114 research outputs found
Measuring the escape velocity and mass profiles of galaxy clusters beyond their virial radius
The caustic technique uses galaxy redshifts alone to measure the escape
velocity and mass profiles of galaxy clusters to clustrocentric distances well
beyond the virial radius, where dynamical equilibrium does not necessarily
hold. We provide a detailed description of this technique and analyse its
possible systematic errors. We apply the caustic technique to clusters with
mass M_200>=10^{14}h^{-1} M_sun extracted from a cosmological hydrodynamic
simulation of a LambdaCDM universe. With a few tens of redshifts per squared
comoving megaparsec within the cluster, the caustic technique, on average,
recovers the profile of the escape velocity from the cluster with better than
10 percent accuracy up to r~4 r_200. The caustic technique also recovers the
mass profile with better than 10 percent accuracy in the range (0.6-4) r_200,
but it overestimates the mass up to 70 percent at smaller radii. This
overestimate is a consequence of neglecting the radial dependence of the
filling function F_beta(r). The 1-sigma uncertainty on individual escape
velocity profiles increases from ~20 to ~50 percent when the radius increases
from r~0.1 r_200 to ~4 r_200. Individual mass profiles have 1-sigma uncertainty
between 40 and 80 percent within the radial range (0.6-4) r_200. We show that
the amplitude of these uncertainties is completely due to the assumption of
spherical symmetry, which is difficult to drop. Alternatively, we can apply the
technique to synthetic clusters obtained by stacking individual clusters: in
this case, the 1-sigma uncertainty on the escape velocity profile is smaller
than 20 percent out to 4 r_200. The caustic technique thus provides reliable
average profiles which extend to regions difficult or impossible to probe with
other techniques.Comment: MNRAS accepted, 20 page
Cosmological Parameters from Pre-Planck CMB Measurements
Recent data from the WMAP, ACT and SPT experiments provide precise
measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature power spectrum over
a wide range of angular scales. The combination of these observations is well
fit by the standard, spatially flat LCDM cosmological model, constraining six
free parameters to within a few percent. The scalar spectral index, n_s =
0.9690 +/- 0.0089, is less than unity at the 3.6 sigma level, consistent with
simple models of inflation. The damping tail of the power spectrum at high
resolution, combined with the amplitude of gravitational lensing measured by
ACT and SPT, constrains the effective number of relativistic species to be
N_eff = 3.28 +/- 0.40, in agreement with the standard model's three species of
light neutrinos.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Lensing Power Spectrum
We report a measurement of the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background
(CMB) lensing from two seasons of Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter
(ACTPol) CMB data. The CMB lensing power spectrum is extracted from both
temperature and polarization data using quadratic estimators. We obtain results
that are consistent with the expectation from the best-fit Planck LCDM model
over a range of multipoles L=80-2100, with an amplitude of lensing A_lens =
1.06 +/- 0.15 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (sys.) relative to Planck. Our measurement of
the CMB lensing power spectrum gives sigma_8 Omega_m^0.25 = 0.643 +/- 0.054;
including baryon acoustic oscillation scale data, we constrain the amplitude of
density fluctuations to be sigma_8 = 0.831 +/- 0.053. We also update
constraints on the neutrino mass sum. We verify our lensing measurement with a
number of null tests and systematic checks, finding no evidence of significant
systematic errors. This measurement relies on a small fraction of the ACTPol
data already taken; more precise lensing results can therefore be expected from
the full ACTPol dataset.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, to be submitted to Physical Review
Cosmological parameters from pre-Planck CMB measurements: a 2017 update
We present cosmological constraints from the combination of the full mission nine-year WMAP release and small-scale temperature data from the pre-Planck Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and South Pole Telescope (SPT) generation of instruments. This is an update of the analysis presented in Calabrese et al. [Phys. Rev. D 87, 103012 (2013)], and highlights the impact on ΛCDM cosmology of a 0.06 eV massive neutrino—which was assumed in the Planck analysis but not in the ACT/SPT analyses—and a Planck-cleaned measurement of the optical depth to reionization. We show that cosmological constraints are now strong enough that small differences in assumptions about reionization and neutrino mass give systematic differences which are clearly detectable in the data. We recommend that these updated results be used when comparing cosmological constraints from WMAP, ACT and SPT with other surveys or with current and future full-mission Planck cosmology. Cosmological parameter chains are publicly available on the NASA’s LAMBDA data archive
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Spectra and Parameters
We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra measured by
the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol). We analyze night-time
data collected during 2013-14 using two detector arrays at 149 GHz, from 548
deg of sky on the celestial equator. We use these spectra, and the spectra
measured with the MBAC camera on ACT from 2008-10, in combination with Planck
and WMAP data to estimate cosmological parameters from the temperature,
polarization, and temperature-polarization cross-correlations. We find the new
ACTPol data to be consistent with the LCDM model. The ACTPol
temperature-polarization cross-spectrum now provides stronger constraints on
multiple parameters than the ACTPol temperature spectrum, including the baryon
density, the acoustic peak angular scale, and the derived Hubble constant.
Adding the new data to planck temperature data tightens the limits on damping
tail parameters, for example reducing the joint uncertainty on the number of
neutrino species and the primordial helium fraction by 20%.Comment: 23 pages, 25 figure
Exploring the Diversity of Groups at 0.1<z<0.8 with X-ray and Optically Selected Samples
We present the global group properties of two samples of galaxy groups
containing 39 high quality X-ray selected systems and 38 optically
(spectroscopically) selected systems in coincident spatial regions at
0.12<z<0.79. Only nine optical systems are associable with X-ray systems. We
discuss the confusion inherent in the matching of both galaxies to extended
X-ray emission and of X-ray emission to already identified optical systems.
Extensive spectroscopy has been obtained and the resultant redshift catalog and
group membership are provided here. X-ray, dynamical, and total stellar masses
of the groups are also derived and presented. We explore the effects of
applying three different kinds of radial cut to our systems: a constant cut of
1 Mpc and two r200 cuts, one based on the velocity dispersion of the system and
the other on the X-ray emission. We find that an X-ray based r200 results in
less scatter in scaling relations and less dynamical complexity as evidenced by
results of the Anderson-Darling and Dressler-Schectman tests, indicating that
this radius tends to isolate the virialized part of the system. The constant
and velocity dispersion based cuts can overestimate membership and can work to
inflate velocity dispersion and dynamical and stellar mass. We find Lx-sigma
and Mstellar-Lx scaling relations for X-ray and optically selected systems are
not dissimilar. The mean fraction of mass found in stars for our systems is
approximately 0.014 with a logarithmic standard deviation of 0.398 dex. We also
define and investigate a sample of groups which are X-ray underluminous given
the total group stellar mass. For these systems the fraction of stellar mass
contributed by the most massive galaxy is typically lower than that found for
the total population of groups implying that there may be less IGM contributed
from the most massive member in these systems. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). 27
pages, 14 figures, 12 table
Evidence of lensing of the cosmic microwave background by dark matter halos
We present evidence of the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background by 1013 solar
mass dark matter halos. Lensing convergence maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter
(ACTPol) are stacked at the positions of around 12 000 optically selected CMASS galaxies from the
SDSS-III/BOSS survey. The mean lensing signal is consistent with simulated dark matter halo profiles and
is favored over a null signal at 3.2σ significance. This result demonstrates the potential of microwave
background lensing to probe the dark matter distribution in galaxy group and galaxy cluster halos
Astrocytes mediate synapse elimination through MEGF10 and MERTK pathways
To achieve its precise neural connectivity, the developing mammalian nervous system undergoes extensive activity-dependent synapse remodeling. Recently microglial cells have been shown to be responsible for a portion of synaptic remodeling, but the remaining mechanisms remain mysterious. Here we report a new role for astrocytes in actively engulfing CNS synapses. This process helps to mediate synapse elimination, requires the Megf10 and Mertk phagocytic pathways, and is strongly dependent on neuronal activity. Developing mice deficient in both astrocyte pathways fail to normally refine their retinogeniculate connections and retain excess functional synapses. Lastly, we show that in the adult mouse brain, astrocytes continuously engulf both excitatory and inhibitory synapses. These studies reveal a novel role for astrocytes in mediating synapse elimination in the developing and adult brain, identify Megf10 and Mertk as critical players in the synapse remodeling underlying neural circuit refinement, and have important implications for understanding learning and memory as well as neurological disease processes
The atacama cosmology telescope: lensing of CMB temperature and polarization derived from cosmic infrared background cross-correlation
We present a measurement of the gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization fields obtained by cross-correlating the reconstructed convergence signal from the first season of Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter data at 146 GHz with Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) fluctuations measured using the Planck satellite. Using an effective overlap area of 92.7 square degrees, we detect gravitational lensing of the CMB polarization by large-scale structure at a statistical significance of . Combining both CMB temperature and polarization data gives a lensing detection at significance. A B-mode polarization lensing signal is present with a significance of . We also present the first measurement of CMB lensing–CIB correlation at small scales corresponding to . Null tests and systematic checks show that our results are not significantly biased by astrophysical or instrumental systematic effects, including Galactic dust. Fitting our measurements to the best-fit lensing-CIB cross-power spectrum measured in Planck data, scaled by an amplitude A, gives (stat.) ± 0.06(syst.), consistent with the Planck results
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