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University of Richmond

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Constraining H0 Via Extragalactic Parallax, Nicholas Ferree Apr 2023

Constraining H0 Via Extragalactic Parallax, Nicholas Ferree

Honors Theses

We examine the prospects for measurement of the Hubble parameter 𝐻0 via observation of the secular parallax of other galaxies due to our own motion relative to the cosmic microwave background rest frame. Peculiar velocities make distance measurements to individual galaxies highly uncertain, but a survey sampling many galaxies can still yield a precise 𝐻0 measurement. We use both a Fisher information formalism and simulations to forecast errors in 𝐻0 from such surveys, marginalizing over the unknown peculiar velocities. The optimum survey observes ∼ 102 galaxies within a redshift 𝐻0max = 0.06. The required errors …

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Flux And Photon Spectral Index Distributions Of Fermi-Lat Blazars And Contribution To The Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background, Jack Singal, V. Petrosian, M. Ajello Jun 2012

Flux And Photon Spectral Index Distributions Of Fermi-Lat Blazars And Contribution To The Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background, Jack Singal, V. Petrosian, M. Ajello

Physics Faculty Publications

We present a determination of the distributions of the photon spectral index and gamma-ray flux—the so-called log N–log S relation—for the 352 blazars detected with a greater than approximately 7σ detection threshold and located above ±20◦ Galactic latitude by the Large Area Telescope of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in its first year catalog. Because the flux detection threshold depends on the photon index, the observed raw distributions do not provide the true log N–log S counts or the true distribution of the photon index. We use the non-parametric methods developed by Efron and Petrosian to reconstruct the intrinsic distributions …

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Arcade 2 Observations Of Galactic Radio Emission, A. Kogut, D. J. Fixsen, S. M. Levin, M. Limon, P. M. Lubin, P. Mirel, M. Seiffert, Jack Singal, T. Villela, E. Wollack, C. A. Wuensche Jun 2011

Arcade 2 Observations Of Galactic Radio Emission, A. Kogut, D. J. Fixsen, S. M. Levin, M. Limon, P. M. Lubin, P. Mirel, M. Seiffert, Jack Singal, T. Villela, E. Wollack, C. A. Wuensche

Physics Faculty Publications

We use absolutely calibrated data from the ARCADE 2 flight in 2006 July to model Galactic emission at frequencies 3, 8, and 10 GHz. The spatial structure in the data is consistent with a superposition of free–free and synchrotron emission. Emission with spatial morphology traced by the Haslam 408 MHz survey has spectral index βsynch = −2.5±0.1, with free–free emission contributing 0.10±0.01 of the total Galactic plane emission in the lowest ARCADE 2 band at 3.15 GHz. We estimate the total Galactic emission toward the polar caps using either a simple plane-parallel model with csc |b| dependence or a model …

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Interpretation Of The Arcade 2 Absolute Sky Brightness Measurement, M. Seiffert, D. J. Fixsen, A. Kogut, S. M. Levin, M. Limon, P. M. Lubin, P. Mirel, Jack Singal, T. Villela, E. Wollack, C. A. Wuensche Jun 2011

Interpretation Of The Arcade 2 Absolute Sky Brightness Measurement, M. Seiffert, D. J. Fixsen, A. Kogut, S. M. Levin, M. Limon, P. M. Lubin, P. Mirel, Jack Singal, T. Villela, E. Wollack, C. A. Wuensche

Physics Faculty Publications

We use absolutely calibrated data between 3 and 90 GHz from the 2006 balloon flight of the ARCADE 2 instrument, along with previous measurements at other frequencies, to constrain models of extragalactic emission. Such emission is a combination of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) monopole, Galactic foreground emission, the integrated contribution of radio emission from external galaxies, any spectral distortions present in the CMB, and any other extragalactic source. After removal of estimates of foreground emission from our own Galaxy, and an estimated contribution of external galaxies, we present fits to a combination of the flat-spectrum CMB and potential spectral …

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Sources Of The Radio Background Considered, Jack Singal, L. Stawarz, A. Lawrence, V. Petrosian Dec 2010

Sources Of The Radio Background Considered, Jack Singal, L. Stawarz, A. Lawrence, V. Petrosian

Physics Faculty Publications

We investigate different scenarios for the origin of the extragalactic radio background. The surface brightness of the background, as reported by the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission 2 (ARCADE 2) collaboration, is several times higher than that which would result from currently observed radio sources. We consider contributions to the background from diffuse synchrotron emission from clusters and the intergalactic medium, previously unrecognized flux from low-surface-brightness regions of radio sources and faint point sources below the flux limit of existing surveys. By examining radio source counts available in the literature, we conclude that most of the radio …

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Probing The Universe On Gigaparsec Scales With Remote Cosmic Microwave Background Quadrupole Measurements, Emory F. Bunn Jun 2006

Probing The Universe On Gigaparsec Scales With Remote Cosmic Microwave Background Quadrupole Measurements, Emory F. Bunn

Physics Faculty Publications

Scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in galaxy clusters induces a polarization signal proportional to the CMB quadrupole anisotropy at the cluster’s location and lookback time. A survey of such remote quadrupole measurements provides information about large-scale cosmological perturbations. This paper presents a formalism for calculating the correlation function of remote quadrupole measurements in spherical harmonic space. The number of independent modes probed by both single-redshift and volume-limited surveys is presented, along with the length scales probed by these modes. In a remote quadrupole survey sparsely covering a large area of sky, the largest-scale modes probe the same-length scales …

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