English

Constraining CMB-consistent primordial voids with cluster evolution

Astrophysics 2009-11-07 v2

Abstract

Using cosmological simulations, we make predictions for the distribution of clusters in a plausible non-gaussian model where primordial voids nucleated during inflation act together with scale-invariant adiabatic gaussian fluctuations as seeds for the formation of large-scale structure. This model agrees with most recent observations of the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and can account for the excess of power measured on cluster scales by the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI), the large empty regions apparent in nearby galaxy redshift surveys and the number of giant arcs measured in deep cluster lensing surveys. We show that the z=0 cluster mass function differs from predictions for a standard LCDM cosmology with the same sigma_8. Moreover, as massive clusters also form much earlier in the "void" scenario, we show that integrated number counts of SZ sources and simple statistics of strong lensing can easily falsify this model.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0303519,
  title  = {Constraining CMB-consistent primordial voids with cluster evolution},
  author = {H. Mathis and J. Silk and L. M. Griffiths and M. Kunz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0303519},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

12 pages, 9 figures, figure 1 and 2 available as .gif file. Matches accepted version (significant improvements but main conclusions unchanged)