We generalize to non-flat geometries the formalism of Simon et al. (2005) to reconstruct the dark energy potential. This formalism makes use of quantities similar to the Horizon-flow parameters in inflation, can, in principle, be made non-parametric and is general enough to be applied outside the simple, single scalar field quintessence. Since presently available and forthcoming data do not allow a non-parametric and exact reconstruction of the potential, we consider a general parametric description in term of Chebyshev polynomials. We then consider present and future measurements of H(z), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations surveys and Supernovae type 1A surveys, and investigate their constraints on the dark energy potential. We find that, relaxing the flatness assumption increases the errors on the reconstructed dark energy evolution but does not open up significant degeneracies, provided that a modest prior on geometry is imposed. Direct measurements of H(z), such as those provided by BAO surveys, are crucially important to constrain the evolution of the dark energy potential and the dark energy equation of state, especially for non-trivial deviations from the standard LambdaCDM model.
In this paper we investigate how well Planck and Lyman-Alpha forest data will be able to constrain the sum of the neutrino masses, and thus, in conjunction with flavour oscillation experiments, be able to determine the absolute masses of the neutrinos. It seems possible that Planck, together with a Lyman-Alpha survey, will be able to put pressure on an inverted hierarchial model for the neutrino masses. However, even for optimistic assumptions of the precision of future Lyman-Alpha datasets, it will not be possible to confirm a minimal-mass normal hierarchy.
Observers have demonstrated that it is now feasible to measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature at high redshifts. We explore the possible constraints on cosmology which might ultimately be derived from such measurements. Besides providing a consistency check on standard and alternative cosmologies, possibilities include: constraints on the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of the universe at intermediate redshift $z ^<_\sim 10$; an independent probe of peculiar motions with respect to the Hubble flow; and constraining the epoch of reionization. We argue that the best possibility i…
We explore the gamma-ray bursts' (GRBs') contributions in constraining the dark energy equation of state (EOS) at high ($1.8 < z < 7$) and at middle redshifts ($0.5 < z < 1.8$) and estimate how many GRBs are needed to get substantial constraints at high redshifts. We estimate the constraints with mock GRBs and mock type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) for comparisons. When constraining the dark energy EOS in a certain redshift range, we allow the dark energy EOS parameter to vary only in that redshift bin and fix EOS parameters elsewhere to -1. We find that it is difficult to constrain the dark energy …
We study prospects of a method to constrain the inclination of a coalescing compact binary by detecting its gravitational waves associated with a three-dimensionally localized (direction and distance) short-hard gamma-ray burst. We take advantage of a synergy of these two observations, and our method can be applied even with a single interferometer. For a nearly face-on binary the inclination angle $I$ can be constrained in the range 1-1/SNR < cosI \le 1 (SNR: the signal to noise ratio of gravitational wave detection), provided that the error of the distance estimation is negligible. This meth…
We discuss the use of galaxies to trace the large-scale structure of the universe and thereby to make cosmological inferences. We put special emphasis on our lack of knowledge about the relative distribution of galaxies and the dynamically important dark matter. We end with a discussion of the increasing importance of infrared astronomy to large-scale structure studies.
Recently, the WMAP group has published their five-year data and considered the constraints on the time evolving equation of state of dark energy for the first time from the WMAP distance information. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of the usage of these distance information and find that these compressed CMB information can give similar constraints on dark energy parameters compared with the full CMB power spectrum if dark energy perturbations are included, however, once incorrectly neglecting the dark energy perturbations, the difference of the results are sizable.
We propose to use gravitational wakes as a direct observational probe of the collisional nature of the dark matter. We calculate analytically the structure of a wake generated by the motion of a galaxy in the core of an X-ray cluster for dark matter in the highly-collisional and collisionless limits. We show that the difference between these limits can be recovered from detailed X-ray or weak lensing observations. We also discuss the sizes of sub-halos in these limits. Preliminary X-ray data on the motion of NGC 1404 through the Fornax group disfavors fluid-like dark matter but does not exclud…
Our universe is observed to be accelerating due to the dominant dark energy with negative pressure. The dark energy equation of state (w) holds a key to understanding the ultimate fate of the universe. The cosmic voids behave like bubbles in the universe so that their shapes must be quite sensitive to the background cosmology. Assuming a flat universe and using the priors on the matter density parameter (Omega_m) and the dimensionless Hubble parameter (h), we demonstrate analytically that the ellipticity evolution of cosmic voids may be a sensitive probe of the dark energy equation of state. W…
Massive and extended dark halos can inhibit the formation of long tidal tails in galaxy collisions. We examine this effect using an extensive survey of simulations with different dark halo potentials to constrain halo properties of interacting galaxies. These constraints are compared to other observational limits and theoretical predictions of halo structure. The dark halos predicted by $Ω=1$ cosmological models like CDM are too massive and extended to produce the long tidal tails seen in nearby galaxy collisions. There is also a conflict with the halo potentials inferred from satellite kinema…
We discuss the damping of primordial dark matter fluctuations, taking into account explicitly the interactions of dark matter - whatever their intensity - both with itself and with other particle species. Relying on a general classification of dark matter particle candidates, our analysis provides, from structure formation, a new set of constraints on the dark matter particle mass and interaction rates (in particular with photons and neutrinos). This determines up to which cross sections the dark matter interactions may effectively be disregarded, and when they start playing an essential role,…
The phenomena customly described with the standard $Λ$CDM model are broadly reproduced by an extremely simple model in TeVeS, Bekenstein's (2004) modification of General Relativity motivated by galaxy phenomenology. Our model can account for the acceleration of the universe seen in SNeIa distances without a cosmological constant, and the accelerations seen rotation curves of nearby spiral galaxies and gravitational lensing of high-redshift elliptical galaxies without cold dark matter. The model is consistent with BBN and the neutrino mass. The TeVeS scalar field is shown to play the effective …
Statistical properties of gas absorption in high redshift quasars such as power spectrum and bispectrum allow one to determine the evolution of structure over the redshift range 2<z<4. Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will measure around 10,000 quasar spectra in this redshift range and will allow one to determine the growth factor with a few percent accuracy. This allows one to extend the studies of dark energy to higher redshift and determine the presence of dark energy if Omega_de>0.1-0.2 at z>2. In combination with low redshift studies one can place useful limits on the time evolution of the…
The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), scheduled to be launched in Fall 2007, is a next generation high energy gamma-ray observatory. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument on-board GLAST with a wide field of view ($>$ 2 sr), large effective area and 20 MeV to $>$300 GeV energy range, will provide excellent opportunity for future Dark Matter studies. We present an overview of the GLAST Dark Matter and New Physics Working Group efforts in the study of the LAT capability to detect a gamma-ray flux coming from WIMP pair annihilations in diffuse astrophysical sources. Particular atte…
We study the CMB constraints on two Dark Energy models described by scalar fields with different Lagrangians, namely a Klein-Gordon and a Born-Infeld field. The speed of sound of field fluctuations are different in these two theories, and therefore the predictions for CMB and structure formation are different. Employing the WMAP data on CMB, we make a likelihood analysis on a grid of theoretical models. We constrain the parameters of the models and compute the probability distribution functions for the equation of state. We show that the effect of the different sound speeds affects the low mul…
We consider the cosmological constraints on theories in which there exists a nontrivial coupling between the dark matter sector and the sector responsible for the acceleration of the universe, in light of the most recent supernovae, large scale structure and cosmic microwave background data. For a variety of models, we show that the strength of the coupling of dark matter to a quintessence field is constrained to be less than 7% of the coupling to gravity. We also show that long range interactions between fermionic dark matter particles mediated by a light scalar with a Yukawa coupling are con…
We investigate the possibility of using cosmological observations to probe and constrain an imperfect dark energy fluid. We consider a general parameterization of the dark energy component accounting for an equation of state, speed of sound and viscosity. We use present and future data from the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), large scale structures and supernovae type Ia. We find that both the speed of sound and viscosity parameters are difficult to nail down with the present cosmological data. Also, we argue that it will be hard to improve the constraints significantly with futur…
By comparing the results of numerical microlensing simulations to the observed long-term variability of quasars, strong upper limits on the cosmological density of compact objects in the mass range 0.01 to 0.0001 solar masses may be imposed. Using recently developed methods to better approximate the amplification of large sources, we investigate in what way the constraints are affected by assumptions concerning the size of the optical continuum-emitting region of quasars in the currently favored (Omega_M=0.3, Omega_Lambda=0.7) cosmology.
An impressive amount of different astrophysical data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing a today phase of accelerated expansion. The nature of the dark energy dominating the energy content of the universe is still unknown and a lot of different scenarios are viable candidates to explain cosmic acceleration. Most of the methods employed to test these cosmological models are essentially based on distance measurements to a particular class of objects. A different method, based on the lookback time to galaxy clusters and the age of the universe, is used here. In p…
A two-component fluid representing dark energy is studied. One of the components has a polytropic form, while the other has a barotropic form. Exact solutions are obtained and the cosmological parameters are constrained using supernova type Ia data. In general, an open universe is predicted. A big rip scenario is largely preferred, but the dispersion in the parameter space is very high. Hence, even if scenarios without future singularities can not be excluded with the allowed range of parameters, a phantom cosmology, with an open spatial section, is a general prediction of the model. For a wid…
We discuss the prospects of constraining the properties of a dark energy component, with particular reference to a time varying equation of state, using future cluster surveys selected by their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compute the number of clusters expected for a given set of cosmological parameters and propogate the errors expected from a variety of surveys. In the short term they will constrain dark energy in conjunction with future observations of type Ia supernovae, but may in time do so in their own right.
We apply phase-space density considerations to obtain lower bounds on the mass of sterile neutrino as dark matter candidate. The bounds are different for non-resonant production, resonant production in the presence of lepton asymmetry and production in decays of heavier particles. In the former case our bound is comparable to, but independent of the Lyman-alpha bound, and together with X-ray upper limit it disfavors non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino dark matter. An interesting feature of the latter case is that warm dark matter may be composed of heavy particles.
Sterile neutrinos may be one of the best Warm Dark Matter candidates we have today. Both lower and upper bounds on the mass of the sterile neutrino come from astronomical observations. We show that the proper inclusion of the neutrino momentum distribution reduces the allowed region to be 2.6 keV < m < 5 keV for the simplest models. A search for a spectral line with E=m/2 is thus more interesting than ever before.
We investigate the possibility of constraining dark energy with the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect recently detected by cross-correlating the WMAP maps with several Large Scale Structure surveys. In agreement with previous works, we found that, under the assumption of a flat universe, the ISW signal is a promising tool for constraining dark energy. Current available data put weak limits on a constant dark energy equation of state w. We also find no constraints on the dark energy sound speed c_e^2. For quintessence-like dark energy (c_e^2=1) we find w<-0.53, while tighter bounds are possible onl…
Measurements of the distances to SNe Ia have produced strong evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, implying the existence of a nearly uniform component of dark energy with negative pressure. We show that constraints to this mysterious component based upon large-scale structure nicely complement the SN Ia data, and that together they require Omega_X = (0.6,0.7) and w_X < -0.6 (95% cl), for the favored flat Universe. Other cosmological data support this conclusion. The simplest explanation, a cosmological constant, is consistent with this, while some of the other possibili…
We combine complementary datasets to constrain dark energy. Using standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the observed abundances of primordial nuclides to put constraints on $Ω_Q$ at temperatures near $T \sim 1MeV$, we find the strong constraint $Ω_Q({MeV}) < 0.045$ at $2σ$ c.l.. Under the assumption of flatness, using results from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy measurements, high redshift supernovae (SN-Ia) observations and data from local cluster abundances we put a new constraint on the equation of state parameter $w_Q < -0.85$ at 68% c.l..
We show that collisional damping of adiabatic primordial fluctuations yields constraints on the possible range of mass and interaction rates of Dark Matter particles. Our analysis relies on a general classification of Dark Matter candidates, that we establish independently of any specific particle theory or model. From a relation between the collisional damping scale and the Dark Matter interaction rate, we find that Dark Matter candidates must have cross-sections at decoupling smaller than $ 10^{-33} \frac{m_{dm}}{1 MeV} cm^2$ with photons and $10^{-37} \frac{m_{dm}}{1 MeV} cm^2$ with neutrin…
Models which associate the origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with decays of relic superheavy particles predict the anisotropy of UHECR flux toward the Galactic center. We use the existing SUGAR data, which covered the Galactic center best so far, to look for such a signal and limit the fraction of UHECR produced by this mechanism. The absence of anisotropy toward the Galactic center in the SUGAR data implies at 95% confidence level that the fraction of SHDM-related cosmic rays should be less than 20% at $E>1\times10^{19}$ eV and less than 50% at $E>4\times10^{19}$ eV.
Distance measurements to Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) indicate that the Universe is accelerating and that two-thirds of the critical energy density exists in a dark-energy component with negative pressure. Distance measurements to SNe Ia can be used to distinguish between different possibilities for the dark energy, and if it is an evolving scalar field, to reconstruct the scalar-field potential. We derive the reconstruction equations and address the feasibility of this approach by Monte-Carlo simulation.
We determine the range of parameter space of an interacting quintessence (IQ) model that best fits the luminosity distance of type Ia supernovae data and the recent WMAP measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies. Models in which quintessence decays into dark matter provide a clean explanation for the coincidence problem. We focus on cosmological models of zero spatial curvature. We show that if the dark energy (DE) decays into cold dark matter (CDM) at a rate that brings the ratio of matter to dark energy constant at late times, the supernovae data are not sufficient…
A destabilization in the transfer energy flux from the vacuum to radiation, for two vacuum decay laws relevant to the dark energy problem, is analyzed using the Landau-Lifshitz fluctuation hydrodynamic theory. Assuming thermal (or near thermal) equilibrium between the vacuum and radiation, at the earliest epoch of the Universe expansion, we show that the law due to renormalization-group running of the cosmological constant term, with parameters chosen not to spoil the primordial nucleosynthesis scenario, does soon drive the flux to fluctuate beyond its statistical average value thereby distort…
A new set of supersymmetric benchmark scenarios has recently been proposed in the context of the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal soft supersymmetry-breaking masses, taking into account the constraints from LEP, $b \to s γ$ and $g_μ- 2$. These points have previously been used to discuss the physics reaches of different accelerators. In this paper, we discuss the prospects for discovering supersymmetric dark matter in these scenarios. We consider direct detection through spin-independent and spin-dependent nuclear scattering, as well as indirect detection through relic annihilations to n…
