Search Publications
Delensing the CMB with the cosmic infrared background
Sherwin, Blake D.; Schmittfull, Marcel
As confusion with lensing B modes begins to limit experiments that search for primordial B-mode polarization, robust methods for delensing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization sky are becoming increasingly important. We investigate in detail the possibility of delensing the CMB with the cosmic infrared background (CIB), emission from…
Quintessential inflation with canonical and noncanonical scalar fields and Planck 2015 results
Geng, Chao-Qiang; Saridakis, Emmanuel N.; Myrzakulov, R. +2 more
We investigate two classes of models of quintessential inflation, based upon canonical as well as noncanonical scalar fields. In particular, introducing potentials steeper than the standard exponential, we construct models that can give rise to a successful inflationary phase, with signatures consistent with Planck 2015 results. Additionally, usin…
New reaction rates for improved primordial D /H calculation and the cosmic evolution of deuterium
Petitjean, Patrick; Uzan, Jean-Philippe; Coc, Alain +4 more
Primordial or big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historically strong evidences for the big bang model. Standard BBN is now a parameter-free theory, since the baryonic density of the Universe has been deduced with an unprecedented precision from observations of the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation. There is …
Measuring the speed of cosmological gravitational waves
Raveri, Marco; Silvestri, Alessandra; Baccigalupi, Carlo +1 more
In general relativity gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light; however, in alternative theories of gravity that might not be the case. We investigate the effects of a modified speed of gravity, cT2, on the B modes of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy in polarization. We find that a departure from th…
Inflation after false vacuum decay: Observational prospects after Planck
Bousso, Raphael; Harlow, Daniel; Senatore, Leonardo
We assess two potential signals of the formation of our universe by the decay of a false vacuum. Negative spatial curvature is one possibility, but the window for its detection is now small. However, another possible signal is a suppression of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum at large angles. This arises from the steepening of …
WISE measurement of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
Spergel, David N.; Sherwin, Blake D.; Ferraro, Simone
The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect measures the decay of the gravitational potential due to cosmic acceleration and is thus a direct probe of dark energy. In some of the earlier studies, the amplitude of the ISW effect was found to be in tension with the predictions of the standard Lambda cold dark matter (Λ CDM ) model. We measure the cross …
Cross-correlation of Planck CMB lensing and CFHTLenS galaxy weak lensing maps
Hill, J. Colin; Liu, Jia
We cross-correlate cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing and galaxy weak lensing maps using the Planck 2013 and 2015 data and the 154 deg2 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). This measurement probes large-scale structure at intermediate redshifts ≈0.9 , between the high- and low-redshift peaks of the CMB and CF…
Testing the dark energy consistency with geometry and growth
Huterer, Dragan; Ruiz, Eduardo J.
We perform parametric tests of the consistency of the standard w CDM model in the framework of general relativity by carefully separating information between the geometry and growth of structure. We replace each late-Universe parameter that describes the behavior of dark energy with two parameters: one describing geometrical information in cosmolo…
Improved limits on sterile neutrino dark matter using full-sky Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor data
Ng, Kenny C. Y.; Horiuchi, Shunsaku; Gaskins, Jennifer M. +2 more
A sterile neutrino of ∼keV mass is a well-motivated dark matter candidate. Its decay generates an x-ray line that offers a unique target for x-ray telescopes. For the first time, we use the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope to search for sterile neutrino decay lines; our analysis covers the energy range 10-2…
Combining power spectrum and bispectrum measurements to detect oscillatory features
Liguori, M.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Fergusson, J. R. +1 more
The simplest inflationary models present us with few observable parameters to discriminate between them. A detection of features in the spectra of primordial density perturbations could provide valuable insights and lead to stringent tests of models of the early Universe. So far, searches for oscillatory features have not produced statistically si…