1,240 research outputs found
A fast empirical method for galaxy shape measurements in weak lensing surveys
We describe a simple and fast method to correct ellipticity measurements of
galaxies from the distortion by the instrumental and atmospheric point spread
function (PSF), in view of weak lensing shear measurements. The method performs
a classification of galaxies and associated PSFs according to measured shape
parameters, and corrects the measured galaxy ellipticites by querying a large
lookup table (LUT), built by supervised learning. We have applied this new
method to the GREAT10 image analysis challenge, and present in this paper a
refined solution that obtains the competitive quality factor of Q = 104,
without any shear power spectrum denoising or training. Of particular interest
is the efficiency of the method, with a processing time below 3 ms per galaxy
on an ordinary CPU.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Metric values updated according to the final
GREAT10 analysis software (Kitching et al. 2012, MNRAS 423, 3163-3208), no
qualitative changes. Associated code available at
http://lastro.epfl.ch/megalu
Measuring dark energy properties with 3D cosmic shear
We present parameter estimation forecasts for present and future 3D cosmic
shear surveys. We demonstrate that, in conjunction with results from cosmic
microwave background (CMB) experiments, the properties of dark energy can be
estimated with very high precision with large-scale, fully 3D weak lensing
surveys. In particular, a 5-band, 10,000 square degree ground-based survey to a
median redshift of zm=0.7 could achieve 1- marginal statistical errors,
in combination with the constraints expected from the CMB Planck Surveyor, of
w0=0.108 and wa=0.099 where we parameterize w by
w(a)=w0+wa(1-a) where a is the scale factor. Such a survey is achievable with a
wide-field camera on a 4 metre class telescope. The error on the value of w at
an intermediate pivot redshift of z=0.368 is constrained to
w(z=0.368)=0.0175. We compare and combine the 3D weak lensing
constraints with the cosmological and dark energy parameters measured from
planned Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and supernova Type Ia experiments,
and find that 3D weak lensing significantly improves the marginalized errors. A
combination of 3D weak lensing, CMB and BAO experiments could achieve
w0=0.037 and wa=0.099. Fully 3D weak shear analysis avoids the
loss of information inherent in tomographic binning, and we show that the
sensitivity to systematic errors is much less. In conjunction with the fact
that the physics of lensing is very soundly based, this analysis demonstrates
that deep, wide-angle 3D weak lensing surveys are extremely promising for
measuring dark energy properties.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures. Accepted to MNRAS. Figures now in grayscale.
Further discussions on non-Gaussianity and photometric redshift errors. Some
references adde
Path Integral Marginalization for Cosmology: Scale Dependent Galaxy Bias & Intrinsic Alignments
We present a path-integral likelihood formalism that extends parameterized
likelihood analyses to include continuous functions. The method finds the
maximum likelihood point in function-space, and marginalizes over all possible
functions, under the assumption of a Gaussian-distributed function-space. We
apply our method to the problem of removing unknown systematic functions in two
topical problems for dark energy research : scale-dependent galaxy bias in
redshift surveys; and galaxy intrinsic alignments in cosmic shear surveys. We
find that scale-dependent galaxy bias will degrade information on cosmological
parameters unless the fractional variance in the bias function is known to 10%.
Measuring and removing intrinsic alignments from cosmic shear surveys with a
flat-prior can reduce the dark energy Figure-of-Merit by 20%, however provided
that the scale and redshift-dependence is known to better than 10% with a
Gaussian-prior, the dark energy Figure-of-Merit can be enhanced by a factor of
two with no extra assumptions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRA
Theory of dark resonances for alkali vapors in a buffer-gas cell
We develop an analytical theory of dark resonances that accounts for the full
atomic-level structure, as well as all field-induced effects such as coherence
preparation, optical pumping, ac Stark shifts, and power broadening. The
analysis uses a model based on relaxation constants that assumes the total
collisional depolarization of the excited state. A good qualitative agreement
with experiments for Cs in Ne is obtained.Comment: 16 pages; 7 figures; revtex4. Accepted for publication in PR
Systematic effects on dark energy from 3D weak shear
We present an investigation into the potential effect of systematics inherent
in multi-band wide field surveys on the dark energy equation of state
determination for two 3D weak lensing methods. The weak lensing methods are a
geometric shear-ratio method and 3D cosmic shear. The analysis here uses an
extension of the Fisher matrix framework to jointly include photometric
redshift systematics, shear distortion systematics and intrinsic alignments. We
present results for DUNE and Pan-STARRS surveys. We show that assuming
systematic parameters are fixed, but possibly biased, results in potentially
large biases in dark energy parameters. We quantify any potential bias by
defining a Bias Figure of Merit. We also show the effect on the dark energy
Figure of Merit of marginalising over each systematic parameter individually.
We find that the largest effect on the Figure of Merit comes from uncertainty
in the photometric redshift systematic parameters. These can reduce the Figure
of Merit by up to a factor of 2 to 4 in both 3D weak lensing methods, if no
informative prior on the systematic parameters is applied. Shear distortion
systematics have a smaller overall effect. Intrinsic alignment effects can
reduce the Figure of Merit by up to a further factor of 2. This, however, is a
worst case scenario. By including prior information on systematic parameters
the Figure of Merit can be recovered to a large extent. We conclude that, as a
rule of thumb, given a realistic current understanding of intrinsic alignments
and photometric redshifts, then including all three primary systematic effects
reduces the Figure of Merit by at most a factor of 2, but that in reality this
factor should be much less. [abridged]Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRA
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The Solheim Cup: media representations of golf, gender and national identity
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'Battle of the sixes': investigating print media representations of female professional golfers competing in a men's tour event
In May 2018, the men's European Tour invited five female professional golfers to compete in its GolfSixes event in England, against 27 professional male players. This was significant, particularly given the female struggle for equality of access, participation, employment and decision making in golf settings. This research investigates the print media representation of these five female professional golfers competing in this male domain. Using the Nexis database, data was collected from print newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland over six days before, during and after the event. Following thematic analysis, findings highlight a double-edged sword to media coverage of female athletes competing against men; women received greater media coverage when in the male sport spotlight, but the coverage was framed by gendered discourses. The results document a slow shift towards more equal and equitable print media coverage of female athletes, whilst drawing attention to the problematic ways in which sportswomen are represented
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