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A census of baryons in the Universe from localized fast radio bursts

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arxiv 2005.13161 v1 pith:PXFO74AH submitted 2020-05-27 astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GAastro-ph.HE

classification astro-ph.COastro-ph.GAastro-ph.HE
keywords universebaryongalaxiesgalaxylinesamplealongbaryons
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

More than three quarters of the baryonic content of the Universe resides in a highly diffuse state that is difficult to observe, with only a small fraction directly observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters. Censuses of the nearby Universe have used absorption line spectroscopy to observe these invisible baryons, but these measurements rely on large and uncertain corrections and are insensitive to the majority of the volume, and likely mass. Specifically, quasar spectroscopy is sensitive either to only the very trace amounts of Hydrogen that exists in the atomic state, or highly ionized and enriched gas in denser regions near galaxies. Sunyaev-Zel'dovich analyses provide evidence of some of the gas in filamentary structures and studies of X-ray emission are most sensitive to gas near galaxy clusters. Here we report the direct measurement of the baryon content of the Universe using the dispersion of a sample of localized fast radio bursts (FRBs), thus utilizing an effect that measures the electron column density along each sight line and accounts for every ionised baryon. We augment the sample of published arcsecond-localized FRBs with a further four new localizations to host galaxies which have measured redshifts of 0.291, 0.118, 0.378 and 0.522, completing a sample sufficiently large to account for dispersion variations along the line of sight and in the host galaxy environment to derive a cosmic baryon density of $\Omega_{b} = 0.051_{-0.025}^{+0.021} \, h_{70}^{-1}$ (95% confidence). This independent measurement is consistent with Cosmic Microwave Background and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis values.

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Cited by 13 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. The One-Loop Power Spectrum of Fast Radio Burst Dispersion Measures

    astro-ph.CO 2026-08 accept novelty 7.0 of 10

    A one-loop EFT power spectrum model for FRB free-electron clustering matches FLAMINGO simulations to k ~ 0.2 h/Mpc, with electron bias b_e ~ 0.92 and near-perfect electron-matter correlation.

  2. Shear-kSZ: A New Estimator for the Matter-Electron Power Spectrum from kSZ Tomography and Weak Lensing

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    Shear–kSZ correlates kSZ, tomographic line-of-sight velocity, and lensing convergence to measure P_me(k) and thereby the baryonic matter-power suppression S(k) at high forecast significance.

  3. Discovery of a radio-flaring M dwarf in a commensal transient search of the LADUMA field

    astro-ph.SR 2026-07 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

    MeerKAT LADUMA monitoring reveals a radio-flaring M3.5 dwarf, LP 888-63, with 13 detections in 41 epochs at 816 MHz.

  4. Testing the Isotropy of the Universe with the CHIME/FRB Catalog I

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A 536-burst CHIME FRB sample shows no statistically significant directional anisotropy, though the test's constraining power is limited.

  5. Evaluating the flexibility of the MillenniumTNG galaxy formation model with multi-zoom re-simulations

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A parameter combination of the MillenniumTNG galaxy-formation model is found that reproduces the observed galaxy stellar-mass function and the lower gas fractions measured in groups and clusters, showing the model is ...

  6. Fast Radio Bursts Trace Cosmic Star Formation with Little Delay

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Hierarchical Bayesian analysis of CHIME/FRB finds the FRB volumetric rate peaks with the cosmic star-formation history at mean delays of 0.1–0.3 Gyr, consistent with zero delay and ruling out multi-Gyr merger-like delays.

  7. Detection of Partial Coherence due to Multipath Propagation for FRB 20220413B with CHIME/FRB

    astro-ph.HE 2025-12 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    FRB 20220413B's components share a common Milky Way scintillation pattern but show no phase-coherent lensing signature, so the complex morphology is not confirmed as plasma lensing.

  8. Unified kinetic theory of induced scattering: Compton, Brillouin, and Raman processes in magnetized electron and positron pair plasma

    astro-ph.HE 2025-10 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In strongly magnetized pair plasma, induced Compton and Brillouin scattering dominate in ordinary/neutral modes, while stimulated Raman scattering is enabled in a charged mode with growth rate (t_R)^-1 = a_e (omega0/o...

  9. Constraining the Baryon Fraction in Extragalactic Diffuse Ionized Gas with 124 Localized Fast Radio Bursts

    astro-ph.CO 2025-06 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Analyzing 92 localized FRBs with a Jacobian-corrected IGM dispersion PDF plus CMB, BAO, and supernova data gives f_IGM = 0.864 ± 0.041 (YMW16, ΛCDM); the abstract's '124 bursts, f_d > 90%' headline is not supported by...

  10. Probing Primordial Black Holes with upcoming Radio Telescopes: a case study for LOFAR2.0, FAST Core Array and BINGO

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    LOFAR2.0, FAST Core Array and BINGO can constrain the PBH dark matter fraction f_PBH below 0.16-0.39 for masses above 10^{-2} to 10 solar masses via FRB lensing statistics.

  11. Pad\'e Approximants for cosmic Dispersion Measures

    astro-ph.HE 2025-12 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    Padé approximants reproduce the FRB diffuse dispersion measure integral to within a few percent while evaluating 2–17 times faster than numerical quadrature.

  12. Understanding constraints on primordial mass black holes made of dark matter using fast radio bursts

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 conditional novelty 3.0 of 10

    For the de Sitter–Schwarzschild metric with parameter κ, CHIME FRB data yield fPBH upper limits that vary strongly with κ, and the lensing cutoff pattern resembles plasma scattering.

  13. The Circumgalactic Medium

    astro-ph.GA 2024-12 unverdicted novelty 1.0 of 10

    A comprehensive review of the circumgalactic medium, its multiphase structure, absorption and emission probes, and role in the baryon cycle, containing no new research results.

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