The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Detection of Patchy Screening of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Journal Article · Tue Jan 23 00:00:00 EST 2024 · TBD

OSTI ID:2298979

Coulton, William R.  ^[1]; Schutt, Theo  ^[2]; Maniyar, Abhishek S.  ^[2]; Schaan, Emmanuel  ^[3]; An, Rui ^[4]; Atkins, Zachary  ^[5]; Battaglia, Nicholas ^[6]; Bond, J. Richard ^[7]; Calabrese, Erminia  ^[8]; Choi, Steve K.  ^[6]; Devlin, Mark J. ^[9]; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.  ^[5]; Dunkley, Jo ^[10]; Ferraro, Simone ^[11]; Gluscevic, Vera ^[4]; Hill, J. Colin  ^[12]; Hilton, Matt ^[13]; Hincks, Adam D.  ^[14]; Kosowsky, Arthur ^[15]; Kramer, Darby ^[16] ; Kusiak, Aleksandra ^[17]; La Posta, Adrien  ^[18]; Louis, Thibaut  ^[19]; Madhavacheril, Mathew S. ^[9]; Marques, Gabriela A. ^[20]; McCarthy, Fiona ^[21]; McMahon, Jeff ^[22]; Moodley, Kavilan ^[23]; Naess, Sigurd  ^[24]; Page, Lyman A. ^[5]; Partridge, Bruce ^[25]; Qu, Frank J.  ^[26]; Sehgal, Neelima  ^[27]; Sherwin, Blake D. ^[28]; Sifón, Cristóbal  ^[29]; Spergel, David N. ^[30]; Staggs, Suzanne T.  ^[5]; Van Engelen, Alexander ^[16]; Vargas, Cristian  ^[31]; Wollack, Edward J.  ^[32]

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1. New York U., CCPP; Cambridge U., Inst. of Astron.
2. SLAC; Stanford U., ITP; Stanford U.
3. SLAC; Stanford U., ITP
4. Southern California U.
5. Princeton U.
6. Cornell U.
7. Canadian Inst. Theor. Astrophys.
8. Cardiff U.
9. UPenn, Philadelphia
10. Princeton U.; Princeton U., Astrophys. Sci. Dept.
11. LBNL, Berkeley; UC, Berkeley
12. Columbia U.; Columbia U., Astron. Astrophys.; New York U., CCPP
13. Witwatersrand U.; KwaZulu Natal U.
14. U. Toronto, Dunlap Inst. Astron. Astrophys.; Vatican Astron. Observ.
15. Pittsburgh U.
16. Arizona State U.
17. Columbia U.; Columbia U., Astron. Astrophys.
18. Oxford U.
19. IJCLab, Orsay
20. Fermilab; Chicago U., Astron. Astrophys. Ctr.; Chicago U., EFI; Chicago U., KICP
21. Cambridge U., DAMTP; New York U., CCPP
22. Chicago U.; Chicago U., EFI
23. Southern Methodist U.; KwaZulu Natal U.
24. Inst. Theor. Astrophys., Oslo
25. Haverford Coll.
26. Cambridge U., DAMTP; Cambridge U., Inst. of Astron.
27. SUNY, Stony Brook
28. Cambridge U., DAMTP; Cambridge U., KICC
29. Valparaiso U., Catolica
30. New York U., CCPP; Princeton U., Astrophys. Sci. Dept.
31. Chile U., Catolica
32. NASA, Goddard

Spatial variations in the cosmic electron density after reionization generate cosmic microwave background anisotropies via Thomson scattering, a process known as the ``patchy screening" effect. In this paper, we propose a new estimator for the patchy screening effect that is designed to mitigate biases from the dominant foreground signals. We use it to measure the cross-correlation between \textit{unWISE} galaxies and patchy screening, the latter measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and \textit{Planck} satellite. We report the first detection of the patchy screening effect, with the statistical significance of the cross-correlation exceeding $$7\sigma$$. This measurement directly probes the distribution of electrons around these galaxies and provides strong evidence that gas is more extended than the underlying dark matter. By comparing our measurements to electron profiles extracted from simulations, we demonstrate the power of these observations to constrain galaxy evolution models. Requiring only the 2D positions of objects and no individual redshifts or velocity estimates, this approach is complementary to existing gas probes, such as those based on the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: ACT
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 2298979
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-24-0062-PPD; arXiv:2401.13033; oai:inspirehep.net:2751084
• Journal Information: TBD, Journal Name: TBD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS