| 1. |
- Barausse, Enrico, et al.
(författare)
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Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA
- 2020
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Ingår i: General Relativity and Gravitation. - : SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS. - 0001-7701 .- 1572-9532. ; 52:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper, which is of programmatic rather than quantitative nature, we aim to further delineate and sharpen the future potential of the LISA mission in the area of fundamental physics. Given the very broad range of topics that might be relevant to LISA,we present here a sample of what we view as particularly promising fundamental physics directions. We organize these directions through a "science-first" approach that allows us to classify how LISA data can inform theoretical physics in a variety of areas. For each of these theoretical physics classes, we identify the sources that are currently expected to provide the principal contribution to our knowledge, and the areas that need further development. The classification presented here should not be thought of as cast in stone, but rather as a fluid framework that is amenable to change with the flow of new insights in theoretical physics.
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| 2. |
- Aghanim, N., et al.
(författare)
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Planck 2018 results I. Overview and the cosmological legacy of Planck
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, which was dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched on 14 May 2009. It scanned the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously between 12 August 2009 and 23 October 2013, producing deep, high-resolution, all-sky maps in nine frequency bands from 30 to 857 GHz. This paper presents the cosmological legacy of Planck, which currently provides our strongest constraints on the parameters of the standard cosmological model and some of the tightest limits available on deviations from that model. The 6-parameter Lambda CDM model continues to provide an excellent fit to the cosmic microwave background data at high and low redshift, describing the cosmological information in over a billion map pixels with just six parameters. With 18 peaks in the temperature and polarization angular power spectra constrained well, Planck measures five of the six parameters to better than 1% (simultaneously), with the best-determined parameter (theta (*)) now known to 0.03%. We describe the multi-component sky as seen by Planck, the success of the Lambda CDM model, and the connection to lower-redshift probes of structure formation. We also give a comprehensive summary of the major changes introduced in this 2018 release. The Planck data, alone and in combination with other probes, provide stringent constraints on our models of the early Universe and the large-scale structure within which all astrophysical objects form and evolve. We discuss some lessons learned from the Planck mission, and highlight areas ripe for further experimental advances.
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| 3. |
- Aghanim, N., et al.
(författare)
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Planck 2018 results VI. Cosmological parameters
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present cosmological parameter results from the final full-mission Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, combining information from the temperature and polarization maps and the lensing reconstruction. Compared to the 2015 results, improved measurements of large-scale polarization allow the reionization optical depth to be measured with higher precision, leading to significant gains in the precision of other correlated parameters. Improved modelling of the small-scale polarization leads to more robust constraints on many parameters, with residual modelling uncertainties estimated to affect them only at the 0.5 sigma level. We find good consistency with the standard spatially-flat 6-parameter Lambda CDM cosmology having a power-law spectrum of adiabatic scalar perturbations (denoted base Lambda CDM in this paper), from polarization, temperature, and lensing, separately and in combination. A combined analysis gives dark matter density Omega (c)h(2)=0.120 +/- 0.001, baryon density Omega (b)h(2)=0.0224 +/- 0.0001, scalar spectral index n(s)=0.965 +/- 0.004, and optical depth tau =0.054 +/- 0.007 (in this abstract we quote 68% confidence regions on measured parameters and 95% on upper limits). The angular acoustic scale is measured to 0.03% precision, with 100 theta (*)=1.0411 +/- 0.0003. These results are only weakly dependent on the cosmological model and remain stable, with somewhat increased errors, in many commonly considered extensions. Assuming the base-Lambda CDM cosmology, the inferred (model-dependent) late-Universe parameters are: Hubble constant H-0=(67.4 +/- 0.5) km s(-1) Mpc(-1); matter density parameter Omega (m)=0.315 +/- 0.007; and matter fluctuation amplitude sigma (8)=0.811 +/- 0.006. We find no compelling evidence for extensions to the base-Lambda CDM model. Combining with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements (and considering single-parameter extensions) we constrain the effective extra relativistic degrees of freedom to be N-eff=2.99 +/- 0.17, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction N-eff=3.046, and find that the neutrino mass is tightly constrained to Sigma m(nu)< 0.12 eV. The CMB spectra continue to prefer higher lensing amplitudes than predicted in base CDM at over 2 sigma, which pulls some parameters that affect the lensing amplitude away from the Lambda CDM model; however, this is not supported by the lensing reconstruction or (in models that also change the background geometry) BAO data. The joint constraint with BAO measurements on spatial curvature is consistent with a flat universe, Omega (K)=0.001 +/- 0.002. Also combining with Type Ia supernovae (SNe), the dark-energy equation of state parameter is measured to be w(0)=-1.03 +/- 0.03, consistent with a cosmological constant. We find no evidence for deviations from a purely power-law primordial spectrum, and combining with data from BAO, BICEP2, and Keck Array data, we place a limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r(0.002)< 0.06. Standard big-bang nucleosynthesis predictions for the helium and deuterium abundances for the base-CDM cosmology are in excellent agreement with observations. The Planck base-Lambda CDM results are in good agreement with BAO, SNe, and some galaxy lensing observations, but in slight tension with the Dark Energy Survey's combined-probe results including galaxy clustering (which prefers lower fluctuation amplitudes or matter density parameters), and in significant, 3.6 sigma, tension with local measurements of the Hubble constant (which prefer a higher value). Simple model extensions that can partially resolve these tensions are not favoured by the Planck data.
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| 4. |
- Akrami, Y., et al.
(författare)
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Planck 2018 results X. Constraints on inflation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the implications for cosmic inflation of the 2018 release of the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements. The results are fully consistent with those reported using the data from the two previous Planck cosmological releases, but have smaller uncertainties thanks to improvements in the characterization of polarization at low and high multipoles. Planck temperature, polarization, and lensing data determine the spectral index of scalar perturbations to be n(s)=0.9649 +/- 0.0042 at 68% CL. We find no evidence for a scale dependence of n(s), either as a running or as a running of the running. The Universe is found to be consistent with spatial flatness with a precision of 0.4% at 95% CL by combining Planck with a compilation of baryon acoustic oscillation data. The Planck 95% CL upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r(0.002)< 0.10, is further tightened by combining with the BICEP2/Keck Array BK15 data to obtain r(0.002)< 0.056. In the framework of standard single-field inflationary models with Einstein gravity, these results imply that: (a) the predictions of slow-roll models with a concave potential, V(phi) < 0, are increasingly favoured by the data; and (b) based on two different methods for reconstructing the inflaton potential, we find no evidence for dynamics beyond slow roll. Three different methods for the non-parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum consistently confirm a pure power law in the range of comoving scales 0.005 Mpc(-1)k less than or similar to 0.2 Mpc(-1). A complementary analysis also finds no evidence for theoretically motivated parameterized features in the Planck power spectra. For the case of oscillatory features that are logarithmic or linear in k, this result is further strengthened by a new combined analysis including the Planck bispectrum data. The new Planck polarization data provide a stringent test of the adiabaticity of the initial conditions for the cosmological fluctuations. In correlated, mixed adiabatic and isocurvature models, the non-adiabatic contribution to the observed CMB temperature variance is constrained to 1.3%, 1.7%, and 1.7% at 95% CL for cold dark matter, neutrino density, and neutrino velocity, respectively. Planck power spectra plus lensing set constraints on the amplitude of compensated cold dark matter-baryon isocurvature perturbations that are consistent with current complementary measurements. The polarization data also provide improved constraints on inflationary models that predict a small statistically anisotropic quadupolar modulation of the primordial fluctuations. However, the polarization data do not support physical models for a scale-dependent dipolar modulation. All these findings support the key predictions of the standard single-field inflationary models, which will be further tested by future cosmological observations.
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| 5. |
- Aghanim, N., et al.
(författare)
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Planck 2018 results V. CMB power spectra and likelihoods
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe the legacy Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) likelihoods derived from the 2018 data release. The overall approach is similar in spirit to the one retained for the 2013 and 2015 data release, with a hybrid method using different approximations at low (l< 30) and high (l >= 30) multipoles, implementing several methodological and data-analysis refinements compared to previous releases. With more realistic simulations, and better correction and modelling of systematic effects, we can now make full use of the CMB polarization observed in the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) channels. The low-multipole EE cross-spectra from the 100 GHz and 143 GHz data give a constraint on the Lambda CDM reionization optical-depth parameter tau to better than 15% (in combination with the TT low-l data and the high-l temperature and polarization data), tightening constraints on all parameters with posterior distributions correlated with tau. We also update the weaker constraint on tau from the joint TEB likelihood using the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) channels, which was used in 2015 as part of our baseline analysis. At higher multipoles, the CMB temperature spectrum and likelihood are very similar to previous releases. A better model of the temperature-to-polarization leakage and corrections for the effective calibrations of the polarization channels (i.e., the polarization efficiencies) allow us to make full use of polarization spectra, improving the Lambda CDM constraints on the parameters theta(MC), omega(c), omega(b), and H-0 by more than 30%, and n(s) by more than 20% compared to TT-only constraints. Extensive tests on the robustness of the modelling of the polarization data demonstrate good consistency, with some residual modelling uncertainties. At high multipoles, we are now limited mainly by the accuracy of the polarization efficiency modelling. Using our various tests, simulations, and comparison between different high-multipole likelihood implementations, we estimate the consistency of the results to be better than the 0.5 sigma level on the Lambda CDM parameters, as well as classical single-parameter extensions for the joint likelihood (to be compared to the 0.3 sigma levels we achieved in 2015 for the temperature data alone on Lambda CDM only). Minor curiosities already present in the previous releases remain, such as the differences between the best-fit Lambda CDM parameters for the l< 800 and l> 800 ranges of the power spectrum, or the preference for more smoothing of the power-spectrum peaks than predicted in Lambda CDM fits. These are shown to be driven by the temperature power spectrum and are not significantly modified by the inclusion of the polarization data. Overall, the legacy Planck CMB likelihoods provide a robust tool for constraining the cosmological model and represent a reference for future CMB observations.
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| 6. |
- Hlozek, R., et al.
(författare)
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Results of the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC)
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 267:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Next-generation surveys like the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Rubin) will generate orders of magnitude more discoveries of transients and variable stars than previous surveys. To prepare for this data deluge, we developed the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC), a competition that aimed to catalyze the development of robust classifiers under LSST-like conditions of a nonrepresentative training set for a large photometric test set of imbalanced classes. Over 1000 teams participated in PLAsTiCC, which was hosted in the Kaggle data science competition platform between 2018 September 28 and 2018 December 17, ultimately identifying three winners in 2019 February. Participants produced classifiers employing a diverse set of machine-learning techniques including hybrid combinations and ensemble averages of a range of approaches, among them boosted decision trees, neural networks, and multilayer perceptrons. The strong performance of the top three classifiers on Type Ia supernovae and kilonovae represent a major improvement over the current state of the art within astronomy. This paper summarizes the most promising methods and evaluates their results in detail, highlighting future directions both for classifier development and simulation needs for a next-generation PLAsTiCC data set.
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| 7. |
- Millar, Alexander J., et al.
(författare)
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Searching for dark matter with plasma haloscopes
- 2023
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Ingår i: Physical Review D. - : American Physical Society. - 2470-0010 .- 2470-0029. ; 107:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We summarize the recent progress of the Axion Longitudinal Plasma Haloscope (ALPHA) Consortium, a new experimental collaboration to build a plasma haloscope to search for axions and dark photons. The plasma haloscope is a novel method for the detection of the resonant conversion of light dark matter to photons. ALPHA will be sensitive to QCD axions over almost a decade of parameter space, potentially discovering dark matter and resolving the strong CP problem. Unlike traditional cavity haloscopes, which are generally limited in volume by the Compton wavelength of the dark matter, plasma haloscopes use a wire metamaterial to create a tuneable artificial plasma frequency, decoupling the wavelength of light from the Compton wavelength and allowing for much stronger signals. We develop the theoretical foundations of plasma haloscopes and discuss recent experimental progress. Finally, we outline a baseline design for ALPHA and show that a full-scale experiment could discover QCD axions over almost a decade of parameter space.
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