605 research outputs found
Calculating the transfer function of noise removal by principal component analysis and application to AzTEC observations
Instruments using arrays of many bolometers have become increasingly common
in the past decade. The maps produced by such instruments typically include the
filtering effects of the instrument as well as those from subsequent steps
performed in the reduction of the data. Therefore interpretation of the maps is
dependent upon accurately calculating the transfer function of the chosen
reduction technique on the signal of interest. Many of these instruments use
non-linear and iterative techniques to reduce their data because such methods
can offer improved signal-to-noise over those that are purely linear,
particularly for signals at scales comparable to that subtended by the array.
We discuss a general approach for measuring the transfer function of principal
component analysis (PCA) on point sources that are small compared to the
spatial extent seen by any single bolometer within the array. The results are
applied to previously released AzTEC catalogues of the COSMOS, Lockman Hole,
Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Field, GOODS-North and GOODS-South fields. Source flux
density and noise estimates increase by roughly +10 per cent for fields
observed while AzTEC was installed at the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope
Experiment and +15-25 per cent while AzTEC was installed at the James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope. Detection significance is, on average, unaffected by the
revised technique. The revised photometry technique will be used in subsequent
AzTEC releases.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
SPTpol: an instrument for CMB polarization measurements with the South Pole Telescope
SPTpol is a dual-frequency polarization-sensitive camera that was deployed on the 10-meter South Pole Telescope in January 2012. SPTpol will measure the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales spanning an arcminute to several degrees. The polarization sensitivity of SPTpol will enable a detection of the CMB “B-mode” polarization from the detection of the gravitational lensing of the CMB by large scale structure, and a detection or improved upper limit on a primordial signal due to inationary gravity waves. The two measurements can be used to constrain the sum of the neutrino masses and the energy scale of ination. These science goals can be achieved through the polarization sensitivity of the SPTpol camera and careful control of systematics. The SPTpol camera consists of 768 pixels, each containing two transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers coupled to orthogonal polarizations, and a total of 1536 bolometers. The pixels are sensitive to light in one of two frequency bands centered at 90 and 150 GHz, with 180 pixels at 90 GHz and 588 pixels at 150 GHz. The SPTpol design has several features designed to control polarization systematics, including: singlemoded feedhorns with low cross-polarization, bolometer pairs well-matched to dfference atmospheric signals, an improved ground shield design based on far-sidelobe measurements of the SPT, and a small beam to reduce temperature to polarization leakage. We present an overview of the SPTpol instrument design, project status, and science projections
AzTEC millimeter survey of the COSMOS field - III. Source catalog over 0.72 sq. deg. and plausible boosting by large-scale structure
We present a 0.72 sq. deg. contiguous 1.1mm survey in the central area of the
COSMOS field carried out to a 1sigma ~ 1.26 mJy/beam depth with the AzTEC
camera mounted on the 10m Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE). We
have uncovered 189 candidate sources at a signal-to-noise ratio S/N >= 3.5, out
of which 129, with S/N >= 4, can be considered to have little chance of being
spurious (< 2 per cent). We present the number counts derived with this survey,
which show a significant excess of sources when compared to the number counts
derived from the ~0.5 sq. deg. area sampled at similar depths in the Scuba HAlf
Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES, Austermann et al. 2010). They are,
however, consistent with those derived from fields that were considered too
small to characterize the overall blank-field population. We identify
differences to be more significant in the S > 5 mJy regime, and demonstrate
that these excesses in number counts are related to the areas where galaxies at
redshifts z < 1.1 are more densely clustered. The positions of optical-IR
galaxies in the redshift interval 0.6 < z < 0.75 are the ones that show the
strongest correlation with the positions of the 1.1mm bright population (S > 5
mJy), a result which does not depend exclusively on the presence of rich
clusters within the survey sampled area. The most likely explanation for the
observed excess in number counts at 1.1mm is galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-group
lensing at moderate amplification levels, that increases in amplitude as one
samples larger and larger flux densities. This effect should also be detectable
in other high redshift populations.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Deep 1.1 mm-wavelength imaging of the GOODS-S field by AzTEC/ASTE - I. Source catalogue and number counts
[Abridged] We present the first results from a 1.1 mm confusion-limited map
of the GOODS-S field taken with AzTEC on the ASTE telescope. We imaged a 270
sq. arcmin field to a 1\sigma depth of 0.48 - 0.73 mJy/beam, making this one of
the deepest blank-field surveys at mm-wavelengths ever achieved. Although our
GOODS-S map is extremely confused, we demonstrate that our source
identification and number counts analyses are robust, and the techniques
discussed in this paper are relevant for other deeply confused surveys. We find
a total of 41 dusty starburst galaxies with S/N >= 3.5 within this uniformly
covered region, where only two are expected to be false detections. We derive
the 1.1mm number counts from this field using both a "P(d)" analysis and a
semi-Bayesian technique, and find that both methods give consistent results.
Our data are well-fit by a Schechter function model with (S', N(3mJy), \alpha)
= (1.30+0.19 mJy, 160+27 (mJy/deg^2)^(-1), -2.0). Given the depth of this
survey, we put the first tight constraints on the 1.1 mm number counts at
S(1.1mm) = 0.5 mJy, and we find evidence that the faint-end of the number
counts at S(850\mu m) < 2.0 mJy from various SCUBA surveys towards lensing
clusters are biased high. In contrast to the 870 \mu m survey of this field
with the LABOCA camera, we find no apparent under-density of sources compared
to previous surveys at 1.1 mm. Additionally, we find a significant number of
SMGs not identified in the LABOCA catalogue. We find that in contrast to
observations at wavelengths < 500 \mu m, MIPS 24 \mu m sources do not resolve
the total energy density in the cosmic infrared background at 1.1 mm,
demonstrating that a population of z > 3 dust-obscured galaxies that are
unaccounted for at these shorter wavelengths potentially contribute to a large
fraction (~2/3) of the infrared background at 1.1 mm.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to MNRAS
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