180 research outputs found
Foreground removal from WMAP 5yr temperature maps using an MLP neural network
One of the main obstacles for extracting the cosmic microwave background
(CMB) signal from observations in the mm/sub-mm range is the foreground
contamination by emission from Galactic component: mainly synchrotron,
free-free, and thermal dust emission. The statistical nature of the intrinsic
CMB signal makes it essential to minimize the systematic errors in the CMB
temperature determinations. The feasibility of using simple neural networks to
extract the CMB signal from detailed simulated data has already been
demonstrated. Here, simple neural networks are applied to the WMAP 5yr
temperature data without using any auxiliary data. A simple \emph{multilayer
perceptron} neural network with two hidden layers provides temperature
estimates over more than 75 per cent of the sky with random errors
significantly below those previously extracted from these data. Also, the
systematic errors, i.e.\ errors correlated with the Galactic foregrounds, are
very small. With these results the neural network method is well prepared for
dealing with the high - quality CMB data from the ESA Planck Surveyor
satellite.Comment: 6 pages, 13 figure
Deep rest-frame far-UV spectroscopy of the giant Lyman-alpha emitter 'Himiko'
We present deep 10h VLT/XSHOOTER spectroscopy for an extraordinarily luminous
and extended Lya emitter at z=6.595 referred to as Himiko and first discussed
by Ouchi et al. (2009), with the purpose of constraining the mechanisms
powering its strong emission. Complementary to the spectrum, we discuss NIR
imaging data from the CANDELS survey. We find neither for HeII nor any metal
line a significant excess, with 3 sigma upper limits of 6.8, 3.1, and
5.8x10^{-18} erg/s/cm^2 for CIV 1549, HeII 1640, CIII]
1909, respectively, assuming apertures with 200 km/s widths and offset
by -250 km/s w.r.t to the peak Lya redshift. These limits provide strong
evidence that an AGN is not a major contribution to Himiko's Lya flux. Strong
conclusions about the presence of PopIII star-formation or gravitational
cooling radiation are not possible based on the obtained HeII upper limit. Our
Lya spectrum confirms both spatial extent and flux (8.8+/-0.5x10^{-17}
erg/s/cm^2) of previous measurements. In addition, we can unambiguously exclude
any remaining chance of it being a lower redshift interloper by significantly
detecting a continuum redwards of Lya, while being undetected bluewards
Foreground removal from WMAP 7yr polarization maps using an MLP neural network
One of the fundamental problems in extracting the cosmic microwave background
signal (CMB) from millimeter/submillimeter observations is the pollution by
emission from the Milky Way: synchrotron, free-free, and thermal dust emission.
To extract the fundamental cosmological parameters from CMB signal, it is
mandatory to minimize this pollution since it will create systematic errors in
the CMB power spectra. In previous investigations, it has been demonstrated
that the neural network method provide high quality CMB maps from temperature
data. Here the analysis is extended to polarization maps. As a concrete
example, the WMAP 7-year polarization data, the most reliable determination of
the polarization properties of the CMB, has been analysed. The analysis has
adopted the frequency maps, noise models, window functions and the foreground
models as provided by the WMAP Team, and no auxiliary data is included. Within
this framework it is demonstrated that the network can extract the CMB
polarization signal with no sign of pollution by the polarized foregrounds. The
errors in the derived polarization power spectra are improved compared to the
errors derived by the WMAP Team.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Power filtration of CMB observational data
We propose a power filter Gp for linear reconstruction of the CMB signal from
observational maps. This Gp filter preserves the power spectrum of the CMB
signal in contrast to the Wiener filter which diminishes the power spectrum of
the reconstructed CMB signal. We demonstrate how peak statistics and a cluster
analysis can be used to estimate the probability of the presence of a CMB
signal in observational records. The efficiency of the Gp filter is
demonstrated on a toy model of an observational record consisting of a CMB
signal and noise in the form of foreground point sources.Comment: 17 pages; 4 figures; submitted to International Journal of Modern
Physic
Recovering the properties of high redshift galaxies with different JWST broad-band filters
Imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow for observing
the bulk of distant galaxies at the epoch of reionisation. The recovery of
their properties, such as age, color excess E(B-V), specific star formation
rate (sSFR) and stellar mass, will mostly rely on spectral energy distribution
fitting, based on the data provided by JWST's two imager cameras, namely the
Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid Infrared Imager (MIRI). In this work
we analyze the effect of choosing different combinations of NIRCam and MIRI
broad-band filters, from 0.6 {\mu}m to 7.7 {\mu}m, on the recovery of these
galaxy properties. We performed our tests on a sample of 1542 simulated
galaxies, with known input properties, at z=7-10. We found that, with only 8
NIRCam broad-bands, we can recover the galaxy age within 0.1 Gyr and the color
excess within 0.06 mag for 70% of the galaxies. Besides, the stellar masses and
sSFR are recovered within 0.2 and 0.3 dex, respectively, at z=7-9. Instead, at
z=10, no NIRCam band traces purely the {\lambda}> 4000 {\AA} regime and the
percentage of outliers in stellar mass (sSFR) increases by > 20% (> 90%), in
comparison to z=9. The MIRI F560W and F770W bands are crucial to improve the
stellar mass and the sSFR estimation at z=10. When nebular emission lines are
present, deriving correct galaxy properties is challenging, at any redshift and
with any band combination. In particular, the stellar mass is systematically
overestimated in up to 0.3 dex on average with NIRCam data alone and including
MIRI observations improves only marginally the estimation.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication at the ApJ
Foreground removal from CMB temperature maps using an MLP neural network
One of the main obstacles in extracting the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
signal from observations in the mm-submm range is the foreground contamination
by emission from galactic components: mainly synchrotron, free-free and thermal
dust emission. Due to the statistical nature of the intrinsic CMB signal it is
essential to minimize the systematic errors in the CMB temperature
determinations. Following the available knowledge of the spectral behavior of
the galactic foregrounds simple, power law-like spectra have been assumed. The
feasibility of using a simple neural network for extracting the CMB temperature
signal from the combined CMB and foreground signals has been investigated. As a
specific example, we have analysed simulated data, like that expected from the
ESA Planck Surveyor mission. A simple multilayer perceptron neural network with
2 hidden layers can provide temperature estimates, over more than 80 percent of
the sky, that are to a high degree uncorrelated with the foreground signals. A
single network will be able to cover the dynamic range of the Planck noise
level over the entire sky.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc
Cancer risk among users of neuroleptic medication: a population-based cohort study
It has been suggested that neuroleptic medication may decrease cancer risk. We compared cancer risks in a population-based cohort study of 25â264 users (â©Ÿ2 prescriptions) of neuroleptic medications in the county of North Jutland, Denmark, during 1989â2002, with that of county residents who did not receive such prescriptions. Statistical analyses were based on age-standardisation and Poisson regression analysis, adjusting for age, calendar period, COPD, liver cirrhosis or alcoholism, use of NSAID, and, for breast cancer, additionally for use of hormone therapy, age at first birth, and number of children. Use of neuroleptic medications was associated with a decreased risk for rectal cancer in both women and men (adjusted IRRs of 0.61 (95% confidence interval, 0.41â0.91) and 0.82 (0.56â1.19), respectively) and for colon cancer in female users (0.78; 0.62â0.98). Some risk reduction was seen for prostate cancer (0.87; 0.69â1.08), but breast cancer risk was close to unity (0.93; 0.74â1.17). Overall, treatment with neuroleptic medications was not related to a reduced risk of cancer, but for cancers of the rectum, colon and prostate there were suggestive decreases in risk
Uncovering the stellar structure of the dusty star-forming galaxy GN20 at z=4.055 with MIRI/JWST
Luminous infrared galaxies at high redshifts (>4) include extreme
starbursts that build their stellar mass over short periods of time (>100 Myr).
These galaxies are considered to be the progenitors of massive quiescent
galaxies at intermediate redshifts (2) but their stellar structure and
buildup is unknown. Here, we present the first spatially resolved near-infrared
imaging of GN20, one of the most luminous dusty star-forming galaxies known to
date, observed at an epoch when the Universe was only 1.5 Gyr old. The
5.6m image taken with the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI/JWST) shows
that GN20 is a very luminous galaxy (M=25.01), with a
stellar structure composed of a conspicuous central source and an extended
envelope. The central source is an unresolved nucleus that carries 9% of the
total flux. The nucleus is co-aligned with the peak of the cold dust emission,
and offset by 3.9 kpc from the ultraviolet stellar emission. The diffuse
stellar envelope is similar in size to the clumpy CO molecular gas
distribution. The centroid of the stellar envelope is offset by 1 kpc from the
unresolved nucleus, suggesting GN20 is involved in an interaction or merger
event supported by its location as the brightest galaxy in a proto-cluster. The
stellar size of GN20 is larger by a factor of about 3-5 than known spheroids,
disks, and irregulars at 4, while its size and low S\'ersic index are
similar to those measured in dusty, infrared luminous galaxies at 2 of
the same mass. GN20 has all the ingredients necessary for evolving into a
massive spheroidal quiescent galaxy at intermediate : it is a large,
luminous galaxy at =4.05 involved in a short and massive starburst centred
in the stellar nucleus and extended over the entire galaxy, out to radii of 4
kpc, and likely induced by the interaction or merger with a member of the
proto-cluster.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Planck Intermediate Results. IV. The XMM-Newton validation programme for new Planck galaxy clusters
We present the final results from the XMM-Newton validation follow-up of new
Planck galaxy cluster candidates. We observed 15 new candidates, detected with
signal-to-noise ratios between 4.0 and 6.1 in the 15.5-month nominal Planck
survey. The candidates were selected using ancillary data flags derived from
the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and Digitized Sky Survey all-sky maps, with the
aim of pushing into the low SZ flux, high-z regime and testing RASS flags as
indicators of candidate reliability. 14 new clusters were detected by XMM,
including 2 double systems. Redshifts lie in the range 0.2 to 0.9, with 6
clusters at z>0.5. Estimated M500 range from 2.5 10^14 to 8 10^14 Msun. We
discuss our results in the context of the full XMM validation programme, in
which 51 new clusters have been detected. This includes 4 double and 2 triple
systems, some of which are chance projections on the sky of clusters at
different z. We find that association with a RASS-BSC source is a robust
indicator of the reliability of a candidate, whereas association with a FSC
source does not guarantee that the SZ candidate is a bona fide cluster.
Nevertheless, most Planck clusters appear in RASS maps, with a significance
greater than 2 sigma being a good indication that the candidate is a real
cluster. The full sample gives a Planck sensitivity threshold of Y500 ~ 4 10^-4
arcmin^2, with indication for Malmquist bias in the YX-Y500 relation below this
level. The corresponding mass threshold depends on z. Systems with M500 > 5
10^14 Msun at z > 0.5 are easily detectable with Planck. The newly-detected
clusters follow the YX-Y500 relation derived from X-ray selected samples.
Compared to X-ray selected clusters, the new SZ clusters have a lower X-ray
luminosity on average for their mass. There is no indication of departure from
standard self-similar evolution in the X-ray versus SZ scaling properties.
(abridged)Comment: accepted by A&
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