# Cosmological constraints on the hot gas fraction in galaxy clusters [CEA]

The evolution of the X-ray emitting gas mass fraction in massive galaxy clusters can be used as an independent cosmological tool to probe the expansion history of the Universe. Its use, however, depends upon a crucial quantity, i.e., the depletion factor $\gamma$, which corresponds to the ratio by which the X-ray emitting gas fraction in galaxy clusters is depleted with respect to the universal baryonic mean. Since this quantity is not directly observed, assumptions about the cosmology need to be made and usually hydrodynamical cosmological simulations are used to calibrate it. In this letter, we obtain for the first time self-consistent observational constraints on the gas depletion factor combining 40 X-ray emitting gas mass fraction measurements and 580 distance measurements from type Ia supernovae. Using non-parametric methods to reconstruct a possible redshift evolution of $\gamma$, we find no evidence for such evolution, which confirms the current results from hydrodynamical simulations.

R. Holanda, V. Busti, J. Gonzalez, et. al.
Fri, 23 Jun 17
6/48

Comments: 5 pages, 1 figure, 1 table

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# Apparent cosmic acceleration from type Ia supernovae [CEA]

Parameters that quantify the acceleration of cosmic expansion are conventionally determined within the standard Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model, which fixes spatial curvature to be homogeneous. Generic averages of Einstein’s equations in inhomogeneous cosmology lead to models with non-rigidly evolving average spatial curvature, and different parameterizations of apparent cosmic acceleration. The timescape cosmology is a viable example of such a model without dark energy. Using the largest available supernova data set, the JLA catalogue, we find that the timescape model fits the luminosity distance-redshift data with a likelihood that is statistically indistinguishable from the standard spatially flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology by Bayesian comparison. In the timescape case cosmic acceleration is non-zero but has a marginal amplitude, with best fit apparent deceleration parameter, $q_0=-0.042^{+0.04}_{-0.01}$. Systematic issues regarding standardization of supernova light curves are analysed. Cuts of data at the statistical homogeneity scale affect light curve parameter fits independent of cosmology. A cosmological model dependency of empirical changes to the mean colour parameter is also found. Irrespective of which model ultimately fits better, we argue that as a competitive model with a non-FLRW expansion history, the timescape model may prove a useful diagnostic tool for disentangling selection effects and astrophysical systematics from the underlying expansion history.

L. Dam, A. Heinesen and D. Wiltshire
Fri, 23 Jun 17
45/48

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# Primordial Black Holes and Slow-roll Violation [CEA]

For primordial black holes (PBH) to be the dark matter in single-field inflation, the slow-roll approximation must be violated by at least ${\cal O}(1)$ in order to enhance the curvature power spectrum within the required number of efolds between CMB scales and PBH mass scales. Power spectrum predictions which rely on the inflaton remaining on the slow-roll attractor can fail dramatically leading to qualitatively incorrect conclusions in models like an inflection potential and misestimate the mass scale in a running mass model. We show that an optimized temporal evaluation of the Hubble slow-roll parameters to second order remains a good description for a wide range of PBH formation models where up to a $10^7$ amplification of power occurs in $10$ efolds or more.

H. Motohashi and W. Hu
Thu, 22 Jun 17
19/68

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# Linear scale bounds on dark matter–dark radiation interactions and connection with the small scale crisis of cold dark matter [CEA]

One of the open questions in modern cosmology is the small scale crisis of the cold dark matter paradigm. Increasing attention has recently been devoted to self-interacting dark matter models as a possible answer. However, solving the so-called “missing satellites” problem requires in addition the presence of an extra relativistic particle (dubbed dark radiation) scattering with dark matter in the early universe. Here we investigate the impact of different theoretical models devising dark matter dark radiation interactions on large scale cosmological observables. We use cosmic microwave background data to put constraints on the dark radiation component and its coupling to dark matter. We find that the values of the coupling allowed by the data imply a cut-off scale of the halo mass function consistent with the one required to match the observations of satellites in the Milky Way.

M. Archidiacono, S. Bohr, S. Hannestad, et. al.
Thu, 22 Jun 17
23/68

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# Towards optimal extraction of cosmological information from nonlinear data [CEA]

One of the main unsolved problems of cosmology is how to maximize the extraction of information from nonlinear data. If the data are nonlinear the usual approach is to employ a sequence of statistics (N-point statistics, counting statistics of clusters, density peaks or voids etc.), along with the corresponding covariance matrices. However, this approach is computationally prohibitive and has not been shown to be exhaustive in terms of information content. Here we instead develop a Bayesian approach, expanding the likelihood around the maximum posterior of linear modes, which we solve for using optimization methods. By integrating out the modes using perturbative expansion of the likelihood we construct an initial power spectrum estimator, which for a fixed forward model contains all the cosmological information if the initial modes are gaussian distributed. We develop a method to construct the window and covariance matrix such that the estimator is explicitly unbiased and nearly optimal. We then generalize the method to include the forward model parameters, including cosmological and nuisance parameters, and primordial non-gaussianity. We apply the method in the simplified context of nonlinear structure formation, using either simplified 2-LPT dynamics or N-body simulations as the nonlinear mapping between linear and nonlinear density, and 2-LPT dynamics in the optimization steps used to reconstruct the initial density modes. We demonstrate that the method gives an unbiased estimator of the initial power spectrum, providing among other a near optimal reconstruction of linear baryonic acoustic oscillations.

U. Seljak, G. Aslanyan, Y. Feng, et. al.
Thu, 22 Jun 17
33/68

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# Constraining sterile neutrino and dark energy with the latest cosmological observations [CEA]

We investigate how the dark energy properties change the cosmological limits on sterile neutrino parameters by using recent cosmological observations. We consider the simplest dynamical dark energy models, the $w$CDM model and the holographic dark energy (HDE) model to make an analysis. The cosmological observations used in this work include the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the type Ia supernova data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, and the CMB lensing measurement. We find that, $m_{\nu,{\rm{sterile}}}^{\rm{eff}}<0.2675$ eV and $N_{\rm eff}<3.5718$ for $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, $m_{\nu,{\rm{sterile}}}^{\rm{eff}}<0.5313$ eV and $N_{\rm eff}<3.5008$ for $w$CDM cosmology, and $m_{\nu,{\rm{sterile}}}^{\rm{eff}}<0.1989$ eV and $N_{\rm eff}<3.6701$ for HDE cosmology, under the constraints of the combination of these data. Thus, without the addition of measurements of growth of structure, only upper limits on both $m_{\nu,{\rm{sterile}}}^{\rm{eff}}$ and $N_{\rm eff}$ can be derived, indicating that no evidence of the existence of a sterile neutrino with eV-scale mass is found in this analysis. Moreover, compared to the $\Lambda$CDM model, in the $w$CDM model the limit on $m_{\nu,{\rm{sterile}}}^{\rm{eff}}$ becomes much looser, but in HDE model the limit becomes much tighter. Therefore, the dark energy properties could significantly impact the constraint limits on sterile neutrino parameters. Furthermore, we also show that, compared to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, the dynamical dark energy cosmology with sterile neutrinos can relieve the tension between the Planck observation and the direct measurement of $H_0$ much better.

L. Feng, J. Zhang and X. Zhang
Thu, 22 Jun 17
60/68

Comments: 17 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1703.04884

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# Integrated cosmological probes: Concordance quantified [CEA]

Assessing the consistency of parameter constraints derived from different cosmological probes is an important way to test the validity of the underlying cosmological model. In an earlier work [Nicola et al., 2017], we computed constraints on cosmological parameters for $\Lambda$CDM from an integrated analysis of CMB temperature anisotropies and CMB lensing from Planck, galaxy clustering and weak lensing from SDSS, weak lensing from DES SV as well as Type Ia supernovae and Hubble parameter measurements. In this work, we extend this analysis and quantify the concordance between the derived constraints and those derived by the Planck Collaboration as well as WMAP9, SPT and ACT. As a measure for consistency, we use the Surprise statistic [Seehars et al., 2014], which is based on the relative entropy. In the framework of a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, we find all data sets to be consistent with one another at a level of less than 1$\sigma$. We highlight that the relative entropy is sensitive to inconsistencies in the models that are used in different parts of the analysis. In particular, inconsistent assumptions for the neutrino mass break its invariance on the parameter choice. When consistent model assumptions are used, the data sets considered in this work all agree with each other and $\Lambda$CDM, without evidence for tensions.

A. Nicola, A. Amara and A. Refregier
Thu, 22 Jun 17
64/68

Comments: 14 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, to be submitted to JCAP

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