Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-03-31
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.397:2189-2207,2009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
21 pages, 23 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by MNRAS. We have made our maps of the SZ effect available online
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15121.x
Using large numbers of simulations of the microwave sky, incorporating the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect due to clusters, we investigate the statistics of the power spectrum at microwave frequencies between spherical multipoles of 1000 and 10000. From these virtual sky maps, we find that the spectrum of the SZ effect has a larger standard deviation by a factor of 3 than would be expected from purely Gaussian realizations, and has a distribution that is significantly skewed towards higher values, especially when small map sizes are used. The standard deviation is also increased by around 10 percent compared to the trispectrum calculation due to the clustering of galaxy clusters. We also consider the effects of including residual point sources and uncertainties in the gas physics. This has implications for the excess power measured in the CMB power spectrum by the Cosmic Background Imager and BIMA experiments. Our results indicate that the observed excess could be explained using a lower value of $\sigma_8$ than previously suggested, however the effect is not enough to match $\sigma_8=0.825$. The uncertainties in the gas physics could also play a substantial role. We have made our maps of the SZ effect available online.
Battye Richard A.
Kay Scott T.
Peel Michael W.
No associations
LandOfFree
Statistics of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect power spectrum does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Statistics of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect power spectrum, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Statistics of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect power spectrum will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-20705