17 research outputs found
Unbiased Cosmological Parameter Estimation from Emission Line Surveys with Interlopers
The galaxy catalogs generated from low-resolution emission line surveys often
contain both foreground and background interlopers due to line
misidentification, which can bias the cosmological parameter estimation. In
this paper, we present a method for correcting the interloper bias by using the
joint-analysis of auto- and cross-power spectra of the main and the interloper
samples. In particular, we can measure the interloper fractions from the
cross-correlation between the interlopers and survey galaxies, because the true
cross-correlation must be negligibly small. The estimated interloper fractions,
in turn, remove the interloper bias in the cosmological parameter estimation.
For example, in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX)
low-redshift () [O II] {\AA} emitters contaminate
high-redshift () Lyman- line emitters. We demonstrate that
the joint-analysis method yields a high signal-to-noise ratio measurement of
the interloper fractions while only marginally increasing the uncertainties in
the cosmological parameters relative to the case without interlopers. We also
show the same is true for the high-latitude spectroscopic survey of Wide-Field
Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission where contamination occurs between
the Balmer- line emitters at lower redshifts () and Oxygen
([O III] {\AA}) line emitters at higher redshifts ().Comment: 36 pages, 26 figure
Gas Accretion and Galactic Chemical Evolution: Theory and Observations
This chapter reviews how galactic inflows influence galaxy metallicity. The
goal is to discuss predictions from theoretical models, but particular emphasis
is placed on the insights that result from using models to interpret
observations. Even as the classical G-dwarf problem endures in the latest round
of observational confirmation, a rich and tantalizing new phenomenology of
relationships between , , SFR, and gas fraction is emerging both in
observations and in theoretical models. A consensus interpretation is emerging
in which star-forming galaxies do most of their growing in a quiescent way that
balances gas inflows and gas processing, and metal dilution with enrichment.
Models that explicitly invoke this idea via equilibrium conditions can be used
to infer inflow rates from observations, while models that do not assume
equilibrium growth tend to recover it self-consistently. Mergers are an overall
subdominant mechanism for delivering fresh gas to galaxies, but they trigger
radial flows of previously-accreted gas that flatten radial gas-phase
metallicity gradients and temporarily suppress central metallicities. Radial
gradients are generically expected to be steep at early times and then
flattened by mergers and enriched inflows of recycled gas at late times.
However, further theoretical work is required in order to understand how to
interpret observations. Likewise, more observational work is needed in order to
understand how metallicity gradients evolve to high redshifts.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springer. 29 pages, 2 figure