A simple prescription for simulating and characterizing gravitational arcs

Simple models of gravitational arcs are crucial to simulate large samples of these objects with full control of the input parameters. These models also provide crude and automated estimates of the shape and structure of the arcs, which are necessary when trying to detect and characterize these objects on massive wide area imaging surveys. We here present and explore the ArcEllipse, a simple prescription to create objects with shape similar to gravitational arcs. We also present PaintArcs, which is a code that couples this geometrical form with a brightness distribution and adds the resulting object to images. Finally, we introduce ArcFitting, which is a tool that fits ArcEllipses to images of real gravitational arcs. We validate this fitting technique using simulated arcs and apply it to CFHTLS and HST images of tangential arcs around clusters of galaxies. Our simple ArcEllipse model for the arc, associated to a S\'ersic profile for the source, recovers the total signal in real images typically within 10%-30%. The ArcEllipse+S\'ersic models also automatically recover visual estimates of length-to-width ratios of real arcs. Residual maps between data and model images reveal the incidence of arc substructure. They may thus be used as a diagnostic for arcs formed by the merging of multiple images. The incidence of these substructures is the main factor preventing ArcEllipse models from accurately describing real lensed systems.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The SOAR Gravitational Arc Survey - I: Survey overview and photometric catalogs

We present the first results of the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) Gravitational Arc Survey (SOGRAS). The survey imaged 47 clusters in two redshift intervals centered at $z=0.27$ and $z=0.55$, targeting the richest clusters in each interval. Images were obtained in the $g'$, $r'$ and $i'$ bands using the SOAR Optical Imager (SOI), with a median seeing of 0.83, 0.76 and 0.71 arcsec, respectively, in these filters. Most of the survey clusters are located within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 region and all of them are in the SDSS footprint. Photometric calibration was therefore performed using SDSS stars located in our SOI fields. We reached for galaxies in all fields the detection limits of $g \sim 23.5$, $r \sim 23$ and $i \sim 22.5$ for a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) = 3. As a by-product of the image processing, we generated a source catalogue with 19760 entries, the vast majority of which are galaxies, where we list their positions, magnitudes and shape parameters. We compared our galaxy shape measurements to those of local galaxies and concluded that they were not strongly affected by seeing. From the catalogue data, we are able to identify a red sequence of galaxies in most clusters in the lower $z$ range. We found 16 gravitational arc candidates around 8 clusters in our sample. They tend to be bluer than the central galaxies in the lensing cluster. A preliminary analysis indicates that $\sim 10$ of the clusters have arcs around them, with a possible indication of a larger efficiency associated to the high-$z$ systems when compared to the low-$z$ ones. Deeper follow-up images with Gemini strengthen the case for the strong lensing nature of the candidates found in this survey.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures (most of them multi-panel) MNRAS (2013

Semliki Forest virus induced, immune mediated demyelination: the effect of irradiation

International audienceThe Dark Energy Camera has captured a large set of images as part of Science Verification (SV) for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The SV footprint covers a large portion of the outer Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), providing photometry 1.5 mag fainter than the main sequence turn-off of the oldest LMC stellar population. We derive geometrical and structural parameters for various stellar populations in the LMC disc. For the distribution of all LMC stars, we find an inclination of i = -38.14° ± 0.08° (near side in the north) and a position angle for the line of nodes of θ0 = 129.51° ± 0.17°. We find that stars younger than ∼4 Gyr are more centrally concentrated than older stars. Fitting a projected exponential disc shows that the scale radius of the old populations is R>4 Gyr = 1.41 ± 0.01 kpc, while the younger population has R = 0.72 ± 0.01 kpc. However, the spatial distribution of the younger population deviates significantly from the projected exponential disc model. The distribution of old stars suggests a large truncation radius of Rt = 13.5 ± 0.8 kpc. If this truncation is dominated by the tidal field of the Galaxy, we find that the LMC is {∼eq } 24^{+9}_{-6} times less massive than the encircled Galactic mass. By measuring the Red Clump peak magnitude and comparing with the best-fitting LMC disc model, we find that the LMC disc is warped and thicker in the outer regions north of the LMC centre. Our findings may either be interpreted as a warped and flared disc in the LMC outskirts, or as evidence of a spheroidal halo component

Photometric redshifts and clustering of emission line galaxies selected jointly by DES and eBOSS

We present the results of the first test plates of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This paper focuses on the emission line galaxies (ELG) population targetted from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) photometry. We analyse the success rate, efficiency, redshift distribution, and clustering properties of the targets. From the 9000 spectroscopic redshifts targetted, 4600 have been selected from the DES photometry. The total success rate for redshifts between 0.6 and 1.2 is 71\% and 68\% respectively for a bright and faint, on average more distant, samples including redshifts measured from a single strong emission line. We find a mean redshift of 0.8 and 0.87, with 15 and 13\% of unknown redshifts respectively for the bright and faint samples. In the redshift range 0.6<z<1.2, for the most secure spectroscopic redshifts, the mean redshift for the bright and faint sample is 0.85 and 0.9 respectively. Star contamination is lower than 2\%. We measure a galaxy bias averaged on scales of 1 and 10~Mpc/h of 1.72 \pm 0.1 for the bright sample and of 1.78 \pm 0.12 for the faint sample. The error on the galaxy bias have been obtained propagating the errors in the correlation function to the fitted parameters. This redshift evolution for the galaxy bias is in agreement with theoretical expectations for a galaxy population with MB-5\log h < -21.0. We note that biasing is derived from the galaxy clustering relative to a model for the mass fluctuations. We investigate the quality of the DES photometric redshifts and find that the outlier fraction can be reduced using a comparison between template fitting and neural network, or using a random forest algorithm

Photoactivate release of silver nanoparticles in cell membranemodels for bacterial control.

International audienceWe present a forward-modeling simulation framework designed to model the data products from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). This forward-model process can be thought of as a transfer function—a mapping from cosmological/astronomical signals to the final data products used by the scientists. Using output from the cosmological simulations (the Blind Cosmology Challenge), we generate simulated images (the Ultra Fast Image Simulator) and catalogs representative of the DES data. In this work we demonstrate the framework by simulating the 244 deg2 coadd images and catalogs in five bands for the DES Science Verification data. The simulation output is compared with the corresponding data to show that major characteristics of the images and catalogs can be captured. We also point out several directions of future improvements. Two practical examples—star-galaxy classification and proximity effects on object detection—are then used to illustrate how one can use the simulations to address systematics issues in data analysis. With clear understanding of the simplifications in our model, we show that one can use the simulations side-by-side with data products to interpret the measurements. This forward modeling approach is generally applicable for other upcoming and future surveys. It provides a powerful tool for systematics studies that is sufficiently realistic and highly controllable

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version

The evolution of active galactic nuclei in clusters of galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey

The correlation between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and environment provides important clues to AGN fuelling and the relationship of black hole growth to galaxy evolution. In this paper, we analyse the fraction of galaxies in clusters hosting AGN as a function of redshift and cluster richness for X-ray-detected AGN associated with clusters of galaxies in Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification data. The present sample includes 33 AGNs with LX > 1043 erg s−1 in non-central, host galaxies with luminosity greater than 0.5L* from a total sample of 432 clusters in the redshift range of 0.1 0.7. This result is in good agreement with previous work and parallels the increase in star formation in cluster galaxies over the same redshift range. However, the AGN fraction in clusters is observed to have no significant correlation with cluster mass. Future analyses with DES Year 1 through Year 3 data will be able to clarify whether AGN activity is correlated to cluster mass and will tightly constrain the relationship between cluster AGN populations and redshift