Kavli Affiliate: David N. Spergel
| First 5 Authors: William R. Coulton, William R. Coulton, , ,
| Summary:
Since the formation of the first stars, most of the gas in the Universe has
been ionized. Spatial variations in the density of this ionized gas generate
cosmic microwave background anisotropies via Thomson scattering, a process
known as the “anisotropic screening” effect. We propose and implement for the
first time a new estimator to cross-correlate unWISE galaxies and anisotropic
screening, as measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Planck satellite.
We do not significantly detect the effect; the null hypothesis is consistent
with the data at 1.7 $sigma$ (resp. 0.016 $sigma$) for the blue (resp. green)
unWISE sample. We obtain an upper limit on the integrated optical depth within
a 6 arcmin disk to be $bartau< 0.033$ arcmin$^2$ at 95% confidence for the
blue sample and $bartau< 0.057$ arcmin$^2$ for the green sample. Future
measurements with Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 should detect this effect
significantly. Complementary to the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, this
probe of the gas distribution around halos will inform models of feedback in
galaxy formation and baryonic effects in galaxy lensing.
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