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Su, Meng

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Su, Meng
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.dea00bb5-b4af-4dc9-a07e-17be4be8cf0b

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    Degree-Scale Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Measurements From Three Years of BICEP1 Data
    (American Astronomical Society, 2014) Barkats, D.; Aikin, R.; Bischoff, Colin; Buder, I; Kaufman, J. P.; Keating, B. G.; Kovac, John; Su, Meng; Ade, P. A. R.; Battle, J. O.; Bierman, E. M.; Bock, J. J.; Chiang, H. C.; Dowell, C. D.; Duband, L.; Filippini, J.; Hivon, E. F.; Holzapfel, W. L.; Hristov, V. V.; Jones, W. C.; Kuo, C. L.; Leitch, E. M.; Mason, P. V.; Matsumura, T.; Nguyen, H. T.; Ponthieu, N.; Pryke, C.; Richter, S.; Rocha, G.; Sheehy, C.; Kernasovskiy, S. S.; Takahashi, Y. D.; Tolan, J. E.; Yoon, K. W.
    BICEP1 is a millimeter-wavelength telescope designed specifically to measure the inflationary B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background at degree angular scales. We present results from an analysis of the data acquired during three seasons of observations at the South Pole (2006-2008). This work extends the two-year result published in Chiang et al., with additional data from the third season and relaxed detector-selection criteria. This analysis also introduces a more comprehensive estimation of band power window functions, improved likelihood estimation methods, and a new technique for deprojecting monopole temperature-to-polarization leakage that reduces this class of systematic uncertainty to a negligible level. We present maps of temperature, E- and B-mode polarization, and their associated angular power spectra. The improvement in the map noise level and polarization spectra error bars are consistent with the 52% increase in integration time relative to Chiang et al. We confirm both self-consistency of the polarization data and consistency with the two-year results. We measure the angular power spectra at \(21 \leq l \leq 335\) and find that the EE spectrum is consistent with Lambda cold dark matter cosmology, with the first acoustic peak of the EE spectrum now detected at \(15\sigma\). The BB spectrum remains consistent with zero. From B-modes only, we constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio to \(r = 0.03^{+0.27}_{-0.23}\), or \(r < 0.70\) at 95% confidence level.
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    Is the 130 GeV line real? A search for systematics in the Fermi-LAT data
    (IOP Publishing, 2013) Finkbeiner, Douglas; Su, Meng; Weniger, Christoph
    Our recent claims of a Galactic center feature in Fermi-LAT data at approximately 130 GeV have prompted an avalanche of papers proposing explanations ranging from dark matter annihilation to exotic pulsar winds. Because of the importance of such interpretations for physics and astrophysics, a discovery will require not only additional data, but a thorough investigation of possible LAT systematics. While we do not have access to the details of each event reconstruction, we do have information about each event from the public event lists and spacecraft parameter files. These data allow us to search for suspicious trends that could indicate a spurious signal. We consider several hypotheses that might make an instrumental artifact more apparent at the Galactic center, and find them implausible. We also search for an instrumental signature in the Earth limb photons, which provide a smooth reference spectrum for null tests. We find no significant 130 GeV feature in the Earth limb sample. However, we do find a marginally significant 130 GeV feature in Earth limb photons with a limited range of detector incidence angles. This raises concerns about the 130 GeV Galactic center feature, even though we can think of no plausible model of instrumental behavior that connects the two. A modest amount of additional limb data would tell us if the limb feature is a statistical fluke. If the limb feature persists, it would raise doubts about the Pass 7 processing of E > 100 GeV events. At present we find no instrumental systematics that could plausibly explain the excess Galactic center emission at 130 GeV.
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    Giant gamma-ray bubbles from Fermi-LAT: active galactic nucleus activity or bipolar galactic wind?
    (IOP Publishing, 2010) Su, Meng; Slatyer, Tracy R.; Finkbeiner, Douglas
    Data from the Fermi-LAT reveal two large gamma-ray bubbles, extending 50° above and below the Galactic center (GC), with a width of about 40° in longitude. The gamma-ray emission associated with these bubbles has a significantly harder spectrum (dN/dE ~ E –2) than the inverse Compton emission from electrons in the Galactic disk, or the gamma rays produced by the decay of pions from proton-interstellar medium collisions. There is no significant spatial variation in the spectrum or gamma-ray intensity within the bubbles, or between the north and south bubbles. The bubbles are spatially correlated with the hard-spectrum microwave excess known as the WMAP haze; the edges of the bubbles also line up with features in the ROSAT X-ray maps at 1.5-2 keV. We argue that these Galactic gamma-ray bubbles were most likely created by some large episode of energy injection in the GC, such as past accretion events onto the central massive black hole, or a nuclear starburst in the last ~10 Myr. Dark matter annihilation/decay seems unlikely to generate all the features of the bubbles and the associated signals in WMAP and ROSAT; the bubbles must be understood in order to use measurements of the diffuse gamma-ray emission in the inner Galaxy as a probe of dark matter physics. Study of the origin and evolution of the bubbles also has the potential to improve our understanding of recent energetic events in the inner Galaxy and the high-latitude cosmic ray population.