The physics of microwave background anisotropies

Analogue cosmological particle creation in an ultracold quantum fluid of light

The rapid expansion of the early universe resulted in the spontaneous production of cosmological particles from vacuum fluctuations, some of which are observable today in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy. The analogue of cosmological particle creation in a quantum fluid was proposed, but the quantum, spontaneous effect due to vacuum fluctuations has not yet been observed. Here we report the spontaneous creation of analogue cosmological particles in the laboratory, using a quenched 3-dimensional quantum fluid of light. We observe acoustic peaks in the density power spectrum, in close quantitative agreement with the quantum-field theoretical prediction. We find that the long-wavelength particles provide a window to early times. This work introduces the quantum fluid of light, as cold as an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate.

Under certain conditions light can act as a fluid like a Bose-Einstein condensate. Here the authors discuss an analogy of cosmological particle creation using such a quantum fluid of light.

Modelling burning thermonuclear plasma

Considerable progress towards the achievement of thermonuclear burn using inertial confinement fusion has been achieved at the National Ignition Facility in the USA in the last few years. Other drivers, such as the Z-machine at Sandia, are also making progress towards this goal. A burning thermonuclear plasma would provide a unique and extreme plasma environment; in this paper we discuss (a) different theoretical challenges involved in modelling burning plasmas not currently considered, (b) the use of novel machine learning-based methods that might help large facilities reach ignition, and (c) the connections that a burning plasma might have to fundamental physics, including quantum electrodynamics studies, and the replication and exploration of conditions that last occurred in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 1)'.

Cosmology from start to finish

Cosmology is undergoing a revolution. With recent precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation, large galaxy redshift surveys, better measurements of the expansion rate of the Universe and a host of other astrophysical observations, there is now a standard, highly constrained cosmological model. It is not a cosmology that was predicted. Unidentified dark particles dominate the matter content of our Universe, and mysteries surround the processes responsible for the accelerated expansion at its earliest moments (inflation?) and for its recent acceleration (dark energy?). New measurements must address the fundamental questions: what happened at the birth of the Universe, and what is its ultimate fate?

Modelling biological complexity: a physical scientist's perspective

We discuss the modern approaches of complexity and self-organization to understanding dynamical systems and how these concepts can inform current interest in systems biology. From the perspective of a physical scientist, it is especially interesting to examine how the differing weights given to philosophies of science in the physical and biological sciences impact the application of the study of complexity. We briefly describe how the dynamics of the heart and circadian rhythms, canonical examples of systems biology, are modelled by sets of nonlinear coupled differential equations, which have to be solved numerically. A major difficulty with this approach is that all the parameters within these equations are not usually known. Coupled models that include biomolecular detail could help solve this problem. Coupling models across large ranges of length- and time-scales is central to describing complex systems and therefore to biology. Such coupling may be performed in at least two different ways, which we refer to as hierarchical and hybrid multiscale modelling. While limited progress has been made in the former case, the latter is only beginning to be addressed systematically. These modelling methods are expected to bring numerous benefits to biology, for example, the properties of a system could be studied over a wider range of length- and time-scales, a key aim of systems biology. Multiscale models couple behaviour at the molecular biological level to that at the cellular level, thereby providing a route for calculating many unknown parameters as well as investigating the effects at, for example, the cellular level, of small changes at the biomolecular level, such as a genetic mutation or the presence of a drug. The modelling and simulation of biomolecular systems is itself very computationally intensive; we describe a recently developed hybrid continuum-molecular model, HybridMD, and its associated molecular insertion algorithm, which point the way towards the integration of molecular and more coarse-grained representations of matter. The scope of such integrative approaches to complex systems research is circumscribed by the computational resources available. Computational grids should provide a step jump in the scale of these resources; we describe the tools that RealityGrid, a major UK e-Science project, has developed together with our experience of deploying complex models on nascent grids. We also discuss the prospects for mathematical approaches to reducing the dimensionality of complex networks in the search for universal systems-level properties, illustrating our approach with a description of the origin of life according to the RNA world view.

Tests for Gaussianity of the MAXIMA-1 cosmic microwave background map

Gaussianity of the cosmological perturbations is one of the key predictions of standard inflation, but it is violated by other models of structure formation such as cosmic defects. We present the first test of the Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on subdegree angular scales, where deviations from Gaussianity are most likely to occur. We apply the methods of moments, cumulants, the Kolmogorov test, the chi(2) test, and Minkowski functionals in eigen, real, Wiener-filtered, and signal-whitened spaces, to the MAXIMA-1 CMB anisotropy data. We find that the data, which probe angular scales between 10 arcmin and 5 deg, are consistent with Gaussianity. These results show consistency with the standard inflation and place constraints on the existence of cosmic defects.

Position-space description of the cosmic microwave background and its temperature correlation function

We suggest that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature correlation function C(theta) as a function of angle provides a direct connection between experimental data and the fundamental cosmological quantities. The evolution of inhomogeneities in the prerecombination universe is studied using Green's functions in position space. We find that a primordial adiabatic point perturbation propagates as a sharp-edged spherical acoustic wave. Density singularities at its wave fronts create a feature in the CMB correlation function distinguished by a dip at theta approximately 1.2 degrees. Characteristics of the feature are sensitive to the values of cosmological parameters, in particular to the total and the baryon densities.

The Cosmological Constant

This is a review of the physics and cosmology of the cosmological constant. Focusing on recent developments, I present a pedagogical overview of cosmology in the presence of a cosmological constant, observational constraints on its magnitude, and the physics of a small (and potentially nonzero) vacuum energy.

Precision cosmology and the density of baryons in the universe

Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements give independent, accurate measurements of the baryon density and can test the framework of the standard cosmology. Early CMB data are consistent with the long-standing conclusion from BBN that baryons constitute a small fraction of matter in the Universe, but may indicate a slightly higher value for the baryon density. We clarify precisely what the two methods determine and point out that differing values for the baryon density can indicate either an inconsistency or physics beyond the standard models of cosmology and particle physics. We discuss other signatures of the new physics in CMB anisotropy.

New microwave background constraints on the cosmic matter budget: trouble for nucleosynthesis?

We compute the joint constraints on ten cosmological parameters from the latest cosmic microwave background measurements. The lack of a significant second acoustic peak in the new BOOMERANG and MAXIMA data favors models with more baryons than big bang nucleosynthesis predicts, almost independently of what prior information is included. The simplest flat inflation models with purely scalar scale-invariant fluctuations prefer a baryon density 0. 022<h(2)Omega(b)<0.040 and a total nonbaryonic ( hot+cold) dark matter density 0.14<h(2)Omega(dm)<0.32 at 95% confidence and allow reionization no earlier than z approximately 30.

A flat Universe from high-resolution maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation

The blackbody radiation left over from the Big Bang has been transformed by the expansion of the Universe into the nearly isotropic 2.73 K cosmic microwave background. Tiny inhomogeneities in the early Universe left their imprint on the microwave background in the form of small anisotropies in its temperature. These anisotropies contain information about basic cosmological parameters, particularly the total energy density and curvature of the Universe. Here we report the first images of resolved structure in the microwave background anisotropies over a significant part of the sky. Maps at four frequencies clearly distinguish the microwave background from foreground emission. We compute the angular power spectrum of the microwave background, and find a peak at Legendre multipole Ipeak = (197 +/- 6), with an amplitude delta T200 = (69 +/- 8) microK. This is consistent with that expected for cold dark matter models in a flat (euclidean) Universe, as favoured by standard inflationary models.

Gravitational Lensing Effect on the Two-Point Correlation of Hot Spots in the Cosmic Microwave Background

We investigate the weak gravitational lensing effect that is due to the large-scale structure of the universe on two-point correlations of local maxima (hot spots) in the two-dimensional sky map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. According to the Gaussian random statistics, as most inflationary scenarios predict, the hot spots are discretely distributed, with some characteristic angular separations on the last scattering surface that are due to oscillations of the CMB angular power spectrum. The weak lensing then causes pairs of hot spots, which are separated with the characteristic scale, to be observed with various separations. We found that the lensing fairly smooths out the oscillatory features of the two-point correlation function of hot spots. This indicates that the hot spot correlations can be a new statistical tool for measuring the shape and normalization of the power spectrum of matter fluctuations from the lensing signatures.

First Results from Viper: Detection of Small-scale Anisotropy at 40 GHz

Results of a search for small-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are presented. Observations were made at the South Pole using the Viper telescope, with a 0&fdg;26 (FWHM) beam and a passband centered at 40 GHz. Anisotropy band-power measurements in bands spanning the range of l in which the first acoustic peak is expected (bands centered at l=108, 173, 237, 263, 422, and 589) are reported. Statistically significant CMB anisotropy is detected in all bands.

Sunyaev-Zeldovich Fluctuations from Spatial Correlations between Clusters of Galaxies

We present angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy due to fluctuations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect through clusters of galaxies. A contribution from the correlation among clusters, which has been neglected in previous analyses, is especially focused on. Employing the evolving linear bias factor based on the Press-Schechter formalism, we find that the clustering contribution amounts to 20%-30% of the Poissonian contribution at degree angular scales. If we exclude clusters in the local universe, it even exceeds the Poissonian noise and makes the dominant contribution to the angular power spectrum. As a concrete example, we demonstrate the subtraction of the ROSAT X-ray and Planck SZ flux-limited cluster samples. It indicates that we should include the clustering effect in the analysis of the SZ fluctuations. We further find that the degree scale spectra essentially depend upon the normalization of the density fluctuations, i.e., sigma8, and the gas mass fraction of the cluster, rather than the density parameter of the universe and details of cluster evolution models. Our results show that the SZ fluctuations at the degree scale will provide a possible measure of sigma8, while the arcminute spectra will provide a probe of the cluster evolution. In addition, the clustering spectrum will give us valuable information on the bias at high redshift, if we can detect it by removing X-ray or SZ luminous clusters.

Determination of the Hubble constant

Establishing accurate extragalactic distances has provided an immense challenge to astronomers since the 1920s. The situation has improved dramatically as better detectors have become available, and as several new, promising techniques have been developed. For the first time in the history of this difficult field, relative distances to galaxies are being compared on a case-by-case basis, and their quantitative agreement is being established. New instrumentation, the development of new techniques for measuring distances, and recent measurements with the Hubble Space telescope all have resulted in new distances to galaxies with precision at the +/-5-20% level. The current statistical uncertainty in some methods for measuring H(0) is now only a few percent; with systematic errors, the total uncertainty is approaching +/-10%. Hence, the historical factor-of-two uncertainty in the value of the H(0) is now behind us.

The Cosmic Microwave Background

We present a brief review of current theory and observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). New predictions for cosmological defect theories and an overview of the inflationary theory are discussed. Recent results from various observations of the anisotropies of the microwave background are described and a summary of the proposed experiments is presented. A new analysis technique based on Bayesian statistics that can be used to reconstruct the underlying sky fluctuations is summarised. Current CMB data is used to set some preliminary constraints on the values of fundamental cosmological parameters Ω and H_o using the maximum likelihood technique. In addition, secondary anisotropies due to the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect are described.

The microwave background anisotropies: observations

Most cosmologists now believe that we live in an evolving universe that has been expanding and cooling since its origin about 15 billion years ago. Strong evidence for this standard cosmological model comes from studies of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), the remnant heat from the initial fireball. The CMBR spectrum is blackbody, as predicted from the hot Big Bang model before the discovery of the remnant radiation in 1964. In 1992 the cosmic background explorer (COBE) satellite finally detected the anisotropy of the radiation-fingerprints left by tiny temperature fluctuations in the initial bang. Careful design of the COBE satellite, and a bit of luck, allowed the 30 microK fluctuations in the CMBR temperature (2.73 K) to be pulled out of instrument noise and spurious foreground emissions. Further advances in detector technology and experiment design are allowing current CMBR experiments to search for predicted features in the anisotropy power spectrum at angular scales of 1 degrees and smaller. If they exist, these features were formed at an important epoch in the evolution of the universe--the decoupling of matter and radiation at a temperature of about 4,000 K and a time about 300,000 years after the bang. CMBR anisotropy measurements probe directly some detailed physics of the early universe. Also, parameters of the cosmological model can be measured because the anisotropy power spectrum depends on constituent densities and the horizon scale at a known cosmological epoch. As sophisticated experiments on the ground and on balloons pursue these measurements, two CMBR anisotropy satellite missions are being prepared for launch early in the next century.