3,465 research outputs found
Higher-Order Properties of Analytic Wavelets
The influence of higher-order wavelet properties on the analytic wavelet
transform behavior is investigated, and wavelet functions offering advantageous
performance are identified. This is accomplished through detailed investigation
of the generalized Morse wavelets, a two-parameter family of exactly analytic
continuous wavelets. The degree of time/frequency localization, the existence
of a mapping between scale and frequency, and the bias involved in estimating
properties of modulated oscillatory signals, are proposed as important
considerations. Wavelet behavior is found to be strongly impacted by the degree
of asymmetry of the wavelet in both the frequency and the time domain, as
quantified by the third central moments. A particular subset of the generalized
Morse wavelets, recognized as deriving from an inhomogeneous Airy function,
emerge as having particularly desirable properties. These "Airy wavelets"
substantially outperform the only approximately analytic Morlet wavelets for
high time localization. Special cases of the generalized Morse wavelets are
examined, revealing a broad range of behaviors which can be matched to the
characteristics of a signal.Comment: 15 pages, 6 Postscript figure
On the relation between sSFR and metallicity
In this paper we present an exact general analytic expression
linking the gas metallicity Z to the specific
star formation rate (sSFR), that validates and extends the approximate relation
put forward by Lilly et al. (2013, L13), where is the yield per stellar
generation, is the instantaneous ratio between inflow and star
formation rate expressed as a function of the sSFR, and is the integral of
the past enrichment history, respectively. We then demonstrate that the
instantaneous metallicity of a self-regulating system, such that its sSFR
decreases with decreasing redshift, can be well approximated by the first term
on the right-hand side in the above formula, which provides an upper bound to
the metallicity. The metallicity is well approximated also by the L13 ideal
regulator case, which provides a lower bound to the actual metallicity. We
compare these approximate analytic formulae to numerical results and infer a
discrepancy <0.1 dex in a range of metallicities and almost three orders of
magnitude in the sSFR. We explore the consequences of the L13 model on the
mass-weighted metallicity in the stellar component of the galaxies. We find
that the stellar average metallicity lags 0.1-0.2 dex behind the gas-phase
metallicity relation, in agreement with the data. (abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS accepte
THE CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY V: Global Properties of the Sample
The photometric and spectroscopic data of the CFRS survey of objects with
17.5 < I_{AB} < 22.5 are combined and analysed. The overall completeness is
85%. The redshift histogram of the sample is presented for 591 field galaxies
with secure redshifts. The median redshift is z = 0.56, and the highest
redshift observed is z = 1.3; 25 galaxies have z > 1 The distributions of
magnitudes and colors demonstrate that galaxies at these high redshifts have
very similar colors to those observed locally. The survey thus represents a
major improvement in our knowledge of field galaxies at large look-back times.
Only ~1% of the galaxies are as compact as stars (on images with FWHM ~ 0.9")
and comparisons of the photometric and spectroscopic data show that only one
galaxy was initially incorrectly classified spectroscopically as a star, and
only two stars were misclassified as galaxies. It is demonstrated that the
redshift distributions in the five fields are statistically consistent with
each other, once the reduction in the effective number of independent galaxies
due to small-scale clustering in redshift is taken into account.
The photometric properties of the spectroscopically-unidentified objects
indicate that most are likely to be galaxies rather than stars. At least half
of these must have the same redshift distribution as the identified galaxies,
and a combination of magnitudes, colors and compactness of the remaining
unidentified galaxies is used to predict their redshifts. The majority are
probably ordinary galaxies at the high redshift end of our sample, including
some quiescent galaxies at z > 1.0, rather than some new or unusual population.Comment: 20 uuencoded postscript pages (first part) with 12 figures (second
part). Also available at http://www.dao.nrc.ca/DAO/SCIENCE/science.html and
coming soon on a CFRS homepage. Accepted June 19, scheduled for Dec 10 issue
of Ap
zCOSMOS: A large VLT/VIMOS redshift survey covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS field
zCOSMOS is a large-redshift survey that is being undertaken in the COSMOS field using 600 hr of observation
with the VIMOS spectrograph on the 8 m VLT. The survey is designed to characterize the environments of COSMOS
galaxies from the 100 kpc scales of galaxy groups up to the 100 Mpc scale of the cosmic web and to produce diagnostic
information on galaxies and active galactic nuclei. The zCOSMOS survey consists of two parts: (1) zCOSMOSbright,
a magnitude-limited I-band I_(AB) < 22.5 sample of about 20,000 galaxies with 0.1 < z < 1.2 covering the whole
1.7 deg^2 COSMOS ACS field, for which the survey parameters at z ~ 0.7 are designed to be directly comparable to
those of the 2dFGRS at z ~ 0.1; and (2) zCOSMOS-deep, a survey of approximately 10,000 galaxies selected through
color-selection criteria to have 1.4 < z < 3.0, within the central 1 deg^2. This paper describes the survey design and the
construction of the target catalogs and briefly outlines the observational program and the data pipeline. In the first
observing season, spectra of 1303 zCOSMOS-bright targets and 977 zCOSMOS-deep targets have been obtained.
These are briefly analyzed to demonstrate the characteristics that may be expected from zCOSMOS, and particularly
zCOSMOS-bright, when it is finally completed between 2008 and 2009. The power of combining spectroscopic and
photometric redshifts is demonstrated, especially in correctly identifying the emission line in single-line spectra and in
determining which of the less reliable spectroscopic redshifts are correct and which are incorrect. These techniques
bring the overall success rate in the zCOSMOS-bright so far to almost 90% and to above 97% in the 0.5 < z < 0.8
redshift range. Our zCOSMOS-deep spectra demonstrate the power of our selection techniques to isolate high-redshift
galaxies at 1.4 < z < 3.0 and of VIMOS to measure their redshifts using ultraviolet absorption lines
THE CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY II: Spectroscopic Program; Data for the 0000-00 and 1000+25 Fields
This paper describes the methods used to obtain the spectroscopic data and
construct redshift catalogs for the Canada-France deep Redshift Survey (CFRS).
The full data set consists of more than one thousand spectra, of objects with
17.5 < I_{AB} < 22.5, obtained from deep multi-slit data with the MARLIN and
MOS-SIS spectrographs at the CFHT. The final spectroscopic catalog contains 200
stars, 591 galaxies with secure redshifts in the range 0 < z < 1.3, 6 QSOs, and
146 objects with very uncertain or unknown redshifts, leading to an overall
success rate of identification of 85%. Additionally, 67 objects affected by
observational problems have been placed in a supplemental list.
We describe here the instrumental set up, and the observing procedures used
to efficiently gather this large data set. New optimal ways of packing spectra
on the detector to significantly increase the multiplexing gain offered by
multi-slit spectroscopy are described. Dedicated data reduction procedures have
been developed under the IRAF environment to allow for fast and accurate
processing.
Very strict procedures have been followed to establish a reliable list of
final spectroscopic measurements. Fully independent processing of the data has
been carried out by three members of the team for each data set associated with
a multi-slit mask, and final redshifts were
assigned only after the careful comparison of the three independent
measurements. A confidence class scheme was established. We strongly emphasize
the benefits of such procedures.
Finally, we present the spectroscopic data obtained for 303 objects in the
0000-00 and 1000+25 fields. The success rate in spectroscopic identification isComment: 16 uuencoded postcript pages with figures 4,5,8,9 and 12. Other
(large) figures available from the authors. Large data table not yet
released. Also available at http://www.dao.nrc.ca/DAO/SCIENCE/science.html
and coming soon on a CFRS homepage. Accepted June 19, scheduled for the Dec
10 issue of Ap
Photo-z Performance for Precision Cosmology II : Empirical Verification
The success of future large scale weak lensing surveys will critically depend
on the accurate estimation of photometric redshifts of very large samples of
galaxies. This in turn depends on both the quality of the photometric data and
the photo-z estimators. In a previous study, (Bordoloi et al. 2010) we focussed
primarily on the impact of photometric quality on photo-z estimates and on the
development of novel techniques to construct the N(z) of tomographic bins at
the high level of precision required for precision cosmology, as well as the
correction of issues such as imprecise corrections for Galactic reddening. We
used the same set of templates to generate the simulated photometry as were
then used in the photo-z code, thereby removing any effects of "template
error". In this work we now include the effects of "template error" by
generating simulated photometric data set from actual COSMOS photometry. We use
the trick of simulating redder photometry of galaxies at higher redshifts by
using a bluer set of passbands on low z galaxies with known redshifts. We find
that "template error" is a rather small factor in photo-z performance, at the
photometric precision and filter complement expected for all-sky surveys. With
only a small sub-set of training galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts, it is
in principle possible to construct tomographic redshift bins whose mean
redshift is known, from photo-z alone, to the required accuracy of 0.002(1+z).Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY I: Introduction to the Survey, Photometric Catalogs and Surface Brightness Selection Effects
The Canada-France Redshift Survey has been undertaken to provide a large
well-defined sample of faint galaxies at high redshift in which the selection
criteria match as closely as possible those of samples of nearby galaxies. The
survey is designed to have a median redshift of z ~ 0.6 corresponding to a
look-back time of half the present age of the Universe for Omega ~ 1. Such a
survey can then be used for studying many different aspects of the evolution of
galaxies over the interval 0 < z < 1. In this paper we describe the selection
of the fields, the multicolor imaging observations and the construction and
validation of the photometric catalogs. Particular attention is paid to
quantifying the unavoidable selection effects in surface brightness and their
impact on the survey is assessed in the context of the properties of known
populations of galaxies. The photometric catalogs contain several thousand
objects brighter than I_{AB}< 22.5 and are essentially complete for central
surface brightnesses as faint as 24.5 mag arcsec.
This should be sufficient to include both normal surface brightness galaxies
and prototypes of extreme low surface brightness galaxies.Comment: 17 pages, 2 tables, 10 postscript figures (in 2 parts), uses
aaspp.sty Also available at http://www.dao.nrc.ca/DAO/SCIENCE/science.html
and coming soon on a CFRS homepag
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