Cluster detection from surface-brightness fluctuations in SDSS data

Galaxy clusters can be detected as surface brightness enhancements in smoothed optical surveys. This method does not require individual galaxies to be identifiable, and enables clusters to be detected out to surprisingly high redshifts, as recently demonstrated by the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey (LCDCS). Here, we investigate redshift limits for cluster detection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Calibrating assumptions about the surface brightness profile, the mass-to-light ratio, and the spectral energy distribution of galaxy clusters using available observational data, we show that it should be possible to detect galaxy groups out to redshifts of ~0.5, and massive galaxy clusters out to redshifts of ~1.2 in summed r'+i'+z' SDSS data. Redshift estimates can be derived from the SDSS magnitudes of brightest cluster members out to redshifts near unity. Over the area of sky it covers, SDSS should find >~98% of the clusters detectable by the Planck satellite through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. The few Planck clusters not detected in SDSS will almost all be at z>~1.2.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysic

Formation and Disruption of Cosmological Low Mass Objects

We investigate the evolution of cosmological low mass (low virial temperature) objects and the formation of the first luminous objects. First, the `cooling diagram' for low mass objects is shown. We assess the cooling rate taking into account the contribution of H_2, which is not in chemical equilibrium generally, with a simple argument of time scales. The reaction rates and the cooling rate of H_2 are taken from the recent results by Galli & Palla (1998). Using this cooling diagram, we also estimate the formation condition of luminous objects taking into account the supernova (SN) disruption of virialized clouds. We find that the mass of the first luminous object is several times 10^7 solar mass, because smaller objects may be disrupted by the SNe before they become luminous. Metal pollution of low mass (Ly-alpha) clouds also discussed. The resultant metallicity of the clouds is about 1/1000 of the solar metallicity.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, To appear in ApJ

Is there Evidence for a Hubble bubble? The Nature of Type Ia Supernova Colors and Dust in External Galaxies

We examine recent evidence from the luminosity-redshift relation of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) for the $\sim 3 \sigma$ detection of a ``Hubble bubble'' -- a departure of the local value of the Hubble constant from its globally averaged value \citep{Jha:07}. By comparing the MLCS2k2 fits used in that study to the results from other light-curve fitters applied to the same data, we demonstrate that this is related to the interpretation of SN color excesses (after correction for a light-curve shape-color relation) and the presence of a color gradient across the local sample. If the slope of the linear relation ($\beta$) between SN color excess and luminosity is fit empirically, then the bubble disappears. If, on the other hand, the color excess arises purely from Milky Way-like dust, then SN data clearly favors a Hubble bubble. We demonstrate that SN data give $\beta \simeq 2$, instead of the $\beta \simeq 4$ one would expect from purely Milky-Way-like dust. This suggests that either SN intrinsic colors are more complicated than can be described with a single light-curve shape parameter, or that dust around SN is unusual. Disentangling these possibilities is both a challenge and an opportunity for large-survey SN Ia cosmology.Comment: Further information and data at http://qold.astro.utoronto.ca/conley/bubble/ Accepted for publication in ApJ

First Assessment of Mountains on Northwestern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, as Potential Astronomical Observing Sites

Ellesmere Island, at the most northerly tip of Canada, possesses the highest mountain peaks within 10 degrees of the pole. The highest is 2616 m, with many summits over 1000 m, high enough to place them above a stable low-elevation thermal inversion that persists through winter darkness. Our group has studied four mountains along the northwestern coast which have the additional benefit of smooth onshore airflow from the ice-locked Arctic Ocean. We deployed small robotic site testing stations at three sites, the highest of which is over 1600 m and within 8 degrees of the pole. Basic weather and sky clarity data for over three years beginning in 2006 are presented here, and compared with available nearby sea-level data and one manned mid-elevation site. Our results point to coastal mountain sites experiencing good weather: low median wind speed, high clear-sky fraction and the expectation of excellent seeing. Some practical aspects of access to these remote locations and operation and maintenance of equipment there are also discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 2 tables, 15 figures; accepted for publication in PAS

Formation of Primordial Protostars

The evolution of collapsing metal free protostellar clouds is investigated for various masses and initial conditions. We perform hydrodynamical calculations for spherically symmetric clouds taking account of radiative transfer of the molecular hydrogen lines and the continuum, as well as of chemistry of the molecular hydrogen. The collapse is found to proceed almost self-similarly like Larson-Penston similarity solution. In the course of the collapse, efficient three-body processes transform atomic hydrogen in an inner region of \sim 1 M_{\sun} entirely into molecular form. However, hydrogen in the outer part remains totally atomic although there is an intervening transitional layer of several solar masses, where hydrogen is in partially molecular form. No opaque transient core is formed although clouds become optically thick to H$_{2}$ collision-induced absorption continuum, since H$_{2}$ dissociation follows successively. When the central part of the cloud reaches stellar densities ($\sim 10^{-2} {\rm g cm^{-3}}$), a very small hydrostatic core (\sim 5 \times 10^{-3} M_{\sun}) is formed and subsequently grows in mass as the ambient gas accretes onto it. The mass accretion rate is estimated to be 3.7 \times 10^{-2} M_{\sun} {\rm yr^{-1}} (M_{\ast}/M_{\sun})^{-0.37}, where $M_{\ast}$ is instantaneous mass of the central core, by using a similarity solution which reproduces the evolution of the cloud before the core formation.Comment: 20 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses AAS LaTe

Dwarf Galaxy Clustering and Missing Satellites

At redshifts around 0.1 the CFHT Legacy Survey Deep fields contain some 6x10^4 galaxies spanning the mass range from 10^5 to 10^12 Msun. We measure the stellar mass dependence of the two point correlation using angular measurements to largely bypass the errors, approximately 0.02 in the median, of the photometric redshifts. Inverting the power-law fits with Limber's equation we find that the auto-correlation length increases from a very low 0.4hMpc at 10^5.5 Msun to the conventional 4.5hMpc at 10^10.5 Msun. The power law fit to the correlation function has a slope which increases from gamma approximately 1.6 at high mass to gamma approximately 2.3 at low mass. The spatial cross-correlation of dwarf galaxies with more massive galaxies shows fairly similar trends, with a steeper radial dependence at low mass than predicted in numerical simulations of sub-halos within galaxy halos. To examine the issue of missing satellites we combine the cross-correlation measurements with our estimates of the low mass galaxy number density. We find on the average there are 60+/-20 dwarfs in sub-halos with M(total) > 10^7 Msun for a typical Local Group M(total)/M(stars)=30, corresponding to M/L_V approximately 100 for a galaxy with no recent star formation. The number of dwarfs per galaxy is about a factor of two larger than currently found for the Milky Way. Nevertheless, the average dwarf counts are about a factor of 30 below LCDM simulation results. The divergence from LCDM predictions is one of slope of the relation, approximately dN/dlnM approximately -0.5 rather than the predicted -0.9, not sudden onset at some characteristic scale. The dwarf galaxy star formation rates span the range from passive to bursting, which suggests that there are few completely dark halos.Comment: revised version submitted to Astrophysical Journa

New Exoplanet Surveys in the Canadian High Arctic at 80 Degrees North

Observations from near the Eureka station on Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian High Arctic at 80 degrees North, benefit from 24-hour darkness combined with dark skies and long cloud-free periods during the winter. Our first astronomical surveys conducted at the site are aimed at transiting exoplanets; compared to mid-latitude sites, the continuous darkness during the Arctic winter greatly improves the survey's detection efficiency for longer-period transiting planets. We detail the design, construction, and testing of the first two instruments: a robotic telescope, and a set of very wide-field imaging cameras. The 0.5m Dunlap Institute Arctic Telescope has a 0.8-square-degree field of view and is designed to search for potentially habitable exoplanets around low-mass stars. The very wide field cameras have several-hundred-square-degree fields of view pointed at Polaris, are designed to search for transiting planets around bright stars, and were tested at the site in February 2012. Finally, we present a conceptual design for the Compound Arctic Telescope Survey (CATS), a multiplexed transient and transit search system which can produce a 10,000-square-degree snapshot image every few minutes throughout the Arctic winter.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, SPIE vol 8444, 201