Measuring statistical isotropy of CMB anisotropy

The statistical expectation values of the temperature fluctuations and polarization of cosmic microwave background (CMB) are assumed to be preserved under rotations of the sky. We investigate the statistical isotropy (SI) of the CMB maps recently measured by the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) using the bipolar spherical harmonic formalism proposed in Hajian and Souradeep [Hajian, A., Souradeep, T. (2003) Astrophys. J. Lett. 597, L5] for CMB temperature anisotropy and extended to CMB polarization in Basak, Hajian and Souradeep [Basak, S., Hajian, A., Souradeep, T. (2006) Phys. Rev. D74, 02130(R)]. The Bipolar Power Spectrum (BiPS) had been measured for the full sky CMB anisotropy maps of the first year WMAP data and now for the recently released three years of WMAP data. We also introduce and measure directional sensitive reduced Bipolar coefficients on the three year WMAP ILC map. Consistent with our published results from first year WMAP data we have no evidence for violation of statistical isotropy on large angular scales. Preliminary analysis of the recently released first WMAP polarization maps, however, indicate significant violation of SI even when the foreground contaminated regions are masked out. Further work is required to confirm a possible cosmic origin and rule out the (more likely) origin in observational artifact such as foreground residuals at high galactic latitude.     

Intracluster medium through three years of WMAP

Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) has provided us with the highest resolution all-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). As a result of thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect, clusters of galaxies are imprinted as tiny, poorly resolved dips on top of primary CMB anisotropies in these maps. Here, I describe different efforts to extract the physics of intracluster medium (ICM) from the sea of primary CMB, through combining WMAP with low-redshift galaxy or X-ray cluster surveys. This finally culminates at a mean (universal) ICM pressure profile, which is for the first time directly constrained from WMAP 3 year maps, and leads to interesting constraints on the ICM baryonic budget.     

Clover – A B-mode polarization experiment

Clover is a new instrument being built to detect the B-mode polarization of the CMB. It consists of three telescopes operating at 97, 150, and 220 GHz and will be sited in Chile at the Llano de Chajnantor. Each telescope assembly is scaled to give a constant beam size of 8″ and feeds an array of between 320 and 512 finline-coupled TES bolometers. Here we describe the design, current status and scientific prospects of the instrument.     

ARCADE: Absolute radiometer for cosmology, astrophysics, and diffuse emission

The absolute radiometer for cosmology, astrophysics, and diffuse emission (ARCADE) is a balloon-borne instrument designed to measure the temperature of the cosmic microwave background at centimeter wavelengths. ARCADE searches for deviations from a blackbody spectrum resulting from energy releases in the early universe. Long-wavelength distortions in the CMB spectrum are expected in all viable cosmological models. Detecting these distortions or showing that they do not exist is an important step for understanding the early universe. We describe the ARCADE instrument design, current status, and future plans.     

Angular power spectrum of CMB anisotropy from WMAP

The remarkable improvement in the estimates of different cosmological parameters in recent years has been largely spearheaded by accurate measurements of the angular power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. This has required removal of foreground contamination as well as detector noise bias with reliability and precision. Recently, a novel model-independent method for the estimation of CMB angular power spectrum from multi-frequency observations has been proposed and implemented on the first year WMAP (WMAP-1) data by Saha et al. [Saha, R., Jain, P., Souradeep, T., 2006. ApJL, 645, L89]. We review the results from WMAP-1 and also present the new angular power spectrum based on three years of the WMAP data (WMAP-3). Previous estimates have depended on foreground templates built using extraneous observational input to remove foreground contamination. This is the first demonstration that the CMB angular spectrum can be reliably estimated with precision from a self contained analysis of the WMAP data. The primary product of WMAP are the observations of CMB in 10 independent difference assemblies (DA) distributed over five frequency bands that have uncorrelated noise. Our method utilizes maximum information available within WMAP data by linearly combining DA maps from different frequencies to remove foregrounds and estimating the power spectrum from the 24 cross-power spectra of clean maps that have independent noise. An important merit of the method is that the expected residual power from unresolved point sources is significantly tempered to a constant offset at large multipoles (in contrast to the l² contribution expected from a Poisson distribution) leading to a small correction at large multipoles. Hence, the power spectrum estimates are less susceptible to uncertainties in the model of point sources.     

Artificial contradiction between cosmology and particle physics: the Λ problem

It is shown that the usual choice of units obtained by taking G=c=ℏ=1, giving the Planck’s units of mass, length and time, introduces an artificial contradiction between cosmology and particle physics: the lambda problem that we associate with ℏ. We note that the choice of ℏ=1 does not correspond to the scale of quantum physics. For this scale we prove that the correct value is ℏ≈1/10¹²², while the choice of ℏ=1 corresponds to the cosmological scale. This is due to the scale factor of 10⁶¹ that converts the Planck scale to the cosmological scale. By choosing the ratio G/c ³=constant=1, which includes the choice G=c=1, and the momentum conservation mc=constant, we preserve the derivation of the Einstein field equations from the action principle. Then the product Gm/c ²=r _g , the gravitational radius of m, is constant. For a quantum black hole we prove that ℏ≈r _g ²≈(mc)². We also prove that the product Λℏ is a general constant of order one, for any scale. The cosmological scale implies Λ≈ℏ≈1, while the Planck scale gives Λ≈1/ℏ≈10¹²². This explains the Λ problem. We get two scales: the cosmological quantum black hole (QBH), size ∼10²⁸ cm, and the quantum black hole (qbh) that includes the fundamental particles scale, size ∼10⁻¹³ cm, as well as the Planck’ scale, size ∼10⁻³³ cm.      

EDGE: Explorer of diffuse emission and gamma-ray burst explosions

How structures of various scales formed and evolved from the early Universe up to present time is a fundamental question of astrophysical cosmology. EDGE (Piro et al., 2007) will trace the cosmic history of the baryons from the early generations of massive stars by Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) explosions, through the period of galaxy cluster formation, down to the very low redshift Universe, when between a third and one half of the baryons are expected to reside in cosmic filaments undergoing gravitational collapse by dark matter (the so-called warm hot intragalactic medium). In addition EDGE, with its unprecedented capabilities, will provide key results in many important fields. These scientific goals are feasible with a medium class mission using existing technology combined with innovative instrumental and observational capabilities by: (a) observing with fast reaction Gamma-Ray Bursts with a high spectral resolution. This enables the study of their star-forming and host galaxy environments and the use of GRBs as back lights of large scale cosmological structures; (b) observing and surveying extended sources (galaxy clusters, WHIM) with high sensitivity using two wide field of view X-ray telescopes (one with a high angular resolution and the other with a high spectral resolution). The mission concept includes four main instruments: a Wide-field Spectrometer (0.1–2.2 eV) with excellent energy resolution (3 eV at 0.6 keV), a Wide-Field Imager (0.3–6 keV) with high angular resolution (HPD = 15”) constant over the full 1.4 degree field of view, and a Wide Field Monitor (8–200 keV) with a FOV of ? of the sky, which will trigger the fast repointing to the GRB. Extension of its energy response up to 1 MeV will be achieved with a GRB detector with no imaging capability. This mission is proposed to ESA as part of the Cosmic Vision call. We will outline the science drivers and describe in more detail the payload of this mission.     

The fate of dwarf galaxies in clusters and the origin of intracluster stars

The main goal of this paper is to compare the relative importance of destruction by tides vs. destruction by mergers, in order to assess if tidal destruction of galaxies in clusters is a viable scenario for explaining the origin of intracluster stars. We have designed a simple algorithm for simulating the evolution of isolated clusters. The distribution of galaxies in the cluster is evolved using a direct gravitational N-body algorithm combined with a subgrid treatment of physical processes such as mergers, tidal disruption, and galaxy harassment. Using this algorithm, we have performed a total of 148 simulations. Our main results are:

Constraints on superdense preon stars andtheir formation scenarios

We address in this work the general features of a possible compact stars composed by elementary fermions beyond the quark level. The locus of these hypothetic objects in the mass-radius plane is constructed for the maximum mass (minimum radius) of the sequence of models in terms of a compositeness scale only, and in fact this approach applies for any composite model postulating fermions at or beyond the preon level. We point out a constraint on the preon mass arising from the applicability of the General Relativity structure equations, leading to the questioning of the hypothesis of light preons if the preon scale is high, provided classical compact objects are enforced. Some remarks on the existence of superdense stars of astrophysical and primordial origin are made and discussed.      

Isotropization of N-component orthogonal fluid within the framework of Einstein field equations

In this study, we build up a general formalism for tilted N-component fluid form to investigate the isotropization features of the Bianchi-type models excluding Bianchi-IX. We applied this formalism to Bianchi type I and V models analytically and numerically using the metric approach of Einstein field equations. It is found that only the stiff fluid for Bianchi I model does not isotropize, in the absence of cosmological constant. Other Bianchi type I and V models become isotropic regardless of the type of the fluid or how much component it has. The result does not change with the existence of a cosmological constant.