First-order phase transitions in Yang-Mills theories and the density of state method [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07463


When studied at finite temperature, Yang-Mills theories in $3+1$ dimensions display the presence of confinement/deconfinement phase transitions, which are known to be of first order — the $SU(2)$ gauge theory being the exception. Theoretical as well as phenomenological considerations indicate that it is essential to establish a precise characterisation of these physical systems in proximity of such phase transitions. We present and test a new method to study the critical region of parameter space in non-Abelian quantum field theories on the lattice, based upon the Logarithmic Linear Relaxation (LLR) algorithm. We apply this method to the $SU(3)$ Yang Mills lattice gauge theory, and perform extensive calculations with one fixed choice of lattice size. We identify the critical temperature, and measure interesting physical quantities near the transition. Among them, we determine the free energy of the model in the critical region, exposing for the first time its multi-valued nature with a numerical calculation from first principles, providing this novel evidence in support of a first order phase transition. This study sets the stage for future high precision measurements, by demonstrating the potential of the method.

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B. Lucini, D. Mason, M. Piai, et. al.
Mon, 15 May 23
48/53

Comments: 25 pages, 21 figures

Testing the Cosmological Principle: On the Time Dilation of Distant Sources [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06771


We present a novel test of the cosmological principle: the idea that, on sufficiently large scales, the universe should appear homogeneous and isotropic to observers comoving with the Hubble flow. This is a fundamental assumption in modern cosmology, underpinning the use of the Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker metric as part of the concordance $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. However, the observed dipole imprinted on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is interpreted as our departure from the Hubble flow, and such a proper motion will induce a directionally-dependent time dilation over the sky. We illustrate the feasibility of detection of this ‘time dilation dipole’ and sketch the practical steps involved in its extraction from a catalogue of sources with intrinsic time-scales. In essence, whilst the scale of this dilation is small, being of order of 0.1%, it will in principle be detectable in large scale surveys of variable cosmological sources, such as quasars and supernovae. The degree of alignment of the time dilation dipole with the kinematic dipole derived from the CMB will provide a new assessment of the cosmological principle, and address the tension in dipole measures from other observations.

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O. Oayda and G. Lewis
Fri, 12 May 23
4/53

Comments: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

FAST drift scan survey for HI intensity mapping: I. preliminary data analysis [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06405


This work presents the initial results of the drift-scan observation for the neutral hydrogen (HI) intensity mapping survey with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The data analyzed in this work were collected in night observations from 2019 through 2021. The primary findings are based on 28 hours of drift-scan observation carried out over seven nights in 2021, which covers $60\,{\rm deg}^2$ sky area. Our main findings are: (i) Our calibration strategy can successfully correct both the temporal and bandpass gain variation over the $4$-hour drift-scan observation. (ii) The continuum maps of the surveyed region are made with frequency resolution of $28$ kHz and pixel area of $2.95\,{\rm arcmin}^2$. The pixel noise levels of the continuum maps are slightly higher than the forecast assuming $T_{\rm sys}=20\,{\rm K}$, which are $36.0$ mK (for 10.0 s integration time) at the $1050$–$1150$ MHz band, and $25.9$ mK (for 16.7 s integration time) at the $1323$–$1450$ MHz band, respectively. (iii) The flux-weighted differential number count is consistent with the NRAO-VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) catalog down to the confusion limit $\sim7\,{\rm mJy}/{\rm beam}^{-1}$. (iv) The continuum flux measurements of the sources are consistent with that found in the literature. The difference in the flux measurement of $81$ isolated NVSS sources is about $6.3\%$. Our research offers a systematic analysis for the FAST HI intensity mapping drift-scan survey and serves as a helpful resource for further cosmology and associated galaxies sciences with the FAST drift-scan survey.

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Y. Li, Y. Wang, F. Deng, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
9/53

Comments: 26 pages, 26 figures, and 4 tables

The Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect with ACT, DES, and BOSS: a Novel Hybrid Estimator [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06792


The kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ and tSZ) effects probe the abundance and thermodynamics of ionized gas in galaxies and clusters. We present a new hybrid estimator to measure the kSZ effect by combining cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy maps with photometric and spectroscopic optical survey data. The method interpolates a velocity reconstruction from a spectroscopic catalog at the positions of objects in a photometric catalog, which makes it possible to leverage the high number density of the photometric catalog and the precision of the spectroscopic survey. Combining this hybrid kSZ estimator with a measurement of the tSZ effect simultaneously constrains the density and temperature of free electrons in the photometrically selected galaxies. Using the 1000 deg2 of overlap between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 5, the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12, we detect the kSZ signal at 4.8${\sigma}$ and reject the null (no-kSZ) hypothesis at 5.1${\sigma}$. This corresponds to 2.0${\sigma}$ per 100,000 photometric objects with a velocity field based on a spectroscopic survey with 1/5th the density of the photometric catalog. For comparison, a recent ACT analysis using exclusively spectroscopic data from BOSS measured the kSZ signal at 2.1${\sigma}$ per 100,000 objects. Our derived constraints on the thermodynamic properties of the galaxy halos are consistent with previous measurements. With future surveys, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, we expect that this hybrid estimator could result in measurements with significantly better signal-to-noise than those that rely on spectroscopic data alone.

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M. Mallaby-Kay, S. Amodeo, J. Hill, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
11/53

Comments: 19 pages, 15 figures

Constraints on the Hubble constant from Supernova Refsdal's reappearance [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06367


The gravitationally lensed Supernova Refsdal appeared in multiple images, produced through gravitational lensing by a massive foreground galaxy cluster. After the supernova appeared in 2014, lens models of the galaxy cluster predicted an additional image of the supernova would appear in 2015, which was subsequently observed. We use the time delays between the images to perform a blinded measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe, quantified by the Hubble constant (H0). Using eight cluster lens models, we infer H0 = 64.8 +4.4-4.3 km / s / Mpc, where Mpc is the megaparsec. Using the two models most consistent with the observations, we find H0 = 66.6 +4.1-3.3 km / s / Mpc. The observations are best reproduced by models that assign dark-matter halos to individual galaxies and the overall cluster.

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P. Kelly, S. Rodney, T. Treu, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
14/53

Comments: Published in Science. Companion paper presenting time-delay and relative magnification measurements published in ApJ (DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac4ccb)

A Leptonic Model for Neutrino Emission From Active Galactic Nuclei [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06375


It is often stated that the observation of high-energy neutrinos from an astrophysical source would constitute a smoking gun for the acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays. Here, we point out that there exists a purely leptonic mechanism to produce TeV-scale neutrinos in astrophysical environments. In particular, very high energy synchrotron photons can scatter with X-rays, exceeding the threshold for muon-antimuon pair production. When these muons decay, they produce neutrinos without any cosmic-ray protons or nuclei being involved. In order for this mechanism to be efficient, the source in question must feature both kG-scale magnetic fields and a high density of keV-scale photons. As an example, we consider the active galaxy NGC 1068, which IceCube has recently detected as a source of TeV-scale neutrinos. We find that the neutrino emission observed from this source could potentially be generated through muon pair production for reasonable choices of physical parameters.

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D. Hooper and K. Plant
Fri, 12 May 23
18/53

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures

Skew spectrum and smoothed skewness of 21-cm signals from epoch of reionization [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06514


Due to the non-linear ionizing and heating processes, the 21-cm signals from epoch of reionization (EoR) are expected to have strong non-Gaussian fluctuations. In this paper, we use the semi-numerical simulations to study the non-Gaussian statistics i.e. skew spectrum and smoothed skewness of the 21-cm signals from EoR. We find the 21-cm skew spectrum and smoothed skewness have similar evolution features with the 21-cm bispectrum. All of them are sensitive to the EoR models, while not too much to the cosmic volume applied. With the SKA1-low telescope as reference, we find both the skew spectrum and smoothed skewness have much higher S/N ratios than the 21-cm bispectrum.

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Q. Ma and L. Peng
Fri, 12 May 23
22/53

Comments: 7 pages, 5 figures, mnras accepted

Twin Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06364


We propose that the dark matter of our universe could be sterile neutrinos which reside within the twin sector of a mirror twin Higgs model. In our scenario, these particles are produced through a version of the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism that takes place entirely within the twin sector, yielding a dark matter candidate that is consistent with X-ray and gamma-ray line constraints. Furthermore, this scenario can naturally avoid the cosmological problems that are typically encountered in mirror twin Higgs models. In particular, if the sterile neutrinos in the Standard Model sector decay out of equilibrium, they can heat the Standard Model bath and reduce the contributions of the twin particles to $N_\mathrm{eff}$. Such decays also reduce the effective temperature of the dark matter, thereby relaxing constraints from large-scale structure. The sterile neutrinos included in this model are compatible with the seesaw mechanism for generating Standard Model neutrino masses.

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I. Holst, D. Hooper, G. Krnjaic, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
23/53

Comments: N/A

Improving constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity using neural network based reconstruction [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07018


We study the use of U-Nets in reconstructing the linear dark matter density field and its consequences for constraining cosmological parameters, in particular primordial non-Gaussianity. Our network is able to reconstruct the initial conditions of redshift $z=0$ density fields from N-body simulations with $90\%$ accuracy out to $k \leq 0.4$ h/Mpc, competitive with state-of-the-art reconstruction algorithms at a fraction of the computational cost. We study the information content of the reconstructed $z=0$ density field with a Fisher analysis using the QUIJOTE simulation suite, including non-Gaussian initial conditions. Combining the pre- and post-reconstructed power spectrum and bispectrum data up to $k_{\rm max} = 0.52$ h/Mpc, we find significant improvements on all parameters. Most notably, we find a factor $3.65$ (local), $3.54$ (equilateral) and $2.90$ (orthogonal) improvement on the marginalized errors of $f_{\rm NL}$ as compared to only using the pre-reconstructed data. We show that these improvements can be attributed to a combination of reduced data covariance and parameter degeneracy. The results constitute an important step towards more optimal inference of primordial non-Gaussianity from non-linear scales.

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T. Flöss and P. Meerburg
Fri, 12 May 23
25/53

Comments: 22 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, codes available at this https URL and this https URL

Effect of the cosmological model on LIV constraints from GRB Time-Delays datasets [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06504


Putting constraints on a possible Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) from astrophysical sources such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is an essential tool for finding evidences of new theories of quantum gravity (QG) that predict energy-dependent speed of light. Such a search has its own difficulties, so usually, the effect of the cosmological model is understudied and the default model is a fixed-parameters $\Lambda$CDM. In this work, we use different astrophysical datasets to study the effect of a number of dark energy models on the LIV constrains. To this end, we combine two public time-delay GRB datasets with the supernovae Pantheon dataset, a number of angular baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), the cosmic microwave background (CMB) distance prior and a GRB or quasars dataset. We find for $\alpha$ the expected average value of $\sim 4 \times 10^{-4}$, corresponding to $E_{QG}\ge 10^{17}$ GeV for both time-delay (TD) datasets, with the second one being more sensitive to the cosmological model. We find that the cosmology amounts to at least 20\% deviation in our constraints on the energy. Also interestingly, adding the TD points makes the DE models less-preferable statistically and shifts the value of the parameter $c/(H_0 r_d)$ down, making it smaller than the expected value. We see that possible LIV measurements depend critically on the transparency of the assumptions behind the published data with respect to cosmology and that taking it into account may be important contribution in the case of possible detection.

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D. Staicova
Fri, 12 May 23
26/53

Comments: 19 pages, prepared for the Classical and Quantum Gravity focus issue “Focus on Quantum Gravity Phenomenology in the Multi-Messenger Era: Challenges and Perspectives”

Constraining Primordial Magnetic Fields with Line-Intensity Mapping [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06440


Primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) offer a compelling explanation for the origin of observed magnetic fields, especially on extragalactic scales. Such PMFs give rise to excess of power in small scale matter perturbations that could strongly influence structure formation. We study the impact of the magnetically enhanced matter power spectrum on the signal that will be observed by line-intensity mapping (LIM) surveys targeting carbon monoxide (CO) emission from star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. Specifically, the voxel intensity distribution of intensity maps provides access to small-scale information, which makes it highly sensitive to signatures of PMFs on matter overdensities. We present forecasts for future LIM CO surveys, finding that they can constrain PMF amplitudes as small as $\sigma_{B,0}\sim0.04-1\,{\rm nG}$, depending on the magnetic spectral index and the targeted redshifts.

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T. Adi, S. Libanore, H. Cruz, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
29/53

Comments: 9 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

Cosmological constraints on R2-AB model [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06392


Nowadays, efforts are being devoted to the study of alternative cosmological scenarios, in which, modifications of General Relativity (GR) theory have been proposed to explain the late cosmic acceleration, without assuming the existence of the dark energy (DE) component. We investigate the $R^2$-corrected Appleby-Battye model, or $R^2$-AB model, which consists of an $f(R)$ model with only one extra free parameter $b$, besides the cosmological parameters of the flat-$\Lambda$CDM model: $H_0$ and $\Omega_{m,0}$. Regarding this model, it was already shown that a positive value for $b$ is required for the model to be consistent with Solar System tests, moreover, the condition for the existence of a de~Sitter state requires $b \ge 1.6$. To impose observational constraints on the $R^2$-AB model, we consider in our analyses two data sets: cosmic chronometer $H(z)$ data for the background level, and $f\sigma_8$ data, for the perturbative level. The first one provides $b = 1.6^{+3.1}{-0.0}$ and the cosmological parameters ${H_0 ,\Omega{m,0}}$ in agreement to Planck values, while the second one, indicates $b = 1.76^{+2.91}{-0.15}$ and the parameters ${\Omega{m,0},\sigma_{8,0} }$ also in agreement to Planck values; in the last case the data was marginalized over the parameter $H_0$. Additionally, we perform illustrative analyses that compare this $f(R)$ model with the flat-$\Lambda$CDM model, considering several values of the parameter $b$, for diverse cosmological functions like the Hubble function $H(z)$, the equation of state $w_{eff}(z)$, the parametrized growth rate of cosmic structures $f \sigma_8$, and $\sigma_8(z)$. The overall conclusion is that the $R^2$-AB model is a promising $f(R)$ model that deserves to continue being tested with diverse cosmological data.

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B. Ribeiro, A. Bernui and M. Campista
Fri, 12 May 23
32/53

Comments: N/A

X-Shooting ULLYSES: massive stars at low metallicity. I. Project Description [SSA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06376


Observations of individual massive stars, super-luminous supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational-wave events involving spectacular black-hole mergers, indicate that the low-metallicity Universe is fundamentally different from our own Galaxy. Many transient phenomena will remain enigmatic until we achieve a firm understanding of the physics and evolution of massive stars at low metallicity (Z).
The Hubble Space Telescope has devoted 500 orbits to observe 250 massive stars at low Z in the ultraviolet (UV) with the COS and STIS spectrographs under the ULLYSES program.
The complementary “X-Shooting ULLYSES” (XShootU) project provides enhanced legacy value with high-quality optical and near-infrared spectra obtained with the wide-wavelength coverage X-shooter spectrograph at ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
We present an overview of the XShootU project, showing that combining ULLYSES UV and XShootU optical spectra is critical for the uniform determination of stellar parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, luminosity, and abundances, as well as wind properties such as mass-loss rates in function of Z. As uncertainties in stellar and wind parameters percolate into many adjacent areas of Astrophysics, the data and modelling of the XShootU project is expected to be a game-changer for our physical understanding of massive stars at low Z.
To be able to confidently interpret James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectra of the first stellar generations, the individual spectra of low Z stars need to be understood, which is exactly where XShootU can deliver.

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V. S., M. A., C. P.A., et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
42/53

Comments: Accepted in A&A – 35 Pages, 12 Figures, 4 Tables, 2 Large Tables

Measuring the Variance of the Macquart Relation in z-DM Modeling [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07022


The Macquart relation describes the correlation between the dispersion measure (DM) of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and the redshift $z$ of their host galaxies. The scatter of the Macquart relation is sensitive to the distribution of baryons in the intergalactic medium (IGM) including those ejected from galactic halos through feedback processes. The width of the distribution in DMs from the cosmic web (${\rm DM}{\rm cosmic}$) is parameterized by a fluctuation parameter $F$, which is related to the cosmic DM variance by $\sigma{\rm DM}= F z^{-0.5}$. In this work, we present a new measurement of $F$ using 78 FRBs of which 21 have been localized to host galaxies. Our analysis simultaneously fits for the Hubble constant $H_0$ and the DM distribution due to the FRB host galaxy. We find that the fluctuation parameter is degenerate with these parameters, most notably $H_0$, and use a uniform prior on $H_0$ to measure $\log_{10} F > -0.89$ at the $3\sigma$ confidence interval and a new constraint on the Hubble constant $H_0 = 85.3_{-8.1}^{+9.4} \, {\rm km \, s^{-1} \, Mpc^{-1}}$. Using a synthetic sample of 100 localized FRBs, the constraint on the fluctuation parameter is improved by a factor of $\sim 2$. Comparing our $F$ measurement to simulated predictions from cosmological simulation (IllustrisTNG), we find agreement between $0.4 < z < 2$. However, at $z < 0.4$, the simulations underpredict $F$ which we attribute to the rapidly changing extragalactic DM excess distribution at low redshift.

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J. Baptista, J. Prochaska, A. Mannings, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
45/53

Comments: Submitted to ApJ. 11 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables

The Magnificent Five Images of Supernova Refsdal: Time Delay and Magnification Measurements [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06377


In late 2014, four images of Supernova (SN) “Refsdal,” the first known example of a strongly lensed SN with multiple resolved images, were detected in the MACS J1149 galaxy-cluster field. Following the images’ discovery, the SN was predicted to reappear within hundreds of days at a new position ~8 arcseconds away in the field. The observed reappearance in late 2015 makes it possible to carry out Refsdal’s (1964) original proposal to use a multiply imaged SN to measure the Hubble constant H0, since the time delay between appearances should vary inversely with H0. Moreover, the position, brightness, and timing of the reappearance enable a novel test of the blind predictions of galaxy-cluster models, which are typically constrained only by the positions of multiply imaged galaxies. We have developed a new photometry pipeline that uses DOLPHOT to measure the fluxes of the five images of SN Refsdal from difference images. We apply four separate techniques to perform a blind measurement of the relative time delays and magnification ratios (mu_i/mu_1) between the last image SX and the earlier images S1-S4. We measure the relative time delay of SX-S1 to be 376.0+5.6-5.5 days and the relative magnification to be 0.30+0.05-0.03. This corresponds to a 1.5% precision on the time delay and 17% precision for the magnification ratios, and includes uncertainties due to millilensing and microlensing. In an accompanying paper, we place initial and blind constraints on the value of the Hubble constant.

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P. Kelly, S. Rodney, T. Treu, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
48/53

Comments: Published in ApJ. Companion paper presenting H0 constraints published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abh1322)

The impact of UV variability on the abundance of bright galaxies at $z \geq 9$ [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05679


JWST observations have revealed a population of galaxies bright enough that potentially challenge standard galaxy formation models in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Using a minimal empirical framework, we investigate the influence of variability on the rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) luminosity function (UVLF) of galaxies at $z\geq 9$. Our study differentiates between the $\textit{median UV radiation yield}$ and the $\textit{variability of UV luminosities}$ of galaxies at a fixed dark matter halo mass. We primarily focus on the latter effect, which depends on halo assembly and galaxy formation processes and can significantly increase the abundance of UV-bright galaxies due to the upscatter of galaxies in lower-mass haloes. We find that a relatively low level of variability, $\sigma_{\rm UV} \approx 0.75$ mag, matches the observational constraints at $z\approx 9$. However, increasingly larger $\sigma_{\rm UV}$ is necessary when moving to higher redshifts, reaching $\sigma_{\rm UV} \approx 2.0\,(2.5)\,{\rm mag}$ at $z\approx 12$ ($16$). This implied variability is consistent with expectations of physical processes in high-redshift galaxies such as bursty star formation and cycles of dust clearance. Photometric constraints from JWST at $z\gtrsim 9$ therefore can be reconciled with a standard $\Lambda$CDM-based galaxy formation model calibrated at lower redshifts without the need for adjustments to the median UV radiation yield.

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X. Shen, M. Vogelsberger, M. Boylan-Kolchin, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
6/55

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be submitted. Comments are welcome

On unitarity in Higgs-like inflation [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05682


We study inflationary models based on a non-minimal coupling of a singlet scalar to gravity, focussing on the preheating dynamics and the unitarity issues in this regime. If the scalar does not have significant couplings to other fields, particle production after inflation is far less efficient than that in Higgs inflation. As a result, unitarity violation at large non-minimal couplings requires a different treatment. We find that collective effects in inflaton scattering processes during preheating make an important impact on the unitarity constraint. Within effective field theory, the consequent upper bound on the non-minimal coupling is of order a few hundreds.

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O. Lebedev, Y. Mambrini and J. Yoon
Thu, 11 May 23
12/55

Comments: N/A

Scale invariant curvature perturbations from a spontaneously decaying scalar field [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06320


The evolution of superhorizon curvature perturbations in a two-component interacting universe is considered. It is found that adiabatic modes conserve the total curvature perturbation $\zeta$, unless there are stages in which the rate of dissipation of one component into another is not constant. Moreover, our result shows that when the rate is varying it is possible for ‘isocurvature’ perturbations generated during reheating to alter the amplitude of an adiabatic curvature mode even when the mode is outside the horizon. Specifically, if an indefinitely large rate $\Gamma$ for massive particles decaying into photons develops rapidly amid vanishingly small initial values (before decay) of the total curvature $\zeta_i$ and Newtonian potential $\Phi_i$, such that the product $\Gamma\zeta_i$ and $\Gamma\Phi_i$ become a pair of finite and universal constants for all superhorizon scales afterwards, Harrison-Zel’dovich scale-invariant power spectrum could be synthesized from a homogeneous state without inflation at all.

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R. Lieu and C. Shi
Thu, 11 May 23
18/55

Comments: CQG in press

A robust explanation of CMB anomalies with a new formulation of inflationary quantum fluctuations [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06057


The presence of CMB Hemispherical Asymmetry (HPA) challenges the current understanding of inflationary cosmology which does not generically predict the parity violation in the primordial correlations. In this paper, we shall review the recently proposed resolution to this based on a new formulation of quantizing inflationary fluctuations by focusing on the discrete spacetime transformations in a gravitational context. The predictive power of this formulation is that one can generate a scale dependent HPA in the context of single field inflation for all the primordial modes including scalar and tensor fluctuations without introducing any additional parameters. This result can be seen as an indication of spontaneous breaking of $\mathcal{C}\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry in an expanding Universe, if confirmed by future observations it would be a great leap in the subject of quantum field theory in curved spacetime.

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K. Kumar and J. Marto
Thu, 11 May 23
23/55

Comments: 13 pages, 2 figures, Based on the talk given at the workshop on “Tensions in Cosmology” in Corfu 2022. This manuscript is written for Proceedings of Science (PoS), Corfu 2022 and it is based on arXiv: 2209.03928 [gr-qc]

Exploring the spectrum of stochastic gravitational-wave anisotropies with pulsar timing arrays [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05690


Anisotropies in the nanohertz gravitational-wave background are a compelling next target for pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). Measurements or informative upper limits to the anisotropies are expected in the near future and can offer important clues about the origin of the background and the properties of the sources. Given that each source is expected (in the simplest scenario of circular inspirals) to emit at a fixed frequency, the anisotropy will most generally vary from one frequency to another. The main result presented in this work is an analytical model for the anisotropies produced by a population of inspiralling supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHBs). This model can be immediately connected with parametrizations of the SMBHB mass function and can be easily expanded to account for new physical processes taking place within the PTA frequency band. We show that a variety of SMBHB models predict significant levels of anistropy at the highest frequencies accessible to PTA observations and that measurements of anisotropies can offer new information regarding this population beyond the isotropic component. We also model the impact of additional dynamical effects driving the binary towards merger and show that, if these processes are relevant within the PTA band, the detectability of anisotropies relative to the isotropic background will be enhanced. Finally, we use the formalism presented in this work to predict the level anisotropy of the circular and linear polarizations of the SGWB due to the distribution of binary orientation angles with respect to the line of sight.

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G. Sato-Polito and M. Kamionkowski
Thu, 11 May 23
25/55

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures

A Bayesian chemical evolution model of the DustPedia Galaxy M74 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05680


We introduce a new, multi-zone chemical evolution model of the DustPedia galaxy M74, calibrated by means of MCMC methods.
We take into account the observed stellar and gas density profiles and use Bayesian analysis to constrain two fundamental parameters characterising the gas accretion and star formation timescale, i.e. the infall timescale tau and the SF efficiency nu, respectively, as a function of galactocentric radius R. Our analysis supports an infall timescale increasing with R and a star formation efficiency decreasing with R, thus supporting an ‘Inside-Out’ formation for M74. For both tau and nu, we find a weaker radial dependence than in the Milky Way.
We also investigate the dust content of M74, comparing the observed dust density profile with the results of our chemical evolution models. Various prescriptions have been considered for two key parameters, i.e. the typical dust accretion timescale and the mass of gas cleared out of the dust by a supernova remnant, regulating the dust growth and destruction rate, respectively. Two models with a different current balance between destruction and accretion, i.e. with equilibrium and dominion of accretion over destruction, can equally reproduce the observed dust profile of M74. This outlines the degeneracy between these parameters in shaping the interstellar dust content in galaxies. Our methods will be extended to more DustPedia galaxies to shed more light on the relative roles of dust production and destruction.

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F. Calura, M. Palla, L. Morselli, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
27/55

Comments: MNRAS, accepted for publication, 19 pages, 14 figures

A Local Universe model for constrained simulations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05694


The aim of cosmological simulations is to reproduce the properties of the observed Universe, serving as tools to test structure and galaxy formation models. Constrained simulations of our local cosmological region up to a few hundred Mpc/h , the local Universe, are designed to reproduce the actual cosmic web of structures as observed. A question that often arises is how to judge the quality of constrained simulations against the observations of the Local Universe. Here we introduce the Local Universe model (LUM), a new methodology, whereby many constrained simulations can be judged and the ”best” initial conditions can be identified. By characterising the Local Universe as a set of rich clusters, the model identifies haloes that serve as simulated counterparts to the observed clusters. Their merit is determined against a null hypothesis, the probability that such a counterpart could be identified in a random, unconstrained simulation. This model is applied to 100 constrained simulations using the Cosmicflows-3 data. Cluster counterparts are found for all constrained simulations, their distribution of separation from the true observed cluster position and their mass distribution are investigated. Lastly, the ”best” constrained simulation is selected using the LUM and discussed in more detail.

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S. Pfeifer, A. Valade, S. Gottlöber, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
30/55

Comments: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to MNRAS

On the degeneracies between baryons, massive neutrinos and f(R) gravity in Stage IV cosmic shear analyses [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06350


Modelling nonlinear structure formation is essential for current and forthcoming cosmic shear experiments. We combine the halo model reaction formalism, implemented in the REACT code, with the COSMOPOWER machine learning emulation platform, to develop and publicly release REACTEMU-FR, a fast and accurate nonlinear matter power spectrum emulator for $f(R)$ gravity with massive neutrinos. Coupled with the state-of-the-art baryon feedback emulator BCEMU, we use REACTEMU-FR to produce Markov Chain Monte Carlo forecasts for a cosmic shear experiment with typical Stage IV specifications. We find that the inclusion of highly nonlinear scales (multipoles between $1500\leq \ell \leq 5000$) only mildly improves constraints on most standard cosmological parameters (less than a factor of 2). In particular, the necessary modelling of baryonic physics effectively damps most constraining power on the sum of the neutrino masses and modified gravity at $\ell \gtrsim 1500$. Using an approximate baryonic physics model produces mildly improved constraints on cosmological parameters which remain unbiased at the $1\sigma$-level, but significantly biases constraints on baryonic parameters at the $> 2\sigma$-level.

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A. Mancini and B. Bose
Thu, 11 May 23
32/55

Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures, REACTEMU-FR available at this https URL

Inferences from surface brightness fluctuations of Zwicky 3146 via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and X-ray observations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05790


The galaxy cluster Zwicky 3146 is a sloshing cool core cluster at $z{=}0.291$ that in SZ imaging does not appear to exhibit significant pressure substructure in the intracluster medium (ICM). We perform a surface brightness fluctuation analysis via Fourier amplitude spectra on SZ (MUSTANG-2) and X-ray (XMM-Newton) images of this cluster. These surface brightness fluctuations can be deprojected to infer pressure and density fluctuations from the SZ and X-ray data, respectively. In the central region (Ring 1, $r < 100^{\prime\prime} = 440$ kpc, in our analysis) we find fluctuation spectra that suggest injection scales around 200 kpc ($\sim 140$ kpc from pressure fluctuations and $\sim 250$ kpc from density fluctuations). When comparing the pressure and density fluctuations in the central region, we observe a change in the effective thermodynamic state from large to small scales, from isobaric (likely due to the slow sloshing) to adiabatic (due to more vigorous motions). By leveraging scalings from hydrodynamical simulations, we find an average 3D Mach number $\approx0.5$. We further compare our results to other studies of Zwicky 3146 and, more broadly, to other studies of fluctuations in other clusters.

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C. Romero, M. Gaspari, G. Schellenberger, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
33/55

Comments: Accepted to ApJ; 22 pages, 19 figures

Starobinsky Inflation from String Theory? [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05703


Starobinsky inflation is currently one of the best models concerning agreement with cosmological data. Despite this observational success, it is still lacking a robust embedding into a UV complete theory. Previous efforts to derive Starobinsky inflation from string theory have been based on the derivation of higher derivative curvature terms from the low-energy limit of ten-dimensional string theory. This approach is however known to fail due to the difficulty to tame the effect of contributions proportional to the Ricci scalar to a power larger than two. In this paper we investigate an alternative attempt which exploits instead the ubiquitous presence of scalar fields in string compactifications combined with the fact that Starobinsky inflation can be recast as Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field with a precise potential and conformal coupling to matter fermions. We focus in particular on type IIB K\”ahler moduli since they have shown to lead to exponential potentials with a Starobinsky-like plateau. We consider three classes of moduli with a different topological origin: the volume modulus, bulk fibre moduli, and blow-up modes. The only modulus with the correct coupling to matter is the volume mode but its potential does not feature any plateau at large field values. Fibre moduli admit instead a potential very similar to Starobinsky inflation with a natural suppression of higher curvature corrections, but they cannot reproduce the correct conformal coupling to matter. Blow-up modes have both a wrong potential and a wrong coupling. Our analysis implies therefore that embedding Starobinsky inflation into string theory seems rather hard. Finally, it provides a detailed derivation of the coupling to matter of fibre moduli which could be used as a way to discriminate Starobinsky from fibre inflation.

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M. Brinkmann, M. Cicoli and P. Zito
Thu, 11 May 23
38/55

Comments: 24 pages, 4 figures

A Foreground-Immune CMB-Cluster Lensing Estimator [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06326


Galaxy clusters induce a distinct dipole pattern in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) through the effect of gravitational lensing. Extracting this lensing signal will enable us to constrain cluster masses, even for high redshift clusters ($z \gtrsim 1$) that are expected to be detected by future CMB surveys. However, cluster-correlated foreground signals, like the kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ and tSZ) signals, present a challenge when extracting the lensing signal from CMB temperature data. While CMB polarization-based lensing reconstruction is one way to mitigate these foreground biases, the sensitivity from CMB temperature-based reconstruction is expected to be similar to or higher than polarization for future surveys. In this work, we extend the cluster lensing estimator developed in Raghunathan et al. (2019) to CMB temperature and test its robustness against systematic biases from foreground signals. We find that the kSZ signal only acts as an additional source of variance and provide a simple stacking-based approach to mitigate the bias from the tSZ signal. Additionally, we study the bias induced due to uncertainties in the cluster positions and show that they can be easily mitigated. The estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of this estimator is comparable to other standard lensing estimators such as the maximum likelihood (MLE) and quadratic (QE) estimators. We predict the cluster mass uncertainties from CMB temperature data for current and future cluster samples to be: 6.6% for SPT-3G with 7,000 clusters, 4.1% for SO and 3.9% for SO + FYST with 25,000 clusters, and 1.8% for CMB-S4 with 100,000 clusters.

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K. Levy, S. Raghunathan and K. Basu
Thu, 11 May 23
40/55

Comments: 22 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables; to be submitted to JCAP; comments welcome

CosmoPower-JAX: high-dimensional Bayesian inference with differentiable cosmological emulators [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06347


We present CosmoPower-JAX, a JAX-based implementation of the CosmoPower framework, which accelerates cosmological inference by building neural emulators of cosmological power spectra. We show how, using the automatic differentiation, batch evaluation and just-in-time compilation features of JAX, and running the inference pipeline on graphics processing units (GPUs), parameter estimation can be accelerated by orders of magnitude with advanced gradient-based sampling techniques. These can be used to efficiently explore high-dimensional parameter spaces, such as those needed for the analysis of next-generation cosmological surveys. We showcase the accuracy and computational efficiency of CosmoPower-JAX on two simulated Stage IV configurations. We first consider a single survey performing a cosmic shear analysis totalling 37 model parameters. We validate the contours derived with CosmoPower-JAX and a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampler against those derived with a nested sampler and without emulators, obtaining a speed-up factor of $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$. We then consider a combination of three Stage IV surveys, each performing a joint cosmic shear and galaxy clustering (3x2pt) analysis, for a total of 157 model parameters. Even with such a high-dimensional parameter space, CosmoPower-JAX provides converged posterior contours in 3 days, as opposed to the estimated 6 years required by standard methods. CosmoPower-JAX is fully written in Python, and we make it publicly available to help the cosmological community meet the accuracy requirements set by next-generation surveys.

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D. Piras and A. Mancini
Thu, 11 May 23
43/55

Comments: 11 pages, 5 figures. CosmoPower-JAX is available at this https URL

Absorption of Axion Dark Matter in a Magnetized Medium [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05681


Detection of axion dark matter heavier than a meV is hindered by its small wavelength, which limits the useful volume of traditional experiments. This problem can be avoided by directly detecting in-medium excitations, whose $\sim \text{meV} – \text{eV}$ energies are decoupled from the detector size. We show that for any target inside a magnetic field, the absorption rate of electromagnetically-coupled axions into in-medium excitations is determined by the dielectric function. As a result, the plethora of candidate targets previously identified for sub-GeV dark matter searches can be repurposed as broadband axion detectors. We find that a $\text{kg} \cdot \text{yr}$ exposure with noise levels comparable to recent measurements is sufficient to probe parameter space currently unexplored by laboratory tests. Noise reduction by only a few orders of magnitude can enable sensitivity to the QCD axion in the $\sim 10 \ \text{meV} – 10 \ \text{eV}$ mass range.

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A. Berlin and T. Trickle
Thu, 11 May 23
47/55

Comments: 10 pages, 2 figures

Hydrodynamical structure formation in Milgromian cosmology [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05696


We present the first hydrodynamical cosmological simulations in the $\nu$HDM framework based on Milgromian dynamics (MOND) with light (11~eV) sterile neutrinos. $\nu$HDM can explain the expansion history, CMB anisotropies, and galaxy cluster dynamics similarly to standard cosmology while preserving MOND’s successes on galaxy scales, making this the most conservative Milgromian framework. We generate initial conditions including sterile neutrinos using \textsc{camb} and \textsc{music} and modify the publicly available code \textsc{phantom of ramses} to run $\nu$HDM models. The simulations start at redshift $z_e=199$, when the gravitational fields are stronger than $a_{_0}$ provided this does not vary. We analyse the growth of structure and investigate the impact of resolution and box size, which is at most 600 comoving Mpc. Large density contrasts arise at late times, which may explain the KBC void and Hubble tension. We quantify the mass function of formed structures at different redshifts. We show that the sterile neutrino mass fraction in these structures is similar to the cosmic fraction at high masses (consistent with MOND dynamical analyses) but approaches zero at lower masses, as expected for galaxies. We also identify structures with a low peculiar velocity comparable to the Local Group, but these are rare. The onset of group/cluster scale structure formation at $z_e\approx4$ appears to be in tension with observations of high redshift galaxies, which we discuss in comparison to prior analytical work in a MONDian framework. The formation of a cosmic web of filaments and voids demonstrates that this is not unique to standard Einstein/Newton-based cosmology.

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N. Wittenburg, P. Kroupa, I. Banik, et. al.
Thu, 11 May 23
48/55

Comments: 24 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS 28.04.2023; For movies of the models simulated in this work see this https URL

Reconstructing k-inflation from $n_s(N)$ and reheating constraints [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05042


Inspired by the reconstruction scheme of the inflaton field potential $V(\phi)$ from the attractors$n_s(N)$, we investigate the viability of reconstruct the inflationary potential within the framework of k-inflation for a non-linear kinetic term $K(X)=k_{n+1}X^n$ through three expressions for the scalar spectral index $n_s(N)$, namely: (i) $n_s-1=-\frac{2}{N}$, (ii) $n_s-1=-\frac{p}{N}$, and (iii) $n_s-1=-\frac{\beta}{N^q}$. For each reconstructed potential, we determine the values of the parameter space which characterize it by requiring that it must reproduce the observable parameters from PLANCK 2018 and BICEP/Keck results. Furthermore, we analyze the reheating era by assuming a constant equation of state, in which we derive the relations between the reheating duration, the temperature at the end of reheating together with the reheating epoch, and the number of $e$-folds during inflation. In this sense, we unify the inflationary observables in order to narrow the parameter space of each model within the framework of the reconstruction in k-inflation.

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R. Herrera, M. Housset, C. Osses, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
3/65

Comments: 40 pages and 6 figures

The Dragonfly Galaxy. III. Jet-brightening of a High-redshift Radio Source Caught in a Violent Merger of Disk Galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05564


The Dragonfly Galaxy (MRC 0152-209), the most infrared-luminous radio galaxy at redshift z~2, is a merger system containing a powerful radio source and large displacements of gas. We present kpc-resolution data from ALMA and the VLA of carbon monoxide (6-5), dust, and synchrotron continuum, combined with Keck integral-field spectroscopy. We find that the Dragonfly consists of two galaxies with rotating disks that are in the early phase of merging. The radio jet originates from the northern galaxy and brightens when it hits the disk of the southern galaxy. The Dragonfly Galaxy therefore likely appears as a powerful radio galaxy because its flux is boosted into the regime of high-z radio galaxies by the jet-disk interaction. We also find a molecular outflow of (1100 $\pm$ 550) M${\odot}$/yr associated with the radio host galaxy, but not with the radio hot-spot or southern galaxy, which is the galaxy that hosts the bulk of the star formation. Gravitational effects of the merger drive a slower and longer lived mass displacement at a rate of (170 $\pm$ 40) M${\odot}$/yr, but this tidal debris contain at least as much molecular gas mass as the much faster outflow, namely M(H2) = (3 $\pm$ 1) x 10$^9$ (alpha(CO)/0.8) M$_{\odot}$. This suggests that both the AGN-driven outflow and mass transfer due to tidal effects are important in the evolution of the Dragonfly system. The Keck data show Ly$\alpha$ emission spread across 100 kpc, and CIV and HeII emission across 35 kpc, confirming the presence of a metal-rich and extended circumgalactic medium previously detected in CO(1-0).

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S. Lebowitz, B. Emonts, D. Terndrup, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
17/65

Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ (15 pages, 9 figures)

Possible hints of decreasing dark energy from supernova data [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04946


The potential energy from a time-dependent scalar field provides a possible explanation for the observed cosmic acceleration. In this paper, we investigate how the redshift vs brightness data from the recent Pantheon+ survey of type Ia supernovae constrain the possible evolution of a single scalar field for the period of time (roughly half the age of the universe) over which supernova data are available. Taking a linear approximation to the potential, we find that models providing a good fit to the data typically have a decreasing potential energy at present (accounting for over 99% of the allowed parameter space) with a significant variation in scalar potential ($\langle {\rm Range}(V)/V_0 \rangle \approx 0.97$) over the period of time corresponding to the available data ($z < 2.3$). Including quadratic terms in the potential, the data can be fit well for a wide range of possible potentials including those with positive or negative $V_2$ of large magnitude, and models where the universe has already stopped accelerating. We describe a few degeneracies and approximate degeneracies in the model that help explain the somewhat surprising range of allowed potentials.

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M. Raamsdonk and C. Waddell
Wed, 10 May 23
18/65

Comments: N/A

Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04942


Cosmological first-order phase transitions (1stOPTs) are said to be strongly supercooled when the nucleation temperature is much smaller than the critical temperature. These are often encountered in theories that admit a nearly scale-invariant potential, for which the bounce action decreases only logarithmically with temperature. During supercooled 1stOPTs the equation of state of the universe undergoes a rapid and drastic change, transitioning from vacuum-domination to radiation-domination. The statistical variations in bubble nucleation histories imply that distinct causal patches percolate at slightly different times. Patches which percolate the latest undergo the longest vacuum-domination stage and as a consequence develop large over-densities triggering their collapse into primordial black holes (PBHs). We derive an analytical approximation for the probability of a patch to collapse into a PBH as a function of the 1stOPT duration, $\beta^{-1}$, and deduce the expected PBH abundance. We find that 1stOPTs which take more than $12\%$ of a Hubble time to complete ($\beta/H \lesssim 8$) produce observable PBHs. Their abundance is independent of the duration of the supercooling phase, in agreement with the de Sitter no hair conjecture.

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Y. Gouttenoire and T. Volansky
Wed, 10 May 23
19/65

Comments: Main text: 6 pages, 5 figures, Appendices: 12 pages, 6 figures

Constraining SIDM cross section models with a joint analysis of galaxies and clusters [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05067


One necessary step for probing the nature of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) particles with astrophysical observations is to pin down any possible velocity dependence in the SIDM cross section. Major challenges for achieving this goal include eliminating, or mitigating, the impact of the baryonic components and tidal effects within the dark matter halos of interest — the effects of these processes can be highly degenerate with those of dark matter self-interactions at small scales. In this work we select 9 isolated galaxies and brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with baryonic components small enough such that the baryonic gravitational potentials do not significantly influence the halo gravothermal evolution processes. We then constrain the parameters of a cross section model $\sigma(v)=\sigma_0/(1+v^2/\omega^2)^2$ with the measured rotation curves and stellar kinematics through the gravothermal fluid formalism and isothermal method. We are able to constrain a best-fit double power-law result with the gravothermal fluid formalism $\log(\sigma_0/[\mathrm{cm^2/g}])=2.6/[(\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])/1.9)^{0.85}+(\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])/1.9)^{5.5}]-1.1$ with $\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])\leq3.7$ and a scatter of 0.5 dex at a 68% confidence level. The constraint given by the isothermal model is $\log(\sigma_0/[\mathrm{cm^2/g}])=3.9/[(\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])/1.6)^{0.29}+(\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])/1.6)^{5.1}]-0.34$ with $1.4\leq\log(\omega/[\mathrm{km/s}])\leq3.5$ and a scatter of 0.34 dex at 68% confidence level. Cross sections constrained by the two methods are consistent at $2\sigma$ confidence level, but the isothermal method prefers cross sections greater than the gravothermal approach constraints by a factor of $\sim4$.

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S. Yang, F. Jiang, A. Benson, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
28/65

Comments: 14 pages, 10 figures

Instability of scalarized compact objects in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theories [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05185


We investigate the linear stability of scalarized black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs) in the Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (GB) theories against the odd- and even-parity perturbations including the higher multipole modes. We show that the angular propagation speeds in the even-parity perturbations in the $\ell \to \infty$ limit, with $\ell$ being the angular multipole moments, become imaginary and hence scalarized BH solutions suffer from the gradient instability. We show that such an instability appears irrespective of the structure of the higher-order terms in the GB coupling function and is caused purely due to the existence of the leading quadratic term and the boundary condition that the value of the scalar field vanishes at the spatial infinity.~This indicates that the gradient instability appears at the point in the mass-charge diagram where the scalarized branches bifurcate from the Schwarzschild branch. We also show that scalarized BH solutions realized in a nonlinear scalarization model also suffer from the gradient instability in the even-parity perturbations. Our result also suggests the gradient instability of the exterior solutions of the static and spherically-symmetric scalarized NS solutions induced by the same GB coupling functions.

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M. Minamitsuji and S. Mukohyama
Wed, 10 May 23
31/65

Comments: 14 pages

Fisher matrix forecasts on the astrophysics of galaxies during the epoch of reionisation from the 21-cm power spectra [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05104


The hyperfine 21-cm transition of neutral hydrogen from the early Universe ($z>5$) is a sensitive probe of the formation and evolution of the first luminous sources. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we explore the complex and degenerate high-dimensional parameter space associated with the high-$z$ sources of this era and forecast quantitative constraints from a future 21-cm power spectrum (21-cm PS) detection. This is achieved using MERAXES, a coupled semi-analytic galaxy formation model and reionisation simulation, applied to an $N$-body halo merger tree with a statistically complete population of all atomically cooled galaxies out to $z\sim20$. Our mock observation assumes a 21-cm detection spanning $z \in [5, 24]$ from a 1000 h mock observation with the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array and is calibrated with respect to ultraviolet luminosity functions (UV LFs) at $z\in[5, 10]$, the optical depth of CMB photons to Thompson scattering from Planck, and various constraints on the IGM neutral fraction at $z > 5$. In this work, we focus on the X-ray luminosity, ionising UV photon escape fraction, star formation and supernova feedback of the first galaxies. We demonstrate that it is possible to recover 5 of the 8 parameters describing these properties with better than $50$ per cent precision using just the 21-cm PS. By combining with UV LFs, we are able to improve our forecast, with 5 of the 8 parameters constrained to better than 10 per cent (and all below 50 per cent).

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S. Balu, B. Greig and J. Wyithe
Wed, 10 May 23
32/65

Comments: 13 pages, 5 figures (+1 appendix), submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

The Impact of Cosmic Variance on Inferences of Global Neutral Fraction Derived from Ly$α$ Luminosity Functions During Reionization [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04949


We investigate the impact of field-to-field variation, deriving from cosmic variance, in measured Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter (LAE) luminosity functions (LFs) and this variation’s impact on inferences of the neutral fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM) during reionization. We post-process a z=7 IGM simulation to populate the dark matter halos with LAEs. These LAEs have realistic UV magnitudes, Ly$\alpha$ fluxes, and Ly$\alpha$ line profiles. We calculate the attenuation of Ly$\alpha$ emission in universes with varying IGM neutral fraction, $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}$. In a $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}=0.3$ simulation, we perform 100 realizations of a mock 2 square degree survey with a redshift window $\Delta z = 0.5$ and flux limit $\rm{f}{Ly\alpha}>1\times10^{-17}:\rm{ergs}:: \rm{s}^{-1} : \rm{cm}^{-2}$; such a survey is typical in depth and volume of the largest LAE surveys conducted today. For each realization, we compute the LAE LF and use it to recover the input $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}$. Comparing the inferred values of $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}$ across the ensemble of the surveys, we find that cosmic variance, deriving from large-scale structure and variation in the neutral gas along the sightline, imposes a floor in the uncertainty of $\Delta \bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}} \sim 0.2$ when $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}$ $=0.3$. We explore mitigation strategies to decrease this uncertainty, such as increasing the volume, decreasing the flux limit, or probing the volume with many independent fields. Increasing the area and/or depth of the survey does not mitigate the uncertainty, but composing a survey with many independent fields is effective. This finding highlights the best strategy for LAE surveys aiming at constraining $\bar{\rm{x}}{\rm{HI}}$ of the universe during reionization.

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S. Bruton, C. Scarlata, F. Haardt, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
39/65

Comments: 17 pages, 13 figures

Constraining $p$-wave Dark Matter Annihilation with Gamma-ray Observations of M87 [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05155


We consider constraints on $p$-wave dark matter in a dark matter spike surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of M87. Owing to the large mass of the black hole, and resulting large velocity dispersion for the dark matter particles in the spike, it is possible for Fermi-LAT and MAGIC data to place tight constraints on $p$-wave annihilation, which would be far more stringent than those placed by observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Indeed, for optimistic choices of the spike parameters, gamma-ray data would exclude thermal $p$-wave dark matter models with a particle mass $\lesssim {10}~\rm TeV$. But there is significant uncertainty in the properties and parameters of the spike, and for less optimistic scenarios, thermal dark matter candidates would be completely unconstrained. In addition to better understanding the spike parameters, a second key to improving constraints on dark matter annihilation is an accurate astrophysical background model.

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K. Christy, J. Kumar and P. Sandick
Wed, 10 May 23
47/65

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures

Accurate electron-recoil ionization factors for dark matter direct detection in xenon, krypton and argon [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05125


While most scintillation-based dark matter experiments search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a sub-GeV WIMP-like particle may also be detectable in these experiments. While dark matter of this type and scale would not leave appreciable nuclear recoil signals, it may instead induce ionization of atomic electrons. Accurate modelling of the atomic wavefunctions is key to investigating this possibility, with incorrect treatment leading to a large suppression in the atomic excitation factors. We have calculated these atomic factors for argon, krypton and xenon and present the tabulated results for use with a range of dark matter models. This is made possible by the separability of the atomic and dark matter form factor, allowing the atomic factors to be calculated for general couplings; we include tables for vector, scalar, pseudovector, and pseudoscalar electron couplings. Additionally, we calculate electron impact total ionization cross sections for xenon using the tabulated results as a test of accuracy. Lastly, we provide an example calculation of the event rate for dark matter scattering on electrons in XENON1T and show that these calculations depend heavily on how the low-energy response of the detector is modelled.

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A. Caddell, V. Flambaum and B. Roberts
Wed, 10 May 23
51/65

Comments: N/A

The impact and response of minihalos and the inter-halo medium on cosmic reionization [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04959


An ionization front (I-front) that propagates through an inhomogeneous medium is slowed down by self-shielding and recombinations. We perform cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulations of the I-front propagation during the epoch of cosmic reionization. The simulations resolve gas in minihalos (halo mass $10^4\lesssim M_h[{\rm M}\odot]\lesssim 10^8)$ that could dominate recombinations, in a computational volume that is large enough to sample the abundance of such halos. The numerical resolution is sufficient (gas particle mass $\sim 20{\rm M}\odot$, spatial resolution $< 0.1\;{\rm ckpc}$) to allow accurate modelling of the hydrodynamic response of gas to photo-heating. We quantify the photo-evaporation time of minihalos as a function of $M_h$ and its dependence on the photo-ionization rate, $\Gamma_{-12}$, and the redshift of reionization, $z_i$. The recombination rate can be enhanced over that of a uniform medium by a factor $\sim 10-20$ early on. The peak value increases with $\Gamma_{-12}$ and decreases with $z_i$, due to the enhanced contribution from minihalos. The clumping factor, $c_r$, decreases to a factor of a few at $\sim 100\;{\rm Myr}$ after the passage of the I-front when the minihalos have been photo-evaporated; this asymptotic value depends only weakly on $\Gamma_{-12}$. Recombinations increase the required number of photons per baryon to reionize the Universe by 20-100 per cent, with the higher value occurring when $\Gamma_{-12}$ is high and $z_i$ is low. We complement the numerical simulations with simple analytical models for the evaporation rate and the inverse Str\”omgren layer. The study also demonstrates the proficiency and potential of SPHM1RT to address astrophysical problems in high-resolution cosmological simulations.

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T. Chan, A. Benitez-Llambay, T. Theuns, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
54/65

Comments: 34 pages, 34 figures; submitted to MNRAS

New MGCAMB tests of gravity with CosmoMC and Cobaya [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05667


We present a new version of MGCAMB, a patch for the Einstein-Boltzmann solver CAMB for cosmological tests of gravity. New features include a new cubic-spline parameterization allowing for a simultaneous reconstruction of $\mu$, $\Sigma$ and the dark energy density fraction $\Omega_X$ as functions of redshift, the option to work with a direct implementation of $\mu$, $\Sigma$ (instead of converting to $\mu$, $\gamma$ first), along with the option to test models with a scalar field coupled only to dark matter, and the option to include dark energy perturbations when working with $w\ne -1$ backgrounds, to restore consistency with CAMB in the GR limit. This version of MGCAMB comes with a python wrapper to run it directly from the python interface, an implementation in the latest version of CosmoMC, and can be used with Cobaya.

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Z. Wang, S. Mirpoorian, L. Pogosian, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
57/65

Comments: 8 pages + 2 appendices, 4 figures; MGCAMB, MGCosmoMC and MGCobaya available at this https URL, this https URL, this https URL

More relaxed intracluster gas than galaxies in clusters in quasi-equilibrium [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05250


During cluster mergers, the intracluster gas and member galaxies undergo dynamic evolution, but at different timescales and reach different states. We collect 24 galaxy clusters in quasi-equilibrium state as indicated by the X-ray image, and calculate the cluster orientations and three kinds of dynamical parameters, i.e., the normalized centroid offset, the sphere index and the ellipticity, for these clusters from the distributions of member galaxies and also the intracluster gas. We find consistent alignments for the orientations estimated from the two components. However, the three kinds of dynamical parameters indicated by member galaxies are systematically larger than those derived from the gas component, suggesting that the gas component is more relaxed than member galaxies. Differences of dynamical features between the intracluster gas and member galaxies are independent of cluster mass and concentration. We conclude that the intracluster gas reaches the dynamic equilibrium state earlier than the almost collisionless member galaxies.

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Z. Yuan, J. Han, H. Böhringer, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
59/65

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER quasar sample at the reionization epoch [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05053


The final phase of the reionization process can be probed by rest-frame UV absorption spectra of quasars at z>6, shedding light on the properties of the diffuse intergalactic medium within the first Gyr of the Universe. The ESO Large Programme “XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER legacy survey of quasars at z~5.8-6.6” dedicated ~250 hours of observations at the VLT to create a homogeneous and high-quality sample of spectra of 30 luminous quasars at z~6, covering the rest wavelength range from the Lyman limit to beyond the MgII emission. Twelve quasar spectra of similar quality from the XSHOOTER archive were added to form the enlarged XQR-30 sample, corresponding to a total of ~350 hours of on-source exposure time. The median effective resolving power of the 42 spectra is R~11400 and 9800 in the VIS and NIR arm, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio per 10 km/s pixel ranges from ~11 to 114 at $\lambda \simeq 1285$ \AA rest frame, with a median value of ~29. We describe the observations, data reduction and analysis of the spectra, together with some first results based on the E-XQR-30 sample. New photometry in the H and K bands are provided for the XQR-30 quasars, together with composite spectra whose characteristics reflect the large absolute magnitudes of the sample. The composite and the reduced spectra are released to the community through a public repository, and will enable a range of studies addressing outstanding questions regarding the first Gyr of the Universe.

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V. D’Odorico, E. Banados, G. Becker, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
60/65

Comments: 21 pages, 10 figures. Revised version resubmitted to MNRAS after minor referee report

The Planck clusters in the LOFAR sky V. LoTSS-DR2: Mass – radio halo power correlation at low frequency [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04564


Many galaxy clusters show diffuse cluster-scale emission in the form of radio halos, showing that magnetic fields and relativistic electrons are mixed in with the intra-cluster medium (ICM). There is general agreement that the origin of radio halos is connected to turbulence, generated during cluster mergers. Statistical studies of large samples of galaxy clusters in the radio band have the potential to unveil the connection between the properties of radio halos and the mass and dynamics of the host clusters. Previous studies have been limited to massive clusters and based on a small number of radio halos. The aim of this paper is to investigate the scaling relation between the radio power of radio halos and the mass of the host clusters at low frequencies and down to lower cluster masses. We analysed the clusters from the second catalogue of Planck Sunyaev Zel’dovich sources that lie within the 5634 sq deg covered by the second Data Release of the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey. We derived the correlation between the radio power and the mass of the host clusters and we investigated the distribution of clusters without radio halos with respect to the correlation. We use X-ray observations to classify the dynamical state of clusters and investigate its role on the power of radio halos. We found a correlation between the power of radio halos at 150 MHz and the mass of the host clusters down to 3e14 Msun. This correlation has a large scatter, part of which can be attributed to the different dynamical states of host clusters. We used two statistical test to show that the distribution of clusters with and without (upper limits) radio halos in the mass-radio power diagram is not compatible with a single correlation and that it is also not compatible with clusters being uniformly distributed below an upper envelope constituted by the correlation.

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V. Cuciti, R. Cassano, M. Sereno, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
3/88

Comments: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to A&A

Reconstruction of the dark energy scalar field potential by Gaussian process [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04752


Dark energy is believed to be responsible for the acceleration of the universe. In this paper, we reconstruct the dark energy scalar field potential $V(\phi)$ using the Hubble parameter H(z) through Gaussian Process analysis. Our goal is to investigate dark energy using various H(z) datasets and priors. We find that the choice of prior has little effect on the reconstructed $V(\phi)$, but the choice of H(z) dataset has a significant impact. Our result shows that Observational H(z) data (OHD) produces better results in reconstructing $V(\phi)$ compared to cosmic chronometers (CC). Additionally, we simulate H(z) data to measure the effect of increasing the number of data points on the accuracy of reconstructed $V(\phi)$. We find that doubling the number of H(z) data points can improve the accuracy rate of reconstructed $V(\phi)$ by 5$\%$ to 30$\%$.

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J. Niu, Y. Chen and T. Zhang
Tue, 9 May 23
25/88

Comments: 13 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables

On networks of space-based gravitational-wave detectors [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04551


The space-based laser interferometers, LISA, Taiji and TianQin, are targeting to observe milliHz gravitational waves (GWs) in the 2030s. The joint observations from multiple space-based detectors yield significant advantages. In this work, we recap the studies and investigations for the joint space-based GW detector networks to highlight: 1) the high precision of sky localization for the massive binary black hole (BBH) coalescences and the GW sirens in the cosmological implication, 2) the effectiveness to test the parity violation in the stochastic GW background observations, 3) the efficiency of subtracting galactic foreground, 4) the improvement in stellar-mass BBH observations. We inspect alternative networks by trading off massive BBH observations and stochastic GW background observation.

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R. Cai, Z. Guo, B. Hu, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
26/88

Comments: 32 pages, 14 figures, reviews on recent studies about space-borne GW networks, comments and feedbacks are welcome

ALP dark matter with non-periodic potentials: parametric resonance, halo formation and gravitational signatures [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03756


Axion-like particles (ALPs) are leading candidates to explain the dark matter in the universe. Their production via the misalignment mechanism has been extensively studied for cosine potentials characteristic of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons. In this work we investigate ALPs with non-periodic potentials, which allow for large misalignment of the field from the minimum. As a result, the ALP can match the relic density of dark matter in a large part of the parameter space. Such potentials give rise to self-interactions which can trigger an exponential growth of fluctuations in the ALP field via parametric resonance, leading to the fragmentation of the field. We study these effects with both Floquet analysis and lattice simulations. Using the Press-Schechter formalism, we predict the halo mass function and halo spectrum arising from ALP dark matter. These halos can be dense enough to produce observable gravitational effects such as astrometric lensing, diffraction of gravitational wave signals from black hole mergers, photometric microlensing of highly magnified stars, perturbations of stars in the galactic disk or stellar streams. These effects would provide a probe of dark matter even if it does not couple to the Standard Model. They would not be observable for halos predicted for standard cold dark matter and for ALP dark matter in the standard misalignment mechanism. We determine the relevant regions of parameter space in the (ALP mass, decay constant)-plane and compare predictions in different axion fragmentation models.

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A. Chatrchyan, C. Eröncel, M. Koschnitzke, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
29/88

Comments: 49 pages and 22 figures in the main text, and 14 pages and 2 figures in appendices

Multi-tracer power spectra and bispectra: Formalism [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04028


The power spectrum and bispectrum of dark matter tracers are key and complementary probes of the Universe. Next-generation surveys will deliver good measurements of the bispectrum, opening the door to improved cosmological constraints and the breaking of parameter degeneracies, from the combination of the power spectrum and bispectrum. Multi-tracer power spectra have been used to suppress cosmic variance and mitigate the effects of nuisance parameters and systematics. We present a bispectrum multi-tracer formalism that can be applied to next-generation survey data. Then we perform a simple Fisher analysis to illustrate qualitatively the improved precision on primordial non-Gaussianity that is expected to come from the bispectrum multi-tracer. In addition, we investigate the parametric dependence of conditional errors from multi-tracer power spectra and multi-tracer bispectra, on the differences between the biases and the number densities of two tracers. Our results suggest that optimal constraints arise from maximising the ratio of number densities, the difference between the linear biases, the difference between the quadratic biases, and the difference between the products $b_1\,b_\Phi$ for each tracer, where $b_\Phi$ is the bias for the primordial potential.

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D. Karagiannis, R. Maartens, J. Fonseca, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
47/88

Comments: 27 pages, 6 figures, to be submitted on JCAP

Phenomenology of wavelike vector dark matter nonminimally coupled to gravity [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03841


We study three astrophysical/cosmological consequences of nonminimal couplings to gravity in wavelike vector dark matter. In the nonrelativistic limit, the nonminimal coupling with the lowest mass dimension leads to effective self-interactions that affect the mass-radius relation of vector solitons, growth of linear perturbations during structure formation, and the speed of gravitational waves (GWs). Based on the success of cold dark matter on large-scale perturbations and the current limits on GW speed, we constrain the dark matter mass and nonminimal coupling strength to be within the range $|\xi_1| / m^2 \ll 10^{50} \mathrm{eV^{-2}}$ and $-3\times 10^{46} \mathrm{eV^{-2}} \lesssim \xi_2 / m^2 \lesssim 8 \times 10^{48} \mathrm{eV^{-2}}$.

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H. Zhang and S. Ling
Tue, 9 May 23
56/88

Comments: 13 pages + appendices, 2 figures

The chromatic Point Spread Function of weak lensing measurement in Chinese Space Station survey Telescope [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03976


The weak gravitational lensing is a powerful tool in modern cosmology. To accurately measure the weak lensing signal, one has to control the systematic bias to a small level. One of the most difficult problems is how to correct the smearing effect of the Point Spread Function (PSF) on the shape of the galaxies. The chromaticity of PSF for a broad-band observation can lead to new subtle effects. Since the PSF is wavelength dependent and the spectrum energy distributions between stars and galaxies are different, the effective PSF measured from the star images will be different from that smears the galaxies. Such a bias is called colour bias. We estimate it in the optical bands of the Chinese Space Station Survey Telescope from simulated PSFs, and show the dependence on the colour and redshift of the galaxies. Moreover, due to the spatial variation of spectra over the galaxy image, there exists another higher-order bias, colour gradient bias. Our results show that both colour bias and colour gradient bias are generally below $0.1$ percent in CSST. Only for small-size galaxies, one needs to be careful about the colour gradient bias in the weak lensing analysis using CSST data.

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Q. Liu, X. Er, Z. Fan, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
61/88

Comments: N/A

Primordial black holes from strong first-order phase transitions [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04924


We study the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs) in strongly supercooled first-order phase transitions. The mechanism is based on the presence of remnants dominated by the false vacuum that scale slower with the expansion of the Universe than their surroundings where this energy was already converted into radiation. We compute the PBH formation from these remnants including the contribution from the false vacuum and the bubble walls, by estimating the collapse using the hoop conjecture and by considering both regions collapsing immediately when entering the horizon and sub-horizon regions that collapse as their compactness grows. We show that for exponential bubble nucleation rate, $\Gamma \propto e^{\beta t}$, the primordial black hole formation implies $\beta/H \gtrsim 3.8$, where $H$ denotes the Hubble rate, if the potential energy of the false vacuum is $\Delta V \lesssim (10^{12} {\rm GeV})^4$, as otherwise a too large abundance of long-lived PBHs forms. The observed dark matter abundance can be formed in asteroid mass PBHs if $\beta/H \simeq 3.8$ and $10^5 {\rm GeV} \lesssim \Delta V^{1/4} \lesssim 10^8 {\rm GeV}$. Finally, we consider also the effect of the second order correction to the exponential nucleation rate showing that the PBH abundance is mainly determined by the average radius of the true vacuum bubbles.

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M. Lewicki, P. Toczek and V. Vaskonen
Tue, 9 May 23
65/88

Comments: 15 pages, 6 figures

Minkowski Functionals of the Large-Scale Structure as a Powerful Tool to Constrain the Modified Gravity [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04520


Modifications in the law of gravity can leave signatures on the large-scale structure, especially on the non-linear and quasi-linear scales. In this work, we propose that the four Minkowski functionals (MFs), which fully encapsulate the morphological information of the large-scale structure, are a powerful tool to constrain modified gravity(MG). With the assistance of N-body simulations, we quantify the MFs’ constraining power on the Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ gravity model by the Fisher matrix technique. The cosmic variance from the finite simulation volume is discussed. By measuring the MFs from the density field of dark matter with different smoothing scales and at different redshifts, we systematically evaluate how much information can be extracted from the MFs in these situations, and try to combine them to improve the constraint. Furthermore, we study the MG signatures imprinted in the MFs of the large-scale structures (LSS) when the biased tracer — dark matter halo — is used. And find the response to the fifth force is different from the matter. We also study how the constraints on modified gravity parameters change when using biased tracers of LSS. We expect that the MFs of LSS can provide us with a stringent constraint on modified gravity in the near future.

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A. Jiang, W. Liu, B. Li, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
67/88

Comments: 23 pages, 7 figures, prepared for JCAP

A fast method of reionization parameter space exploration using GPR trained SCRIPT [IMA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04839


Efficient exploration of parameter spaces is crucial to extract physical information about the Epoch of Reionization from various observational probes. To this end, we propose a fast technique based on Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) training applied to a semi-numerical photon-conserving reionization model, SCRIPT. Our approach takes advantage of the numerical convergence properties of SCRIPT and constructs a training set based on low-cost, coarse-resolution simulations. A likelihood emulator is then trained using this set to produce results in approximately two orders of magnitude less computational time than a full MCMC run, while still generating reasonable 68% and 95% confidence contours. Furthermore, we conduct a forecasting study using simulated data to demonstrate the applicability of this technique. This method is particularly useful when full MCMC analysis is not feasible due to expensive likelihood computations.

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B. Maity, A. Paranjape and T. Choudhury
Tue, 9 May 23
68/88

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS

An Observed Transition of Galaxy Spins on the Void Surfaces [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04409


In the linear theory, the galaxy angular momentum vectors which originate from the initial tidal interactions with surrounding matter distribution intrinsically develop perpendicular alignments with the directions of maximum matter compression, regardless of galaxy mass. In simulations, however, the galaxy spins exhibit parallel alignments in the mass-range lower than a certain threshold, which depends on redshift, web type, and background cosmology. We show that the observed three dimensional spins of the spiral galaxies located on the void surfaces from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey indeed transit from the perpendicular to the parallel alignments with the directions toward the void centers at the threshold zone, $9.51\le\log (M_{\star}/h^{-1}\,M_{\odot})\le10.03$. The null hypothesis of no spin transition is rejected at the 99.9% confidence level by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. This study presents a first direct observational evidence for the occurrence of the mass-dependent spin transition of the real galaxies with respect to the non-filamentary structures of the cosmic web, opening a way to constrain the initial conditions of the early universe by measuring the spin transition threshold.

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J. Lee and J. Moon
Tue, 9 May 23
77/88

Comments: 4 figures, comments well come

New Horizons in the Holographic Conformal Phase Transition [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03773


We describe cosmological solutions of the holographic dilaton with the aim of exploring alternatives to the commonly studied thermal Randall-Sundrum phase transition. It is well known that the thermal transition is typically strongly first order, with the requirement of a perturbative 5D gravity theory obstructing completion of the transition. This thermal transition corresponds to nucleation of an infrared brane through the surface of an AdS-Schwarzschild horizon. The approach we study instead invokes an early epoch in which the cosmology is fully 5-dimensional, with highly relativistic brane motion, and with Rindler horizons obscuring the infrared brane at early times. Our approach corresponds, via AdS/CFT, to a non-equilibrium approach to the conformal phase transition. We comment on a class of initial conditions that generically leads to completion of the phase transition without sacrificing perturbativity of the 5D theory.

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C. Eröncel, J. Hubisz, S. Lee, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
82/88

Comments: 43 pages, 9 figures

Spectral distortions of astrophysical blackbodies as axion probes [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03749


Recent studies reveal that more than a dozen of white dwarfs displaying near-perfect blackbody spectra in the optical range have been lurking in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey catalog. We point out that, in a way analogous to the Cosmic Microwave Background, these stars serve as excellent testbeds for new physics. Specifically, we show how their observed lack of spectral distortions translates into limits on the parameter space of axions with electromagnetic coupling. The prospects for future improvements are also discussed.

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J. Chang, R. Ebadi, X. Luo, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
85/88

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures

Explaining dark matter halo density profiles with neural networks [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03077


We use explainable neural networks to connect the evolutionary history of dark matter halos with their density profiles. The network captures independent factors of variation in the density profiles within a low-dimensional representation, which we physically interpret using mutual information. Without any prior knowledge of the halos’ evolution, the network recovers the known relation between the early time assembly and the inner profile, and discovers that the profile beyond the virial radius is described by a single parameter capturing the most recent mass accretion rate. The results illustrate the potential for machine-assisted scientific discovery in complicated astrophysical datasets.

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L. Lucie-Smith, H. Peiris and A. Pontzen
Mon, 8 May 23
1/63

Comments: 7 pages, 5 figures

One loop to rule them all: Perturbativity in the presence of ultra slow-roll dynamics [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03491


We discuss the issue of perturbativity in single-field inflationary models with a phase of ultra slow-roll (USR) tailor suited to generate an order-one abundance of primordial black holes (PBHs). More in detail, we impose the condition that loop corrections made up of short-wavelength modes enhanced by the USR dynamics do not alter the tree-level power spectrum of curvature perturbations. In our analysis, the USR phase is preceded and followed by two stages of ordinary slow-roll (SR), and we model the resulting SR/USR/SR dynamics using both instantaneous and smooth transitions. Focusing on scales relevant for CMB observations, we find that it is not possible, with these arguments, to rule out the scenario of PBH formation via USR, not even in the limit of instantaneous transition. However, we also find that loop corrections of short modes on the power spectrum of long modes, even though not large enough to violate perturbativity requirements, remain appreciable and, most importantly, are not tamed in realistic realisations of smooth SR/USR/SR transitions. This makes perturbativity a powerful theoretical tool to constrain USR dynamics. We extend the analysis at any scale beyond those relevant for CMB observations. We find that loop corrections of short modes remain within the few percent if compared to the tree-level power spectrum. However, we also find one notable exception of phenomenological relevance: we show that the so-called dip in the power spectrum of curvature perturbation is an artifact of the tree-level computation.

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G. Franciolini, A. Iovino, M. Taoso, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
14/63

Comments: 31 pages, 12 figures

An independent determination of the distance to supernova SN 1987A by means of the light echo AT 2019xis [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03456


Accurate distance determination to astrophysical objects is essential for the understanding of their intrinsic brightness and size. The distance to SN 1987A has been previously measured by the expanding photosphere method, and by using the angular size of the circumstellar rings with absolute sizes derived from light curves of narrow UV emission lines, with reported distances ranging from 46.77 kpc to 55 kpc. In this study, we independently determined the distance to SN 1987A using photometry and imaging polarimetry observations of AT 2019xis, a light echo of SN 1987A, by adopting a radiative transfer model of the light echo developed in Ding et al. (2021). We obtained distances to SN 1987A in the range from 49.09 $\pm$ 2.16 kpc to 59.39 $\pm$ 3.27 kpc, depending on the interstellar polarization and extinction corrections, which are consistent with the literature values. This study demonstrates the potential of using light echoes as a tool for distance determination to astrophysical objects in the Milky Way, up to kiloparsec level scales.

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A. Cikota, J. Ding, L. Wang, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
22/63

Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJL

Dark Matter-Induced Stellar Oscillations [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03085


It has been hypothesized that dark matter is comprised of ultra-light bosons whose collective phenomena can be described as a scalar field undergoing coherent oscillations. Examples include axion and fuzzy dark matter models. In this ultra-light dark matter scenario, the harmonic variation in the field’s energy-momentum tensor sources an oscillating component of the gravitational potential that we show can resonantly-excite stellar oscillations. A mathematical framework for predicting the amplitude of these oscillations is developed, which reveals that ultra-light dark matter predominantly excites p-modes of degree $l=1$. An investigation of resonantly-excited solar oscillations is presented, from which we conclude that dark matter-induced oscillations of the Sun are likely undetectable. We discuss prospects for constraining ultra-light dark matter using other stellar objects.

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J. Sakstein and I. Saltas
Mon, 8 May 23
25/63

Comments: 5 pages, no figures. Comments welcome. A reproduction package for our numerical analysis is available here: this https URL

Tip of the Red Giant Branch Bounds on the Axion-Electron Coupling Revisited [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03113


We present a novel method to constrain the axion-electron coupling constant using the observed calibration of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) I band magnitude $M_I$ that fully accounts for uncertainties and degeneracies with stellar input physics.~We simulate a grid of 116,250 models varying initial mass, helium abundance, and metallicity and train a machine learning emulator to predict $M_I$ as a function of these parameters.~Our emulator enables the use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations where the axion-electron coupling $\alpha_{26}$ is varied simultaneously with the stellar parameters. We find that, once stellar uncertainties and degeneracies are accounted for, the region $\alpha_{26} < 2$ is not excluded by empirical TRGB calibrations.~Our work opens up a large region of parameter space currently believed to be excluded.~$\alpha_{26} = 2$ is the upper limit of the parameter space considered by this study, and it is likely that larger values of $\alpha_{26}$ are also unconstrained.~We discuss potential applications of our work to reevaluate other astrophysical probes of new physics.

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M. Dennis and J. Sakstein
Mon, 8 May 23
26/63

Comments: 14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, dataset at this https URL

CHEX-MATE: Constraining the origin of the scatter in galaxy cluster radial X-ray surface brightness profiles [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03082


We investigate the statistical properties and the origin of the scatter within the spatially resolved surface brightness profiles of the CHEX-MATE sample, formed by 118 galaxy clusters selected via the SZ effect. These objects have been drawn from the Planck SZ catalogue and cover a wide range of masses, M${500}=[2-15] \times 10^{14} $M${\odot}$, and redshift, z=[0.05,0.6]. We derived the surface brightness and emission measure profiles and determined the statistical properties of the full sample. We found that there is a critical scale, R$\sim 0.4 R_{500}$, within which morphologically relaxed and disturbed object profiles diverge. The median of each sub-sample differs by a factor of $\sim 10$ at $0.05\,R_{500}$. There are no significant differences between mass- and redshift-selected sub-samples once proper scaling is applied. We compare CHEX-MATE with a sample of 115 clusters drawn from the The Three Hundred suite of cosmological simulations. We found that simulated emission measure profiles are systematically steeper than those of observations. For the first time, the simulations were used to break down the components causing the scatter between the profiles. We investigated the behaviour of the scatter due to object-by-object variation. We found that the high scatter, approximately 110%, at $R<0.4R_{500}$ is due to a genuine difference between the distribution of the gas in the core. The intermediate scale, $R_{500} =[0.4-0.8]$, is characterised by the minimum value of the scatter on the order of 0.56, indicating a region where cluster profiles are the closest to the self-similar regime. Larger scales are characterised by increasing scatter due to the complex spatial distribution of the gas. Also for the first time, we verify that the scatter due to projection effects is smaller than the scatter due to genuine object-by-object variation in all the considered scales. [abridged]

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I. Bartalucci, S. Molendi, E. Rasia, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
29/63

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A

Black Holes as the source of the dark energy: a stringent test with the high-redshift JWST AGNs [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03408


It has been suggested that there is evidence for cosmological coupling of black holes (BHs) with an index of $k\approx 3$ and hence the BHs serve as the astrophysical source of the dark energy. The data sample however is limited for the redshifts $\leq 2.5$. Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected more than 180 high-redshift Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and quasars. Among the JWST NIRSpec/NIRCam resolved AGNs, three are identified in early-type host galaxies with a redshift $z\sim 4.5-7$. Their $M_{\star}$ and $M_{\rm BH}$, however, are in tension with the prediction of the cosmological coupling of black holes with $k=3$ at a confidence level of $\sim 3\sigma$, which is not in support of the hypothesis that BHs serve as the origin of dark energy. The future observations of high-redshift AGNs by JWST will further test such a hypothesis by identifying more early-type host galaxies in the higher mass range.

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L. Lei, L. Zu, G. Yuan, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
40/63

Comments: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; Submitted to ApJL. Comments are welcome!

Gravitational freeze-in dark matter from Higgs Preheating [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02568


Gravitational freeze-in is a mechanism to explain the observed dark matter relic density if dark matter neither couples to inflation nor to standard model sector. In this work, we study gravitational freeze-in dark matter production during Higgs preheating based on non-perturbative resonance. Using reliable lattice method to handle this non-perturbative process, we show that tachyonic resonance is prohibited by strong back reaction due to Higgs self interaction needed to keep the positivity of potential during preheating, and parameter resonance is viable by tuning the Higgs self-interaction coupling to be small enough in ultraviolet energy scale. We then derive the dark matter relic density under the context of Higgs preheating, and uncover a new dark matter parameter space with dark matter mass larger than inflaton mass, which arises from out-of-equilium Higgs annihilation. Finally, we briefly remark the open question of testing gravitational dark matter.

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R. Zhang, Z. Xu and S. Zheng
Mon, 8 May 23
47/63

Comments: 18 pages, 5 figures

Constraining $f_{NL}$ using the Large-Scale Modulation of Small-Scale Statistics [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03070


We implement a novel formalism to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type from the large-scale modulation of the small-scale power spectrum. Our approach combines information about primordial non-Gaussianity contained in the squeezed bispectrum and the collapsed trispectrum of large-scale structure together in a computationally amenable and consistent way, while avoiding the need to model complicated covariances of higher $N$-point functions. This work generalizes our recent work, which used a neural network estimate of local power, to the more conventional local power spectrum statistics, and explores using both matter field and halo catalogues from the Quijote simulations. We find that higher $N$-point functions of the matter field can provide strong constraints on $f_{NL}$, but higher $N$-point functions of the halo field, at the halo density of Quijote, only marginally improve constraints from the two-point function.

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U. Giri, M. Münchmeyer and K. Smith
Mon, 8 May 23
60/63

Comments: 14 pages, 7 figures

The likelihood of the 21-cm power spectrum [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03074


Observations of the cosmic 21-cm power spectrum (PS) are starting to enable precision Bayesian inference of galaxy properties and physical cosmology, during the first billion years of our Universe. Here we investigate the impact of common approximations about the likelihood used in such inferences, including: (i) assuming a Gaussian functional form; (ii) estimating the mean from a single realization; and (iii) estimating the (co)variance at a single point in parameter space. We compare “classical” inference that uses an explicit likelihood with simulation based inference (SBI) that estimates the likelihood from a training set. Our forward-models include: (i) realizations of the cosmic 21-cm signal computed with 21cmFAST by varying UV and X-ray galaxy parameters together with the initial conditions; (ii) realizations of the telescope noise corresponding to a 1000 h integration with SKA1-Low; (iii) the excision of Fourier modes corresponding to a foreground-dominated, horizon “wedge”. We find that the 1D PS likelihood is well described by a Gaussian accounting for covariances between wavemodes and redshift bins (higher order correlations are small). However, common approaches of estimating the forward-modeled mean and (co)variance from a random realization or at a single point in parameter space result in biased and over-constrained posteriors. Our best results come from using SBI to fit a non-Gaussian likelihood with a Gaussian mixture neural density estimator. Such SBI can be performed with up to an order of magnitude fewer simulations than classical, explicit likelihood inference. Thus SBI provides accurate posteriors at a comparably low computational cost.

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D. Prelogović and A. Mesinger
Mon, 8 May 23
62/63

Comments: 16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Delensing of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization with machine learning [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02490


Primordial B-mode detection is one of the main goals of next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. Primordial B-modes are a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs). However, the gravitational interaction of CMB photons with large-scale structures will distort the primordial E modes, adding a lensing B-mode component to the primordial B-mode signal. Removing the lensing effect (`delensing’) from observed CMB polarization maps will be necessary to improve the constraint of PGWs and obtain a primordial E-mode signal. Here, we introduce a deep convolutional neural network model named multi-input multi-output U-net (MIMO-UNet) to perform CMB delensing. The networks are trained on simulated CMB maps with size $20^{\circ} \times 20^{\circ}$. We first use MIMO-UNet to reconstruct the unlensing CMB polarization ($Q$ and $U$) maps from observed CMB maps. The recovered E-mode power spectrum exhibits excellent agreement with the primordial EE power spectrum. The recovery of the primordial B-mode power spectrum for noise levels of 0, 1, and 2 $\mu$K-arcmin is greater than 98\% at the angular scale of $\ell<150$. We additionally reconstruct the lensing B map from observed CMB maps. The recovery of the lensing B-mode power spectrum is greater than roughly 99\% at the scales of $\ell>200$. We delens observed B-mode power spectrum by subtracting reconstructed lensing B-mode spectrum. The recovery of tensor B-mode power spectrum for noise levels of 0, 1, 2 $\mu$K-arcmin is greater than 98 \% at the angular scales of $\ell<120$. Even at $\ell=160$, the recovery of tensor B-mode power spectrum is still around 71 \%.

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Y. Yan, G. Wang, S. Li, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
1/67

Comments: 18 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, accepted by ApJS

Watersheds of the Universe: Laniakea and five newcomers in the neighborhood [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02339


This article delivers the dynamical cosmography of the Local Universe within z=0.1 (1 giga light-years). We exploit the gravitational velocity field computed using the CosmicFlows-4 catalog of galaxy distances to delineate superclusters as watersheds, publishing for the first time their size, shape, main streams of matter and the location of their central attractor. Laniakea, our home supercluster’s size is confirmed to be 2 $\times 10^6$ (Mpc $h^{-1}$)$^3$. Five more superclusters are now dynamically revealed in the same way: Apus, Hercules, Lepus, Perseus-Pisces and Shapley. Also, the central repellers of the Bootes and Sculptor voids are found and the Dipole and Cold Spot repellers now appear as a single gigantic entity. Interestingly the observed superclusters are an order of magnitude larger than the theoretical ones predicted by cosmological $\Lambda$CDM simulations.

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A. Dupuy and H. Courtois
Fri, 5 May 23
3/67

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to A&A (AA/2023/46802)

On the growth of supermassive black holes formed from the gravitational collapse of fermionic dark matter cores [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02430


Observations support the idea that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) power the emission at the center of active galaxies. However, contrary to stellar-mass BHs, there is a poor understanding of their origin and physical formation channel. In this article, we propose a new process of SMBH formation in the early Universe that is not associated with baryonic matter (massive stars) or primordial cosmology. In this novel approach, SMBH seeds originate from the gravitational collapse of fermionic dense dark matter (DM) cores that arise at the center of DM halos as they form. We show that such a DM formation channel can occur before star formation, leading to heavier BH seeds than standard baryonic channels. The SMBH seeds subsequently grow by accretion. We compute the evolution of the mass and angular momentum of the BH using a geodesic general relativistic disk accretion model. We show that these SMBH seeds grow to $\sim 10^9$-$10^{10} M_\odot$ in the first Gyr of the lifetime of the Universe without invoking unrealistic (or fine-tuned) accretion rates.

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C. Argüelles, K. Boshkayev, A. Krut, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
4/67

Comments: 11 pages, 9 figures, 2 appendices. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Untying the growth index to relief the $σ_8$ discomfort [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02863


The fluctuation of matter parameter $\sigma_8$ is by model construction degenerate with the growth index $\gamma$. Here we try to study the effect on the cosmological parameters constraints from treating each independently by considering $\sigma_8$ as a free and not derived parameter along with $\gamma$, to then try to constrain all by three probes, namely the CMB spectrum, the growth measurements from redshift space distortions $f\sigma_8$ and the galaxy cluster counts. We also want to asses the impact of this relaxation on the $\sigma_8$ tension. We also propose a more sophisticated correction, along with the classical one that takes into account the impact of cosmology on the growth measurements, which is to adjust the growth to keep the observed power spectrum invariant with the background evolution. We found that untying the two parameters does not shift the maximum likelihood on either $\sigma_8$ or $\gamma$ but rather allow for larger bounds with respect to when $\sigma_8$ is a derived parameter. More precisely, we obtain $\sigma_8 = 0.809\pm 0.043 $ and $\gamma = 0.613\pm 0.046$ in agreement with Planck constraints for the former and compatible with $\Lambda$CDM for the latter but with bounds enough wide to accomodate both values subject of tensions for $\sigma_8$. On the other hand, considering a tier correction yields $\sigma_8 = 0.734\pm 0.013$ close to the local values albeit with a growth index $\gamma = 0.636\pm 0.022$ while allowing a massive neutrinos yielded $\sigma_8 = 0.756\pm 0.024$, still preferring low values but with looser constraints, with $\gamma = 0.549\pm 0.048$ and a slight preference for $\Sigma m_\nu \sim 0.19$ value. We conclude that untying $\sigma_8$ and $\gamma$ helps in relieving the discomfort on the former between CMB and local probes and that careful analyse should be followed when using data obtained in a model dependent way.(abridged)

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Z. Sakr
Fri, 5 May 23
6/67

Comments: Prepared for a contribution to the special issue on Modified Gravity Approaches to the Tensions of {\Lambda}CDM

Dissipative Genesis of the Inflationary Universe [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02366


We study an inflation model with a flat scalar potential supported by observations and find that slow-roll inflation can emerge after a quasi-cyclic phase of the Universe, where it undergoes repeated expansions and contractions for a finite time period. The initial conditions and the positive spatial curvature required for such nontrivial dynamics align with the quantum creation of the Universe. The key ingredients that trigger inflation are dissipative interactions of the inflaton, which are necessary to reheat the Universe after inflation and thus give us an observational handle on pre-inflationary physics. Our discovery implies that inflation occurs more robustly after the creation.

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H. Matsui, A. Papageorgiou, F. Takahashi, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
8/67

Comments: 5 pages, 1 figure

Over-massive Central Black Holes in the Cosmological Simulations ASTRID and Illustris TNG50 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02335


Recent dynamical measurements indicate the presence of a central SMBH with mass $\sim 3\times 10^6 \, \rm M_\odot$ in the dwarf galaxy Leo I, placing the system $\sim50$ times above the standard, local $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation. While a few over-massive central SMBHs are reported in nearby isolated galaxies, this is the first detected in a Milky Way satellite. We used the ASTRID and Illustris TNG50 LCDM cosmological simulations to investigate the assembly history of galaxies hosting over-massive SMBHs. We estimate that, at the stellar mass of Leo I, $\sim15\%$ of galaxies above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation lie $>10$ times above it. Leo I-like systems are rare but exist in LCDM simulations: they occur in $\sim0.005\%$ of all over-massive systems. Examining the properties of simulated galaxies harboring over-massive central SMBHs, we find that: (i) stars assemble more slowly in galaxies above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation; (ii) the gas fraction in these galaxies experiences a significantly steeper decline over time; and (iii) $>95\%$ of satellite host galaxies in over-dense regions are located above the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation. This suggests that massive satellite infall and consequent tidal stripping in a group/dense environment can drive systems away from the $M_{BH} – M_\star$ relation, causing them to become over-massive. As the merging histories of over-massive and under-massive systems do not differ, we conclude that additional environmental effects, such as being in overdense regions, must play a crucial role. In the high-$z$ Universe, central over-massive SMBHs are a signature of heavy black hole seeds; we demonstrate, in contrast, that low-$z$ over-massive systems result from complex environmental interactions.

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E. Weller, F. Pacucci, P. Natarajan, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
12/67

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 9 pages, 8 figures

Gravitational Lensing of Gravitational Waves: Probing Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Galaxy Lenses with Global Minima [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02880


In this work, we study microlensing effects in strongly lensed gravitational wave (GW) signals corresponding to global minima in galaxy-scale lenses. We find that stellar microlenses alone are unable to introduce noticeable wave effects in the global minima GW signals at strong lensing magnification $(\mu)<50$ with match value between unlensed and lensed GW signals being above ${\sim}99.5\%$ in ${\sim}90\%$ of systems. Since the stellar microlenses introduce negligible wave effects in global minima, they can be used to probe the intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) lenses in the galaxy lens. We show that the presence of an IMBH lens with mass in the range $[50,10^3]~{\rm M_\odot}$ such that the global minima lies within five Einstein radius of it, the microlensing effects at $f<10^2$ Hz are mainly determined by the IMBH lens for $\mu<50$. Assuming that a typical strong lensing magnification of 3.8 and high enough signal-to-noise ratio (in the range $\sim[10, 30]$) to detect the microlensing effect in GW signals corresponding to global minima, with non-detection of microlensing effects in ${\sim}15 ({\sim}150)$ lensed GW signals, we can rule out dark matter fraction $>10\% (>1\%)$ made of IMBH population inside galaxy lenses in mass range $[50, 10^3] {\rm M_\odot}$ with ${\sim}$90\% confidence.

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A. Meena
Fri, 5 May 23
13/67

Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures. Comments welcome

Extensions to $Λ$CDM at Intermediate Redshifts to Solve the Tensions ? [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02913


Models of dark energy or modified gravity that tries to alleviate the tensions on the Hubble constant ($H_0$) and the matter fluctuation parameter ($\sigma_8$) are usually parameterized as function of either late or early time cosmic evolution. In this work we rather focus on one that could privilege extensions to $\Lambda$CDM on intermediate redshifts by mean of a Gaussian-like window function with a free moving centre $a_{Gwin}$ combined with a modified gravity parameter $\mu_{Gwin}$ and an extension of the equation of state parameter $\omega_{Gwin}$. Using different combinations of the latest available current datasets subject of the discrepancies, such as the cosmic microwave (CMB) background power spectrum, the baryonic acoustic scale (BAO) in galaxy distribution, Weak lensing (WL) shear and galaxy clustering cross correlations and local hubble constant measurements, we investigate whether such model could alleviate each or both $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$ tensions. We found when combining all probes that the $\sigma_8$ tension is alleviated while the $H_0$ is reduced with a small preference for a positive $\omega_{Gwin}$ without a particular preference for a redshift or a $\mu_{Gwin}$ different from its equivalent $\Lambda$CDM value. However, if we follow another approach and compare the two sets of the probes subject of discrepancy i.e. CMB+BAO vs WL+local $H_0$, we found that the model is able of solving the $\sigma_8$ discrepancy at the expense of a enlargement of the constraints, while the Hubble constant discrepancy is not that affected due to the fact that the two likelihood contours are stretched in parallel directions. We conclude that modifying $\Lambda$CDM cosmology at intermediate redshifts within our model, and the constraints from the datasets used in this study, are not likely a viable solution to solve both tensions.

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Z. Sakr
Fri, 5 May 23
17/67

Comments: Prepared for proceedings of Corfu Summer Institute 2022 “School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity”

Cool Cores in Clusters of Galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02365


We search for the presence of cool cores in optically-selected galaxy clusters from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and investigate their prevalence as a function of redshift and cluster richness. Clusters were selected from the redMaPPer analysis of three years of DES observations that have archival Chandra X-ray observations, giving a sample of 99 clusters with a redshift range of $0.11 < z < 0.87$ and a richness range of $25 < \lambda < 207$. Using the X-ray data, the core temperature was compared to the outer temperature to identify clusters where the core temperature is a factor of 0.7 or less than the outer temperature. We found a cool core fraction of approximately 20% with no significant trend in the cool core fraction with either redshift or richness.

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K. Graham, J. O’Donnell, M. Silverstein, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
26/67

Comments: shortened version accepted to RNAAS

Little Rip, Pseudo Rip and bounce cosmology from generalized equation of state in the Universe with spatial curvature [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02796


We consider the Little Rip (LR), Pseudo Rip (PR) and bounce cosmological models in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric with nonzero spatial curvature. We describe the evolution of the universe using a generalized equation of state in the presence of a viscous fluid. The conditions of the occurrence of the LR, PR and bounce were obtained from the point of view of the parameters of the generalized equation of state for the cosmic dark fluid, taking into account the spatial curvature. The analytical expressions for the spatial curvature were obtained. Asymptotic cases of the early and late universe are considered. A method of Darboux transformation was proposed in the case of models of an accelerating universe with viscosity.

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A. A.V.Timoshkin and A. Yurov
Fri, 5 May 23
31/67

Comments: to appear in International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics

One matter density discrepancy to alleviate them all or further trouble for $Λ$CDM model [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02846


We investigate whether the two cosmological discrepancies on the Hubble constant ($H_0$) and the matter fluctuation parameter ($\sigma_8$) could be traded by only one on the present value of the matter density ($\Omega_{\rm{M}}$). We combined different probes in an agnostic approach by, either relaxing the calibration parameters in each probe in order to be set by the data, or by only including priors with the condition that they are obtained independently from the discrepant parameters. We also compiled and used a dataset from previous direct measurements of $\Omega_{\rm{M}}$. We found when combining, as our baseline, galaxy clusters counts + cluster baryon fraction probe + cosmic chronometers + direct $\Omega_{\rm{M}}$ + priors from BBN and CMB, that both parameters, $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$, are consistent with those inferred with local probes, with $\sigma_8 = 0.745 \pm 0.05$ while $H_0 = 73.8 \pm 3.01$, and that for a value of $\Omega_{\rm{M}} = 0.22 \pm 0.01$ at more than 3$\sigma$ from that usually determined by CMB. We also found similar preferences when replacing cosmic chronometers (CC) by the Supernovae (SN) data while allowing its calibration parameter to vary. However discrepancies appeared when we combined SN in addition to CC suggesting either inconsistencies between the SN sample and the other probes used or a serious challenge to our hypothesis. We conclude that, either reconciling both tensions requires local inferred values of matter density at odd with those obtained by CMB, reviving by then an overlooked discrepancy, or simply that further evidences are indicating that $\Lambda$CDM model is facing more difficulties to accommodate simultaneously all the current available observations.(abridged)

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Z. Sakr
Fri, 5 May 23
33/67

Comments: Comments and missing citation requests are welcomed. Abstract abridged for arxiv submission

Is the Universe anisotropic right now? Comparing the real Universe with the Kasner's space-time [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02726


We investigate possible astronomical manifestations of space-time anisotropy. The homogeneous vacuum Kasner solution was chosen as a reference anisotropic cosmological model because there are no effects caused by inhomogeneity in this simple model with a constant degree of anisotropy. This anisotropy cannot become weak. The study of its geodesic structure made it possible to clarify the properties of this space-time. It showed that the degree of manifestation of anisotropy varies significantly depending on the travel time of the light from the observed object. For nearby objects, for which it does not exceed half the age of the universe, the manifestations of anisotropy are very small. Distant objects show more pronounced manifestations, for example, in the distribution of objects over the sky and over photometric distances. These effects for each of the individual objects decrease with time, but in general, the manifestations of anisotropy in the Kasner space-time remain constant due to the fact that new sources emerging from beyond the cosmological horizon.We analyse observable signatures of the Kasner-type anisotropy and compare it to observations. These effects were not found in astronomical observations, including the study of the CMB. We can assume that the Universe has always been isotropic or almost isotropic since the recombination era. This does not exclude the possibility of its significant anisotropy at the moment of the Big Bang followed by rapid isotropization during the inflationary epoch.

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S. Parnovsky
Fri, 5 May 23
36/67

Comments: 18 pages, 2 figures

Carbon Stars as Standard Candles: An Empirical Test for the Reddening, Metallicity, and Age Sensitivity of the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) Method [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02453


The J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) method is a standard candle based on the intrinsic luminosities of carbon stars in the near infrared. For the first time, we directly constrain the impact of metallicity, age, and reddening on the JAGB method. We assess how the mode, skew, and scatter of the JAGB star luminosity function change throughout diverse stellar environments in M31’s NE disk from 13<d<18 kpc using data from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT). As expected, the mode is found to be fainter in higher-reddening regions. To cross-check this result, we also measure a fiducial J-band ground-based JAGB distance using data from the UKIRT/WFCam in M31’s outermost disk (18<d<40 kpc) where internal reddening is minimal. We find that this J-band distance modulus agrees well with the F110W distance moduli measured in the lowest reddening regions of the PHAT data, demonstrating the JAGB method is most accurate if measured in the low-reddening outer disks of galaxies. On the other hand, the mode of the JAGB star luminosity function appears empirically to show no dependence on metallicity and age, disputing theoretical predictions that the average luminosity of metal-rich carbon stars is brighter than for metal-poor carbon stars. In conclusion, the JAGB method proves to be a robust standard candle capable of calibrating the luminosities of type Ia supernovae and therefore providing a high-accuracy, high-precision measurement of the Hubble constant.

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A. Lee
Fri, 5 May 23
38/67

Comments: 15 pages, 9 figures 1 tables, submitted to AAS Journals

JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy of the triply-lensed $z = 10.17$ galaxy MACS0647$-$JD [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03042


We present JWST/NIRSpec prism spectroscopy of MACS0647-JD, the triply-lensed $z \sim 11$ candidate discovered in HST imaging and spatially resolved by JWST imaging into two components A and B. Spectroscopy of component A yields a spectroscopic redshift $z=10.17$ based on 7 detected emission lines: CIII] $\lambda\lambda$1907,1909, [OII] $\lambda$3727, [NeIII] $\lambda$3869, [NeIII] $\lambda$3968, H$\delta$ $\lambda$4101, H$\gamma$ $\lambda$4340, and [OIII] $\lambda$4363. These are the second-most distant detections of these emission lines to date, in a galaxy observed just 460 million years after the Big Bang. Based on observed and extrapolated line flux ratios we derive a gas-phase metallicity $Z =$ log(O/H) = $7.5 – 8.0$, or $(0.06 – 0.2)$ $Z_\odot$, ionization parameter log($U$) $\sim -1.9\pm0.2$, and an ionizing photon production efficiency ${\rm log}(\xi_{\rm ion})=25.2\pm0.2\,$erg$^{-1}$ Hz. The spectrum has a softened Lyman-$\alpha$ break, evidence for a strong Ly$\alpha$ damping wing, suggesting that MACS0647-JD was unable to ionize its surroundings beyond its immediate vicinity ($R_{\text{HII}} \ll 1$ pMpc). The Ly$\alpha$ damping wing also suppresses the F150W photometry, explaining the slightly overestimated photometric redshift $z = 10.6 \pm 0.3$. MACS0647-JD has a stellar mass log($M/M_\odot$) = $8.1 \pm 0.3$, including $\sim$ 6$\times 10^7 M_\odot$ in component A, most of which formed recently (within $\sim$ 20 Myr) with a star formation rate $2\pm1 M_\odot$ / yr, all within an effective radius $70\pm24\,$pc. The smaller component B ($r \sim 20$) pc is likely older ($\sim$100 Myr) with more dust ($A_V \sim 0.1$ mag), as found previously. Spectroscopy of a fainter companion galaxy C separated by a distance of \about\ 3$\,$kpc reveals a Lyman break consistent with $z = 10.17$. MACS0647-JD is likely the most distant galaxy merger known.

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T. Hsiao, A. Abdurro’uf, D. Coe, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
42/67

Comments: 21 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ

Cosmological phase transitions: from perturbative particle physics to gravitational waves [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02357


Gravitational waves (GWs) were recently detected for the first time. This revolutionary discovery opens a new way of learning about particle physics through GWs from first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) in the early Universe. FOPTs could occur when new fundamental symmetries are spontaneously broken down to the Standard Model and are a vital ingredient in solutions of the matter anti-matter asymmetry problem. The path from a particle physics model to GWs, however, contains many specialized parts and so here we provide a timely review of all the required steps, including: (i) building a finite-temperature effective potential in a particle physics model and checking for FOPTs; (ii) computing transition rates; (iii) analyzing the dynamics of bubbles of true vacuum expanding in a thermal plasma; (iv) characterizing a transition using thermal parameters; and, finally, (v) making predictions for GW spectra using the latest simulations and theoretical results and considering the detectability of predicted spectra at future GW detectors. For each step we emphasize the subtleties, advantages and drawbacks of different methods, discuss open questions and review the state-of-art approaches available in the literature. This provides everything a particle physicist needs to begin exploring GW phenomenology.

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P. Athron, C. Balázs, A. Fowlie, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
43/67

Comments: 155 pages, 20 figures, review submitted to Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics

The angular power spectrum of gravitational-wave transient sources as a probe of the large-scale structure [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02652


We present a new, simulation-based inference method to compute the angular power spectrum of the distribution of foreground gravitational-wave transient events. As a first application of this method, we use the binary black hole mergers observed during the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA third observation run to test the spatial distribution of these sources. We find no evidence for anisotropy in their angular distribution. We discuss further applications of this method to investigate other gravitational-wave source populations and their correlations to the cosmological large-scale structure.

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Y. Zheng, N. Kouvatsos, J. Golomb, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
47/67

Comments: 6 pages, 5 figures

Dissipative Emergence of Inflation from Quasi-Cyclic Universe [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02367


Inflationary models, especially those with plateau-type potentials, are consistent with the cosmological data, but inflation itself does not resolve the initial singularity. This singularity is resolved, for example, by the idea of the quantum creation of the Universe from nothing such as the tunneling and no-boundary proposals. The simplest one predicts a closed Universe. Motivated by these facts, we investigate the classical dynamics of a closed Universe with a plateau-type potential. Depending on the initial inflaton field value, the Universe can undergo a variety of events: an immediate Big Crunch, a bounce or cyclic phase, and inflation. Although the non-inflationary solutions may appear irrelevant to our Universe, they can be turned into a single or multiple bounces followed by inflation, taking into account the interactions necessary for the reheating of the Universe after inflation. Thus, the dissipative mechanism in our setup explains both the graceful entry to and exit from inflation and gives us an indirect observational handle on the Universe just after creation. We also comment on the implications of these solutions on the probabilistic interpretations of the wave function of the Universe.

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H. Matsui, A. Papageorgiou, F. Takahashi, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
49/67

Comments: 53 pages, 11 figures

Witnessing the intracluster medium assembly at the cosmic noon in JKCS041 [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02353


In this work we study the intracluster medium of a galaxy cluster at the cosmic noon: JKCS041 at z=1.803. A 28h long Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) observation using MUSTANG-2 allows us to detect JKCS041, even if intrinsically extremely faint compared to other SZ-detected clusters. We found that the SZ peak is offset from the X-ray center by about 220 kpc in the direction of the brightest cluster galaxy, which we interpret as due to the cluster being observed just after first passage of a major merger. JKCS041 has a low central pressure and a low Compton Y compared to local clusters selected by their intracluster medium (ICM), likely because the cluster is still in the process of assembly but also in part because of a hard-to-quantify bias in current local ICM-selected samples. JKCS041 has a 0.5 dex fainter Y signal than another less massive z~1.8 cluster, exemplifying how much different weak-lensing mass and SZ mass can be at high redshift. The observations we present provide us with the measurement of the most distant resolved pressure profile of a galaxy cluster. Comparison with a library of plausibly descendants shows that JKCS041 pressure profile will likely increase by about 0.7 dex in the next 10 Gyr at all radii.

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S. Andreon, C. Romero, H. Aussel, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
52/67

Comments: MNRAS, in press

Inspiraling streams of enriched gas observed around a massive galaxy 11 billion years ago [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02344


Stars form in galaxies, from gas that has been accreted from the intergalactic medium. Simulations have shown that recycling of gas-the reaccretion of gas that was previously ejected from a galaxy-could sustain star formation in the early Universe. We observe the gas surrounding a massive galaxy at redshift 2.3 and detect emission lines from neutral hydrogen, helium, and ionized carbon that extend 100 kiloparsecs from the galaxy. The kinematics of this circumgalactic gas is consistent with an inspiraling stream. The carbon abundance indicates that the gas had already been enriched with elements heavier than helium, previously ejected from a galaxy. We interpret the results as evidence of gas recycling during high-redshift galaxy assembly.

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S. Zhang, Z. Cai, D. Xu, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
61/67

Comments: Published in Science, 5 May 2023 (accepted version), Main text 20 pages, four figures in the main text, and 13 figures and 4 tables in the supplementary materials;

A trium test on beyond $Λ$CDM triggering parameters [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02817


We performed a Bayesian study on the three modified gravity phenomenological parameters, the growth index $\gamma$, the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ and the lensing deviation from the GR prediction parameter $\Sigma$, using the latest cosmological geometric, growth and lensing probes; all in a consistent implementation within the modified gravity cosmological solver code MGCLASS. We find, when we combine all our probes, i.e. CMB + BAO + $f\sigma_8$ + 3$\times$2pt clustering and lensing probes, assuming flat space, constraints still compatible with general relativity and $\Lambda$CDM with $\omega = -1.025\pm0.045$, $\gamma = 0.633\pm0.044$ and $\Sigma = 0.992\pm0.022$ at 68% level when the latter is considered as constant; and $\gamma_\ell = -0.025 \pm0.045$ when the lensing parameter is parameterized as function of the lensing index, introduced for the first time in this work, as $\Sigma(z)=\Omega_m(z)^{\gamma_\ell}$.

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Z. Sakr
Fri, 5 May 23
62/67

Comments: Originally started as an invited planery talk at EREP 2022

Galaxy Morphology from $z\sim6$ through the eyes of JWST [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02478


We analyze the Near Infrared ($\sim0.8-1\mu$m) rest-frame morphologies of galaxies with $\log M_/M_\odot>9$ in the redshift range $0<z<6$, compare with previous HST-based results and release the first JWST-based morphological catalog of $\sim20,000$ galaxies in the CEERS survey. Galaxies are classified into four main broad classes — spheroid, disk+spheroid, disk, and disturbed — based on imaging with four filters — $F150W$, $F200W$, $F356W$, and $F444W$ — using Convolutional Neural Networks trained on HST/WFC3 labeled images and domain-adapted to JWST/NIRCam. We find that $\sim90\%$ and $\sim75\%$ of galaxies at $z<3$ have the same early/late and regular/irregular classification, respectively, in JWST and HST imaging when considering similar wavelengths. For small (large) and faint objects, JWST-based classifications tend to systematically present less bulge-dominated systems (peculiar galaxies) than HST-based ones, but the impact on the reported evolution of morphological fractions is less than $\sim10\%$. Using JWST-based morphologies at the same rest-frame wavelength ($\sim0.8-1\mu$m), we confirm an increase in peculiar galaxies and a decrease in bulge-dominated galaxies with redshift, as reported in previous HST-based works, suggesting that the stellar mass distribution, in addition to light distribution, is more disturbed in the early universe. However, we find that undisturbed disk-like systems already dominate the high-mass end of the late-type galaxy population ($\log M_/M_\odot>10.5$) at $z\sim5$, and bulge-dominated galaxies also exist at these early epochs, confirming a rich and evolved morphological diversity of galaxies $\sim1$ Gyr after the Big Bang. Finally, we find that the morphology-quenching relation is already in place for massive galaxies at $z>3$, with massive quiescent galaxies ($\log M_*/M_\odot>10.5$) being predominantly bulge-dominated.

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M. M.Huertas-Company, K. Iyer, E. Angeloudi, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
63/67

Comments: Submitted to A&A, comments welcome

JWST constraints on the UV luminosity density at cosmic dawn: implications for 21-cm cosmology [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02703


An unprecedented array of new observational capabilities are starting to yield key constraints on models of the epoch of first light in the Universe. In this Letter we discuss the implications of the UV radiation background at cosmic dawn inferred by recent JWST observations for radio experiments aimed at detecting the redshifted 21-cm hyperfine transition of diffuse neutral hydrogen. Under the basic assumption that the 21-cm signal is activated by the Ly$\alpha$ photon field produced by metal-poor stellar systems, we show that a detection at the low frequencies of the EDGES experiment may be expected from a simple extrapolation of the declining UV luminosity density estimated at $z\lesssim 14$ by JWST early galaxy data. Our findings raise the intriguing possibility that a high star formation efficiency at early times may trigger the onset of intense Ly$\alpha$ emission at redshift $z\lesssim 18$ and produce a cosmic 21-cm absorption signal 200 Myr after the Big Bang.

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S. Hassan, C. Lovell, P. Madau, et. al.
Fri, 5 May 23
64/67

Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures, to be submitted to ApJL, comments are welcome

de Sitter Space Decay and Cosmological Constant Relaxation in Braney Unimodular Gravity [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02349


General covariant unimodular gravity frameworks, based on the Henneaux-Teitelboim formulation, are, in disguise, precisely $4$-form field theories corrected with higher dimension operators. In the presence of charged tensional membranes, any de Sitter space in all such theories is unstable and decays. If the fluxes sourced by membranes are mutually incommensurate, de Sitter geometries comprise a very refined discretuum of states. Whenever the $4$-form sector is dominated by terms linear in flux the almost-Minkowski space is the unique long-time attractor. As a result, a tiny cosmological constant is natural in all such frameworks, without appealing to anthropic reasoning.

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N. Kaloper
Fri, 5 May 23
67/67

Comments: 28 pages, 5 figures

Lorentzian quantum cosmology with torsion [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01690


We evaluate the Lorentzian gravitational path integral in the presence of non-vanishing torsion with the application of the Picard-Lefschetz theory for minisuperspaces corresponding to a number of phenomenological bouncing cosmological models as well as for the inflationary paradigm. It turns out that the semi-classical wave function derived from the saddle points of the path integral formalism coincides with the solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. Intriguingly, our analysis showed that the relative probability, derived using these semi-classical wave functions favors universes with smaller values of torsion. Moreover, we find that in the inflationary case, non-zero values of a certain parity-violating component of the torsion enhance the power in the large physical length scales, which can have important observational implications. On the other hand, in the case of bouncing models, the power spectrum is characterized by an initial region of growth, an intermediate oscillatory region, and then again a final region of growth. The shape of the power spectrum in the initial and intermediate regions is sensitive to the abundance of the bounce-enabling matter and torsion, along with the initial wave function of the universe, while the final size modifies the behavior of the power spectrum in the smaller length scales.

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V. Mondal and S. Chakraborty
Thu, 4 May 23
4/60

Comments: N/A

Constraints on dark matter-neutrino scattering from the Milky-Way satellites and subhalo modeling for dark acoustic oscillations [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01913


The elastic scattering between dark matter (DM) and radiation can potentially explain small-scale observations that the cold dark matter faces as a challenge, as damping density fluctuations via dark acoustic oscillations in the early universe erases small-scale structure. We study a semi-analytical subhalo model for interacting dark matter with radiation, based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism and subhalos’ tidal evolution prescription. We also test the elastic scattering between DM and neutrinos using observations of Milky-Way satellites from the Dark Energy Survey and PanSTARRS1. We conservatively impose strong constraints on the DM-neutrino scattering cross section of $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,n}\propto E_\nu^n$ $(n=0,2,4)$ at $95\%$ confidence level (CL), $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,0}< 10^{-32}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})$, $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,2}< 10^{-43}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})(E_\nu/E_{\nu}^0)^2$ and $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,4}< 10^{-54}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})(E_\nu/E_{\nu}^0)^4$, where $E_\nu^0$ is the average momentum of relic cosmic neutrinos today, $E_\nu^0 \simeq 3.15 T_\nu^0 \simeq 6.1\ {\rm K}$. By imposing a satellite forming condition, we obtain the strongest upper bounds on the DM-neutrino cross section at $95\%$ CL, $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,0}< 4\times 10^{-34}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})$, $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,2}< 10^{-46}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})(E_\nu/E_{\nu}^0)^2$ and $\sigma_{{\rm DM}\text{-}\nu,4}< 7\times 10^{-59}\ {\rm cm^2}\ (m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV})(E_\nu/E_{\nu}^0)^4$.

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K. Akita and S. Ando
Thu, 4 May 23
19/60

Comments: 18 pages, 6 figures

Machine Learning and Structure Formation in Modified Gravity [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02122


In General Relativity approximations based on the spherical collapse model such as Press–Schechter theory and its extensions are able to predict the number of objects of a certain mass in a given volume. In this paper we use a machine learning algorithm to test whether such approximations hold in screened modified gravity theories. To this end, we train random forest classifiers on data from N-body simulations to study the formation of structures in $\Lambda$CDM as well as screened modified gravity theories, in particular $f(R)$ and nDGP gravity. The models are taught to distinguish structure membership in the final conditions from spherical aggregations of density field behaviour in the initial conditions. We examine the differences between machine learning models that have learned structure formation from each gravity, as well as the model that has learned from $\Lambda$CDM. We also test the generalisability of the $\Lambda$CDM model on data from $f(R)$ and nDGP gravities of varying strengths, and therefore the generalisability of Extended-Press-Schechter spherical collapse to these types of modified gravity.

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J. Betts, C. Bruck, C. Arnold, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
21/60

Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures

i-SPin 2: An integrator for general spin-s Gross-Pitaevskii systems [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01675


We provide an algorithm for evolving general spin-$s$ Gross-Pitaevskii / non-linear Schr\”odinger systems carrying a variety of interactions, where the $2s+1$ components of the `spinor’ field represent the different spin-multiplicity states. We consider many nonrelativistic interactions up to quartic order in the Schr\”odinger field (both short and long-range, and spin-dependent and spin-independent interactions), including explicit spin-orbit couplings. The algorithm allows for spatially varying external and/or self-generated vector potentials that couple to the spin density of the field. Our work can be used for scenarios ranging from laboratory systems such as spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), to cosmological/astrophysical systems such as self-interacting bosonic dark matter. As examples, we provide results for two different setups of spin-$1$ BECs that employ a varying magnetic field and spin-orbit coupling, respectively, and also collisions of spin-$1$ solitons in dark matter. Our symplectic algorithm is second-order accurate in time, and is extensible to the known higher-order accurate methods.

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M. Jain, M. Amin and H. Pu
Thu, 4 May 23
23/60

Comments: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 appendices

Probing the global 21-cm background by velocity-induced dipole and quadrupole anisotropies [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01672


The motion of an observer in the rest frame of the cosmic 21-cm background induces an anisotropy in the observed background, even when the background is isotropic. The induced anisotropy includes a dipole and a quadrupole, in the order decreasing in amplitude. If observed, these multipole anisotropies can be used as additional probes of the spectral shape of the global 21-cm background for mitigating the ambiguity in the monopole spectrum probed by single-element radio telescopes such as EDGES and SARAS. This could also help with understanding the astrophysical and cosmological processes that occurred during the cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization, and even improving on the estimation of the solar velocity and the foreground spectra. Here, we study the feasibility of such observations and present science drivers for the measurement of the 21-cm dipole and quadrupole.

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S. Hotinli and K. Ahn
Thu, 4 May 23
25/60

Comments: 14+4 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to ApJ. Comments welcome

Testing charge quantization with axion string-induced cosmic birefringence [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02318


We demonstrate that the Peccei-Quinn-electromagnetic anomaly coefficient $\mathcal A$ can be directly measured from axion string-induced cosmic birefringence by applying scattering transform to the anisotropic polarization rotation of the cosmic microwave background. This breaks the degeneracy between $\mathcal A$ and the effective number of string loops in traditional inference analyses that are solely based on the spatial power spectrum of polarization rotation. Carrying out likelihood-based parameter inference on mock rotation realizations generated according to phenomenological string network models, we show that scattering transform is able to extract enough non-Gaussian information to clearly distinguish a number of discrete $\mathcal A$ values, for instance $\mathcal{A}=1/9,\,1/3,\,2/3$, in the ideal case of noise-free rotation reconstruction, and, to a lesser but interesting degree, at reconstruction noise levels comparable to that expected for the proposed CMB-HD concept. In the event of a statistical detection of cosmic birefringence by Stage III or IV CMB experiments, our technique can be applied to test the stringy nature of the birefringence pattern and extract fundamental information about the smallest unit of charge in theories beyond the Standard Model.

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W. Yin, L. Dai and S. Ferraro
Thu, 4 May 23
28/60

Comments: N/A

Cosmological Parameter Constraints from the SDSS Density and Momentum Power Spectra [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01943


We extract the galaxy density and momentum power spectra from a subset of early-type galaxies in the SDSS DR7 main galaxy catalog. Using galaxy distance information inferred from the improved fundamental plane described in Yoon et al. (2020), we reconstruct the peculiar velocities of the galaxies and generate number density and density-weighted velocity fields, from which we extract the galaxy density and momentum power spectra. We compare the measured values to the theoretical expectation of the same statistics, assuming an input $\Lambda$CDM model and using a third-order perturbative expansion. After validating our analysis pipeline with a series of mock data sets, we apply our methodology to the SDSS data and arrive at constraints $f \sigma_{8} = 0.485_{-0.083}^{+0.075} $ and $b_{1}\sigma_{8} = 0.883_{-0.059}^{+0.059}$ at a mean redshift $\bar{z} = 0.043$. Our result is consistent with the Planck cosmological best fit parameters for the $\Lambda$CDM model. The momentum power spectrum is found to be strongly contaminated by small scale velocity dispersion, which suppresses power by $\sim {\cal O}(30\%)$ on intermediate scales $k \sim 0.05 \, h \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$.

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S. Appleby, M. Tonegawa, C. Park, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
32/60

Comments: 12 figures, 3 tables

The dark matter unitarity bound at NLO [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01680


We reexamine the consequences of perturbative unitarity on dark matter freeze-out when both Sommerfeld enhancement and bound state formation affect dark matter annihilations. At leading order (LO) the annihilation cross-section is infrared dominated and the connection between the unitarity bound and the upper bound on the dark matter mass depends only on how the different partial waves are populated. We compute how this picture is modified at next-to-leading order (NLO) with the goal of assigning a reliable theory uncertainty to the freeze-out predictions. We explicitly compute NLO corrections in a simple model with abelian gauge interactions and provide an estimate of the theoretical uncertainty for the thermal masses of heavy electroweak $n$-plets. Along the way, we clarify the regularization and matching procedure necessary to deal with singular potentials in quantum mechanics with a calculable relativistic UV completion.

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S. Bottaro and D. Redigolo
Thu, 4 May 23
35/60

Comments: 8 pages + appendices, 5+2 figures

Magnetic Fields in Cosmic Voids [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01765


Magnetic fields are one of most concealed components of the universe. They are observed as part of the intergalactic medium and on galaxy cluster scales, however their origin and evolution is unclear. In this work we use the IllustrisTNG simulation to investigate the effects of magnetic fields in cosmic voids, the least dense regions of the universe. We find that, under the hypothesis of a uniform primordial magnetic field, the voids still reflect the primordial properties of the fields. On the other hand, the galaxies in their interior acquire weaker magnetic fields than galaxies in denser environments.

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A. Rodríguez-Medrano, F. Stasyszyn, D. Paz, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
45/60

Comments: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted in Bolet\’in de la Asociaci\’on Argentina de Astronom\’ia

Precision CMB constraints on eV-scale bosons coupled to neutrinos [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01692


The cosmic microwave background (CMB) has proven to be an invaluable tool for studying the properties and interactions of neutrinos, providing insight not only into the sum of neutrino masses but also the free streaming nature of neutrinos prior to recombination. The CMB is a particularly powerful probe of new eV-scale bosons interacting with neutrinos, as these particles can thermalize with neutrinos via the inverse decay process, $\nu\bar{\nu} \rightarrow X$, and suppress neutrino free streaming near recombination — even for couplings as small as $\lambda_\nu \sim \mathcal{O}(10^{-13})$. Here, we revisit CMB constraints on such bosons, improving upon a number of approximations previously adopted in the literature and generalizing the constraints to a broader class of models. This includes scenarios in which the boson is either spin-$0$ or spin-$1$, the number of interacting neutrinos is either $N_{\rm int} = 1,2 $ or $3$, and the case in which a primordial abundance of the species is present. We apply these bounds to well-motivated models, such as the singlet majoron model or a light $U(1){L\mu-L_\tau}$ gauge boson, and find that they represent the leading constraints for masses $m_X\sim 1\, {\rm eV}$. Finally, we revisit the extent to which neutrino-philic bosons can ameliorate the Hubble tension, and find that recent improvements in the understanding of how such bosons damp neutrino free streaming reduces the previously found success of this proposal.

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S. Sandner, M. Escudero and S. Witte
Thu, 4 May 23
49/60

Comments: 9 + 8 pages, 14 figures

Cosmoglobe DR1 results. II. Constraints on isotropic cosmic birefringence from reprocessed WMAP and Planck LFI data [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02268


Cosmic birefringence is a parity-violating effect that might have rotated the plane of linearly polarized light of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by an angle $\beta$ since its emission. This has recently been measured to be non-zero at a statistical significance of $3.6\sigma$ in the official Planck PR4 and 9-year WMAP data. In this work, we constrain $\beta$ using the reprocessed BeyondPlanck LFI and Cosmoglobe DR1 WMAP polarization maps. These novel maps have both lower systematic residuals and a more complete error description than the corresponding official products. Foreground $EB$ correlations could bias measurements of $\beta$, and while thermal dust $EB$ emission has been argued to be statistically non-zero, no evidence for synchrotron $EB$ power has been reported. Unlike the dust-dominated Planck HFI maps, the majority of the LFI and WMAP polarization maps are instead dominated by synchrotron emission. Simultaneously constraining $\beta$ and the polarization miscalibration angle, $\alpha$, of each channel, we find a best-fit value of $\beta=0.35^{\circ}\pm0.70^{\circ}$ with LFI and WMAP data only. When including the Planck HFI PR4 maps, but fitting $\beta$ separately for dust-dominated, $\beta_{>70\,\mathrm{GHz}}$, and synchrotron-dominated channels, $\beta_{\leq 70\,\mathrm{GHz}}$, we find $\beta_{\leq 70\,\mathrm{GHz}}=0.53^{\circ}\pm0.28^\circ$. This differs from zero with a statistical significance of $1.9\sigma$, and the main contribution to this value comes from the LFI 70 GHz channel. While the statistical significances of these results are low on their own, the measurement derived from the LFI and WMAP synchrotron-dominated maps agrees with the previously reported HFI-dominated constraints, despite the very different astrophysical and instrumental systematics involved in all these experiments.

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J. Eskilt, D. Watts, R. Aurlien, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
59/60

Comments: 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to A&A