Constraints on the High-l Power Spectrum of Millimeter-wave Anisotropies from APEX-SZ

TL;DR

This paper presents new measurements of millimeter-wave anisotropies using APEX-SZ, constraining the power spectrum at small angular scales and providing insights into dusty galaxies and secondary CMB anisotropies.

Contribution

The study provides improved constraints on the millimeter-wave anisotropy power spectrum at high multipoles and analyzes the contributions from dusty galaxies and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.

Findings

Limit on total anisotropy power: less than 105 microK^2 at 95% CL.

Best-fit residual power from dusty galaxies: 1.1 x 10^{-5} microK^2.

Upper limit on sigma_8: less than 1.18 at 95% CL.

Abstract

We present measurements of the angular power spectrum of millimeter wave anisotropies with the APEX-SZ instrument. APEX-SZ has mapped 0.8 square degrees of sky at a frequency of 150 GHz with an angular resolution of 1'. These new measurements significantly improve the constraints on anisotropy power at 150 GHz over the range of angular multipoles 3000 < l < 10,000, limiting the total astronomical signal in a flat band power to be less than 105 microK^2 at 95% CL. We expect both submillimeter-bright, dusty galaxies and to a lesser extent secondary CMB anisotropies from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) to significantly contribute to the observed power. Subtracting the SZE power spectrum expected for sigma_8=0.8 and masking bright sources, the best fit value for the remaining power is C_l = 1.1^{+0.9}_{-0.8} x 10^{-5} micro K^2 (1.7^{+1.4}_{-1.3} Jy^2 sr^{-1}). This agrees well with model predictions for power due to submillimeter-bright, dusty galaxies. Comparing this power to the power detected by BLAST at 600 GHz, we find the frequency dependence of the source fluxes to be S_nu ~ nu^{2.6^{+0.4}_{-0.2}} if both experiments measure the same population of sources. Simultaneously fitting for the amplitude of the SZE power spectrum and a Poisson distributed point source population, we place an upper limit on the matter fluctuation amplitude of sigma_8 < 1.18 at 95% confidence.