88 research outputs found
A lower limit of dz > 0.06 for the duration of the reionization epoch
Observations of the 21-centimetre line of atomic hydrogen in the early
Universe directly probe the history of the reionization of the gas between
galaxies. The observations are challenging, though, because of the low expected
signal strength (~10 mK), and contamination by strong (>100 K) foreground
synchrotron emission in the Milky Way and extragalactic continuum sources2. If
reionization happened rapidly, there should be a characteristic signature
visible against the smooth foreground in an all-sky spectrum. Here we report an
all-sky spectrum between 100 and 200 MHz, corresponding to the redshift range 6
< z < 13 for the 21-centimetre line. The data exclude a rapid reionization
timescale of dz < 0.06 at the 95% confidence level.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Published in Nature, Volume 468, Issue 7325, pp.
796-798 (2010
A smoother end to the dark ages
Independent lines of evidence suggest that the first stars, which ended the
cosmic dark ages, came in pairs, rather than singly. This could change the
prevailing view that the early Universe had a Swiss-cheese-like appearance.Comment: Nature News and Views, April 7, 201
The Void Galaxy Survey
The Void Galaxy Survey (VGS) is a multi-wavelength program to study 60
void galaxies. Each has been selected from the deepest interior regions of
identified voids in the SDSS redshift survey on the basis of a unique geometric
technique, with no a prior selection of intrinsic properties of the void
galaxies. The project intends to study in detail the gas content, star
formation history and stellar content, as well as kinematics and dynamics of
void galaxies and their companions in a broad sample of void environments. It
involves the HI imaging of the gas distribution in each of the VGS galaxies.
Amongst its most tantalizing findings is the possible evidence for cold gas
accretion in some of the most interesting objects, amongst which are a polar
ring galaxy and a filamentary configuration of void galaxies. Here we shortly
describe the scope of the VGS and the results of the full analysis of the pilot
sample of 15 void galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. This is an extended version of a paper to appear
in "Environment and the Formation of Galaxies: 30 years later", Proceedings
of Symposium 2 of JENAM 2010, eds. I. Ferreras, A. Pasquali, ASSP, Springer.
Version with highres figures at
http://www.astro.rug.nl/~weygaert/vgs_jenam_weygaert.col.pd
The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20
Dark and baryonic matter moved at different velocities in the early Universe,
which strongly suppressed star formation in some regions. This was estimated to
imprint a large-scale fluctuation signal of about 2 mK in the 21-cm spectral
line of atomic hydrogen associated with stars at a redshift of 20, although
this estimate ignored the critical contribution of gas heating due to X-rays
and major enhancements of the suppression. A large velocity difference reduces
the abundance of halos and requires the first stars to form in halos of about a
million solar masses, substantially greater than previously expected. Here we
report a simulation of the distribution of the first stars at z=20 (cosmic age
of ~180 Myr), incorporating all these ingredients within a 400 Mpc box. We find
that the 21-cm signature of these stars is an enhanced (10 mK) fluctuation
signal on the 100-Mpc scale, characterized by a flat power spectrum with
prominent baryon acoustic oscillations. The required sensitivity to see this
signal is achievable with an integration time of a thousand hours with an
instrument like the Murchison Wide-field Array or the Low Frequency Array but
designed to operate in the range of 50-100 MHz.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, close (but not exact) match to accepted version.
Basic results unchanged from first submitted version, but justification
strengthened, title and abstract modified, and substantial Supplementary
Material added. Originally first submitted for publication on Oct. 12, 201
Early star-forming galaxies and the reionization of the Universe
Star forming galaxies represent a valuable tracer of cosmic history. Recent
observational progress with Hubble Space Telescope has led to the discovery and
study of the earliest-known galaxies corresponding to a period when the
Universe was only ~800 million years old. Intense ultraviolet radiation from
these early galaxies probably induced a major event in cosmic history: the
reionization of intergalactic hydrogen. New techniques are being developed to
understand the properties of these most distant galaxies and determine their
influence on the evolution of the universe.Comment: Review article appearing in Nature. This posting reflects a submitted
version of the review formatted by the authors, in accordance with Nature
publication policies. For the official, published version of the review,
please see http://www.nature.com/nature/archive/index.htm
Reliable quantification of the potential for equations based on spot urine samples to estimate population salt intake: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND: Methods based on spot urine samples (a single sample at one time-point) have been identified as a possible alternative approach to 24-hour urine samples for determining mean population salt intake. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to identify a reliable method for estimating mean population salt intake from spot urine samples. This will be done by comparing the performance of existing equations against one other and against estimates derived from 24-hour urine samples. The effects of factors such as ethnicity, sex, age, body mass index, antihypertensive drug use, health status, and timing of spot urine collection will be explored. The capacity of spot urine samples to measure change in salt intake over time will also be determined. Finally, we aim to develop a novel equation (or equations) that performs better than existing equations to estimate mean population salt intake. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data will be conducted. A search has been conducted to identify human studies that report salt (or sodium) excretion based upon 24-hour urine samples and spot urine samples. There were no restrictions on language, study sample size, or characteristics of the study population. MEDLINE via OvidSP (1946-present), Premedline via OvidSP, EMBASE, Global Health via OvidSP (1910-present), and the Cochrane Library were searched, and two reviewers identified eligible studies. The authors of these studies will be invited to contribute data according to a standard format. Individual participant records will be compiled and a series of analyses will be completed to: (1) compare existing equations for estimating 24-hour salt intake from spot urine samples with 24-hour urine samples, and assess the degree of bias according to key demographic and clinical characteristics; (2) assess the reliability of using spot urine samples to measure population changes in salt intake overtime; and (3) develop a novel equation that performs better than existing equations to estimate mean population salt intake. RESULTS: The search strategy identified 538 records; 100 records were obtained for review in full text and 73 have been confirmed as eligible. In addition, 68 abstracts were identified, some of which may contain data eligible for inclusion. Individual participant data will be requested from the authors of eligible studies. CONCLUSIONS: Many equations for estimating salt intake from spot urine samples have been developed and validated, although most have been studied in very specific settings. This meta-analysis of individual participant data will enable a much broader understanding of the capacity for spot urine samples to estimate population salt intake
Recommended from our members
Detection of cosmic structures using the bispectrum phase. II. First results from application to cosmic reionization using the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
Characterizing the epoch of reionization (EoR) at via the
redshifted 21 cm line of neutral Hydrogen (HI) is critical to modern
astrophysics and cosmology, and thus a key science goal of many current and planned low-frequency radio telescopes. The primary challenge to detecting this signal is the overwhelmingly bright foreground emission at these frequencies, placing stringent requirements on the knowledge of the instruments and inaccuracies in analyses. Results from these experiments have largely been limited not by thermal sensitivity but by systematics, particularly caused by the inability to calibrate the instrument to high accuracy. The interferometric bispectrum phase is immune to antenna-based calibration and errors therein, and presents an independent alternative to detect the EoR HI fluctuations while largely avoiding calibration systematics. Here, we provide a demonstration of this technique on a subset of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to place approximate constraints on the IGM brightness temperature. From this limited data, at we infer "" upper limits on the IGM brightness temperature to be "pseudo" mK at Mpc (data-limited) and
"pseudo" mK at
Mpc (noise-limited). The "pseudo" units denote only an approximate and not an exact correspondence to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. By propagating models in parallel to the data analysis, we confirm that the dynamic range required to separate the cosmic HI signal from the foregrounds is similar to that in standard approaches, and the power spectrum of the bispectrum phase is still data-limited (at dynamic range) indicating scope for further improvement in sensitivity as the array build-out continues
Recommended from our members
Detection of cosmic structures using the bispectrum phase. II. First results from application to cosmic reionization using the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
Characterizing the epoch of reionization (EoR) at via the
redshifted 21 cm line of neutral Hydrogen (HI) is critical to modern
astrophysics and cosmology, and thus a key science goal of many current and planned low-frequency radio telescopes. The primary challenge to detecting this signal is the overwhelmingly bright foreground emission at these frequencies, placing stringent requirements on the knowledge of the instruments and inaccuracies in analyses. Results from these experiments have largely been limited not by thermal sensitivity but by systematics, particularly caused by the inability to calibrate the instrument to high accuracy. The interferometric bispectrum phase is immune to antenna-based calibration and errors therein, and presents an independent alternative to detect the EoR HI fluctuations while largely avoiding calibration systematics. Here, we provide a demonstration of this technique on a subset of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to place approximate constraints on the IGM brightness temperature. From this limited data, at we infer "" upper limits on the IGM brightness temperature to be "pseudo" mK at Mpc (data-limited) and
"pseudo" mK at
Mpc (noise-limited). The "pseudo" units denote only an approximate and not an exact correspondence to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. By propagating models in parallel to the data analysis, we confirm that the dynamic range required to separate the cosmic HI signal from the foregrounds is similar to that in standard approaches, and the power spectrum of the bispectrum phase is still data-limited (at dynamic range) indicating scope for further improvement in sensitivity as the array build-out continues
Imaging and Modeling Data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
We analyze data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. This is the
third in a series of papers on the closure phase delay-spectrum technique
designed to detect the HI 21cm emission from cosmic reionization. We present
the details of the data and models employed in the power spectral analysis, and
discuss limitations to the process. We compare images and visibility spectra
made with HERA data, to parallel quantities generated from sky models based on
the GLEAM survey, incorporating the HERA telescope model. We find reasonable
agreement between images made from HERA data, with those generated from the
models, down to the confusion level. For the visibility spectra, there is broad
agreement between model and data across the full band of MHz. However,
models with only GLEAM sources do not reproduce a roughly sinusoidal spectral
structure at the tens of percent level seen in the observed visibility spectra
on scales MHz on 29 m baselines. We find that this structure is
likely due to diffuse Galactic emission, predominantly the Galactic plane,
filling the far sidelobes of the antenna primary beam. We show that our current
knowledge of the frequency dependence of the diffuse sky radio emission, and
the primary beam at large zenith angles, is inadequate to provide an accurate
reproduction of the diffuse structure in the models. We discuss implications
due to this missing structure in the models, including calibration, and in the
search for the HI 21cm signal, as well as possible mitigation techniques
Understanding the HERA Phase i receiver system with simulations and its impact on the detectability of the EoR delay power spectrum
The detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) delay power spectrum using a
"foreground avoidance method" highly depends on the instrument chromaticity.
The systematic effects induced by the radio-telescope spread the foreground
signal in the delay domain, which contaminates the EoR window theoretically
observable. Applied to the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), this
paper combines detailed electromagnetic and electrical simulations in order to
model the chromatic effects of the instrument, and quantify its frequency and
time responses. In particular, the effects of the analogue receiver,
transmission cables, and mutual coupling are included. These simulations are
able to accurately predict the intensity of the reflections occurring in the
150-m cable which links the antenna to the back-end. They also show that
electromagnetic waves can propagate from one dish to another one through large
sections of the array due to mutual coupling. The simulated system time
response is attenuated by a factor after a characteristic delay which
depends on the size of the array and on the antenna position. Ultimately, the
system response is attenuated by a factor after 1400 ns because of the
reflections in the cable, which corresponds to characterizable
-modes above 0.7 at 150 MHz. Thus, this new
study shows that the detection of the EoR signal with HERA Phase I will be more
challenging than expected. On the other hand, it improves our understanding of
the telescope, which is essential to mitigate the instrument chromaticity
- …