We present evidence for redshift quantization in the Lyman -a forest of several QSOs. The Ly -a data are at redshifts z from 1.89 to 3.74, and the theory of redshift quantization proposed by Cocke (1983, 1085) is used to scale the quantization interval (24.15 km s -') to these high redshift. The sealing depends on the deceleration parameter qo, and the quantization is present at a statistical significance of greater than 99% for qo = 1/2. This may be taken as confirming the inflationary model of the early history of the universe. The significance of the quantization is highest at go rs 0.48, and the width of the peak is about 0.03 . The result can also be seen as providing confirmatory evidence for both the theory of the redshift quantization and the above value of qo, but at a significance of only 03 %. The scenario proposed for the relativistic generalization of the theory is that of fermion wavefunctione and quantum operators in a background Riemannian spacetime satisfying Einstein's field equations.

Luminous quasars at z > 5.6 can be studied in detail with the current generation of telescopes and provide us with unique information on the first gigayear of the universe. Thus far, these studies have been statistically limited by the number of quasars known at these redshifts. Such quasars are rare, and therefore, wide-field surveys are required to identify them, and multiwavelength data are required to separate them efficiently from their main contaminants, the far more numerous cool dwarfs. In this paper, we update and extend the selection for the z similar to 6 quasars presented in Banados et al. (2014) using the Pan- STARRS1 (PS1) survey. We present the PS1 distant quasar sample, which currently consists of 124 quasars in the redshift range 5.6 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 6.7 that satisfy our selection criteria. Of these quasars, 77 have been discovered with PS1, and 63 of them are newly identified in this paper. We present the composite spectra of the PS1 distant quasar sample. This sample spans a factor of similar to 20 in luminosity and shows a variety of emission line properties. The number of quasars at z > 5.6 presented in this work almost doubles the previously known quasars at these redshifts, marking a transition phase from studies of individual sources to statistical studies of the high-redshift quasar population, which was impossible with earlier, smaller samples.

In this thesis I construct various models to interpret measurements of the clustering of dusty star-forming galaxies through the angular power spectrum statistic. The goals of this work are, firstly, to facilitate the separation of the dusty galaxy contribution from the cosmic microwave background background (CMB) power spectrum, and, secondly, to improve our understanding of the physical properties of these galaxies. I present analysis of the first cross-correlation of millimeter and submillimeter sky maps, using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST), which revealed that the dusty galaxies that dominate the submillimeter sky are, to a significant extent, those same sources that are a nuisance contaminant for CMB cosmology. I then perform a joint fit to the ACT and BLAST power spectra as well as early results from the Planck Surveyor to construct a simple phenomenological template for the frequency and angular scale dependence of the contribution from clustered dusty galaxies to the total power spectrum. This template may be used to assist in extracting the CMB signal from future ACT and other data sets. The correlation between dusty galaxies and the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect leads to an additional contribution to the measured angular power spectrum that further hampers constraining quantities of cosmological interest. I present the first physically-motivated model for this correlation, and make predictions for its frequency and scale dependence as a CMB foreground. Finally, I combine angular power spectrum measurements from ACT, Planck and other instruments with deep far-infrared and submillimeter source number counts and constrain a model for the emission properties of these dusty galaxies. I demonstrate that the power spectrum carries significant constraining power and can improve our understanding of dust emission and star formation from unresolved objects at high redshift.

ΛCDM cosmology is described in terms of general relativity and the Robertson-Walker metric. The evolution of the observable universe, currently dominated by dark energy (Λ) and cold dark matter (CDM), is presented in terms of its thermal history. CDM is extended to include an inflation epoch that accelerates the early expansion rate to near exponential levels. It is shown that inflation solves several problems in CDM and produces perturbations in the metric that lead to the observed anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background and the formation of large scale cosmological structures. Various theories of inflation are explored. Predictions of inflation theories are compared to observations published by the Planck Collaboration. The paper concludes with an examination of “𝜶-attractor” theories of inflation based on a modified form of gravity.

In this paper, we write a summary about general relativity and, in particular,gravitational waves. We start by discussing the mathematics that generalrelativity uses, as well as the geometry in general relativity's spacetime. Afterwards,we explain linearized general relativity and derive the linearizedversions of Einstein's equations. From here, we construct wave solutionsand explain the polarization of gravitational waves. The quadrupole formulais derived, and generation and detection of gravitational waves is brie ydiscussed. Finally, LIGO and its latest discovery of gravitational waves isreviewed.

Contemporary cosmology is a vibrant field, with data and observations increasing rapidly. This allows for accurate estimation of the parameters describing our cosmological model. In this thesis we present new research based on two different types of cosmological observations, which probe the universe at multiple epochs. We begin by reviewing the current concordance cosmological paradigm, and the statistical tools used to perform parameter estimation from cosmological data. We highlight the initial conditions in the universe and how they are detectable using the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. We present the angular power spectrum data from temperature observations made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the methods used to estimate the power spectrum from temperature maps of the sky. We then present a cosmological analysis using the ACT data in combination with observations from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe to constrain parameters such as the effective number of relativistic species and the spectral index of the primordial power spectrum, which we constrain to deviate from scale invariance at the 99% confidence limit. We then use this combined dataset to constrain the primordial power spectrum in a minimally parametric framework, finding no evidence for deviation from a power-law spectrum. Finally we present Bayesian Estimation Applied to Multiple Species, a parameter estimation technique using photometric Type Ia Supernova data to estimate cosmological parameters in the presence of contaminated data. We apply this algorithm to the full season of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II Supernova Search, and find that the constraints are improved by a factor of three relative to the case where one uses a smaller, spectroscopically confirmed subset of supernovae.

We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest systematic all-sky survey of galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing > 10(3) confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the estimates of the SZ strength parameter Y-5R500 are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y-500 requires the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, and X-ray data sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under-luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples.

No description available.

A thesis submitted in ful lment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Physics July 2017. / Based on the Marenostrum-MultiDark Simulation of galaxy Clusters (MUSIC) we develop semi-analytical models which provide multi-wavelength emission maps generated by dark matter (DM) annihilation processes in galaxy clusters and their sub-halos. We focus on radio and gamma-ray emission maps from neutralino DM annihilation processes testing two different neutralino masses, Mx = 35 GeV and 60 GeV along with two different models of the magnetic elds. A comparison of the radio ux densities from our DM annihilation model with the observed difuse radio emission from the Coma cluster shows that they are of the same order of magnitude. We determine the DM densities with a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) kernel. This enables us to integrate the DM annihilation signal along any given line-of-sight through the volume of the cluster. In particular it allows us to investigate the contribution of sub-halos to the DM annihilation signal with very high resolution. Zooming in on a subset of high mass-to-light ratio (M/L) DM sub-halos, i.e. DM sub-halos with very low baryon content, we demonstrate that such targets can generate prominent annihilation signals. The radial distribution of high M/L DM sub-halos is more strongly peaked at R200crit = 1 compared to the distribution of all sub-halos which may suggest that the search for DM annihilation signals from sub-halos in clusters is most promising at R200crit. The radio ux densities from DM sub-halos are well within the sensitivity limit of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) with an integration time of 1000 hours, and unlike clusters their gamma-ray spectrum is seen to be dominated by pion decay over a wide range of gamma-ray energies. Our model makes clear predictions for future radio and gamma-ray observations of the DM annihilation signals in clusters and their sub-halos. / LG2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg / In this thesis we investigate the evolution of viscous FRW cosmological models for two different constitutive equations for the bulk viscous pressure a, namely (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2018