Angular correlations of causally-coherent primordial quantum perturbations

We consider the hypothesis that nonlocal, omnidirectional, causally-coherent quantum entanglement of inflationary horizons may account for some well-known measured anomalies of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy on large angular scales. It is shown that causal coherence can lead to less cosmic variance in the large-angle power spectrum ${C}_\ell$ of primordial curvature perturbations on spherical horizons than predicted by the standard model of locality in effective field theory, and to new symmetries of the angular correlation function ${C}(\Theta)$. Causal considerations are used to construct an approximate analytic model for ${C}(\Theta)$ on angular scales larger than a few degrees. Allowing for uncertainties from the unmeasured intrinsic dipole and from Galactic foreground subtraction, causally-coherent constraints are shown to be consistent with measured CMB correlations on large angular scales. Reduced cosmic variance will enable powerful tests of the hypothesis with better foreground subtraction and higher fidelity measurements on large angular scales.

New constraints on the 1.4 GHz source number counts and luminosity functions in the Lockman Hole field

ABSTRACT We present a study of the 1173 sources brighter than $S_{1.4\, \rm GHz}= 120\, \mu$Jy detected over an area of $\simeq 1.4\, \hbox{deg}^{2}$ in the Lockman Hole field. Exploiting the multiband information available in this field for ∼79 per cent of the sample, sources have been classified into radio loud (RL) active galactic nuclei (AGNs), star-forming galaxies (SFGs), and radio quiet (RQ) AGNs, using a variety of diagnostics available in the literature. Exploiting the observed tight anticorrelations between IRAC band 1 or band 2 and the source redshift we could assign a redshift to 177 sources missing a spectroscopic measurement or a reliable photometric estimate. A Monte Carlo approach was used to take into account the spread around the mean relation. The derived differential number counts and luminosity functions at several redshifts of each population show a good consistency with models and with earlier estimates made using data from different surveys and applying different approaches. Our results confirm that below $\sim 300\, \mu$Jy SFGs+RQ AGNs overtake RL AGNs that dominate at brighter flux densities. We also confirm earlier indications of a similar evolution of RQ AGNs and SFGs. Finally, we discuss the angular correlation function of our sources and highlight its sensitivity to the criteria used for the classification.

n-Point Correlation Functions: Descriptive Statistics

This chapter explores the statistical pattern of the galaxy distribution. It focuses on n-point correlation functions (analogs of the autocorrelation function and higher moments for a continuous function), the descriptive statistics that have proved useful. The approach has also proved useful in many other applications. Of considerable practical importance has been the fact that there is a simple linear equation relating the directly observable angular correlation function to the wanted spatial function. This means the translation from one to the other is fairly easy, and equally important it makes it easy to say how the statistical estimates ought to scale with the depth of the survey and hence to test for possible contamination of the estimates by systematic errors. A third useful result is that the dynamics of the galaxy distribution can be treated in terms of the mass correlation functions: the statistic that proves useful for the reduction of the data may also be useful for the analysis of the theory.

Weak lensing of Type Ia Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey

ABSTRACT We consider the effects of weak gravitational lensing on observations of 196 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) from years 1 to 3 of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We simultaneously measure both the angular correlation function and the non-Gaussian skewness caused by weak lensing. This approach has the advantage of being insensitive to the intrinsic dispersion of SNe Ia magnitudes. We model the amplitude of both effects as a function of σ8, and find σ8 =1.2$^{+0.9}_{-0.8}$. We also apply our method to a subsample of 488 SNe from the Joint Light-curve Analysis (JLA; chosen to match the redshift range we use for this work), and find σ8 =0.8$^{+1.1}_{-0.7}$. The comparable uncertainty in σ8 between DES–SN and the larger number of SNe from JLA highlights the benefits of homogeneity of the DES–SN sample, and improvements in the calibration and data analysis.

Cosmological forecasts from photometric measurements of the angular correlation function for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time

We aim to do forecasts for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) with a theoretical modeling of the two point angular correlation function. The Fisher matrix is the starting point. This is a square matrix over the cosmological parameters, whose diagonal contains direct informations on the parameters expected uncertainties.

Baryon acoustic oscillations signature in the three-point angular correlation function from the SDSS-DR12 quasar survey

ABSTRACT The clustering properties of the Universe at large scales are currently being probed at various redshifts through several cosmological tracers and with diverse statistical estimators. Here we use the three-point angular correlation function (3PACF) to probe the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features in the quasars catalogue from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12, with mean redshift $\overline{z} = 2.225$, detecting the BAO imprint with a statistical significance of $2.9 \sigma$, obtained using lognormal mocks. Following a quasi-model-independent approach for the 3PACF, we find the BAO transversal signature for triangles with sides θ1 = $1{^{\circ}_{.}}0$ and θ2 = $1{^{\circ}_{.}}5$ and the angle between them of α = 1.59 ± 0.17 rad, a value that corresponds to the angular BAO scale $\theta_{\rm BAO}=1{^{\circ}_{.}}82 \pm 0{^{\circ}_{.}}21$, in excellent agreement with the value found in a recent work ($\theta_{\rm BAO}=1{^{\circ}_{.}}77 \pm 0{^{\circ}_{.}}31$) applying the two-point angular correlation function (2PACF) to similar data. Moreover, we performed two types of test: one to confirm the robustness of the BAO signal in the 3PACF through random displacements in the data set, and the other to verify the suitability of our random samples, a null test that in fact does not show any signature that could bias our results.

Exploring suppressed long-distance correlations as the cause of suppressed large-angle correlations

ABSTRACT The absence of large-angle correlations in the map of cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations is among the well-established anomalies identified in full-sky and cut-sky maps over the past three decades. Suppressed large-angle correlations are rare statistical flukes in standard inflationary cosmological models. One natural explanation could be that the underlying primordial density perturbations lack correlations on large distance scales. To test this idea, we replace Fourier modes by a wavelet basis with compact spatial support. While the angular correlation function of perturbations can readily be suppressed, the observed monopole- and dipole-subtracted correlation function is not generally suppressed. This suggests that suppression of large-angle temperature correlations requires a mechanism that has both real-space and harmonic-space effects.

Revisiting the statistical isotropy of GRB sky distribution

ABSTRACT The assumption of homogeneity and isotropy on large scales is one of the main hypotheses of the standard cosmology. In this paper, we test the hypothesis of isotropy from the two-point angular correlation function of 2626 gamma-ray bursts (GRB) of the FERMI GRB catalogue. We show that the uncertainties in the GRB positions induce spurious anisotropic signals in their sky distribution. However, when such uncertainties are taken into account no significant evidence against the large-scale statistical isotropy is found. This result remains valid even for the sky distribution of short-lived GRB, contrarily to previous reports.