Kavli Affiliate: David Spergel
| Summary:
The $y$-type distortion of the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation probes the pressure of the gas trapped in galaxy groups and clusters. We reanalyze archival data of the FIRAS instrument with an improved astrophysical foreground cleaning technique, and measure a mean $y$-distortion of $langle yrangle = (1.2pm 2.0) times 10^-6$ ($langle yranglelesssim 5.2times 10^-6$ at 95% C.L.), a factor of $sim 3$ tighter than the original FIRAS results. This measurement directly rules out many models of baryonic feedback as implemented in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, mostly using information in objects with mass $Mlesssim 10^14 rm M_odot$. We discuss its implications for the analysis of cosmic shear and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect data, and future spectral distortion experiments.
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