Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Research Articles

Varying fundamental constants principal component analysis: additional hints about the Hubble tension

ABSTRACT Varying fundamental constants (VFC; e.g. the fine-structure constant, αEM) can arise in numerous extended cosmologies. Through their effect on the decoupling of baryons and photons during last scattering and reionization, these models can be directly constrained using measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies. Previous investigations focused mainly on time-independent changes to the values of fundamental constants. Here we generalize to time-dependent variations. Instead of directly studying various VFC parametrizations, we perform a model-independent principal component analysis (PCA), directly using an eigenmode decomposition of the varying constant during recombination. After developing the formalism, we use Planck 2018 data to obtain new VFC limits, showing that three independent VFC modes can be constrained at present. No indications for significant departures from the standard model are found with Planck data. Cosmic variance limited modes are also compared and simple forecasts for the Simons Observatory are carried out, showing that in the future improvements of the current constraints by a factor of ≃3 can be anticipated. Our modes focus solely on VFC at redshifts z ≥ 300. This implies that they do not capture some of the degrees of freedom relating to the reionization era. This aspect provides important new insights into the possible origin of the Hubble tension, hinting that indeed a combined modification of recombination and reionization physics could be at work. An extended PCA, covering both recombination and reionization simultaneously, could shed more light on this question, as we emphasize here.

Evolution of CMB temperature in a Chaplygin gas model from deep learning perspective

Evolution of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation temperature is investigated in the context of modified generalized Chaplygin gas (mgCG) model with a Deep Neural Network (DNN) analysis. First, we reconstruct a new formulation for the temperature-red shift relation of the CMB photons and then find out the best-fitting values of the arbitrary parameters introduced in the model via the help of a neural network mechanism including the genetic algorithm (GA) and the Fisher information matrix (FIM) approach (we name this mechanism as the genetic Fisher algorithm or shortly the GFA) by considering astrophysical measurements given in literature for some galaxy cluster and quasar samples. Subsequently, we apply the long short-term memory plus Dropout (LSTMD) neural network approach, which is emerging as a solution for problematic issues in the DNN investigations (e.g. the over-fitting), to well-known astrophysical parameters. In view of the presented conclusions, the whole mechanism comes forward as a new up and coming step on how one can cultivate a new neural network that can calculate its own confidence region. In addition to this, it is significant to emphasize here that the promising approach helps to decrease the computational load of pricey codes for astrophysical models and probes the necessity of alternative CMB radiation temperature models. As a result, we prove that the fitted form of our model is in very good agreement with the observational data. • We constructed a new theoretical model for the evolution CMB radiation temperature. • New model was fitted by making use of the recent observational data. • The fitting process was improved with the help of deep learning analysis. • The fitted model agrees with the current experimental data and the Λ CDM cosmology. • We showed that deep learning algorithms can take crucial roles in astrophysics.

Most constraining cosmological neutrino mass bounds

We present here up-to-date neutrino mass limits exploiting the most recent cosmological data sets. By making use of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuation and polarization measurements, supernovae Ia luminosity distances, baryon acoustic oscillation observations and determinations of the growth rate parameter, we are able to set the most constraining bound to date, $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}<0.09\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ at 95% C.L. This very tight limit is obtained without the assumption of any prior on the value of the Hubble constant and highly compromises the viability of the inverted mass ordering as the underlying neutrino mass pattern in nature. The results obtained here further strengthen the case for very large multitracer spectroscopic surveys as unique laboratories for cosmological relics, such as neutrinos: that would be the case of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey and of the Euclid mission.

An unbiased estimator of the full-sky CMB angular power spectrum at large scales using neural networks

ABSTRACT Accurate estimation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular power spectrum is enticing due to the prospect for precision cosmology it presents. Galactic foreground emissions, however, contaminate the CMB signal and need to be subtracted reliably in order to lessen systematic errors on the CMB temperature estimates. Typically, bright foregrounds in a region lead to further uncertainty in temperature estimates in the area even after some foreground removal technique is performed and hence determining the underlying full-sky angular power spectrum poses a challenge. We explore the feasibility of utilizing artificial neural networks to predict the angular power spectrum of the full-sky CMB temperature maps from the observed angular power spectrum of the partial sky in which CMB temperatures in some bright foreground regions are masked. We present our analysis at large angular scales with two different masks. We produce unbiased predictions of the full-sky angular power spectrum and recover the underlying theoretical power spectrum using neural networks. Our predictions are also uncorrelated to a large extent. We further show that the multipole-space covariances of the predictions of full-sky spectra made by the artificial neural networks are much smaller than those of the estimates obtained using the pseudo-Cℓ method.

Does standard cosmology really predict the cosmic microwave background?

In standard Big Bang cosmology, the universe expanded from a very dense, hot and opaque initial state. The light that was last scattered about 380,000 years later, when the universe had become transparent, has been redshifted and is now seen as thermal radiation with a temperature of 2.7 K, the cosmic microwave background (CMB). However, since light escapes faster than matter can move, it is prudent to ask how we, made of matter from this very source, can still see the light. In order for this to be possible, the light must take a return path of the right length. A curved return path is possible in spatially closed, balloon-like models, but in standard cosmology, the universe is "flat" rather than balloon-like, and it lacks a boundary surface that might function as a reflector. Under these premises, radiation that once filled the universe homogeneously cannot do so permanently after expansion, and we cannot see the last scattering event. It is shown that the traditional calculation of the CMB temperature is inappropriate and that light emitted by any source inside the Big Bang universe earlier than half its "conformal age" can only become visible to us via a return path. Although often advanced as the best evidence for a hot Big Bang, the CMB actually tells against a formerly smaller universe and so do also distant galaxies.

Constraining reionization with the first measurement of the cross-correlation between the CMB optical-depth fluctuations and the Compton y -map

We propose a new reionization probe that uses cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations; the cross-correlation between fluctuations in the CMB optical depth which probes the integrated electron density, $\delta\tau$, and the Compton $y$-map which probes the integrated electron pressure. This cross-correlation is much less contaminated than the $y$-map power spectrum by late-time cluster contributions. In addition, this cross-correlation can constrain the temperature of ionized bubbles while the optical-depth fluctuations and kinetic SZ effect can not. We measure this new observable using a Planck $y$-map as well as a map of optical-depth fluctuations that we reconstruct from Planck CMB temperature data. We use our measurements to derive a first CMB-only upper limit on the temperature inside ionized bubbles, $T_{\rm b}\lesssim 7.0\times10^5\,$K ($2\,\sigma$). We also present future forecasts, assuming a fiducial model with characteristic reionization bubble size $R_{\rm b}=5\,$Mpc and $T_{\rm b}=5\times10^4\,$K. The signal-to-noise ratio of the fiducial cross-correlation using a signal dominated PICO-like $y$-map becomes $\simeq7$ with CMB-S4 $\delta\tau$ and $\simeq13$ with CMB-HD $\delta\tau$. For the fiducial model, we predict that the CMB-HD $-$ PICO cross-correlation should achieve an accurate measurement of the reionization parameters; $T_{\rm b}\simeq 49800^{+4500}_{-5100}\,$K and $R_{\rm b}\simeq 5.09^{+0.66}_{-0.79}\,$Mpc. Since the power spectrum of the electron density fluctuations is constrained by the $\delta\tau$ auto spectrum, the temperature constraints should be only weakly model-dependent on the details of the electron distributions and should be statistically representative of the temperature in ionized bubbles during reionization. This cross-correlation could, therefore, become an important observable for future CMB experiments.

Disentangling Doppler modulation, aberration and the temperature dipole in the CMB

An observer in relative motion to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) rest frame is sensitive to both aberration and Doppler effects. Both effects introduce similar but non-identical off-diagonal couplings in the spherical harmonic coefficients. The CMB temperature dipole may have additional contributions from an intrinsic component, which in turn produces different aberration and Doppler couplings. Moreover, the standard conversion from intensity measurements into temperature also introduces spurious Doppler-like couplings. In order to learn about the intrinsic dipole it is therefore important to measure both aberration and Doppler couplings in an independent manner while also removing the spurious contributions from unit conversion, which are degenerate with the dipole. Here we present a pipeline to measure the Doppler and aberration signal independently from each other and from the dipole itself. We also consider realistic beaming, noise and mask effects. Our pipeline results in independent and unbiased estimators which have uncertainties only ~20% larger than the simple theoretical expectations. We discuss the achievable precision in each measurement for Planck 2018, and also forecast them for future ground-based experiments with the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4. An alternative pipeline is presented in order to cross-check results and improve robustness.

The galaxy power spectrum take on spatial curvature and cosmic concordance

The concordance of the Λ CDM cosmological model in light of current observations has been the subject of an intense debate in recent months. The 2018 Planck Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy power spectrum measurements appear at face value to favour a spatially closed Universe with curvature parameter Ω K < 0 . This preference disappears if Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements are combined with Planck data to break the geometrical degeneracy, although the reliability of this combination has been questioned due to the strong tension present between the two datasets when assuming a curved Universe. Here, we approach this issue from yet another point of view, using measurements of the full-shape (FS) galaxy power spectrum, P ( k ) , from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR12 CMASS sample. By combining Planck data with FS measurements, we break the geometrical degeneracy and find Ω K = 0 . 0023 ± 0 . 0028 . This constrains the Universe to be spatially flat to sub-percent precision, in excellent agreement with results obtained using BAO measurements. However, as with BAO, the overall increase in the best-fit χ 2 suggests a similar level of tension between Planck and P ( k ) under the assumption of a curved Universe. While the debate on spatial curvature and the concordance between cosmological datasets remains open, our results provide new perspectives on the issue, highlighting the crucial role of FS measurements in the era of precision cosmology.

J-PAS: forecasts on interacting vacuum energy models

The next generation of galaxy surveys will allow us to test some fundamental aspects of the standard cosmological model, including the assumption of a minimal coupling between the components of the dark sector. In this paper, we present the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) forecasts on a class of unified models where cold dark matter interacts with a vacuum energy, considering future observations of baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift-space distortions, and the matter power spectrum. After providing a general framework to study the background and linear perturbations, we focus on a concrete interacting model without momentum exchange by taking into account the contribution of baryons. We compare the J-PAS results with those expected for DESI and Euclid surveys and show that J-PAS is competitive to them, especially at low redshifts. Indeed, the predicted errors for the interaction parameter, which measures the departure from a ΛCDM model, can be comparable to the actual errors derived from the current data of cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies.

The intrinsic bispectrum of the CMB from isocurvature initial conditions

Non-linear effects in the early Universe generate non-zero bispectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization, even in the absence of primordial non-Gaussianity. In this paper, we compute the contributions from isocurvature modes to the CMB bispectra using a modified version of the second-order Boltzmann solver SONG. We investigate the ability of current and future CMB experiments to constrain these modes with observations of the bispectrum. Our results show that the enhancement due to single isocurvature modes mixed with the adiabatic mode is negligible for the parameter ranges currently allowed by the most recent Planck results. However, we find that a large compensated isocurvature mode can produce a detectable bispectrum when its correlation with the adiabatic mode is appreciable. The non-observation of this contribution in searches for the lensing bispectrum from Planck allows us to place a new constraint on the relative amplitude of the correlated part of the compensated isocurvature mode of f CIP = 1±100. We compute forecasts for future observations by COrE, SO, CMB-S4 and an ideal experiment and conclude that a dedicated search for the bispectrum from compensated modes could rule out a number of scenarios realised in the curvaton model. In addition, the CMB-S4 experiment could detect the most extreme of those scenarios (f CIP = 16.5) at 2 to 3-σ significance.

Cosmology with the Planck T−E correlation coefficient

Tensions in cosmological parameters measurement motivate a revisit of the effects of instrumental systematics. In this article, we focus on the Pearson's correlation coefficient of the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization E modes $\mathcal{R}_\ell^{\rm TE}$ which has the property of not being biased by multiplicative instrumental systematics. We build a $\mathcal{R}_\ell^{\rm TE}$-based likelihood for the Planck data, and present the first constraints on $\Lambda$CDM parameters from the correlation coefficient. Our results are compatible with parameters derived from a power spectra based likelihood. In particular the value of the Hubble parameter $H_0$ characterizing the expansion of the Universe today, 67.5 $\pm$ 1.3 km/s/Mpc, is consistent with the ones inferred from standard CMB analysis. We also discuss the consistency of the Planck correlation coefficient with the one computed from the most recent ACTPol power spectra.

Instrumental systematics biases in CMB lensing reconstruction: A simulation-based assessment

Weak gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is an important cosmological tool that allows us to learn about the structure, composition and evolution of the Universe. Upcoming CMB experiments, such as the Simons Observatory (SO), will provide high-resolution and low-noise CMB measurements. We consider the impact of instrumental systematics on the corresponding high-precision lensing reconstruction power spectrum measurements. We simulate CMB temperature and polarization maps for an SO-like instrument and potential scanning strategy, and explore systematics relating to beam asymmetries and offsets, boresight pointing, polarization angle, gain drifts, gain calibration and electric crosstalk. Our analysis shows that the majority of the biases induced by the systematics we modeled are below a detection level of $\ensuremath{\sim}0.6\ensuremath{\sigma}$. We discuss potential mitigation techniques to further reduce the impact of the more significant systematics, and pave the way for future lensing-related systematics analyses.

Bayesian evidence for the tensor-to-scalar ratiorand neutrino massesmν: Effects of uniform versus logarithmic priors

We review the effect that the choice of a uniform or logarithmic prior has on the Bayesian evidence and hence on Bayesian model comparisons when data provide only a one-sided bound on a parameter. We investigate two particular examples: the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ of primordial perturbations and the mass of individual neutrinos ${m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}$, using the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization data from Planck 2018 and the NuFIT 5.0 data from neutrino oscillation experiments. We argue that the Kullback--Leibler divergence, also called the relative entropy, mathematically quantifies the Occam penalty. We further show how the Bayesian evidence stays invariant upon changing the lower prior bound of an upper constrained parameter. While a uniform prior on the tensor-to-scalar ratio disfavors the $r$ extension compared to the base $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model with odds of about $1\ensuremath{\mathbin:}20$, switching to a logarithmic prior renders both models essentially equally likely. $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ with a single massive neutrino is favored over an extension with variable neutrino masses with odds of $20\ensuremath{\mathbin:}1$ in case of a uniform prior on the lightest neutrino mass, which decreases to roughly $2\ensuremath{\mathbin:}1$ for a logarithmic prior. For both prior options we get only a very slight preference for the normal over the inverted neutrino hierarchy with Bayesian odds of about $3\ensuremath{\mathbin:}2$ at most.

Cosmological constraints on Hořava gravity revised in light of GW170817 and GRB170817A and the degeneracy with massive neutrinos

We revise the cosmological bounds on Ho\v{r}ava gravity taking into accounts the stringent constraint on the speed of propagation of gravitational waves from GW170817 and GRB170817A. In light of this we also investigate the degeneracy between massive neutrinos and Ho\v{r}ava gravity. We show that a luminal propagation of gravitational waves suppresses the large-scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation temperature anisotropies and the presence of massive neutrinos increases this effect. On the contrary large neutrinos mass can compensate the modifications induced by Ho\v{r}ava gravity in the lensing, matter and primordial B-mode power spectra. Another degeneracy is found, at theoretical level, between the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and massive neutrinos as well as with the model's parameters. We analyze these effects using CMB, supernovae type Ia (SNIa), galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing measurements and we show how such degeneracies are removed. We find that the model's parameters are constrained to be very close to their General Relativity limits and we get a two orders of magnitude improved upper bound, with respect to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constraint, on the deviation of the effective gravitational constant from the Newtonian one. The deviance information criterion suggests that in Ho\v{r}ava gravity $\Sigma m_\nu>0$ is favored when CMB data only are considered, while the joint analysis of all datasets prefers zero neutrinos mass.

Precise and accurate cosmology with CMB×LSS power spectra and bispectra

With the advent of a new generation of cosmological experiments that will provide high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and galaxies in the large-scale structure, it is pertinent to examine the potential of performing a joint analysis of multiple cosmological probes. In this paper, we study the cosmological information content contained in the one-loop power spectra and tree bispectra of galaxies cross-correlated with CMB lensing. We use the FFTLog method to compute angular correlations in spherical harmonic space, applicable for wide angles that can be accessed by forthcoming galaxy surveys. We find that adding the bispectra and cross-correlations with CMB lensing offers a significant improvement in parameter constraints, including those on the total neutrino mass, Mν, and local non-Gaussianity amplitude, . In particular, our results suggest that the combination of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and CMB-S4 will be able to achieve σ(Mν)=42 meV from galaxy and CMB lensing correlations, and σ(Mν)=12 meV when further combined with the CMB temperature and polarization data, without any prior on the optical depth.

Easing cosmic tensions with an open and hotter universe

Despite the great observational success of the standard cosmological model some discrepancies in the inferred parameter constraints have manifested among a number of cosmological data sets. These include a tension between the expansion rate of our Cosmos as inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and as found from local measurements, the preference for an enhanced amplitude of CMB lensing, a somewhat low quadrupole moment of the CMB fluctuations as well as a preference for a lower amplitude of matter fluctuations in large-scale structure surveys than inferred from the CMB. We analyse these observational tensions under the addition of spatial curvature and a free CMB background temperature that may deviate from its locally measured value. With inclusion of these parameters, we observe a trend in the parameter constraints from CMB and baryon acoustic oscillation data towards an open and hotter universe with larger current expansion rate, standard CMB lensing amplitudes, lower amplitude of matter fluctuations, and marginally lower CMB quadrupole moment, consistently reducing the individual tensions among the cosmological data sets. Combining this data with local distance measurements, we find a preference for an open and hotter universe beyond the 99.7% confidence level. Finally, we briefly discuss a local void as a possible source for a deviation of the locally measured CMB temperature from its background value and as mimic of negative spatial curvature for CMB photons. This interpretation implies a $\sim$20% underdensity in our local neighbourhood of $\sim$10-100 Mpc in diameter, which is well within cosmic variance.

Quadratic estimators for CMB weak lensing

In recent years, weak lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has emerged as a powerful tool to probe fundamental physics, such as neutrino masses, primordial non-Gaussianity, dark energy, and modified gravity. The prime target of CMB lensing surveys is the lensing potential, which is reconstructed from observed CMB temperature $T$ and polarization $E$ and $B$ fields. Until very recently, this reconstruction has been performed with quadratic estimators (QEs), which, although known to be suboptimal for high-sensitivity experiments, are numerically efficient, and useful to make forecasts and cross-check the results of more sophisticated likelihood-based methods. It is expected that ongoing and near-future CMB experiments such as AdvACT, SPT-3G and the Simons Observatory (SO), will also rely on QEs. Here, we review different QEs, and clarify their differences. In particular, we show that the Hu-Okamoto (HO02) estimator is not the absolute optimal lensing estimator that can be constructed out of quadratic combinations of $T, E$ and $B$ fields. Instead, we derive the global-minimum-variance (GMV) lensing quadratic estimator. Although this estimator can be found elsewhere in the literature, it was erroneously described as equivalent to the HO02 estimator, and has never been used in real data analyses. Here, we show explicitly that the HO02 estimator is suboptimal to the GMV estimator, with a reconstruction noise larger by up to $\sim 9\%$ for a SO-like experiment. We further show that the QE used in the Planck, and recent SPT lensing analysis are suboptimal to both the HO02 and GMV estimator, and would have a reconstruction noise up to $\sim 11\%$ larger than that of the GMV estimator for a SO-like experiment. In addition to clarifying differences between different QEs, this work should thus provide motivation to implement the GMV estimator in future lensing analyses relying on QEs.

Lensing contribution to the 21 cm intensity bispectrum

Intensity maps of the 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen are lensed by intervening large-scale structure, similar to the lensing of the cosmic microwave background temperature map. We extend previous work by calculating the lensing contribution to the full-sky 21 cm bispectrum in redshift space. The lensing contribution tends to peak when equal-redshift fluctuations are lensed by a lower redshift fluctuation. At high redshift, lensing effects can become comparable to the contributions from density and redshift-space distortions.

Monopole fluctuation of the CMB and its gauge invariance

The standard theoretical description $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Theta}}(\stackrel{^}{n})$ of the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies is gauge dependent. It is, however, well known that the gauge mode is limited to the monopole and that the higher angular multipoles ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Theta}}}_{l}$ ($l\ensuremath{\ge}1$) are gauge invariant. Several attempts have been made in the past to properly define the monopole fluctuation, but the resulting values of the monopole power ${C}_{0}$ are infinite due to the infrared divergences. The infrared divergences arise from the contribution of the uniform gravitational potential to the monopole fluctuation, in violation of the equivalence principle. Here we present the gauge-invariant theoretical description of the observed CMB temperature anisotropies and compute the monopole power ${C}_{0}=1.66\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}$ in a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model. While the gauge dependence in the standard calculations originates from the ambiguity in defining the hypersurface for the background CMB temperature $\overline{T}$ today, it is in fact well defined and one of the fundamental cosmological parameters. We argue that once the cosmological parameters are chosen, the monopole fluctuation can be unambiguously inferred from the angle average of the observed CMB temperature, making it a model-dependent ``observable.'' Adopting simple approximations for the anisotropy formation, we derive a gauge-invariant analytical expression for the observed CMB temperature anisotropies to study the CMB monopole fluctuation and the cancellation of the uniform gravitational potential contributions on large scales.

A new probe of Gaussianity and isotropy with application to cosmic microwave background maps

We introduce a new mathematical tool (a direction-dependent probe) to analyze the randomness of purported isotropic Gaussian random fields on the sphere. If the field is isotropic and Gaussian then the probe coefficients for a given direction should be realizations of uncorrelated scalar Gaussian random variables. To study the randomness of a field, we use the autocorrelation of the sequence of probe coefficients (which are just the Fourier coefficients [Formula: see text] if the [Formula: see text]-axis is taken in the probe direction). We introduce a particular function on the sphere (called the AC discrepancy) that accentuates the departure from Gaussianity and isotropy. We apply the probe to assess the full-sky cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps produced by the Planck collaboration (PR2 2015 and PR3 2018), with special attention to the inpainted maps. We find that for some of the maps, there are many directions for which the departures are significant, especially near the galactic plane. We also look briefly at the noninpainted Planck maps, for which the computed AC discrepancy maps have a very different character, with features that are global rather than local.