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Cosmology with the Thermal-Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
William Coulton1, Atsuhisa Ota2, Alexander van Engelen3,4
1Institute of Astronomy and Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom.
Physical Review Letters
|September 25, 2020
Summary
The novel thermal-kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (tkSZ) effect, a next-order term in cosmic microwave background (CMB) scattering, can be detected by future CMB surveys. This effect offers a cleaner probe of large-scale cosmic velocity fields than the kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect.
Area of Science:
- Cosmology
- Astrophysics
- Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Background:
- Compton scattering of the CMB by hot gas creates kinetic (kSZ) and thermal (tSZ) Sunyaev Zel'dovich effects.
- Future CMB surveys will achieve precision to study effects beyond the leading order.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the cosmological information content of the next-order term combining tSZ and kSZ effects, termed the thermal-kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (tkSZ) effect.
- Assess the potential of the tkSZ effect for reconstructing large-scale velocity fields.
Main Methods:
- Analyze the properties of the tkSZ effect, including its velocity and spectral dependence.
- Evaluate the detectability and precision of the tkSZ effect with planned CMB missions.
Main Results:
- The tkSZ effect can be detected by current and future CMB missions.
- It allows for the reconstruction of large-scale velocity fields with minimal bias from kSZ or foregrounds.
- The tkSZ effect provides a less degenerate probe of gas physics compared to the kSZ effect.
Conclusions:
- The tkSZ effect offers a unique and powerful tool for cosmological studies.
- It can be measured with higher precision than the kSZ effect in low-noise experiments.
- This effect reduces uncertainties associated with gas physics in cosmological measurements.
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