Studying the first galaxies with ALMA

We discuss observations of the first galaxies, within cosmic reionization, at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths. We present a summary of current observations of the host galaxies of the most distant QSOs (z∼6). These observations reveal the gas, dust, and star formation in the host galaxies on kpc-scales. These data imply an enriched ISM in the QSO host galaxies within 1 Gyr of the big bang, and are consistent with models of coeval supermassive black hole and spheroidal galaxy formation in major mergers at high redshift. Current instruments are limited to studying truly pathologic objects at these redshifts, meaning hyper-luminous infrared galaxies (L _FIR ∼10¹³ L _⊙). ALMA will provide the one to two orders of magnitude improvement in millimeter astronomy required to study normal star forming galaxies (i.e. Ly-α emitters) at z∼6. ALMA will reveal, at sub-kpc spatial resolution, the thermal gas and dust—the fundamental fuel for star formation—in galaxies into cosmic reionization.     

Spectroscopic surveys of cosmic evolution

ALMA will be the premier instrument for the study of galaxy evolution in the early universe—enabling studies of the gas content, dynamics and dynamical masses, and star formation with unparalleled resolution and sensitivity. Galaxy evolution and AGN growth in the early universe are believed to be strongly driven by merging and dynamical interactions. Thus, a full exploration of the environmental influence is absolutely essential. The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is specifically designed to probe the correlated coevolution of galaxies, star formation, active galactic nuclei (AGN) and dark matter (DM) large-scale structure (LSS) over the redshift range z>0.5 to 3. In this contribution I review the characteristics of the COSMOS survey and very exciting initial results on mapping large scale structure in galaxies and dark matter. The survey includes multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopy from X-ray to radio wavelengths covering a 2 square degree equatorial field. Given the very high sensitivity and resolution of these datasets, COSMOS will provide unprecedented samples of objects at z>3 for followup studies wit ALMA.     

Arc(let)s in clusters of galaxies

Summary The discovery of giant gravitational arcs and arclets in rich clusters of galaxies is one of the major events of the last decade in observational cosmology. High resolution imaging in subarcsecond seeing conditions of giant arcs gives information on the cluster potential and the matter distribution within the inner regions of clusters. Ultra-deep photometry of the clusters reveals numerous arclets with an orthoradial orientation from which one can infer the projected mass profile at large distance and the redshift distribution of the faintest distant background galaxies which are unobservable with standard spectroscopic techniques. Thanks to the strong magnification factor, the spectroscopy of giant arcs is possible and we can therefore observe with great detail a few very distant galaxies. Individual redshifts of arcs give the total mass of the lens, whereas the spectroscopy of a large sample of arcs also gives information on the redshift distribution of distant galaxies. It is obvious that cluster lenses play an important role as large natural telescopes for probing the distant universe. Finally, observations of multiple-arc configurations due to different sources may even constrain the cosmological parameters. We are now confident that gravitational lensing will be an essential tool within the next decade for observing very high redshift galaxies and the weak shear generated by the largest structures of the universe.In this review we summarize the present status of gravitational arc(let)s surveys with particular emphasis on the most important issues which have arisen during the last years and on the prospects for the future, regarding the rebirth of the Hubble Space Telescope, the coming of a new generation of Very Large Telescopes, and the development of large CCDs in the optical and the infrared.     

Nonconformal fluctuations in radiation dominated anisotropic cosmology

Using simple path integral, Feynman propagator method and the relation between conformal timeη and scale factor Τ, we investigate the non-conformal quantum fluctuations (of expansion and shear) and axisymmetric singularity case in radiation dominated anisotropic cosmology. We show that near the classical singularity the quantum fluctuations tend to diverge. Since the December 1998 issue of this journal was delayed, we were able to include this paper in this issue.     

The redshift revisited

We analyse the history of modern cosmology based on the redshift phenomenon and on the cosmic background radiation (CBR). We show the models of different authors for the interpretation of the redshift and how the tired light models predicted the correct value of 2.7 K temperature previous to Gamow and collaborators.     

APEX-SZ first light and instrument status

The apex-sz instrument is designed for the discovery and study of galaxy clusters at mm-wavelengths using the Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect. The receiver consists of 320 superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers cooled to 250 mK with the combination of a three stage He sorption fridge and mechanical pulse tube cooler. The detectors are instrumented with a frequency domain multiplexing readout system. The receiver is mounted on the 12 m apex telescope located at 5100 m on the Atacama plateau in Chile. For the first light engineering deployment of December 2005, the receiver was configured with a 55 element wedge of the bolometers and operating in the 150 GHz atmospheric window. During the engineering run we achieved significant milestones in our instrumentation development efforts, including celestial observations with a monolithically fabricated TES bolometer array cooled with a mechanical cooler and successful implementation of a SQUID-based MHz AC-biased readout. These technology demonstrations point the way toward future large TES bolometer array instruments. Here we describe the results of this deployment and future plans for the apex-sz instrument.     

New constraints on neutrino masses from cosmology

By combining data from cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments (including the recent WMAP third year results), large scale structure (LSS) and Lyman-α forest observations, we derive upper limits on the sum of neutrino masses of Σm_ν < 0.17 eV at 95% c.l. We then constrain the hypothesis of a fourth, sterile, massive neutrino. For the third massless +1 massive neutrino case we bound the mass of the sterile neutrino to m_s < 0.26 eV at 95% c.l. These results exclude at high significance the sterile neutrino hypothesis as an explanation of the LSND anomaly. We then generalize the analysis to account for active neutrino masses which tightens the limit to m_s < 0.23 eV and the possibility that the sterile abundance is not thermal. In the latter case, the constraints in the (mass, density) plane are non-trivial. For a mass of >1 eV or <0.05 eV the cosmological energy density in sterile neutrinos is always constrained to be ω_ν < 0.003 at 95% c.l. However, for a sterile neutrino mass of 0.25 eV, ω_ν can be as large as 0.01.     

Using weak lensing to find halo masses

Since the strength of weak gravitational lensing is proportional to the mass along the line of sight, it might be possible to use lensing data to find the masses of individual dark matter clusters. Unfortunately, the effect on the lensing field of other matter along the line of sight is substantial. We investigate to what extent we can correct for these projection effects if we have additional information about the most massive halos along the line of sight from deep optical data. We do this by calculating the contributions of these line-of-sight halos to the lensing field and then subtracting off this effect. Three different approaches are used to calculate these contributions: the first approach uses the exact mass distribution of the line-of-sight halos, the second assumes the masses are known and uses the NFW model and the third approach uses richness as an estimator for mass and then also assumes the NFW model. We find that, whichever approach we take, unless we know the masses and positions of line-of-sight halos down to a very low mass, we can only correct for a small part of the line-of-sight projection. We conclude that if we try to use lensing data to find individual cluster masses, there is an error of about 15–20% due to line-of-sight projection that cannot be corrected for.