Browsing by Author "Huffenberger, Kevin M."

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    Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Combined kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements from BOSS CMASS and LOWZ halos
    (2021) Schaan, Emmanuel; Ferraro, Simone; Amodeo, Stefania; Battaglia, Nicholas; Aiola, Simone; Austermann, Jason E.; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Becker, Daniel T.; Bond, Richard J.; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Choi, Steve K.; Denison, Edward, V; Devlin, Mark J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Guan, Yilun; Han, Dongwon; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hlozek, Renee; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Koopman, Brian J.; MacInnis, Amanda; McMahon, Jeff; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Moodley, Kavilan; Mroczkowski, Tony; Naess, Sigurd; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura B.; Niemack, Michael D.; Page, Lyman A.; Partridge, Bruce; Salatino, Maria; Sehgal, Neelima; Schillaci, Alessandro; Sifon, Cristobal; Smith, Kendrick M.; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne; Storer, Emilie R.; Trac, Hy; Ullom, Joel N.; Van Lanen, Jeff; Vale, Leila R.; van Engelen, Alexander; Magana, Mariana Vargas; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei
    The scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons off the free-electron gas in galaxies and clusters leaves detectable imprints on high resolution CMB maps: the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ and kSZ respectively). We use combined microwave maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope DR5 and Planck in combination with the CMASS (mean redshift (z) = 0.55 and host halo mass (M-vir) = 3 x 10(13) M-circle dot) and LOWZ ((z) = 0.31, (M-vir) = 5 x 10(13) M-circle dot) galaxy catalogs from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS DR10 and DR12), to study the gas associated with these galaxy groups. Using individual reconstructed velocities, we perform a stacking analysis and reject the no-kSZ hypothesis at 6.5 sigma, the highest significance to date. This directly translates into a measurement of the electron number density profile, and thus of the gas density profile. Despite the limited signal to noise, the measurement shows at high significance that the gas density profile is more extended than the dark matter density profile, for any reasonable baryon abundance (formally >90 sigma for the cosmic baryon abundance). We simultaneously measure the tSZ signal, i.e., the electron thermal pressure profile of the same CMASS objects, and reject the no-tSZ hypothesis at 10 sigma. We combine tSZ and kSZ measurements to estimate the electron temperature to 20% precision in several aperture bins, and find it comparable to the virial temperature. In a companion paper, we analyze these measurements to constrain the gas thermodynamics and the properties of feedback inside galaxy groups. We present the corresponding LOWZ measurements in this paper, ruling out a null kSZ (tSZ) signal at 2.9 (13.9)sigma, and leave their interpretation to future work. This paper and the companion paper demonstrate that current CMB experiments can detect and resolve gas profiles in low mass halos and at high redshifts, which are the most sensitive to feedback in galaxy formation and the most difficult to measure any other way. They will be a crucial input to cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, thus improving our understanding of galaxy formation. These precise gas profiles arc already sufficient to reduce the main limiting theoretical systematic in galaxy-galaxy lensing: baryonic uncertainties. Future such measurements will thus unleash the statistical power of weak lensing from the Rubin, Euclid and Roman observatories. Our stacking software ThumbStackis publicly available and directly applicable to future Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 data.
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    Atacama Cosmology Telescope: High-resolution component-separated maps across one third of the sky
    (2024) Coulton, William; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Hill, J. Colin; Abril-Cabezas, Irene; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aiola, Simone; Alford, Tommy; Amiri, Mandana; Amodeo, Stefania; An, Rui; Atkins, Zachary; Austermann, Jason E.; Battaglia, Nicholas; Battistelli, Elia Stefano; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Beringue, Benjamin; Bhandarkar, Tanay; Biermann, Emily; Bolliet, Boris; Bond, J. Richard; Cai, Hongbo; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Capalbo, Valentina; Carrero, Felipe; Chesmore, Grace E.; Cho, Hsiao-Mei; Choi, Steve K.; Clark, Susan E.; Rosado, Rodrigo Cordova; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Coughlin, Kevin; Crowley, Kevin T.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon; Doze, Peter; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Fanfani, Valentina; Fankhanel, Max; Farren, Gerrit; Ferraro, Simone; Freundt, Rodrigo; Fuzia, Brittany; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Garrido, Xavier; Givans, Jahmour; Gluscevic, Vera; Golec, Joseph E.; Guan, Yilun; Halpern, Mark; Han, Dongwon; Hasselfield, Matthew; Healy, Erin; Henderson, Shawn; Hensley, Brandon; Hervias-Caimapo, Carlos; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty; Huber, Zachary B.; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Irwin, Kent; Isopi, Giovanni; Jense, Hidde T.; Keller, Ben; Kim, Joshua; Knowles, Kenda; Koopman, Brian J.; Kosowsky, Arthur; Kramer, Darby; Kusiak, Aleksandra; La Posta, Adrien; Lakey, Victoria; Lee, Eunseong; Li, Zack; Li, Yaqiong; Limon, Michele; Lokken, Martine; Louis, Thibaut; Lungu, Marius; MacCrann, Niall; MacInnis, Amanda; Maldonado, Diego; Maldonado, Felipe; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Marques, Gabriela A.; van Marrewijk, Joshiwa; McCarthy, Fiona; McMahon, Jeff; Mehta, Yogesh; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Morris, Thomas W.; Mroczkowski, Tony; Naess, Sigurd; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura; Nicola, Andrina; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Orlowski-Scherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Pandey, Shivam; Partridge, Bruce; Prince, Heather; Puddu, Roberto; Qu, Frank J.; Radiconi, Federico; Robertson, Naomi; Rojas, Felipe; Sakuma, Tai; Salatino, Maria; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schmitt, Benjamin L.; Sehgal, Neelima; Shaikh, Shabbir; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sierra, Carlos; Sievers, Jon; Sifon, Cristobal; Simon, Sara; Sonka, Rita; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Storer, Emilie; Switzer, Eric R.; Tampier, Niklas; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Treu, Jesse; Tucker, Carole; Ullom, Joel; Vale, Leila R.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; Vargas, Cristian; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wagoner, Kasey; Wang, Yuhan; Wenzl, Lukas; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei; Zago, Fernando; Zheng, Kaiwen
    Observations of the millimeter sky contain valuable information on a number of signals, including the blackbody cosmic microwave background (CMB), Galactic emissions, and the Compton-y distortion due to the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect. Extracting new insight into cosmological and astrophysical questions often requires combining multiwavelength observations to spectrally isolate one component. In this work, we present a new arc-minute-resolution Compton-y map, which traces out the line-of-sightintegrated electron pressure, as well as maps of the CMB in intensity and E-mode polarization, across a third of the sky (around 13; 000 deg2). We produce these through a joint analysis of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) data release 4 and 6 at frequencies of roughly 93, 148, and 225 GHz, together with data from the Planck satellite at frequencies between 30 and 545 GHz. We present detailed verification of an internal linear combination pipeline implemented in a needlet frame that allows us to efficiently suppress Galactic contamination and account for spatial variations in the ACT instrument noise. These maps provide a significant advance, in noise levels and resolution, over the existing Planck componentseparated maps and will enable a host of science goals including studies of cluster and galaxy astrophysics, inferences of the cosmic velocity field, primordial non-Gaussianity searches, and gravitational lensing reconstruction of the CMB.
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    Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Modeling the gas thermodynamics in BOSS CMASS galaxies from kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements
    (2021) Amodeo, Stefania; Battaglia, Nicholas; Schaan, Emmanuel; Ferraro, Simone; Moser, Emily; Aiola, Simone; Austermann, Jason E.; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Becker, Daniel T.; Bond, Richard J.; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Choi, Steve K.; Denison, Edward, V; Devlin, Mark; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Hall, Kirsten R.; Han, Dongwon; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hlozek, Renee; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Koopman, Brian J.; MacInnis, Amanda; McMahon, Jeff; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Moodley, Kavilan; Mroczkowski, Tony; Naess, Sigurd; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura B.; Niemack, Michael D.; Page, Lyman A.; Partridge, Bruce; Schillaci, Alessandro; Sehgal, Neelima; Sifon, Cristobal; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne; Storer, Emilie R.; Ullom, Joel N.; Vale, Leila R.; van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei
    The thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ, kSZ) probe the thermodynamic properties of the circumgalactic and intracluster medium (CGM and ICM) of galaxies, groups, and clusters, since they are proportional, respectively, to the integrated electron pressure and momentum along the line of sight. We present constraints on the gas thermodynamics of CMASS (constant stellar mass) galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey using new measurements of the kSZ and tSZ signals obtained in a companion paper [Schaan et al.]. Combining kSZ and tSZ measurements, we measure within our model the amplitude of energy injection epsilon M.c(2) , where M-* is the stellar mass, to be epsilon = (40 +/- 9) x 10(-6) , and the amplitude of the nonthermal pressure profile to be alpha(Nth) < 0.2(2 sigma), indicating that less than 20% of the total pressure within the virial radius is due to a nonthermal component. We estimate the effects of including baryons in the modeling of weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements using the best-fit density profile from the kSZ measurement. Our estimate reduces the difference between the original theoretical model and the weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements in [A. Leauthaud et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 467, 3024 (2017)] by half (50% at most), but does not fully reconcile it. Comparing the kSZ and tSZ measurements to cosmological simulations, we find that they underpredict the CGM pressure and to a lesser extent the CGM density at larger radii with probabilities to exceed ranging from 0.00 to 0.03 and 0.12 to 0.14, for tSZ and kSZ, respectively. This suggests that the energy injected via feedback models in the simulations that we compared against does not sufficiently heat the gas at these radii. We do not find significant disagreement at smaller radii. These measurements provide novel tests of current and future simulations. This work demonstrates the power of joint, high signal-to-noise kSZ and tSZ observations, upon which future cross-correlation studies will improve.
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    SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF RADIO SOURCES IN NEARBY CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUNYAEV-ZEL'DOVICH EFFECT SURVEYS
    (2009) Lin, Yen-Ting; Partridge, Bruce; Pober, J. C.; El Bouchefry, Khadija; Burke, Sarah; Klein, Jonathan N.; Coish, Joseph W.; Huffenberger, Kevin M.
    To explore the high-frequency radio spectra of galaxies in clusters, we used NRAO's Very Large Array at four frequencies, 4.9-43 GHz, to observe 139 galaxies in low redshift (z < 0.25), X-ray detected, clusters. The clusters were selected from the survey conducted by Ledlow and Owen, who provided redshifts and 1.4 GHz flux densities for all the radio sources. We find that more than half of the observed sources have steep microwave spectra as generally expected (alpha < -0.5, in the convention S alpha nu(alpha)). However, 60%-70% of the unresolved or barely resolved sources have flat or inverted spectra. Most of these show an upward turn in flux at nu > 22 GHz, implying a higher flux than would be expected from an extrapolation of the lower-frequency flux measurements. Our results quantify the need for careful source subtraction in increasingly sensitive measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies (as currently being conducted by, for instance, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and South Pole Telescope groups).
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: a measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra at 98 and 150 GHz
    (2020) Choi, Steve K.; Hasselfield, Matthew; Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty; Koopman, Brian; Lungu, Marius; Abitbol, Maximilian H.; Addison, Graeme E.; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aiola, Simone; Alonso, David; Amiri, Mandana; Amodeo, Stefania; Angile, Elio; Austermann, Jason E.; Baildon, Taylor; Battaglia, Nick; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Becker, Daniel T.; Bond, J. Richard; Bruno, Sarah Marie; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Campusano, Luis E.; Carrero, Felipe; Chesmore, Grace E.; Cho, Hsiao-mei; Clark, Susan E.; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Crichton, Devin; Crowley, Kevin T.; Darwish, Omar; Datta, Rahul; Denison, Edward, V; Devlin, Mark J.; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Essinger-Hileman, Thomas; Fankhanel, Max; Ferraro, Simone; Fox, Anna E.; Fuzia, Brittany; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Gluscevic, Vera; Golec, Joseph E.; Grace, Emily; Gralla, Megan; Guan, Yilun; Hall, Kirsten; Halpern, Mark; Han, Dongwon; Hargrave, Peter; Henderson, Shawn; Hensley, Brandon; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Infante, Leopoldo; Irwin, Kent; Jackson, Rebecca; Klein, Jeff; Knowles, Kenda; Kosowsky, Arthur; Lakey, Vincent; Li, Dale; Li, Yaqiong; Li, Zack; Lokken, Martine; Louis, Thibaut; MacInnis, Amanda; Madhavacheril, Mathew; Maldonado, Felipe; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Marsden, Danica; Maurin, Loic; McMahon, Jeff; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Morton, Tim; Naess, Sigurd; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura; Nibarger, John P.; Nicola, Andrina; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Orlowski-Sherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Pappas, Christine G.; Partridge, Bruce; Phakathi, Phumlani; Prince, Heather; Puddu, Roberto; Qu, Frank J.; Rivera, Jesus; Robertson, Naomi; Rojas, Felipe; Salatino, Maria; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schillaci, Alessandro; Schmitt, Benjamin L.; Sehgal, Neelima; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sierra, Carlos; Sievers, Jon; Sifon, Cristobal; Sikhosana, Precious; Simon, Sara; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Stevens, Jason; Storer, Emilie; Sunder, Dhaneshwar D.; Switzer, Eric R.; Thorne, Ben; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Treu, Jesse; Tucker, Carole; Vale, Leila R.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wagoner, Kasey; Wang, Yuhan; Ward, Jonathan T.; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei; Zago, Fernando; Zhu, Ningfeng
    We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra of the CMB measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) from 5400 deg(2) of the 2013-2016 survey, which covers >15000 deg(2) at 98 and 150 GHz. For this analysis we adopt a blinding strategy to help avoid confirmation bias and, related to this, show numerous checks for systematic error done before unblinding. Using the likelihood for the cosmological analysis we constrain secondary sources of anisotropy and foreground emission, and derive a "CMB-only" spectrum that extends to l = 4000. At large angular scales, foreground emission at 150 GHz is similar to 1% of TT and EE within our selected regions and consistent with that found by Planck. Using the same likelihood, we obtain the cosmological parameters for Lambda CDM for the ACT data alone with a prior on the optical depth of tau = 0.065 +/- 0.015. Lambda CDM is a good fit. The best-fit model has a reduced chi(2) of 1.07 (PTE = 0.07) with H-0 = 67.9 +/- 1.5 km/s/Mpc. We show that the lensing BB signal is consistent with Lambda CDM and limit the celestial EB polarization angle to psi(P) = 0.07 degrees +/- 0.09 degrees. We directly cross correlate ACT with Planck and observe generally good agreement but with some discrepancies in TE. All data on which this analysis is based will be publicly released.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the DR6 CMB Lensing Power Spectrum and Its Implications for Structure Growth
    (2024) Qu, Frank; Sherwin, Blake D.; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Han, Dongwon; Crowley, Kevin T.; Abril-Cabezas, Irene; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aiola, Simone; Alford, Tommy; Amiri, Mandana; Amodeo, Stefania; An, Rui; Atkins, Zachary; Austermann, Jason E.; Battaglia, Nicholas; Battistelli, Elia Stefano; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Beringue, Benjamin; Bhandarkar, Tanay; Biermann, Emily; Bolliet, Boris; Bond, J. Richard; Cai, Hongbo; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Capalbo, Valentina; Carrero, Felipe; Carron, Julien; Challinor, Anthony; Chesmore, Grace E.; Cho, Hsiao-Mei; Choi, Steve K.; Clark, Susan E.; Rosado, Rodrigo Cordova; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Coughlin, Kevin; Coulton, William; Dalal, Roohi; Darwish, Omar; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon; Doze, Peter; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Fanfani, Valentina; Fankhanel, Max; Farren, Gerrit; Ferraro, Simone; Freundt, Rodrigo; Fuzia, Brittany; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Garrido, Xavier; Gluscevic, Vera; Golec, Joseph E.; Guan, Yilun; Halpern, Mark; Harrison, Ian; Hasselfield, Matthew; Healy, Erin; Henderson, Shawn; Hensley, Brandon; Hervias-Caimapo, Carlos; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty; Huber, Zachary B.; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Irwin, Kent; Isopi, Giovanni; Jense, Hidde T.; Keller, Ben; Kim, Joshua; Knowles, Kenda; Koopman, Brian J.; Kosowsky, Arthur; Kramer, Darby; Kusiak, Aleksandra; La Posta, Adrien; Lague, Alex; Lakey, Victoria; Lee, Eunseong; Li, Zack; Li, Yaqiong; Limon, Michele; Lokken, Martine; Louis, Thibaut; Lungu, Marius; MacCrann, Niall; MacInnis, Amanda; Maldonado, Diego; Maldonado, Felipe; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Marques, Gabriela A.; McMahon, Jeff; Mehta, Yogesh; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Morris, Thomas W.; Mroczkowski, Tony; Naess, Sigurd; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura; Nicola, Andrina; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Orlowski-Scherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Pandey, Shivam; Partridge, Bruce; Prince, Heather; Puddu, Roberto; Radiconi, Federico; Robertson, Naomi; Rojas, Felipe; Sakuma, Tai; Salatino, Maria; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schmitt, Benjamin L.; Sehgal, Neelima; Shaikh, Shabbir; Sierra, Carlos; Sievers, Jon; Sifon, Cristobal; Simon, Sara; Sonka, Rita; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Storer, Emilie; Switzer, Eric R.; Tampier, Niklas; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Treu, Jesse; Tucker, Carole; Ullom, Joel; Vale, Leila R.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; van Marrewijk, Joshiwa; Vargas, Cristian; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wagoner, Kasey; Wang, Yuhan; Wenzl, Lukas; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei; Zago, Fernando; Zheng, Kaiwen
    We present new measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing over 9400 deg2 of 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 (43 sigma significance) 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 of A lens = 1.013 +/- 0.023 relative to the Planck 2018 CMB power spectra best-fit Lambda CDM model and A 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 S8CMBL equivalent to sigma 8 omega m/0.30.25 of S8CMBL=0.818 +/- 0.022 from ACT DR6 CMB lensing alone and S8CMBL=0.813 +/- 0.018 when combining ACT DR6 and Planck NPIPE CMB lensing power spectra. These results are in excellent agreement with Lambda CDM model constraints from Planck or ACT DR4 + WMAP CMB power spectrum measurements. Our lensing measurements from redshifts z similar to 0.5-5 are thus fully consistent with Lambda CDM structure growth predictions based on CMB anisotropies probing primarily z similar to 1100. We find no evidence for a suppression of the amplitude of cosmic structure at low redshifts.
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    THE ATACAMA COSMOLOGY TELESCOPE: CALIBRATION WITH THE WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE USING CROSS-CORRELATIONS
    (2011) Hajian, Amir; Acquaviva, Viviana; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aguirre, Paula; Amiri, Mandana; Appel, John William; Felipe Barrientos, L.; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bond, John R.; Brown, Ben; Burger, Bryce; Chervenak, Jay; Das, Sudeep; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon R.; Doriese, W. Bertrand; Dunkley, Joanna; Duenner, Rolando; Essinger-Hileman, Thomas; Fisher, Ryan P.; Fowler, Joseph W.; Halpern, Mark; Hasselfield, Matthew; Hernandez-Monteagudo, Carlos; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, David H.; Hughes, John P.; Infante, Leopoldo; Irwin, Kent D.; Baptiste Juin, Jean; Kaul, Madhuri; Klein, Jeff; Kosowsky, Arthur; Lau, Judy M.; Limon, Michele; Lin, Yen-Ting; Lupton, Robert H.; Marriage, Tobias A.; Marsden, Danica; Mauskopf, Phil; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Moseley, Harvey; Netterfield, Calvin B.; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Page, Lyman A.; Parker, Lucas; Partridge, Bruce; Reid, Beth; Sehgal, Neelima; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sievers, Jon; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Swetz, Daniel S.; Switzer, Eric R.; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Tucker, Carole; Warne, Ryan; Wollack, Ed; Zhao, Yue
    We present a new calibration method based on cross-correlations with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and apply it to data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). ACT's observing strategy and map-making procedure allows an unbiased reconstruction of the modes in the maps over a wide range of multipoles. By directly matching the ACT maps to WMAP observations in the multipole range of 400 < l < 1000, we determine the absolute calibration with an uncertainty of 2% in temperature. The precise measurement of the calibration error directly impacts the uncertainties in the cosmological parameters estimated from the ACT power spectra. We also present a combined map based on ACT and WMAP data that has a high signal-to-noise ratio over a wide range of multipoles.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: CO(J=3-2) Mapping and Lens Modeling of an ACT-selected Dusty Star-forming Galaxy
    (2019) Rivera, Jesus; Baker, Andrew J.; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Gralla, Megan B.; Harris, Andrew, I; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Keeton, Charles R.; Lopez-Caraballo, Carlos H.; Marriage, Tobias A.; Partridge, Bruce; Sievers, Jonathan L.; Tagore, Amitpal S.; Walter, Fabian; Weiss, Axel; Wollack, Edward J.
    We report Northern Extended Millimeter Array CO(J = 3 - 2) observations of the dusty star-forming galaxy ACT-S J020941+001557 at z = 2.5528, which was detected as an unresolved source in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) equatorial survey. Our spatially resolved spectral line data support the derivation of a gravitational lens model from 37 independent velocity channel maps using a pixel-based algorithm, from which we infer a velocity-dependent magnification factor mu approximate to 7-22 with a luminosity-weighted mean approximate to 13. The resulting source-plane reconstruction is consistent with a rotating disk, although other scenarios cannot be ruled out by our data. After correction for lensing, we derive a line luminosity LCO(3-2)' = (5.53 +/- 0.69) x 10(10) K km s(-1) pc(2), a cold gas mass M-gas = (3.86 +/- 0.33) x 10(10) M-circle dot, a dynamical mass M-dyn sin(2) i = 3.9(-1.5)(+1.8) x 10(10) M-circle dot, and a gas mass fraction f(gas) csc(2) i = 1.0(-0.4)(+0.8). The line brightness temperature ratio of r(3,1) approximate to 1.6 relative to a Green Bank Telescope CO(J = 1 - 0) detection may be elevated by a combination of external heating of molecular clouds, differential lensing, and/or pointing errors.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmology from Cross-correlations of unWISE Galaxies and ACT DR6 CMB Lensing
    (2024) Farren, Gerrit S.; Krolewski, Alex; MacCrann, Niall; Ferraro, Simone; Abril-Cabezas, Irene; An, Rui; Atkins, Zachary; Battaglia, Nicholas; Bond, J. Richard; Calabrese, Erminia; Choi, Steve K.; Darwish, Omar; Devlin, Mark J.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Matt; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Kim, Joshua; Louis, Thibaut; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Marques, Gabriela A.; McMahon, Jeff; Moodley, Kavilan; Page, Lyman A.; Partridge, Bruce; Qu, Frank J.; Schaan, Emmanuel; Sehgal, Neelima; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sifon, Cristobal; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Vargas, Cristian; Wenzl, Lukas; White, Martin; Wollack, Edward J.
    We present tomographic measurements of structure growth using cross-correlations of Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR6 and Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing maps with the unWISE Blue and Green galaxy samples, which span the redshift ranges 0.2 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 1.1 and 0.3 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 1.8, respectively. We improve on prior unWISE cross-correlations not just by making use of the new, high-precision ACT DR6 lensing maps, but also by including additional spectroscopic data for redshift calibration and by analyzing our measurements with a more flexible theoretical model. We determine the amplitude of matter fluctuations at low redshifts (z similar or equal to 0.2-1.6), finding S 8 equivalent to sigma 8 ( Omega m / 0.3 ) 0.5 = 0.813 +/- 0.021 using the ACT cross-correlation alone and S 8 = 0.810 +/- 0.015 with a combination of Planck and ACT cross-correlations; these measurements are fully consistent with the predictions from primary CMB measurements assuming standard structure growth. The addition of baryon acoustic oscillation data breaks the degeneracy between sigma 8 and Omega m , allowing us to measure sigma 8 = 0.813 +/- 0.020 from the cross-correlation of unWISE with ACT and sigma 8 = 0.813 +/- 0.015 from the combination of cross-correlations with ACT and Planck. These results also agree with the expectations from primary CMB extrapolations in Lambda CDM cosmology; the consistency of sigma 8 derived from our two redshift samples at z similar to 0.6 and 1.1 provides a further check of our cosmological model. Our results suggest that structure formation on linear scales is well described by Lambda CDM even down to low redshifts z less than or similar to 1.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Detection of Millimeter-wave Transient Sources
    (2021) Naess, Sigurd; Battaglia, Nick; Bond, J. Richard; Calabrese, Erminia; Choi, Steve K.; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Devlin, Mark; Duell, Cody J.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Gralla, Megan; Guan, Yilun; Halpern, Mark; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Matt; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Koopman, Brian J.; Kosowsky, Arthur B.; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; McMahon, Jeff; Nati, Federico; Niemack, Michael D.; Page, Lyman; Partridge, Bruce; Salatino, Maria; Sehgal, Neelima; Spergel, David; Staggs, Suzanne; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei
    We report on the serendipitous discovery of three transient millimeter-wave sources using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The first, detected at R.A. = 273.8138, decl. = -49.4628 at similar to 50 sigma total, brightened from less than 5 mJy to at least 1100 mJy at 150 GHz with an unknown rise time shorter than 13 days, during which the increase from 250 mJy to 1100 mJy took only 8 minutes. Maximum flux was observed on 2019 November 8. The source's spectral index in flux between 90-150 GHz was positive, alpha = 1.5 +/- 0.2. The second, detected at R.A. = 105.1584, decl. = -11.2434 at similar to 20 sigma total, brightened from less than 20 mJy to at least 300 mJy at 150 GHz with an unknown rise time shorter than 8 days. Maximum flux was observed on 2019 December 15. Its spectral index was also positive, alpha = 1.8 +/- 0.2. The third, detected at R.A. = 301.9952, decl. = 16.1652 at similar to 40 sigma total, brightened from less than 8 mJy to at least 300 mJy at 150 GHz over a day or less but decayed over a few days. Maximum flux was observed on 2018 September 11. Its spectrum was approximately flat, with a spectral index of alpha = -0.2 +/- 0.1. None of the sources were polarized to the limits of these measurements. The two rising-spectrum sources are coincident in position with M and K stars, while the third is coincident with a G star.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR4 maps and cosmological parameters
    (2020) Aiola, Simone; Calabrese, Erminia; Maurin, Loic; Naess, Sigurd; Schmitt, Benjamin L.; Abitbol, Maximilian H.; Addison, Graeme E.; Ade, Peter A. R.; Alonso, David; Amiri, Mandana; Amodeo, Stefania; Angile, Elio; Austermann, Jason E.; Baildon, Taylor; Battaglia, Nick; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Becker, Daniel T.; Bond, J. Richard; Bruno, Sarah Marie; Calafut, Victoria; Campusano, Luis E.; Carrero, Felipe; Chesmore, Grace E.; Cho, Hsiao-mei; Choi, Steve K.; Clark, Susan E.; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Crichton, Devin; Crowley, Kevin T.; Darwish, Omar; Datta, Rahul; Denison, Edward, V; Devlin, Mark J.; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Essinger-Hileman, Thomas; Fankhanel, Max; Ferraro, Simone; Fox, Anna E.; Fuzia, Brittany; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Gluscevic, Vera; Golec, Joseph E.; Grace, Emily; Gralla, Megan; Guan, Yilun; Hall, Kirsten; Halpern, Mark; Han, Dongwon; Hargrave, Peter; Hasselfield, Matthew; Helton, Jakob M.; Henderson, Shawn; Hensley, Brandon; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Infante, Leopoldo; Irwin, Kent; Jackson, Rebecca; Klein, Jeff; Knowles, Kenda; Koopman, Brian; Kosowsky, Arthur; Lakey, Vincent; Li, Dale; Li, Yaqiong; Li, Zack; Lokken, Martine; Louis, Thibaut; Lungu, Marius; MacInnis, Amanda; Madhavacheril, Mathew; Maldonado, Felipe; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Marsden, Danica; McMahon, Jeff; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Morton, Tim; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura; Nibarger, John P.; Nicola, Andrina; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Orlowski-Sherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Pappas, Christine G.; Partridge, Bruce; Phakathi, Phumlani; Pisano, Giampaolo; Prince, Heather; Puddu, Roberto; Qu, Frank J.; Rivera, Jesus; Robertson, Naomi; Rojas, Felipe; Salatino, Maria; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schillaci, Alessandro; Sehgal, Neelima; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sierra, Carlos; Sievers, Jon; Sifon, Cristobal; Sikhosana, Precious; Simon, Sara; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Stevens, Jason; Storer, Emilie; Sunder, Dhaneshwar D.; Switzer, Eric R.; Thorne, Ben; Thornton, Robert; Hy Trac; Treu, Jesse; Tucker, Carole; Vale, Leila R.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wagoner, Kasey; Wang, Yuhan; Ward, Jonathan T.; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei; Zago, Fernando; Zhu, Ningfeng
    We present new arcminute-resolution maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropy from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, using data taken from 2013-2016 at 98 and 150 GHz. The maps cover more than 17,000 deg(2), the deepest 600 deg(2) with noise levels below 10 mu K-arcmin. We use the power spectrum derived from almost 6,000 deg(2) of these maps to constrain cosmology. The ACT data enable a measurement of the angular scale of features in both the divergence-like polarization and the temperature anisotropy, tracing both the velocity and density at last-scattering. From these one can derive the distance to the last-scattering surface and thus infer the local expansion rate, H-0. By combining ACT data with large-scale information from WMAP we measure H-0 = 67.6 +/- 1.1 km/s/Mpc, at 68% confidence, in excellent agreement with the independently-measured Planck satellite estimate (from ACT alone we find H-0 = 67.9 +/- 1.5 km/s/Mpc). The Lambda CDM model provides a good fit to the ACT data, and we find no evidence for deviations: both the spatial curvature, and the departure from the standard lensing signal in the spectrum, are zero to within 1 sigma; the number of relativistic species, the primordial Helium fraction, and the running of the spectral index are consistent with Lambda CDM predictions to within 1.5-2.2 sigma. We compare ACT, WMAP, and Planck at the parameter level and find good consistency; we investigate how the constraints on the correlated spectral index and baryon density parameters readjust when adding CMB large-scale information that ACT does not measure. The DR4 products presented here will be publicly released on the NASA Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 Gravitational Lensing Map and Cosmological Parameters
    (2024) Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Qu, Frank J.; Sherwin, Blake D.; Maccrann, Niall; Li, Yaqiong; Abril-Cabezas, Irene; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aiola, Simone; Alford, Tommy; Amiri, Mandana; Amodeo, Stefania; An, Rui; Atkins, Zachary; Austermann, Jason E.; Battaglia, Nicholas; Battistelli, Elia Stefano; Beall, James A.; Bean, Rachel; Beringue, Benjamin; Bhandarkar, Tanay; Biermann, Emily; Bolliet, Boris; Bond, J. Richard; Cai, Hongbo; Calabrese, Erminia; Calafut, Victoria; Capalbo, Valentina; Carrero, Felipe; Challinor, Anthony; Chesmore, Grace E.; Cho, Hsiao-mei; Choi, Steve K.; Clark, Susan E.; Rosado, Rodrigo Cordova; Cothard, Nicholas F.; Coughlin, Kevin; Coulton, William; Crowley, Kevin T.; Dalal, Roohi; Darwish, Omar; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon; Doze, Peter; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Duivenvoorden, Adriaan J.; Dunkley, Jo; Duenner, Rolando; Fanfani, Valentina; Fankhanel, Max; Farren, Gerrit; Ferraro, Simone; Freundt, Rodrigo; Fuzia, Brittany; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Garrido, Xavier; Givans, Jahmour; Gluscevic, Vera; Golec, Joseph E.; Guan, Yilun; Hall, Kirsten R.; Halpern, Mark; Han, Dongwon; Harrison, Ian; Hasselfield, Matthew; Healy, Erin; Henderson, Shawn; Hensley, Brandon; Hervias-Caimapo, Carlos; Hill, J. Colin; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renee; Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty; Huber, Zachary B.; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Irwin, Kent; Isopi, Giovanni; Jense, Hidde T.; Keller, Ben; Kim, Joshua; Knowles, Kenda; Koopman, Brian J.; Kosowsky, Arthur; Kramer, Darby; Kusiak, Aleksandra; La Posta, Adrien; Lague, Alex; Lakey, Victoria; Lee, Eunseong; Li, Zack; Limon, Michele; Lokken, Martine; Louis, Thibaut; Lungu, Marius; Macinnis, Amanda; Maldonado, Diego; Maldonado, Felipe; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Marques, Gabriela A.; Mcmahon, Jeff; Mehta, Yogesh; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Morris, Thomas W.; Mroczkowski, Tony; Naess, Sigurd; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nati, Federico; Newburgh, Laura; Nicola, Andrina; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Orlowski-Scherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Pandey, Shivam; Partridge, Bruce; Prince, Heather; Puddu, Roberto; Radiconi, Federico; Robertson, Naomi; Rojas, Felipe; Sakuma, Tai; Salatino, Maria; Schaan, Emmanuel; Schmitt, Benjamin L.; Sehgal, Neelima; Shaikh, Shabbir; Sierra, Carlos; Sievers, Jon; Sifon, Cristobal; Simon, Sara; Sonka, Rita; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Storer, Emilie; Switzer, Eric R.; Tampier, Niklas; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Treu, Jesse; Tucker, Carole; Ullom, Joel; Vale, Leila R.; Van Engelen, Alexander; Van Lanen, Jeff; van Marrewijk, Joshiwa; Vargas, Cristian; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wagoner, Kasey; Wang, Yuhan; Wenzl, Lukas; Wollack, Edward J.; Xu, Zhilei; Zago, Fernando; Zheng, Kaiwen
    We present cosmological constraints from a gravitational lensing mass map covering 9400 sq. deg(2). reconstructed from CMB measurements made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) from 2017 to 2021. In combination with BAO measurements (from SDSS and 6dF), we obtain the amplitude of matter fluctuations sigma(8)=0.819 +/- 0.015 at 1.8% precision, S-8 equivalent to sigma(8)(Omega(m)/0.3)(0.5)=0.840 +/- 0.028 and the Hubble constant H-0=(68.3 +/- 1.1)kms(-1)Mpc(-1) at 1.6% precision. A joint constraint with CMB lensing measured by the Planck satellite yields even more precise values: sigma(8)=0.812 +/- 0.013, S-8 equivalent to sigma(8)(Omega m/0.3)(0.5)=0.831 +/- 0.023 and H-0=(68.1 +/- 1.0)kms(-1)Mpc(-1). These measurements agree well with Lambda CDM-model extrapolations from the CMB anisotropies measured by Planck. To compare these constraints to those from the KiDS, DES, and HSC galaxy surveys, we revisit those data sets with a uniform set of assumptions, and find S-8 from all three surveys are lower than that from ACT+Planck lensing by varying levels ranging from 1.7-2.1 sigma. These results motivate further measurements and comparison, not just between the CMB anisotropies and galaxy lensing, but also between CMB lensing probing z similar to 0.5-5 on mostly-linear scales and galaxy lensing at z similar to 0.5 on smaller scales. We combine our CMB lensing measurements with CMB anisotropies to constrain extensions of Lambda CDM, limiting the sum of the neutrino masses to & sum;m(nu)<0.12 eV (95% c.l.), for example. Our results provide independent confirmation that the universe is spatially flat, conforms with general relativity, and is described remarkably well by the Lambda CDM model, while paving a promising path for neutrino physics with gravitational lensing from upcoming ground-based CMB surveys
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    The Atacama cosmology telescope: flux upper limits from a targeted search for extragalactic transients
    (2024) Hervias-Caimapo, Carlos; Naess, Sigurd; Hincks, Adam D.; Calabrese, Erminia; Devlin, Mark J.; Dunkley, Jo; Duenner, Rolando; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Hilton, Matt; Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Ma, Xiaoyi; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Niemack, Michael D.; Orlowski-Scherer, John; Page, Lyman A.; Partridge, Bruce; Puddu, Roberto; Salatino, Maria; Sifon, Cristobal; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Vargas, Cristian; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wollack, Edward J.
    We have performed targeted searches of known extragalactic transient events at millimetre wavelengths using nine seasons (2013-2021) of 98, 150, and 229 GHz Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) observations that mapped similar to 40 per cent of the sky for most of the data volume. Our data cover 88 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), 12 tidal disruption events (TDEs), and 203 other transients, including supernovae (SNe). We stack our ACT observations to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the maps. In all cases but one, we do not detect these transients in the ACT data. The single candidate detection (event AT2019ppm), seen at similar to 5 sigma significance in our data, appears to be due to active galactic nuclei activity in the host galaxy coincident with a transient alert. For each source in our search we provide flux upper limits. For example, the medians for the 95 per cent confidence upper limits at 98 GHz are 15, 18, and 16 mJy for GRBs, SNe, and TDEs, respectively, in the first month after discovery. The projected sensitivity of future wide-area cosmic microwave background surveys should be sufficient to detect many of these events using the methods described in this paper.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: limits on dark matter-baryon interactions from DR4 power spectra
    (2023) Li, Zack; An, Rui; Gluscevic, Vera; Boddy, Kimberly K.; Bond, J. Richard; Calabrese, Erminia; Dunkley, Jo; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Guan, Yilun; Hincks, Adam; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Kosowsky, Arthur; Louis, Thibaut; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Moodley, Kavilan; Page, Lyman A.; Partridge, Bruce; Qu, Frank J.; Salatino, Maria; Sherwin, Blake; Sifon, Cristobal; Vargas, Cristian; Wollack, Edward J.
    Diverse astrophysical observations suggest the existence of cold dark matter that interacts only gravitationally with radiation and ordinary baryonic matter. Any nonzero coupling between dark matter and baryons would provide a significant step towards un-derstanding the particle nature of dark matter. Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provide constraints on such a coupling that complement laboratory searches. In this work we place upper limits on a variety of models for dark matter elastic scattering with protons and electrons by combining large-scale CMB data from the Planck satellite with small-scale information from Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR4 data. In the case of velocity-independent scattering, we obtain bounds on the interaction cross section for protons that are 40% tighter than previous constraints from the CMB anisotropy. For some models with velocity-dependent scattering we find best-fitting cross sections with a 2a-deviation from zero, but these scattering models are not statistically preferred over ACDM in terms of model selection.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Physical Properties and Purity of a Galaxy Cluster Sample Selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
    (2010) Menanteau, Felipe; González, Jorge; Juin, Jean-Baptiste; Marriage, Tobias A.; Reese, Erik D.; Acquaviva, Viviana; Aguirre, Paula; Appel, John William; Baker, Andrew J.; Barrientos, L. Felipe; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bond, J. Richard; Das, Sudeep; Deshpande, Amruta J.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon; Dunkley, Joanna; Dünner, Rolando; Essinger-Hileman, Thomas; Fowler, Joseph W.; Hajian, Amir; Halpern, Mark; Hasselfield, Matthew; Hernández-Monteagudo, Carlos; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renée; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Infante, Leopoldo; Irwin, Kent D.; Klein, Jeff; Kosowsky, Arthur; Lin, Yen-Ting; Marsden, Danica; Moodley, Kavilan; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Page, Lyman A.; Parker, Lucas; Partridge, Bruce; Sehgal, Neelima; Sievers, Jon; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Swetz, Daniel; Switzer, Eric; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Warne, Ryan; Wollack, Ed
    We present optical and X-ray properties for the first confirmed galaxy cluster sample selected by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) from 148 GHz maps over 455 deg(2) of sky made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). These maps, coupled with multi-band imaging on 4 m class optical telescopes, have yielded a sample of 23 galaxy clusters with redshifts between 0.118 and 1.066. Of these 23 clusters, 10 are newly discovered. The selection of this sample is approximately mass limited and essentially independent of redshift. We provide optical positions, images, redshifts, and X-ray fluxes and luminosities for the full sample, and X-ray temperatures of an important subset. The mass limit of the full sample is around 8.0 x 10(14) M-circle dot, with a number distribution that peaks around a redshift of 0.4. For the 10 highest significance SZE-selected cluster candidates, all of which are optically confirmed, the mass threshold is 1 x 10(15) M-circle dot and the redshift range is 0.167-1.066. Archival observations from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and ROSAT provide X-ray luminosities and temperatures that are broadly consistent with this mass threshold. Our optical follow-up procedure also allowed us to assess the purity of the ACT cluster sample. Eighty (one hundred) percent of the 148 GHz candidates with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 5.1 (5.7) are confirmed as massive clusters. The reported sample represents one of the largest SZE-selected sample of massive clusters over all redshifts within a cosmologically significant survey volume, which will enable cosmological studies as well as future studies on the evolution, morphology, and stellar populations in the most massive clusters in the universe.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-Selected Galaxy Clusters at 148 GHz in the 2008 Survey
    (2011) Marriage, Tobias A.; Acquaviva, Viviana; Ade, Peter A. R.; Aguirre, Paula; Amiri, Mandana; Appel, John William; Barrientos, L. Felipe; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bond, J. Richard; Brown, Ben; Burger, Bryce; Chervenak, Jay; Das, Sudeep; Devlin, Mark J.; Dicker, Simon R.; Bertrand Doriese, W.; Dunkley, Joanna; Dünner, Rolando; Essinger-Hileman, Thomas; Fisher, Ryan P.; Fowler, Joseph W.; Hajian, Amir; Halpern, Mark; Hasselfield, Matthew; Hernández-Monteagudo, Carlos; Hilton, Gene C.; Hilton, Matt; Hincks, Adam D.; Hlozek, Renée; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Handel Hughes, David; Hughes, John P.; Infante, Leopoldo; Irwin, Kent D.; Baptiste Juin, Jean; Kaul, Madhuri; Klein, Jeff; Kosowsky, Arthur; Lau, Judy M.; Limon, Michele; Lin, Yen-Ting; Lupton, Robert H.; Marsden, Danica; Martocci, Krista; Mauskopf, Phil; Menanteau, Felipe; Moodley, Kavilan; Moseley, Harvey; Netterfield, Calvin B.; Niemack, Michael D.; Nolta, Michael R.; Page, Lyman A.; Parker, Lucas; Partridge, Bruce; Quintana, Hernan; Reese, Erik D.; Reid, Beth; Sehgal, Neelima; Sherwin, Blake D.; Sievers, Jon; Spergel, David N.; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Swetz, Daniel S.; Switzer, Eric R.; Thornton, Robert; Trac, Hy; Tucker, Carole; Warne, Ryan; Wilson, Grant; Wollack, Ed; Zhao, Yue
    We report on 23 clusters detected blindly as Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) decrements in a 148 GHz, 455 deg(2) map of the southern sky made with data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope 2008 observing season. All SZ detections announced in this work have confirmed optical counterparts. Ten of the clusters are new discoveries. One newly discovered cluster, ACT-CL J0102-4915, with a redshift of 0.75 ( photometric), has an SZ decrement comparable to the most massive systems at lower redshifts. Simulations of the cluster recovery method reproduce the sample purity measured by optical follow-up. In particular, for clusters detected with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than six, simulations are consistent with optical follow-up that demonstrated this subsample is 100% pure. The simulations further imply that the total sample is 80% complete for clusters with mass in excess of 6 x 10(14) solar masses referenced to the cluster volume characterized by 500 times the critical density. The Compton y-X-ray luminosity mass comparison for the 11 best-detected clusters visually agrees with both self-similar and non-adiabatic, simulation-derived scaling laws.
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    The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Systematic Transient Search of 3 Day Maps
    (2023) Li, Yaqiong; Biermann, Emily; Naess, Sigurd; Aiola, Simone; An, Rui; Battaglia, Nicholas; Bhandarkar, Tanay; Calabrese, Erminia; Choi, Steve K.; Crowley, Kevin T.; Devlin, Mark; Duell, Cody J.; Duff, Shannon M.; Dunkley, Jo; Dunner, Rolando; Gallardo, Patricio A.; Guan, Yilun; Hervias-Caimapo, Carlos; Hincks, Adam D.; Hubmayr, Johannes; Huffenberger, Kevin M.; Hughes, John P.; Kosowsky, Arthur; Louis, Thibaut; Mallaby-Kay, Maya; Mcmahon, Jeff; Nati, Federico; Niemack, Michael D.; Orlowski-Scherer, John; Page, Lyman; Salatino, Maria; Sifon, Cristobal; Staggs, Suzanne T.; Vargas, Cristian; Vavagiakis, Eve M.; Wang, Yuhan; Wollack, Edward J.
    We conduct a systematic search for transients in 3 yr of data (2017-2019) from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). ACT covers 40% of the sky at three bands spanning from 77-277 GHz. Analysis of 3 day mean-subtracted sky maps, which were match filtered for point sources, yielded 29 transient detections. Eight of these transients are due to known asteroids, and three others were previously published. Four of these events occur in areas with poor noise models and thus we cannot be confident they are real transients. We are left with 14 new transient events occurring at 11 unique locations. All of these events are associated with either rotationally variable stars or cool stars. Ten events have flat or falling spectra indicating radiation from synchrotron emission. One event has a rising spectrum indicating a different engine for the flare.