6,367 research outputs found
Southern Cosmology Survey I: Optical Cluster Detections and Predictions for the Southern Common-Area Millimeter-Wave Experiments
We present first results from the Southern Cosmology Survey, a new
multiwavelength survey of the southern sky coordinated with the Atacama
Cosmology Telescope (ACT), a recently commissioned ground-based mm-band Cosmic
Microwave Background experiment. This article presents a full analysis of
archival optical multi-band imaging data covering an 8 square degree region
near right ascension 23 hours and declination -55 degrees, obtained by the
Blanco 4-m telescope and Mosaic-II camera in late 2005. We describe the
pipeline we have developed to process this large data volume, obtain accurate
photometric redshifts, and detect optical clusters. Our cluster finding process
uses the combination of a matched spatial filter, photometric redshift
probability distributions and richness estimation. We present photometric
redshifts, richness estimates, luminosities, and masses for 8 new
optically-selected clusters with mass greater than 3\times10^{14}M_{\sun} at
redshifts out to 0.7. We also present estimates for the expected
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) signal from these clusters as specific
predictions for upcoming observations by ACT, the South Pole Telescope and
Atacama Pathfinder Experiment.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted in ApJ. Reflects changes from referee
as well as a new Table providing mass estimates and positions for all
clusters in the surve
Pseudo-random number generators for Monte Carlo simulations on Graphics Processing Units
Basic uniform pseudo-random number generators are implemented on ATI Graphics
Processing Units (GPU). The performance results of the realized generators
(multiplicative linear congruential (GGL), XOR-shift (XOR128), RANECU, RANMAR,
RANLUX and Mersenne Twister (MT19937)) on CPU and GPU are discussed. The
obtained speed-up factor is hundreds of times in comparison with CPU. RANLUX
generator is found to be the most appropriate for using on GPU in Monte Carlo
simulations. The brief review of the pseudo-random number generators used in
modern software packages for Monte Carlo simulations in high-energy physics is
present.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, 3 table
Cross-correlation Weak Lensing of SDSS galaxy Clusters II: Cluster Density Profiles and the Mass--Richness Relation
We interpret and model the statistical weak lensing measurements around
130,000 groups and clusters of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
presented by Sheldon et al. 2007 (Paper I). We present non-parametric
inversions of the 2D shear profiles to the mean 3D cluster density and mass
profiles in bins of both optical richness and cluster i-band luminosity. We
correct the inferred 3D profiles for systematic effects, including non-linear
shear and the fact that cluster halos are not all precisely centered on their
brightest galaxies. We also model the measured cluster shear profile as a sum
of contributions from the brightest central galaxy, the cluster dark matter
halo, and neighboring halos. We infer the relations between mean cluster virial
mass and optical richness and luminosity over two orders of magnitude in
cluster mass; the virial mass at fixed richness or luminosity is determined
with a precision of 13% including both statistical and systematic errors. We
also constrain the halo concentration parameter and halo bias as a function of
cluster mass; both are in good agreement with predictions of LCDM models. The
methods employed here will be applicable to deeper, wide-area optical surveys
that aim to constrain the nature of the dark energy, such as the Dark Energy
Survey, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and space-based surveys
Cross-correlation Weak Lensing of SDSS Galaxy Clusters I: Measurements
This is the first in a series of papers on the weak lensing effect caused by
clusters of galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The photometrically selected
cluster sample, known as MaxBCG, includes ~130,000 objects between redshift 0.1
and 0.3, ranging in size from small groups to massive clusters. We split the
clusters into bins of richness and luminosity and stack the surface density
contrast to produce mean radial profiles. The mean profiles are detected over a
range of scales, from the inner halo (25 kpc/h) well into the surrounding large
scale structure (30 Mpc/h), with a significance of 15 to 20 in each bin. The
signal over this large range of scales is best interpreted in terms of the
cluster-mass cross-correlation function. We pay careful attention to sources of
systematic error, correcting for them where possible. The resulting signals are
calibrated to the ~10% level, with the dominant remaining uncertainty being the
redshift distribution of the background sources. We find that the profiles
scale strongly with richness and luminosity. We find the signal within a given
richness bin depends upon luminosity, suggesting that luminosity is more
closely correlated with mass than galaxy counts. We split the samples by
redshift but detect no significant evolution. The profiles are not well
described by power laws. In a subsequent series of papers we invert the
profiles to three-dimensional mass profiles, show that they are well fit by a
halo model description, measure mass-to-light ratios and provide a cosmological
interpretation.Comment: Paper I in a series; v2.0 includes ApJ referee's suggestion
Southern Cosmology Survey II: Massive Optically-Selected Clusters from 70 square degrees of the SZE Common Survey Area
We present a catalog of 105 rich and massive (M>3\times10^{14}M_{\sun})
optically-selected clusters of galaxies extracted from 70 square-degrees of
public archival griz imaging from the Blanco 4-m telescope acquired over 45
nights between 2005 and 2007. We use the clusters' optically-derived properties
to estimate photometric redshifts, optical luminosities, richness, and masses.
We complement the optical measurements with archival XMM-Newton and ROSAT X-ray
data which provide additional luminosity and mass constraints on a modest
fraction of the cluster sample. Two of our clusters show clear evidence for
central lensing arcs; one of these has a spectacular large-diameter,
nearly-complete Einstein Ring surrounding the brightest cluster galaxy. A
strong motivation for this study is to identify the massive clusters that are
expected to display prominent signals from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect (SZE)
and therefore be detected in the wide-area mm-band surveys being conducted by
both the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the South Pole Telescope. The optical
sample presented here will be useful for verifying new SZE cluster candidates
from these surveys, for testing the cluster selection function, and for
stacking analyzes of the SZE data.Comment: 13 pages, 7 Figures. Accepted for publication to ApJSS. Full
resolution plots and additional material available at
http://peumo.rutgers.edu/~felipe/e-prints
The contributions of matter inside and outside of haloes to the matter power spectrum
Halo-based models have been successful in predicting the clustering of
matter. However, the validity of the postulate that the clustering is fully
determined by matter inside haloes remains largely untested, and it is not
clear a priori whether non-virialised matter might contribute significantly to
the non-linear clustering signal. Here, we investigate the contribution of
haloes to the matter power spectrum as a function of both scale and halo mass
by combining a set of cosmological N-body simulations to calculate the
contributions of different spherical overdensity regions, Friends-of-Friends
(FoF) groups and matter outside haloes to the power spectrum. We find that
matter inside spherical overdensity regions of size R200,mean cannot account
for all power for 1<k<100 h/Mpc, regardless of the minimum halo mass. At most,
it accounts for 95% of the power (k>20 h/Mpc). For 2<k<10 h/Mpc, haloes with
mass M200,mean<10^11 Msun/h contribute negligibly to the power spectrum, and
our results appear to be converged with decreasing halo mass. When haloes are
taken to be regions of size R200,crit, the amount of power unaccounted for is
larger on all scales. Accounting also for matter inside FoF groups but outside
R200,mean increases the contribution of halo matter on most scales probed here
by 5-15%. Matter inside FoF groups with M200,mean>10^9 Msun/h accounts for
essentially all power for 3<k<100 h/Mpc. We therefore expect halo models that
ignore the contribution of matter outside R200,mean to overestimate the
contribution of haloes of any mass to the power on small scales (k>1 h/Mpc).Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Replaced to match the version accepted by MNRA
Formation of conjugated linoleic acid by a Lactobacillus plantarum strain isolated from an artisanal cheese: evaluation in miniature cheeses
Among 129 lactic acid bacteria previously isolated from raw-milk starter-free cheeses manufactured in Galicia (NW Spain), two strains of Lactobacillus plantarum were definitely recognised as producers of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Gas chromatography analysis identified cis-9, trans-11 C18:2 as the predominant CLA isomer formed in MRS broth supplemented with linoleic acid. A centrifugation-based model for the manufacture of miniature cheeses was used to evaluate the formation of CLA by Lb. plantarum L200, the highest producer of CLA in MRS broth. The miniature cheeses made with the addition of the L200 strain showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher contents of cis-9, trans-11 CLA than those of the control cheeses (1.09 versus 0.69 percentage of total fatty acids, respectively). These results suggest that Lb. plantarum L200 strain could be used as an adjunct culture to slightly increase the concentrations of CLA in short-ripened cows' milk cheeses.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación | Ref. RTA2008-00117-00-0
Cross-correlation Weak Lensing of SDSS Galaxy Clusters III: Mass-to-light Ratios
We present measurements of the excess mass-to-light ratio measured
aroundMaxBCG galaxy clusters observed in the SDSS. This red sequence cluster
sample includes objects from small groups with masses ranging from ~5x10^{12}
to ~10^{15} M_{sun}/h. Using cross-correlation weak lensing, we measure the
excess mass density profile above the universal mean \Delta \rho(r) = \rho(r) -
\bar{\rho} for clusters in bins of richness and optical luminosity. We also
measure the excess luminosity density \Delta l(r) = l(r) - \bar{l} measured in
the z=0.25 i-band. For both mass and light, we de-project the profiles to
produce 3D mass and light profiles over scales from 25 kpc/ to 22 Mpc/h. From
these profiles we calculate the cumulative excess mass M(r) and excess light
L(r) as a function of separation from the BCG. On small scales, where \rho(r)
>> \bar{\rho}, the integrated mass-to-light profile may be interpreted as the
cluster mass-to-light ratio. We find the M/L_{200}, the mass-to-light ratio
within r_{200}, scales with cluster mass as a power law with index 0.33+/-0.02.
On large scales, where \rho(r) ~ \bar{\rho}, the M/L approaches an asymptotic
value independent of cluster richness. For small groups, the mean M/L_{200} is
much smaller than the asymptotic value, while for large clusters it is
consistent with the asymptotic value. This asymptotic value should be
proportional to the mean mass-to-light ratio of the universe . We find
/b^2_{ml} = 362+/-54 h (statistical). There is additional uncertainty in
the overall calibration at the ~10% level. The parameter b_{ml} is primarily a
function of the bias of the L <~ L_* galaxies used as light tracers, and should
be of order unity. Multiplying by the luminosity density in the same bandpass
we find \Omega_m/b^2_{ml} = 0.02+/-0.03, independent of the Hubble parameter.Comment: Third paper in a series; v2.0 incorporates ApJ referee's suggestion
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