Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Research Articles

High-accuracy emulators for observables in ΛCDM, Neff, Σmν, and w cosmologies

Abstract We use the emulation framework CosmoPower to construct and publicly release neural network emulators of cosmological observables, including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization power spectra, matter power spectrum, distance-redshift relation, baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and redshift-space distortion (RSD) observables, and derived parameters. We train our emulators on Einstein-Boltzmann calculations obtained with high-precision numerical convergence settings, for a wide range of cosmological models including ΛCDM, wCDM, ΛCDM+Neff, and ΛCDM+Σmν. Our CMB emulators are accurate to better than 0.5% out to ℓ = 104 which is sufficient for Stage-IV data analysis, and our P(k) emulators reach the same accuracy level out to k = 50 Mpc−1, which is sufficient for Stage-III data analysis. We release the emulators via an online repository (CosmoPower Organisation), which will be continually updated with additional extended cosmological models. Our emulators accelerate cosmological data analysis by orders of magnitude, enabling cosmological parameter extraction analyses, using current survey data, to be performed on a laptop. We validate our emulators by comparing them to class and camb and by reproducing cosmological parameter constraints derived from Planck TT, TE, EE, and CMB lensing data, as well as from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Data Release 4 CMB data, Dark Energy Survey Year-1 galaxy lensing and clustering data, and Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 BAO and RSD data.

Constraining hot dark matter sub-species with weak lensing and the cosmic microwave background radiation

Although it is well known that the bulk of dark matter (DM) has to be cold, the existence of an additional sub-dominant, hot species remains a valid possibility. In this paper we investigate the potential of the cosmic shear power spectrum to constrain such a mixed (hot plus cold) DM scenario with two additional free parameters, the hot-to-total DM fraction ($f_ hdm $) and the thermal mass of the hot component ($m_ hdm $). Running a Bayesian inference analysis for both the Kilo-Degree Survey cosmic shear data ( as well as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarisation data from Planck we derive new constraints for the mixed DM scenario. We find a 95 per cent confidence limit of $f_ hdm <0.08$ for a very hot species of $m_ hdm eV. This constraint is weakened to hdm <0.25$ for $m_ hdm eV. Scenarios with masses above hdm eV remain unconstrained by the data. Next to providing limits, we investigate the potential of mixed DM to address the clustering (or $S_8$) tension between lensing and the CMB. We find a reduction of the 2D ($ - S_8$) tension from 2.9sigma to 1.6sigma when going from a pure cold DM to a mixed DM scenario. When computing the 1D Gaussian tension on $S_8$ the improvement is milder, from 2.4sigma to 2.0sigma

Betti Functionals as Probes for Cosmic Topology

The question of the global topology of the Universe (cosmic topology) is still open. In the ΛCDM concordance model, it is assumed that the space of the Universe possesses the trivial topology of R3, and thus that the Universe has an infinite volume. As an alternative, in this paper, we study one of the simplest non-trivial topologies given by a cubic 3-torus describing a universe with a finite volume. To probe cosmic topology, we analyze certain structure properties in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using Betti functionals and the Euler characteristic evaluated on excursions sets, which possess a simple geometrical interpretation. Since the CMB temperature fluctuations δT are observed on the sphere S2 surrounding the observer, there are only three Betti functionals βk(ν), k=0,1,2. Here, ν=δT/σ0 denotes the temperature threshold normalized by the standard deviation σ0 of δT. The analytic approximations of the Gaussian expectations for the Betti functionals and an exact formula for the Euler characteristic are given. It is shown that the amplitudes of β0(ν) and β1(ν) decrease with an increasing volume V=L3 of the cubic 3-torus universe. Since the computation of the βk’s from observational sky maps is hindered due to the presence of masks, we suggest a method that yields lower and upper bounds for them and apply it to four Planck 2018 sky maps. It is found that the βk’s of the Planck maps lie between those of the torus universes with side-lengths L=2.0 and L=3.0 in units of the Hubble length and above the infinite ΛCDM case. These results give a further hint that the Universe has a non-trivial topology.

Current and future cosmological impact of microwave background temperature measurements

The redshift dependence of the cosmic microwave background temperature, T(z)=T0(1+z), is a key prediction of standard cosmology, but this relation is violated in many extensions thereof. Current astrophysical facilities can probe it in the redshift range 0≤z≤6.34. We extend recent work by Gelo et al. (2022) showing that for several classes of models (all of which aim to provide alternative mechanisms for the recent acceleration of the universe) the constraining power of these measurements is comparable to that of other background cosmology probes. Specifically, we discuss constraints on two classes of models not considered in the earlier work: a model with torsion and a recently proposed phenomenological dynamical dark energy model which can be thought of as a varying speed of light model. Moreover, for both these models and also for those in the earlier work, we discuss how current constraints may be improved by next-generation ground and space astrophysical facilities. Overall, we conclude that these measurements have a significant cosmological impact, mainly because they often constrain combinations of model parameters that are orthogonal, in the relevant parameter space, to those of other probes.

Enhancing CMB map reconstruction and power spectrum estimation with convolutional neural networks

The accurate reconstruction of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps and the measurement of its power spectrum are crucial for studying the early universe. In this paper, we implement a convolutional neural network to apply the Wiener Filter to CMB temperature maps, and use it intensively to compute an optimal quadratic estimation of the power spectrum. Our neural network has a UNet architecture as that implemented in WienerNet, but with novel aspects such as being written in python 3 and TensorFlow 2. It also includes an extra channel for the noise variance map, to account for inhomogeneous noise, and a channel for the mask. The network is very efficient, overcoming the bottleneck that is typically found in standard methods to compute the Wiener Filter, such as those that apply the conjugate gradient. It scales efficiently with the size of the map, making it a useful tool to include in CMB data analysis. The accuracy of the Wiener Filter reconstruction is satisfactory, as compared with the standard method. We heavily use this approach to efficiently estimate the power spectrum, by performing a simulation-based analysis of the optimal quadratic estimator. We further evaluate the quality of the reconstructed maps in terms of the power spectrum and find that we can properly recover the statistical properties of the signal. We find that the proposed architecture can account for inhomogeneous noise efficiently. Furthermore, increasing the complexity of the variance map presents a more significant challenge for the convergence of the network than the noise level does.

Probing the physics of reionization using kinematic Sunyaev–Zeldovich power spectrum from current and upcoming cosmic microwave background surveys

ABSTRACT The patchiness in the reionization process alters the statistics of cosmic microwave background (CMB), with the kinematic Sunyaev–Zeldovich (kSZ) effect in the CMB temperature power spectrum being a notable consequence. In this work, we aim to explore the potential of future kSZ power spectrum measurements in inferring the details of the reionization process. In this pursuit, we capitalize on the recent developments in foreground mitigation techniques using the Cross-Internal Linear Combination (Cross-ILC) technique, which enables robust detection of the kSZ power spectrum with signal-to-noise ratio roughly 20σ–30σ in this decade by South pole Telescope (SPT-3G) and Simons Observatory (SO); and ≥80σ by CMB-S4 – substantially improving on the recent evidence for kSZ binned at ℓ = 3000 using SPT-SZ + SPTpol surveys. We use a fiducial kSZ power spectrum along with realistic error bars expected from the above technique for SPT-3G, SO, and CMB-S4 to constrain the parameter space for a physical model of reionization. We find that with the improved error bars it will be possible to place stringent constraints on reionization using solely the Cross-ILC recovered SPT-3G kSZ without imposing any prior on τ in the Bayesian inference. Notably, high-fidelity kSZ measurements from CMB-S4 coupled with τ measurements through LiteBIRD will enable unprecedented constraint on the midpoint of reionization with an error bar of ∼0.25 and the duration of reionization with an error bar at ∼0.21 exclusively using CMB data. This study highlights the need to capture kSZ power spectrum on a broad range of multipoles to gain insights into the inhomogeneous reionization era.

Euclid: The search for primordial features

Primordial features, in particular oscillatory signals, imprinted in the primordial power spectrum of density perturbations represent a clear window of opportunity for detecting new physics at high-energy scales. Future spectroscopic and photometric measurements from the Euclid space mission will provide unique constraints on the primordial power spectrum, thanks to the redshift coverage and high-accuracy measurement of nonlinear scales, thus allowing us to investigate deviations from the standard power-law primordial power spectrum. We consider two models with primordial undamped oscillations superimposed on the matter power spectrum described by 1 + 𝒜X sin (ωXΞX + 2 πϕX), one linearly spaced in k space with Ξlin ≡ k/k* where k* = 0.05 Mpc−1 and the other logarithmically spaced in k space with Ξlog ≡ ln(k/k*). We note that 𝒜X is the amplitude of the primordial feature, ωX is the dimensionless frequency, and ϕX is the normalised phase, where X = {lin, log}. We provide forecasts from spectroscopic and photometric primary Euclid probes on the standard cosmological parameters Ωm, 0, Ωb, 0, h, ns, and σ8, and the primordial feature parameters 𝒜X, ωX, and ϕX. We focus on the uncertainties of the primordial feature amplitude 𝒜X and on the capability of Euclid to detect primordial features at a given frequency. We also study a nonlinear density reconstruction method in order to retrieve the oscillatory signals in the primordial power spectrum, which are damped on small scales in the late-time Universe due to cosmic structure formation. Finally, we also include the expected measurements from Euclid’s galaxy-clustering bispectrum and from observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We forecast uncertainties in estimated values of the cosmological parameters with a Fisher matrix method applied to spectroscopic galaxy clustering (GCsp), weak lensing (WL), photometric galaxy clustering (GCph), the cross correlation (XC) between GCph and WL, the spectroscopic galaxy clustering bispectrum, the CMB temperature and E-mode polarisation, the temperature-polarisation cross correlation, and CMB weak lensing. We consider two sets of specifications for the Euclid probes (pessimistic and optimistic) and three different CMB experiment configurations, that is, Planck, Simons Observatory (SO), and CMB Stage-4 (CMB-S4). We find the following percentage relative errors in the feature amplitude with Euclid primary probes: for the linear (logarithmic) feature model, with a fiducial value of 𝒜X = 0.01, ωX = 10, and ϕX = 0: 21% (22%) in the pessimistic settings and 18% (18%) in the optimistic settings at a 68.3% confidence level (CL) using GCsp+WL+GCph+XC. While the uncertainties on the feature amplitude are strongly dependent on the frequency value when single Euclid probes are considered, we find robust constraints on 𝒜X from the combination of spectroscopic and photometric measurements over the frequency range of (1, 102.1). Due to the inclusion of numerical reconstruction, the GCsp bispectrum, SO-like CMB reduces the uncertainty on the primordial feature amplitude by 32%–48%, 50%–65%, and 15%–50%, respectively. Combining all the sources of information explored expected from Euclid in combination with the future SO-like CMB experiment, we forecast 𝒜lin ≃ 0.010 ± 0.001 at a 68.3% CL and 𝒜log ≃ 0.010 ± 0.001 for GCsp(PS rec + BS)+WL+GCph+XC+SO-like for both the optimistic and pessimistic settings over the frequency range (1, 102.1).

CMB, Hawking, Planck, and Hubble Scale Relations Consistent with Recent Quantization of General Relativity Theory

We are demonstrating new relationships among the Hawking temperature, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature, and the Planck scale. When understood deeply, these are in line with recent advancements in cosmological quantization and its connection to the Planck scale. This is also completely consistent with a recently published method for quantizing Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Beyond [formula omitted]CDM with [formula omitted]CDM: Criticalities and solutions of Padé Cosmography

Recently, cosmography emerged as a valuable tool to effectively describe the vast amount of astrophysical observations without relying on a specific cosmological model. Its model-independent nature ensures a faithful representation of data, free from theoretical biases. Indeed, the commonly assumed fiducial model, the ΛCDM, shows some shortcomings and tensions between data at late and early times that need to be further investigated. In this paper, we explore an extension of the standard cosmological model by adopting the f(z)CDM approach, where f(z) represents the cosmographic series characterizing the evolution of recent universe driven by dark energy. To construct f(z), we take into account the Padé series, since this rational polynomial approximation offers a better convergence at high redshifts than the standard Taylor series expansion. Several orders of such an approximant have been proposed in previous works, here we want to answer the questions: What is the impact of the cosmographic series choice on the parameter constraints? Which series is the best for the analysis? So, we analyze the most promising ones by identifying which order is preferred in terms of stability and goodness of fit. Theoretical predictions of the f(z)CDM model are obtained by the Boltzmann solver code and the posterior distributions of the cosmological and cosmographic parameters are constrained by a Monte Carlo Markov Chains analysis. We consider a joint data set of cosmic microwave background temperature measurements from the Planck collaboration, type Ia supernovae data from the latest Pantheon+ sample, baryonic acoustic oscillations and cosmic chronometers data. In conclusions, we state which series can be used when only late time data are used, while which orders has to be considered in order to achieve the necessary stability when large redshifts are considered.

Constraining cosmic reionization by combining the kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich and the 21 cm power spectra

ABSTRACT During the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), the ultraviolet radiation from the first stars and galaxies ionized the neutral hydrogen of the intergalactic medium, which can emit radiation through its 21 cm hyperfine transition. Measuring the 21 cm power spectrum is a key science goal for the future Square Kilometre Array (SKA); however, observing and interpreting it is a challenging task. Another high-potential probe of the EoR is the patchy kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (pkSZ) effect, observed as a foreground to the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies on small scales. Despite recent promising measurements, placing constraints on reionization from pkSZ observations is a non-trivial task, subject to strong model dependence. We propose to alleviate the difficulties in observing and interpreting the 21 cm and pkSZ power spectra by combining them. With a simple yet effective parametric model that establishes a formal connection between them, we can jointly fit mock 21 cm and pkSZ data points. We confirm that these observables provide complementary information on reionization, leading to significantly improved constraints when combined. We demonstrate that with as few as two measurements of the 21 cm power spectrum with 100 h of observations with the SKA, as well as a single ℓ = 3000 pkSZ data point, we can reconstruct the reionization history of the universe and its morphology. We find that the reionization history (morphology) is better constrained with two 21 cm measurements at different redshifts (scales). Therefore, a combined analysis of the two probes will give access to tighter constraints on cosmic reionization even in the early stages of 21 cm detections.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the DR6 CMB Lensing Power Spectrum and Its Implications for Structure Growth

We present new measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing over 9400 deg2 of the sky. These lensing measurements are derived from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) CMB data set, which consists of five seasons of ACT CMB temperature and polarization observations. We determine the amplitude of the CMB lensing power spectrum at 2.3% precision (43σ significance) using a novel pipeline that minimizes sensitivity to foregrounds and to noise properties. To ensure that our results are robust, we analyze an extensive set of null tests, consistency tests, and systematic error estimates and employ a blinded analysis framework. Our CMB lensing power spectrum measurement provides constraints on the amplitude of cosmic structure that do not depend on Planck or galaxy survey data, thus giving independent information about large-scale structure growth and potential tensions in structure measurements. The baseline spectrum is well fit by a lensing amplitude of A lens = 1.013 ± 0.023 relative to the Planck 2018 CMB power spectra best-fit ΛCDM model and A lens = 1.005 ± 0.023 relative to the ACT DR4 + WMAP best-fit model. From our lensing power spectrum measurement, we derive constraints on the parameter combination S8CMBL≡σ8Ωm/0.30.25 of S8CMBL=0.818±0.022 from ACT DR6 CMB lensing alone and S8CMBL=0.813±0.018 when combining ACT DR6 and Planck NPIPE CMB lensing power spectra. These results are in excellent agreement with ΛCDM model constraints from Planck or ACT DR4 + WMAP CMB power spectrum measurements. Our lensing measurements from redshifts z ∼ 0.5–5 are thus fully consistent with ΛCDM structure growth predictions based on CMB anisotropies probing primarily z ∼ 1100. We find no evidence for a suppression of the amplitude of cosmic structure at low redshifts.

Cosmology and fundamental physics with the ELT-ANDES spectrograph

State-of-the-art 19th century spectroscopy led to the discovery of quantum mechanics, and 20th century spectroscopy led to the confirmation of quantum electrodynamics. State-of-the-art 21st century astrophysical spectrographs, especially ANDES at ESO’s ELT, have another opportunity to play a key role in the search for, and characterization of, the new physics which is known to be out there, waiting to be discovered. We rely on detailed simulations and forecast techniques to discuss four important examples of this point: big bang nucleosynthesis, the evolution of the cosmic microwave background temperature, tests of the universality of physical laws, and a real-time model-independent mapping of the expansion history of the universe (also known as the redshift drift). The last two are among the flagship science drivers for the ELT. We also highlight what is required for the ESO community to be able to play a meaningful role in 2030s fundamental cosmology and show that, even if ANDES only provides null results, such ‘minimum guaranteed science’ will be in the form of constraints on key cosmological paradigms: these are independent from, and can be competitive with, those obtained from traditional cosmological probes.

Patchy screening of the CMB from dark photons

We study anisotropic (patchy) screening induced by the resonant conversion of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons into dark-sector massive vector bosons (dark photons) as they cross non-linear large scale structure (LSS). Resonant conversion takes place through the kinetic mixing of the photon with the dark photon, one of the simplest low energy extensions to the Standard Model. In the early Universe, resonant conversion can occur when the photon plasma mass, obtained as the photon propagates through the ionized interstellar and intergalactic media, matches the dark photon mass. After the epoch of reionization, resonant conversion occurs mainly in the ionized gas that occupies virialized dark matter halos, for a range of dark photon masses between 10-13 eV ≲ m A' ≲ 10-11 eV. This leads to new CMB anisotropies that are correlated with LSS, which we refer to as patchy dark screening, in analogy with anisotropies from Thomson screening. Its unique frequency dependence allows it to be distinguished from the blackbody CMB. In this paper, we use a halo model approach to predict the imprint of dark screening on the CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, as well as their correlation with LSS. We then examine the two- and three-point correlation functions of the dark-screened CMB, as well as correlation functions between CMB and LSS observables, to project the sensitivity of future measurements to the kinetic mixing parameter and dark photon mass. We demonstrate that an analysis with existing CMB data can improve upon current constraints on the kinetic mixing parameter by two orders of magnitude with the two-point correlation functions, while data from upcoming CMB experiments and LSS surveys can further improve the reach by another order of magnitude with two- and three-point correlation functions.

Correspondence Principle for Empirical Equations in Terms of the Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature with Solid-State Ionics

Correspondence Principle for Empirical Equations in Terms of the Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature with Solid-State Ionics

Ratio of Gravitational Force to Electric Force from Empirical Equations in Terms of the Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature

Ratio of Gravitational Force to Electric Force from Empirical Equations in Terms of the Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature

The CMB Cold Spot as predicted by foregrounds around nearby galaxies

Context. The non-Gaussian Cold Spot surrounded by its hot ring is one of the most striking features of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and has generated significant attention in the literature. It has been speculated that either new physics or the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect induced by the presence of a cosmic void at relatively high redshift could account for the observations. Aims. Here, we investigate if the newly discovered systematic decrease in the CMB temperature in the neighbourhood of nearby galaxies may create such a strong temperature depression. In particular, we note that the largest galaxy group complex in the local Universe, the Eridanus super-group with its neighbouring groups, is in the Cold Spot area. Our goal is to analyse observational galaxy data to characterise the neighbourhood of the Cold Spot, explore the properties of these galaxies, and thereby make a prediction of the galaxy induced CMB temperature decrement in this region. Methods. We used the Planck SMICA maps, and as foreground tracers, galaxies from the publicly available observational catalogues: 2MRS, 6dF, and HIPASS, which include information on redshifts, positions, magnitudes, and other astrophysical characteristics. We applied previously explored mean temperature profile shapes to model the expected temperature decrement from the galaxies in the Cold Spot area. Results. Even after correcting for the mean low temperature of the Cold Spot region, we find that the temperature decrement around galaxies is significantly stronger than the mean decrement in other parts of the sky. We discuss whether this could be attributed to the fact that the Cold Spot area coincides with one of the regions populated by the most HI deficient galaxies. Modeling the foreground temperature profile that is mainly associated with spiral galaxies in this location, we find a particularly strong temperature decrement due to the presence of the late-type overabundant largest group complex in the nearby universe. A Cold Spot shape that largely overlaps with the CMB Cold Spot is observed. Conclusions. We conclude that the coincidence of the only nearby spiral-rich group complex located in the Cold Spot region, and the success of the modelling performed, adds strong evidence to the existence of a local extragalactic foreground that may account for the observed temperature depression, alleviating the tension with the Gaussian field that is otherwise expected in the CMB.

Frequency–Redshift Relation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

We point out that a modified temperature–redshift relation (T-z relation) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) cannot be deduced by any observational method that appeals to an a priori thermalisation to the CMB temperature T of the excited states in a probe environment of independently determined redshift z. For example, this applies to quasar-light absorption by a damped Lyman-alpha system due to atomic as well as ionic fine-splitting transitions or molecular rotational bands. Similarly, the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (thSZ) effect cannot be used to extract the CMB’s T-z relation. This is because the relative line strengths between ground and excited states in the former and the CMB spectral distortion in the latter case both depend, apart from environment-specific normalisations, solely on the dimensionless spectral variable x=hνkBT. Since the literature on extractions of the CMB’s T-z relation always assumes (i) ν(z)=(1+z)ν(z=0), where ν(z=0) is the observed frequency in the heliocentric rest frame, the finding (ii) T(z)=(1+z)T(z=0) just confirms the expected blackbody nature of the interacting CMB at z>0. In contrast to the emission of isolated, directed radiation, whose frequency–redshift relation (ν-z relation) is subject to (i), a non-conventional ν-z relation ν(z)=f(z)ν(z=0) of pure, isotropic blackbody radiation, subject to adiabatically slow cosmic expansion, necessarily has to follow that of the T-z relation T(z)=f(z)T(z=0) and vice versa. In general, the function f(z) is determined by the energy conservation of the CMB fluid in a Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker universe. If the pure CMB is subject to an SU(2) rather than a U(1) gauge principle, then f(z)=1/41/3(1+z) for z≫1, and f(z) is non-linear for z∼1.

Spectro-spatial evolution of the CMB. Part I. Discretisation of the thermalisation Green's function

Spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have been recognized as an important future probe of the early Universe. Existing theoretical studies primarily focused on describing the evolution and creation of average distortions, ignoring spatial perturbations in the plasma. One of the main reasons for this choice is that a treatment of the spectro-spatial evolution of the photon field deep into the primordial Universe requires solving a radiative transfer problem for the distortion signals, which in full detail is computationally challenging. Here we provide the first crucial step towards tackling this problem by formulating a new spectral discretisation of the underlying average thermalisation Green's function. Our approach allows us to convert the high-dimensional partial differential equation system (≃ 103–104 equations) into and set of ordinary differential equations of much lower dimension (≃ 10 equations). We demonstrate the precision of the approach and highlight how it may be further improved in the future. We also clarify the link of the observable spectral distortion parameters (e.g., μ and y) to the computational spectral basis that we use in our frequency discretisation. This reveals how several basis-dependent ambiguities can be interpreted in future CMB analysis. Even if not exact, the new Green's function discretisation can be used to formulate a generalised photon Boltzmann-hierarchy, which can then be solved with methods that are familiar from theoretical studies of the CMB temperature and polarisation anisotropies. We will carry this program out in a series of companion papers, thereby opening the path to full spectro-spatial exploration of the CMB with future CMB imagers and spectrometers.

COSMOGLOBE DR1 results

We present COSMOGLOBEData Release 1, which implements the first joint analysis of WMAP andPlanckLFI time-ordered data, processed within a single Bayesian end-to-end framework. This framework directly builds on a similar analysis of the LFI measurements by the BEYONDPLANCKcollaboration, and approaches the cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis challenge through Gibbs sampling of a global posterior distribution, simultaneously accounting for calibration, mapmaking, and component separation. The computational cost of producing one complete WMAP+LFI Gibbs sample is 812 CPU-h, of which 603 CPU-h are spent on WMAP low-level processing; this demonstrates that end-to-end Bayesian analysis of the WMAP data is computationally feasible. We find that our WMAP posterior mean temperature sky maps and CMB temperature power spectrum are largely consistent with the official WMAP9 results. Perhaps the most notable difference is that our CMB dipole amplitude is 3366.2 ± 1.4 μK, which is 11 μK higher than the WMAP9 estimate and 2.5σhigher than BEYONDPLANCK; however, it is in perfect agreement with the HFI-dominatedPlanckPR4 result. In contrast, our WMAP polarization maps differ more notably from the WMAP9 results, and in general exhibit significantly lower large-scale residuals. We attribute this to a better constrained gain and transmission imbalance model. It is particularly noteworthy that theW-band polarization sky map, which was excluded from the official WMAP cosmological analysis, for the first time appears visually consistent with theV-band sky map. Similarly, the long standing discrepancy between the WMAPK-band and LFI 30 GHz maps is finally resolved, and the difference between the two maps appears consistent with instrumental noise at high Galactic latitudes. Relatedly, these updated maps allowed us for the first time to combine WMAP and LFI polarization data into a single coherent model of large-scale polarized synchrotron emission. Still, we identified a few issues that require additional work, including (1) low-level noise modeling; (2) large-scale temperature residuals at the 1–2 μK level; and (3) a strong degeneracy between the absoluteK-band calibration and the dipole of the anomalous microwave emission component. We conclude that leveraging the complementary strengths of WMAP and LFI has allowed the mitigation of both experiments’ weaknesses, and resulted in new state-of-the-art WMAP sky maps. All maps and the associated code are made publicly available through the COSMOGLOBEweb page.

Combining chirp mass, luminosity distance, and sky localization from gravitational wave events to detect the cosmic dipole

ABSTRACT A key test of the isotropy of the Universe on large scales consists in comparing the dipole in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature with the dipole in the distribution of sources at low redshift. Current analyses find a dipole in the number counts of quasars and radio sources that is 2–5 times larger than expected from the CMB, leading to a tension reaching 5σ. In this paper, we derive a consistent framework to measure the dipole independently from gravitational wave (GW) detections. We exploit the fact that the observer velocity does not only change the distribution of events in the sky, but also the luminosity distance and redshifted chirp mass, which can be extracted from the GW waveform. We show that the estimator with higher signal-to-noise ratio is the dipole in the chirp mass measured from a population of binary neutron stars. Combining all estimators (accounting for their covariance) improves the detectability of the dipole by 30–50 per cent compared to number counting of binary black holes alone. We find that a few 106 events are necessary to detect a dipole consistent with the CMB one, whereas if the dipole is as large as predicted by radio sources, it will already be detectable with 105 events, which would correspond to a single year of observation with next-generation GW detectors. GW sources provide therefore a robust and independent way of testing the isotropy of the Universe.