1,021 research outputs found
Simultaneous Multicolor Detection of Faint Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field
We present a novel way to detect objects when multiband images are available.
Typically, object detection is performed in one of the available bands or on a
somewhat arbitrarily co-added image. Our technique provides an almost optimal
way to use all the color information available. We build up a composite image
of the N passbands where each pixel value corresponds to the probability that
the given pixel is just sky. By knowing the probability distribution of sky
pixels (a chi-square distribution with N degrees of freedom), the data can be
used to derive the distribution of pixels dominated by object flux. From the
two distributions an optimal segmentation threshold can be determined. Clipping
the probability image at this threshold yields a mask, where pixels unlikely to
be sky are tagged. After using a standard connected-pixel criterion, the
regions of this mask define the detected objects. Applying this technique to
the Hubble Deep Field data, we find that we can extend the detection limit of
the data below that possible using linearly co-added images. We also discuss
possible ways of enhancing object detection probabilities for certain well
defined classes of objects by using various optimized linear combinations of
the pixel fluxes (optimal subspace filtering).Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (4 postscript, 1 JPEG). To be published in A
The Dark Matter Contribution to Galactic Diffuse Gamma Ray Emission
Observations of diffuse Galactic gamma ray emission (DGE) by the Fermi Large
Area Telescope (LAT) allow a detailed study of cosmic rays and the interstellar
medium. However, diffuse emission models of the inner Galaxy underpredict the
Fermi-LAT data at energies above a few GeV and hint at possible
non-astrophysical sources including dark matter (DM) annihilations or decays.
We present a study of the possible emission components from DM using the
high-resolution Via Lactea II N-body simulation of a Milky Way-sized DM halo.
We generate full-sky maps of DM annihilation and decay signals that include
modeling of the adiabatic contraction of the host density profile, Sommerfeld
enhanced DM annihilations, -wave annihilations, and decaying DM. We compare
our results with the DGE models produced by the Fermi-LAT team over different
sky regions, including the Galactic center, high Galactic latitudes, and the
Galactic anti-center. This work provides possible templates to fit the
observational data that includes the contribution of the subhalo population to
DM gamma-ray emission, with the significance depending on the
annihilation/decay channels and the Galactic regions being considered.Comment: Published by PR
Apparent Clustering of Intermediate-redshift Galaxies as a Probe of Dark Energy
We show the apparent redshift-space clustering of galaxies in redshift range
of 0.2--0.4 provides surprisingly useful constraints on dark energy component
in the universe, because of the right balance between the density of objects
and the survey depth. We apply Fisher matrix analysis to the the Luminous Red
Galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), as a concrete example.
Possible degeneracies in the evolution of the equation of state (EOS) and the
other cosmological parameters are clarified.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Phys.Rev.Lett., replaced with the accepted
versio
An Inversion Method for Measuring Beta in Large Redshift Surveys
A precision method for determining the value of Beta= Omega_m^{0.6}/b, where
b is the galaxy bias parameter, is presented. In contrast to other existing
techniques that focus on estimating this quantity by measuring distortions in
the redshift space galaxy-galaxy correlation function or power spectrum, this
method removes the distortions by reconstructing the real space density field
and determining the value of Beta that results in a symmetric signal. To remove
the distortions, the method modifies the amplitudes of a Fourier plane-wave
expansion of the survey data parameterized by Beta. This technique is not
dependent on the small-angle/plane-parallel approximation and can make full use
of large redshift survey data. It has been tested using simulations with four
different cosmologies and returns the value of Beta to +/- 0.031, over a factor
of two improvement over existing techniques.Comment: 16 pages including 6 figures Submitted to The Astrophysical Journa
Large Scale Clustering of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasars: Impact of the Baryon Density and the Cosmological Constant
We report the first result of the clustering analysis of Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) quasars. We compute the two-point correlation function (2PCF) of
SDSS quasars in redshift space at ,
with particular attention to its baryonic signature. Our sample consists of
19986 quasars extracted from the SDSS Data Release 4 (DR4). The redshift range
of the sample is (the mean redshift is )
and the reddening-corrected -band apparent magnitude range is . Due to the relatively low number density of the
quasar sample, the bump in the power spectrum due to the baryon density,
, is not clearly visible. The effect of the baryon density is,
however, to distort the overall shape of the 2PCF.The degree of distortion
makes it an interesting alternate measure of the baryonic signature. Assuming a
scale-independent linear bias and the spatially flat universe, i.e.,
, where
and denote the density parameters of dark matter and the
cosmological constant, we combine the observed quasar 2PCF and the predicted
matter 2PCF to put constraints on and . Our
result is fitted as at the 2 confidence level, which is consistent with
results from other cosmological observations such as WMAP. (abridged)Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in the PAS
Note on Redshift Distortion in Fourier Space
We explore features of redshift distortion in Fourier analysis of N-body
simulations. The phases of the Fourier modes of the dark matter density
fluctuation are generally shifted by the peculiar motion along the line of
sight, the induced phase shift is stochastic and has probability distribution
function (PDF) symmetric to the peak at zero shift while the exact shape
depends on the wave vector, except on very large scales where phases are
invariant by linear perturbation theory. Analysis of the phase shifts motivates
our phenomenological models for the bispectrum in redshift space. Comparison
with simulations shows that our toy models are very successful in modeling
bispectrum of equilateral and isosceles triangles at large scales. In the
second part we compare the monopole of the power spectrum and bispectrum in the
radial and plane-parallel distortion to test the plane-parallel approximation.
We confirm the results of Scoccimarro (2000) that difference of power spectrum
is at the level of 10%, in the reduced bispectrum such difference is as small
as a few percents. However, on the plane perpendicular to the line of sight of
k_z=0, the difference in power spectrum between the radial and plane-parallel
approximation can be more than 10%, and even worse on very small scales. Such
difference is prominent for bispectrum, especially for those configurations of
tilted triangles. The non-Gaussian signals under radial distortion on small
scales are systematically biased downside than that in plane-parallel
approximation, while amplitudes of differences depend on the opening angle of
the sample to the observer. The observation gives warning to the practice of
using the power spectrum and bispectrum measured on the k_z=0 plane as
estimation of the real space statistics.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ChJA
Supporting User-Defined Functions on Uncertain Data
Uncertain data management has become crucial in many sensing and scientific applications. As user-defined functions (UDFs) become widely used in these applications, an important task is to capture result uncertainty for queries that evaluate UDFs on uncertain data. In this work, we provide a general framework for supporting UDFs on uncertain data. Specifically, we propose a learning approach based on Gaussian processes (GPs) to compute approximate output distributions of a UDF when evaluated on uncertain input, with guaranteed error bounds. We also devise an online algorithm to compute such output distributions, which employs a suite of optimizations to improve accuracy and performance. Our evaluation using both real-world and synthetic functions shows that our proposed GP approach can outperform the state-of-the-art sampling approach with up to two orders of magnitude improvement for a variety of UDFs. 1
Spectral Energy Distributions and Multiwavelength Selection of Type 1 Quasars
We present an analysis of the mid-infrared (MIR) and optical properties of type 1 (broad-line) quasars detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The MIR color-redshift relation is characterized to z ~ 3, with predictions to z = 7. We demonstrate how combining MIR and optical colors can yield even more efficient selection of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) than MIR or optical colors alone. Composite spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are constructed for 259 quasars with both Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Spitzer photometry, supplemented by near-IR, GALEX, VLA, and ROSAT data, where available. We discuss how the spectral diversity of quasars influences the determination of bolometric luminosities and accretion rates; assuming the mean SED can lead to errors as large as 50% for individual quasars when inferring a bolometric luminosity from an optical luminosity. Finally, we show that careful consideration of the shape of the mean quasar SED and its redshift dependence leads to a lower estimate of the fraction of reddened/obscured AGNs missed by optical surveys as compared to estimates derived from a single mean MIR to optical flux ratio
Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey X: A Redshift Survey in the Region of the Hubble Deep Field North
A redshift survey has been carried out in the region of the Hubble Deep Field
North using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory.
The resulting redshift catalog, which contains 671 entries, is a compendium of
our own data together with published LRIS/Keck data. It is more than 92%
complete for objects, irrespective of morphology, to mag in the HDF
itself and to mag in the Flanking Fields within a diameter of 8 arcmin
centered on the HDF, an unusually high completion for a magnitude limited
survey performed with a large telescope. A median redshift is reached
at .
Strong peaks in the redshift distribution, which arise when a group or poor
cluster of galaxies intersect the area surveyed, can be identified to in this dataset. More than 68% of the galaxies are members of these
redshift peaks. In a few cases, closely spaced peaks in can be resolved
into separate groups of galaxies that can be distinguished in both velocity and
location on the sky.
The radial separation of these peaks in the pencil-beam survey is consistent
with a characteristic length scale for the their separation of 70 Mpc
in our adopted cosmology (, ). Strong
galaxy clustering is in evidence at all epochs back to . (abstract
abridged)Comment: Accepted to the ApJ. This version contains all the figures and
tables. 2 minor typos in table 2b correcte
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