arXiv subjects

Somnath Bharadwaj

Publications and source records attributed to Somnath Bharadwaj.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Simulating the impact of HI fluctuations on matched filter search for ionized bubbles in redshifted 21 cm maps

Extending the formalism of Datta, Bharadwaj & Choudhury (2007) for detecting ionized bubbles in redshifted 21 cm maps using a matched-filtering technique, we use different simulations to analyze the impact of HI fluctuations outside the bubble on the detectability of the bubble. In the first three kinds of simulations there is a spherical bubble of comoving radius R_b, the one that we are trying to detect, located at the center, and the neutral hydrogen (HI) outside the bubble traces the underlying dark matter distribution. We consider three different possible scenarios of reionization, i.e., (i) there is a single bubble (SB) in the field of view (FoV) and the hydrogen neutral fraction is constant outside this bubble (ii) patchy reionization with many small ionized bubbles in the FoV (PR1) and (iii) many spherical ionized bubbles of the same radius $R_b$ (PR2). The fourth kind of simulation uses more realistic maps based on semi-numeric modelling (SM) of ionized regions. We find that for both the SB and PR1 scenarios the fluctuating IGM restricts bubble detection to size R_b<= 6 Mpc and R_b<= 12 Mpc for the GMRT and the MWA respectively, however large be the integration time. These results are well explained by analytical predictions. Large uncertainty due to the HI fluctuations restricts bubble detection in the PR2 scenario for neutral fraction x_HI<0.6. The matched-filter technique works well even when the targeted ionized bubble is non-spherical due to surrounding bubbles and inhomogeneous recombination (SM). We find that determining the size and positions of the bubbles is not limited by the HI fluctuations in the SB and PR1 scenario but limited by the instrument's angular resolution instead, and this can be done more precisely for larger bubble (abridged).

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arXiv2008

Estimation of Cosmological Parameters from HI Observations of Post-reionization Epoch

The emission from neutral hydrogen (HI) clouds in the post-reionization era (z < 6), too faint to be individually detected, is present as a diffuse background in all low frequency radio observations below 1420 MHz. The angular and frequency fluctuations of this radiation (~ 1 mK) is an important future probe of the large scale structures in the Universe. We show that such observations are a very effective probe of the background cosmological model and the perturbed Universe. In our study we focus on the possibility of determining the redshift space distortion parameter, coordinate distance and its derivative with redshift. Using reasonable estimates for the observational uncertainties and configurations representative of the ongoing and upcoming radio interferometers, we predict parameter estimation at a precision comparable with supernova Ia observations and galaxy redshift surveys, across a wide range in redshift that is only partially accessed by other probes. Future HI observations of the post-reionization era present a new technique, complementing several existing one, to probe the expansion history and to elucidate the nature of the dark energy.

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arXiv2008

Exploring star formation using the filaments in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Five (SDSS DR5)

We have quantified the average filamentarity of the galaxy distribution in seven nearly two dimensional strips from the SDSS DR5 using a volume limited sample in the absolute magnitude range -21 < M_r < -20. The average filamentarity of star forming (SF) galaxies, which are predominantly blue, is found to be more than that of other galaxies which are predominantly red. This difference is possibly an outcome of the fact that blue galaxies have a more filamentary distribution. Comparing the SF galaxies with only the blue other galaxies, we find that the two show nearly equal filamentarity. Separately analyzing the galaxies with high star formation rates (SFR) and low SFR, we find that the latter has a more filamentary distribution. We interpret this in terms of two effects (1.) A correlation between the SFR and individual galaxy properties like luminosity with the high SFR galaxies being more luminous (2.) A relation between the SFR and environmental effects like the density with the high SFR galaxies preferentially occurring in high density regions. These two effects are possibly not independent and are operating simultaneously. We do not find any difference in the filamentarity of SF galaxies and AGNs.

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arXiv2008

Foregrounds for redshifted 21 cm studies of reionization: GMRT 153 MHz observations

Foreground subtraction is the biggest challenge for future redshifted 21 cm observations to probe reionization. We use a short GMRT observation at 153 MHz to characterize the statistical properties of the background radiation across ~ one degree to sub-arcminutes angular scales, and across a frequency band of 5 MHz with 62.5 kHz resolution. The statistic we use is the visibility correlation function, or equivalently the angular power spectrum C_l. We present the results obtained from using relatively unsophisticated, conventional data calibration procedures. We find that even fairly simple minded calibration allows one to estimate the visibility correlation function at a given frequency V_2(U,0). From our observations we find that V_2(U,0) is consistent with foreground model predictions at all angular scales except the largest ones probed by our observations where the the model predictions are somewhat in excess. On the other hand the visibility correlation between different frequencies kappa(U, Delta nu), seems to be much more sensitive to calibration errors. We find a rapid decline in kappa(U, Delta nu), in contrast with the prediction of less than 1 % variation across 2.5 MHz. In this case however, it seems likely that a substantial part of the discrepancy may be due to limitations of data reduction procedures.

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arXiv2007

HI power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC628

We have measured the HI power spectrum of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC628 (M74) using a visibility based estimator. The power spectrum is well fitted by a power law $P(U)=AU^α$, with $α=- 1.6\pm0.2$ over the length scale $800 {\rm pc} {\rm to} 8 {\rm kpc}$. The slope is found to be independent of the width of the velocity channel. This value of the slope is a little more than one in excess of what has been seen at considerably smaller length scales in the Milky-Way, Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Large Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the dwarf galaxy DDO210. We interpret this difference as indicating a transition from three dimensional turbulence at small scales to two dimensional turbulence in the plane of the galaxy's disk at length scales larger than galaxy's HI scale height. The slope measured here is similar to that found at large scales in the LMC. Our analysis also places an upper limit to the galaxy's scale height at $800\ {\rm pc}$ .

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arXiv2007

Detecting ionized bubbles in redshifted 21 cm maps

The reionization of the Universe, it is believed, occurred by the growth of ionized regions (bubbles) in the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM). We study the possibility of detecting these bubbles in radio-interferometric observations of redshifted neutral hydrogen (HI) 21 cm radiation. The signal 1 mJy will be buried in noise and foregrounds, the latter being at least a few orders of magnitude stronger than the signal. We develop a visibility based formalism that uses a filter to optimally combine the entire signal from a bubble while minimizing the noise and foreground contributions. This formalism makes definite predictions on the ability to detect an ionized bubble or conclusively rule out its presence in a radio- interferometric observation. We make predictions for the currently functioning GMRT and a forthcoming instrument, the MWA at a frequency of 150 MHz (corresponding to a redshift of 8.5). For both instruments, we show that a 3 sigma detection will be possible for a bubble of comoving radius R_b > 40 Mpc (assuming it to be spherical) in 100 hrs of observation and R_b 22 Mpc in 1000 hrs of observation, provided the bubble is at the center of the field of view. In both these cases the filter effectively removes the expected foreground contribution so that it is below the signal, and the system noise is the deciding criteria. We find that there is a fundamental limitation on the smallest bubble that can be detected arising from the statistical fluctuations in the HI distribution. Assuming that the HI traces the dark matter we find that it will not be possible to detect bubbles with R_b < 8 Mpc using the GMRT and R_b < 16 Mpc using the MWA, however large be the integration time.

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arXiv2007

The multi-frequency angular power spectrum of the epoch of reionization 21 cm signal

Observations of redshifted 21cm radiation from HI at high redshifts is an important future probe of reionization. We consider the Multi-frequency Angular Power Spectrum (MAPS) to quantify the statistics of the HI signal as a joint function of the angular multipole l and frequency separation Δν. The signal at two different frequencies is expected to get decorrelated as Δνis increased, and quantifying this decorrelation is particularly important in deciding the frequency resolution for future HI observations. This is also expected to play a very crucial role in extracting the signal from foregrounds as the signal is expected to decorrelate much faster than the foregrounds (which are largely continuum sources) with increasing Δν. In this paper we develop formulae relating the MAPS to different components of the three dimensional HI power spectrum taking into account HI peculiar velocities. We show that the flat-sky approximation provides a very good representation over the angular scales of interest, and a final expression which is very simple to calculate and interpret. We present results considering two models for the HI distribution, namely, (i) DM: where the HI traces the dark matter and (ii) PR: where the effects of patchy reionization are incorporated through two parameters. We find that while the DM signal is largely featureless, the PR signal peaks at the angular scales of the individual bubbles, and the signal is considerably enhanced for large bubble size. For most cases of interest at l \sim 100 the signal is uncorrelated beyond Δν\sim 1 MHz or even less, whereas it occurs around \sim 0.1 MHz at l \sim 10^3. The Δνdependence also carries an imprint of the bubble size and the bias, and is expected to be an important probe of the reionization scenario (abridged).

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arXiv2007

The luminosity bias relation from filaments in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Four

We compare quantitative estimates of the filamentarity of the galaxy distribution in seven nearly two dimensional sections from the survey against the predictions of LCDM N-body simulations. The filamentarity of the actual galaxy distribution is known to be luminosity dependent. It is also known that the filamentarity of the simulated galaxy distribution is highly sensitive to the bias, and the simulations are consistent with the data for only a narrow range of bias. We apply this feature to several volume limited subsamples with different luminosities to determine a luminosity bias relation. The relative bias $b/b^*$ as a function of the luminosity ratio $L/L^*$ is found to be well described by a straight line $b/b^*=A + B (L/L^*)$ with $A=0.833 \pm 0.009$ and $B=0.171 \pm 0.009$. Comparing with the earlier works all of which use ratios of the two-point statistics, we find that our results are consistent with Norberg et al.(2001) and Tegmark et al.(2004), while a steeper luminosity dependence found by Benoist et al.(1996) is inconsistent.

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arXiv2006

The Luminosity, Colour and Morphology dependence of galaxy filaments in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Four

We have tested for luminosity, colour and morphology dependence of the degree of filamentarity in seven nearly two dimensional strips from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Four (SDSS DR4). The analysis is carried out at various levels of coarse graining allowing us to address different length-scales. We find that the brighter galaxies have a less filamentary distribution than the fainter ones at all levels of coarse graining. The distribution of red galaxies and ellipticals shows a higher degree of filamentarity compared to blue galaxies and spirals respectively at low levels of coarse graining. The behaviour is reversed at higher levels of coarse graining. We propose a picture where the ellipticals are densely distributed in the vicinity of the nodes where the filaments intersect while the spirals are sparsely distributed along the entire extent of the filaments. Our findings indicate that the regions with an excess of ellipticals are larger than galaxy clusters, protruding into the filaments. We have also compared the predictions of a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation (the Millennium Run galaxy catalogue) against our results for the SDSS. We find the two to be in agreement for the $M^{*}$ galaxies and for the red galaxies, while the model fails to correctly predict the filamentarity of the brighter galaxies and the blue galaxies.

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arXiv2006

Power spectrum of HI intensity fluctuations in DDO 210

We measure the power spectrum of HI intensity fluctuations in the extremely faint (M_B ~ -10.9) dwarf galaxy DDO 210 using a visibility based estimator that is well suited in very low signal to noise ratio regimes. DDO 210's HI power spectrum is well fit by a power law $P_HI(U)= A U^α$ with $α=-2.75 \pm0.45$ over the length-scales 80 pc to 500 pc. We also find that the power spectrum does not change with an increase in the velocity channel width, indicating that the measured fluctuations correspond mainly to density fluctuations. However, Kolmogorov turbulence (with a velocity structure function spectral slope of 2/3) cannot be ruled out from the present observations. The value of the slope $α$ is similar to that obtained in the Milkyway. In contrast to the Milkyway, DDO 210 has three orders of magnitude less HI, no spiral arms, and also no measurable ongoing star formation. The fact that the power spectrum slope is nonetheless similar in these two galaxies (and also similar to the values measured for the LMC and SMC) suggests that there is some universal, star formation independent, phenomenon responsible for producing fine scale structure in the gas.

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arXiv2006

Probing the bispectrum at high redshifts using 21 cm HI observations

Observations of fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm radiation from neautral hydrogen (HI) are perceived to be an important future probe of the universe at high redshifts. Under the assumption that at redshifts z less than 6 (Post-Reionization Era), the HI traces the underlying dark matter with a possible bias, we investigate the possibility of using observations of redshifted 21 cm radiation to detect the bispectrum arising from non-linear gravitational clustering and from non-linear bias. We find that the expected signal is ~ 0.1 mJy at 325 MHz (z=3.4) for the small baselines at the GMRT, the strength being a few times larger at higher frequencies 610 MHz (z=1.3). Further, the magnitude of the signal from the bispectrum is predicted to be comparable to that from the power spectrum, allowing a detection of both in roughly the same integration time. The HI signal is found to be uncorrelated beyond frequency separations of 1.3 MHz whereas the continuum sources of continuum are expected to be correlated across much larger frequencies. This signature can in principle be used to distinguish the HI signal from the contamination. We also consider the possibility of using observations of the bispectrum to determine the linear and quadratic bias parameters of the HI at high redshifts, this having possible implications for theories of galaxy formation.

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arXiv2005

What will anisotropies in the clustering pattern in redshifted 21 cm maps tell us?

The clustering pattern in high redshift HI maps is expected to be anisotropic due to two distinct reasons, the Alcock-Paczynski effect and the peculiar velocities, both of which are sensitive to the cosmological parameters. The signal is also expected to be sensitive to the details of the HI distribution at the epoch when the radiation originated. We use simple models for the HI distribution at the epoch of reionizaation and the post-reionization era to investigate exactly what we hope to learn from future observations of the anisotropy pattern in HI maps. We find that such observations will probably tell us more about the HI distribution than about the background cosmological model. Assuming that reionization can be described by spherical, ionized bubbles all of the same size with their centers possibly being biased with respect to the dark matter, we find that the anisotropy pattern at small angles is expected to have a bump at the characteristic angular size of the individual bubbles whereas the large scale anisotropy pattern will reflect the size and the bias of the bubbles. The anisotropy also depends on the background cosmological parameters, but the dependence is much weaker. Under the assumption that the HI in the post-reionization era traces the dark matter with a possible bias, we find that changing the bias and changing the background cosmology has similar effects on the anisotropy pattern. Combining observations of the anisotropy with independent estimates of the bias, possibly from the bi-spectrum, may allow these observations to constrain cosmological parameters.

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arXiv2005

Can the rotation of the dark matter halo of our galaxy be detected through its effect on the cosmic microwave background polarisation?

The proposition that dark matter halos possess angular momentum, though widely accepted, is a theoretical prediction which has, till date, not been observationally verified. The gravi-magnetic field produced by a rotating gravitating object is possibly the only direct consequence of the angular momentum of dark matter halos. The gravitational Faraday rotation produced by the dark matter halo of our galaxy is present in all astronomical observations. A detection of the imprint of this effect on the all-sky cosmic microwave background radiation polarisation pattern would directly probe the angular momentum of the dark matter halo of our Galaxy. We have calculated the expected gravitational Faraday rotation which turns out to be a $(v_c/c)^3$ effect, $v_c$ being the rotational speed of our halo. The predicted gravitational Faraday effect rotation angles are less than $1^{''}$, implying that this effect, though present, is too small to be detected.

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arXiv2005

Probing non-Gaussian features in the HI distribution at the epoch of reionization

The HI distribution at the epoch of reionization (EOR) is largely determined by the sizes and distribution of the ionized regions. In the scenario where the ionized regions have comoving sizes of the order of a few Mpc, the large scale statistical properties of the HI distribution are dominated by the Poisson noise of the discrete ionized regions, and it is highly non-Gaussian. We investigate the possibility of probing reionization by studying these non-Gaussian features using future radio interferometric observations of redshifted 21 cm HI radiation. We develop a formalism relating correlations between the visibilities measured at three different baselines and frequencies to the bispectrum of HI fluctuations. For visibilities at the same frequency, this signal is found to be of the same order as the two visibility correlation which probes the HI power spectrum. For visibilities at different frequencies, we find that the correlations decay within a frequency difference of ~1 MHz. This implies that it is, in principle, straightforward to extract this HI signal from various contaminants which are believed to have a continuum spectra and are expected to be correlated even at large frequency separations.

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arXiv2005

Modeling non-linear effects in the redshift space two-point correlation function and its implications for the pairwise velocity dispersion

The anisotropies in the galaxy two-point correlation function measured from redshift surveys exhibits deviations from the predictions of the linear theory of redshift space distortion on scales as large 20 Mpc/h where we expect linear theory to hold in real space. Any attempt at analyzing the anisotropies in the redshift correlation function and determining the linear distortion parameter βrequires these deviations to be correctly modeled and taken into account. These deviations are usually attributed to galaxy random motions and these are incorporated in the analysis through a phenomenological model where the linear redshift correlation is convolved with the random pairwise velocity distribution function along the line of sight. We show that a substantial part of the deviations arise from non-linear effects in the mapping from real to redshift space caused by the coherent flows. Models which incorporate this effect provide a better fit to N-body results as compared to the phenomenological model which has only the effect of random motions. We find that the pairwise velocity dispersion predicted by all the models that we have considered are in excess of the values determined directly from the N-body simulations. This indicates a shortcoming in our understanding of the statistical properties of peculiar velocities and their relation to redshift distortion.

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arXiv2005

A 2D analysis of percolation and filamentarity in the SDSS DR1

We have used the Largest Cluster Statistics and the Average Filamentarity to quantify respectively the connectivity and the shapes of the patterns seen in the galaxy distribution in two volume limited subsamples extracted from the equatorial strips of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release One (DR1). The data was projected onto the equatorial plane and analyzed in two dimensions (2D). Comparing the results with Poisson point distributions at various levels of smoothing we find evidence for a network like topology with filaments being the dominant patterns in the galaxy distribution. With increasing smoothing, a transition from many individual filamentary structures to an interconnected network is found to occur at a filling factor 0.5-0.6. We have tested the possibility that the connectivity and the morphology of the patterns in the galaxy distribution may be luminosity dependent and find significant evidence for a luminosity-morphology relation, the brighter galaxies exhibiting lowers levels of connectivity and filamentarity compared to the fainter ones. Using a statistical technique, Shuffle, we show that the filamentarity in both the SDSS strips is statistically significant up to 80 Mpc/h but not beyond. Larger filaments, though identified, are not statistically significant. Our findings reaffirm earlier work establishing the filaments to be the largest known statistically significant coherent structures in the universe.

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arXiv2004

On using visibility correlations to probe the HI distribution from the dark ages to the present epoch I: Formalism and the expected signal

Redshifted 21 cm radiation originating from the cosmological distribution of neutral hydrogen (HI) appears as a background radiation in low frequency radio observations. The angular and frequency domain fluctuations in this radiation carry information about cosmological structure formation. We propose that correlations between visibilities measured at different baselines and frequencies in radio-interferometric observations be used to quantify the statistical properties of these fluctuations. This has an inherent advantage over other statistical estimators in that it deals directly with the visibilities which are the primary quantities measured in radio-interferometric observations. Also, the visibility correlation has a very simple relation with power spectrum. We present estimates of the expected signal for nearly the entire post-recombination era, from the dark ages to the present epoch. The epoch of reionization, where the HI has a patchy distribution, has a distinct signature where the signal is determined by the size of the discrete ionized regions. The signal at other epochs, where the HI follows the dark matter, is determined largely by the power spectrum of dark matter fluctuations. The signal is strongest for baselines where the antenna separations are within a few hundred times the wavelength of observation, and an optimal strategy would preferentially sample these baselines. In the frequency domain, for most baselines the visibilities at two different frequencies are uncorrelated beyond Δν~ 1 MHz, a signature which in principle would allow the HI signal to be easily distinguished from the continuum sources of contamination.

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arXiv2004

Can extra dimensional effects replace dark matter ?

In the braneworld scenario, the four dimensional effective Einstein equation has extra terms which arise from the embedding of the 3-brane in the bulk. We show that in this modified theory of gravity, it is possible to model observations of galaxy rotation curves and the X-ray profiles of clusters of galaxies, without the need for dark matter. In this scenario, a traceless tensor field which arises from the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor on the brane, provides the extra gravitational acceleration which is usually explained through dark matter. We also predict that gravitational lensing observations can possibly discriminate between the proposed higher dimensional effects and dark matter, the deflection angles predicted in the proposed scenario being around 75% to 80% of the usual predictions based on dark matter.

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