It is well known that observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are highly sensitive to the spatial curvature of the Universe, k. Here we find that what is in fact being tightly constrained by small angle fluctuations is spatial curvature near the surface of last scattering, and that if we allow k to be a function of position, rather than taking a constant value everywhere, then considerable spatial curvature is permissible within our own locale. This result is of interest for the giant void models that attempt to explain the supernovae observations without Dark Energy. We find voids models with a homogeneous big bang can be compatible with the observed small angle CMB, but only if they exist in a positively curved universe. To be compatible with local measurements of H_0, however, we find that a radially varying bang time is required.
Not much by themselves, aparently. We try to reconstruct the scale factor $a(t)$ of the universe from the SNe Ia data, i.e. the luminosity distance $d_{L}(z)$, using only the cosmological principle and the assumption that gravitation is governed by a metric theory. In our hence "model-independent," or "cosmographic" study, we fit functions to $d_{L}(z)$ rather than $a(t)$, since $d_{L}(z)$ is what is measured. We find that the acceleration history of the universe cannot be reliably determined in this approach due to the irregularity and parametrization-dependence of the results. However, addin…
Is the CMB telling us that dark matter is weaker than weakly interacting?
如果模量，或其他长寿的重态，在早期宇宙中部分衰变为轻的和弱相互作用的粒子（如轴子），这些衰变产物可以解释辐射中额外的能量密度，这是最近对CMB的测量所提出的。然而，这些模量衰减也将改变早期宇宙的膨胀历史，可能稀释暗物质的热遗迹丰度。如果是这样的话，那么暗物质粒子湮灭的横截面必须比标准热情景中所需的横截面更小（σ v <3 × 10 ^-26 cm ^3/s），如果它们要构成观测到的暗物质密度的话。这种可能性对直接和间接寻找暗物质具有重要意义。
Of the many proposed extensions to the $Λ$CDM paradigm, a model in which neutrinos self-interact until close to the epoch of matter-radiation equality has been shown to provide a good fit to current cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, while at the same time alleviating tensions with late-time measurements of the expansion rate and matter fluctuation amplitude. Interestingly, CMB fits to this model either pick out a specific large value of the neutrino interaction strength, or are consistent with the extremely weak neutrino interaction found in $Λ$CDM, resulting in a bimodal posterior distr…
In inflationary cosmology, cosmic reheating after inflation sets the initial conditions for the hot big bang. We investigate how CMB data can be used to study the effective potential and couplings of the inflaton during reheating and constrain the underlying microphysics. If there is a phase of preheating that is driven by a parametric resonance or other instability, then the thermal history and expansion history during the reheating era depend on a large number of microphysical parameters in a complicated way. In this case the connection between CMB observables and microphysical parameters ca…
(Abridged) We discuss the reliability of neutrino mass constraints, either active or sterile, from the combination of WMAP 9-year or Planck CMB data with BAO measurements from BOSS DR11, galaxy shear measurements from CFHTLenS, SDSS Ly-$α$ forest constraints and galaxy cluster mass function from Chandra observations. To avoid model dependence of the constraints we perform a full likelihood analysis for all the datasets employed. As for the cluster data analysis we rely on to the most recent calibration of massive neutrino effects in the halo mass function and we explore the impact of the uncer…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations have been used extensively to constrain key properties of neutrinos, such as their mass. However, these inferences are typically dependent on assumptions about the cosmological model, and in particular upon the distribution function of neutrinos in the early Universe. In this paper, we aim to assess the full extent to which CMB experiments are sensitive to the shape of the neutrino distribution. We demonstrate that Planck and CMB-S4-like experiments have no prospects for detecting particular features in the distribution function. Consequently, we …
We present methods to rigorously extract parameter combinations that are constrained by data from posterior distributions. The standard approach uses linear methods that apply to Gaussian distributions. We show the limitations of the linear methods for current surveys, and develop non-linear methods that can be used with non-Gaussian distributions, and are independent of the parameter basis. These are made possible by the use of machine-learning models, normalizing flows, to learn posterior distributions from their samples. These models allow us to obtain the local covariance of the posterior …
The success of precision cosmology depends not only on accurate observations, but also on the theoretical model - which must be understood to at least the same level of precision. Subtle relativistic effects can lead to biased measurements if they are neglected. One such effect gives a systematic shift in the distance-redshift relation away from its background value, due to the non- linear relativistic conservation of total photon flux. We also show directly how this shift follows from a fully relativistic analysis of the geodesic deviation equation. We derive the expectation value of the shif…
The presence of light thermally coupled dark matter affects early expansion history and production of light elements during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Specifically, dark matter that annihilates into Standard Model particles can modify the effective number of light species in the universe $N_\mathrm{eff}$, as well as the abundance of light elements created buring BBN. These quantities in turn affect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. We present the first joint analysis of small-scale temperature and polarization CMB anisotropy from Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and South P…
Since the measurements of COBE/FIRAS in the mid-90's we know that the energy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is extremely close to that of a perfect blackbody at an average temperature T0~2.726K. However, a number of early-universe processes are expected to create CMB spectral distortions - departures of the average CMB energy spectrum from a blackbody - at a level that is within reach of present-day technology. This provides strong motivation to study the physics of CMB spectral distortions and ask what these small signals might be able to tell us about the Universe we live …
We measure the expansion rate of the recent Universe and the calibration scale of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) from low-redshift data. BAO relies on the calibration scale, i.e., the sound horizon at the end of drag epoch $r_d$, which often imposes a prior of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement from the Planck satellite. In order to make really independent measurements of $H_0$, we leave $r_d$ completely free and use the BAO data sets combined with the 31 observational $H(z)$ data, GW170817 and Pantheon sample of Type Ia supernovae. In $Λ$CDM model, we get $H_0=68.63^{+1.…
