Following a quasi model-independent approach we measure the transversal BAO mode at high redshift using the two-point angular correlation function (2PACF). The analyses done here are only possible now with the quasar catalogue from the twelfth data release (DR12Q) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, because it is spatially dense enough to allow the measurement of the angular BAO signature with moderate statistical significance and acceptable precision. Our analyses with quasars in the redshift interval z ∈ [2.20, 2.25] produce the angular BAO scale θ BAO = 1.77 • ± 0.31 • with a statistical significance of 2.12 σ (i.e., 97% confidence level), calculated through a likelihood analysis performed using the theoretical covariance matrix sourced by the analytical power spectra expected in the ΛCDM concordance model. Additionally, we show that the BAO signal is robust -although with less statistical significance-under diverse bin-size choices and under small displacements of the quasars' angular coordinates. Finally, we also performed cosmological parameter analyses comparing the θ BAO predictions for wCDM and w(a)CDM models with angular BAO data available in the literature, including the measurement obtained here, jointly with CMB data. The constraints on the parameters Ω M , w 0 and w a are in excellent agreement with the ΛCDM concordance model.

The presence of massive neutrinos affects structure formation, leaving imprints on large-scale structure observables such as the weak lensing field. The common lensing analyses with two-point statistics are insensitive to the large amount of non-Gaussian information in the density field. We investigate non-Gaussian tools, in particular the Minkowski Functionals (MFs)-morphological descriptors including area, perimeter, and genus-in an attempt to recover the higher-order information. We use convergence maps from the Cosmological Massive Neutrino Simulations (MassiveNus) and assume galaxy noise, density, and redshift distribution for an LSST-like survey. We show that MFs are sensitive to the neutrino mass sum, and the sensitivity is redshift dependent and is non-Gaussian. We find that redshift tomography significantly improves the constraints on neutrino mass for MFs, compared to the improvements for the power spectrum. We attribute this to the stronger redshift dependence of neutrino effects on small scales. We then build an emulator to model the power spectrum and MFs, and study the constraints on [M ν , Ω m , A s ] from the power spectrum, MFs, and their combination. We show that MFs significantly outperform the power spectrum in constraining neutrino mass, by more than a factor of four. However, a thorough study of the impact from systematics such as baryon physics and galaxy shape and redshift biases will be important to realize the full potential of MFs.

We probe the anisotropy of the large-scale structure (LSS) with the WISE-2MASS catalogue. This analysis is performed by a directional comparison of the galaxy number counts through the entire celestial sphere once systematic effects, such as star-galaxy separation and foregrounds contamination, are properly taken into account. We find a maximal hemispherical asymmetry whose dipolar component is A = 0.0507 ± 0.0014 toward the (l, b) = (323• , −5 • ) direction, whose result is consistent with previous estimations of our proper motion in low and intermediate redshifts, as those carried out with Type Ia Supernovae and similar LSS catalogues. Furthermore, this dipole amplitude is statistically consistent (p-value = 0.061) with mock catalogues simulated according to the expected ΛCDM matter density fluctuations, in addition to observational biases such as the incomplete celestial coverage and anisotropic sky exposure. Our results suggest, therefore, that there is no strong evidence for anomalous anisotropy in the LSS, given the limitations and systematics of current data, in the concordance model scenario.

Context. Precision measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies require excellent rejection of common-mode signals and wide frequency coverage. Aims. We describe an imaging, efficient, differential Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS), optimized for measurements of faint brightness gradients at millimeter wavelengths. Methods. Our instrument is based on a Martin-Puplett interferometer (MPI) configuration. We combined two MPIs working synchronously to use the whole input power. In our implementation the observed sky field is divided into two halves along the meridian, and each half-field corresponds to one of the two input ports of the MPI. In this way, each detector in the FTS focal planes measures the difference in brightness between two sky pixels, symmetrically located with respect to the meridian. Exploiting the high commonmode rejection of the MPI, we can measure low sky brightness gradients over a high isotropic background. Results. The instrument works in the range ∼1−20 cm −1 (30−600 GHz), has a maximum spectral resolution 1/(2 OPD) = 0.063 cm −1(1.9 GHz), and an unvignetted throughput of 2.3 cm 2 sr. It occupies a volume of 0.7 × 0.7 × 0.33 m 3 and has a weight of 70 kg. This design can be implemented as a cryogenic unit to be used in space, as well as a room-temperature unit working at the focus of suborbital and ground-based mm-wave telescopes. The first in-flight test of the instrument is with the OLIMPO experiment on a stratospheric balloon; a larger implementation is being prepared for the Sardinia radio telescope.

Minkowski Functionals (MF) are excellent tools to investigate the statistical properties of the cosmic background radiation (CMB) maps. Between their notorious advantages is the possibility to use them efficiently in patches of the CMB sphere, which allow studies in masked skies, inclusive analyses of small sky regions. Then, possible deviations from Gaussianity are investigated by comparison with MF obtained from a set of Gaussian isotropic simulated CMB maps to which are applied the same cut-sky masks. These analyses are sensitive enough to detect contaminations of small intensity like primary and secondary CMB anisotropies. Our methodology uses the MF, widely employed to study non-Gaussianities in CMB data, and asserts Gaussian deviations only when all of them points out an exceptional χ 2 value, at more than 2.2 σ confidence level, in a given sky patch. Following this rigorous procedure, we find 13 regions in the foreground-cleaned Planck maps that evince such high levels of non-Gaussian deviations. According to our results, these non-Gaussian contributions show signatures that can be associated to the presence of hot or cold spots in such regions. Moreover, some of these non-Gaussian deviations signals suggest the presence of foreground residuals in those regions located near the galactic plane. Additionally, we confirm that most of the regions revealed in our analyses, but not all, have been recently reported in studies done by the Planck collaboration. Furthermore, we also investigate whether these non-Gaussian deviations can be possibly sourced by systematics, like inhomogeneous noise and beam effect in the released Planck data, or perhaps due to residual galactic foregrounds.

Abstract. The extensive search for deviations from Gaussianity in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) data is very important due to the information about the very early moments of the universe encoded there. Recent analyses from Planck CMB data do not exclude the presence of non-Gaussianity of small amplitude, although they are consistent with the Gaussian hypothesis. The use of different techniques is essential to provide information about types and amplitudes of non-Gaussianities in the CMB data. In particular, we find interesting to construct an estimator based upon the combination of two powerful statistical tools that appears to be sensitive enough to detect tiny deviations from Gaussianity in CMB maps. This estimator combines the Minkowski functionals with a Neural Network, maximizing a tool widely used to study non-Gaussian signals with a reinforcement of another tool designed to identify patterns in a data set. We test our estimator by analyzing simulated CMB maps contaminated with different amounts of local primordial non-Gaussianity quantified by the dimensionless parameter f NL . We apply it to these sets of CMB maps and find 98% of chance of positive detection, even for small intensity local non-Gaussianity like f NL = 38 ± 18, the current limit from Planck data for large angular scales. Additionally, we test the suitability to distinguish between primary and secondary non-Gaussianities: first we train the Neural Network with two sets, one of nearly Gaussian CMB maps (|f NL | ≤ 10) but contaminated with realistic inhomogeneous Planck noise (i.e., secondary non-Gaussianity) and the other of non-Gaussian CMB maps, that is, maps endowed with weak primordial nonGaussianity (28 ≤ f NL ≤ 48); after that we test an ensemble composed of CMB maps either with one of these non-Gaussian contaminations, and find out that our method successfully classifies ∼ 95% of the tested maps as being CMB maps containing primordial or secondary non-Gaussianity. Furthermore, we analyze the foreground-cleaned Planck maps obtaining constraints for non-Gaussianity at large-angles that are in good agreement with recent constraints. Finally, we also test the robustness of our estimator including cut-sky masks and realistic noise maps measured by Planck, obtaining successful results as well.

Context. Observations of the redshifted 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen (Hi) are a new and powerful window of observation that offers us the possibility to map the spatial distribution of cosmic Hi and learn about cosmology. Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations (BINGO) is a new unique radio telescope designed to be one of the first to probe baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) at radio frequencies.Aims. BINGO has two science goals: cosmology and astrophysics. Cosmology is the main science goal and the driver for BINGO's design and strategy. The key of BINGO is to detect the low redshift BAO to put strong constraints on the dark sector models and test the ΛCDM (cold dark matter) model. Given the versatility of the BINGO telescope, a secondary goal is astrophysics, where BINGO can help discover and study fast radio bursts (FRB) and other transients, as well as study Galactic and extragalactic science. In this paper, we introduce the latest progress of the BINGO project, its science goals, describing the scientific potential of the project for each goal and the new developments obtained by the collaboration. Methods. BINGO is a single dish transit telescope that will measure the BAO at low-z by making a 3D map of the Hi distribution through the technique of intensity mapping over a large area of the sky. In order to achieve the project's goals, a science strategy and a specific pipeline for cleaning and analyzing the produced maps and mock maps was developed by the BINGO team, which we generally summarize here. Results. We introduce the BINGO project and its science goals and give a general summary of recent developments in construction, science potential, and pipeline development obtained by the BINGO collaboration in the past few years. We show that BINGO will be able to obtain competitive constraints for the dark sector. It also has the potential to discover several FRBs in the southern hemisphere. The capacity of BINGO in obtaining information from 21-cm is also tested in the pipeline introduced here. Following these developments, the construction and observational strategies of BINGO have been defined. Conclusions. There is still no measurement of the BAO in radio, and studying cosmology in this new window of observations is one of the most promising advances in the field. The BINGO project is a radio telescope that has the goal to be one of the first to perform this measurement and it is currently being built in the northeast of Brazil. This paper is the first of a series of papers that describe in detail each part of the development of the BINGO project.

The clustering properties of the Universe at large-scales are currently being probed at various redshifts through several cosmological tracers and with diverse statistical estimators. Here we use the three-point angular correlation function (3PACF) to probe the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features in the quasars catalogue from the twelfth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with mean redshift z = 2.225, detecting the BAO imprint with a statistical significance of 2.9 σ, obtained using lognormal mocks. Following a quasi modelindependent approach for the 3PACF, we find the BAO transversal signature for triangles with sides θ 1 = 1.0 • and θ 2 = 1.5 • and the angle between them of α = 1.59 ± 0.17 rad, a value that corresponds to the angular BAO scale θ BAO = 1.82 • ± 0.21 • , in excellent agreement with the value found in a recent work (θ BAO = 1.77 • ± 0.31 • ) applying the 2PACF to similar data. Moreover, we performed two type of tests: one to confirm the robustness of the BAO signal in the 3PACF through random displacements in the dataset, and the other to verify the suitability of our random samples, a null test that in fact does not show any signature that could bias our results.