TT Spectrum Research Articles

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.

Searching for local features in primordial power spectrum using genetic algorithms

ABSTRACT We present a novel methodology for exploring local features directly in the primordial power spectrum using a genetic algorithm pipeline coupled with a Boltzmann solver and Cosmic Microwave Background data (CMB). After testing the robustness of our pipeline using mock data, we apply it to the latest CMB data, including Planck 2018 and CamSpec PR4. Our model-independent approach provides an analytical reconstruction of the power spectra that best fits the data, with the unsupervised machine learning algorithm exploring a functional space built off simple ‘grammar’ functions. We find significant improvements upon the simple power-law behaviour, by Δχ2 ≲ −21, consistently with more traditional model-based approaches. These best-fits always address both the low-ℓ anomaly in the TT spectrum and the residual high-ℓ oscillations in the TT, TE, and EE spectra. The proposed pipeline provides an adaptable tool for exploring features in the primordial power spectrum in a model-independent way, providing valuable hints to theorists for constructing viable inflationary models that are consistent with the current and upcoming CMB surveys.

On the consistency of ΛCDM with CMB measurements in light of the latest Planck, ACT and SPT data

Using Gaussian Processes we perform a thorough, non-parametric consistency test of the ΛCDM model when confronted with state-of-the-art TT, TE, and EE measurements of the anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background by the Planck, ACT, and SPT collaborations. Using ΛCDM's best-fit predictions to the TTTEEE data from Planck, we find no statistically significant deviations when looking for signatures in the residuals across the different datasets. The results of SPT are in good agreement with the ΛCDM best-fit predictions to the Planck data, while the results of ACT are only marginally consistent. However, when using the best-fit predictions to CamSpec — a recent reanalysis of the Planck data — as the mean function, we find larger discrepancies between the datasets. Our analysis also reveals an interesting feature in the polarisation (EE) measurements from the CamSpec analysis, which could be explained by a slight underestimation of the covariance matrix. Interestingly, the disagreement between CamSpec and Planck/ACT is mainly visible in the residuals of the TT spectrum, the latter favoring a scale-invariant tilt ns ≃ 1, which is consistent with previous findings from parametric analyses. We also report some features in the EE measurements captured both by ACT and SPT which are independent of the chosen mean function and could be hinting towards a common physical origin. For completeness, we repeat our analysis using the best-fit spectra to ACT+WMAP as the mean function. Finally, we test the internal consistency of the Planck data alone by studying the high and low-ℓ ranges separately, finding no discrepancy between small and large angular scales.

Testing AdS early dark energy with Planck, SPTpol, and LSS data

The Hubble tension might be resolved by injecting a new energy component, called Early Dark Energy (EDE), prior to recombination. An Anti-de Sitter (AdS) phase around recombination can make the injected energy decay faster, which thus allows a higher EDE fraction (so larger $H_0$) while prevents degrading the CMB fit. In this work, we test the AdS-EDE model with CMB and Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data. Our CMB dataset consists of low-$\ell$ part of Planck TT spectrum and SPTpol polarization and lensing measurements, since this dataset predicts the CMB lensing effect consistent with $\Lambda$CDM expectation. Combining it with BAO and Pantheon data, we find the bestfit values $H_0=71.92$ km/s/Mpc and $H_0=73.29$ km/s/Mpc without and with the SH0ES prior, respectively. Including cosmic shear and galaxy clusters data, we have $H_0=71.87$ km/s/Mpc and $S_8=0.785$, i.e. only $1.3\sigma$ discrepancy with direct $S_8$ measurement.

Planck constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio

We present constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r using Planck data. We use the latest release of Planck maps, processed with the NPIPE code, which produces calibrated frequency maps in temperature and polarisation for all Planck channels from 30 GHz to 857 GHz using the same pipeline. We computed constraints on r using the BB angular power spectrum, and we also discuss constraints coming from the TT spectrum. Given Planck’s noise level, the TT spectrum gives constraints on r that are cosmic-variance limited (with σr = 0.093), but we show that the marginalised posterior peaks towards negative values of r at about the 1.2σ level. We derived Planck constraints using the BB power spectrum at both large angular scales (the ‘reionisation bump’) and intermediate angular scales (the ‘recombination bump’) from ℓ = 2 to 150 and find a stronger constraint than that from TT, with σr = 0.069. The Planck BB spectrum shows no systematic bias and is compatible with zero, given both the statistical noise and the systematic uncertainties. The likelihood analysis using B modes yields the constraint r < 0.158 at 95% confidence using more than 50% of the sky. This upper limit tightens to r < 0.069 when Planck EE, BB, and EB power spectra are combined consistently, and it tightens further to r < 0.056 when the Planck TT power spectrum is included in the combination. Finally, combining Planck with BICEP2/Keck 2015 data yields an upper limit of r < 0.044.

H0 tension, phantom dark energy, and cosmological parameter degeneracies

Phantom dark energy can produce amplified cosmic acceleration at late times, thus increasing the value of $H_0$ favored by CMB data and releasing the tension with local measurements of $H_0$. We show that the best fit value of $H_0$ in the context of the CMB power spectrum is degenerate with a constant equation of state parameter $w$, in accordance with the approximate effective linear equation $H_0 + 30.93\; w - 36.47 = 0$ ($H_0$ in $km \; sec^{-1} \; Mpc^{-1}$). This equation is derived by assuming that both $\Omega_{0 \rm m}h^2$ and $d_A=\int_0^{z_{rec}}\frac{dz}{H(z)}$ remain constant (for invariant CMB spectrum) and equal to their best fit Planck/$\Lambda$CDM values as $H_0$, $\Omega_{0 \rm m}$ and $w$ vary. For $w=-1$, this linear degeneracy equation leads to the best fit $H_0=67.4 \; km \; sec^{-1} \; Mpc^{-1}$ as expected. For $w=-1.22$ the corresponding predicted CMB best fit Hubble constant is $H_0=74 \; km \; sec^{-1} \; Mpc^{-1}$ which is identical with the value obtained by local distance ladder measurements while the best fit matter density parameter is predicted to decrease since $\Omega_{0 \rm m}h^2$ is fixed. We verify the above $H_0-w$ degeneracy equation by fitting a $w$CDM model with fixed values of $w$ to the Planck TT spectrum showing also that the quality of fit ($\chi^2$) is similar to that of $\Lambda$CDM. However, when including SnIa, BAO or growth data the quality of fit becomes worse than $\Lambda$CDM when $w< -1$. Finally, we generalize the $H_0-w(z)$ degeneracy equation for $w(z)=w_0+w_1\; z/(1+z)$ and identify analytically the full $w_0-w_1$ parameter region that leads to a best fit $H_0=74\; km \; sec^{-1} \; Mpc^{-1}$ in the context of the Planck CMB spectrum. This exploitation of $H_0-w(z)$ degeneracy can lead to immediate identification of all parameter values of a given $w(z)$ parametrization that can potentially resolve the $H_0$ tension.

Activation material selection for multiple foil activation detectors in JET TT campaign

In the preparation for the Deuterium-Tritium campaign, JET will operate with a tritium plasma. The T + T reaction consists of two notable channels: (1) T + T → 4He + 2n, (2) T + T → 5He + n → 4He + 2n. The reaction channel (1) is the reaction with the highest branching ratio and a continuum of neutron energies being produced. Reaction channel (2) produces a spectrum with a peak at 8.8 MeV. A particular problem is the ratio between the individual TT reaction channels, which is highly dependent on the energy of the reacting tritium ions. There are very few measurements on the TT spectrum and the study at JET would be interesting.The work is focused on the determination of the spectral characteristics in the TT plasma discharges, especially on the presence of the 8.8 MeV peak, a consequence of channel (2) of the TT reaction. The possibility to use an optimized set of activation materials in order to target the measurement of the 8.8 MeV peak is studied. The lower limit of detection for the channel (2) ratio within the TT reaction is estimated and the influence of DT source neutrons, which are a consequence of deuterium traces in the plasma, is investigated.

A Generalized S transform and TT Transform Based on Energy Normalized Window

A generalized S transform based on energy normalized windows is presented, which avoids the weighting effect of existing S transform influenced by the time-frequency spectral energy. The transform can reflect the spectral energy distribution of different frequency components while maintaining the excellent time-frequency resolution. While TT transform is a new approach to process non-stationary signal based on S transform, which has differential concentration for different frequency components, and lower frequency components can be suppressed through extracting the TT spectrum’s diagonal elements. However, this method has a deficiency that part of high frequency interference is retained during processing low frequency signal. Therefore, time-frequency filtering based on the generalizing S transform is used to suppress the high frequency interference and TT transform is adopted to suppress the low frequency contents. Finally, this method is used to process seismic data, the result demonstrates the effective of combining energy normalized S transform and TT transform.

The topology and size of the universe from CMB temperature and polarization data

We analyze seven year and nine year WMAP temperature maps for signatures of three finite flat topologies ℳ0 = \U0001d54b3, ℳ1 = \U0001d54b2 × ℝ1, and ℳ2 = S1 × ℝ2. We use Monte-Carlo simulations with the Feldman-Cousins method to obtain confidence intervals for the size of the topologies considered. We analyze the V, W, and Q frequency bands along with the ILC map and find no significant difference in the results. The 95.5% confidence level lower bound on the size of the topology is 1.5L0 for ℳ0, 1.4L0 for ℳ1, and 1.1L0 for ℳ2, where L0 is the radius of the last scattering surface. Our results agree very well with the recently released results from the Planck temperature data. We show that the likelihood function is not Gaussian in the size, and therefore simulations are important for obtaining accurate bounds on the size. We then introduce the formalism for including polarization data in the analysis. The improvement that we find from WMAP polarization maps is small because of the high level of instrumental noise, but our forecast for Planck maps shows a much better improvement on the lower bound for L. For the ℳ0 topology we expect an improvement on the lower bound of L from 1.7L0 to 1.9L0 at 95.5% confidence level. Using both polarization and temperature data is important because it tests the hypothesis that deviations in the TT spectrum at small l originate in the primordial perturbation spectrum.

SEVEN-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE ( WMAP ) OBSERVATIONS: POWER SPECTRA AND WMAP -DERIVED PARAMETERS

(Abridged) We present the angular power spectra derived from the 7-year maps and discuss the cosmological conclusions that can be inferred from WMAP data alone. The third acoustic peak in the TT spectrum is now well measured by WMAP. In the context of a flat LambdaCDM model, this improvement allows us to place tighter constraints on the matter density from WMAP data alone, and on the epoch of matter-radiation equality, The temperature-polarization (TE) spectrum is detected in the 7-year data with a significance of 20 sigma, compared to 13 sigma with the 5-year data. The low-l EE spectrum, a measure of the optical depth due to reionization, is detected at 5.5 sigma significance when averaged over l = 2-7. The BB spectrum, an important probe of gravitational waves from inflation, remains consistent with zero. The upper limit on tensor modes from polarization data alone is a factor of 2 lower with the 7-year data than it was using the 5-year data (Komatsu et al. 2010). We test the parameter recovery process for bias and find that the scalar spectral index, ns, is biased high, but only by 0.09 sigma, while the remaining parameters are biased by < 0.15 sigma. The improvement in the third peak measurement leads to tighter lower limits from WMAP on the number of relativistic degrees of freedom (e.g., neutrinos) in the early universe: Neff > 2.7 (95% CL). Also, using WMAP data alone, the primordial helium mass fraction is found to be YHe = 0.28+0.14-0.15, and with data from higher-resolution CMB experiments included, we now establish the existence of pre-stellar helium at > 3 sigma (Komatsu et al. 2010).

Surface Wave Suppression with Joint S Transform and TT Transform

The TT transform (Time-Time transform) is a new method to process non-stationary signal based on S transform, has a good ability of frequency conversion. The surface wave, with lower frequency compare with other seismic wave, can be suppressed through extracting the TT spectrum's diagonal elements of seismic data. However, this method has a deficiency that in pressing low-frequency signal, retaining a part of high-frequency interference that can be eliminated. But, the high-frequency interference can be removed by the S transform filtering. Therefore, a method of joint the S transform and TT transform to suppress surface wave is presented. Firstly, apply S transform time-frequency filtering for each trace seismic data to suppress the high frequency interference and random noise, and then, use TT filtering to suppress the surface wave with low frequency.

On the anomalous large-scale flows in the Universe

Recent combined analyses of the CMB and galaxy cluster data reveal unexpectedly large and anisotropic peculiar velocity fields at large scales. We study cosmic models with included vorticity, acceleration and total angular momentum of the Universe in order to understand the phenomenon. The Zeldovich model is used to mimic the low redshift evolution of the angular momentum. Solving coupled evolution equations of the second kind for density-contrast in corrected Ellis-Bruni covariant and gauge-invariant formalism one can properly normalize and evaluate integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect and peculiar velocity field. The theoretical results compared to the observations favor a much larger matter content of the Universe than that of the concordance model. Large-scale flows appear anisotropic with dominant components placed in the plane perpendicular to the axis of vorticity(rotation). The integrated Sachs-Wolfe term has negative contribution to the CMB fluctuations for the negative cosmological constant and it can explain the observed small power of the CMB TT spectrum at large scales. The rate of the expansion of the Universe can be substantially affected by the angular momentum if its magnitude is large enough.

First‐YearWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP) Observations: Interpretation of the TT and TE Angular Power Spectrum Peaks

The CMB has distinct peaks in both its temperature angular power spectrum (TT) and temperature-polarization cross-power spectrum (TE). From the WMAP data we find the first peak in the temperature spectrum at l = 220.1 +- 0.8 with an amplitude of 74.7 +- 0.5 microK; the first trough at l = 411.7 +- 3.5 with an amplitude of 41.0 +- 0.5 microK; and the second peak at l = 546 +- 10 with an amplitude of 48.8 +- 0.9 microK. The TE spectrum has an antipeak at l = 137 +- 9 with a cross-power of -35 +- 9 microK^2, and a peak at l = 329 +- 19 with cross-power 105 +- 18 microK^2. All uncertainties are 1 sigma and include calibration and beam errors. An intuition for how the data determine the cosmological parameters may be gained by limiting one's attention to a subset of parameters and their effects on the peak characteristics. We interpret the peaks in the context of a flat adiabatic LambdaCDM model with the goal of showing how the cosmic baryon density, Omega_b h^2, matter density, Omega_m h^2, scalar index, n_s, and age of the universe are encoded in their positions and amplitudes. To this end, we introduce a new scaling relation for the TE antipeak-to-peak amplitude ratio and recompute known related scaling relations for the TT spectrum in light of the WMAP data. From the scaling relations, we show that WMAP's tight bound on Omega_b h^2 is intimately linked to its robust detection of the first and second peaks of the TT spectrum.

Spectroscopy of single and correlated charged particles emitted following bound pion absorption in 6Li and 7Li

Inclusive energy spectra of protons, deuterons and tritons as well as spectra and angular distributions of two coincident charged particles emitted following stopped negative pion absorption in 6Li and 7Li were measured. Energy and missing mass spectra, angular distributions and yields of two coincident charged particles are presented. Peaks corresponding to quasi-free absorption on different clusters and specific final-state interactions are observed in the coincidence spectra of the Li isotopes. In the dt spectrum of 6Li as well as in the tt spectrum of 7li evidence for 4H formation with a resonance energy of 2.7 MeV and a reduced width of 2.3 MeV is found.

Triplet—triplet absorption of some azanaphthalenes

Experimetnal and theoretical studies of TT spectra, previously restricted mostly to D 2h and C 2v hydrocarbons, are extended to C s heterocyclics. The TT spectrum of quinoline and isoquinoline can be interpreted as resulting from a dilution of the naphthalene 3B − 1g state over near lying levels in the azanaphthalenes.

Weak triplet—triplet absorption bands of naphthalene

Transient absorption bands are observed with naphthalene in solution at 3200–3400 Å, in the same region as in the gas phase. It is shown that they do not belong to the naphthalene TT spectrum. Weak and structured TT bands are observed between 4300 and 6500 Å with methyl derivatives as well as with naphthalene. Assignments are discussed.