185 research outputs found
Fault-controlled hydration of the upper mantle during continental rifting
Water and carbon are transferred from the ocean to the mantle in a process that alters mantle peridotite to create serpentinite and supports diverse ecosystems1. Serpentinized mantle rocks are found beneath the sea floor at slow- to ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridges1 and are thought to be present at about half the world’s rifted margins2, 3. Serpentinite is also inferred to exist in the downgoing plate at subduction zones4, where it may trigger arc magmatism or hydrate the deep Earth. Water is thought to reach the mantle via active faults3, 4. Here we show that serpentinization at the rifted continental margin offshore from western Spain was probably initiated when the whole crust cooled to become brittle and deformation was focused along large normal faults. We use seismic tomography to image the three-dimensional distribution of serpentinization in the mantle and find that the local volume of serpentinite beneath thinned, brittle crust is related to the amount of displacement along each fault. This implies that sea water reaches the mantle only when the faults are active. We estimate the fluid flux along the faults and find it is comparable to that inferred for mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems. We conclude that brittle processes in the crust may ultimately control the global flux of sea water into the Earth
Reactive astrocyte nomenclature, definitions, and future directions
Reactive astrocytes are astrocytes undergoing morphological, molecular, and functional remodeling in response to injury, disease, or infection of the CNS. Although this remodeling was first described over a century ago, uncertainties and controversies remain regarding the contribution of reactive astrocytes to CNS diseases, repair, and aging. It is also unclear whether fixed categories of reactive astrocytes exist and, if so, how to identify them. We point out the shortcomings of binary divisions of reactive astrocytes into good-vs-bad, neurotoxic-vs-neuroprotective or A1-vs-A2. We advocate, instead, that research on reactive astrocytes include assessment of multiple molecular and functional parameters-preferably in vivo-plus multivariate statistics and determination of impact on pathological hallmarks in relevant models. These guidelines may spur the discovery of astrocyte-based biomarkers as well as astrocyte-targeting therapies that abrogate detrimental actions of reactive astrocytes, potentiate their neuro- and glioprotective actions, and restore or augment their homeostatic, modulatory, and defensive functions
Authenticating the Presence of a Relativistic Massive Black Hole Binary in OJ 287 Using Its General Relativity Centenary Flare : Improved Orbital Parameters
Results from regular monitoring of relativistic compact binaries like PSR 1913+16 are consistent with the dominant (quadrupole) order emission of gravitational waves (GWs). We show that observations associated with the binary black hole (BBH) central engine of blazar OJ 287 demand the inclusion of gravitational radiation reaction effects beyond the quadrupolar order. It turns out that even the effects of certain hereditary contributions to GW emission are required to predict impact flare timings of OJ 287. We develop an approach that incorporates this effect into the BBH model for OJ 287. This allows us to demonstrate an excellent agreement between the observed impact flare timings and those predicted from ten orbital cycles of the BBH central engine model. The deduced rate of orbital period decay is nine orders of magnitude higher than the observed rate in PSR 1913+16, demonstrating again the relativistic nature of OJ 287's central engine. Finally, we argue that precise timing of the predicted 2019 impact flare should allow a test of the celebrated black hole "no-hair theorem" at the 10% level.Peer reviewe
A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: II - mapping a protoplanetary disc with stable structures at 0.15 au
The HOYS citizen science project conducts long term, multifilter, high cadence monitoring of large YSO samples with a wide variety of professional and amateur telescopes. We present the analysis of the light curve of V1490 Cyg in the Pelican Nebula. We show that colour terms in the diverse photometric data can be calibrated out to achieve a median photometric accuracy of 0.02 mag in broadband filters, allowing detailed investigations into a variety of variability amplitudes over timescales from hours to several years. Using Gaia DR2 we estimate the distance to the Pelican Nebula to be 870 +70 −55 pc. V1490 Cyg is a quasi-periodic dipper with a period of 31.447 ± 0.011 d. The obscuring dust has homogeneous properties, and grains larger than those typical in the ISM. Larger variability on short timescales is observed in U and Rc−Hα, with U-amplitudes reaching 3 mag on timescales of hours, indicating the source is accreting. The Hα equivalent width and NIR/MIR colours place V1490 Cyg between CTTS/WTTS and transition disk objects. The material responsible for the dipping is located in a warped inner disk, about 0.15 AU from the star. This mass reservoir can be filled and emptied on time scales shorter than the period at a rate of up to 10−10 M�/yr, consistent with low levels of accretion in other T Tauri stars. Most likely the warp at this separation from the star is induced by a protoplanet in the inner accretion disk. However, we cannot fully rule out the possibility of an AA Tau-like warp, or occultations by the Hill sphere around a forming planet
Euclid preparation. XXIV. Calibration of the halo mass function in CDM cosmologies
Euclid's photometric galaxy cluster survey has the potential to be a very
competitive cosmological probe. The main cosmological probe with observations
of clusters is their number count, within which the halo mass function (HMF) is
a key theoretical quantity. We present a new calibration of the analytic HMF,
at the level of accuracy and precision required for the uncertainty in this
quantity to be subdominant with respect to other sources of uncertainty in
recovering cosmological parameters from Euclid cluster counts. Our model is
calibrated against a suite of N-body simulations using a Bayesian approach
taking into account systematic errors arising from numerical effects in the
simulation. First, we test the convergence of HMF predictions from different
N-body codes, by using initial conditions generated with different orders of
Lagrangian Perturbation theory, and adopting different simulation box sizes and
mass resolution. Then, we quantify the effect of using different halo-finder
algorithms, and how the resulting differences propagate to the cosmological
constraints. In order to trace the violation of universality in the HMF, we
also analyse simulations based on initial conditions characterised by
scale-free power spectra with different spectral indexes, assuming both
Einstein--de Sitter and standard CDM expansion histories. Based on
these results, we construct a fitting function for the HMF that we demonstrate
to be sub-percent accurate in reproducing results from 9 different variants of
the CDM model including massive neutrinos cosmologies. The calibration
systematic uncertainty is largely sub-dominant with respect to the expected
precision of future mass-observation relations; with the only notable exception
of the effect due to the halo finder, that could lead to biased cosmological
inference.Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, 3 appendixes
Euclid preparation. TBD. The effect of linear redshift-space distortions in photometric galaxy clustering and its cross-correlation with cosmic shear
Cosmological surveys planned for the current decade will provide us with
unparalleled observations of the distribution of galaxies on cosmic scales, by
means of which we can probe the underlying large-scale structure (LSS) of the
Universe. This will allow us to test the concordance cosmological model and its
extensions. However, precision pushes us to high levels of accuracy in the
theoretical modelling of the LSS observables, in order not to introduce biases
in the estimation of cosmological parameters. In particular, effects such as
redshift-space distortions (RSD) can become relevant in the computation of
harmonic-space power spectra even for the clustering of the photometrically
selected galaxies, as it has been previously shown in literature studies. In
this work, we investigate the contribution of linear RSD, as formulated in the
Limber approximation by arXiv:1902.07226, in forecast cosmological analyses
with the photometric galaxy sample of the Euclid survey, in order to assess
their impact and quantify the bias on the measurement of cosmological
parameters that neglecting such an effect would cause. We perform this task by
producing mock power spectra for photometric galaxy clustering and weak
lensing, as expected to be obtained from the Euclid survey. We then use a
Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to obtain the posterior distributions of
cosmological parameters from such simulated observations. We find that
neglecting the linear RSD leads to significant biases both when using galaxy
correlations alone and when these are combined with cosmic shear, in the
so-called 32pt approach. Such biases can be as large as
-equivalent when assuming an underlying CDM cosmology. When
extending the cosmological model to include the equation-of-state parameters of
dark energy, we find that the extension parameters can be shifted by more than
.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. To be submitted in A&
Euclid preparation XXXIV. The effect of linear redshift-space distortions in photometric galaxy clustering and its cross-correlation with cosmic shear
Context. The cosmological surveys that are planned for the current decade will provide us with unparalleled observations of the distribution of galaxies on cosmic scales, by means of which we can probe the underlying large-scale structure (LSS) of the Universe. This will allow us to test the concordance cosmological model and its extensions. However, precision pushes us to high levels of accuracy in the theoretical modelling of the LSS observables, so that no biases are introduced into the estimation of the cosmological parameters. In particular, effects such as redshift-space distortions (RSD) can become relevant in the computation of harmonic-space power spectra even for the clustering of the photometrically selected galaxies, as has previously been shown in literature.
Aims. In this work, we investigate the contribution of linear RSD, as formulated in the Limber approximation by a previous work, in forecast cosmological analyses with the photometric galaxy sample of the Euclid survey. We aim to assess their impact and to quantify the bias on the measurement of cosmological parameters that would be caused if this effect were neglected.
Methods. We performed this task by producing mock power spectra for photometric galaxy clustering and weak lensing, as is expected to be obtained from the Euclid survey. We then used a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to obtain the posterior distributions of cosmological parameters from these simulated observations.
Results. When the linear RSD is neglected, significant biases are caused when galaxy correlations are used alone and when they are combined with cosmic shear in the so-called 3 × 2 pt approach. These biases can be equivalent to as much as 5σ when an underlying ΛCDM cosmology is assumed. When the cosmological model is extended to include the equation-of-state parameters of dark energy, the extension parameters can be shifted by more than 1σ
Euclid preparation. Measuring detailed galaxy morphologies for Euclid with Machine Learning
The Euclid mission is expected to image millions of galaxies with high
resolution, providing an extensive dataset to study galaxy evolution. We
investigate the application of deep learning to predict the detailed
morphologies of galaxies in Euclid using Zoobot a convolutional neural network
pretrained with 450000 galaxies from the Galaxy Zoo project. We adapted Zoobot
for emulated Euclid images, generated based on Hubble Space Telescope COSMOS
images, and with labels provided by volunteers in the Galaxy Zoo: Hubble
project. We demonstrate that the trained Zoobot model successfully measures
detailed morphology for emulated Euclid images. It effectively predicts whether
a galaxy has features and identifies and characterises various features such as
spiral arms, clumps, bars, disks, and central bulges. When compared to
volunteer classifications Zoobot achieves mean vote fraction deviations of less
than 12% and an accuracy above 91% for the confident volunteer classifications
across most morphology types. However, the performance varies depending on the
specific morphological class. For the global classes such as disk or smooth
galaxies, the mean deviations are less than 10%, with only 1000 training
galaxies necessary to reach this performance. For more detailed structures and
complex tasks like detecting and counting spiral arms or clumps, the deviations
are slightly higher, around 12% with 60000 galaxies used for training. In order
to enhance the performance on complex morphologies, we anticipate that a larger
pool of labelled galaxies is needed, which could be obtained using
crowdsourcing. Finally, our findings imply that the model can be effectively
adapted to new morphological labels. We demonstrate this adaptability by
applying Zoobot to peculiar galaxies. In summary, our trained Zoobot CNN can
readily predict morphological catalogues for Euclid images.Comment: 27 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables, submitted to A&
Euclid preparation. TBD. Forecast impact of super-sample covariance on 3x2pt analysis with Euclid
Deviations from Gaussianity in the distribution of the fields probed by
large-scale structure surveys generate additional terms in the data covariance
matrix, increasing the uncertainties in the measurement of the cosmological
parameters. Super-sample covariance (SSC) is among the largest of these
non-Gaussian contributions, with the potential to significantly degrade
constraints on some of the parameters of the cosmological model under study --
especially for weak lensing cosmic shear. We compute and validate the impact of
SSC on the forecast uncertainties on the cosmological parameters for the Euclid
photometric survey, obtained with a Fisher matrix analysis, both considering
the Gaussian covariance alone and adding the SSC term -- computed through the
public code PySSC. The photometric probes are considered in isolation and
combined in the `32pt' analysis. We find the SSC impact to be
non-negligible -- halving the Figure of Merit of the dark energy parameters
(, ) in the 32pt case and substantially increasing the
uncertainties on , and for cosmic shear;
photometric galaxy clustering, on the other hand, is less affected due to the
lower probe response. The relative impact of SSC does not show significant
changes under variations of the redshift binning scheme, while it is smaller
for weak lensing when marginalising over the multiplicative shear bias nuisance
parameters, which also leads to poorer constraints on the cosmological
parameters. Finally, we explore how the use of prior information on the shear
and galaxy bias changes the SSC impact. Improving shear bias priors does not
have a significant impact, while galaxy bias must be calibrated to sub-percent
level to increase the Figure of Merit by the large amount needed to achieve the
value when SSC is not included.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure
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