Related papers: Galaxy clusters, type Ia supernovae and the fine s…

In recent years, significant progress has been made in building new galaxy clusters samples, at low and high redshifts, from wide-area surveys, particularly exploiting the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. A large effort is underway to…

Since Dirac stated his Large Number Hypothesis the space-time variation of fundamental constants has been an active subject of research. Here we analyze the possible spatial variation of two fundamental constants: the fine structure…

We present constraints on the evolution of large-scale structure from a catalog of 710,000 galaxies with I_AB <= 24 derived from a KPNO 4m CCD imaging survey of a contiguous 4 deg x 4 deg region. The advantage of using large contiguous…

An extensive sample of galaxy clusters will be available in the coming years, detected through their Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE). We use a semi-analytic model to study the scientific yield of combining SZE data with X-ray and optical…

We have measured the Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect for a sample of ten strong lensing selected galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev Zel'dovich Array (SZA). The SZA is sensitive to structures on spatial scales of a few arcminutes, while the…

Measurements of the Hubble constant to distant galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect are systematically low in comparison to values obtained by other means. These measurements usually assume a spherical isothermal $\beta$ model…

Values of the Hubble constant reported to date which are based on measurement of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect in clusters of galaxies are systematically lower than those derived by other methods (e.g., Cepheid variable stars, or the…

We study the validity of cosmic distance duality relation between angular diameter and luminosity distances. To test this duality relation we use the latest Union2 Supernovae Type Ia (SNe Ia) data for estimating the luminosity distance. The…

The observed delay-time distribution (DTD) of Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is a valuable probe of SN Ia progenitors and physics, and of the role of SNe Ia in cosmic metal enrichment. The SN Ia rate in galaxy clusters as a function of cluster…

Type Ia supernovae are currently the best known standard candles at cosmological distances. In addition to providing a powerful probe of dark energy they are an ideal source of information about the peculiar velocity field of the local…

We present angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy due to fluctuations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect through clusters of galaxies. A contribution from the correlation among clusters is…

A method for estimating redshifts of galaxy clusters based solely on resolved Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) images is proposed. Given a high resolution SZ cluster image (with FWHM of approx. 1 arcmin), the method indirectly measures its structure…

The recently approved COBRAS/SAMBA cosmic microwave background mission will also have a major impact on measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The frequency of three of the channels (150 GHz, 217 GHz, 353 GHz) are chosen to optimize…

We determine the distances to the z~0.55 galaxy clusters MS 0451.6-0305 and CL 0016+16 from a maximum likelihood joint fit to interferometric Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) and X-ray observations. We model the intracluster medium (ICM)…

The cosmological principle, as the cornerstone of the standard cosmological model, requires that the Universe be homogeneous and isotropic on large scales. As a fundamental assumption, it is constantly subjected to testing via various…

We present a first measurement of the stellar mass component of galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, using 3.6 um and 4.5 um photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our sample consists of 14 clusters…

The fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) intensity due to the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect are the sum of a thermal and a kinetic contribution. Separating the two components to measure the peculiar velocity of galaxy…

We have investigated the possibility of inferring peculiar velocities for clusters of galaxies from the Doppler shift of scattered cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. We find that if the core radius of the gas distribution or the…

The possibility of variation of the fundamental constants of nature has been a long-standing question, with important consequences for fundamental physics and cosmology. In particular, it has been shown that variations in the fine-structure…

We propose a new probe of the dependence of the fine structure constant, alpha, on a strong gravitational field using metal lines in the spectra of white dwarf stars. Comparison of laboratory spectra with far-UV astronomical spectra from…