In this brief work we investigate any possible variation of the fine structure constant at the epoch of recombination. The recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies at ...arcminute angular scales performed by the ACT and SPT experiments are probing the damping regime of Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations. We study the role of a mechanism that could affect the shape of the Cosmic Microwave Background angular fluctuations at those scales, namely a change in the recombination process through variations in the fine structure constant α.
We present up-to-date constraints on the value of the fine-structure constant at the epoch of decoupling from the recent observations made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) ...satellite. In the framework of models we considered, a positive (negative) variation of the value of α at decoupling with respect to the present-day value is now bounded to be smaller than 2% (6%) at 95% confidence level. We point out that the existence of an early reionization epoch as suggested by the above measurements will, when more accurate cosmic microwave background polarization data is available, lead to considerably tighter constraints. The so-called ‘reionization bump’, in particular, will be extremely useful for this purpose. We find that the tightest possible constraint on α is about 0.1% using CMB data alone—tighter constraints will require further (non-CMB) priors.
Planck 2018 results Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.; Aumont, J. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2020, Letnik:
641
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We present measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing potential using the final
Planck
2018 temperature and polarization data. Using polarization maps filtered to account for the ...noise anisotropy, we increase the significance of the detection of lensing in the polarization maps from 5
σ
to 9
σ
. Combined with temperature, lensing is detected at 40
σ
. We present an extensive set of tests of the robustness of the lensing-potential power spectrum, and construct a minimum-variance estimator likelihood over lensing multipoles 8 ≤
L
≤ 400 (extending the range to lower
L
compared to 2015), which we use to constrain cosmological parameters. We find good consistency between lensing constraints and the results from the
Planck
CMB power spectra within the ΛCDM model. Combined with baryon density and other weak priors, the lensing analysis alone constrains
σ
8
Ω
m
0.25
= 0.589 ± 0.020 (1
σ
errors). Also combining with baryon acoustic oscillation data, we find tight individual parameter constraints,
σ
8
= 0.811 ± 0.019,
H
0
= 67.9
−1.3
+1.2
km s
−1
Mpc
−1
, and Ω
m
= 0.303
−0.018
+0.016
. Combining with
Planck
CMB power spectrum data, we measure
σ
8
to better than 1% precision, finding
σ
8
= 0.811 ± 0.006. CMB lensing reconstruction data are complementary to galaxy lensing data at lower redshift, having a different degeneracy direction in
σ
8
− Ω
m
space; we find consistency with the lensing results from the Dark Energy Survey, and give combined lensing-only parameter constraints that are tighter than joint results using galaxy clustering. Using the
Planck
cosmic infrared background (CIB) maps as an additional tracer of high-redshift matter, we make a combined
Planck
-only estimate of the lensing potential over 60% of the sky with considerably more small-scale signal. We additionally demonstrate delensing of the
Planck
power spectra using the joint and individual lensing potential estimates, detecting a maximum removal of 40% of the lensing-induced power in all spectra. The improvement in the sharpening of the acoustic peaks by including both CIB and the quadratic lensing reconstruction is detected at high significance.
We report the most complete analysis to date of observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) obtained during the 1998 flight of BOOMERANG. We use two quite different methods to determine the ...angular power spectrum of the CMB in 20 bands centered at l=50-1000, applying them to ~50% more data than has previously been analyzed. The power spectra produced by the two methods are in good agreement with each other and constitute the most sensitive measurements to date over the range 300<l<1000. The increased precision of the power spectrum yields more precise determinations of several cosmological parameters than previous analyses of BOOMERANG data. The results continue to support an inflationary paradigm for the origin of the universe, being well fitted by a ~13.5 Gyr old, flat universe composed of approximately 5% baryonic matter, 30% cold dark matter, and 65% dark energy, with a spectral index of initial density perturbations ns~1.
With the increased accuracy and angular scale coverage of the recent CMB experiments it has become important to include calibration and beam uncertainties when estimating cosmological parameters. ...This requires an integration over possible values of the calibration and beam size, which can be performed numerically but greatly increases computation times. We present a fast and general method for marginalization over calibration-type errors by analytical integration. This is worked through for the specific example of CMB calibration and beam uncertainties and the resulting formulae are practical to implement. We show how cosmological parameter constraints from the latest CMB data are changed when calibration/beam uncertainties are taken into account: typically the best-fitting parameters are shifted and the errors bars are increased by up to 50 per cent for e.g. ns and Ωbh2; although as expected there is no change for ΩK, because it is constrained by the positions of the peaks.
Planck 2018 results Akrami, Y.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2020, Letnik:
641
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We report on the implications for cosmic inflation of the 2018 release of the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements. The results are fully consistent with those reported ...using the data from the two previous Planck cosmological releases, but have smaller uncertainties thanks to improvements in the characterization of polarization at low and high multipoles. Planck temperature, polarization, and lensing data determine the spectral index of scalar perturbations to be n s = 0.9649 ± 0.0042 at 68% CL. We find no evidence for a scale dependence of n s , either as a running or as a running of the running. The Universe is found to be consistent with spatial flatness with a precision of 0.4% at 95% CL by combining Planck with a compilation of baryon acoustic oscillation data. The Planck 95% CL upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r 0.002 < 0.10, is further tightened by combining with the BICEP2/Keck Array BK15 data to obtain r 0.002 < 0.056. In the framework of standard single-field inflationary models with Einstein gravity, these results imply that: (a) the predictions of slow-roll models with a concave potential, V ″( ϕ ) < 0, are increasingly favoured by the data; and (b) based on two different methods for reconstructing the inflaton potential, we find no evidence for dynamics beyond slow roll. Three different methods for the non-parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum consistently confirm a pure power law in the range of comoving scales 0.005 Mpc −1 ≲ k ≲ 0.2 Mpc −1 . A complementary analysis also finds no evidence for theoretically motivated parameterized features in the Planck power spectra. For the case of oscillatory features that are logarithmic or linear in k , this result is further strengthened by a new combined analysis including the Planck bispectrum data. The new Planck polarization data provide a stringent test of the adiabaticity of the initial conditions for the cosmological fluctuations. In correlated, mixed adiabatic and isocurvature models, the non-adiabatic contribution to the observed CMB temperature variance is constrained to 1.3%, 1.7%, and 1.7% at 95% CL for cold dark matter, neutrino density, and neutrino velocity, respectively. Planck power spectra plus lensing set constraints on the amplitude of compensated cold dark matter-baryon isocurvature perturbations that are consistent with current complementary measurements. The polarization data also provide improved constraints on inflationary models that predict a small statistically anisotropic quadupolar modulation of the primordial fluctuations. However, the polarization data do not support physical models for a scale-dependent dipolar modulation. All these findings support the key predictions of the standard single-field inflationary models, which will be further tested by future cosmological observations.
Planck 2018 results Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.; Ashdown, M. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2020, Letnik:
641
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which was dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched on 14 May 2009. It scanned the microwave and submillimetre ...sky continuously between 12 August 2009 and 23 October 2013, producing deep, high-resolution, all-sky maps in nine frequency bands from 30 to 857 GHz. This paper presents the cosmological legacy of Planck , which currently provides our strongest constraints on the parameters of the standard cosmological model and some of the tightest limits available on deviations from that model. The 6-parameter ΛCDM model continues to provide an excellent fit to the cosmic microwave background data at high and low redshift, describing the cosmological information in over a billion map pixels with just six parameters. With 18 peaks in the temperature and polarization angular power spectra constrained well, Planck measures five of the six parameters to better than 1% (simultaneously), with the best-determined parameter ( θ * ) now known to 0.03%. We describe the multi-component sky as seen by Planck , the success of the ΛCDM model, and the connection to lower-redshift probes of structure formation. We also give a comprehensive summary of the major changes introduced in this 2018 release. The Planck data, alone and in combination with other probes, provide stringent constraints on our models of the early Universe and the large-scale structure within which all astrophysical objects form and evolve. We discuss some lessons learned from the Planck mission, and highlight areas ripe for further experimental advances.
Planck 2018 results Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.; Aumont, J. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2020, Letnik:
641
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We describe the legacy
Planck
cosmic microwave background (CMB) likelihoods derived from the 2018 data release. The overall approach is similar in spirit to the one retained for the 2013 and 2015 ...data release, with a hybrid method using different approximations at low (
ℓ
< 30) and high (
ℓ
≥ 30) multipoles, implementing several methodological and data-analysis refinements compared to previous releases. With more realistic simulations, and better correction and modelling of systematic effects, we can now make full use of the CMB polarization observed in the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) channels. The low-multipole
EE
cross-spectra from the 100 GHz and 143 GHz data give a constraint on the ΛCDM reionization optical-depth parameter
τ
to better than 15% (in combination with the
TT
low-
ℓ
data and the high-
ℓ
temperature and polarization data), tightening constraints on all parameters with posterior distributions correlated with
τ
. We also update the weaker constraint on
τ
from the joint TEB likelihood using the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) channels, which was used in 2015 as part of our baseline analysis. At higher multipoles, the CMB temperature spectrum and likelihood are very similar to previous releases. A better model of the temperature-to-polarization leakage and corrections for the effective calibrations of the polarization channels (i.e., the polarization efficiencies) allow us to make full use of polarization spectra, improving the ΛCDM constraints on the parameters
θ
MC
,
ω
c
,
ω
b
, and
H
0
by more than 30%, and n
s
by more than 20% compared to TT-only constraints. Extensive tests on the robustness of the modelling of the polarization data demonstrate good consistency, with some residual modelling uncertainties. At high multipoles, we are now limited mainly by the accuracy of the polarization efficiency modelling. Using our various tests, simulations, and comparison between different high-multipole likelihood implementations, we estimate the consistency of the results to be better than the 0.5
σ
level on the ΛCDM parameters, as well as classical single-parameter extensions for the joint likelihood (to be compared to the 0.3
σ
levels we achieved in 2015 for the temperature data alone on ΛCDM only). Minor curiosities already present in the previous releases remain, such as the differences between the best-fit ΛCDM parameters for the
ℓ
< 800 and
ℓ
> 800 ranges of the power spectrum, or the preference for more smoothing of the power-spectrum peaks than predicted in ΛCDM fits. These are shown to be driven by the temperature power spectrum and are not significantly modified by the inclusion of the polarization data. Overall, the legacy
Planck
CMB likelihoods provide a robust tool for constraining the cosmological model and represent a reference for future CMB observations.
We use Minkowski functionals (MFs) to constrain a primordial non-Gaussian contribution to the cosmic microwave background intensity field as observed in the 150- and 145-GHz BOOMERanG maps from the ...1998 and 2003 flights, respectively, performing for the first time a joint analysis of the two data sets. A perturbative expansion of the MF formulae in the limit of a weakly non-Gaussian field yields analytical formulae, derived by Hikage et al., which can be used to constrain the coupling parameter fNL without the need for non-Gaussian simulations. We find −770 < fNL < 500 at 95 per cent CL, significantly improving the previous constraints by De Troia et al. on the BOOMERanG 2003 data set. These are the best fNL limits to date for suborbital probes.
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