Teasing bits of information out of the CMB energy spectrum

Abstract

Departures of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) frequency spectrum from a blackbody - commonly referred to as spectral distortions - encode information about the thermal history of the early Universe (redshift z < few x 10^6). While the signal is usually characterized as mu- and y-type distortion, a smaller residual (non-y/non-mu) distortion can also be created at intermediate redshifts 10^4 < z < 3 x 10^5. Here, we construct a new set of observables, mu_k, that describes the principal components of this residual distortion. The principal components are orthogonal to temperature shift, y- and mu-type distortion, and ranked by their detectability, thereby delivering a compression of all valuable information offered by the CMB spectrum. This method provides an efficient way of analyzing the spectral distortion for given experimental settings, and can be applied to a wide range of energy-release scenarios. As an illustration, we discuss the analysis of the spectral distortion signatures caused by dissipation of small-scale acoustic waves and decaying/annihilating particles for a PIXIE-type experiments. We provide forecasts for the expected measurement uncertainties of model parameters and detections limits in each case. We furthermore show that a PIXIE-type experiments can in principle distinguish dissipative energy release from particle decays for a nearly scale-invariant primordial power spectrum with small running. Future CMB spectroscopy thus offers a unique probe of physical processes in the primordial Universe.

18 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, added some figures, some revisions, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (20)

• Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection
• CMB Constraints on WIMP Annihilation: Energy Absorption During the Recombination Epoch
• Exciting Dark Matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal
• PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): An Extended White Paper
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a Probe of New Physics
• Inflation Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure
• Contraints on radiative dark-matter decay from the cosmic microwave background
• New Universal Local Feature in the Inflationary Perturbation Spectrum
• Systematic Uncertainties In Constraining Dark Matter Annihilation From The Cosmic Microwave Background
• Beyond y and μ: the shape of the CMB spectral distortions in the intermediate epoch, 1.5x10^4 < z < 2x10^5
• Cosmological Fluctuations from Infra-Red Cascading During Inflation
• The galactic 511 keV line from electroweak scale WIMPs
• On Features and Nongaussianity from Inflationary Particle Production
• Creation of the CMB spectrum: precise analytic solutions for the blackbody photosphere
• Cosmological Tests of the Disformal Coupling to Radiation
• Testing the Running of non-Gaussianity through the CMB mu-distortion and the Halo Bias
• ARCADE: Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission
• Constraining CSL strength parameter $\lambda$ from standard cosmology and spectral distortions of CMBR
• The double Compton emissivity in a mildly relativistic thermal plasma within the soft photon limit
• Scalar runnings and a test of slow roll from CMB distortions

Cited by in corpus (88)

• Revisiting Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Long-Lived Decaying Particles
• Cosmological constraints on exotic injection of electromagnetic energy
• Features and New Physical Scales in Primordial Observables: Theory and Observation
• PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): An Extended White Paper
• Constraints on dark matter interactions with standard model particles from CMB spectral distortions
• The Cosmological Evolution of Light Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Which spectral distortions does $\Lambda$CDM actually predict?
• A Fourth Exception in the Calculation of Relic Abundances
• Primordial gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz regime and PTA data -- towards solving the GW inverse problem
• Taking the Universe's Temperature with Spectral Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• The synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies
• Prospects for Measuring Cosmic Microwave Background Spectral Distortions in the Presence of Foregrounds
• Green's function of the cosmological thermalization problem II: effect of photon injection and constraints
• Constraints on Primordial Black Holes From Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Revisited
• Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles
• Updated BBN constraints on electromagnetic decays of MeV-scale particles
• CMB spectral distortions revisited: a new take on $\mu$ distortions and primordial non-Gaussianities from FIRAS data
• Cosmological beam dump: constraints on dark scalars mixed with the Higgs boson
• Thermalization of large energy release in the early Universe
• Probing the scale dependence of non-Gaussianity with spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background
• CMB Spectral Distortions: Status and Prospects
• Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
• Shedding light on the small-scale crisis with CMB spectral distortions
• $\mu$-Distortions or Running: A Guaranteed Discovery from CMB Spectrometry
• Running the running
• Primordial black holes as a novel probe of primordial gravitational waves. II: Detailed analysis
• Bridging the gap: spectral distortions meet gravitational waves
• Ultracompact minihalos as probes of inflationary cosmology
• Enhancement of primordial curvature perturbations in $R^3$-corrected Starobinsky-Higgs inflation
• Spectral distortions from the dissipation of tensor perturbations
• Refined approximations for the distortion visibility function and mu-type spectral distortions
• Consistency conditions and primordial black holes in single field inflation
• Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time
• Testing Inflation and Curvaton Scenarios with CMB Distortions
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Big-bang nucleosynthesis with sub-GeV massive decaying particles
• Evolution of CMB spectral distortion anisotropies and tests of primordial non-Gaussianity
• Using CMB spectral distortions to distinguish between dark matter solutions to the small-scale crisis
• Precision constraints on radiative neutrino decay with CMB spectral distortion
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: implications for spectral line intensity mapping at millimeter wavelengths and CMB spectral distortions
• Complementing the ground-based CMB Stage-4 experiment on large scales with the PIXIE satellite
• Extracting foreground-obscured $\mu$-distortion anisotropies to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity
• Spectral distortions of the CMB dipole
• An Ultimate Target for Dark Matter Searches
• The role of CMB spectral distortions in the Hubble tension: a proof of principle
• Sensitivity forecasts for the cosmological recombination radiation in the presence of foregrounds
• Correlating CMB Spectral Distortions with Temperature: what do we learn on Inflation?
• Spectral Distortion of the CMB by the Cumulative CO Emission from Galaxies throughout Cosmic History
• Cosmological Constraints on Dark Scalar
• New CMB spectral distortion constraints on decaying dark matter with full evolution of electromagnetic cascades before recombination
• Unlocking the synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies
• Constraints on Gravitino Decay and the Scale of Inflation using CMB spectral distortions
• Improved model-independent constraints on the recombination era and development of a direct projection method
• Cosmological Bounds on sub-GeV Dark Vector Bosons from Electromagnetic Energy Injection
• Testing distance duality with CMB anisotropies
• The effects of the small-scale behaviour of dark matter power spectrum on CMB spectral distortion
• Uncertainties in primordial black-hole constraints on the primordial power spectrum
• Was Entropy Conserved between BBN and Recombination?
• New Thermal Relic Targets for Inelastic Vector-Portal Dark Matter
• Enlightening the dark ages with dark matter
• CMB Spectral Distortion Constraints on Thermal Inflation
• Constraints on small-scale cosmological fluctuations from SNe lensing dispersion
• Probing early-universe phase transitions with CMB spectral distortions
• Measuring the Hubble constant from the cooling of the CMB monopole
• CMB spectral distortions as solutions to the Boltzmann equations
• Constraint on the early-formed dark matter halos using the free-free emission in the Planck foreground analysis
• How to measure CMB spectral distortions with an imaging telescope
• CMB and 21cm bounds on early structure formation boosted by primordial black hole entropy fluctuations
• Shaping Dark Photon Spectral Distortions
• New Horizons in Cosmology with Spectral Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Impact of Dust on Spectral Distortion Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• The Distortion of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum Due to Intergalactic Dust
• CMB Spectral $\mu$-Distortion of Multiple Inflation Scenario
• Can power spectrum observations rule out slow-roll inflation?
• Spectral Distortions from Axion Monodromy Inflation
• Observing the Epoch of Reionization with the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Cosmic Neutrino Decoupling and its Observable Imprints: Insights from Entropic-Dual Transport
• Lensing dispersion of SNIa and small scales of the primordial power spectrum
• CMB spectroscopy at third-order in cosmological perturbations
• Primordial nucleosynthesis constraints on high-z energy releases
• SPECTER: An Instrument Concept for CMB Spectral Distortion Measurements with Enhanced Sensitivity
• Fifty shades of grayness: parametrizations of spectral distortions and applications in cosmology
• Cosmological free-free emission from dark matter halos in the $\Lambda$CDM model
• Spectral distortions in the decaying QCD dark matter scenario
• Cosmological constraints on the decay of heavy relics into neutrinos
• Cosmic microwave background spectral distortions from Rayleigh scattering at second order
• Sterile neutrino production at small mixing in the early universe
• Effects of New Forces on Scalar Dark Matter Solitons