Large scale pressure fluctuations and the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect

The Sunyaev - Zeldovich Effect

During passage through a cluster of galaxies some of the photons of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation are scattered by electrons in the hot intracluster (IC) gas. The scattering slightly modifies the incident Planck spectrum, imprinting on it a unique spectral signature that was first described by Sunyaev & Zeldovich (1972). [The impact of hypothetical hot intergalactic gas on the...

Sunyaev–Zeldovich Effect

Sunyaev-Zeldovich Fluctuations from the First Stars?

WMAP’s detection of high electron-scattering optical depth τe suggests substantial star formation at high redshift z ∼ 17±5. On the other hand, the recovered σ8 ∼ 0.84± 0.04 disfavors a cluster Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) origin for the observed small-scaleCMB fluctuation excess, which generally requires σ8 ∼ 1.1. Here we consider the effects of high-redshift star formation on the CMB. We derive a f...

Sunyaev-Zeldovich Fluctuations from Spatial Correlations between Clusters of Galaxies.

We present angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy due to fluctuations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect through clusters of galaxies. A contribution from the correlation among clusters, which has been neglected in previous analyses, is especially focused on. Employing the evolving linear bias factor based on the Press-Schechter formalism, we find that t...

The Sunyaev-zeldovich Effect: Current Status and Future Prospects

The detailed spectral and spatial characteristics of the signature imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation by Compton scattering of the radiation by electrons in the hot gas in clusters of galaxies the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (S-Z) effect are of great astrophysical and cosmological significance. In recent years observations of the effect have improved tremendously; high signal-to...