Search

Using high-resolution microwave sky maps made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, we for the first time present strong evidence for motions of galaxy clusters and groups via microwave background temperature distortions due to the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. Galaxy clusters are identified by their constituent luminous galaxies observed by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. We measure the mean pairwise momentum of clusters, with a probability of the signal being due to random errors of 0.002, and the signal is consistent with the growth of cosmic structure in the standard model of cosmology.

We use the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and high-resolution spectroscopy observations in combination with cosmic microwave background and galaxy clustering constraints to place limits on a sterile neutrino as a dark matter candidate in the warm dark matter scenario. Such a neutrino would be created in the early Universe through mixing with an active neutrino and would suppress structure on scales smaller than its free-streaming scale. We ran a series of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations with varying neutrino masses to describe the effect of a sterile neutrino on the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum. We find that the mass limit is m(s) >13 keV at 95% C.L. (9 keV at 99.9%), which is above the upper limit allowed by x-ray constraints, excluding this candidate from being all of the dark matter in this model.