Download or read book The Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect in Galaxy Clusters as a Tool for Estimating Cosmological Parameters written by Laura Elina Valkonen and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Probabilistic Inference of Dark Matter Properties in Galaxy Clusters and the Cosmic Web written by Yin-Yee Ng and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mass tells spacetime how to curve, spacetime tells mass how to move". This famous quote by physicist John Archibald Wheeler succinctly summarizes General Relativity, the most successful theory that describes our universe at large scale. However, most of the mass that General Relativity describes, namely dark matter (DM), remains a mystery. We have solid evidence of the existence of DM from various observations, but we know little or nothing about the particle nature of DM and how DM particles interact with different particles. Completing this knowledge gap would improve or revolutionize our established cosmological model, the Lambda Cold-Dark Matter (CDM) model, and give directions to theories beyond the standard particle physics model.This work attempts to study DM by examining and extending existing modeling approaches of DM and its visible tracers in a probabilistic way. The single verified form of DM interaction is gravitational. Currently, the only way to infer the properties of DM is through visible tracers. Most of these indirect detections either have low signal-to-noise, sparse coverage, or missing variables. These limitations introduce additional modeling choices and uncertainties. A probabilistic approach allows us to propagate the uncertainties appropriately and marginalize any missing variables. There are two recurring types of visible tracers that my work uses. The first type of tracers are galaxies and observables in the overdense regions of DM. These tracers allow usto infer the macroscopic dynamical properties of DM distribution that we want to study. The second type of tracers, on the hand, are in the background, i.e. further away than the foreground dark matter, from us observers. The gravity of DM can bend spacetime such that the path of light traveling in the vicinity would also curve, leaving distortions in the galaxy images. The gravitational distortion of the images of the background galaxies is also known as gravitational lensing. In the introduction (first chapter) of this thesis, I will layout the technical history, terminology and the reasons behind choosing the various data sets and give an overview of the analysis methods for my thesis work. In chapter two, I will present the study based on the observational data of El Gordo, one of the most massive, most ancient, merging galaxy clusters. Under the extreme collision speeds during a merger of a galaxy cluster, it is more probable for DM particles in the cluster to manifest eects of self-interaction. Thus, if DM particles can interact with one another, some preliminary simulations have shown that large-scale spatial distribution of DM can show discrepancies from its galaxy-counterparts. This discrepancy is also known as the galaxy-DM offset, with a caveat. The long duration (millions of years) of a merger means that we cannot detect the direction of motions of the components directly to confirm the offset as a lag. My work on El Gordo was the first to show a quantitative method of estimating how likely the DM components of El Gordo are to be moving in a certain direction. This study was made possible by utilizing informative observables in various wavelengths, including a pair of radio shockwaves on the outer skirt of the cluster, enhanced X-ray emissivity and the decrement of the Sunyaev-Zel'Dovich effect for the infra-red observations. This comprehensive set of observables allowed us to formulate probabilistic constraints in our Monte Carlo simulation of El Gordo. Furthermore, the study also brought up several questions about the modeling choices for comparing the DM and the member-galaxy distributions of a cluster. For instance, do the DM maps and the galaxy maps have high enough resolution to show the delicate offset signal produced by the possible self-interaction of DM (SIDM)? To address my concerns from the study of El Gordo, I conducted a second investigation of galaxy clusters in a cosmological simulation, which is described in chapter 3. The dataset I chose was from the Illustris simulation. As this simulation assumes a Cold-Dark-Mattermodel (CDM) without requiring an SIDM model, any offset between DM and the member galaxies in a galaxy cluster provides an estimate of the variability of the galaxy-DM offset. My study shows that the variability in this setting is non-negligible compared to the small observed offsets, it is likely that random variation can account for the galaxy-DM offsets inobservations. The result weakens our belief that SIDM is the cause of the offsets. The fourth chapter of my dissertation builds on top of my previous experience with analyzing the weak lensing data for El Gordo. This time, I performed the weak lensing study for a dataset of a much larger spatial scale, such that, galaxy clusters look like parts of a homogeneous and isotropic DM web. At this scale, it is possible to compare the spatial distribution of DM to simulations to give competitive constraints on cosmological parameters. Using weak lensing signals for estimating cosmological parameters is also known as cosmic shear inference. While I used a parametric technique to estimate the mass of El Gordo in chapter 2, my work in chapter 4 introduces a new non-parametric model using a Gaussian Process. A Gaussian Process is a generalization of the multivariate normal distribution to higher dimensions. We can draw functional models from a Gaussian Process to describe our data. While the realizations are drawn from a multivariate normal distribution, we can specify the parameters and the functional structure of the covariance (kernel) matrix of the underlying distribution. This generative model gives us the ability to put probabilistic estimates of DM density in regions without any background galaxies. As I have built the lensing physics into the very core of the covariance kernel matrix, we can also simultaneously infer the several important lensing observables, such as shear and convergence, given some lensed galaxy shapes. More importantly, this technique relies on fewer assumptions about the photometric redshift than traditional cosmic shear analysis technique. This may reduce the bias towards a ducial cosmology and lead to interesting discoveries. However, this new technique is not without its challenges. Computationally, this technique requires an O(n3) runtime. Despite my best attempts to parallelize the computation, the algorithm takes longer for generating DM mass maps than traditional approaches. My work here marks the beginning of an alternative method for cosmic shear inference. Many promising approximation techniques have emerged to drastically speed up the runtime of doing inference with a Gaussian Process. Incorporating these approximations may make it possible to use this method to give tighter cosmological constraints from future sky surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. I conclude my work in Chapter 5 and discuss the implications of my work. This includes some future directions for analyzing DM by using simulations with different underlying DM models and real data.

Download or read book Forecasting and Extracting Cosmological Information from Galaxy Cluster Peculiar Velocities written by Alan Campbell Peel and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cosmology with Clusters of Galaxies written by Sandor Mihaly Molnar and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a comprehensive review of the methods applied to derive cosmological parameters for a given model and test different cosmological models using the most massive collapsed structures in our Universe: clusters of galaxies. Clusters typically consist of hundreds of galaxies and high-temperature ionised gas trapped in their gravitational field dominated by dark matter extending out to 2-3 Mpc. The formation, evolution, and structure of these massive rare objects are sensitive probes of the assumed cosmology. This is a multidisciplinary field of astrophysics involving multi-wavelength observations, gravity theory, atomic physics, plasma physics, magneto-hydrodynamics, astrophysical cosmology and numerical simulations. Our understanding of the physics of clusters, which is essential when using them for cosmology, has been improved tremendously due to the recent advent of technology and observational strategy in multi-frequency observations, and enhanced by improved numerical simulations made possible by more advanced high performance computers. As a result of these developments, cosmology with clusters of galaxies has become a mature discipline recently, and provided an important contribution to establish our concordance cosmological constant dominated cold dark matter model. In the near future we expect a rapid expansion of this field due to results from new cluster surveys and multi-wavelength observations. This timely volume on this exciting newly established field discusses galaxy cluster physics and provides a detailed description of using clusters to derive cosmological parameters applying accurate measurements of individual clusters as well as using clusters as a statistical tool. A detailed discussion is given on degeneracies between derived parameters and the systematic effects, which are becoming a limiting factor. An account for using clusters to test different cosmological models is also presented. This volume provides an introduction to galaxy cluster cosmology for physics and astronomy graduate students and serves as a reference source for professionals.

Download or read book Millimeter Submillimeter and Far infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Infering cosmological parameters from observing galaxy clusters with eROSITA written by Mahya Sadaghiani and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Precision Cosmology with Galaxy Cluster Surveys written by Hao-Yi Wu and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2011 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acceleration of the universe, which is often attributed to "dark energy, " has posed one of the main challenges to fundamental physics. Galaxy clusters provide one of the most sensitive probes of dark energy because their abundance reflects the growth rate of large-scale structure and the expansion rate of the universe. Several large galaxy cluster surveys will soon provide tremendous statistical power to constrain the properties of dark energy; however, the constraining power of these surveys will be determined by how well systematic errors are controlled. Of these systematic errors, the dominant one comes from inferring cluster masses using observable signals of clusters, the so-called "observable--mass distribution." This thesis focuses on extracting dark energy information from forthcoming large galaxy cluster surveys, including how we maximize the cosmological information, how we control important systematics, and how precisely we need to calibrate theoretical models. We study how multi-wavelength follow-up observations can improve cluster mass calibration in optical surveys. We also investigate the impact of theoretical uncertainties in calibrating the spatial distributions of galaxy clusters on dark energy constraints. In addition, we explore how the formation history of galaxy clusters impacts the self-calibration of cluster mass. In addition, we use N-body simulations to develop a new statistical sample of cluster-size halos in order to further understand the observable--mass distribution. We study the completeness of subhalos in our cluster sample by comparing them with the satellite galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also study how subhalo selections impact the inferred correlation between formation time and optical mass tracers, including cluster richness and velocity dispersion.

Download or read book Cosmological Parameter Estimation Using SZ selected Galaxy Cluster Abundances written by Jonathan Dudley and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The observational record of the growth of structure in the universe over cosmic time offers a unique and invaluable cosmological measure. The abundance and evolutionary history of structure in the universe are dependent upon the parameters which define the cosmological framework. In this work, we formulate a method for deriving cosmological constraints from the observed abundance of galaxy clusters. These objects are the most massive gravitationally collapsed structures in the universe and act as tracers of the underlying density field. We develop a technique for comparing theoretical cluster abundances with observed galaxy cluster catalogs. In this process, we explore and constrain the parameter space for departures from the canonical cosmological model. The motivation and framework for this investigation are presented in the opening chapters. An introduction to modern cosmological theory and methods for calculating theoretical galaxy cluster abundances are presented. A description of the physical observables associated with galaxy clusters follows, including a summary of detection methods. A cluster likelihood, defined through comparisons between observed cluster abundances with those predicted from theory, is developed.The focus of this work rests in the analysis of the cluster likelihood. The fiducial LCDM model is explored and parameter constraints are presented. The cluster dataset is shown to provide useful constraints on numerous parameters and the inclusion of supplementary data is investigated. The cluster-scale normalization parameter sigma_8 is well-constrained by this analysis, where we find sigma_8=0.745+-0.082 when considering only the cluster data and sigma_8=0.796+-0.026 for a combination of cluster and complementary datasets. The normalization of the scaling relation between the cluster observable and its mass and redshift is also constrained by this joint analysis such that, when compared with predictions from numerical simulations, we find A_SZ, meas./A_SZ, fid.=0.82+-0.17. Also explored are two extensions to the standard cosmological model, a non-cosmological-constant form of dark energy and non-Gaussian primordial fluctuations. In both cases the cluster likelihood is demonstrated to provide informative constraints, demonstrating consistency with a cosmological constant form of dark energy and Gaussian primordial fluctuations. Through a combination of cluster and complementary datasets we constrain the dark energy equation of state parameter to be w=-1.07+-0.12. The degree of non-Gaussianity inferred from a catalog of massive galaxy clusters is also constrained, finding f_NL=-36 (-491+456) at 68% confidence for a particular non-Gaussian model." --

Download or read book Instrumentation and Analysis for Observations of the Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect from Galaxy Clusters with the APEX SZ Experiment written by James Kennedy and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the Universe. Their size makes them unique and powerful tools for cosmology and the study of astrophysical processes. The hot gas that resides between the galaxies constitutes the majority of the baryonic matter in the cluster, and can be detected through its emission processes as well as its effect on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in a process known as the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE).This thesis describes the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (APEX-SZ) project. This experiment was the first large-array TES bolometer instrument and observed galaxy clusters through the SZE. APEX-SZ employed 280 TES detectors and operated for 875 hours over five years, making targeted observations of 42 galaxy clusters. The scientific motivation for the APEX-SZ experiment is given, along with a description of the general instrumentation for a large-array TES bolometer receiver. In addition, an electronic temperature readout and control board, developed at McGill and operated by multiple CMB experiments, is presented. The data calibration and analysis of the APEX-SZ data is discussed, along with the SZE measurements from galaxy clusters and their scaling-relations with X-ray data." --

Download or read book A Novel Measurement of Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect in Galaxy Clusters written by Thor Miller Wilbanks and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Discovery of Cosmic Voids written by Laird A. Thompson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The large-scale structure of the Universe is dominated by vast voids with galaxies clustered in knots, sheets, and filaments, forming a great 'cosmic web'. In this personal account of the major astronomical developments leading to this discovery, we learn from Laird A. Thompson, a key protagonist, how the first 3D maps of galaxies were created. Using non-mathematical language, he introduces the standard model of cosmology before explaining how and why ideas about cosmic voids evolved, referencing the original maps, reproduced here. His account tells of the competing teams of observers, racing to publish their results, the theorists trying to build or update their models to explain them, and the subsequent large-scale survey efforts that continue to the present day. This is a well-documented account of the birth of a major pillar of modern cosmology, and a useful case study of the trials surrounding how this scientific discovery became accepted.

Download or read book Constraints on Cluster Structure and Cosmology from X ray and Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect Properties of Galaxy Clusters written by Samuel J. Laroque and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Modern Cosmology written by Scott Dodelson and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2003-03-13 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An advanced text for senior undergraduates, graduate students and physical scientists in fields outside cosmology. This is a self-contained book focusing on the linear theory of the evolution of density perturbations in the universe, and the anisotropiesin the cosmic microwave background.

Download or read book Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure written by Andrew R. Liddle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-13 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough and up-to-date graduate textbook on the most promising theory of the universe - inflationary cosmology.

Download or read book Data Analysis in Cosmology written by Vicent J. Martinez and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The amount of cosmological data has dramatically increased in the past decades due to an unprecedented development of telescopes, detectors and satellites. Efficiently handling and analysing new data of the order of terabytes per day requires not only computer power to be processed but also the development of sophisticated algorithms and pipelines. Aiming at students and researchers the lecture notes in this volume explain in pedagogical manner the best techniques used to extract information from cosmological data, as well as reliable methods that should help us improve our view of the universe.

Download or read book Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution written by Vicent J. Martinez and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-12-20 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last decade, statisticians have developed new statistical tools in the field of spatial point processes. At the same time, observational efforts have yielded a huge amount of new cosmological data to analyze. Although the main tools in astronomy for comparing theoretical results with observation are statistical, in recent years, cosmologis

Download or read book The Large Scale Structure of the Universe written by Malcolm S. Longair and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The significance of the present IAU symposium, "The Large Scale Structure of the Universe", fortunately requires no elaboration by the editors. The quality of the wide range of observational and theoretical astrophysics contained in this volume speaks for itself. The published version of the proceedings contains all the contributions presented at the symposium with the exception of the introductory lecture by V. A. Ambartsumian. Contributed papers, short contributions and discussions have been included according to the recommendations of the IAU. Many people contributed to the success of the symposium. First of all, thanks are due to the USSR Academy of Sciences and to the Estonian Academy of Sciences for sponsoring this symposium in Tallinn. The efforts of Academician K. Rebane, President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, are particularly appreciated. The astronomical hosts of the symposium were the members of the W. Struve Astrophysical Observatory of Tartu who made outstanding efforts to lavish participants with Estonian hospitality which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by them and their guests. The members of the Scientific and Local Organising Committees are listed below and we thank all of them for their contributions which were central to the success of the symposium. In addition are listed members of the Technical Organising Committee who were responsible for all details of the organisation and whose vigilance ensured that all aspects of the symposium ran smoothly and efficiently. Their contributions are all gratefully acknowledged.