Following Kamionkowski (2008), a quadratic estimator of the rotation of the plane of polarization of the CMB is constructed. This statistic can estimate a spatially varying rotation angle. We use this estimator to quantify the prospects of detecting such a rotation field with forthcoming experiments. For PLANCK and CMBPol we find that the estimator containing the product of the E and B components of the polarization field is the most sensitive. The variance of this EB estimator, N(L) is roughly independent of the multipole L, and is only weakly dependent on the instrumental beam. For FWHM of the beam size ~ 5'-50', and instrument noise $Δ_p ~ 5-50 uK-arcmin, the scaling of variance N(L) can be fitted by a power law N(L)=3.3 x 10^{-7} Δ^2_p (FWHM)^{1.3} sq-deg. For small instrumental noise Δ_p \leq 5 uK-arcmin, the lensing B-modes become important, saturating the variance to ~10^{-6} sq-deg even for an ideal experiment. Upcoming experiments like PLANCK will be able to detect a power spectrum of the rotation angle, C^{αα}(L), as small as 0.01 sq-deg, while futuristic experiment like CMBPol will be able to detect rotation angle power spectrum as small as 2.5 x 10^{-5} sq-deg. We discuss the implications of such constraints, both for the various physical effects that can rotate the polarization as photons travel from the last scattering surface as well as for constraints on instrumental systematics that can also lead to a spurious rotation signal. Rotation of the CMB polarization generates B-modes which will act as contamination for the primordial B-modes detection. We discuss an application of our estimator to de-rotate the CMB to increase the sensitivity for the primordial B-modes.
We optimise the parameters of the Population Monte Carlo algorithm using numerical simulations. The optimisation is based on an efficiency statistic related to the number of samples evaluated prior to convergence, and is applied to a D-dimensional Gaussian distribution to derive optimal scaling laws for the algorithm parameters. More complex distributions such as the banana and bimodal distributions are also studied. We apply these results to a cosmological parameter estimation problem that uses CMB anisotropy data from the WMAP nine-year release to constrain a six parameter adiabatic model an…
We examine how the properties of dark matter, parameterised by an equation of state parameter $w$ and two perturbative Generalised Dark Matter (GDM) parameters $c^2_s$ (the sound speed) and $c^2_\text{vis}$ (the viscosity), are constrained by existing cosmological data, particularly the Planck 2015 data release. We find that the GDM parameters are consistent with zero, and are strongly constrained, showing no evidence for extending the dark matter model beyond the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. The dark matter equation of state is constrained to be within $-0.000896<w<0.00238$ at the $99.7\%…
We investigate constraints on the time variation of the fine structure constant between the recombination epoch and the present epoch, Δα/α\equiv (α_{rec} - α_{now})/α_{now}, from cosmic microwave background (CMB) taking into account simultaneous variation of other physical constants, namely the electron mass m_{e} and the proton mass m_{p}. In other words, we consider the variation of Yukawa coupling and the QCD scale Λ_{QCD} in addition to the electromagnetic coupling. We clarify which parameters can be determined from CMB temperature anisotropy in terms of singular value decomposition. Assu…
We investigate the possibilities of constraining the light gravitino mass m_{3/2} from future cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys. A model with light gravitino with the mass m_{3/2}<O(10) eV is of great interest since it is free from the cosmological gravitino problem and, in addition, can be compatible with many baryogenesis/leptogenesis scenarios such as the thermal leptogenesis. We show that the lensing of CMB anisotropies can be a good probe for m_{3/2} and obtain an expected constraint on m_{3/2} from precise measurements of lensing potential in the future CMB surveys, such as the P…
It is commonly assumed that the stochastic background of gravitational waves on cosmological scales follows an almost scale-independent power spectrum, as generically predicted by the inflationary paradigm. However, it is not inconceivable that the spectrum could have strongly scale-dependent features, generated, e.g., via transient dynamics of spectator axion-gauge fields during inflation. Using the temperature and polarisation maps from the \textit{Planck} and BICEP/Keck datasets, we search for such features, taking the example of a log-normal bump in the primordial tensor spectrum at CMB sc…
Observational limits on $y$- and $μ$-type distortions can constrain properties of magnetic fields in the early universe. For a Gaussian, random, and non-helical field, $μ$ and $y$ are calculated a function of the present-day strength of the field, $B_0$, smoothed over a certain Gaussian width, $k_c^{-1}$, and spectral index, $n_B$, defined by $P_B(k)\propto k^{n_B}$. For $n_B=-2.9$ and $k_c^{-1}=1 {\rm Mpc}$, the COBE/FIRAS limit on $μ$ yields $B_0<40$ nG, whereas the projected PIXIE limit on $μ$ would yield $B_0<0.8$ nG. For non-scale-invariant spectra, constraints can be stronger. For $B_0=1…
We constrain the deviation of adiabatic evolution of the Universe using the data on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies measured by the {\it Planck} satellite and a sample of 481 X-ray selected clusters with spectroscopically measured redshifts. To avoid antenna beam effects, we bring all the maps to the same resolution. We use a CMB template to subtract the cosmological signal while preserving the Thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (TSZ) anisotropies; next, we remove galactic foreground emissions around each cluster and we mask out all known point sources. If the CMB black-b…
We forecast the constraints on the parameters of neutrino physics with the constructions of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature, E-mode polarization and lensing spectra for the ground-based Ali Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Telescope (AliCPT). To implement the forecast calculations, we perform numerical simulations which show that AliCPT would yield the result $σ(N_{\mathrm{eff}})=0.42$ and $σ(M_ν)=0.18$ for the first year observation. Moreover, we investigate how the instrumental parameters, such as noise level, full width at half maxima (FWHM), and sky coverage can affec…
We consider the imprint of superradiant instabilities of nonevaporating primordial black holes (PBHs) on the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In the radiation dominated era, PBHs are surrounded by a roughly homogeneous cosmic plasma which endows photons with an effective mass through the plasma frequency. In this setting, spinning PBHs are unstable to a spontaneous spindown through the well-known "black-hole bomb" mechanism. At linear level, the photon density is trapped by the effective photon mass and grows exponentially in time due to superradiance. As the plasma density d…
Anomalous microwave emission (AME) is a category of Galactic signals that cannot be explained by synchrotron radiation, thermal dust emission, or optically thin free-free radiation. Spinning dust is one variety of AME that could be partially polarized and therefore relevant for ongoing and future cosmic microwave background polarization studies. The Planck satellite mission identified candidate AME regions in approximately $1^\circ$ patches that were found to have spectra generally consistent with spinning dust grain models. The spectra for one of these regions, G107.2+5.2, was also consistent…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy encodes a lot of information about our Universe. In this paper we take the ground-based CMB observations (GCMB), including the South Pole Telescope (SPT), SPTpol and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol), as a new probe to the CMB anisotropy independent of two satellite observations, i.e. Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck. The combination of current GCMB data is consistent with WMAP and Planck. In the spatially flat $Λ$CDM model, the Hubble constant is $H_0=69.72\pm 1.63$ km/s/Mpc at $68\%$ confidence level (CL). …
Anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have proven to be a very powerful tool to constrain dark matter annihilation at the epoch of recombination. However, CMB constraints are currently derived using a number of reasonable but yet un-tested assumptions that could potentially lead to a misestimation of the true bounds. In this paper we examine the potential impact of these systematic effects. In particular, we separately study the propagation of the secondary particles produced by annihilation in two energy regimes; first following the shower from the initial particle energy to t…
Observational searches for large-scale vorticity modes in the late time Universe are underexplored. Within the standard $Λ$CDM model, this is well motivated given the observed properties of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). However, this means that searches for cosmic vorticity modes can serve as a powerful consistency test of our cosmological model. We show that through combining CMB measurements of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and the moving lens effects with galaxy survey data we can constrain vorticity fields independently from the large scale cosmic velocity field. This approach ca…
The light relic density affects the thermal and expansion history of the early Universe leaving a number of observable imprints. We focus on the primordial abundances of light elements produced during the process of Big Bang nucleosynthesis which are influenced by the light relic density. Primordial abundances can be used to infer the density of light relics and thereby serve as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model. We calculate the observational uncertainty on primordial light element abundances and associated quantities that would be required in order for these measurements to achiev…
We investigate the constraints on the reionization history of the Universe from a joint analysis of the cosmic microwave background and neutral hydrogen fraction data. The $\tanh$ parametrization and principal component analysis methods are applied to the reionization history respectively. The commonly used $\tanh$ parametrization is oversimplistic when the neutral hydrogen fraction data are taken into account. Using the principal component analysis method, the reconstructed reionization history is consistent with the neutral hydrogen fraction data. With the principal component analysis method…
We examine the role of energy feedback in shaping the distribution of metals within cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of L* disc galaxies. While negative abundance gradients today provide a boundary condition for galaxy evolution models, in support of inside-out disc growth, empirical evidence as to whether abundance gradients steepen or flatten with time remains highly contradictory. We made use of a suite of L* discs, realised with and without `enhanced' feedback. All the simulations were produced using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code Gasoline, and their in situ gas-phase meta…
We study the possibility for constraining the topology of the Universe by means of the matched circles statistic applied to polarised cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy maps. The advantages of using the CMB polarisation maps in studies of the topology over simply analysing the temperature data as has been done to-date are clearly demonstrated. We test our algorithm to search for pairs of matched circles on simulated CMB maps for a universe with the topology of 3-torus. It is found that the noise levels of both Planck and next generation CMB experiments data are no longer prohibitive …
We analyze the science reach of a next generation galaxy redshift survey such as BigBOSS to fit simultaneously for time varying dark energy equation of state and time- and scale-dependent gravity. The simultaneous fit avoids potential bias from assuming $Λ$CDM expansion or general relativity and leads to only modest degradation in constraints. Galaxy bias, fit freely in redshift bins, is self calibrated by spectroscopic measurements of redshift space distortions and causes little impact. The combination of galaxy redshift, cosmic microwave background, and supernova distance data can deliver 5-…
We discuss the thermodynamic and dynamical properties of a variable dark energy model with density scaling as $ρ_x \propto (1+z)^{m}$, z being the redshift. These models lead to the creation/disruption of matter and radiation, which affect the cosmic evolution of both matter and radiation components in the Universe. In particular, we have studied the temperature-redshift relation of radiation, which has been constrained using a recent collection of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature measurements up to $z \sim 3$. We find that, within the uncertainties, the model is indistinguishable…
The Planck experiment will soon provide a very accurate measurement of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies. This will let cosmologists determine most of the cosmological parameters with unprecedented accuracy. Future experiments will improve and complement the Planck data with better angular resolution and better polarization sensitivity. This unexplored region of the CMB power spectrum contains information on many parameters of interest, including neutrino mass, the number of relativistic particles at recombination, the primordial Helium abundance and the injection of additional ionizing…
We forecast combined future constraints from the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure on the models of primordial non-Gaussianity. We study the generalized local model of non-Gaussianity, where the parameter f_NL is promoted to a function of scale, and present the principal component analysis applicable to an arbitrary form of f_NL(k). We emphasize the complementarity between the CMB and LSS by using Planck, DES and BigBOSS surveys as examples, forecast constraints on the power-law f_NL(k) model, and introduce the figure of merit for measurements of scale-dependent non-Gaussia…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) has been a treasure trove for cosmology. Over the next decade, current and planned CMB experiments are expected to exhaust nearly all primary CMB information. To further constrain cosmological models, there is a great benefit to measuring signals beyond the primary modes. Rayleigh scattering of the CMB is one source of additional cosmological information. It is caused by the additional scattering of CMB photons by neutral species formed during recombination and exhibits a strong and unique frequency scaling ($\propto ν^4$). We will show that with sufficien…
We investigate potential constraints from cosmic shear on the dark matter particle mass, assuming all dark matter is made up of light thermal relic particles. Given the theoretical uncertainties involved in making cosmological predictions in such warm dark matter scenarios we use analytical fits to linear warm dark matter power spectra and compare (i) the halo model using a mass function evaluated from these linear power spectra and (ii) an analytical fit to the non-linear evolution of the linear power spectra. We optimistically ignore the competing effect of baryons for this work. We find app…
The ability to test and constrain theories of cosmic inflation will advance substantially over the next decade. Key data sources include cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and observations of the distribution of matter at low-redshift from optical, near-infrared, and 21cm intensity surveys. A positive detection of a CMB B-mode consistent with a primordial stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) is widely viewed as a smoking gun for an inflationary phase. Still, a null result does not exclude inflation. However, in a significant class of inflationary scenarios, a low SGWB am…
The statistics of extremal points in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature (hot and cold spots) have been well explored in the literature, and have been used to constrain models of the early Universe. Here, we extend the study of critical points in the CMB to the set that remains after removing extrema, namely the saddle points. We perform stacks of temperature and polarization about temperature saddle points in simulations of the CMB, as well as in data from the Planck satellite. We then compute the theoretical profile of saddle-point stacks, given the underlying power spectra of …
We propose a theoretical framework that can possibly constrain the initial vacuum by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations. With a generic vacuum without any particular choice a priori, thereby keeping both the Bogolyubov coefficients in the analysis, we compute observable parameters from two- and three-point correlation functions. We are thus left with constraining four model parameters from the two complex Bogolyubov coefficients. We also demonstrate a method of finding out the constraint relations between the Bogolyubov coefficients using the theoretical normalization condition and…
The hypothesis of the self-induced collapse of the inflaton wave function was proposed as responsible for the emergence of inhomogeneity and anisotropy at all scales. This proposal was studied within an almost de Sitter space-time approximation for the background, which led to a perfect scale-invariant power spectrum, and also for a quasi-de Sitter background, which allows to distinguish departures from the standard approach due to the inclusion of the collapse hypothesis. In this work we perform a Bayesian model comparison for two different choices of the self-induced collapse in a full quasi…
Cosmological Birefringence (CB) is a phenomenon, caused by parity violating modifications to electrodynamics, whereby the linear polarisation angle of light changes as photons traverse a vacuum. It is possible to use a number of different analysis techniques to constrain this effect using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarisation observations. We investigate two different methods of constraining direction dependent birefringence for present and future CMB experiments including BICEP/Keck, Simons Observatory (SO), and LiteBIRD . Specifically we compare the constraints placed on anisotropic…
We revisit the method of using the photon-graviton conversion mechanism in the presence of the external magnetic field to probe small-scale primordial magnetic fields that may exist between the last scattering surface and present. Specifically, we investigate impacts on the conversion efficiency due to the presence of matter, including the plasma collective effect and the atomic polarizability. In general, these effects tend to reduce the conversion probability. Under this more realistic picture and based on the precision of COBE's measurement of CMB (cosmic microwave background) blackbody spe…
We study the stochastic gravitational waves from string gas cosmology. With the help of the Lambert W function, we derive the exact energy density spectrum of the stochastic gravitational waves in term of tensor-to-scalar. New feathers with the spectrum are found. First, the non-Hagedorn phase can be ruled out by the current B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background. Second, the exact spectrum from the Hagedorn phase with a logarithmic term is shown to be unique in the measurable frequency range. Third, which is the most important, we find the string length can be constrained to b…
The measurement of the optical depth to free electrons, tau_r, in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides an important constraint on reionization, but is degenerate to more complex reionization models. Small angular-scale CMB measurements of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) and Ostriker-Vishniac (OV) effects have the potential to break this degeneracy. We calculate the OV signal for various extended reionization histories described by a simple analytic form. These models are parametrized by dz, the duration of the reionization event. For reionization histories with identical values o…
We present a new measurement of structure growth at $z \simeq 0.08$ obtained by correlating the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing potential map from the \textit{Planck} satellite with the angular distribution of the 2MASS Photometric Redshift galaxies. After testing for, and finding no evidence for systematic effects, we calculate the angular auto- and cross-power spectra. We combine these spectra to estimate the amplitude of structure growth using the bias-independent $D_G$ estimator introduced by Giannantonio et al. 2016. We find that the relative amplitude of $D_G$ with respect to t…
Measuring spectral distortions (SDs) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will provide new constraints on previously unexplored scales of the primordial power spectrum, allowing us to extend the probed parameter space by several orders of magnitude in $k$-space, which could have significant implications in the context of primordial black holes and gravitational waves, among others. Here we discuss how various models of inflation can be tightly constrained by the combination of current and future CMB SD and anisotropy experiments. In particular, we investigate the constraining power of SD e…
The power spectrum of cosmic microwave background lensing is a powerful tool for constraining fundamental physics such as the sum of neutrino masses and the dark energy equation of state. Current lensing measurements primarily come from distortions to the microwave background temperature field, but the polarization lensing signal will dominate upcoming experiments with greater sensitivity. Cosmic birefringence refers to the rotation of the linear polarization direction of microwave photons propagating from the last scattering surface to us, which can be induced by parity-violating physics such…
In the last few decades, advances in observational cosmology have given us a standard model of cosmology. We know the content of the universe to within a few percent. With more ambitious experiments on the way, we hope to move beyond the knowledge of what the universe is made of, to why the universe is the way it is. In this review paper we focus on primordial non-Gaussianity as a probe of the physics of the dynamics of the universe at the very earliest moments. We discuss 1) theoretical predictions from inflationary models and their observational consequences in the cosmic microwave backgroun…
We extend the internal template foreground removal method by accounting for spatially varying spectral parameters such as the spectral indices of synchrotron and dust emission and the dust temperature. As the previous algorithm had to assume that the spectral parameters are uniform over the full sky (or some significant fraction of the sky), it resulted in a bias in the tensor-to-scalar ratio parameter $r$ estimated from foreground-cleaned polarization maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The new algorithm, "Delta-map method", accounts for spatially varying spectra to first order in …
The presence of a primordial magnetic field would have induced resonant conversions between photons and axion-like particles (ALPs) during the thermal history of the Universe. These conversions would have distorted the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this context, we derive bounds on the photon-ALP resonant conversions using the high precision CMB spectral data collected by the FIRAS instrument on board of the Cosmic Background Explorer. We obtain upper limits on the product of the photon-ALP coupling constant g times the magnetic field strength B down to g B > …
We explore the use of the cosmic infrared background as a tracer of the LSS for cross-correlating with the CMB and exploit the ISW. We use the improved linear CIB model of Maniyar et al (2018) and derive the theoretical CIBxISW cross-correlation for Planck HFI frequencies 217, 353, 545 and 857 GHz and IRAS 3000 GHz. We predict a positive cross-correlation between the CIB and CMB whose amplitude decreases rapidly at small scales. We perform a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis on this cross-correlation. In the ideal case of the cross-correlation obtained over 70% (40%) of the sky with no resi…
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (HIAS-UCAS)（杭州高等研究院，中国科学院大学）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific (ICTP-AP)（亚太理论物理中心）；National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya（梅加拉亚邦国立技术学院）；Central China Normal University（华中师范大学）；Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi（德里大学物理与天体物理学系）
In this work we have used the recent cosmic chronometers data along with the latest estimation of the local Hubble parameter value, $H_0$ at 2.4\% precision as well as the standard dark energy probes, such as the Supernovae Type Ia, baryon acoustic oscillation distance measurements, and cosmic microwave background measurements (PlanckTT $+$ lowP) to constrain a dark energy model where the dark energy is allowed to interact with the dark matter. A general equation of state of dark energy parametrized by a dimensionless parameter `$β$' is utilized. From our analysis, we find that the interaction…
We apply our tetrad-based approach for constructing spherically-symmetric solutions in general relativity to modelling a void, and compare it with the standard Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) formalism. In particular, we construct models for the void observed in the direction of Draco in the WISE-2MASS galaxy survey, and a corresponding cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature decrement in the Planck data in the same direction. We find that the present-day density and velocity profiles of the void are not well constrained by the existing data, so that void models produced from the two approac…
The $β$-exponential inflation is driven by a class of primordial potentials, derived in the framework of braneworld scenarios, that generalizes the well-known power law inflation. In this paper we update previous constraints on the minimal coupled $β$-exponential model [1] and extend the results also deriving the equations for the non-minimal coupled scenario. The predictions of both models are tested in light of the latest temperature and polarization maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background and clustering data. We also compare the predictions of these models with the standard $Λ$CDM cosmology…
The dispersion measure of extragalactic radio transients, such as of recently discovered Fast Radio Burst FRB150418, can be used to measure the column density of free electrons in the intergalactic medium. The same electrons also scatter the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons, affecting precision measurements of cosmological parameters. We explore the connection between the dispersion measure of radio transients existing during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and the total optical depth for the CMB, $τ_{CMB}$, showing that the existence of such transients would provide a new sensitive p…
We constrain the rotational kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (rkSZ) effect in Planck data using a sample of rotating galaxy clusters identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We extract cluster-centered cutouts from Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps that have been cleaned of thermal SZ signal. Using previous constraints on the cluster rotation vectors determined from the motions of galaxies, we fit for the amplitude of the rkSZ effect in the CMB cutouts, marginalizing over parameters describing the cluster electron distribution. We also employ an alternative, less model-depend…
The cosmic microwave background temperature is a cornerstone astrophysical observable. Its present value is tightly constrained, but its redshift dependence, which can now be determined until redshift $z\sim6.34$, is also an important probe of fundamental cosmology. We show that its constraining power is now comparable to that of other background cosmology probes, including Type Ia supernovae and Hubble parameter measurements. We illustrate this with three models, each based on a different conceptual paradigm, which aim to explain the recent acceleration of the universe. We find that for param…
The early reionization (ERE) is supposed to be a physical process which happens after recombination, but before the instantaneous reionization caused by the first generation of stars. We investigate the effect of the ERE on the temperature and polarization power spectra of cosmic microwave background (CMB), and adopt principal components analysis (PCA) to model-independently reconstruct the ionization history during the ERE. In addition, we also discuss how the ERE affects the cosmological parameter estimates, and find that the ERE does not impose any significant influences on the tensor-to-sc…
We present an extension of the ROMA map-making algorithm for the generation of optimal cosmic microwave background polarization maps. The new code allows for a possible cross-correlated noise component among the detectors of a CMB experiment. A promising application is the forthcoming LSPE balloon-borne experiment, which is devoted to the accurate observation of CMB polarization at large angular scales. We generalized the noise covariance matrix in time domain to account for all the off-diagonal terms due to the detector cross-talk. Hence, we performed preliminary forecasts of the LSPE-SWIPE i…
