Weak lensing of the CMB

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) represents a unique source for the study of gravitational lensing. It is extended across the entire sky, partially polarized, located at the extreme distance of z = 1,100, and is thought to have the simple, underlying statistics of a Gaussian random field. Here we review the weak lensing of the CMB, highlighting the aspects which differentiate it from the weak lensing of other sources, such as galaxies. We discuss the statistics of the lensing deflection field which remaps the CMB, and the corresponding effect on the power spectra. We then focus on methods for reconstructing the lensing deflections, describing efficient quadratic maximum-likelihood estimators and delensing. We end by reviewing recent detections and observational prospects.     

Dark energy versus modified gravity: Impacts on measuring neutrino mass

In this paper,we make a comparison for the impacts of smooth dynamical dark energy,modified gravity,and interacting dark energy on the cosmological constraints on the total mass of active neutrinos.For definiteness,we consider theΛCDM model,the w CDM model,the f(R)model,and two typical interacting vacuum energy models,i.e.,the IΛCDM1 model with Q=βHρc and the IΛCDM2 model with Q=βHρΛ.In the cosmological fits,we use the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data,in combination with other low-redshift observations including the baryon acoustic oscillations,the type Ia supernovae,the Hubble constant measurement,and the large-scale structure observations,such as the weak lensing as well as the redshift-space distortions.Besides,the Planck lensing measurement is also employed in this work.We find that,the w CDM model favors a higher upper limit on the neutrino mass compared to theΛCDM model,while the upper limit in the f(R)model is similar with that in theΛCDM model.For the interacting vacuum energy models,the IΛCDM1 model favors a higher upper limit on neutrino mass,while the IΛCDM2 model favors an identical neutrino mass with the case ofΛCDM.     

Constraints on $H_0$ from WMAP and BAO Measurements *

We report the constraints of $H_0$ obtained from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 9-year data combined with the latest baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements. We use the BAO measurements from 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), the SDSS DR7 main galaxies sample (MGS), the BOSS DR12 galaxies, and the eBOSS DR14 quasars. Adding the recent BAO measurements to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from WMAP, we constrain cosmological parameters $\Omega_m=0.298\pm0.005$, $H_0=68.36^{+0.53}_{-0.52} {\rm km}\cdot {\rm s}^{-1}\cdot {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, $\sigma_8=0.8170^{+0.0159}_{-0.0175}$ in a spatially flat $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) model, and $\Omega_m=0.302\pm0.008$, $H_0=67.63\pm1.30 {\rm km}\cdot{\rm s}^{-1}\cdot {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, $\sigma_8=0.7988^{+0.0345}_{-0.0338}$ in a spatially flat $w$CDM model, respectively. Our measured $H_0$ results prefer a value lower than 70 ${\rm km}\cdot {\rm s}^{-1}\cdot{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, consistent with the recent data on CMB constraints from Planck (2018), but in $3.1$ and $3.5\sigma$ tension with local measurements of SH0ES (2018) in $\Lambda$CDM and $w$CDM framework, respectively. Our results indicate that there is a systematic tension on the Hubble constant between SH0ES and the combination of CMB and BAO datasets.     

Evidence for dark energy from the cosmic microwave background alone using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope lensing measurements

For the first time, measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) alone favor cosmologies with w = -1 dark energy over models without dark energy at a 3.2-sigma level. We demonstrate this by combining the CMB lensing deflection power spectrum from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope with temperature and polarization power spectra from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The lensing data break the geometric degeneracy of different cosmological models with similar CMB temperature power spectra. Our CMB-only measurement of the dark energy density Ω(Λ) confirms other measurements from supernovae, galaxy clusters, and baryon acoustic oscillations, and demonstrates the power of CMB lensing as a new cosmological tool.     

Cosmic 21 cm delensing of microwave background polarization and the minimum detectable energy scale of inflation

We propose a new method for removing gravitational lensing from maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropies. Using observations of anisotropies or structures in the cosmic 21 cm radiation, emitted or absorbed by neutral hydrogen atoms at redshifts 10 to 200, the CMB can be delensed. We find this method could allow CMB experiments to have increased sensitivity to a background of inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs) compared to methods relying on the CMB alone and may constrain models of inflation which were heretofore considered to have undetectable IGW amplitudes.     

Weak gravitational lensing of the CMB

Weak gravitational lensing has several important effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB): it changes the CMB power spectra, induces non-Gaussianities, and generates a B-mode polarization signal that is an important source of confusion for the signal from primordial gravitational waves. The lensing signal can also be used to help constrain cosmological parameters and lensing mass distributions. We review the origin and calculation of these effects. Topics include: lensing in General Relativity, the lensing potential, lensed temperature and polarization power spectra, implications for constraining inflation, non-Gaussian structure, reconstruction of the lensing potential, delensing, sky curvature corrections, simulations, cosmological parameter estimation, cluster mass reconstruction, and moving lenses/dipole lensing.     

A cosmological concordance model with dynamical vacuum term

We demonstrate that creation of dark-matter particles at a constant rate implies the existence of a cosmological term that decays linearly with the Hubble rate. We discuss the cosmological model that arises in this context and test it against observations of the first acoustic peak in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum, the Hubble diagram for supernovas of type Ia (SNIa), the distance scale of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the distribution of large scale structures (LSS). We show that a good concordance is obtained, albeit with a higher value of the present matter abundance than in the ΛCDM model. We also comment on general features of the CMB anisotropy spectrum and on the cosmic coincidence problem.     

Searching for sterile neutrinos in dynamical dark energy cosmologies

We investigate how the dark energy properties change the cosmological limits on sterile neutrino parameters by using recent cosmological observations. We consider the simplest dynamical dark energy models, the wCDM model and the holographic dark energy(HDE) model, to make an analysis. The cosmological observations used in this work include the Planck 2015 CMB temperature and polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the type Ia supernova data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, and the Planck CMB lensing data. We find that, m_(ν,sterile)~(eff) 0.2675 eV and N_(eff) 3.5718 for ΛCDM cosmology, m_(ν,sterile)~(eff) 0.5313 eV and N_(eff) 3.5008 for wCDM cosmology, and m_(ν,sterile)~(eff) 0.1989 eV and N_(eff) 3.6701 for HDE cosmology, from the constraints of the combination of these data. Thus, without the addition of measurements of growth of structure, only upper limits on both m_(ν,sterile)~(eff) and N_(eff) can be derived, indicating that no evidence of the existence of a sterile neutrino species with e V-scale mass is found in this analysis. Moreover, compared to the ΛCDM model, in the wCDM model the limit on m_(ν,sterile)~(eff) becomes much looser, but in the HDE model the limit becomes much tighter. Therefore, the dark energy properties could significantly influence the constraint limits of sterile neutrino parameters.     

Prospect for Cosmological Parameter Estimation Using Future Hubble Parameter Measurements

We constrain cosmological parameters using only Hubble parameter data and quantify the impact of future Hubble parameter measurements on parameter estimation for the most typical dark energy models. We first constrain cosmological parameters using 52 current Hubble parameter data including the Hubble constant measurement from the Hubble Space Telescope. Then we simulate the baryon acoustic oscillation signals from WFIRST (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope) covering the redshift range of z ∈[0.5,2] and the redshift drift data from E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) in the redshift range of z ∈[2,5]. It is shown that solely using the current Hubble parameter data could give fairly good constraints on cosmological parameters. Compared to the current Hubble parameter data, with the WFIRST observation the H(z) constraints on dark energy would be improved slightly, while with the E-ELT observation the H(z) constraints on dark energy is enormously improved.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>(1) eV sterile neutrino in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity

We refer [1] to the role of an additional O(1) eV sterile neutrino in modified gravity models. We find parameter constraints in particular f(R) gravity model using following up-to-dated cosmological data: measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy, the CMB lensing potential, the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), the cluster mass function and the Hubble constant. It was obtained for the sterile neutrino mass 0.47 eV < m _ν,sterile < 1 eV (2σ) assuming that the sterile neutrinos are thermalized and the active neutrinos are massless, not significantly larger than in the standard cosmology model within the same data set: 0.45 eV < m _ν,sterile < 0.92 eV (2σ). But, if the mass of sterile neutrino is fixed and equals ≈ 1.5 eV according to various anomalies in neutrino oscillation experiments, f(R) gravity is much more consistent with observation data than the CDM model.     

Constraints on neutrino mass in the scenario of vacuum energy interacting with cold dark matter after Planck 2018

In this work, we investigate the constraints on the total neutrino mass in the scenario of vacuum energy interacting with cold dark matter (abbreviated as IΛCDM) by using the latest cosmological observations. We consider four typical interaction forms, i.e. $Q=\beta H{\rho }_{\mathrm{de}}$, $Q=\beta H{\rho }_{{\rm{c}}}$, $Q=\beta {H}_{0}{\rho }_{\mathrm{de}}$, and $Q=\beta {H}_{0}{\rho }_{{\rm{c}}}$, in the IΛCDM scenario. To avoid the large-scale instability problem in interacting dark energy models, we employ the extended parameterized post-Friedmann method for interacting dark energy to calculate the perturbation evolution of dark energy in these models. The observational data used in this work include the cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements from the Planck 2018 data release, the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data, the type Ia supernovae (SN) observation (Pantheon compilation), and the 2019 local distance ladder measurement of the Hubble constant H₀ from the Hubble Space Telescope. We find that, compared with those in the ΛCDM+$\sum {m}_{\nu }$ model, the constrains on $\sum {m}_{\nu }$ are looser in the four IΛCDM+$\sum {m}_{\nu }$ models. When considering the three mass hierarchies of neutrinos, the constraints on $\sum {m}_{\nu }$ are tightest in the degenerate hierarchy case and loosest in the inverted hierarchy case. In addition, in the four IΛCDM+$\sum {m}_{\nu }$ models, the values of coupling parameter β are larger using the CMB+BAO+SN+H₀ data combination than that using the CMB+BAO+SN data combination, and β>0 is favored at more than 1σ level when using CMB+BAO+SN+H₀ data combination. The issue of the H₀ tension is also discussed in this paper. We find that, compared with the ΛCDM+$\sum {m}_{\nu }$ model, the H₀ tension can be alleviated in the IΛCDM+$\sum {m}_{\nu }$ model to some extent.     

Constraints on cosmological parameters from the analysis of the cosmic lens all sky survey radio-selected gravitational lens statistics

We derive constraints on cosmological parameters and the properties of the lensing galaxies from gravitational lens statistics based on the final Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey data. For a flat universe with a classical cosmological constant, we find that the present matter fraction of the critical density is Omega(m)=0.31(+0.27)(-0.14) (68%)+0.12-0.10 (syst). For a flat universe with a constant equation of state for dark energy w=p(x)(pressure)/rho(x)(energy density), we find w<-0.55(+0.18)(-0.11) (68%).     

Measurements of CP-violating asymmetries in B0-->a1+/-(1260)pi-/+ decays

We present measurements of CP-violating asymmetries in the decay B(0)-->a(1)(+/-)(1260)pi(-/+) with a(1)(+/-)(1260)-->pi(-/+)pi(+/-)pi(+/-). The data sample corresponds to 384x10(6) BB[over ] pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory at SLAC. We measure the CP-violating asymmetry A(CP)(a(1)pi)=-0.07+/-0.07+/-0.02, the mixing-induced CP violation parameter S(a(1)pi)=0.37+/-0.21+/-0.07, the direct CP violation parameter C(a(1)pi)=-0.10+/-0.15+/-0.09, and the parameters DeltaC(a(1)pi)=0.26+/-0.15+/-0.07 and DeltaS(a(1)pi)=-0.14+/-0.21+/-0.06. From these measured quantities we determine the angle alpha(eff)=78.6 degrees +/-7.3 degrees.     

Strong gravitational lensing constraints on holographic dark energy

Strong gravitational lensing(SGL) has provided an important tool for probing galaxies and cosmology. In this paper, we use the SGL data to constrain the holographic dark energy model, as well as models that have the same parameter number, such as the w CDM and Ricci dark energy models. We find that only using SGL is difficult to effectively constrain the model parameters.However, when the SGL data are combined with CBS(CMB+BAO+SN) data, the reasonable estimations can be given and the constraint precision is improved to a certain extent, relative to the case of CBS only. Therefore, SGL is an useful way to tighten constraints on model parameters.     

Constrains on f(T) gravity with the strong gravitational lensing data

Strong lensing is an effective way to probing the properties of dark energy.In this paper,we use the strong lensing data to constrain the f(T)theory,which is a new modified gravity to explain the present accelerating cosmic expansion without the need of dark energy.In our discussion,the CMB and BAO data are also added to constrain model parameters tightly and three different f(T)models are studied.We find that strong lensing has an important role on constraining f(T)models,and once the CMB+BAO data is added,a tighter constraint is obtained.However,the consistency of our result with what is obtained from SNIa+CMB+BAO is actually model-dependent.     

Measurement of the B0-->phiK*0 decay amplitudes

With a sample of about 227x10(6) BB pairs recorded with the BABAR detector we perform a full angular analysis of the decay B0-->phiK(*0)(892). We make novel measurements of five parameters sensitive to CP violation. We also measure the branching fraction to be (9.2+/-0.9+/-0.5)x10(-6) and determine the fractions of longitudinal and parity-odd transverse contributions as f(L)=0.52+/-0.05+/-0.02 and f( perpendicular)=0.22+/-0.05+/-0.02. The phases of the parity-even and parity-odd transverse amplitudes relative to the longitudinal amplitude are found to be phi( parallel)=2.34(+0.23)(-0.20)+/-0.05 rad and phi( perpendicular)=2.47+/-0.25+/-0.05 rad. We also observe the decay B0-->phiK(*0)(1430).     

A gigaparsec-scale local void and the Hubble tension

We explore the possibility of using a gigaparsec-scale local void to reconcile the Hubble tension. Such a gigaparsec-scale void can be produced by multi-stream inflation where different parts of the observable universe follow different inflationary trajectories.These trajectories become different parts of the observable universe after inflation, when these scales return to the horizon. If these trajectories have different e-folding numbers, these parts of the universe have different energy densities, possibly creating a local large void. The impacts of such a void for cosmological observations are studied, especially those involving supernovae,Baryon Acoustic Oscillations(BAO) and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich(kSZ) effect. We show that with the presence of the void, supernovae observations may be more consistent with the CMB. We also estimate the impacts of a local large void on BAO observations. In addition, we show that a local large void and hence its capabilities to ease the Hubble tension is limited by the kSZ effect. As a benchmark model, a 1.7 Gpc scale void with boundary width 0.7 Gpc and density contrast-0.14 may ease the Hubble tension, evading the kSZ limit.     

Study of B0-->rho+/- pi-/+ time-dependent CP violation at Belle

We present a time-dependent analysis of CP violation in B0-->rho(+/-)pi(-/+) decays based on a 140 fb(-1) data sample collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. We obtain the charge asymmetry A(rhopi)(CP)=-0.16+/-0.10(stat)+/-0.02(syst). An unbinned maximum-likelihood fit to the Deltat distributions yields C(rhopi)=0.25+/-0.17(stat)+0.02-0.06(syst), DeltaC(rhopi)=0.38+/-0.18(stat)+0.02-0.04(syst), S(rhopi)=-0.28+/-0.23(stat)+0.10-0.08(syst), and DeltaS(rhopi)=-0.30+/-0.24(stat)+/-0.09(syst). The direct CP violation parameters for B-->rho(+)pi(-) and B-->rho(-)pi(+) decays are A(+-)(rhopi)=-0.02+/-0.16(stat)+0.05-0.02(syst) and A(-+)(rhopi)=-0.53+/-0.29(stat)+0.09-0.04(syst).     

Cosmological parameter estimation: methods

CMB anisotropy data could put powerful constraints on theories of the evolution of our Universe. Using the observations of the large number of CMB experiments, many studies have put constraints on cosmological parameters assuming different frameworks. Assuming for example inflationary paradigm, one can compute the confidence intervals on the different components of the energy densities, or the age of the Universe, inferred by the current set of CMB observations. The aim of this Note is to present some of the available methods to derive the cosmological parameters with their confidence intervals from the CMB data, as well as some practical issues to investigate large number of parameters. To cite this article: M. Douspis, C. R. Physique 4 (2003).     

Measuring the geometry of the universe in the presence of isocurvature modes

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy constrains the geometry of the Universe because the positions of the acoustic peaks of the angular power spectrum depend strongly on the curvature of three-dimensional space. In this Letter we exploit current observations to determine the geometry in the presence of isocurvature modes. Most previous analyses assumed that the primordial perturbations were adiabatic. A priori one might expect that allowing isocurvature modes would substantially degrade constraints on the curvature. We find, however, that with additional data sets, the geometry remains well constrained. When the most general isocurvature perturbation is allowed, the CMB alone can only poorly constrain the geometry to . Including large-scale structure data, one obtains Ohm(0) = 1.07 +/- 0.03, and 1.06 +/- 0.02 when supplemented by supernova data and the determination of H(0).