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The recent analysis of low-redshift supernovae (SN) has increased the apparent tension between the value of $H_0$ estimated from low and high redshift observations such as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. At the same time other observations have provided evidence of the existence of local radial inhomogeneities extending in different directions up to a redshift of about $0.07$. About $40\%$ of the Cepheids used for SN calibration are directly affected because are located along the directions of these inhomogeneities. We derive a new simple formula relating directly the luminosity distance to the monopole of the density contrast, which does not involve any metric perturbation. We then use it to develop a new inversion method to reconstruct the monopole of the density field from the deviations of the redshift uncorrected observed luminosity distance respect to the $\Lambda CDM$ prediction based on cosmological parameters obtained from large scale observations. The inversion method confirms the existence of inhomogeneities whose effects were not previously taken into account because the $2M++$ density field maps used to obtain the peculiar velocity for redshift correction were for $z\leq 0.06$, which is not a sufficiently large scale to detect the presence of inhomogeneities extending up to $z=0.07$. The inhomogeneity does not affect the high redshift luminosity distance because the volume averaged density contrast tends to zero asymptotically, making the value of $H_0^{CMB}$ obtained from CMB observations insensitive to any local structure. The inversion method can provide a unique tool to reconstruct the density field at high redshift where only SN data is available, and in particular to normalize correctly the density field respect to the average large scale density of the Universe., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, published in IJMPD

The review considers the contribution of the results of measuring fluctuations of relic cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation to cosmological model and the latest results of observational cosmology. We discussed the basics of the modern cosmological model, the stages of obtaining information from observational data of the Planck space observatory, namely, analysis of time series of observations, construction procedures maps, pixelation, separation of background components, calculation of the angular power spectrum, and determination of cosmological parameters.

The uncertainty on measurements, given by the Heisenberg principle, is a quantum concept usually not taken into account in General Relativity. From a cosmological point of view, several authors wonder how such a principle can be reconciled with the Big Bang singularity, but, generally, not whether it may affect the reliability of cosmological measurements. In this letter, we express the {Compton mass} as a function of the cosmological redshift. The cosmological application of the indetermination principle unveils the differences of the Hubble-Lema\^{i}tre constant value, $H_0$, as measured from the Cepheids estimates and from the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation constraints. In conclusion, the $H_0$ tension could be related to the effect of indetermination derived in comparing a kinematic with a dynamic measurement., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Foundations of Physics

We study the large-scale anisotropy of the Universe by measuring the dipole in the angular distribution of a flux-limited, all-sky sample of 1.36 million quasars observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). This sample is derived from the new CatWISE2020 catalog, which contains deep photometric measurements at 3.4 and 4.6 $\mu$m from the cryogenic, post-cryogenic, and reactivation phases of the WISE mission. While the direction of the dipole in the quasar sky is similar to that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), its amplitude is over twice as large as expected, rejecting the canonical, exclusively kinematic interpretation of the CMB dipole with a p-value of $5\times10^{-7}$ ($4.9\sigma$ for a normal distribution, one-sided), the highest significance achieved to date in such studies. Our results are in conflict with the cosmological principle, a foundational assumption of the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Code and data available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4431089

Measurement of the distances to nearby galaxies have improved rapidly in recent decades. The ever-present challenge is to reduce systematic effects, especially as greater distances are probed, and the uncertainties become larger. In this paper, we combine several recent calibrations of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) method. These calibrations are internally self-consistent at the 1% level. New Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) data provide an additional consistency check, at a (lower) 5% level of accuracy, a result of the well-documented Gaia angular covariance bias. The updated TRGB calibration applied to a distant sample of Type Ia supernovae from the Carnegie Supernova Project results in a value of the Hubble constant of Ho = 69.8 $\pm$ 0.6 (stat) $\pm$ 1.6 (sys) km/s/Mpc. No statistically significant difference is found between the value of Ho based on the TRGB and that determined from measurements of the cosmic microwave background. The TRGB results are also consistent to within 2$\sigma$ with the SHoES and Spitzer plus HST Key Project Cepheid calibrations. The TRGB results alone do not demand additional new physics beyond the standard Lambda-CDM cosmological model. They have the advantage of simplicity of the underlying physics (the core He flash) and small systematic uncertainties (from extinction, metallicity and crowding). Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of both the TRGB and Cepheids are reviewed, and prospects for addressing the current discrepancy with future Gaia, HST and JWST observations are discussed. Resolving this discrepancy is essential for ascertaining if the claimed tension in Ho between the locally-measured and the CMB-inferred value is physically motivated., Comment: 48 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

The question of whether Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization data from Planck favor a spatially closed Universe with curvature parameter $\Omega_K, Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures. The busy reader should skip to Fig. 1 and Tab. 3 for the main results, and to Fig. 5 and Tab. 4 if they are interested in the extended parameter space results. "Piatto" = "flat" in Italian, "Note added" between conclusions and acknowledgements explains our choice of title. v2: abstract shortened, references added, version accepted for publication in ApJ. Comments are welcome

We use EDGES measurements to determine scale and zero-level corrections to the diffuse radio surveys by Guzm\'an et al. at $45$ MHz and Landecker & Wielebinski at $150$ MHz. We find that the Guzm\'an et al. map requires a scale correction of $1.076 \pm 0.034$ ($2\sigma$) and a zero-level correction of $-160 \pm 78$ K ($2\sigma$) to best-fit the EDGES data. For the Landecker & Wielebinski map, the scale correction is $1.112 \pm 0.023$ ($2\sigma$) and the zero-level correction is $0.7 \pm 6.0$ K ($2\sigma$). The correction uncertainties are dominated by systematic effects, of which the most significant are uncertainty in the calibration of the EDGES receivers, antenna pointing, and tropospheric and ionospheric effects. We propagate the correction uncertainties to estimate the uncertainties in the corrected maps themselves and find that the $2\sigma$ uncertainty in the map brightness temperature is in the range $3.2-7.5\%$ for the Guzm\'an et al. map and $2.1-9.0\%$ for the Landecker & Wielebinski map, with the largest percent uncertainties occurring at high Galactic latitudes. The corrected maps could be used to improve existing diffuse low-frequency radio sky models, which are essential tools in analyses of cosmological $21$ cm observations, as well as to investigate the existence of a radio monopole excess above the cosmic microwave background and known Galactic and extragalactic contributions., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

The Simons Observatory (SO) will observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The observatory consists of three 0.5 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope (LAT), covering six frequency bands centering around 30, 40, 90, 150, 230, and 280 GHz. The SO observations will transform the understanding of our universe by characterizing the properties of the early universe, measuring the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, improving our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constraining the properties of cosmic reionization. As a critical instrument, the Large Aperture Telescope Receiver (LATR) is designed to cool $\sim$ 60,000 transition-edge sensors (TES) to $, Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, submitted to the 2020 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation

It is common to express cosmological measurements in units of ${h}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }\mathrm{Mpc}$. Here, we review some of the complications that originate from this practice. A crucial problem caused by these units is related to the normalization of the matter power spectrum, which is commonly characterized in terms of the linear-theory rms mass fluctuation in spheres of radius $8\text{ }\text{ }{h}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Mpc}$, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{8}$. This parameter does not correctly capture the impact of $h$ on the amplitude of density fluctuations. We show that the use of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{8}$ has caused critical misconceptions for both the so-called ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{8}$ tension regarding the consistency between low-redshift probes and cosmic microwave background data and the way in which growth-rate estimates inferred from redshift-space distortions are commonly expressed. We propose to abandon the use of ${h}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }\mathrm{Mpc}$ units in cosmology and to characterize the amplitude of the matter power spectrum in terms of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{12}$, defined as the mass fluctuation in spheres of radius 12 Mpc, whose value is similar to the standard ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{8}$ for $h\ensuremath{\sim}0.67$.

We investigate the model of dark matter-dark energy (DM-DE) interaction with coupling strength proportional to the multiplication of dark sector densities with different power indices $Q = \gamma \rho_{\rm c}^{\alpha} \rho_{\rm d}^{\beta}$. We first investigate the modification of the cosmic expansion history, and then further develop the formalism to take into account the cosmological perturbations and dark matter temperature evolution. We then use the latest observational cosmology data, including cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data, redshift-space distortion (RSD) data and Type Ia supernovae (SNe) data to constrain the model parameters. We find in the phantom region, a positive $\alpha$ is preferred by the data above $2\, \sigma$ statistic significance. If we choose the power indices to be integers or half-integers for {\it plausible} physics of particle interaction, the allowed values within $1\, \sigma$ confidence regions are $\alpha = 0.5$ and $\beta = 0, 0.5, 1$. The inclusion of BAO and RSD data from large-scale structure and SNe data improves the constraints significantly. Our model predicts lower values of $f(z) \sigma_8(z)$ at $z, Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, PRD accepted

Consistency checks of $\Lambda$CDM predictions with current cosmological data sets may illuminate the types of changes needed to resolve cosmological tensions. To this end, we modify the CLASS Boltzmann code to create phenomenological amplitudes, similar to the lensing amplitude parameter $A_L$, for the Sachs-Wolfe, Doppler, early Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (eISW), and Polarization contributions to the CMB temperature anisotropy, and then we include these additional amplitudes in fits to the Planck TT power spectrum. We find that allowing one of these amplitudes to vary at a time results in little improvement over $\Lambda$CDM alone suggesting that each of these physical effects are being correctly accounted for given the current level of precision. Further, we find that the only pair of phenomenological amplitudes that results in a significant improvement to the fit to Planck temperature data results from varying the amplitudes of the Sachs-Wolfe and Doppler effects simultaneously. However, we show that this model is really just refinding the $\Lambda$CDM + $A_L$ solution. We test adding our phenomenological amplitudes as well as $N_{\textrm{eff}}$, $Y_{\textrm{He}}$, and $n_{\textrm{run}}$ to $\Lambda$CDM + $A_L$ and find that none of these model extensions provide significant improvement over $\Lambda$CDM + $A_L$ when fitting Planck temperature data. Finally, we quantify the contributions of both the eISW effect and lensing on the constraint of the physical matter density from Planck temperature data by allowing the phenomenological amplitude from each effect to vary. We find that these effects play a relatively small role (the uncertainty increases by $3.5\%$ and $16\%$ respectively) suggesting that the overall photon envelope has the greatest constraining power., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Published by ApJ

Understanding the evolution of Universe is, in the forefront of, the modern day observational cosmology. It requires precise and accurate measurement of cosmological signal, orders of magnitude weaker than the bright sky background. Detection of such a signal having distinct spectral signature, needs an antenna with frequency independent characteristics over more than an octave bandwidth. A spherical monopole antenna has been designed to operate in the frequency range 50-200 MHz with a spectral smoothness of about few parts in 104. The structure has been modeled and optimized using WIPL-D, to minimize spectral features arising out of abrupt reflections of surface currents and frequency dependent radiation patterns. A prototype has been built to validate the design. This paper presents the methodology adopted in the overall antenna design, experiences in its prototyping and simulation and the measurement results.

Consistency checks of cosmological data sets are an important tool because they may suggest systematic errors or the type of modifications to $\Lambda$CDM necessary to resolve current tensions. In this work, we derive an analytic method for calculating the level of correlations between model parameters from two correlated cosmological data sets, which complements more computationally expensive simulations. This method is an extension of the Fisher analysis that assumes a Gaussian likelihood and a known data covariance matrix. We apply this method to the SPTpol temperature and polarization CMB spectra (TE and EE). We find weak correlations between $\Lambda$CDM parameters with a 9$\%$ correlation between the TE-only and EE-only constraints on $H_0$ and a 25$\%$ and 32$\%$ correlation for log($A_s$) and $n_s$ respectively. Despite the negative correlations between the TE and EE power spectra, the correlations in the parameters are positive. The TE-EE parameter differences are consistent with zero, with a PTE of 0.53, in contrast to the PTE of 0.017 reported by SPTpol for the consistency of the TE and EE power spectra with $\Lambda$CDM. Using simulations we find that the results of these two tests are independent and that this difference can arise simply from statistical fluctuations. Ignoring correlations in the TT-TE and TE-EE comparisons biases the $\chi^2$ low, artificially making parameters look more consistent. Therefore, we conclude that these correlations need to be accounted for when performing internal consistency checks of the TT vs TE vs EE power spectra for future CMB analyses., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Published by ApJ

The Cold Spot, with an unusually cold region surrounded by a hot ring, is a statistically significant anomaly in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) sky. In this work we assess whether different sets of multiple subvoids based on the 2dF-VST ATLAS Cold Spot galaxy redshift survey or a collapsing cosmic texture could have produced such an anomaly through a simultaneous search for their gravitational redshift and lensing signatures on the {\it Planck} CMB temperature anisotropies. We use patches with radii $R=10^\circ$ and $R=20^\circ$ to account for the inner cold region as well as the outer hot ring. As the void model, we explore two sets of $\Lambda$LTB templates characterized by different values of the model's free parameters, and a top-hat void template. We detect higher-than-expected gravitational redshift amplitudes for the first two sets, $\mathcal{A}_{\rm rs}=5.4\pm 1.4$ and $\mathcal{A}_{\rm rs}=14.4\pm 3.8$, and lower than expected for the top-hat model, $\mathcal{A}_{\rm rs}=0.3 \pm 0.1$. The amplitudes for the lensing imprint are consistent with zero for all these subvoid models. The estimated amplitude for the texture imprint from the gravitational redshift measurement implies the energy scale of the texture, parametrized by $\epsilon$, to be $\epsilon= (7.6\pm2.0)\times 10^{-5}$, with no detection of the lensing trace. We note that the deviation of the subvoid amplitudes from unity and the inability of the texture and some of the void profiles to reproduce the hot ring indicate theoretical insufficiencies, either in the construction of the model or in the assumed gravitational and cosmological framework leading to the imprints for the structures.

In order to extract cosmological information from observations of the millimeter and submillimeter sky, foreground components must first be removed to produce an estimate of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We developed a machine-learning approach for doing so for full-sky temperature maps of the millimeter and submillimeter sky. We constructed a Bayesian spherical convolutional neural network architecture to produce a model that captures both spectral and morphological aspects of the foregrounds. Additionally, the model outputs a per-pixel error estimate that incorporates both statistical and model uncertainties. The model was then trained using simulations that incorporated knowledge of these foreground components that was available at the time of the launch of the Planck satellite. On simulated maps, the CMB is recovered with a mean absolute difference of $50��$K; the angular power spectrum is also accurately recovered. Once validated with the simulations, this model was applied to Planck temperature observations from its 70GHz through 857GHz channels to produce a foreground-cleaned CMB map at a Healpix map resolution of NSIDE=512. Furthermore, we demonstrate the utility of the technique for evaluating how well different simulations match observations, particularly in regard to the modeling of thermal dust., 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ

There is a persistent H 0-tension, now at more than ≳4σ level, between the local distance ladder value and the Planck cosmic microwave background measurement, in the context of flat Lambda-cold-dark-matter (ΛCDM) model. We reconstruct H(z) in a cosmological-model-independent way using three low-redshift distance probes including the latest data from baryon acoustic oscillation, supernova Ia (SN Ia) and gravitational lensing time-delay (GLTD) observations. We adopt general parametric models of H(z) and assume a Gaussian sound horizon at drag epoch, , from Planck measurement. The reconstructed Hubble constant H 0,rec using Pantheon SN Ia and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) data are consistent with the Planck flat ΛCDM value. When including the GLTD data, H 0,rec increases mildly, yet remains discrepant with the local measurement at ∼2.2σ level. With our reconstructions being blind to the dark sectors at low redshift, we reaffirm the earlier claims that the Hubble tension is not likely to be solved by modifying the energy budget of the low-redshift universe. We further forecast the constraining ability of future realistic mock BAO data from Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and GLTD data from Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, combining which, we anticipate that the uncertainty of H 0,rec would be improved by ∼27%, reaching uncertainty level.

An accurate determination of the Hubble constant remains a puzzle in observational cosmology. The possibility of a new physics has emerged with a significant tension between the current expansion rate of our Universe measured from the cosmic microwave background by the Planck satellite and from local methods. In this paper, new tight estimates on this parameter are obtained by considering two data sets from galaxy distribution observations: galaxy cluster gas mass fractions and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements. Priors from the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) were also considered. By considering the flat $\Lambda$CDM and XCDM models, and the non-flat $\Lambda$CDM model, our main results are: $H_0=65.9^{+1.5}_{-1.5}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $H_0=65.9^{+4.4}_{-4.0}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and $H_0=64.3^{+ 4.5}_{- 4.4}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ in $2\sigma$ c.l., respectively. These estimates are in full agreement with the Planck satellite results. Our analyses in these cosmological scenarios also support a negative value for the deceleration parameter at least in 3$\sigma$ c.l.., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figues, 2 table, version accepted in JCAP

We analyze the effect of polarized diffuse emission in the calibration of wide-beam mm-wave polarimeters, when using the Crab Nebula as a reference source for both polarized brightness and polarization angle. We show that, for CMB polarization experiments aiming at detecting B-mode in a scenario with a tensor to scalar ratio $r \sim 0.001$, wide (a few degrees in diameter), precise ($\sigma_Q$ , $\sigma_U$ $\sim$ 20 $\mu$$K_{CMB}$ arcmin), high angular resolution ($< \mathrm{FWHM}$) reference maps are needed to properly take into account the effects of diffuse polarized emission and avoid significant bias in the calibration.

A cosmic ray tracking telescope has been made for the measurement of the secondary cosmic ray flux at ground level. The observations have been made both looking in the direction of the sun and away from the sun. Our observations by the telescope shows a deficiency in the detected number of cosmic rays entering the telescope when its axis was pointing to the sun compared to that entering the telescope with no sun in its field of view. The statistical significance of this deficit with the Li and Ma method stands near 1.3 σ for all of our observations.

Observational cosmology has become an important laboratory for testing General Relativity, with searches for modified gravity forming a significant portion of the science case for existing and future surveys. In this paper, we illustrate how future measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies can be combined with large galaxy surveys to improve constraints on modified gravity using the technique of Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) tomography. SZ tomography uses the correlations between the kinetic/polarized SZ contributions to the small-angular scale CMB and the distribution of structure measured in a galaxy redshift survey to reconstruct the remote dipole and quadrupole fields, e.g. the CMB dipole and quadrupole observed throughout the Universe. We compute the effect of a class of modifications of gravity on the remote dipole and quadrupole fields, illustrating that these observables combine a number of the desirable features of existing probes. We then perform a fisher forecast of constraints on a two-parameter class of modifications of gravity for next-generation CMB experiments and galaxy surveys. By incorporating information from the reconstructed remote dipole and quadrupole fields, we find that it is possible to improve the constraints on this model by a factor of $\sim 2$ beyond what is possible with a galaxy survey alone. We conclude that SZ tomography is a promising method for testing gravity with future cosmological datasets.

We present a measurement of the $B$-mode polarization power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using taken from July 2014 to December 2016 with the POLARBEAR experiment. The CMB power spectra are measured using observations at 150 GHz with an instantaneous array sensitivity of $\mathrm{NET}_\mathrm{array}=23\, \mu \mathrm{K} \sqrt{\mathrm{s}}$ on a 670 square degree patch of sky centered at (RA, Dec)=($+0^\mathrm{h}12^\mathrm{m}0^\mathrm{s},-59^\circ18^\prime$). A continuously rotating half-wave plate is used to modulate polarization and to suppress low-frequency noise. We achieve $32\,\mu\mathrm{K}$-$\mathrm{arcmin}$ effective polarization map noise with a knee in sensitivity of $\ell = 90$, where the inflationary gravitational wave signal is expected to peak. The measured $B$-mode power spectrum is consistent with a $\Lambda$CDM lensing and single dust component foreground model over a range of multipoles $50 \leq \ell \leq 600$. The data disfavor zero $C_\ell^{BB}$ at $2.2\sigma$ using this $\ell$ range of POLARBEAR data alone. We cross-correlate our data with Planck high frequency maps and find the low-$\ell$ $B$-mode power in the combined dataset to be consistent with thermal dust emission. We place an upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r < 0.90$ at 95% confidence level after marginalizing over foregrounds.

Several authors have previously shown that Gpc-scale void based on the spherically symmetric LTB model can provide a good fit to certain cosmological data, including the SNIa data, but it is only consistent with the observed CMB dipole if we are located very close to the center, in violation of the Copernican principle. In this work we investigate the more general quasispherical Szekeres model, which does not include spherical symmetry, in order to determine whether this option may be less constricting. We find that the observer is still constrained to a small region, but it is not as geometrically ``special'' as the center of an LTB void. Furthermore, whereas the quadrupole and octupole near the center of an LTB void are necessarily small, certain Szekeres models can include a significant quadrupole while still being consistent with the observed dipole, hinting that Szekeres models may be able give an explanation for the observed quadrupole/octupole anomalies., 14 pages, 8 figures, originally published in Phys. Rev. D in 2013

We investigate constraints on some key cosmological parameters by confronting metastable dark energy models with different combinations of the most recent cosmological observations. Along with the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, two phenomenological metastable dark energy models are considered: (\romannumeral1) DE decays exponentially, (\romannumeral2) DE decays into dark matter. We find that: (1) when considering the most recent supernovae and BAO data, and assuming a fiducial $\Lambda$CDM model, the inconsistency in the estimated value of the $\Omega_{\rm{m,0}}h^2$ parameter obtained by either including or excluding Planck CMB data becomes very much substantial and points to a clear tension~\citep{sahni2014model,zhao2017dynamical}; (2) although the two metastable dark energy models that we study provide greater flexibility in fitting the data, and they indeed fit the SNe Ia+BAO data substantially better than $\Lambda$CDM, they are not able to alleviate this tension significantly when CMB data are included; (3) while local measurements of the Hubble constant are significantly higher relative to the estimated value of $H_0$ in our models (obtained by fitting to SNe Ia and BAO data), the situation seems to be rather complicated with hints of inconsistency among different observational data sets (CMB, SNe Ia+BAO and local $H_0$ measurements). Our results indicate that we might not be able to remove the current tensions among different cosmological observations by considering simple modifications of the standard model or by introducing minimal dark energy models. A complicated form of expansion history, different systematics in different data and/or a non-conventional model of the early Universe might be responsible for these tensions., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Context. The primordial B-mode signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) represents the smoking gun of cosmic inflation, and measuring it is the main goal of current experimental effort. The most accessible method for measuring polarization features of the CMB radiation is a Stokes polarimeter based on the rotation of a half-wave plate (HWP). Aims. Current observational cosmology is starting to be limited by systematic effects. A Stokes polarimeter with a rotating HWP has the advantage of mitigating a long list of potential systematics by modulating the linearly polarized component of the radiation, but the rotating HWP itself may introduce new systematic effects that must be under control. This represents one of the most critical parts in the design of a B-mode experiment. It is therefore mandatory to take all the systematic effects into account that the instrumentation can induce. We here present, simulate, and analyze the spurious signal arising from the precession of a rotating HWP. Methods. We first derived an analytical formula to describe the systematic effect that is induced by the HWP precession on the propagating radiation, using the 3D generalization of the Müller formalism. We then performed several numerical simulations that show the effect induced on the Stokes parameters by this systematic. We also derived and discuss the effect on B-modes as measured by a satellite experiment. Results. We derive the analytical formula for the Stokes parameters from a Stokes polarimeter where the HWP follows a precessional motion with an angle θ0. We show the result depending on the HWP inertia tensor, spinning speed, and on θ0. The result of numerical simulations is reported as a simple time-line of the electric fields. Finally, assuming that the entire sky is observed with a satellite mission, we analyze the effect on B-mode measurements. Conclusions. The effect is not negligible at the sensitivity of current B-mode experiments, therefore this systematic needs to be carefully considered for future experiments.

Recent discussions about supernova magnitude evolution have raised doubts about the robustness of the late-universe acceleration. In a previous letter, Huang did a null test of the cosmic acceleration by using a Parameterization based on the cosmic Age (PAge), which covers a broad class of cosmological models including the standard Λ cold dark matter model and its many extensions. In this work, we continue to explore the cosmic expansion history with the PAge approximation. Using baryon acoustic oscillations (without a CMB prior on the acoustic scale), gravitational strong lens time delay, and passively evolving early galaxies as cosmic chronometers, we obtain ≳ 4σ detections of cosmic acceleration for both flat and nonflat PAge universes. In the nonflat case, we find a novel ≳3σ tension between the spatial curvatures derived from baryon acoustic oscillations and strong lens time delay. Implications and possible systematics are discussed.

Cross-correlations between galaxy weak lensing (WL) and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing are a powerful tool to probe matter fluctuations at intermediate redshifts and to detect residual systematics in either probe. In this paper, we study the cross-correlation of galaxy WL from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC) first data release and CMB lensing from the final Planck data release, for HSC source galaxies at 0.3< z < 1.5. HSC is the deepest Stage-III galaxy WL survey, and provides both a great opportunity to study the high-redshift universe and new challenges related to its exceptionally high source density, such as source blending. The cross-correlation signal is measured at a significance level of 3.1$��$. The amplitude of our best-fit model with respect to the best-fit 2018 Planck cosmology is $A = 0.81\pm 0.25$, consistent with $A=1$. Our result is also consistent with previous CMB lensing and galaxy WL cross-correlation studies using different surveys. We perform tests with respect to the WL $B$-modes, the point-spread-function, photometric redshift errors, and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich leakage, and find no significant evidence of residual systematics., 12 pages, 6 figures

Purpose: The cosmic microwave background radiation, CMB, is fundamental to observational cosmology, and is believed to be a remnant from the Big Bang. The CMB, Planck time, tP, and the Hubble constant, H0, are important cosmologic constants. The goal is to accurately derive and demonstrate the inter-relationships of the CMB peak spectral radiance frequency, tP, and H0 from neutron and hydrogen quantum data only. Methods: The harmonic neutron hypothesis, HNH, evaluates physical phenomena within a finite consecutive integer and exponential power law harmonic fraction series that are scaled by a fundamental frequency of the neutron as the exponent base. The CMB and the H0 are derived from a previously published method used to derive tP. Their associated integer exponents are respectively +1/2, −3/4, and −128/35. Results: Precise mathematical relationships of these three constants are demonstrated. All of the derived values are within their known observational values. The derived and known values are: νCMB, 160.041737 (06) × 109 Hz, ~160 × 109 Hz; 2.72519 K, 2.72548 ± 0.00057 K, H0 2.29726666 (11) × 10−18 s−1, ~2.3 × 10−18 s−1; and tP 5.3911418 (3) × 10−44 s, 5.39106 (32) × 10−44 s. Conclusion: The cosmic fundamental constants tP, H0, and CMB are mathematically inter-related constants all defined by gravity. They are also directly derivable from the quantum properties of the neutron and hydrogen within a harmonic power law.

Deciphering the mechanisms at play in the formation and evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe is part of the scientific goals of many projects of observational cosmology. In particular, large-scale structure observations can be used to infer mode-coupling effects, whether they come from the physics of the early universe or from its late time evolution. Specificities of such couplings are presented, noting that in principle they can be directly detected through bispectra of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies or density in the local universe. The existence of such couplings have however more far-reaching consequences for the growth of the structure. Those are sketched as well as their possible observational impacts.

Investigating the dark matter (DM) properties in the view of cosmic evolution is an important method in searching for DM. In this paper, we derive the modified Boltzmann equations and study how the elastic scattering between the DM particles and the free electrons in our universe influences the CMB and matter power spectra starting from a few basic assumptions. The results indicates that the scattering affects the small scales significantly, especially the CMB polarization power spectra. With this method, the coupling constant between DM and electrons can be constrained with CMB observational data and the results only depend on a few basic assumptions.

Accurate galaxy cluster mass measurements from the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background temperature maps depend on mitigating potential biases from the cluster's own thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signal. Quadratic lensing estimators use a pair of maps to extract the lensing signal: a large scale gradient map and a small scale lensing map. The SZ bias can be eliminated by using an SZ-free map in the pair, with the gradient map being favored for signal-to-noise reasons. However, while this approach eliminates the bias, the SZ power in small scale lensing map adds extra variance that can become significant for high mass clusters and low noise surveys. In this work, we propose projecting out an SZ template to reduce the SZ variance. Any residual SZ signal after template fitting is uncorrelated with the SZ-free gradient map, and thus does not bias the mass measurements. For massive clusters above $4\times 10^{14}$ $M_{\odot}$ observed by the upcoming CMB-S4 or Simons Observatory experiments, we find that the template fitting approach would increase the cluster lensing signal-to-noise by a factor of 1.4., 9 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

In order to clarify the tension between estimates of the Hubble Constant ($H_0$) from local ($z \ll 1$) and global ($z \gg 1$) measurements, Lima and Cunha (LC) proposed a new method to measure $H_0$ in intermediate redshifts ($z \approx 1$), which were obtained $H_0 = 74.1 \pm 2.2$ km s$^{-1} $Mpc$^{-1}$ ($1 \sigma$), in full agreement to local measurements via Supernovae/Cepheid dataset. However, Holanda \textit{et al.} (2014) affirm that a better understanding of the morphology of galaxy clusters in LC framework is needed to a more robust and accurate determination of $H_0$. Moreover, that kind of sample has been strongly questioned in the literature. In this context, (i) we investigated if the sample of galaxy clusters used by LC has a relevant role in their results, then (ii) we perform a more accurate and competitive determination of $H_0$ in intermediate redshifts, free of unknown systematic uncertainties. First, we found that the exclusion of the sample of galaxy clusters from the determination initially proposed by LC leads to significantly different results. Finally, we performed a new determination in $H_0$, where we obtained $H_0 = 68.00 \pm 2.20$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ ($1 \sigma$) with statistical and systematic errors and $H_0 = 68.71^{+1.37}_{-1.45}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ ($1 \sigma$) with statistical errors only. Contrary to those obtained by LC, these values are in full harmony with the global measurements via Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation and to the other recent estimates of $H_0$ in intermediate redshifts., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures and 2 tables

The anomalous microwave emission (AME) still lacks a conclusive explanation. This excess of emission, roughly between 10 and 50 GHz, tends to defy attempts to explain it as synchrotron or free-free emission. The overlap with frequencies important for cosmic microwave background explorations, combined with a strong correlation with interstellar dust, drive cross-disciplinary collaboration between interstellar medium and observational cosmology. The apparent relationship with dust has prompted a ``spinning dust'' hypothesis. The typical peak frequency range of the AME profile implicates spinning grains on the order of 1 nm. This points to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We use data from the AKARI/Infrared Camera (IRC), due to its thorough PAH-band coverage, to compare AME from the Planck Collaboration astrophysical component separation product with infrared dust emission in the Orionis AME-prominent region. We look also at infrared dust emission from other mid IR and far-IR bands. The results and discussion contained here apply to an angular scale of approximately 1{\deg}. We find that certainly dust mass correlates with AME, and that PAH-related emission in the AKARI/IRC 9 {\mu}m band correlates slightly more strongly. Using hierarchical Bayesian inference and full dust spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling we argue that AME in {\lambda}Orionis correlates more strongly with PAH mass than with total dust mass, lending support for a spinning PAH hypothesis within this region. We emphasize that future efforts to understand AME should focus on individual regions, and a detailed comparison of the PAH features with the variation of the AME SED., Comment: 31 pages, 22 figures. Accepted by PASJ

Cosmology considers the Hubble redshift of galaxy light by the Doppler effect as proof the Universe has been expanding since the Big Bang. However, cosmic dust that permeates the Universe also redshifts galaxy light that if not corrected over-predicts the velocities of all astronomical measurements inferred by the Doppler effect. Hubble redshifts corrected for cosmic dust suggest the Universe may not be expanding, the consequence of which may allow the outstanding problems in cosmology to possibly be resolved by Newtonian mechanics.

We present a review of the current status of cosmic strings in theoretical and observational cosmology. Two independent methods to cosmic strings’ search in the Universe are considered: (a) a search for chains of gravitational lensing images of a special type in optical surveys with the help of tools of high angular resolution; (b) a study of the structure of CMB anisotropy in the data provided byWMAP and Planck missions. We also received new observational constraints on the energy of single cosmic string.

Redshift drift provides a direct kinematic measurement of cosmic acceleration but it occurs with a characteristic time scale of a Hubble time. Thus redshift observations with a challenging precision of $10^{-9}$ require a 10 year time span to obtain a signal-to-noise of 1. We discuss theoretical and experimental approaches to address this challenge, potentially requiring less observer time and having greater immunity to common systematics. On the theoretical side we explore allowing the universe, rather than the observer, to provide long time spans; speculative methods include radial baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic pulsars, and strongly lensed quasars. On the experimental side, we explore beating down the redshift precision using differential interferometric techniques, including externally dispersed interferometers and spatial heterodyne spectroscopy. Low-redshift emission line galaxies are identified as having high cosmology leverage and systematics control, with an 8 hour exposure on a 10-meter telescope (1000 hours of exposure on a 40-meter telescope) potentially capable of measuring the redshift of a galaxy to a precision of $10^{-8}$ (few $\times 10^{-10}$). Low-redshift redshift drift also has very strong complementarity with cosmic microwave background measurements, with the combination achieving a dark energy figure of merit of nearly 300 (1400) for 5% (1%) precision on drift., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

Study of the Cosmos, at best, is considered a semi-scientific discipline, primarily because the la-boratory for carrying out measurements and tests of theories (the Cosmos) has been largely inac-cessible for centuries. The cosmic vista into the yonder, however, continued to fascinate humankind due to its inherent beauty and sheer curiosity. The invention of the optical telescope more than five centuries back, however, led to the opening of observational cosmology as a scientific discipline with firm experimental basis. However, the investigations based on visible light posed obvious limitations for the range of such observational cosmology. The advent of the radio telescope in the first half of the 20th century marked a fundamental new step in the progress of this branch of science. There has been no looking back in the march of knowledge in the discipline since then. A whole new vista was laid bare as a result of this development, leading to the discovery of altogether new celestial objects, such as quasars and pulsars and still newer galaxies. The parallel progress of the physics of fundamental constituents of the material world and their interactions led to an interesting merger of these two branches of physical sciences, yielding absolutely astounding knowledge of the nature and evolution of the Universe. New concepts of dark energy and dark matter thought to constitute the dominant share of the Universe were brought to light as a result of these new observations and theoretical ideas. This brief article aims to provide an overview of these exciting developments in the field of cosmology and the associated physics.

We investigate the observational constraints on the cosmic neutrino background (CNB) given by the extended $\Lambda$CDM scenario ($\Lambda$CDM $+ N_{\rm eff} + \sum m_{\nu} + c^2_{\rm eff} + c^2_{\rm vis} + \xi_{\nu}$) using the latest observational data from \textit{Planck} CMB (temperature power spectrum, low-polarisation and lensing reconstruction), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) , the new recent local value of the Hubble constant from\textit{ Hubble Space Telescope} (\textit{HST}) and information of the abundance of galaxy clusters (GCs). We study the constraints on the CNB background using CMB + BAO + \textit{HST} data with and without the GC data. We find $\Delta N_{\rm eff} = 0.614 \pm 0.26$ at 68 per cent confidence level when the GC data are added in the analysis. We do not find significant deviation for sound speed in the CNB rest frame. We also analyze the particular case $\Lambda$CDM $+ N_{\rm eff} + \sum m_{\nu} + \xi_{\nu}$ with the observational data. Within this scenario, we find $\Delta N_{\rm eff} = 0.60 \pm 0.28$ at 68 per cent confidence level. In both the scenarios, no mean deviations are found for the degeneracy parameter., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; Matches the version published in MNRAS

In this year, in which we celebrate 100 years of the cosmological term, $\Lambda$, in Einstein's gravitational field equations, we are still facing the crucial question whether $\Lambda$ is truly a fundamental constant or a mildly evolving dynamical variable. After many theoretical attempts to understand the meaning of $\Lambda$, and in view of the enhanced accuracy of the cosmological observations, it seems now mandatory that this issue should be first settled empirically before further theoretical speculations on its ultimate nature. In this work, we summarize the situation of some of these studies. Devoted analyses made recently show that the $\Lambda=$const. hypothesis, despite being the simplest, may well not be the most favored one. The overall fit to the cosmological observables $SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+CMB$ singles out the class RVM of the "running" vacuum models, in which $\Lambda=\Lambda(H)$ is an affine power-law function of the Hubble rate. It turns out that the performance of the RVM as compared to the "concordance" $\Lambda$CDM model (with $\Lambda=$const.) is much better. The evidence in support of the RVM may reach $\sim 4\sigma$ c.l., and is bolstered with Akaike and Bayesian criteria providing strong evidence in favor of the RVM option. We also address the implications of this framework on the tension between the CMB and local measurements of the current Hubble parameter., Comment: Published in Int. J. Mod. Phys. A32 (2017) 1730014. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1705.06723

The search for the B-mode polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the new frontier of observational Cosmology. A B-mode detection would give an ultimate confirmation to the existence of a primordial Gravitational Wave (GW) background as predicted in the inflationary scenario. Several experiments have been designed or planned to observe B-modes. In this work we focus on the forthcoming Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) experiment, that will be devoted to the accurate measurement of CMB polarization at large angular scales. LSPE consists of a balloon-borne bolometric instrument, the Short Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer (SWIPE), and a ground-based coherent polarimeter array, the STRatospheric Italian Polarimeter (STRIP). SWIPE will employ a rotating Half Wave Plate (HWP) polarization modulator to mitigate the systematic effects due to instrumental non-idealities. We present here preliminary forecasts aimed at optimizing the HWP configuration., 6 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of the 7th Young Researcher Meeting, Torino, Oct 24th-26th 2016

The measurement of the radio background at long wavelengths has received a great deal of attention in observational cosmology over past decade. The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has imprinted on it the history of the cosmological evolution of the primordial neutral hydrogen. The interaction of the CMB and the neutral hydrogen resulted in 21 cm spin flip transitions that has manifested itself in the form of faint spectral signature and are now redshifted to long radio wavelengths. A successful detection of these signatures requires extremely wideband measurements with a 1:10⁁5 accuracy that could be accomplished with smart system engineering and accurate theoretical description of the system that is connected to its electrical performance. We herein present the measurement technique and the result of the radio background measurements by a single element experiment “Shaped Antenna measurements of the background RAdio Spectrum” (SARAS). We also present the design and development of a multi element experiment “Hydrogen Probe of the Epoch of REIONization” (HYPERION) for precision measurements of the radio background at long wavelengths.

In light of the recent observational data coming from the sky we have two significant directions in the field of theoretical cosmology recently. First, we are now able to make use of present observations, such as the Planck and BICEP2 data, to examine theoretical predictions from the standard inflationary $\Lambda$CDM which were made decades of years ago. Second, we can search for new cosmological signatures as a way to explore physics beyond the standard cosmic paradigm. In particular, a subset of early universe models admit a nonsingular bouncing solution that attempts to address the issue of the big bang singularity. These models have achieved a series of considerable developments in recent years, in particular in their perturbative frameworks, which made brand-new predictions of cosmological signatures that could be visible in current and forthcoming observations. In this article we present two representative paradigms of very early universe physics. The first is the so-called new matter (or matter-ekpyrotic) bounce scenario in which the universe starts with a matter-dominated contraction phase and transitions into an ekpyrotic phase. In the setting of this paradigm, we propose some possible mechanisms of generating a red tilt for primordial curvature perturbations and confront its general predictions with recent cosmological observations. The second is the matter-bounce inflation scenario which can be viewed as an extension of inflationary cosmology with a matter contraction before inflation. We present a class of possible model constructions and review its implications on the current CMB experiments. Last, we review the significant achievements of these paradigms beyond the inflationary $\Lambda$CDM model, which we expect to shed new light on the direction of observational cosmology in the next decade years., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures; a review article invited to contribute to the special issue of "SCIENCE CHINA: Physics, Mechanics \& Astronomy"; comments are welcome

We present the first measurement of the correlation between the map of the CMB lensing potential derived from the Planck nominal mission data and z ≳ 1.5 galaxies detected by Herschel-ATLAS (H-ATLAS) survey covering about 550 deg2. We detect the cross-power spectrum with a significance of ∼ 8.5σ, ruling out the absence of correlation at 9σ. We check detection with a number of null tests. The amplitude of cross-correlation and the galaxy bias are estimated using joint analysis of the cross-power spectrum and the galaxy survey auto-spectrum, which allows to break degeneracy between these parameters. The estimated galaxy bias is consistent with previous estimates of the bias for the H-ATLAS data, while the cross-correlation amplitude is higher than expected for a ΛCDM model. The content of this work is to appear in a forthcoming paper Bianchini, et al. (2014).