Probing the Evolution of the Gas Mass Fraction with the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect

Study of the primary anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)can be used to determine the cosmological parameters to a very high precision.The power spectrum of the secondary CMB anisotropies due to the thermalSunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) by clusters of galaxies, can then be studied,to constrain more cluster specific properties (like gas mass). We show the SZEpower spectrum from clusters to be a sensitive probe of any possible evolution(or constancy) of the gas mass fraction. The position of the peak of the SZEpower spectrum is a strong discriminatory signature of different gas massfraction evolution models. For example, for a flat universe, there can be adifference in the $l$ values (of the peak) of {\it as much as 3000} between aconstant gas mass fraction model and an evolutionary one. Moreover,observational determination of power spectrum, from blank sky surveys, isdevoid of any selection effects that can possibly affect targeted X-ray orradio studies of gas mass fractions in galaxy clusters.Comment: 4 pages plus 2 figures, uses emulateap