2,944 research outputs found
A new estimation of the Archeops angular power spectrum
We present a refined angular power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB) anisotropies using the Archeops last flight data. The
estimation of the Cl described here is performed using Xspect, a method which
uses the cross-power spectra of the maps of 6 different detectors. It covers
multipole range from l=10 to l=700 in 25 bins and confirms a strong evidence of
a plateau followed by the presence of two Doppler peaks. Archeops was conceived
as a precursor of the Planck HFI instrument by using the same optical design
and the same technology for the detectors and their cooling. Since last
publication, specific methods have been developed, extra bolometers were used
and the sky coverage, of about 20%, is almost twice larger. We also present a
comparison with first-year WMAP data both using individually spectra and by
computing the cross-power spectrum of the two experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the XXXIXth
Rencontres de Moriond "Exploring the Universe", La Thuile, Italy, March
28-April 4, 200
Obscuring and feeding supermassive black holes with evolving nuclear star clusters
Recently, high resolution observations with the help of the near-infrared
adaptive optics integral field spectrograph SINFONI at the VLT proved the
existence of massive and young nuclear star clusters in the centres of a sample
of Seyfert galaxies. With the help of high resolution hydrodynamical
simulations with the PLUTO-code, we follow the evolution of such clusters,
especially focusing on mass and energy feedback from young stars. This leads to
a filamentary inflow of gas on large scales (tens of parsec), whereas a
turbulent and very dense disc builds up on the parsec scale. Here, we
concentrate on the long-term evolution of the nuclear disc in NGC 1068 with the
help of an effective viscous disc model, using the mass input from the large
scale simulations and accounting for star formation in the disc. This two-stage
modelling enables us to connect the tens of parsec scale region (observable
with SINFONI) with the parsec scale environment (MIDI observations). At the
current age of the nuclear star cluster, our simulations predict disc sizes of
the order of 0.8 to 0.9 pc, gas masses of 1.0e6 Msun and mass transfer rates
through the inner boundary of 0.025 Msun/yr in good agreement with values
derived from observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the IAU General
Assembly 2009, Rio de Janeiro, S267 Co-evolution of Central Black Holes and
Galaxie
A novel estimator of the polarization amplitude from normally distributed Stokes parameters
We propose a novel estimator of the polarization amplitude from a single
measurement of its normally distributed Stokes components. Based on the
properties of the Rice distribution and dubbed 'MAS' (Modified ASymptotic), it
meets several desirable criteria:(i) its values lie in the whole positive
region; (ii) its distribution is continuous; (iii) it transforms smoothly with
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) from a Rayleigh-like shape to a Gaussian one;
(iv) it is unbiased and reaches its components' variance as soon as the SNR
exceeds 2; (v) it is analytic and can therefore be used on large data-sets. We
also revisit the construction of its associated confidence intervals and show
how the Feldman-Cousins prescription efficiently solves the issue of classical
intervals lying entirely in the unphysical negative domain. Such intervals can
be used to identify statistically significant polarized regions and conversely
build masks for polarization data. We then consider the case of a general
covariance matrix and perform a generalization of the estimator that
preserves its asymptotic properties. We show that its bias does not depend on
the true polarization angle, and provide an analytic estimate of its variance.
The estimator value, together with its variance, provide a powerful
point-estimate of the true polarization amplitude that follows an unbiased
Gaussian distribution for a SNR as low as 2. These results can be applied to
the much more general case of transforming any normally distributed random
variable from Cartesian to polar coordinates.Comment: Accepted by MNRA
Time-resolved infrared emission from radiation-driven central obscuring structures in Active Galactic Nuclei
The central engines of Seyfert galaxies are thought to be enshrouded by
geometrically thick gas and dust structures. In this article, we derive
observable properties for a self-consistent model of such toroidal gas and dust
distributions, where the geometrical thickness is achieved and maintained with
the help of X-ray heating and radiation pressure due to the central engine.
Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and images are obtained with the help of
dust continuum radiative transfer calculations with RADMC-3D. For the first
time, we are able to present time-resolved SEDs and images for a physical model
of the central obscurer. Temporal changes are mostly visible at shorter
wavelengths, close to the combined peak of the dust opacity as well as the
central source spectrum and are caused by variations in the column densities of
the generated outflow. Due to the three-component morphology of the
hydrodynamical models -- a thin disc with high density filaments, a surrounding
fluffy component (the obscurer) and a low density outflow along the rotation
axis -- we find dramatic differences depending on wavelength: whereas the
mid-infrared images are dominated by the elongated appearance of the outflow
cone, the long wavelength emission is mainly given by the cold and dense disc
component. Overall, we find good agreement with observed characteristics,
especially for those models, which show clear outflow cones in combination with
a geometrically thick distribution of gas and dust, as well as a geometrically
thin, but high column density disc in the equatorial plane.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Agnostic cosmology in the CAMEL framework
Cosmological parameter estimation is traditionally performed in the Bayesian
context. By adopting an "agnostic" statistical point of view, we show the
interest of confronting the Bayesian results to a frequentist approach based on
profile-likelihoods. To this purpose, we have developed the Cosmological
Analysis with a Minuit Exploration of the Likelihood ("CAMEL") software.
Written from scratch in pure C++, emphasis was put in building a clean and
carefully-designed project where new data and/or cosmological computations can
be easily included.
CAMEL incorporates the latest cosmological likelihoods and gives access from
the very same input file to several estimation methods: (i) A high quality
Maximum Likelihood Estimate (a.k.a "best fit") using MINUIT ; (ii) profile
likelihoods, (iii) a new implementation of an Adaptive Metropolis MCMC
algorithm that relieves the burden of reconstructing the proposal distribution.
We present here those various statistical techniques and roll out a full
use-case that can then used as a tutorial. We revisit the CDM
parameters determination with the latest Planck data and give results with both
methodologies. Furthermore, by comparing the Bayesian and frequentist
approaches, we discuss a "likelihood volume effect" that affects the optical
reionization depth when analyzing the high multipoles part of the Planck data.
The software, used in several Planck data analyzes, is available from
http://camel.in2p3.fr. Using it does not require advanced C++ skills.Comment: Typeset in Authorea. Online version available at:
https://www.authorea.com/users/90225/articles/104431/_show_articl
Non-linear Preheating with Scalar Metric Perturbations
We have studied preheating of field perturbations in a 3-dimensional lattice
including the effect of scalar metric perturbations, in two generic models of
inflation: chaotic inflation with a quartic potential, and standard hybrid
inflation. We have prepared the initial state for the classical evolution of
the system with vanishing vector and tensor metric perturbations, consistent
with the constraint equations, the energy and momentum constraints. The
non-linear evolution inevitably generates vector and tensor modes, and this
reflects on how well the constraint equations are fulfilled during the
evolution. The induced preheating of the scalar metric perturbations is not
large enough to backreact onto the fields, but it could affect the evolution of
vector and tensor modes. This is the case in hybrid inflation for some values
of the coupling and the height of potential . For example with
GeV, preheating of scalar perturbations is such that
their source term in the evolution equation of tensor and vector becomes
comparable to that of the field anisotropic stress.Comment: 15 pages, 12 eps figure
Radiative transfer modelling of parsec-scale dusty warped discs
Warped discs have been found on (sub-)parsec scale in some nearby Seyfert
nuclei, identified by their maser emission. Using dust radiative transfer
simulations we explore their observational signatures in the infrared in order
to find out whether they can partly replace the molecular torus. Strong
variations of the brightness distributions are found, depending on the
orientation of the warp with respect to the line of sight. Whereas images at
short wavelengths typically show a disc-like and a point source component, the
warp itself only becomes visible at far-infrared wavelengths. A similar variety
is visible in the shapes of the spectral energy distributions. Especially for
close to edge-on views, the models show silicate feature strengths ranging from
deep absorption to strong emission for variations of the lines of sight towards
the warp. To test the applicability of our model, we use the case of the
Circinus galaxy, where infrared interferometry has revealed a highly elongated
emission component matching a warped maser disc in orientation and size. Our
model is for the first time able to present a physical explanation for the
observed dust morphology as coming from the AGN heated dust. As opposed to
available torus models, a warped disc morphology produces a variety of silicate
feature shapes for grazing lines of sight, close to an edge-on view. This could
be an attractive alternative to a claimed change of the dust composition for
the case of the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068, which harbours a warped maser
disc as well.Comment: accepted by MNRA
Relieving tensions related to the lensing of CMB temperature power spectra
The angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
temperature anisotropies reconstructed from Planck data seem to present too
much gravitational lensing distortion. This is quantified by the control
parameter that should be compatible with unity for a standard cosmology.
With the Class Boltzmann solver and the profile-likelihood method, for this
parameter we measure a 2.6 shift from 1 using the Planck public
likelihoods. We show that, owing to strong correlations with the reionization
optical depth and the primordial perturbation amplitude , a
tension on also appears between the results obtained with
the low () and high () multipoles
likelihoods. With Hillipop, another high- likelihood built from Planck
data, this difference is lowered to . In this case, the value
is still in disagreement with unity by , suggesting a non-trivial
effect of the correlations between cosmological and nuisance parameters. To
better constrain the nuisance foregrounds parameters, we include the very high
measurements of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and South Pole
Telescope (SPT) experiments and obtain . The
Hillipop+ACT+SPT likelihood estimate of the optical depth is
which is now fully compatible with the low
likelihood determination. After showing the robustness of our results with
various combinations, we investigate the reasons for this improvement that
results from a better determination of the whole set of foregrounds parameters.
We finally provide estimates of the CDM parameters with our combined
CMB data likelihood.Comment: accepted by A&
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