1,743 research outputs found
Effects of overlapping sources on cosmic shear estimation: Statistical sensitivity and pixel-noise bias
In Stage-IV imaging surveys, a significant amount of the cosmologically
useful information is due to sources whose images overlap with those of other
sources on the sky. The cosmic shear signal is primarily encoded in the
estimated shapes of observed galaxies and thus directly impacted by overlaps.
We introduce a framework based on the Fisher formalism to analyze effects of
overlapping sources (blending) on the estimation of cosmic shear. For the Rubin
Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), we present the expected
loss in statistical sensitivity for the ten-year survey due to blending. We
find that for approximately 62% of galaxies that are likely to be detected in
full-depth LSST images, at least 1% of the flux in their pixels is from
overlapping sources. We also find that the statistical correlations between
measures of overlapping galaxies and, to a much lesser extent the higher shot
noise level due to their presence, decrease the effective number density of
galaxies, , by 18%. We calculate an upper limit on of
39.4 galaxies per arcmin in band. We study the impact of varying
stellar density on and illustrate the diminishing returns of
extending the survey into lower Galactic latitudes. We extend the Fisher
formalism to predict the increase in pixel-noise bias due to blending for
maximum-likelihood (ML) shape estimators. We find that noise bias is sensitive
to the particular shape estimator and measure of ensemble-average shape that is
used, and properties of the galaxy that include redshift-dependent quantities
such as size and luminosity.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCAP. 45 pages, 19 figure
Broadband distortion modeling in Lyman- forest BAO fitting
In recent years, the Lyman- absorption observed in the spectra of
high-redshift quasars has been used as a tracer of large-scale structure by
means of the three-dimensional Lyman- forest auto-correlation function
at redshift , but the need to fit the quasar continuum in every
absorption spectrum introduces a broadband distortion that is difficult to
correct and causes a systematic error for measuring any broadband properties.
We describe a -space model for this broadband distortion based on a
multiplicative correction to the power spectrum of the transmitted flux
fraction that suppresses power on scales corresponding to the typical length of
a Lyman- forest spectrum. Implementing the distortion model in fits for
the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak position in the Lyman-
forest auto-correlation, we find that the fitting method recovers the input
values of the linear bias parameter and the redshift-space distortion
parameter for mock data sets with a systematic error of less than
0.5\%. Applied to the auto-correlation measured for BOSS Data Release 11, our
method improves on the previous treatment of broadband distortions in BAO
fitting by providing a better fit to the data using fewer parameters and
reducing the statistical errors on and the combination
by more than a factor of seven. The measured values at
redshift are $\beta_{F}=1.39^{+0.11\ +0.24\ +0.38}_{-0.10\ -0.19\
-0.28}b_{F}(1+\beta_{F})=-0.374^{+0.007\ +0.013\ +0.020}_{-0.007\
-0.014\ -0.022}\sigma\sigma\sigma$ statistical errors). Our
fitting software and the input files needed to reproduce our main results are
publicly available.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, matches the published versio
Probing the Circumgalactic Medium at High-Redshift Using Composite BOSS Spectra of Strong Lyman-alpha Forest Absorbers
We present composite spectra constructed from a sample of 242,150 Lyman-alpha
(Lya) forest absorbers at redshifts 2.4<z<3.1 identified in quasar spectra from
the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) as part of Data Release 9 of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. We select forest absorbers by their flux in
bins 138 km/s wide (approximately the size of the BOSS resolution element). We
split these absorbers into five samples spanning the range of flux -0.05 <
F<0.45. Tests on a smaller sample of high-resolution spectra show that our
three strongest absorption bins would probe circumgalactic regions (projected
separation < 300 proper kpc and |Delta v| < 300km/s) in about 60% of cases for
very high signal-to-noise ratio. Within this subset, weakening Lya absorption
is associated with decreasing purity of circumgalactic selection once BOSS
noise is included. Our weaker two Lya absorption samples are dominated by the
intergalactic medium.
We present composite spectra of these samples and a catalogue of measured
absorption features from HI and 13 metal ionization species, all of which we
make available to the community. We compare measurements of seven Lyman series
transitions in our composite spectra to single line models and obtain further
constraints from their associated excess Lyman limit opacity. This analysis
provides results consistent with column densities over the range 14.4 <~ Log
(N_HI) <~ 16.45. We compare our measurements of metal absorption to a variety
of simple single-line, single-phase models for a preliminary interpretation.
Our results imply clumping on scales down to ~30 pc and near-solar
metallicities in the circumgalactic samples, while high-ionization metal
absorption consistent with typical IGM densities and metallicities is visible
in all samples.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, link to downloadable data included.
Accepted by MNRAS 2014 March 20. New sections 3.4 and 6.1 limiting the
occurrence and impact of Lyman limit system
Constraint on neutrino masses from SDSS-III/BOSS Ly-alpha forest and other cosmological probes
International audienceWe present constraints on the parameters of the CDM cosmologicalmodel in the presence of massive neutrinos, using the one-dimensionalLy forest power spectrum obtained with the Baryon OscillationSpectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) byPalanque-Delabrouille et al. (2013), complemented by additional cosmologicalprobes. The interpretation of the measured Ly spectrum is done using asecond-order Taylor expansion of the simulated power spectrum. BOSS Ly data alone provide better bounds than previous Ly results,but are still poorly constraining, especially for the sum of neutrino masses, for which we obtain an upper bound of 1.1~eV (95\% CL), includingsystematics for both data and simulations. Ly constraints onCDM parameters and neutrino masses are compatible with CMB bounds fromthe Planck collaboration. Interestingly, the combination of Ly with CMBdata reduces the uncertainties significantly, due to very different directionsof degeneracy in parameter space, leading to the strongest cosmological boundto date on the total neutrino mass, ~eV at 95\% CL (with abest-fit in zero). Adding recent BAO results further tightens this constraintto ~eV at 95\% CL. This bound is nearly independent of thestatistical approach used, and of the different combinations of CMB and BAOdata sets considered in this paper in addition to Ly. Given themeasured values of the two squared mass differences , this resulttends to favor the normal hierarchy scenario against the inverted hierarchyscenario for the masses of the active neutrino species
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : measuring DA and H at z = 0.57 from the baryon acoustic peak in the Data Release 9 spectroscopic Galaxy sample
We present measurements of the angular diameter distance to and Hubble parameter at z = 0.57 from the measurement of the baryon acoustic peak in the correlation of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our analysis is based on a sample from Data Release 9 of 264 283 galaxies over 3275 square degrees in the redshift range 0.43 < z < 0.70. We use two different methods to provide robust measurement of the acoustic peak position across and along the line of sight in order to measure the cosmological distance scale. We find DA(0.57) = 1408 ± 45 Mpc and H(0.57) = 92.9 ± 7.8 km s−1 Mpc−1 for our fiducial value of the sound horizon. These results from the anisotropic fitting are fully consistent with the analysis of the spherically averaged acoustic peak position presented in Anderson et al. Our distance measurements are a close match to the predictions of the standard cosmological model featuring a cosmological constant and zero spatial curvature.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly{\alpha} forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
We report a detection of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the
flux-correlation function of the Ly{\alpha} forest of high-redshift quasars
with a statistical significance of five standard deviations. The study uses
137,562 quasars in the redshift range from the Data Release
11 (DR11) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of SDSS-III.
This sample contains three times the number of quasars used in previous
studies. The measured position of the BAO peak determines the angular distance,
and expansion rate, , both on a scale set by the sound
horizon at the drag epoch, . We find
and
where . The optimal
combination, is determined with a precision of
. For the value , consistent with the CMB power
spectrum measured by Planck, we find
and . Tests with mock
catalogs and variations of our analysis procedure have revealed no systematic
uncertainties comparable to our statistical errors. Our results agree with the
previously reported BAO measurement at the same redshift using the
quasar-Ly{\alpha} forest cross-correlation. The auto-correlation and
cross-correlation approaches are complementary because of the quite different
impact of redshift-space distortion on the two measurements. The combined
constraints from the two correlation functions imply values of and
that are, respectively, 7% low and 7% high compared to the
predictions of a flat CDM cosmological model with the best-fit Planck
parameters. With our estimated statistical errors, the significance of this
discrepancy is .Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 17 pages, 18 figure
The Third Gravitational Lensing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) Challenge Handbook
The GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing 3 (GREAT3) challenge is the third
in a series of image analysis challenges, with a goal of testing and
facilitating the development of methods for analyzing astronomical images that
will be used to measure weak gravitational lensing. This measurement requires
extremely precise estimation of very small galaxy shape distortions, in the
presence of far larger intrinsic galaxy shapes and distortions due to the
blurring kernel caused by the atmosphere, telescope optics, and instrumental
effects. The GREAT3 challenge is posed to the astronomy, machine learning, and
statistics communities, and includes tests of three specific effects that are
of immediate relevance to upcoming weak lensing surveys, two of which have
never been tested in a community challenge before. These effects include
realistically complex galaxy models based on high-resolution imaging from
space; spatially varying, physically-motivated blurring kernel; and combination
of multiple different exposures. To facilitate entry by people new to the
field, and for use as a diagnostic tool, the simulation software for the
challenge is publicly available, though the exact parameters used for the
challenge are blinded. Sample scripts to analyze the challenge data using
existing methods will also be provided. See http://great3challenge.info and
http://great3.projects.phys.ucl.ac.uk/leaderboard/ for more information.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, submitted for publication, with minor edits
(v2) to address comments from the anonymous referee. Simulated data are
available for download and participants can find more information at
http://great3.projects.phys.ucl.ac.uk/leaderboard
Recommended from our members
Results from the CERN pilot CLOUD experiment
During a 4-week run in October–November 2006, a pilot experiment was performed at the CERN Proton Synchrotron in preparation for the Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD) experiment, whose aim is to study the possible influence of cosmic rays on clouds. The purpose of the pilot experiment was firstly to carry out exploratory measurements of the effect of ionising particle radiation on aerosol formation from trace H2SO4 vapour and secondly to provide technical input for the CLOUD design. A total of 44 nucleation bursts were produced and recorded, with formation rates of particles above the 3 nm detection threshold of between 0.1 and 100 cm−3 s−1, and growth rates between 2 and 37 nm h−1. The corresponding H2SO4 concentrations were typically around 106 cm−3 or less. The experimentally-measured formation rates and H2SO4 concentrations are comparable to those found in the atmosphere, supporting the idea that sulphuric acid is involved in the nucleation of atmospheric aerosols. However, sulphuric acid alone is not able to explain the observed rapid growth rates, which suggests the presence of additional trace vapours in the aerosol chamber, whose identity is unknown. By analysing the charged fraction, a few of the aerosol bursts appear to have a contribution from ion-induced nucleation and ion-ion recombination to form neutral clusters. Some indications were also found for the accelerator beam timing and intensity to influence the aerosol particle formation rate at the highest experimental SO2 concentrations of 6 ppb, although none was found at lower concentrations. Overall, the exploratory measurements provide suggestive evidence for ion-induced nucleation or ion-ion recombination as sources of aerosol particles. However in order to quantify the conditions under which ion processes become significant, improvements are needed in controlling the experimental variables and in the reproducibility of the experiments. Finally, concerning technical aspects, the most important lessons for the CLOUD design include the stringent requirement of internal cleanliness of the aerosol chamber, as well as maintenance of extremely stable temperatures (variations below 0.1 _C)
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