Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1609.01850

Cosmological constraints from thermal Sunyaev Zeldovich power spectrum revisited

Benjamin Horowitz·Uroš Seljak
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) power spectrum is one of the most sensitive methods to constrain cosmological parameters, scaling as the amplitude $\sigma_8^8$. It is determined by the integral over the halo mass function multiplied by the total pressure content of clusters, and further convolved by the cluster gas pressure profile. It has been shown that various feedback effects can change significantly the pressure profile, possibly even pushing the gas out to the virial radius and beyond, strongly affecting the tSZ power spectrum at high $l$. Energetics arguments and SZ-halo mass scaling relations suggest feedback is unlikely to significantly change the total pressure content, making low $l$ tSZ power spectrum more robust against feedback effects. Furthermore, the separation between the cosmic infrared background (CIB) and tSZ is more reliable at low $l$. Low $l$ modes are however probing very small volumes, giving rise to very large non-gaussian sampling variance errors. By computing the trispectrum contribution we identify $90<l<350$ as the minimum variance scale where the combined error is minimized. Using the measurement at this $l$ provides constraints that are almost as strong as using the entire power spectrum. We extend the work by the Planck collaboration by including a full trispectrum and feedback effects in the analysis. We perform a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo analysis over the two dimensional parameter space and find constraints on $\sigma_8$ by marginalizing over the feedback nuisance parameter.We obtain $\sigma_8 =0.820^{+0.021}_{-0.009}\left(\Omega_m/0.31\right)^{0.4}$, when fixing other parameters to Planck cosmology values. Our results suggest it is possible to obtain competitive cosmological constraints from tSZ without cluster redshift information, and that the current tSZ power spectrum shows no evidence for a low amplitude of $\sigma_8$.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.CO

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Benjamin Horowitz, Uroš Seljak. 2016-09-07. Cosmological constraints from thermal Sunyaev Zeldovich power spectrum revisited. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstx766

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Constraining spinning primordial black holes with interstellar dust heating

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and their cosmic abundance is constrained by a variety of observational probes. PBHs in the mass range $10^{15}\,\text{g}\,{-}\,10^{17}\,\text{g}$ are evaporating today via Hawking radiation, a process that can heat interstellar dust and modify its thermal emission. Recent studies have used this effect to place constraints on the abundance of non-spinning PBHs. We extend this approach by investigating the influence of PBH spin on dust-heating constraints. Furthermore, we account for secondary photons that originate not only from the decay of gauge bosons but also from the decay of hadrons produced via the fragmentation of primary quarks and gluons emitted through Hawking radiation. By comparing the dust heating rate induced by spinning PBHs with the maximum cooling rate of dust, considering both silicate and graphite grains, we derive new upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in the form of PBHs, $f_{\rm PBH}$. Our results show that the constraints depend on both PBH mass and spin. Smaller PBHs with higher spin yield stronger limits. For example, in the cases we investigated, the strongest constraint is $f_{\rm PBH} \sim 1.5 \times 10^{-4}$ for $M_{\rm PBH} = 10^{15}{\rm g}$ and spin parameter $a_{*} = 0.9999$. Although these limits are less stringent than existing constraints in the same mass range, they provide a distinct and complementary approach to constraining the abundance of PBHs.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

Two-parameter continuous deformation of Starobinsky inflation as a bridge between Planck and ACT DESI data with $N_\star\in(50,60)$

We present a family of plateau-type inflationary potentials, eq.~\eqref{Vgeneral}, and analyze a two-parameter $\alpha\beta$-Starobinsky specialization that interpolates continuously between a \emph{maximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_0$) and a \emph{submaximal} plateau ($V\!\to\!V_\infty 0$ with $x_\star\gg 1/\beta$ the slow-roll scaling laws change to $n_s\simeq 1-\frac{4}{3N_\star},\, r\simeq\mathcal{C}(\alpha,\beta)\,N_\star^{-4/3},$ with an explicit coefficient $\mathcal{C}(\alpha,\beta)$ set by the plateau truncation. This deformation lifts $n_s$ at fixed $N_\star$ while further suppressing $r$, reconciling the Planck~2018 constraint $n_s=0.9649\pm0.0042$ (68\% CL) and BICEP/Keck18 data $r_{0.05}<0.036$ (95\% CL), with the higher central values $n_s\sim0.97$--$0.98$ preferred by ACT+DESI~DR2 (BAO), within the theoretically motivated interval $N_\star\in(50,60)$ and without exotic reheating. We provide an exact identity for $V/V'$ enabling analytic control of $N_\star$, a practical crossover criterion $\beta\,x_\star\ll1$ vs.\ $\gg1$, and a transparent mapping between $(\alpha,\beta)$ and the observables $(n_s,r,N_\star)$. These yield sharp, testable signatures, particularly the softened $N_\star$-scaling of $r$, that distinguish a maximal from a submaximal plateau with upcoming CMB and LSS data.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

A Tale of Two Gauges: Effective Field Theory for Relativistic Behavior of Cosmological Axions

In this work, we present a formalism to model the relativistic behavior of axions. The relativistic behavior of axions is surprisingly difficult to model precisely, as it involves oscillations on timescales much shorter than the Hubble timescale. To overcome this challenge, one typically resorts to some form of effective treatment, focusing only on the time-averaged description of the exact oscillations. Salehian, Namjoo & Kaiser provide a systematic framework for such treatment, based on the effective field theory formalism. While the aforementioned study was formulated for axion perturbations in the Newtonian gauge with no anisotropic stress, we extend the formalism to the synchronous gauge that is more conventionally used for numerical implementation in a realistic cosmological setting. Unlike their work, however, we propose a fluid interpretation in which the axion field can be identified as a perfect fluid at all times, both in the exact and effective regimes. Moreover, we present the effective field theory for the Newtonian gauge with non-zero anisotropic stress, making the original formulation more general and useful for scenarios where the matter content of the universe is multi-component. These results lay the theoretical foundation for a companion paper where we discuss how the axion field should be incorporated alongside other species in common cosmological Boltzmann solvers.

astro-ph.CO↗