Publication: Spectral distortion of the CMB by the cumulative CO emission from galaxies throughout cosmic history
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Date
2016
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
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Mashian, Natalie, Abraham Loeb, and Amiel Sternberg. 2016. “Spectral Distortion of the CMB by the Cumulative CO Emission from Galaxies Throughout Cosmic History.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 458 (1) (February 17): L99–L103. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slw027.
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Abstract
We show that the cumulative CO emission from galaxies throughout cosmic history distorts the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a level that is well above the detection limit of future instruments, such as the Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE). The modeled CO signal has a prominent bump in the frequency interval 100-200 GHz, with a characteristic peak intensity of ~ 2×10−23 W m−2 Hz−1 sr−1. Most of the CO foreground originates from modest redshifts, z ~ 2-5, and needs to be efficiently removed for more subtle distortions from the earlier universe to be detected.
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Keywords
cosmology: cosmic background radiation, cosmology: theory, early universe, galaxies: intergalactic medium
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