Article

# A Measurement of the Damping Tail of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum with the South Pole Telescope

The Astrophysical Journal (Impact Factor: 6.73). 05/2011; 743. DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/743/1/28
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT We present a measurement of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The
data consist of 790 square degrees of sky observed at 150 GHz during 2008 and
2009. Here we present the power spectrum over the multipole range 650 < ell <
3000, where it is dominated by primary CMB anisotropy. We combine this power
spectrum with the power spectra from the seven-year Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data release to constrain cosmological models. We find
that the SPT and WMAP data are consistent with each other and, when combined,
are well fit by a spatially flat, LCDM cosmological model. The SPT+WMAP
constraint on the spectral index of scalar fluctuations is ns = 0.9663 +/-
0.0112. We detect, at ~5-sigma significance, the effect of gravitational
lensing on the CMB power spectrum, and find its amplitude to be consistent with
the LCDM cosmological model. We explore a number of extensions beyond the LCDM
model. Each extension is tested independently, although there are degeneracies
between some of the extension parameters. We constrain the tensor-to-scalar
ratio to be r < 0.21 (95% CL) and constrain the running of the scalar spectral
index to be dns/dlnk = -0.024 +/- 0.013. We strongly detect the effects of
primordial helium and neutrinos on the CMB; a model without helium is rejected
at 7.7-sigma, while a model without neutrinos is rejected at 7.5-sigma. The
primordial helium abundance is measured to be Yp = 0.296 +/- 0.030, and the
effective number of relativistic species is measured to be Neff = 3.85 +/-
0.62. The constraints on these models are strengthened when the CMB data are
combined with measurements of the Hubble constant and the baryon acoustic
oscillation feature. Notable improvements include ns = 0.9668 +/- 0.0093, r <
0.17 (95% CL), and Neff = 3.86 +/- 0.42. The SPT+WMAP data show...

0 0
·
0 Bookmarks
·
99 Views
• Source
##### Article: CMB photons shedding light on dark matter
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The annihilation or decay of Dark Matter (DM) particles could affect the thermal history of the universe and leave an observable signature in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. We update constraints on the annihilation rate of DM particles in the smooth cosmological background, using WMAP7 and recent small-scale CMB data. With a systematic analysis based on the Press-Schechter formalism, we also show that DM annihilation in halos at small redshift may explain entirely the reionization patterns observed in the CMB, under reasonable assumptions concerning the concentration and formation redshift of halos. We find that a mixed reionization model based on DM annihilation in halos as well as star formation at a redshift z~6.5 could simultaneously account for CMB observations and satisfy constraints inferred from the Gunn-Peterson effect. However, these models tend to reheat the inter-galactic medium (IGM) well above observational bounds: by including a realistic prior on the IGM temperature at low redshift, we find stronger cosmological bounds on the annihilation cross-section than with the CMB alone.
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 09/2012; 2012(12). · 6.04 Impact Factor
• Source
##### Article: Dark Radiation and Dark Matter in Large Volume Compactifications
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: We argue that dark radiation is naturally generated from the decay of the overall volume modulus in the LARGE volume scenario. We consider both sequestered and non-sequestered cases, and find that the axionic superpartner of the modulus is produced by the modulus decay and it can account for the dark radiation suggested by observations, while the modulus decay through the Giudice-Masiero term gives the dominant contribution to the total decay rate. In the sequestered case, the lightest supersymmetric particles produced by the modulus decay can naturally account for the observed dark matter density. In the non-sequestered case, on the other hand, the supersymmetric particles are not produced by the modulus decay, since the soft masses are of order the heavy gravitino mass. The QCD axion will then be a plausible dark matter candidate.
Journal of High Energy Physics 08/2012; 2012(11). · 5.62 Impact Factor
• Source
##### Article: Dark Radiation and Decaying Matter
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Recent cosmological measurements favour additional relativistic energy density beyond the one provided by the three active neutrinos and photons of the Standard Model (SM). This is often referred to as "dark radiation", suggesting the need of new light states in the theory beyond those of the SM. In this paper, we study and numerically explore the alternative possibility that this increase comes from the decay of some new form of heavy matter into the SM neutrinos. We study the constraints on the decaying matter density and its lifetime, using data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the South Pole Telescope, measurements of the Hubble constant at present time, the results from high-redshift Type-I supernovae and the information on the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale. We, moreover, include in our analysis the information on the presence of additional contributions to the expansion rate of the Universe at the time of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We compare the results obtained in this decaying matter scenario with those obtained with the standard analysis in terms of a constant $N_{\rm eff}$.
Journal of High Energy Physics 12/2012; 2013(4). · 5.62 Impact Factor