Dark Energy and Cosmic Sound - Space Telescope Science.pptVIP

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: A Robust and Precise Route to the Cosmological Distance Scale Daniel Eisenstein (University of Arizona) Michael Blanton, David Hogg, Bob Nichol, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Will Percival, David Schlegel, Roman Scoccimarro, Ryan Scranton, Hee-Jong Seo, Ed Sirko, David Spergel, Max Tegmark, Martin White, Idit Zehavi, and the SDSS. Outline Baryon acoustic oscillations as a standard ruler. Detection of the acoustic signature in the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy sample at z=0.35. Cosmological constraints therefrom. Acoustic oscillations in the non-linear Universe. Large galaxy surveys at higher redshifts. Future surveys can measure H(z) and DA(z) to better than 1% from z=0.3 to z=3. Acoustic Oscillations in the CMB Although there are fluctuations on all scales, there is a characteristic angular scale. Acoustic Oscillations in the CMB Sound Waves in the Early Universe Before recombination: Universe is ionized. Photons provide enormous pressure and restoring force. Perturbations oscillate as acoustic waves. After recombination: Universe is neutral. Photons can travel freely past the baryons. Phase of oscillation at trec affects late-time amplitude. Sound Waves Each initial overdensity (in DM gas) is an overpressure that launches a spherical sound wave. This wave travels outwards at 57% of the speed of light. Pressure-providing photons decouple at recombination. CMB travels to us from these spheres. Sound speed plummets. Wave stalls at a radius of 150 Mpc. Overdensity in shell (gas) and in the original center (DM) both seed the formation of galaxies. Preferred separation of 150 Mpc. A Statistical Signal The Universe is a super-position of these shells. The shell is weaker than displayed. Hence, you do not expect to see bullseyes in the galaxy distribution. Instead, we get a 1% bump in the correlation function. Response of a point perturbation Acoustic Oscillations in Fourier Space A crest launches a planar sound wave, which at recombination