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1. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the DR6 CMB Lensing Power Spectrum and Its Implications for Structure Growth

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acfe06  

   Qu, Frank J. ; Sherwin, Blake D. ; Madhavacheril, Mathew S. ; Han, Dongwon ; Crowley, Kevin T. ; Abril-Cabezas, Irene ; Ade, Peter A. R. ; Aiola, Simone ; Alford, Tommy ; Amiri, Mandana ; et al ( February 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We present new measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing over 9400 deg²of the sky. These lensing measurements are derived from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) CMB data set, which consists of five seasons of ACT CMB temperature and polarization observations. We determine the amplitude of the CMB lensing power spectrum at 2.3% precision (43σsignificance) using a novel pipeline that minimizes sensitivity to foregrounds and to noise properties. To ensure that our results are robust, we analyze an extensive set of null tests, consistency tests, and systematic error estimates and employ a blinded analysis framework. Our CMB lensing power spectrum measurement provides constraints on the amplitude of cosmic structure that do not depend on Planck or galaxy survey data, thus giving independent information about large-scale structure growth and potential tensions in structure measurements. The baseline spectrum is well fit by a lensing amplitude ofA_lens= 1.013 ± 0.023 relative to the Planck 2018 CMB power spectra best-fit ΛCDM model andA_lens= 1.005 ± 0.023 relative to the ACT DR4 + WMAP best-fit model. From our lensing power spectrum measurement, we derive constraints on the parameter combination$S_8^{\mathrm{CMBL}}\equiv {\sigma }_8{\left({\mathrm{\Omega }}_m/0.3\right)}^{0.25}$of$S_8^{\mathrm{CMBL}}=0.818\pm 0.022$from ACT DR6 CMB lensing alone and$S_8^{\mathrm{CMBL}}=0.813\pm 0.018$when combining ACT DR6 and PlanckNPIPECMB lensing power spectra. These results are in excellent agreement with ΛCDM model constraints from Planck or ACT DR4 + WMAP CMB power spectrum measurements. Our lensing measurements from redshiftsz∼ 0.5–5 are thus fully consistent with ΛCDM structure growth predictions based on CMB anisotropies probing primarilyz∼ 1100. We find no evidence for a suppression of the amplitude of cosmic structure at low redshifts.

    

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2. Patchy Kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effect with Controlled Reionization History and Morphology

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac8481  

   Chen, Nianyi ; Trac, Hy ; Mukherjee, Suvodip ; Cen, Renyue ( February 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Using the novel semi-numerical code for reionization AMBER, we model the patchy kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (kSZ) effect by directly specifying the reionization history with the redshift midpointz_mid, duration Δ_z, and asymmetryA_z. We further control the ionizing sources and radiation through the minimum halo massM_hand the radiation mean free pathλ_mfp. AMBER reproduces the free-electron number density and the patchy kSZ power spectrum of radiation–hydrodynamic simulations at the target resolution (1 Mpch⁻¹) with matched reionization parameters. With a suite of (2 Gpc/h)³simulations using AMBER, we first constrain the redshift midpoint 6.0 <z_mid< 8.9 using the Planck 2018 Thomson optical depth result (95% CL). Then, assumingz_mid= 8, we find that the amplitude of$D_{\mathit{\ell }=3000}^{\mathrm{pkSZ}}$scales linearly with the duration of reionization Δ_zand is consistent with the 1σupper limit from South Pole Telescope (SPT) results up to Δ_z< 5.1 (Δ_zencloses 5%–95% ionization). Moreover, a shorterλ_mfpcan lead to a ∼10% lower$D_{\mathit{\ell }=3000}^{\mathrm{pkSZ}}$and a flatter slope in the$D_{\mathit{\ell }=3000}^{\mathrm{pkSZ}}-{\mathrm{\Delta }}_z$scaling relation, thereby affecting the constraints on Δ_zatℓ= 3000. Allowingz_midandλ_mfpto vary simultaneously, we get spectra consistent with the SPT result (95% CL) up to Δ_z= 12.8 (butA_z> 8 is needed to ensure the end of reionization beforez= 5.5). We show that constraints on the asymmetry require ∼0.1μk²measurement accuracy at multipoles other thanℓ= 3000. Finally, we find that the amplitude and shape of the kSZ spectrum are only weakly sensitive toM_hunder a fixed reionization history and radiation mean free path.

    

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3. Full-sky, Arcminute-scale, 3D Models of Galactic Microwave Foreground Dust Emission Based on Filaments

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac54b2  

   Hervías-Caimapo, Carlos ; Huffenberger, Kevin M. ( March 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We present theDustFilamentscode, a full-sky model for the millimeter Galactic emission of thermal dust. Our model, composed of millions of filaments that are imperfectly aligned with the magnetic field, is able to reproduce the main features of the dust angular power spectra at 353 GHz as measured by the Planck mission. Our model is made up of a population of filaments with sizes following a Pareto distribution$\propto L_a^{-2.445}$, with an axis ratio between short and long semiaxesϵ∼ 0.16 and an angle of magnetic field misalignment with a dispersion rms(θ_LH) = 10°. On large scales, our model follows a Planck-based template. On small scales, our model produces spectra that behave like power laws up toℓ∼ 4000 or smaller scales by considering even smaller filaments, limited only by computing power. We can produce any number of Monte Carlo realizations of small-scale Galactic dust. Our model will allow tests of how the small-scale non-Gaussianity affects CMB weak lensing and the consequences for the measurement of primordial gravitational waves or relativistic light relic species. Our model also can generate frequency decorrelation on the modified blackbody spectrum of dust and is freely adjustable to different levels of decorrelation. This can be used to test the performance of component separation methods and the impact of frequency spectrum residuals on primordialB-mode surveys. The filament density we paint in the sky is also able to reproduce the general level of non-Gaussianities measured by Minkowski functionals in the Planck 353 GHz channel map.

    

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4. The Stellar Mass–Black Hole Mass Relation at z ∼ 2 down to BH∼107M⊙ Determined by HETDEX

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc2c2  

   Zhang, Yechi ; Ouchi, Masami ; Gebhardt, Karl ; Liu, Chenxu ; Harikane, Yuichi ; Cooper, Erin Mentuch ; Davis, Dustin ; Farrow, Daniel J. ; Gawiser, Eric ; Hill, Gary J. ; et al ( May 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We investigate the stellar mass–black hole mass (${\mathit{}}_{*}–{\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$) relation with type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) down to${\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}={10}^7{M}_{\odot }$, corresponding to a ≃ −21 absolute magnitude in rest-frame ultraviolet, atz= 2–2.5. Exploiting the deep and large-area spectroscopic survey of the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), we identify 66 type 1 AGNs with${\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$ranging from 10⁷–10¹⁰M_⊙that are measured with single-epoch virial method using Civemission lines detected in the HETDEX spectra.${\mathit{}}_{*}$of the host galaxies are estimated from optical to near-infrared photometric data taken with Spitzer, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and ground-based 4–8 m class telescopes byCIGALEspectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We further assess the validity of SED fitting in two cases by host-nuclear decomposition performed through surface brightness profile fitting on spatially resolved host galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope/NIRCam CEERS data. We obtain the${\mathit{}}_{*}–{\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$relation covering the unexplored low-mass ranges of${\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}\sim {10}^7–{10}^8{M}_{\odot }$, and conduct forward modeling to fully account for the selection biases and observational uncertainties. The intrinsic${\mathit{}}_{*}–{\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$relation atz∼ 2 has a moderate positive offset of 0.52 ± 0.14 dex from the local relation, suggestive of more efficient black hole growth at higher redshift even in the low-mass regime of${\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}\sim {10}^7–{10}^8{M}_{\odot }$. Our${\mathit{}}_{*}–{\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$relation is inconsistent with the${\mathit{}}_{\mathrm{BH}}$suppression at the low-${\mathit{}}_{*}$regime predicted by recent hydrodynamic simulations at a 98% confidence level, suggesting that feedback in the low-mass systems may be weaker than those produced in hydrodynamic simulations.

    

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5. CLASS Angular Power Spectra and Map-component Analysis for 40 GHz Observations through 2022

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1abf  

   Eimer, Joseph R. ; Li 李, Yunyang 云炀 ; Brewer, Michael K. ; Shi 时, Rui 瑞. ; Ali, Aamir ; Appel, John W. ; Bennett, Charles L. ; Bruno, Sarah Marie ; Bustos, Ricardo ; Chuss, David T. ; et al ( March 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Measurement of the largest angular scale (ℓ< 30) features of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is a powerful way to constrain the optical depth to reionization and search for the signature of inflation through the detection of primordialB-modes. We present an analysis of maps covering 73.6% of the sky made from the 40 GHz channel of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) from 2016 August to 2022 May. Taking advantage of the measurement stability enabled by front-end polarization modulation and excellent conditions from the Atacama Desert, we show this channel achieves higher sensitivity than the analogous frequencies from satellite measurements in the range 10 <ℓ< 100. Simulations show the CLASS linear (circular) polarization maps have a white noise level of$125(130)\mu \mathrm{K}\mathrm{arcmin}$. We measure the Galaxy-maskedEEandBBspectra of diffuse synchrotron radiation and compare to space-based measurements at similar frequencies. In combination with external data, we expand measurements of the spatial variations of the synchrotron spectral energy density (SED) to include new sky regions and measure the diffuse SED in the harmonic domain. We place a new upper limit on a background of circular polarization in the range 5 <ℓ< 125 with the first bin showingD_ℓ< 0.023$\mu {\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{CMB}}^2$at 95% confidence. These results establish a new standard for recovery of the largest-scale CMB polarization from the ground and signal exciting possibilities when the higher sensitivity and higher-frequency CLASS channels are included in the analysis.

    

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