Non-Gaussian distribution and clustering of hot and cold pixels in the five-year WMAP sky

We present measurements of the clustering of hot and cold patches in the microwave background sky as measured from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-year data. These measurements are compared with theoretical predictions which assume that the cosmological signal obeys Gaussian statistics. We find significant differences from the simplest Gaussian-based prediction. However, the measurements are sensitive to the fact that the noise is spatially inhomogeneous (e.g. because different parts of the sky were observed for different lengths of time). We show how to account for this spatial inhomogeneity when making predictions. Differences from the Gaussian-based expectation remain even after this more careful accounting of the noise. In particular, we note that hot and cold pixels cluster differently within the same temperature thresholds at few-degree scales. While these findings may indicate primordial non-Gaussianity, we discuss other plausible explanations for these discrepancies. In addition, we find some deviations from Gaussianity at sub-degree scales, especially in the W band, whose origin may be associated with extragalactic dust emission.     

Wavelet domain Bayesian denoising of string signal in the cosmic microwave background

An algorithm is proposed for denoising the signal induced by cosmic strings in the cosmic microwave background. A Bayesian approach is taken, based on modelling the string signal in the wavelet domain with generalized Gaussian distributions. Good performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by simulated experiments at arcminute resolution under noise conditions including primary and secondary cosmic microwave background anisotropies, as well as instrumental noise.     

黔西南部分矿集区环境背景

黔西南是金、锑、汞、砷、煤矿集中分布区,汞、砷在土壤中背景值高于一般土壤的20倍,汞高出14～5000倍,属于高砷、汞、氟环境背景区,由于矿业活动不合理,加剧了区内土壤、水体污染,存在砷、汞、氟等环境污染隐患。     

Extragalactic X‐ray surveys: AGN physics and evolution

We review the most important findings on AGN physics and cosmological evolution as obtained by extragalactic X‐ray surveys and associated multiwavelength observations. We briefly discuss the perspectives for future enterprises and in particular the scientific case for an extremely deep (2–3 Ms) XMM survey. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Testing isotropy of cosmic microwave background radiation

We introduce new symmetry-based methods to test for isotropy in cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Each angular multipole is factored into unique products of power eigenvectors, related multipoles and singular values that provide two new rotationally invariant measures mode by mode. The power entropy and directional entropy are new tests of randomness that are independent of the usual CMB power. Simulated Galactic plane contamination is readily identified. The ILC– WMAP data maps show seven axes well aligned with one another and the direction Virgo. Parameter free statistics find 12 independent cases of extraordinary axial alignment, low power entropy, or both having 5 per cent probability or lower in an isotropic distribution. Isotropy of the ILC maps is ruled out to confidence levels of better than 99.9 per cent, whether or not coincidences with other puzzles coming from the Virgo axis are included. Our work shows that anisotropy is not confined to the low l region, but extends over a much larger l range.     

CMB temperature polarization correlation and primordial gravitational waves

We examine the use of the TE cross-correlation power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as a complementary test to detect primordial gravitational waves (PGWs). The first method used is based on the determination of the lowest multipole, ℓ₀, where the TE power spectrum,   C ^TE_ℓ  , first changes sign. The second method uses Wiener filtering on the CMB TE data to remove the density perturbations contribution to the TE power spectrum. In principle this leaves only the contribution of PGWs. We examine two toy experiments (one ideal and another more realistic) to see their ability to constrain PGWs using the TE power spectrum alone. We found that an ideal experiment, one limited only by cosmic variance, can detect PGWs with a ratio of tensor to scalar metric perturbation power spectra   r = 0.3  at 99.9 per cent confidence level using only the TE correlation. This value is comparable with current constraints obtained by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe based on the 2σ upper limits to the B-mode amplitude. We demonstrate that to measure PGWs by their contribution to the TE cross-correlation power spectrum in a realistic ground-based experiment when real instrumental noise is taken into account, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r , should be approximately three times larger.     

Exact reconstruction with directional wavelets on the sphere

A new formalism is derived for the analysis and exact reconstruction of band-limited signals on the sphere with directional wavelets. It represents an evolution of a previously developed wavelet formalism developed by Antoine & Vandergheynst and Wiaux et al. The translations of the wavelets at any point on the sphere and their proper rotations are still defined through the continuous three-dimensional rotations. The dilations of the wavelets are directly defined in harmonic space through a new kernel dilation, which is a modification of an existing harmonic dilation. A family of factorized steerable functions with compact harmonic support which are suitable for this kernel dilation are first identified. A scale-discretized wavelet formalism is then derived, relying on this dilation. The discrete nature of the analysis scales allows the exact reconstruction of band-limited signals. A corresponding exact multi-resolution algorithm is finally described and an implementation is tested. The formalism is of interest notably for the denoising or the deconvolution of signals on the sphere with a sparse expansion in wavelets. In astrophysics, it finds a particular application for the identification of localized directional features in the cosmic microwave background data, such as the imprint of topological defects, in particular, cosmic strings, and for their reconstruction after separation from the other signal components.     

Covariance of dark energy parameters and sound speed constraints from large H i surveys

An interesting probe of the nature of dark energy is the measure of its sound speed, c _s. We review the significance for constraining sound speed models of dark energy using large neutral hydrogen (H  i ) surveys with the square kilometre array (SKA). Our analysis considers the effect on the sound speed measurement that arises from the covariance of c _s with the dark energy density, Ω_de, and a time-varying equation of state,   w ( a ) = w ₀+ (1 − a ) w _a   . We find that the approximate degeneracy between dark energy parameters that arises in power spectrum observations is lifted through redshift tomography of the H  i -galaxy angular power spectrum, resulting in sound speed constraints that are not severely degraded. The cross-correlation of the galaxy and the integrated Sachs Wolfe (ISW) effect spectra contributes approximately 10 per cent of the information that is needed to distinguish variations in the dark energy parameters, and most of the discriminating signal comes from the galaxy auto-correlation spectrum. We also find that the sound speed constraints are weakly sensitive to the H  i bias model. These constraints do not improve substantially for a significantly deeper H  i survey since most of the clustering sensitivity to sound speed variations arises from   z ≲ 1.5  . A detection of models with sound speeds close to zero,   c _s≲ 0.01,  is possible for dark energy models with   w ≳−0.9  .     

The integrated Sachs–Wolfe effect in cosmologies with coupled dark matter and dark energy

The subject of this paper is the derivation of the integrated Sachs–Wolfe (iSW) effect in cosmologies with coupled dark matter and dark energy fluids. These couplings influence the iSW effect in three ways: the Hubble function assumes a different scaling, the structure growth rate shows a different time evolution and, in addition, the Poisson equation, which relates the density perturbations to fluctuations in the gravitational potential, is changed, due to the violation of the scaling  ρ∝ a ⁻³  of the matter density ρ with scalefactor a . Exemplarily, I derive the iSW spectra for a model in which dark matter decays into dark energy, investigate the influence of the dark matter decay rate and the dark energy equation of state on the iSW signal, and discuss the analogies for gravitational lensing. Quite generally, iSW measurements should reach similar accuracy in determining the dark energy equation of state parameter and the coupling constant.