The Halo Formation Rate and its link to the Global Star Formation Rate

The star formation history of the universe shows strong evolution with cosmological epoch. Although we know mergers between galaxies can cause luminous bursts of star formation, the relative importance of such mergers to the global star formation rate (SFR) is unknown. We present a simple analytic formula for the rate at which halos merge to form higher-mass systems, derived from Press-Schechter theory and confirmed by numerical simulations (for high halo masses). A comparison of the evolution in halo formation rate with the observed evolution in the global SFR indicates that the latter is largely driven by halo mergers at z>1. Recent numerical simulations by Kolatt et al. (1999) and Knebe & Muller (1999) show how merging systems are strongly biased tracers of mass fluctuations, thereby explaining the strong clustering observed for Lyman-break galaxies without any need to assume that Lyman-break galaxies are associated only with the most massive systems at z~3.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in `The Hy-redshift universe: Galaxy formation and evolution at high redshift' eds. A.J. Bunker and W.J.M. van Breuge

Measuring the cosmological constant with redshift surveys

It has been proposed that the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ might be measured from geometric effects on large-scale structure. A positive vacuum density leads to correlation-function contours which are squashed in the radial direction when calculated assuming a matter-dominated model. We show that this effect will be somewhat harder to detect than previous calculations have suggested: the squashing factor is likely to be $<1.3$, given realistic constraints on the matter contribution to $\Omega$. Moreover, the geometrical distortion risks being confused with the redshift-space distortions caused by the peculiar velocities associated with the growth of galaxy clustering. These depend on the density and bias parameters via the combination $\beta\equiv \Omega^{0.6}/b$, and we show that the main practical effect of a geometrical flattening factor $F$ is to simulate gravitational instability with $\beta_{\rm eff}\simeq 0.5(F-1)$. Nevertheless, with datasets of sufficient size it is possible to distinguish the two effects; we discuss in detail how this should be done. New-generation redshift surveys of galaxies and quasars are potentially capable of detecting a non-zero vacuum density, if it exists at a cosmologically interesting level.Comment: MNRAS in press. 12 pages LaTeX including Postscript figures. Uses mn.sty and epsf.st

Power Spectrum Analysis of the 2dF QSO Sample Revisited

We revisit the power spectrum analysis of the complete sample of the two degree field (2dF) QSO redshift (2QZ) survey, as a complementary test of the work by Outram et al. (2003). A power spectrum consistent with that of the 2QZ group is obtained. Differently from their approach, fitting of the power spectrum is investigated incorporating the nonlinear effects, the geometric distortion and the light-cone effect. It is shown that the QSO power spectrum is consistent with the $\Lambda$ cold dark matter (CDM) model with the matter density parameter $\Omega_m=0.2\sim0.5$. Our constraint on the density parameter is rather weaker than that of the 2QZ group. We also show that the constraint slightly depends on the equation of state parameter $w$ of the dark energy. The constraint on $w$ from the QSO power spectrum is demonstrated, though it is not very tight.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Using galaxy pairs as cosmological tracers

The Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect uses the fact that, when analyzed with the correct geometry, we should observe structure that is statistically isotropic in the Universe. For structure undergoing cosmological expansion with the background, this constrains the product of the Hubble parameter and the angular diameter distance. However, the expansion of the Universe is inhomogeneous and local curvature depends on density. We argue that this distorts the AP effect on small scales. After analyzing the dynamics of galaxy pairs in the Millennium simulation, we find an interplay between peculiar velocities, galaxy properties and local density that affects how pairs trace cosmological expansion. We find that only low mass, isolated galaxy pairs trace the average expansion with a minimum "correction" for peculiar velocities. Other pairs require larger, more cosmology and redshift dependent peculiar velocity corrections and, in the small-separation limit of being bound in a collapsed system, do not carry cosmological information.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

Satellite remote sensing can provide semi-automated monitoring to aid coastal decision-making

Coastlines are projected to face unprecedented pressures over the next century due to climate change-induced changes in sea level, storm, wave, and tidal regimes. This projection of increasing pressure is driving a reappraisal of existing shoreline management practices, with both science and policy calling for future strategies to work with the natural protection provided by coastal habitats such as salt marshes. However, we currently lack the understanding of long-term ecosystem dynamics required to incorporate these habitats into the definitive predictions of risk relied on in coastal protection planning. Satellite remote sensing has the potential to provide data that could address this knowledge gap with its frequent repeat times and global coverage facilitating the production of high temporal frequency time-series over large areas. This study sought to explore this potential in one of the largest coastal plain estuaries the in the UK, the Severn Estuary. The Random Forest machine learning algorithm was used to develop a time-series of marsh extents across the estuary from 1985 to 2020 in Google Earth Engine, with widths also extracted as a proxy for the marshes’ protective capacity. These changes were monitored in six areas that contained the most significant areas of salt marsh across the estuary. This analysis revealed a significant increasing trend in extent and widths (p 90% and a strong agreement found between the detected widths and those found in previous surveys. These findings demonstrate that satellite remote sensing combined with machine learning has the potential to provide valuable insights into changes in the extents of marshes and therefore their protective capacity. This information can be useful in the coastal planning process, allowing decision-makers to assess the sustainability of existing defences fronted by marshes, as well as allowing them to make informed decisions about the location of restoration schemes

Forecasting the Cosmological Constraints with Anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Multipole Expansion

Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) imprinted in the galaxy power spectrum can be used as a standard ruler to determine angular diameter distance and Hubble parameter at high redshift galaxies. Combining redshift distortion effect which apparently distorts the galaxy clustering pattern, we can also constrain the growth rate of large-scale structure formation. Usually, future forecast for constraining these parameters from galaxy redshift surveys has been made with a full 2D power spectrum characterized as function of wavenumber $k$ and directional cosine $\mu$ between line-of-sight direction and wave vector, i.e., $P(k,\mu)$. Here, we apply the multipole expansion to the full 2D power spectrum, and discuss how much cosmological information can be extracted from the lower-multipole spectra, taking a proper account of the non-linear effects on gravitational clustering and redshift distortion. The Fisher matrix analysis reveals that compared to the analysis with full 2D spectrum, a partial information from the monopole and quadrupole spectra generally degrades the constraints by a factor of $\sim1.3$ for each parameter. The additional information from the hexadecapole spectrum helps to improve the constraints, which lead to an almost comparable result expected from the full 2D spectrum.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

A Geometrical Test of the Cosmological Energy Contents Using the Lyman-alpha Forest

In this Letter we explore a version of the test of cosmological geometry proposed by Alcock and Paczynski (1979), using observations of the Lyman-alpha forest in the spectra of close quasar pairs. By comparing the correlations in absorption in one quasar spectrum with correlations between the spectra of neighboring quasars one can determine the relation of the redshift distance scale to the angle distance scale at the redshift of the absorbers, $z \sim 2 - 4$. Since this relationship depends on the parameters of the cosmological model, these parameters may be determined using the Lyman-alpha forest. While this test is relatively insensitive to the density parameter $\Omega_m$ in a dust-dominated universe, it is more sensitive to the presence of a matter component with large negative pressure (such as a cosmological constant $\Lambda$) and its equation of state. With only 25 pairs of quasar spectra at angular separations $0.5' - 2'$, one can discriminate between an $\Omega_m = 0.3$ open universe ($\Lambda=0$) and an $\Omega_m = 0.3$ flat ($\Lambda$-dominated) universe at the $4-\sigma$ level. The S/N can be enhanced by considering quasar pairs at smaller angular separations, but requires proper modeling of nonlinear redshift space distortions. Here the correlations and redshift space distortions are modeled using linear theory.Comment: 13 pages, 2 ps figures, submitted to ApJ

Cosmological redshift distortion: deceleration, bias and density parameters from future redshift surveys of galaxies

The observed two-point correlation functions of galaxies in redshift space become anisotropic due to the geometry of the universe as well as due to the presence of the peculiar velocity field. On the basis of linear perturbation theory, we expand the induced anisotropies of the correlation functions with respect to the redshift $z$, and obtain analytic formulae to infer the deceleration parameter $q_0$, the density parameter $\Omega_0$ and the derivative of the bias parameter $d\ln b/dz$ at $z=0$ in terms of the observable statistical quantities. The present method does not require any assumption of the shape and amplitude of the underlying fluctuation spectrum, and thus can be applied to future redshift surveys of galaxies including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also evaluate quantitatively the systematic error in estimating the value of $\beta_0 \equiv \Omega_0^{0.6}/b$ from a galaxy redshift survey on the basis of a conventional estimator for $\beta_0$ which neglects both the geometrical distortion effect and the time evolution of the parameter $\beta(z)$. If the magnitude limit of the survey is as faint as 18.5 (in B-band) as in the case of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the systematic error ranges between -20% and 10% depending on the cosmological parameters. Although such systematic errors are smaller than the statistical errors in the current surveys, they will dominate the expected statistical error for future surveys.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figs, aastex, ApJ in press, replaced version includes minor correction

Can Geometric Test Probe the Cosmic Equation of State ?

Feasibility of the geometric test as a probe of the cosmic equation of state of the dark energy is discussed assuming the future 2dF QSO sample. We examine sensitivity of the QSO two-point correlation functions, which are theoretically computed incorporating the light-cone effect and the redshift distortions, as well as the nonlinear effect, to a bias model whose evolution is phenomenologically parameterized. It is shown that the correlation functions are sensitive on a mean amplitude of the bias and not to the speed of the redshift evolution. We will also demonstrate that an optimistic geometric test could suffer from confusion that a signal from the cosmological model can be confused with that from a stochastic character of the bias.Comment: 11 pages, including 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ