112,349 research outputs found
The matter distribution in the local Universe as derived from galaxy groups in SDSS DR12 and 2MRS
Context. Friends-of-friends algorithms are a common tool to detect galaxy
groups and clusters in large survey data. In order to be as precise as
possible, they have to be carefully calibrated using mock catalogues.
Aims. We create an accurate and robust description of the matter distribution
in the local Universe using the most up-to-date available data. This will
provide the input for a specific cosmological test planned as follow-up to this
work, and will be useful for general extragalactic and cosmological research.
Methods. We created a set of galaxy group catalogues based on the 2MRS and
SDSS DR12 galaxy samples using a friends-of-friends based group finder
algorithm. The algorithm was carefully calibrated and optimised on a new set of
wide-angle mock catalogues from the Millennium simulation, in order to provide
accurate total mass estimates of the galaxy groups taking into account the
relevant observational biases in 2MRS and SDSS.
Results. We provide four different catalogues (i) a 2MRS based group
catalogue; (ii) an SDSS DR12 based group catalogue reaching out to a redshift z
= 0.11 with stellar mass estimates for 70% of the galaxies; (iii) a catalogue
providing additional fundamental plane distances for all groups of the SDSS
catalogue that host elliptical galaxies; (iv) a catalogue of the mass
distribution in the local Universe based on a combination of our 2MRS and SDSS
catalogues.
Conclusions. While motivated by a specific cosmological test, three of the
four catalogues that we produced are well suited to act as reference databases
for a variety of extragalactic and cosmological science cases. Our catalogue of
fundamental plane distances for SDSS groups provides further added value to
this paper.Comment: 31 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in A&
ExoData: A python package to handle large exoplanet catalogue data
Exoplanet science often involves using the system parameters of real
exoplanets for tasks such as simulations, fitting routines, and target
selection for proposals. Several exoplanet catalogues are already well
established but often lack a version history and code friendly interfaces.
Software that bridges the barrier between the catalogues and code enables users
to improve the specific repeatability of results by facilitating the retrieval
of exact system parameters used in an articles results along with unifying the
equations and software used. As exoplanet science moves towards large data,
gone are the days where researchers can recall the current population from
memory. An interface able to query the population now becomes invaluable for
target selection and population analysis. ExoData is a Python interface and
exploratory analysis tool for the Open Exoplanet Catalogue. It allows the
loading of exoplanet systems into Python as objects (Planet, Star, Binary etc)
from which common orbital and system equations can be calculated and measured
parameters retrieved. This allows researchers to use tested code of the common
equations they require (with units) and provides a large science input
catalogue of planets for easy plotting and use in research. Advanced querying
of targets are possible using the database and Python programming language.
ExoData is also able to parse spectral types and fill in missing parameters
according to programmable specifications and equations. Examples of use cases
are integration of equations into data reduction pipelines, selecting planets
for observing proposals and as an input catalogue to large scale simulation and
analysis of planets.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables. Accepted by Computer Physics
Communication
The pulsar spectral index distribution
The flux density spectra of radio pulsars are known to be steep and, to first
order, described by a power-law relationship of the form S_{\nu} \propto
\nu^{\alpha}, where S_{\nu} is the flux density at some frequency \nu and
\alpha is the spectral index. Although measurements of \alpha have been made
over the years for several hundred pulsars, a study of the intrinsic
distribution of pulsar spectra has not been carried out. From the result of
pulsar surveys carried out at three different radio frequencies, we use
population synthesis techniques and a likelihood analysis to deduce what
underlying spectral index distribution is required to replicate the results of
these surveys. We find that in general the results of the surveys can be
modelled by a Gaussian distribution of spectral indices with a mean of -1.4 and
unit standard deviation. We also consider the impact of the so-called
"Gigahertz-peaked spectrum" pulsars. The fraction of peaked spectrum sources in
the population with significant turn-over at low frequencies appears to be at
most 10%. We demonstrate that high-frequency (>2 GHz) surveys preferentially
select flatter-spectrum pulsars and the converse is true for lower-frequency
(<1 GHz) surveys. This implies that any correlations between \alpha and other
pulsar parameters (for example age or magnetic field) need to carefully account
for selection biases in pulsar surveys. We also expect that many known pulsars
which have been detected at high frequencies will have shallow, or positive,
spectral indices. The majority of pulsars do not have recorded flux density
measurements over a wide frequency range, making it impossible to constrain
their spectral shapes. We also suggest that such measurements would allow an
improved description of any populations of pulsars with 'non-standard' spectra.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by MNRA
The Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) Survey: analysis of the extragalactic source sample
The Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey is a blind survey of the whole
Southern sky at 20 GHz with follow-up observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20 GHz
carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this paper we
present an analysis of radio spectral properties in total intensity and
polarisation, sizes, optical identifications, and redshifts of the sample of
the 5808 extragalactic sources in the survey catalogue of confirmed sources
over the whole Southern sky excluding the strip at Galactic latitude
|b|<1.5deg. The sample has a flux density limit of 40 mJy. Completeness has
been measured as a function of scan region and flux density. Averaging over the
whole survey area the follow-up survey is 78% complete above 50mJy and 93%
complete above 100mJy. 3332 sources with declination <-15deg have good quality
almost simultaneous observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20GHz. The spectral analysis
shows that the sample is dominated by flat-spectrum sources. The fraction of
flat-spectrum sources decreases from 81% for 20GHz flux densities S>500mJy, to
60% for S<100mJy. There is also a clear spectral steepening at higher
frequencies with the median spectral index decreasing from -0.16 between 4.8
and 8.6GHz to -0.28 between 8.6 and 20GHz. Simultaneous observations in
polarisation are available for all the sources at all the frequencies. 768
sources have a good quality detection of polarised flux density at 20GHz; 467
of them were also detected in polarisation at 4.8 and/or at 8.6GHz so that it
has been possible to compare the spectral behaviour in total intensity and
polarisation. We have found that the polarised fraction increases slightly with
frequency and decreases with flux density. Cross matches and comparisons have
been made with other catalogues at lower radio frequencies, and in the optical,
X-ray and gamma-ray bands. Redshift estimates are available for 825 sources.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Planck Intermediate Results. IV. The XMM-Newton validation programme for new Planck galaxy clusters
We present the final results from the XMM-Newton validation follow-up of new
Planck galaxy cluster candidates. We observed 15 new candidates, detected with
signal-to-noise ratios between 4.0 and 6.1 in the 15.5-month nominal Planck
survey. The candidates were selected using ancillary data flags derived from
the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and Digitized Sky Survey all-sky maps, with the
aim of pushing into the low SZ flux, high-z regime and testing RASS flags as
indicators of candidate reliability. 14 new clusters were detected by XMM,
including 2 double systems. Redshifts lie in the range 0.2 to 0.9, with 6
clusters at z>0.5. Estimated M500 range from 2.5 10^14 to 8 10^14 Msun. We
discuss our results in the context of the full XMM validation programme, in
which 51 new clusters have been detected. This includes 4 double and 2 triple
systems, some of which are chance projections on the sky of clusters at
different z. We find that association with a RASS-BSC source is a robust
indicator of the reliability of a candidate, whereas association with a FSC
source does not guarantee that the SZ candidate is a bona fide cluster.
Nevertheless, most Planck clusters appear in RASS maps, with a significance
greater than 2 sigma being a good indication that the candidate is a real
cluster. The full sample gives a Planck sensitivity threshold of Y500 ~ 4 10^-4
arcmin^2, with indication for Malmquist bias in the YX-Y500 relation below this
level. The corresponding mass threshold depends on z. Systems with M500 > 5
10^14 Msun at z > 0.5 are easily detectable with Planck. The newly-detected
clusters follow the YX-Y500 relation derived from X-ray selected samples.
Compared to X-ray selected clusters, the new SZ clusters have a lower X-ray
luminosity on average for their mass. There is no indication of departure from
standard self-similar evolution in the X-ray versus SZ scaling properties.
(abridged)Comment: accepted by A&
Quasar Host Environments: The view from Planck
We measure the far-infrared emission of the general quasar (QSO) population
using Planck observations of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey QSO
sample. By applying multi-component matched multi-filters to the seven highest
Planck frequencies, we extract the amplitudes of dust, synchrotron and thermal
Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signals for nearly 300,000 QSOs over the redshift range
. We bin these individually low signal-to-noise measurements to obtain
the mean emission properties of the QSO population as a function of redshift.
The emission is dominated by dust at all redshifts, with a peak at ,
the same location as the peak in the general cosmic star formation rate.
Restricting analysis to radio-loud QSOs, we find synchrotron emission with a
monochromatic luminosity at (rest-frame) rising from
to between
and 3. The radio-quiet subsample does not show any synchrotron emission,
but we detect thermal SZ between and 4; no significant SZ emission is
seen at lower redshifts. Depending on the supposed mass for the halos hosting
the QSOs, this may or may not leave room for heating of the halo gas by
feedback from the QSO.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted by A&
Diffuse neutral hydrogen in the HI Parkes All Sky Survey
Observations of neutral hydrogen can provide a wealth of information about
the distribution and kinematics of galaxies. To detect HI beyond the ionisation
edge of galaxy disks, column density sensitivities have to be achieved that
probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. Typically HI observations are limited
to a brightness sensitivity of NHI~10^19 cm-2 but this has to be improved by at
least an order of magnitude. In this paper, reprocessed data is presented that
was originally observed for the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS). HIPASS
provides complete coverage of the region that has been observed for the
Westerbork Virgo Filament HI Survey (WVFS), presented in accompanying papers,
and thus is an excellent product for data comparison. The region of interest
extends from 8 to 17 hours in right ascension and from -1 to 10 degrees in
declination. Although the original HIPASS product already has good flux
sensitivity, the sensitivity and noise characteristics can be significantly
improved with a different processing method. The newly processed data has an
1sigma RMS flux sensitivity of ~10 mJy beam-1 over 26 km s-1, corresponding to
a column density sensitivity of ~3\cdot10^17 cm-2. While the RMS sensitivity is
improved by only a modest 20%, the more substantial benefit is in the reduction
of spectral artefacts near bright sources by more than an order of magnitude.
In the reprocessed region we confirm all previously catalogued HIPASS sources
and have identified 29 additional sources of which 14 are completely new HI
detections. Extended emission or companions were sought in the nearby
environment of each discrete detection. With the improved sensitivity after
reprocessing and its large sky coverage, the HIPASS data is a valuable resource
for detection of faint HI emission.(Abridged)Comment: 22 pages plus appendix, 6 figures, appendix will only appear in
online format. Accepted for publication in A&
Over half of the far-infrared background light comes from galaxies at z >= 1.2
Submillimetre surveys during the past decade have discovered a population of
luminous, high-redshift, dusty starburst galaxies. In the redshift range 1 <= z
<= 4, these massive submillimetre galaxies go through a phase characterized by
optically obscured star formation at rates several hundred times that in the
local Universe. Half of the starlight from this highly energetic process is
absorbed and thermally re-radiated by clouds of dust at temperatures near 30 K
with spectral energy distributions peaking at 100 microns in the rest frame. At
1 <= z <= 4, the peak is redshifted to wavelengths between 200 and 500 microns.
The cumulative effect of these galaxies is to yield extragalactic optical and
far-infrared backgrounds with approximately equal energy densities. Since the
initial detection of the far-infrared background (FIRB), higher-resolution
experiments have sought to decompose this integrated radiation into the
contributions from individual galaxies. Here we report the results of an
extragalactic survey at 250, 350 and 500 microns. Combining our results at 500
microns with those at 24 microns, we determine that all of the FIRB comes from
individual galaxies, with galaxies at z >= 1.2 accounting for 70 per cent of
it. As expected, at the longest wavelengths the signal is dominated by
ultraluminous galaxies at z > 1.Comment: Accepted to Nature. Maps available at http://blastexperiment.info
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