COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM A 31 GHz SKY SURVEY WITH THE SUNYAEV-ZEL'DOVICH ARRAY

Journal Article · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/732/1/28· OSTI ID:21574644

Muchovej, Stephen; Hawkins, David; Lamb, James; Woody, David ^[1]; Leitch, Erik; Carlstrom, John E; Culverhouse, Thomas; Greer, Chris; Hennessy, Ryan; Loh, Michael; Marrone, Daniel P; Pryke, Clem; Sharp, Matthew ^[2]; Joy, Marshall ^[3]; Miller, Amber ^[4]; Mroczkowski, Tony ^[5]

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1. California Institute of Technology, Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Big Pine, CA 93513 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
3. Space Sciences-VP62, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 (United States)
4. Columbia Astrophysics Lab, Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
5. Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)

We present the results of an analysis of 4.4 deg{sup 2} selected from a 6.1 deg{sup 2} survey for clusters of galaxies via their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect at 31 GHz. From late 2005 to mid 2007, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array observed four fields of roughly 1.5 deg{sup 2} each. One of the fields shows evidence for significant diffuse Galactic emission, and is therefore excised from this analysis. We estimate the cluster detectability for the survey using mock observations of simulations of clusters of galaxies and determine that, at intermediate redshifts (z {approx} 0.8), the survey is 50% complete to a limiting mass (M{sub 200{rho}-bar}) of {approx}6.0 x 10{sup 14} M{sub sun}, with the mass limit decreasing at higher redshifts. We detect no clusters at a significance greater than five times the rms noise level in the maps, and place an upper limit on {sigma}{sub 8}, the amplitude of mass density fluctuations on a scale of 8 h{sup -1} Mpc, of 0.84 + 0.04 + 0.04 at 95% confidence, where the first uncertainty reflects an estimate of additional sample variance due to non-Gaussianity in the distribution of clusters and the second reflects calibration and systematic effects. This result is consistent with estimates from other cluster surveys and cosmic microwave background anisotropy experiments.

• OSTI ID: 21574644
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 732; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
COSMOLOGY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
GALAXY CLUSTERS
MASS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
RADIATIONS
RELICT RADIATION