The Antarctic telescope offers a map of the distribution of dark matter in the universe

Data from the observations of the "South Pole Telescope" on gravitational lenses for six years led to the creation of the cosmic background map using microwaves * this as part of a project of the National Laboratory organization as part of a multi-institutional effort to survey the skies in search of clues about the origins and nature of the universe

Gravity deflation maps from raw data promise even greater detail

For more than five years, scientists at the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica have been watching the sky with an upgraded camera. The extended view towards the universe picks up remnants of light from the early formation of the universe. Now the researchers have analyzed an initial set of data, and published details in the journal Physical Review D. The results from this limited data set hint at even more significant future insights into the nature of our universe.

Breakthroughs in cosmic microwave background analysis

The telescope, located at the US National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, received a new camera in 2017 called SPT-3G, which was built and operated in collaboration led by the University of Chicago.

equipped in 16,000 detectors - 10 times its predecessor - SPT-3G is central to multi-institutional research led in part by the Argon National Laboratory. The goal is to measure weak light known as the cosmic microwave background. The cosmic microwave background is the afterglow of the Big Bang, when the universe burst from a single point of energy nearly 14 billion years ago.

"The CMB (Cosmic Background Radiation) is a treasure map for cosmologists," said Jaudi Pan, lead author of the paper and Maria Goffert Meyer Fellow at Argonne. "The tiny changes in temperature and polarization provide a unique window into the young universe.

Gravitational dusting and insights into dark matter

The article in the journal Physical Review D Presents the first gravitational quenching measurements of the cosmic background radiation from SPT-3G. Gravity drainage Occurs when the universe's vast web of matter distorts the cosmic background radiation as it moves across space. If you were to place the rounded base of a wine on a page of a book, the glass would distort your perspective of the words behind it. Similarly, material in the telescope's line of sight forms a lens that bends the CMB light and our perspective of it. Albert Einstein described this distortion in the fabric of space-time in theory its general relativity.

Measurements of this distortion hold clues to the early universe and mysteries like dark matter, an invisible component of the cosmos. "Dark matter is difficult to detect, because it does not react with light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. "Currently, we can only observe it through gravitational interactions," Fan said.

Scientists have been studying the CMB since it was discovered in the 60s, observing it with telescopes both on the ground and in space. Although the newest analysis uses only a few months of SPT-3G data from 2018, the gravitational cooling measurement is already competitive in the field.

"One of the really exciting parts of this study is that the result comes from data from when we just started observations with SPT-3G - and the result is already great," said Amy Bender, a physicist at Argon and one of the authors of the paper. "We've got another five years of data that we're working on analyzing right now, so this just hints at what's to come."

Promising future research directions

The dry, stable atmosphere and remote location of the South Pole Telescope create as little interference as possible when searching for CMB patterns. However, data from the highly sensitive SPT-3G camera contains contamination from the atmosphere, as well as our own galaxy and extragalactic sources. Analyzing even a few months of data from SPT-3G is a years-long task, as researchers have to validate data, filter out noise, and interpret measurements. The team used a dedicated computer cluster at the Argon Laboratory's Computing Resource Center to run some of the calculations for the study.

"We found that the obsolescence patterns observed in this study are well explained by the theory of general relativity," Pan said. "This suggests that our current understanding of gravity is correct for these large scales. The results also strengthen our existing understanding of how structures of matter formed in our universe."

Data from SPT-3G lens maps from other years will also help investigate cosmic inflation, or the idea that the early universe underwent rapid exponential expansion. Cosmic inflation is "another cornerstone of cosmology," Pan noted, "and scientists are looking for signs of early gravitational waves and other direct evidence for this theory. The presence of gravitational contamination creates a disturbance to inflationary sinks, which necessitates the removal of such contamination, which can be calculated using precise lensing measurements."

While some results from the new SPT-3G data will strengthen existing knowledge, others will raise new questions.

"Every time we add more data, we find more things we don't understand," said Bender, who holds a joint appointment at the University of Chicago. "As you peel back layers of this onion, you learn more and more about your device and also about your scientific measurement of the sky."

"So little is known about the invisible components of the universe that any understanding gained is critical," Pan said: "The more we learn about the distribution of dark matter, the closer we get to understanding its nature and role in creating the universe we live in today."

Reference: "Measurement of gravitational quenching of the cosmic microwave background using SPT-3G data 2018″ until December 12, 2023, Physical Review D.

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