Microwave Background Research Articles

Light-light scattering in Very Special Relativity Quantum Electrodynamics and cosmic anisotropies

We consider scattering of light by light in Very Special Relativity (VSR) Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) with a non-zero photon mass. In order to preserve gauge invariance and Sim(2) symmetry we made use of a recently introduced infrared regularization of VSR theories. Additionally, we show that all one loop diagrams with any number of photon external legs and zero fermion legs reduce to the standard QED result with the effective electron mass, as required by unitarity. It follows that the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian is the same as in QED. The total cross section of scattering of light by light exhibits tiny anisotropies that could be detected at cosmological scales. In particular, they should be looked at the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation for low photon frequencies.

Exploring the Hubble tension with a late time Modified Gravity scenario

We investigate a modified cosmological model aimed at addressing the Hubble tension, considering revised dynamics in the late Universe. The model introduces a parameter c affecting the evolution equations, motivated by a modified Poisson algebra inspired by effective Loop Quantum Cosmology. Our analysis includes diverse background datasets such as Cosmic Chronometers, Pantheon+ Type Ia Supernovae (with and without the SH0ES calibration), SDSS, DESY6 and DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and background information of the Cosmic Microwave Background. We find that the model alleviates the Hubble tension in most of the dataset combinations, with cases reducing discrepancies to below 1σ when including SH0ES. However, the model exhibits minimal improvement in the overall fit when compared to ΛCDM, and Bayesian evidence generally favors the standard model. Theoretical foundations support this approach as a subtle adjustment to low-redshift dynamics, suggesting potential for further exploration into extensions of ΛCDM. Despite challenges in data fitting, our findings underscore the promise of small-scale modifications in reconciling cosmological tensions.

Measuring kinematic anisotropies with pulsar timing arrays

Recent pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations show strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) with the characteristic Hellings-Downs interpulsar correlations. The signal may stem from supermassive black hole binary mergers, or early Universe phenomena. The former is expected to be strongly anisotropic, while primordial backgrounds are likely to be predominantly isotropic with small fluctuations. In the case the observed SGWB is of cosmological origin, our relative motion with respect to the SGWB rest frame is a guaranteed source of anisotropy, leading to O(10−3) energy density fluctuations of the SGWB. For such cosmological SGWB, kinematic anisotropies are likely to be larger than the intrinsic anisotropies, akin to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole anisotropy. We assess the sensitivity of current PTA data to the kinematic dipole anisotropy, and we also forecast at what extent the magnitude and direction of the kinematic dipole can be measured in the future with an SKA-like experiment. We also discuss how the spectral shape of the SGWB and the location of the pulsars to monitor affect the prospects of detecting the kinematic dipole with PTA. In the future, a detection of this anisotropy may even help resolve the discrepancy in the magnitude of the kinematic dipole as measured by CMB and large-scale structure observations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Tightening the reins on nonminimal dark sector physics: Interacting dark energy with dynamical and nondynamical equation of state

We present a comprehensive reassessment of the state of interacting dark energy (DE) cosmology, namely models featuring a nongravitational interaction between dark matter and DE. To achieve high generality, we extend the dark sector physics by considering two different scenarios: a nondynamical DE equation of state w0≠−1, and a dynamical w(a)=w0+wa(1−a). In both cases, we distinguish two different physical regimes resulting from a phantom or quintessence equation of state. To circumvent early time superhorizon instabilities, the energy-momentum transfer should occur in opposing directions within the two regimes, resulting in distinct phenomenological outcomes. We study quintessence and phantom nondynamical and dynamical models in light of two independent cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments—the Planck satellite and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We analyze CMB data both independently and in combination with supernovae distance moduli measurements from the catalog and baryon acoustic oscillations from the SDSS-IV eBOSS survey. Our results update and extend the state-of-the-art analyses, significantly narrowing the parameter space allowed for these models and limiting their overall ability to reconcile cosmological tensions. Although considering different combinations of data leaves some freedom to increase H0 towards the value measured by the SH0ES collaboration, our most constraining dataset (CMB+baryon acoustic oscillations+supernovae) indicates that fully reconciling the tension solely within the framework of interacting DE remains challenging. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Testing the coupling of dark radiations in light of the Hubble tension

We are studying the effects of Self-Interacting dark radiation (SIdr) on the evolution of the universe. Our main focus is on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and how SIdr could potentially help resolve the Hubble tension. We are looking into different scenarios by mixing SIdr with Free-Streaming dark radiation (FSdr) or not to determine whether SIdr can indeed contribute to solving the Hubble tension. We find that SIdr alone can increase the Hubble constant (H0\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$H_0$$\\end{document}) to 70.1-1.6+1.3,km/s/Mpc\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$70.1_{-1.6}^{+1.3}, \ ext {km/s/Mpc}$$\\end{document} with a value of Neff=3.27-0.31+0.23\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$N_\ extrm{eff}=3.27_{-0.31}^{+0.23}$$\\end{document}. However, including FSdr disfavors the existence of SIdr N~si≈0.37\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\ ilde{N}}_\ extrm{si}\\approx 0.37$$\\end{document}. Even though the Hubble constant is increased compared to the predicted value, it entails Neff=3.52±0.25\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$N_\ extrm{eff}=3.52\\pm 0.25$$\\end{document}. Finally, we implement the Fisher method for future experiments and a 7.64σ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$7.64\\sigma $$\\end{document} measurement of N~si\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\ ilde{N}}_\ extrm{si}$$\\end{document} will be obtained when combing data from Planck, AliCPT, and CMB-S4.

Exploration of the polarization angle variability of the Crab Nebula with POLARBEAR and its application to the search for axionlike particles

The Crab Nebula, also known as Tau A, is a polarized astronomical source at millimeter wavelengths. It has been used as a stable light source for polarization angle calibration in millimeter-wave astronomy. However, it is known that its intensity and polarization vary as a function of time at a variety of wavelengths. Thus, it is of interest to verify the stability of the millimeter-wave polarization. If detected, polarization variability may be used to better understand the dynamics of Tau A, and for understanding the validity of Tau A as a calibrator. One intriguing application of such observation is to use it for the search of axionlike particles (ALPs). Ultralight ALPs couple to photons through a Chern-Simons term, and induce a temporal oscillation in the polarization angle of linearly polarized sources. After assessing a number of systematic errors and testing for internal consistency, we evaluate the variability of the polarization angle of the Crab Nebula using 2015 and 2016 observations with the 150 GHz P instrument. We place a median 95% upper bound of polarization oscillation amplitude A<0.065° over the oscillation frequencies from 0.75 year−1 to 0.66 hour−1. Assuming that no sources other than ALP are causing Tau A’s polarization angle variation, that the ALP constitutes all the dark matter, and that the ALP field is a stochastic Gaussian field, this bound translates into a median 95% upper bound of ALP-photon coupling gaγγ<2.16×10−12 GeV−1×(ma/10−21 eV) in the mass range from 9.9×10−23 eV to 7.7×10−19 eV. This demonstrates that this type of analysis using bright polarized sources is as competitive as those using the polarization of cosmic microwave background in constraining ALPs. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Cosmological constraints from the Planck cluster catalogue with new multi-wavelength mass calibration from Chandra and CFHT

We provide a new scaling relation between $Y_ SZ $, the integrated Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal and $M_ Y_ X $, the cluster mass derived from X-ray observations, using a sample of clusters from the Planck Early Sunyaev-Zeldovich (ESZ) catalogue observed in X-rays by Chandra and compare it to the results of the Planck collaboration obtained from XMM-Newton observations of a subsample of the ESZ. We calibrated a mass bias on a subset of the Planck cosmological cluster sample using published weak-lensing data from the Canadian Cluster Cosmology Project (CCCP) and Multi Epoch Nearby Cluster Survey (MENeaCS), for the new scaling relation as well as that from the Planck collaboration. We propose a novel method to account for selection effects and find a mass bias of $(1-b)=0.89 for the Chandra -calibrated scaling relation, and $(1-b)=0.76 for the XMM-Newton -calibrated scaling relation. We applied the scaling relations we derived to the full Planck cosmological cluster sample and obtain new constraints on the cosmological parameters. We find identical constraints regardless of the X-ray sample used, with $ and $S_8 We also provide constraints with a redshift evolution of the scaling relation fitted from the data instead of fixing it to the self-similar value. We find a redshift evolution significantly deviating from the self-similar value, leading to a higher value of $S_8=0.81 We compare our results to those from various cosmological probes, and find that our $S_8$ constraints are competitive with the tightest constraints from the literature. When assuming a self-similar redshift evolution, our constraints are in agreement with most late-time probes and in tension with constraints from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) primary anisotropies. When relaxing the assumption of redshift evolution and fitting it to the data, we find no significant tension with results from either late-time probes or the CMB.

A 350 GHz array of LEKIDs for balloon-borne CMB observations

We present the design, optimization and laboratory characterization of an array of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors sensitive in a frequency band centered at 350 GHz. The array consists of 313 feed-horn coupled pixels with resonant frequencies spread over 250 MHz. We present measured yield, quality factor, responsivity, quasiparticle lifetime, noise equivalent power and optical efficiency. The array is a prototype for one of the four frequency bands of OLIMPO, a balloon-borne instrument with a 2.6 m primary mirror proposed for an Antarctic flight to measure the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect in clusters of galaxies and their connecting filaments. Similar arrays could also be used with instruments studying the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Waiting for inflation: A new initial state for the Universe

We propose a cosmological lingering phase for the initial state prior to inflation which would help address the singularity problem of inflation. The Universe begins with a constant (Hagedorn) temperature and then transitions into an inflationary universe while preserving the null energy condition (NEC). We first consider the phase space of positive spatial curvature models within general relativity and with matter sources that respect the NEC. Depending on the duration of the postlingering inflation, these models can produce a small amount of observable spatial curvature in the cosmic microwave background. We also discuss how lingering can arise with or without spatial curvature in theories of quantum gravity when considering the thermodynamic scaling of particles and its impact on the early Universe. The string theory dilaton is essential to the dynamics. There are many open questions that remain. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Improved model of large-field inflation with primordial black hole production in Starobinsky-like supergravity

Abstract A viable model of large-field (chaotic) inflation with efficient production of primordial black holes is proposed in Starobinsky-like (modified) supergravity leading to the ‘no-scale-type’ Kähler potential and the Wess-Zumino-type (‘renormalizable’) superpotential. The cosmological tilts are in good (within 1σ) agreement with Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation. In addition, the power spectrum of scalar perturbations has a large peak at smaller scales, which leads to a production of primordial black holes from gravitational collapse of large perturbations with the masses about 1017 g. The masses are beyond the Hawking (black hole) evaporation limit of 1015 g, so that those primordial black holes may be viewed as viable candidates for a significant part or the whole of the current dark matter. The parameters of the superpotential were fine-tuned for those purposes, while the cubic term in the superpotential is essential whereas the quadratic term should vanish. The vacuum after inflation (relevant to reheating) is Minkowskian. The energy density fraction of the gravitational waves induced by the production of primordial black holes and their frequency were also calculated in the second order with respect to perturbations.

A power spectrum approach to the search for axion-like particles from resolved galaxy clusters using CMB as a backlight

Axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) are hypothetical particles predicted by beyond standard model theories, which make one of the dark matter candidates. These particles can convert into photons and vice-versa in the presence of a magnetic field, with a probability decided by its coupling strength gaγ . One of the ways to detect these particles is by using the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) as a backlight. As the CMB photons pass through a galaxy cluster, they can get converted into ALPs in the mass range 10-15 eV to 10-11 eV through resonant conversion in the presence of cluster magnetic fields. This leads to a polarized spectral distortion (α-distortion) in the CMB as the photon polarization parallel to the magnetic field in the galaxy cluster is involved in the conversion. The fluctuations in the magnetic field and electron density in a galaxy cluster lead to spatially varying α-distortion around the cluster, with a power spectrum that is different from the lensed E-mode and B-mode CMB polarization power spectrum for the standard model of cosmology. By measuring the difference in the polarization power spectrum around a galaxy cluster from the all-sky signal, one can find new α-distortion in the sky. For the resolved galaxy clusters, if the redshift, electron density, and magnetic field profiles of the cluster can be constrained using optical, X-ray, and radio observations, one can measure the coupling strength gaγ from the ALP power spectrum. The contamination from CMB and galactic foregrounds such as synchrotron and dust can be mitigated by using multiple frequency bands by leveraging on the difference in the spectral shape of the signal from foregrounds. Using the ILC technique to clean the foregrounds, we show that the new power spectrum-based approach of the resolved galaxy clusters from upcoming CMB experiments such as Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 can detect (or put constraints) on the ALP-photon coupling strength of gaγ < 5.2 × 10-12 GeV-1 and gaγ < 3.6 × 10-12 GeV-1 at 95% C.I. respectively for ALPs of masses 10-13 eV or for smaller gaγ for lighter ALP masses.

Euclid preparation

Verifying the fully kinematic nature of the long-known cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole is of fundamental importance in cosmology. In the standard cosmological model with the Friedman–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric from the inflationary expansion, the CMB dipole should be entirely kinematic. Any non-kinematic CMB dipole component would thus reflect the preinflationary structure of space-time probing the extent of the FLRW applicability. Cosmic backgrounds from galaxies after the matter-radiation decoupling should have a kinematic dipole component identical in velocity to the CMB kinematic dipole. Comparing the two can lead to isolating the CMB non-kinematic dipole. It was recently proposed that such a measurement can be done using the near-infrared cosmic infrared background (CIB) measured with the currently operating Euclid telescope, and later with Roman. The proposed method reconstructs the resolved CIB, the integrated galaxy light (IGL), from Euclid’s Wide Survey and probes its dipole with a kinematic component amplified over that of the CMB by the Compton–Getting effect. The amplification coupled with the extensive galaxy samples forming the IGL would determine the CIB dipole with an overwhelming signal-to-noise ratio, isolating its direction to sub-degree accuracy. We developed details of the method for Euclid’s Wide Survey in four bands spanning from 0.6 to 2 μm. We isolated the systematic and other uncertainties and present methodologies to minimize them, after confining the sample to the magnitude range with a negligible IGL–CIB dipole from galaxy clustering. These include the required star–galaxy separation, accounting for the extinction correction dipole using the new method developed here achieving total separation, and accounting for the Earth’s orbital motion and other systematic effects. Finally, we applied the developed methodology to the simulated Euclid galaxy catalogs, successfully testing the upcoming applications. With the techniques presented, one would indeed measure the IGL–CIB dipole from Euclid’s Wide Survey with high precision, probing the non-kinematic CMB dipole.

Towards testing the general bounce cosmology with the CMB B-mode auto-bispectrum

It has been shown that a three-point correlation function of tensor perturbations from a bounce model in general relativity with a minimally-coupled scalar field is highly suppressed, and the resultant three-point function of cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarizations is too small to be detected by CMB experiments. On the other hand, bounce models in a more general class with a non-minimal derivative coupling between a scalar field and gravity can predict the three-point correlation function of the tensor perturbations without any suppression, the amplitude of which is allowed to be much larger than that in general relativity. In this paper, we evaluate the three-point function of the B-mode polarizations from the general bounce cosmology with the non-minimal coupling and show that a signal-to-noise ratio of the B-mode auto-bispectrum in the general class can reach unity for ℓ max=100 in the full-sky case, with and without the lensing B-mode added to cosmic variance. Considering additionally the LiteBIRD experimental noise, we obtain a SNR smaller than unity.

Tomographic redshift dipole: testing the cosmological principle

The cosmological principle posits that the universe is statistically homogeneous and isotropic on large scales, implying all matter shares the same rest frame. This principle suggests that velocity estimates of our motion from various sources should agree with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole's inferred velocity of 370 km/s. Yet, for over two decades, analyses of radio galaxy and quasar catalogs have found velocities at odds with the CMB dipole, with tensions up to 5σ. In a blind analysis of BOSS and eBOSS spectroscopic data from galaxies and quasars across 0.2 < z < 2.2, we applied a novel dipole estimator for a tomographic approach, robustly correcting biases and quantifying uncertainties with realistic mock catalogs. Our findings with eBOSS data (0.6 < z < 2.2), indicating a velocity of 196+92 -79-79 km/s, demonstrate a 2σ agreement with the CMB dipole when considering the full 3D vector distribution and a 3-to-6σ tension with previous number count studies. This result supports the cosmological principle, emphasizing the consistency of our motion with the CMB across vast cosmic distances. On the other hand, the BOSS data revealed potential unmodeled systematics; the estimator could not be minimized using the LOWZ set (0.2 < z < 0.4), and the CMASS set (0.4 < z < 0.6) presented results that pointed towards the southern hemisphere, conflicting with the CMB dipole. Addressing the disparities with earlier number count analyses and understanding possible systematics in spectroscopic measurements will be essential to further validate the cosmological principle.

Modeling optical systematics for the Taurus CMB experiment

We simulate a variety of optical systematics for Taurus, a balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation experiment, to assess their impact on large-scale E-mode polarisation measurements and constraints of the optical depth to reionisation τ.We model a one-month flight of Taurus from Wanaka, New Zealand aboard a super-pressure balloon (SPB).We simulate night-time scans of both the CMB and dust foregrounds in the 150 GHz band, one of Taurus's four observing bands.We consider a variety of possible systematics that may affect Taurus's observations, including non-gaussian beams, pointing reconstruction error, and half-wave plate (HWP) non-idealities.For each of these, we evaluate the residual power in the difference between maps simulated with and without the systematic, and compare this to the expected signal level corresponding to Taurus's science goals.Our results indicate that most of the HWP-related systematics can be mitigated to be smaller than sample variance by calibrating with Planck's TT spectrum and using an achromatic HWP model, with a preference for five layers of sapphire to ensure good systematic control.However, additional beam characterization will be required to mitigate far-sidelobe pickup from dust on larger scales.

CMB-PAInT: An inpainting tool for the cosmic microwave background

The presence of astrophysical emissions in microwave observations forces us to perform component separation to extract the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) signal. However, even in the most optimistic cases, there are still strongly contaminated regions, such as the Galactic plane or those with emission from extragalactic point sources, which require the use of a mask. Since many CMB analyses, especially the ones working in harmonic space, need the whole sky map, it is crucial to develop a reliable inpainting algorithm that replaces the values of the excluded pixels by others statistically compatible with the rest of the sky. This is especially important when working with Q and U sky maps in order to obtain E- and B-mode maps which are free from E-to-B leakage. In this work we study a method based on Gaussian Constrained Realizations (GCR), that can deal with both intensity and polarization. Several tests have been performed to asses the validation of the method, including the study of the one-dimensional probability distribution function (1-PDF), E- and B-mode map reconstruction, and power spectra estimation. We have considered two scenarios for the input simulation: one case with only CMB signal and a second one including also Planck PR4 semi-realistic noise. Even if we are limited to low resolution maps, Nside = 64 if T, Q and U are considered, we believe that this is a useful approach to be applied to future missions such as LiteBIRD, where the target are the largest scales.

Inferring galaxy cluster masses from cosmic microwave background lensing with neural simulation based inference

Gravitational lensing by massive galaxy clusters distorts the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) on arcminute scales, and these distortions carry information about cluster masses. Standard approaches to extracting cluster mass constraints from the CMB cluster lensing signal are either sub-optimal, ignore important physical or observational effects, are computationally intractable, or require additional work to turn the lensing measurements into constraints on cluster masses. We apply simulation based inference (SBI) using neural likelihood models to the problem. We show that in circumstances where the exact likelihood can be computed, the SBI constraints on cluster masses are in agreement with the exact likelihood, demonstrating that the SBI constraints are close to optimal. In scenarios where the exact likelihood cannot be feasibly computed, SBI still recovers unbiased estimates of individual cluster masses and combined constraints from multiple clusters. SBI will be a powerful tool for constraining the masses of galaxy clusters detected by future cosmic surveys. Code to run the analyses presented here will be made publicly available.

Testing the ΛCDM Cosmological Model with Forthcoming Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background with SPT-3G

We forecast constraints on cosmological parameters enabled by three surveys conducted with SPT-3G, the third-generation camera on the South Pole Telescope. The surveys cover separate regions of 1500, 2650, and 6000 deg2 to different depths, in total observing 25% of the sky. These regions will be measured to white noise levels of roughly 2.5, 9, and 12μK -armin, respectively, in cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature units at 150 GHz by the end of 2024. The survey also includes measurements at 95 and 220 GHz, which have noise levels a factor of ∼1.2 and 3.5 times higher than 150 GHz, respectively, with each band having a polarization noise level ∼2 times higher than the temperature noise. We use a novel approach to obtain the covariance matrices for jointly and optimally estimated gravitational lensing potential band powers and unlensed CMB temperature and polarization band powers. We demonstrate the ability to test the ΛCDM model via the consistency of cosmological parameters constrained independently from SPT-3G and Planck data, and consider the improvement in constraints on ΛCDM extension parameters from a joint analysis of SPT-3G and Planck data. The ΛCDM cosmological parameters are typically constrained with uncertainties up to ∼2 times smaller with SPT-3G data, compared to Planck, with the two data sets measuring significantly different angular scales and polarization levels, providing additional tests of the standard cosmological model.

A new diagnostic for the null test of dynamical dark energy in light of DESI 2024 and other BAO data

We introduce a new diagnostic for the null tests of dynamical dark energy alongside two other combined equivalent diagnostics. These diagnostics are useful, especially when we include anisotropic baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data in an analysis, to quantify the deviations from the standard ΛCDM model. We also consider another diagnostic for isotropic BAO observations. These null tests are independent of any late-time dark energy model or parametrization. With these diagnostics, we study the evidence for dynamical dark energy in light of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) 2024 data combined with cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations of the Planck 2018 mission and local H 0 measurements. We find no strong evidence for dynamical dark energy. The exclusion of the individual deviations at the effective redshift 0.51 of the DESI 2024 data makes the evidence even weaker. We get nearly similar results for other non-DESI BAO data. Both for DESI 2024 and other non-DESI BAO data, the evidence is almost independent of early-time physics. The evidence corresponding to the SHOES value of H 0 is higher than the corresponding tRGB value of H 0 for all combinations of data, but still not strong enough to reject the flat ΛCDM model.

Cosmic topology. Part IVa. Classification of manifolds using machine learning: a case study with small toroidal universes

Non-trivial spatial topology of the Universe may give rise to potentially measurable signatures in the cosmic microwave background. We explore different machine learning approaches to classify harmonic-space realizations of the microwave background in the test case of Euclidean E 1 topology (the 3-torus) with a cubic fundamental domain of a size scale significantly smaller than the diameter of the last scattering surface. This is the first step toward developing a machine learning approach to classification of cosmic topology and likelihood-free inference of topological parameters. Different machine learning approaches are capable of classifying the harmonic-space realizations with accuracy greater than 99% if the topology scale is half of the diameter of the last-scattering surface and orientation of the topology is known. For distinguishing random rotations of these sky realizations from realizations of the covering space, the extreme gradient boosting classifier algorithm performs best with an accuracy of 88%. Slightly lower accuracies of 83% to 87% are obtained with the random forest classifier along with one- and two-dimensional convolutional neural networks. The techniques presented here can also accurately classify non-rotated cubic E 1 topology realizations with a topology scale slightly larger than the diameter of the last-scattering surface, if enough training data are provided. While information compressing methods like most machine learning approaches cannot exceed the statistical power of a likelihood-based approach that captures all available information, they potentially offer a computationally cheaper alternative. A principle challenge appears to be accounting for arbitrary orientations of a given topology, although this is also a significant hurdle for likelihood-based approaches.