151 research outputs found
Weak lensing peak count as a probe of f(R) theories
Weak gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters on faint higher redshift
galaxies has been traditionally used to study the cluster mass distribution and
as a tool to identify clusters as peaks in the shear maps. However, it becomes
soon clear that peaks statistics can also be used as a way to constrain the
underlying cosmological model due to its dependence on both the cosmic
expansion rate and the growth rate of structures. This feature makes peak
statistics particularly interesting from the point of view of discriminating
between General Relativity and modified gravity. Here we consider a general
class of theories and compute the observable mass function based on the
aperture mass statistics. We complement our theoretical analysis with a Fisher
matrix forecast of the constraints that an Euclid\,-\,like survey can impose on
the model parameters. We show that peak statistics alone can in
principle discriminate between General Relativity and models and
strongly constrain the parameters that are sensitive to the non-linear
growth of structure. However, further analysis is needed in order to include
possible selection function in the peaks redshift determination.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication on MNRAS on
Jan 14, 2013; updated to match the published versio
AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: Constraints on ΛCDM from extreme value statistics
We constrain the ΛCDM cosmological parameter s(8) by applying the extreme value statistics for galaxy cluster mass on the AMICO KiDS-DR3 catalogue. We sample the posterior distribution of the parameters by considering the likelihood of observing the largest cluster mass value in a sample of N-obs = 3644 clusters with intrinsic richness λ(*) > 20 in the redshift range z ∈ [0.10, 0.60]. We obtain s(8) = 0 . 90( + 0 .20) (-0.18), consistent within 1s with the measurements obtained by the Planck collaboration and with previous results from cluster cosmology exploiting AMICO KiDS-DR3. The constraints could improve by applying this method to forthcoming missions, such as Euclid and LSST, which are expected to deliver thousands of distant and massive clusters
The warm, the excited, and the molecular gas: GRB 121024A shining through its star-forming galaxy
We present the first reported case of the simultaneous metallicity
determination of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxy, from both afterglow
absorption lines as well as strong emission-line diagnostics. Using
spectroscopic and imaging observations of the afterglow and host of the
long-duration Swift GRB121024A at z = 2.30, we give one of the most complete
views of a GRB host/environment to date. We observe a strong damped Ly-alpha
absorber (DLA) with a hydrogen column density of log N(HI) = 21.88 +/- 0.10, H2
absorption in the Lyman-Werner bands (molecular fraction of log(f)~ -1.4;
fourth solid detection of molecular hydrogen in a GRB-DLA), the nebular
emission lines H-alpha, H-beta, [O II], [O III] and [N II], as well as metal
absorption lines. We find a GRB host galaxy that is highly star-forming (SFR ~
40 solar masses/yr ), with a dust-corrected metallicity along the line of sight
of [Zn/H]corr = -0.6 +/- 0.2 ([O/H] ~ -0.3 from emission lines), and a
depletion factor [Zn/Fe] = 0.85 +/- 0.04. The molecular gas is separated by 400
km/s (and 1-3 kpc) from the gas that is photoexcited by the GRB. This implies a
fairly massive host, in agreement with the derived stellar mass of
log(M/M_solar ) = 9.9+/- 0.2. We dissect the host galaxy by characterising its
molecular component, the excited gas, and the line-emitting star-forming
regions. The extinction curve for the line of sight is found to be unusually
flat (Rv ~15). We discuss the possibility of an anomalous grain size
distributions. We furthermore discuss the different metallicity determinations
from both absorption and emission lines, which gives consistent results for the
line of sight to GRB 121024A.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRA
AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: Cosmological constraints from angular power spectrum and correlation function
We study the tomographic clustering properties of the photometric cluster
catalogue derived from the Third Data Release of the Kilo Degree Survey,
focusing on the angular correlation function and its spherical harmonic
counterpart, the angular power spectrum. We measure the angular correlation
function and power spectrum from a sample of 5162 clusters, with an intrinsic
richness , in the photometric redshift range , comparing our measurements with theoretical models, in the framework of
the -Cold Dark Matter cosmology. We perform a Monte Carlo Markov Chain
analysis to constrain the cosmological parameters ,
and the structure growth parameter . We adopt Gaussian priors on the parameters of
the mass-richness relation, based on the posterior distributions derived from a
previous joint analysis of cluster counts and weak lensing mass measurements
carried out with the same catalogue. From the angular correlation function, we
obtain ,
and , in agreement,
within , with 3D clustering result based on the same cluster sample
and with existing complementary studies on other datasets. For the angular
power spectrum, we derive statistically consistent results, in particular
and ,
while the constraint on alone is weaker with respect to the one
provided by the angular correlation function, .
Our results show that the 2D clustering from photometric cluster surveys can
provide competitive cosmological constraints with respect to the full 3D
clustering statistics, and can be successfully applied to ongoing and
forthcoming spectro/photometric surveys.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A
Bayesian Bootstrap Inference for the ROC Surface
Accurate diagnosis of disease is of great importance in clinical practice and
medical research. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface is a
popular tool for evaluating the discriminatory ability of continuous diagnostic
test outcomes when there exist three ordered disease classes (e.g., no disease,
mild disease, advanced disease). We propose the Bayesian bootstrap, a fully
nonparametric method, for conducting inference about the ROC surface and its
functionals, such as the volume under the surface. The proposed method is based
on a simple, yet interesting, representation of the ROC surface in terms of
placement variables. Results from a simulation study demonstrate the ability of
our method to successfully recover the true ROC surface and to produce valid
inferences in a variety of complex scenarios. An application to data from the
Trail Making Test to assess cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease
patients is provided
Rapid in-country sequencing of whole virus genomes to inform rabies elimination programmes.
Genomic surveillance is an important aspect of contemporary disease management but has yet to be used routinely to monitor endemic disease transmission and control in low- and middle-income countries. Rabies is an almost invariably fatal viral disease that causes a large public health and economic burden in Asia and Africa, despite being entirely vaccine preventable. With policy efforts now directed towards achieving a global goal of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030, establishing effective surveillance tools is critical. Genomic data can provide important and unique insights into rabies spread and persistence that can direct control efforts. However, capacity for genomic research in low- and middle-income countries is held back by limited laboratory infrastructure, cost, supply chains and other logistical challenges. Here we present and validate an end-to-end workflow to facilitate affordable whole genome sequencing for rabies surveillance utilising nanopore technology. We used this workflow in Kenya, Tanzania and the Philippines to generate rabies virus genomes in two to three days, reducing costs to approximately £60 per genome. This is over half the cost of metagenomic sequencing previously conducted for Tanzanian samples, which involved exporting samples to the UK and a three- to six-month lag time. Ongoing optimization of workflows are likely to reduce these costs further. We also present tools to support routine whole genome sequencing and interpretation for genomic surveillance. Moreover, combined with training workshops to empower scientists in-country, we show that local sequencing capacity can be readily established and sustainable, negating the common misperception that cutting-edge genomic research can only be conducted in high resource laboratories. More generally, we argue that the capacity to harness genomic data is a game-changer for endemic disease surveillance and should precipitate a new wave of researchers from low- and middle-income countries
Cluster Lenses
Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound
structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their
masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as
some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays
traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the
resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and
magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique
observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects
readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and
arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the
shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses
have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions
in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass
distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well
as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects
- probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is
statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus
enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the
Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the
strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between
the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of
cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark
Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a
current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note:
text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author
Euclid preparation. XXIV. Calibration of the halo mass function in CDM cosmologies
Euclid's photometric galaxy cluster survey has the potential to be a very
competitive cosmological probe. The main cosmological probe with observations
of clusters is their number count, within which the halo mass function (HMF) is
a key theoretical quantity. We present a new calibration of the analytic HMF,
at the level of accuracy and precision required for the uncertainty in this
quantity to be subdominant with respect to other sources of uncertainty in
recovering cosmological parameters from Euclid cluster counts. Our model is
calibrated against a suite of N-body simulations using a Bayesian approach
taking into account systematic errors arising from numerical effects in the
simulation. First, we test the convergence of HMF predictions from different
N-body codes, by using initial conditions generated with different orders of
Lagrangian Perturbation theory, and adopting different simulation box sizes and
mass resolution. Then, we quantify the effect of using different halo-finder
algorithms, and how the resulting differences propagate to the cosmological
constraints. In order to trace the violation of universality in the HMF, we
also analyse simulations based on initial conditions characterised by
scale-free power spectra with different spectral indexes, assuming both
Einstein--de Sitter and standard CDM expansion histories. Based on
these results, we construct a fitting function for the HMF that we demonstrate
to be sub-percent accurate in reproducing results from 9 different variants of
the CDM model including massive neutrinos cosmologies. The calibration
systematic uncertainty is largely sub-dominant with respect to the expected
precision of future mass-observation relations; with the only notable exception
of the effect due to the halo finder, that could lead to biased cosmological
inference.Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, 3 appendixes
Euclid preparation: XXII. Selection of Quiescent Galaxies from Mock Photometry using Machine Learning
The Euclid Space Telescope will provide deep imaging at optical and
near-infrared wavelengths, along with slitless near-infrared spectroscopy,
across ~15,000 sq deg of the sky. Euclid is expected to detect ~12 billion
astronomical sources, facilitating new insights into cosmology, galaxy
evolution, and various other topics. To optimally exploit the expected very
large data set, there is the need to develop appropriate methods and software.
Here we present a novel machine-learning based methodology for selection of
quiescent galaxies using broad-band Euclid I_E, Y_E, J_E, H_E photometry, in
combination with multiwavelength photometry from other surveys. The ARIADNE
pipeline uses meta-learning to fuse decision-tree ensembles,
nearest-neighbours, and deep-learning methods into a single classifier that
yields significantly higher accuracy than any of the individual learning
methods separately. The pipeline has `sparsity-awareness', so that missing
photometry values are still informative for the classification. Our pipeline
derives photometric redshifts for galaxies selected as quiescent, aided by the
`pseudo-labelling' semi-supervised method. After application of the outlier
filter, our pipeline achieves a normalized mean absolute deviation of ~< 0.03
and a fraction of catastrophic outliers of ~< 0.02 when measured against the
COSMOS2015 photometric redshifts. We apply our classification pipeline to mock
galaxy photometry catalogues corresponding to three main scenarios: (i) Euclid
Deep Survey with ancillary ugriz, WISE, and radio data; (ii) Euclid Wide Survey
with ancillary ugriz, WISE, and radio data; (iii) Euclid Wide Survey only. Our
classification pipeline outperforms UVJ selection, in addition to the Euclid
I_E-Y_E, J_E-H_E and u-I_E,I_E-J_E colour-colour methods, with improvements in
completeness and the F1-score of up to a factor of 2. (Abridged)Comment: 37 pages (including appendices), 26 figures; accepted for publication
in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Euclid preparation: XVI. Exploring the ultra-low surface brightness Universe with Euclid /VIS
Context. While Euclid is an ESA mission specifically designed to investigate the nature of dark energy and dark matter, the planned unprecedented combination of survey area (∼15â 000 deg2), spatial resolution, low sky-background, and depth also make Euclid an excellent space observatory for the study of the low surface brightness Universe. Scientific exploitation of the extended low surface brightness structures requires dedicated calibration procedures that are yet to be tested. Aims. We investigate the capabilities of Euclid to detect extended low surface brightness structure by identifying and quantifying sky-background sources and stray-light contamination. We test the feasibility of generating sky flat-fields to reduce large-scale residual gradients in order to reveal the extended emission of galaxies observed in the Euclid survey. Methods. We simulated a realistic set of Euclid/VIS observations, taking into account both instrumental and astronomical sources of contamination, including cosmic rays, stray-light, zodiacal light, interstellar medium, and the cosmic infrared background, while simulating the effects of background sources in the field of view. Results. We demonstrate that a combination of calibration lamps, sky flats, and self-calibration would enable recovery of emission at a limiting surface brightness magnitude of μlim = 29.5-0.27+0.08 mag arcsec-2 (3σ, 10â ×â 10 arcsec2) in the Wide Survey, and it would reach regions deeper by 2 mag in the Deep Surveys. Conclusions.Euclid/VIS has the potential to be an excellent low surface brightness observatory. Covering the gap between pixel-To-pixel calibration lamp flats and self-calibration observations for large scales, the application of sky flat-fielding will enhance the sensitivity of the VIS detector at scales larger than 1″, up to the size of the field of view, enabling Euclid to detect extended surface brightness structures below μlimâ =â 31 mag arcsec-2 and beyond
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