We study the observational signature of vector metric perturbations through the effect of weak gravitational lensing. In the presence of vector perturbations, the non-vanishing signals for B-mode cosmic shear and curl-mode deflection angle, which have never appeared in the case of scalar metric perturbations, naturally arise. Solving the geodesic and geodesic deviation equations, we drive the full-sky formulas for angular power spectra of weak lensing signals, and give the explicit expressions for E-/B-mode cosmic shear and gradient-/curl-mode deflection angle. As a possible source for seeding vector perturbations, we then consider a cosmic string network, and discuss its detectability from upcoming weak lensing and CMB measurements. Based on the formulas and a simple model for cosmic string network, we calculate the angular power spectra and expected signal-to-noise ratios for the B-mode cosmic shear and curl-mode deflection angle. We find that the weak lensing signals are enhanced for a smaller intercommuting probability of the string network, $P$, and they are potentially detectable from the upcoming cosmic shear and CMB lensing observations. For $P\sim 10^{-1}$, the minimum detectable tension of the cosmic string will be down to $Gμ\sim 5\times 10^{-8}$. With a theoretically inferred smallest value $P\sim 10^{-3}$, we could even detect the string with $Gμ\sim 5\times 10^{-10}$.
We discuss the future detectability of gravitational-wave induced lensing from high-sensitivity cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. Gravitational waves can induce a rotational component of the weak-lensing deflection angle, usually referred to as the curl mode, which would be imprinted on the CMB maps. Using the technique of reconstructing lensing signals involved in CMB maps, this curl mode can be measured in an unbiased manner, offering an independent confirmation of the gravitational waves complementary to the B-mode polarization experiments. Based on the Fisher matrix analysis, …
Theories of modified gravity attempt to reconcile physics at the largest and the smallest scales by explaining the accelerated expansion of our universe without introducing the cosmological constant. One class of such theories, known as Galileon theories, predict lensing potentials of spherically symmetric bodies, such as dark matter halos, to receive a feature-like modification at the 5% level. With the advent of next-generation photometric surveys, such modifications can serve as novel probes of modified gravity. Assuming an LSST-like fiducial dataset, we produce halo-shear power spectra for…
The anisotropies of the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background (SGWB) produced by merging compact binaries constitute a possible new probe of the Large-Scale Structure (LSS). However, the significant shot noise contribution caused by the discreteness of the GW sources and the poor angular resolution of the instruments hamper the detection of the intrinsic anisotropies induced by the LSS. In this work, we investigate the potential of cross-correlating forthcoming high precision measurements of the SGWB energy density and the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing convergence to mitigate th…
We study the effect of weak lensing by cosmic (super-)strings on the anisotropies of cosmic microwave background (CMB). In developing a method to calculate the lensing convergence field due to strings, and thereby temperature and polarization angular power spectra of CMB, we clarify how the nature of strings, characterized by the intercommuting probability, can influence these CMB anisotropies. Assuming that the power spectrum is dominated by Poisson-distributed string segments, we find that the convergence spectrum peaks at low multipoles and is mostly contributed from strings located at rela…
We characterize the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB)-lensing bispectrum which is one of the contributions to the three-point functions of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps in harmonic space. We show that the CIB-lensing bispectrum has a considerable strength and that it can be detected with high significance in the Planck high-frequency maps. We also present forecasts of the contamination on different shapes of the primordial non-Gaussianity $f_{nl}$ parameter produced by the CIB-lensing bispectrum and by the extragalactic point sources bispectrum in the Planck high-resolution CMB anisotr…
In the context of gravitational lensing, the density profile of lensing galaxies is often considered to be perfectly elliptical. Potential angular structures are generally ignored, except to explain flux ratios anomalies. Surprisingly, the impact of azimuthal structures on extended images of the source has not been characterized, nor its impact on the H0 inference. We address this task by creating mock images of a point source embedded in an extended source, lensed by an elliptical galaxy on which multipolar components are added to emulate boxy/discy isodensity contours. Modeling such images w…
We discuss detectability of the nonlinear growth of the large-scale structure in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing. Lensing signals involved in CMB anisotropies have been measured from multiple CMB experiments, such as Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), Planck, POLARBEAR, and South Pole Telescope (SPT). Reconstructed lensing signals are useful to constrain cosmology via their angular power spectrum, while detectability and cosmological application of their bispectrum induced by the nonlinear evolution are not well studied. Extending the analytic estimate of the galaxy lensing bispe…
We derive the spectrum and analyse the detectability prospects of secondary gravity waves (GWs) associated to primordial black hole (PBH) production in a class of string inflationary models called Fibre Inflation. The inflationary potential features a near inflection point that induces a period of ultra slow-roll responsible for an enhancement of the scalar perturbations which can lead to PBHs with different masses and contributions to dark matter (DM) in agreement with current observational bounds, including CMB constraints on the scalar spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. This enh…
We study the effect of weak lensing by cosmic (super-)strings on the higher-order statistics of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A cosmic string segment is expected to cause weak lensing as well as an integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, the so-called Gott-Kaiser-Stebbins (GKS) effect, to the CMB temperature fluctuation, which are thus naturally cross-correlated. We point out that, in the presence of such a correlation, yet another kind of the post-recombination CMB temperature bispectra, the ISW-lensing bispectra, will arise in the form of products of the auto- and cross-power spectra. …
We present constraints on a cosmic string network with a measurement of weak gravitational lensing from CMB temperature map. The cosmic string network between observer and last scattering surface of CMB photons generates vector and/or tensor metric perturbations, and the deflection of CMB photons by these gravitational fields has curl mode which is not produced by the scalar metric perturbations. In this paper, we use the power spectrum of curl mode obtained from Planck to constrain the string tension, Gμ, and the reconnection probability, P. In demonstrating the parameter constraints with Pla…
We consider the femto-lensing due to a cosmic string. If a cosmic string with the deficit angle $Δ\sim 100$ [femto-arcsec] $\sim10^{-18}$ [rad] exists around the line of sight to a gamma-ray burst, we may observe characteristic interference patterns caused by gravitational lensing in the energy spectrum of the gamma-ray burst. This "femto-lensing" event was first proposed as a tool to probe small mass primordial black holes. In this paper, we propose use of the femto-lensing to probe cosmic strings with extremely small tension. Observability conditions and the event rate are discussed. Differe…
Vector perturbations sourced by topological defects can generate rotations in the lensing of background galaxies. This is a potential smoking gun for the existence of defects since rotation generates a curl-like component in the weak lensing signal which is not generated by standard density perturbations at linear order. This rotation signal is calculated as generated by cosmic strings. Future large scale weak lensing surveys should be able to detect this signal even for string tensions an order of magnitude lower than current constraints.
Neutral hydrogen (H$_{\rm I}$) intensity mapping is capable of measuring redshift evolution of H$_{\rm I}$ density parameter $Ω_{\rm H_{\rm I}}$, which is an important parameter to understand structure formation in the post-reionization epoch. Future H$_{\rm I}$ observation with Square Kilometre Array (SKA) can significantly improve constraints on the parameter. However, the observation of H$_{\rm I}$ suffers from the contamination from extremely bright foreground emissions, and it is necessary to consider a signal validation method complementary to the measurement of H$_{\rm I}$ auto power sp…
We explore an alternative method to the usual shear correlation function approach for the estimation of aperture mass statistics in weak lensing survey data. Our approach builds on the direct estimator method. In this paper, we extend our analysis to statistics of arbitrary order and to the multiscale aperture mass statistics. We show that there always exists a linear order algorithm to retrieve any of these generalised aperture mass statistics from shape catalogs when the direct estimator approach is adopted. We validate our approach through application to a large number of Gaussian mock lens…
Assuming that the universe contains a dark energy fluid with a constant linear equation of state and a constant sound speed, we study the prospects of detecting dark energy perturbations using CMB data from Planck, cross-correlated with galaxy distribution maps from a survey like LSST. We update previous estimates by carrying a full exploration of the mock data likelihood for key fiducial models. We find that it will only be possible to exclude values of the sound speed very close to zero, while Planck data alone is not powerful enough for achieving any detection, even with lensing extraction.…
The cubic Galileon model containing the lowest non-trivial order action of the full Galileon action can produce the stable late-time cosmic acceleration. This model can have a significant role in the growth of structures. The signatures of the cubic Galileon model in the structure formation can be probed by the weak lensing statistics. Weak lensing convergence statistics is one of the strongest probes to the structure formation and hence it can probe the dark energy or modified theories of gravity models. In this work, we investigate the detectability of the cubic Galileon model from the $ Λ$C…
Correlated red noise recently reported from pulsar timing observations may be an indication of stochastic gravitational waves emitted by cosmic strings that formed during a primordial phase transition near the Grand Unification energy scale. Unfortunately, known probes of cosmic strings, namely the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies and string lensing of extragalactic galaxies, are not sensitive enough for low string tensions of $Gμ= 10^{-10}-10^{-7}$ that are needed to explain this putative signal. We show that strong gravitational lensing of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) by cosmic strings i…
Detecting gravitational lensing by matter currents
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；CEA（法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；AIM（天体物理学、物质与相互作用研究所）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex（苏塞克斯大学物理与天文系）
The possibility to detect cosmic strings -- topological defects of early Universe, by means of wave effects in gravitational lensing is discussed. To find the optimal observation conditions, we define the hyperbolic-shaped Fresnel observation zones associated with the diffraction maxima and analyse the frequency patterns of wave amplification corresponding to different alignments. In particular, we show that diffraction of gravitational waves by the string may lead to significant amplification at cosmological distances. The wave properties we found are quite different from what one would expec…
We review several cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves accessible to direct-detection experiments, with a special emphasis on those backgrounds due to first-order phase transitions and networks of cosmic (super-)strings. For these two particular sources, we revisit in detail the computation of the gravitational wave background and improve the results of previous works in the literature. We apply our results to identify the scientific potential of the NGO/eLISA mission of ESA regarding the detectability of cosmological backgrounds.
Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the Curl-Mode CMB Lensing Power Spectrum measured by ACT DR6
University of California, San Diego（加州大学圣地亚哥分校）；NITK Surathkal（国家技术学院苏尔塔卡尔分校）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（SLAC国家加速器实验室）
We have searched 4.5 square degrees of archival HST/ACS images for cosmic strings, identifying close pairs of similar, faint galaxies and selecting groups whose alignment is consistent with gravitational lensing by a long, straight string. We find no evidence for cosmic strings in five large-area HST treasury surveys (covering a total of 2.22 square degrees), or in any of 346 multi-filter guest observer images (1.18 square degrees). Assuming that simulations ccurately predict the number of cosmic strings in the universe, this non-detection allows us to place upper limits on the unitless Univer…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) has non-Gaussian features in the temperature fluctuations. An anomalous cold spot surrounded with a hot ring, called the Cold Spot is one of such features. If a large underdence region (supervoid) resides towards the Cold Spot, we would be able to detect a systematic shape distortion in the images of background source galaxies via weak lensing effect. In order to estimate the detectability of such signals, we used the data of $N$-body simulations to simulate full-sky ray-tracing of source galaxies. We searched for a most prominent underdense region using t…
We explore the use of random forest and gradient boosting, two powerful tree-based machine learning algorithms, for the detection of cosmic strings in maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), through their unique Gott-Kaiser-Stebbins effect on the temperature anisotropies.The information in the maps is compressed into feature vectors before being passed to the learning units. The feature vectors contain various statistical measures of processed CMB maps that boost the cosmic string detectability. Our proposed classifiers, after training, give results improved over or similar to the claim…
Cosmic strings are important remnants of early-Universe phase transitions. We show that they can be probed by Gravitational Waves (GWs) from compact binary mergers. If such chirping GW passes by a cosmic string, it is gravitationally lensed and left with a characteristic signal of the lensing -- the GW fringe. It is observable naturally through the frequency chirping of GWs. This allows to probe cosmic strings with small tension $Δ= 8πG μ= 10^{-6} \text{ -- } 10^{-10}$, just below the current constraint, at high-frequency LIGO-band and mid-band detectors. Although its detection rates are estim…
The lensing effect of a cosmic string is studied, and some new methods are proposed to detect the cosmic string. The technique for using jets as extended gravitational lensing probes was firstly explored by Kronberg. We use the "alignment-breaking parameter" $ η_G $ as a sensitive indicator of gravitational distortion by a wiggly cosmic string. Then, we applied the non-constant deflection angle to jets, and $ η_G $ of a specific jet is just related to the projected slope of the jet. At least three jets in the sample of Square Kilometer Array (SKA) would have significant signals ($ η_G >10^\cir…
We present a theoretical estimate for a new observable: the cross-correlation between the Lyman-alpha flux fluctuations in quasar (QSO) spectra and the convergence of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as measured along the same line-of-sight. As a first step toward the assessment of its detectability, we estimate the signal-to-noise ratio using linear theory. Although the signal-to-noise is small for a single line-of-sight and peaks at somewhat smaller redshifts than those probed by the Lyman-alpha forest, we estimate a total signal-to-noise of 9 for cross-correlating QSO spectra of SDSS-I…
We present a method of lensing reconstruction on the full sky, by extending the optimal quadratic estimator proposed by Okamoto & Hu (2003) to the case including the curl mode of deflection angle. The curl mode is induced by the vector and tensor metric perturbations, and the reconstruction of the curl mode would be a powerful tool to not only check systematics in the estimated gradient mode but also probe any vector and tensor sources. We find that the gradient and curl modes can be reconstructed separately, thanks to the distinctive feature in the parity symmetry between the gradient and cur…
We study the problem of searching for cosmic string signal patterns in the present high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This article discusses a technique capable of recognizing Kaiser-Stebbins effect signatures in total intensity anisotropy maps, and shows that the biggest factor that produces confusion is represented by the acoustic oscillation features of the scale comparable to the size of horizon at recombination. Simulations show that the distribution of null signals for pure Gaussian maps converges to a $χ^2$ distribution, with dete…
Cosmological defects result from cosmological phase transitions in the early Universe and the dynamics reflects their symmetry-breaking mechanisms. These cosmological defects may be probed through weak lensing effects because they interact with ordinary matters only through the gravitational force. In this paper, we investigate global textures by using weak lensing curl and B modes. Non-topological textures are modeled by the non-linear sigma model (NLSM), and induce not only the scalar perturbation but also vector and tensor perturbations in the primordial plasma due to the nonlinearity in th…
The CMB Cold Spot under the lens II: Lensing signatures in polarization and cosmic texture footprints
Center for Cosmology and Computational Astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study in Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学物理学院高等研究院宇宙学与计算天体物理中心）；Institute of Astronomy, School of Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学物理学院天文研究所）；Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro（里约热内卢联邦大学瓦隆戈天文台）；Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas（巴西物理研究中心）；North Hennepin Community College（北亨内平社区学院）
We propose a novel method to select satellite galaxies in outer regions of galaxy groups or clusters using weak gravitational lensing. The method is based on the theoretical expectation that the tangential shear pattern around satellite galaxies would appear with negative values at an offset distance from the center of the main halo. We can thus locate the satellite galaxies statistically with an offset distance of several lensing smoothing scales by using the standard reconstruction of surface mass density maps from weak lensing observation. We test the idea using high-resolution cosmological…
We derive stringent constraints on neutrino speed, weak equivalence principle violation, Lorentz invariance violation, and dual lensing from the first high-energy astrophysical neutrino source: TXS 0506+056. Observation of neutrino (IceCube-170922A) and photons in a similar time frame and from the same direction is used to derive these limits. We describe ways in which these constraints can be further improved by orders of magnitude.
Alterations of the gravity Lagrangian introduced in modified torsion gravity theories---also referred to as $f(T)$ gravity---allows for an accelerated expansion in a matter dominated Universe. In this framework, the cosmic speed up is driven by an effective `torsion fluid'. Besides the background evolution of the Universe, structure formation is also modified because of a time dependent effective gravitational constant. Here, we investigate the imprints of $f(T)$ gravity on galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing to the aim of understanding whether future galaxy surveys could constrai…
Next-generation cosmological surveys will observe larger cosmic volumes than ever before, enabling us to access information on the primordial Universe, as well as on relativistic effects. We consider forthcoming 21cm intensity mapping surveys (SKAO) and optical galaxy surveys (DESI and Euclid), combining the information via multi-tracer cross-correlations that suppress cosmic variance on ultra-large scales. In order to fully incorporate wide-angle effects and redshift-bin cross-correlations, together with lensing magnification and other relativistic effects, we use the angular power spectra, $…
Probing Parity Violation with Weak Lensing Trispectrum
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）
Forthcoming projects such as DES, LSST, WFIRST, and Euclid aim to measure weak lensing shear correlations with unprecedented precision, constraining the dark energy equation of state at the percent level. Reliance on photometrically-determined redshifts constitutes a major source of uncertainty for these surveys. Additionally, interpreting the weak lensing signal requires a detailed understanding of the nonlinear physics of gravitational collapse. We present a new analysis of the stringent calibration requirements for weak lensing analyses of future imaging surveys that addresses both photo-z …
We estimate uncertainties of cosmological parameters for phenomenological interacting dark energy models using weak lensing convergence power spectrum and bispectrum. We focus on the bispectrum tomography and examine how well the weak lensing bispectrum with tomography can constrain the interactions between dark sectors, as well as other cosmological parameters. Employing the Fisher matrix analysis, we forecast parameter uncertainties derived from weak lensing bispectra with a two-bin tomography and place upper bounds on strength of the interactions between the dark sectors. The cosmic shear w…
Optical weak lensing surveys have become a powerful tool for precision cosmology, but remain subject to systematic effects that can severely bias cosmological parameter estimates if not carefully removed. We discuss the possibility of performing complementary weak lensing surveys at radio/microwave frequencies, using detections of CO-emitting galaxies with resolved continuum images from ngVLA. This method has completely different systematic uncertainties to optical weak lensing shear measurements (e.g. in terms of blending, PSF, and redshift uncertainties), and can provide additional informati…
We search for the lensing signal of massive filaments between 135,000 pairs of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We develop a new estimator that cleanly removes the much larger shear signal of the neighboring LRG halos, relying only on the assumption of spherical symmetry. We consider two models: a thick filament model constructed from ray-tracing simulations for $Λ$CDM model, and a thin filament model which models the filament by a string of halos along the line connecting the two LRGs. We show that the filament lensing signal is in nice agreement with the thick …
We search the COSMOS survey for pairs of galaxies consistent with the gravitational lensing signature of a cosmic string. The COSMOS survey imaged 1.64 square degrees using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Our technique includes estimates of the efficiency for finding the lensed galaxy pair. We find no evidence for cosmic strings with a mass per unit length of G mu/c^2 < 3.0E-7 out to redshifts greater than 0.6 and set 95% upper limits. This corresponds to a global 95% upper limit of Omega_string<0.0028.
We investigate the prospects for using the weak lensing bispectrum alongside the power spectrum to control systematic uncertainties in a Euclid-like survey. Three systematic effects are considered: the intrinsic alignment of galaxies, uncertainties in the means of tomographic redshift distributions, and multiplicative bias in the measurement of the shear signal. We find that the bispectrum is very effective in mitigating these systematic errors. Varying all three systematics simultaneously, a joint power spectrum and bispectrum analysis reduces the area of credible regions for the cosmological…
Next-generation optical imaging surveys will revolutionise the observations of weak gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters and provide stringent constraints on growth of structure and cosmic acceleration. In these experiments, accurate modelling of covariance matrices of cluster weak lensing plays the key role in obtaining robust measurements of the mean mass of clusters and cosmological parameters. We use a combination of analytical calculations and high-resolution N-body simulations to derive accurate covariance matrices that span from the virial regime to linear scales of the cluster-matt…
Weak lensing has become an increasingly important tool in cosmology and the use of galaxy shapes to measure cosmic shear has become routine. The weak-lensing distortion tensor contains two other effects in addition to the two components of shear: the convergence and rotation. The rotation mode is not measurable using the standard cosmic shear estimators based on galaxy shapes, as there is no information on the original shapes of the images before they were lensed. Due to this, no estimator has been proposed for the rotation mode in cosmological weak-lensing surveys, and the rotation mode has n…
Direct shear $\times$ kSZ correlation: controlling baryons without modeling galaxies
University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（斯坦福直线加速器中心）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理与宇宙学研究所）
We perform a principal component analysis to assess ability of future observations to measure departures from General Relativity in predictions of the Poisson and anisotropy equations on linear scales. In particular, we focus on how the measurements of redshift-space distortions (RSD) observed from spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys will improve the constraints when combined with lensing tomographic surveys. Assuming a Euclid-like galaxy imaging and redshift survey, we find that adding the 3D information decreases the statistical uncertainty by a factor between 3 and 10 compared to the case…
Metacalibration is a state-of-the-art technique for measuring weak gravitational lensing shear from well-sampled galaxy images. We investigate the accuracy of shear measured with metacalibration from fitting elliptical Gaussians to undersampled galaxy images. In this case, metacalibration introduces aliasing effects leading to an ensemble multiplicative shear bias about 0.01 for Euclid, and even larger for the Roman Space Telescope, well exceeding the missions' requirements. We find that this aliasing bias can be mitigated by computing shapes from weighted moments with wider Gaussians as weigh…
Mass determinations from gravitational lensing shear and the higher order estimator flexion are both subject to the mass sheet degeneracy. Mass sheet degeneracy refers to a transformation that leaves the reduced shear and flexion invariant. In general, this transformation can be approximated by the addition of a constant surface mass density sheet. We propose a new technique to break the mass sheet degeneracy. The method uses mass moments of the shear or flexion fields in combination with convergence information derived from number counts which exploit the magnification bias. The difference be…
