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Zheng Cai

Publications and source records attributed to Zheng Cai.

202 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

Analytic Spectra of CMB Anisotropies and Polarization Generated by Scalar Perturbations in Synchronous Gauge

We present a detailed analytical calculation of CMB temperature anisotropies α_k and polarization β_k generated by scalar metric perturbations in synchronous gauge, parallel to our previous work with RGW as a generating source. This is realized primarily by an analytic time-integration of Boltzmann's equation, yielding the closed forms of α_k and β_k. Approximations, such as the tight-coupling approximation for photons a prior to the recombination and the long wavelength limit for scalar perturbations are used. The residual gauge modes in scalar perturbations are analyzed and a proper joining condition of scalar perturbations at the radiation-matter equality is chosen, ensuring the continuity of energy perturbation. The resulting analytic expressions of the multipole moments of polarization a^E_l, and of temperature anisotropies a^T_l are explicit functions of the scalar perturbations, recombination time, recombination width, photon free streaming damping factor, baryon fraction, initial amplitude, primordial scalar spectral index, and the running index. These results show that a longer recombination width yields higher amplitudes of polarization on large scales and more damping on small scales, and that a late recombination time shifts the peaks of C^{XX'}_l to larger angular scales. The analytic spectra C^{XX'}_l agree with the numerical ones and with those observed by WMAP on large scales (l \lesssim 500), but deviate considerably from the numerical results on smaller scales, showing the limitations of our approximate analytic calculations. Several possible improvements are pointed out for further studies.

astro-ph.CO↗

$Z'$ Phenomenology: A Model-independent Analysis and Fit in Combination of Chiral Effective Theory and Anomaly Cancellation

To investigate $Z'$ phenomenology model-independent, we combine chiral effective theory with anomaly cancellation conditions without any other model input. We focus on $Z'$ mixings with $γ-Z$ in both mass and kinetic parts and calculate contributions to oblique $S,T,U$. The three sets of anomaly-free fermion $U(1)'$ charges parameterize the $Z'$ interactions with fermions. The cancellation of the $[U(1)']^3$ anomaly and mixing gravitational-gauge anomaly determines the number of right-handed neutrinos. We also find a novel relation between the charge assignments and Stueckelberg coupling in terms of the renormalized electromagnetic current. A global fit to the electroweak precise observables shows that typical values for the mixing parameters are of order $10^{-3}$. In spite of this strict limit, we obtain a negative $S$ parameter contribution.

hep-ph↗

Probing Population III Stars in Galaxy IOK-1 at z = 6.96 through He II Emission

The He II λ1640 emission line has been suggested as a direct probe of Population III (Pop III) stars at high-redshift, since it can arise from highly energetic ionizing photons associated with hot, metal free stars. We use the HST WFC3/F130N IR narrowband filter to probe He II λ1640 emission in galaxy IOK-1 at z=6.96. The sensitivity of this measurement is >5x deeper than for previous measurements. From this deep narrowband imaging, combined with broadband observations in the F125W and F160W filters, we find the He II flux to be 1.2+/- 1.0x 10^-18 ergs/s/cm^2, corresponding to a 1σupper limit on the Pop III star formation rate (SFR) of ~ 0.5 M_sun/yr for the case of a Salpeter IMF with 50-500M_sun and mass loss. Given that the broadband measurements can be fit with a UV continuum spectral flux density of ~ 4.85x 10^-10x λ^-2.46 ergs/s/cm^2/A, which corresponds to an overall SFR of ~16+/-2.6 M_sun/yr, massive Pop III stars represent < 6% of the total star formation. This measurement places the strongest limit yet on metal-free star formation at high redshift, although the exact conversion from He II luminosity to Pop III SFR is highly uncertain due to the unknown IMF, stellar evolution, and photoionization effects. Although we have not detected He II λ1640 at more than the 1.2σlevel, our work suggests that a > 3σlevel detection is possible with JWST.

astro-ph.CO↗

Probing Very Bright End of Galaxy Luminosity Function at z >~ 7 Using Hubble Space Telescope Pure Parallel Observations

We report the first results from the Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey, which utilizes the pure parallel orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope to do deep imaging along a large number of random sightlines. To date, our analysis includes 26 widely separated fields observed by the Wide Field Camera 3, which amounts to 122.8 sq.arcmin in total area. We have found three bright Y098-dropouts, which are candidate galaxies at z >~ 7.4. One of these objects shows an indication of peculiar variability and its nature is uncertain. The other two objects are among the brightest candidate galaxies at these redshifts known to date L>2L*. Such very luminous objects could be the progenitors of the high-mass Lyman break galaxis (LBGs) observed at lower redshifts (up to z~5). While our sample is still limited in size, it is much less subject to the uncertainty caused by "cosmic variance" than other samples because it is derived using fields along many random sightlines. We find that the existence of the brightest candidate at z~7.4 is not well explained by the current luminosity function (LF) estimates at z~8. However, its inferred surface density could be explained by the prediction from the LFs at z~7 if it belongs to the high-redshift tail of the galaxy population at z~7.

astro-ph.CO↗