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Nils Schöneberg

Publications and source records attributed to Nils Schöneberg.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Exploration of the Pre-recombination Universe with a High-Dimensional Model of an Additional Dark Fluid

We implement and explore high-dimensional generalized dark matter (HDGDM) with an arbitrary equation of state as a function of redshift as an extension to ΛCDM.. Exposing this model to CMB, BAO, and supernova data, we demonstrate that the use of marginalized posterior distributions can easily lead to misleading conclusions on the viability of a high-dimensional model such as this one. We discuss such pitfalls and corresponding mitigation strategies, which can be used to search for an observationally favored region of the parameter space. We further show that the HDGDM model in particular does show promise in terms of its ability to ease the Hubble tension once such techniques are employed, and we find interesting features in the best-fitting equation of state that can serve as an inspiration for future model building.

astro-ph.CO↗

Parallelized Acquisition for Active Learning using Monte Carlo Sampling

Bayesian inference remains one of the most important tool-kits for any scientist, but increasingly expensive likelihood functions are required for ever-more complex experiments, raising the cost of generating a Monte Carlo sample of the posterior. Recent attention has been directed towards the use of emulators of the posterior based on Gaussian Process (GP) regression combined with active sampling to achieve comparable precision with far fewer costly likelihood evaluations. Key to this approach is the batched acquisition of proposals, so that the true posterior can be evaluated in parallel. This is usually achieved via sequential maximization of the highly multimodal acquisition function. Unfortunately, this approach parallelizes poorly and is prone to getting stuck in local maxima. Our approach addresses this issue by generating nearly-optimal batches of candidates using an almost-embarrassingly parallel Nested Sampler on the mean prediction of the GP. The resulting nearly-sorted Monte Carlo sample is used to generate a batch of candidates ranked according to their sequentially conditioned acquisition function values at little cost. The final sample can also be used for inferring marginal quantities. Our proposed implementation (NORA) demonstrates comparable accuracy to sequential conditioned acquisition optimization and efficient parallelization in various synthetic and cosmological inference problems.

stat.ML↗

Constraints on extended Bekenstein models from cosmological, astrophysical, and local data

Searching for variations of nature's fundamental constants is a crucial step in our quest to go beyond our current standard model of fundamental physics. If they exist, such variations will be very likely driven by the existence of a new fundamental field. The Bekenstein model and its extensions introduce such a scalar field in a purely phenomenological way, inducing a variation of the fine-structure constant on cosmological scales. This theoretical framework is as simple and general as possible while still preserving all the symmetries of standard quantum electrodynamics. When allowing for couplings to the other sectors of the Universe, such as baryons, dark matter, and the cosmological constant, the Bekenstein model is expected to reproduce the low energy limits of several grand unification, quantum gravity, and higher dimensional theories. In this work, we constrain different versions of the Bekenstein model by confronting the full cosmological evolution of the field with an extensive set of astrophysical, cosmological, and local measurements. We show that couplings of the order of parts per million (ppm) are excluded for all the cases considered, imposing strong restrictions on theoretical frameworks aiming to deal with variations of the fine-structure constant.

astro-ph.CO↗

Runaway dilaton models: improved constraints from the full cosmological evolution

One of the few firm predictions of string theory is the existence of a massless scalar field coupled to gravity, the dilaton. In its presence, the value of the fundamental constants of the universe, such as the fine-structure constant, will vary with the time-dependent vacuum expectation value of this field, in direct violation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle. The \emph{runaway dilaton} proposed by Damour, Piazza, and Veneziano provides a physically motivated cosmological scenario which reconciles the existence of a massless dilaton with observations, while still providing non-standard and testable predictions. Furthermore, the field can provide a natural candidate for dynamical dark energy. While this model has been previously constrained from local laboratory experiments and low-redshift observations, we provide here the first full self-consistent constraints, also including high redshift data, in particular from the cosmic microwave background. We consider various possible scenarios in which the field could act as quintessence. Despite the wider parameter space, we make use of recent observational progress to significantly improve constraints on the model's coupling parameters, showing that order unity couplings (which would be natural in string theory) are ruled out.

astro-ph.CO↗

What it takes to solve the Hubble tension through modifications of cosmological recombination

We construct data-driven solutions to the Hubble tension which are perturbative modifications to the fiducial $Λ$CDM cosmology, using the Fisher bias formalism. Taking as proof of principle the case of a time-varying electron mass and fine structure constant, and focusing first on Planck CMB data, we demonstrate that a modified recombination can solve the Hubble tension and lower $S_8$ to match weak lensing measurements. Once baryonic acoustic oscillation and uncalibrated supernovae data are included, however, it is not possible to fully solve the tension with perturbative modifications to recombination.

astro-ph.CO↗

Fast and robust Bayesian Inference using Gaussian Processes with GPry

We present the GPry algorithm for fast Bayesian inference of general (non-Gaussian) posteriors with a moderate number of parameters. GPry does not need any pre-training, special hardware such as GPUs, and is intended as a drop-in replacement for traditional Monte Carlo methods for Bayesian inference. Our algorithm is based on generating a Gaussian Process surrogate model of the log-posterior, aided by a Support Vector Machine classifier that excludes extreme or non-finite values. An active learning scheme allows us to reduce the number of required posterior evaluations by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional Monte Carlo inference. Our algorithm allows for parallel evaluations of the posterior at optimal locations, further reducing wall-clock times. We significantly improve performance using properties of the posterior in our active learning scheme and for the definition of the GP prior. In particular we account for the expected dynamical range of the posterior in different dimensionalities. We test our model against a number of synthetic and cosmological examples. GPry outperforms traditional Monte Carlo methods when the evaluation time of the likelihood (or the calculation of theoretical observables) is of the order of seconds; for evaluation times of over a minute it can perform inference in days that would take months using traditional methods. GPry is distributed as an open source Python package (pip install gpry) and can also be found at https://github.com/jonaselgammal/GPry.

astro-ph.CO↗

A step in the right direction? Analyzing the Wess Zumino Dark Radiation solution to the Hubble tension

The Wess Zumino Dark Radiation (WZDR) model first proposed in arXiv:2111.00014 shows great promise as a well-motivated simple explanation of the Hubble tension between local and CMB-based measurements. In this work we investigate the assumptions made in the original proposal and confront the model with additional independent data sets. We show that the original assumptions can have an impact on the overall results but are usually well motivated. We further demonstrate that the preference for negative $Ω_k$ remains at a similar level as for the $Λ$CDM model, while the $A_L$ tension is slightly increased. Furthermore, the tension between Planck data for $\ell < 800$ and $\ell \geq 800$ is significantly reduced for the WZDR model. The independent data sets show slightly more permissive bounds on the Hubble parameter, allowing the tension to be further reduced to $2.1 σ$ (CMB-independent) or $1.9σ$ (ACT+WMAP). However, no combination shows a large preference for the presence of WZDR. We also investigate whether additional dark radiation -- dark matter interactions can help in easing the $S_8$ tension as well. Assuming all of the dark matter to be interacting and a temperature-independent scattering rate, we find that the CMB data are too restrictive on this additional component as to allow a significant decrease in the clustering.

astro-ph.CO↗

CosmicNet II: Emulating extended cosmologies with efficient and accurate neural networks

In modern analysis pipelines, Einstein-Boltzmann Solvers (EBSs) are an invaluable tool for obtaining CMB and matter power spectra. To accelerate the computation of these observables, the CosmicNet strategy is to replace the bottleneck of an EBS, which is the integration of a system of differential equations for linear cosmological perturbations, by neural networks. This strategy offers advantages compared to the direct emulation of the final observables, including small networks that are easy to train in high-dimensional parameter spaces, and which do not depend by on primordial spectrum parameters nor observation-related quantities such as selection functions. In this second CosmicNet paper, we present a more efficient set of networks that are already trained for extended cosmologies beyond LCDM, with massive neutrinos, extra relativistic degrees of freedom, spatial curvature, and dynamical dark energy. We release a new branch of the CLASS code, called CLASSNET, which automatically uses networks within a region of trusted accuracy. We demonstrate the accuracy and performance of CLASSNET by presenting parameter inference runs from Planck, BAO and supernovae data, performed with CLASSNET and the COBAYA inference package. We have eliminated the perturbation module as a bottleneck of the EBS, with a speedup that is even more remarkable in extended cosmologies, where the usual approach would have been more expensive while the network's performance remains the same. We obtain a speedup factor of order 150 for the emulated perturbation module of CLASS. For the whole code, this translates into an overall speedup factor of order 3 when computing CMB harmonic spectra (now dominated by the highly parallelizable and further optimizable line-of-sight integration), and of order 50 when computing matter power spectra (less than 0.1 seconds even in extended cosmologies).

astro-ph.CO↗

One likelihood to bind them all: Lyman-$α$ constraints on non-standard dark matter

Recent cosmological tensions have rekindled the search for models beyond $Λ$CDM that cause a suppression of the matter power spectrum. Due to the small scales accessible to Lyman-$α$ data they are an excellent additional tool to probe such models. In this work we extend a recently-developed approach for using Lyman-$α$ data to constrain the power spectrum suppression caused by almost any mixture of cold and non-standard dark matter. We highlight the steps involved in the development of a corresponding likelihood that will be publicly released upon publication of this work. We study three examples of models suppressing the power spectrum, namely feebly interacting dark matter, dark matter interacting with baryons, and mixed cold+warm dark matter. The latter two can be well constrained from Lyman-$α$ data, and we derive novel conclusions on the cosmologically allowed parameter spaces, including finding a mild preference for non-zero interactions between dark matter and baryons. The consistency of the constraints obtained on these models highlight the robustness and flexibility of the likelihood developed here.

astro-ph.CO↗

Unlocking the synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies

Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions (SDs) will open a new window on the very early universe, providing new information complementary to that gathered from CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies. In this paper, we study their synergy as a function of the characteristics of the considered experiments. In particular, we examine a wide range of sensitivities for possible SD measurements, spanning from FIRAS up to noise levels 1000 times better than PIXIE, and study their constraining power when combined with current or future CMB anisotropy experiments such as Planck or LiteBIRD plus CMB-S4. We consider a number of different cosmological models such as the $Λ$CDM, as well as its extensions with the running of the scalar spectral index, the decay or the annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles. While upcoming CMB anisotropy experiments will be able to decrease the uncertainties on inflationary parameters such as $A_s$ and $n_s$ by about a factor 2 in the $Λ$CDM case, we find that an SD experiment 100 times more sensitive than PIXIE (comparable to the proposed Super-PIXIE satellite) could potentially further contribute to constrain these parameters. This is even more significant in the case of the running of the scalar spectral index. Furthermore, as expected, constraints on DM particles decaying at redshifts probed by SDs will improve by orders of magnitude even with an experiment 10 times worse than PIXIE as compared to CMB anisotropies or Big Bang Nucleosynthesis bounds. On the contrary, DM annihilation constraints will not significantly improve over CMB anisotropy measurements. Finally, we forecast the constraints obtainable with sensitivities achievable either from the ground or from a balloon.

astro-ph.CO↗

The $H_0$ Olympics: A fair ranking of proposed models

Despite the remarkable success of the $Λ$Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological model, a growing discrepancy has emerged (currently measured at the level of $\sim 4-6 σ$) between the value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ measured using the local distance ladder and the value inferred using the cosmic microwave background and galaxy surveys. While a vast array of $Λ$CDM extensions have been proposed to explain these discordant observations, understanding the (relative) success of these models in resolving the tension has proven difficult -- this is a direct consequence of the fact that each model has been subjected to differing, and typically incomplete, compilations of cosmological data. In this review, we attempt to make a systematic comparison of sixteen different models which have been proposed to resolve the $H_0$ tension (spanning both early- and late-Universe solutions), and quantify the relative success of each using a series of metrics and a vast array of data combinations. Owing to the timely appearance of this article, we refer to this contest as the ''$H_0$ Olympics''; the goal being to identify which of the proposed solutions, and more broadly which underlying mechanisms, are most likely to be responsible for explaining the observed discrepancy (should unaccounted for systematics not be the culprit). This work also establishes a foundation of tests which will allow the success of novel proposals to be meaningful ''benchmarked''.

astro-ph.CO↗

Constraining the inflationary potential with spectral distortions

Measuring spectral distortions (SDs) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will provide new constraints on previously unexplored scales of the primordial power spectrum, allowing us to extend the probed parameter space by several orders of magnitude in $k$-space, which could have significant implications in the context of primordial black holes and gravitational waves, among others. Here we discuss how various models of inflation can be tightly constrained by the combination of current and future CMB SD and anisotropy experiments. In particular, we investigate the constraining power of SD experiments such as FIRAS, PIXIE, and PRISM in conjunction with CMB anisotropy probes such as Planck or CMB-S4 plus LiteBIRD. Building on the latest version of the Boltzmann solver CLASS (v3.0), here we also consistently marginalize over the possible galactic and extra-galactic foregrounds for the SD missions. With this numerical setup, we are able to realistically forecast the improvements that the increased lever-arm provided by the addition of the various SD missions will bring for several combinations of the aforementioned experiments. As a result, in all considered models we observe that SDs provide a highly significant tightening of the constraints by up to 640%, and increase the figure of merit up to a factor of around 1600.

astro-ph.CO↗

Cosmological constraints on multi-interacting dark matter

The increasingly significant tensions within $Λ$CDM, combined with the lack of detection of dark matter (DM) in laboratory experiments, have boosted interest in non-minimal dark sectors, which are theoretically well-motivated and inspire new search strategies for DM. Here we consider, for the first time, the possibility of DM having simultaneous interactions with photons, baryons, and dark radiation (DR). We have developed a new and efficient version of the Boltzmann code CLASS that allows for one DM species to have multiple interaction channels. With this framework we reassess existing cosmological bounds on the various interaction coefficients in multi-interacting DM scenarios. We find no clear degeneracies between these different interactions and show that their cosmological effects are largely additive. We further investigate the possibility of these models to alleviate the cosmological tensions, and find that the combination of DM-photon and DM-DR interactions can at the same time reduce the $S_8$ tension (from $2.3σ$ to $1.2σ$) and the $H_0$ tension (from $4.3σ$ to $3.1σ$). The public release of our code will pave the way for the study of various rich dark sectors.

astro-ph.CO↗

Cannibalism hinders growth: Cannibal Dark Matter and the $S_8$ tension

Many models of dark matter have been proposed in attempt to ease the $S_8$ tension between weak lensing and CMB experiments. One such exciting possibility is cannibalistic dark matter (CanDM), which has exothermal number-changing interactions allowing it to stay warm far into its non-relativistic regime. Here we investigate the cosmological implications of CanDM and how it impacts CMB anisotropies and the matter power spectrum, by implementing the model within a linear Einstein-Boltzmann solver. We show that CanDM suppresses the small scale matter power spectrum in a way very similar to light Warm Dark Matter or Hot Dark Matter. However, unlike in those models, the suppression may happen while the CanDM model still remains compatible with CMB constraints. We put strong constraints on the interaction strength of CanDM as a function of its abundance for both constant and temperature-dependent thermally-averaged cross sections. We find that the CanDM model can easily solve the $S_8$ tension (but has no impact on the Hubble tension). Indeed, it can accommodate values of $S_8$ of the order of 0.76 while being compatible with CMB+BAO data. However, as long as the $S_8$ tension remains moderate, the overall $χ^2$ improvement is relatively small given the number of extra free parameters, and the CanDM model is not significantly preferred.

astro-ph.CO↗

Hints, neutrino bounds and WDM constraints from SDSS DR14 Lyman-$α$ and Planck full-survey data

The Ly-$α$ forest 1D flux power spectrum is a powerful probe of several cosmological parameters. Assuming a $Λ$CDM cosmology including massive neutrinos, we find that the latest SDSS DR14 BOSS and eBOSS Ly-$α$ forest data is in very good agreement with current weak lensing constraints on $(Ω_m, σ_8)$ and has the same small level of tension with Planck. We did not identify a systematic effect in the data analysis that could explain this small tension, but we show that it can be reduced in extended cosmological models where the spectral index is not the same on the very different times and scales probed by CMB and Ly-$α$ data. A particular case is that of a $Λ$CDM model including a running of the spectral index on top of massive neutrinos. With combined Ly-$α$ and Planck data, we find a slight (3$σ$) preference for negative running, $α_s= -0.010 \pm 0.004$ (68% CL). Neutrino mass bounds are found to be robust against different assumptions. In the $Λ$CDM model with running, we find $\sum m_ν<0.11$ eV at the 95% confidence level for combined Ly-$α$ and Planck (temperature and polarisation) data, or $\sum m_ν< 0.09$ eV when adding CMB lensing and BAO data. We further provide strong and nearly model-independent bounds on the mass of thermal warm dark matter. For a conservative configuration consisting of SDSS data restricted to $z<4.5$ combined with XQ-100 \lya data, we find $m_X > 5.3\;\mathrm{keV}$ (95\%CL).

astro-ph.CO↗

The synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies

Spectral distortions and anisotropies of the CMB provide independent and complementary probes to study energy injection processes in the early universe. Here we discuss the synergy between these observables, and show the promising future of spectral distortion missions to constrain both exotic and non-exotic energy injections. We show that conventional probes such as Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and CMB anisotropies can benefit from and even be surpassed by future spectral distortion experiments. For this, we have implemented a unified framework within the Boltzmann code CLASS to consistently treat the thermal evolution of photons and baryons. Furthermore, we give an extensive and pedagogical introduction into the topic of spectral distortions and energy injections throughout the thermal history of the universe, highlighting some of their unique features and potential as a novel probe for cosmology and particle physics.

astro-ph.CO↗

The BAO+BBN take on the Hubble tension

Many attempts to solve the Hubble tension with extended cosmological models combine an enhanced relic radiation density, acting at the level of background cosmology, with new physical ingredients affecting the evolution of cosmological perturbations. Several authors have pointed out the ability of combined Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) data to probe the background cosmological history independently of both CMB maps and supernovae data. Using state-of-the-art assumptions on BBN, we confirm that combined BAO, deuterium, and helium data are in tension with the SH0ES measurements under the $Λ$CDM assumption at the 3.2$σ$ level, while being in close agreement with the CMB value. We subsequently show that floating the radiation density parameter $N_\mathrm{eff}$ only reduces the tension down to the 2.6$σ$ level. This conclusion, totally independent of any CMB data, shows that a high $N_\mathrm{eff}$ accounting for extra relics (either free-streaming or self-interacting) does not provide an obvious solution to the crisis, not even at the level of background cosmology. To circumvent this strong bound, (i) the extra radiation has to be generated after BBN to avoid helium bounds, and (ii) additional ingredients have to be invoked at the level of perturbations to reconcile this extra radiation with CMB and LSS data.

astro-ph.CO↗

CosmicNet I: Physics-driven implementation of neural networks within Boltzmann-Einstein solvers

Einstein-Boltzmann Solvers (EBSs) are run on a massive scale by the cosmology community when fitting cosmological models to data. We present a new concept for speeding up such codes with neural networks. The originality of our approach stems from not substituting the whole EBS by a machine learning algorithm, but only its most problematic and least parallelizable step: the integration of perturbation equations over time. This approach offers two significant advantages: the task depends only on a subset of cosmological parameters, and it is blind to the characteristics of the experiment for which the output must be computed (for instance, redshift bins). These allow us to construct a fast and highly re-usable network. In this proof-of-concept paper, we focus on the prediction of CMB source functions, and design our networks according to physical considerations and analytical approximations. This allows us to reduce the depth and training time of the networks compared to a brute-force approach. Indeed, the calculation of the source functions using the networks is fast enough so that it is not a bottleneck in the EBS anymore. Finally, we show that their accuracy is more than sufficient for accurate MCMC parameter inference from Planck data. This paves the way for a new project, CosmicNet, aimed at gradually extending the use and the range of validity of neural networks within EBSs, and saving massive computational time in the context of cosmological parameter extraction.

astro-ph.CO↗