Jonathan Leon-Tavares

Dr. Jonathan Leon-Tavares

Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek VITO NV, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
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Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

20Years (2007-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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29 October 2014 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Verified
Journal Article
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PCPlanck Collaboration
Planck Collaboration
PAP. A. R. Ade
P. A. R. Ade
NAN. Aghanim
N. Aghanim
CAC. Armitage-Caplan
C. Armitage-Caplan
MAM. Arnaud
M. Arnaud
AZA. Zonca
A. Zonca
This paper presents the first cosmological results based on Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and lensing-potential power spectra. We find that the Planck spectra at high multipoles (ℓ ≳ 40) are extremely well described by the standard spatially-flat six-parameter ΛCDM cosmology with a power-law spectrum of adiabatic scalar perturbations. Within the context of this cosmology, the Planck data determine the cosmological parameters to high precision: the angular size of the sound horizon at recombination, the physical densities of baryons and cold dark matter, and the scalar spectral index are estimated to be θ ∗ = (1.04147 ± 0.00062) × 10-2, Ωb h 2 = 0.02205 ± 0.00028, Ωc h 2 = 0.1199 ± 0.0027, and n s = 0.9603 ± 0.0073, respectively(note that in this abstract we quote 68% errors on measured parameters and 95% upper limits on other parameters). For this cosmology, we find a low value of the Hubble constant, H 0 = (67.3 ± 1.2) km s-1 Mpc-1, and a high value of the matter density parameter, Ωm = 0.315 ± 0.017. These values are in tension with recent direct measurements of H 0 and the magnitude-redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae, but are in excellent agreement with geometrical constraints from baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) surveys. Including curvature, we find that the Universe is consistent with spatial flatness to percent level precision using Planck CMB data alone. We use high-resolution CMB data together with Planck to provide greater control on extragalactic foreground components in an investigation of extensions to the six-parameter ΛCDM model. We present selected results from a large grid of cosmological models, using a range of additional astrophysical data sets in addition to Planck and high-resolution CMB data. None of these models are favoured over the standard six-parameter ΛCDM cosmology. The deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity isinsensitive to the addition of tensor modes and to changes in the matter content of the Universe. We find an upper limit of r 0.002 < 0.11 on the tensor-to-scalar ratio. There is no evidence for additional neutrino-like relativistic particles beyond the three families of neutrinos in the standard model. Using BAO and CMB data, we find N eff = 3.30 ± 0.27 for the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, and an upper limit of 0.23 eV for the sum of neutrino masses. Our results are in excellent agreement with big bang nucleosynthesis and the standard value of N eff = 3.046. We find no evidence for dynamical dark energy; using BAO and CMB data, the dark energy equation of state parameter is constrained to be w = -1.13-0.10 +0.13. We also use the Planck data to set limits on a possible variation of the fine-structure constant, dark matter annihilation and primordial magnetic fields. Despite the success of the six-parameter ΛCDM model in describing the Planck data at high multipoles, we note that this cosmology does not provide a good fit to the temperature power spectrum at low multipoles. The unusual shape of the spectrum in the multipole range 20 ≲ ℓ ≲ 40 was seen previously in the WMAP data and is a real feature of the primordial CMB anisotropies. The poor fit to the spectrum at low multipoles is not of decisive significance, but is an “anomaly” in an otherwise self-consistent analysis of the Planck temperature data.

29 October 2014 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
PCPlanck Collaboration
Planck Collaboration
PAP. A. R. Ade
P. A. R. Ade
NAN. Aghanim
N. Aghanim
MAM. I. R. Alves
M. I. R. Alves
CAC. Armitage-Caplan
C. Armitage-Caplan
AZA. Zonca
A. Zonca
The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched 14 May 2009 and has been scanning the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously since 12 August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5 months of Planck data, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper gives an overview of the mission and its performance, the processing, analysis, and characteristics of the data, the scientific results, and the science data products and papers in the release. The science products include maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and diffuse extragalactic foregrounds, a catalogue of compact Galactic and extragalactic sources, and a list of sources detected through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The likelihood code used to assess cosmological models against the Planck data and a lensing likelihood are described. Scientific results include robust support for the standard six-parameter ΛCDM model of cosmology and improved measurements of its parameters, including a highly significant deviation from scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum. The Planck values for these parameters and others derived from them are significantly different from those previously determined. Several large-scale anomalies in the temperature distribution of the CMB, first detected by WMAP, are confirmed with higher confidence. Planck sets new limits on the number and mass of neutrinos, and has measured gravitational lensing of CMB anisotropies at greater than 25σ. Planck finds no evidence for non-Gaussianity in the CMB. Planck’s results agree well with results from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. Planck finds a lower Hubble constant than found in some more local measures. Some tension is also present between the amplitude of matter fluctuations (σ 8) derived from CMB data and that derived from Sunyaev-Zeldovich data. The Planck and WMAP power spectra are offset from each other by an average level of about 2% around the first acoustic peak. Analysis of Planck polarization data is not yet mature, therefore polarization results are not released, although the robust detection of E-mode polarization around CMB hot and cold spots is shown graphically.

20 September 2016 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Journal Article
Open access
PCPlanck Collaboration
Planck Collaboration
RAR. Adam
R. Adam
PAP. A. R. Ade
P. A. R. Ade
NAN. Aghanim
N. Aghanim
Yashar AkramiYashar Akrami
Yashar Akrami
AZA. Zonca
A. Zonca
Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is an international journal which publishes papers on all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics

29 October 2014 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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PCPlanck Collaboration
Planck Collaboration
AAA. Abergel
A. Abergel
PAP. A. R. Ade
P. A. R. Ade
NAN. Aghanim
N. Aghanim
MAM. I. R. Alves
M. I. R. Alves
AZA. Zonca
A. Zonca
This paper presents an all-sky model of dust emission from the Planck 353, 545, and 857 GHz, and IRAS 100 μm data. Using a modified blackbody fit to the data we present all-sky maps of the dust optical depth, temperature, and spectral index over the 353–3000 GHz range. This model is a good representation of the IRAS and Planck data at 5′ between 353 and 3000 GHz (850 and 100 μm). It shows variations of the order of 30% compared with the widely-used model of Finkbeiner, Davis, and Schlegel. The Planck data allow us to estimate the dust temperature uniformly over the whole sky, down to an angular resolution of 5′, providing an improved estimate of the dust optical depth compared to previous all-sky dust model, especially in high-contrast molecular regions where the dust temperature varies strongly at small scales in response to dust evolution, extinction, and/or local production of heating photons. An increase of the dust opacity at 353 GHz, τ 353/N H, from the diffuse to the denser interstellar medium (ISM) is reported. It is associated with a decrease in the observed dust temperature, T obs, that could be due at least in part to the increased dust opacity. We also report an excess of dust emission at H i column densities lower than 1020 cm-2 that could be the signature of dust in the warm ionized medium. In the diffuse ISM at high Galactic latitude, we report an anticorrelation between τ 353/N H and T obs while the dust specific luminosity, i.e., the total dust emission integrated over frequency (the radiance) per hydrogen atom, stays about constant, confirming one of the Planck Early Results obtained on selected fields. This effect is compatible with the view that, in the diffuse ISM, T obs responds to spatial variations of the dust opacity, due to variations of dust properties, in addition to (small) variations of the radiation field strength. The implication is that in the diffuse high-latitude ISM τ 353 is not as reliable a tracer of dust column density as we conclude it is in molecular clouds where the correlation of τ 353 with dust extinction estimated using colour excess measurements on stars is strong. To estimate Galactic E(B − V) in extragalactic fields at high latitude we develop a new method based on the thermal dust radiance, instead of the dust optical depth, calibrated to E(B − V) using reddening measurements of quasars deduced from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data.

29 October 2014 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
PAP A R Ade
P A R Ade
NAN Aghanim
N Aghanim
CAC Armitagecaplan
C Armitagecaplan
MAM Arnaud
M Arnaud
MAM Ashdown
M Ashdown
AZA Zonca
A Zonca
This paper presents the Planck 2013 likelihood, a complete statistical description of the two-point correlation function of the CMB temperature fluctuations that accounts for all known relevant uncertainties, both instrumental and astrophysical in nature. We use this likelihood to derive our best estimate of the CMB angular power spectrum from Planck over three decades in multipole moment, ℓ, covering 2 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2500. The main source of uncertainty at ℓ ≲ 1500 is cosmic variance. Uncertainties in small-scale foreground modelling and instrumental noise dominate the error budget at higher ℓs. For ℓ < 50, our likelihood exploits all Planck frequency channels from 30 to 353 GHz, separating the cosmological CMB signal from diffuse Galactic foregrounds through a physically motivated Bayesian component separation technique. At ℓ ≥ 50, we employ a correlated Gaussian likelihood approximation based on a fine-grained set of angular cross-spectra derived from multiple detector combinations between the 100, 143, and 217 GHz frequency channels, marginalising over power spectrum foreground templates. We validate our likelihood through an extensive suite of consistency tests, and assess the impact of residual foreground and instrumental uncertainties on the final cosmological parameters. We find good internal agreement among the high-ℓ cross-spectra with residuals below a few μK2 at ℓ ≲ 1000, in agreement with estimated calibration uncertainties. We compare our results with foreground-cleaned CMB maps derived from all Planck frequencies, as well as with cross-spectra derived from the 70 GHz Planck map, and find broad agreement in terms of spectrum residuals and cosmological parameters. We further show that the best-fit ΛCDM cosmology is in excellent agreement with preliminary Planck EE and TE polarisation spectra. We find that the standard ΛCDM cosmology is well constrained by Planck from the measurements at ℓ ≲ 1500. One specific example is the spectral index of scalar perturbations, for which we report a 5.4σ deviation from scale invariance, n s = 1. Increasing the multipole range beyond ℓ ≃ 1500 does not increase our accuracy for the ΛCDM parameters, but instead allows us to study extensions beyond the standard model. We find no indication of significant departures from the ΛCDM framework. Finally, we report a tension between the Planck best-fit ΛCDM model and the low-ℓ spectrum in the form of a power deficit of 5–10% at ℓ ≲ 40, with a statistical significance of 2.5–3σ. Without a theoretically motivated model for this power deficit, we do not elaborate further on its cosmological implications, but note that this is our most puzzling finding in an otherwise remarkably consistent data set.

29 October 2014 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
PCPlanck Collaboration
Planck Collaboration
PAP. A. R. Ade
P. A. R. Ade
NAN. Aghanim
N. Aghanim
CAC. Armitage-Caplan
C. Armitage-Caplan
MAM. Arnaud
M. Arnaud
AZA. Zonca
A. Zonca
We present constraints on cosmological parameters using number counts as a function of redshift for a sub-sample of 189 galaxy clusters from the Planck SZ (PSZ) catalogue. The PSZ is selected through the signature of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect, and the sub-sample used here has a signal-to-noise threshold of seven, with each object confirmed as a cluster and all but one with a redshift estimate. We discuss the completeness of the sample and our construction of a likelihood analysis. Using a relation between mass M and SZ signal Y calibrated to X-ray measurements, we derive constraints on the power spectrum amplitude σ 8 and matter density parameter Ωm in a flat ΛCDM model. We test the robustness of our estimates and find that possible biases in the Y–M relation and the halo mass function are larger than the statistical uncertainties from the cluster sample. Assuming the X-ray determined mass to be biased low relative to the true mass by between zero and 30%, motivated by comparison of the observed mass scaling relations to those from a set of numerical simulations, we find that σ 8 = 0.75 ± 0.03, Ωm = 0.29 ± 0.02, and σ 8(Ωm/ 0.27)0.3 = 0.764 ± 0.025. The value of σ 8 is degenerate with the mass bias; if the latter is fixed to a value of 20% (the central value from numerical simulations) we find σ 8(Ωm/0.27)0.3 = 0.78 ± 0.01 and a tighter one-dimensional range σ 8 = 0.77 ± 0.02. We find that the larger values of σ 8 and Ωm preferred by Planck’s measurements of the primary CMB anisotropies can be accommodated by a mass bias of about 40%. Alternatively, consistency with the primary CMB constraints can be achieved by inclusion of processes that suppress power on small scales relative to the ΛCDM model, such as a component of massive neutrinos. We place our results in the context of other determinations of cosmologicalparameters, and discuss issues that need to be resolved in order to make further progress in this field.