measuring the off-diagonal correlation terms is therefore a test for a preferred direction on the CMB sky.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

On the Possibility of Anisotropic Curvature in Cosmology

In addition to shear and vorticity a homogeneous background may also exhibit anisotropic curvature. Here a class of spacetimes is shown to exist where the anisotropy is solely of the latter type, and the shear-free condition is supported by a canonical, massless 2-form field. Such spacetimes possess a preferred direction in the sky and at the same time a CMB which is isotropic at the background level. A distortion of the luminosity distances is derived and used to test the model against the CMB and supernovae (using the Union catalog), and it is concluded that the latter exhibit a higher-than-expected dependence on angular position. It is shown that future surveys could detect a possible preferred direction by observing ~ 20 / (Ω_{k0}^2) supernovae over the whole sky.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Large-scale inhomogeneities may improve the cosmic concordance of supernovae

We reanalyze the supernovae data from the Union Compilation including the weak lensing effects caused by inhomogeneities. We compute the lensing probability distribution function for each background solution described by the parameters Omega_M, Omega_L and w in the presence of inhomogeneities, approximately modeled with a single-mass population of halos. We then perform a likelihood analysis in the space of FLRW-parameters and compare our results with the standard approach. We find that the inclusion of lensing can move the best-fit model significantly towards the cosmic concordance of the flat LCDM model, improving the agreement with the constraints coming from the cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillations.

astro-ph.CO↗