1,097 research outputs found
Automated reliability assessment for spectroscopic redshift measurements
We present a new approach to automate the spectroscopic redshift reliability
assessment based on machine learning (ML) and characteristics of the redshift
probability density function (PDF).
We propose to rephrase the spectroscopic redshift estimation into a Bayesian
framework, in order to incorporate all sources of information and uncertainties
related to the redshift estimation process, and produce a redshift posterior
PDF that will be the starting-point for ML algorithms to provide an automated
assessment of a redshift reliability.
As a use case, public data from the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey is exploited to
present and test this new methodology. We first tried to reproduce the existing
reliability flags using supervised classification to describe different types
of redshift PDFs, but due to the subjective definition of these flags, soon
opted for a new homogeneous partitioning of the data into distinct clusters via
unsupervised classification. After assessing the accuracy of the new clusters
via resubstitution and test predictions, unlabelled data from preliminary mock
simulations for the Euclid space mission are projected into this mapping to
predict their redshift reliability labels.Comment: Submitted on 02 June 2017 (v1). Revised on 08 September 2017 (v2).
Latest version 28 September 2017 (this version v3
The CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY XIII: The luminosity density and star-formation history of the Universe to z ~ 1
The comoving luminosity density of the Universe is estimated from the CFRS
faint galaxy sample in three wavebands (2800A, 4400A and 1 micron) over the
redshift range 0 < z < 1. In all three wavebands, the comoving luminosity
density increases markedly with redshift. For a (q_0 = 0.5, Omega = 1.0)
cosmological model, the comoving luminosity density increases as at 1 micron, as at 4400A and as at 2800A, these exponents being reduced by 0.43 and 1.12 for (0.05,0.1)
and (-0.85,0.1) cosmological models respectively. The variation of the
luminosity density with epoch can be reasonably well modelled by an actively
evolving stellar population with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF)
extending to 125 M_sun, a star-formation rate declining with a power 2.5, and a
turn-on of star-formation at early epochs. A Scalo (1986) IMF extending to the
same mass limit produces too many long-lived low mass stars. This rapid
evolution of the star-formation rate and comoving luminosity density of the
Universe is in good agreement with the conclusions of Pei and Fall (1995) from
their analysis of the evolving metallicity of the Universe. One consequence of
this evolution is that the physical luminosity density at short wavelengths has
probably declined by two orders of magnitude since z ~ 1.Comment: uuencoded compressed tar file containing 8 page Tex file, 2
postscript figures and 2 tables. Ap J Letters, in press. Also available at
http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~lilly/CFRS/papers.htm
EZ: A Tool for Automatic Redshift Measurement
We present EZ (Easy redshift), a tool we have developed within the VVDS
project to help in redshift measurement from otpical spectra. EZ has been
designed with large spectroscopic surveys in mind, and in its development
particular care has been given to the reliability of the results obtained in an
automatic and unsupervised mode. Nevertheless, the possibility of running it
interactively has been preserved, and a graphical user interface for results
inspection has been designed. EZ has been successfully used within the VVDS
project, as well as the zCosmos one. In this paper we describe its architecture
and the algorithms used, and evaluate its performances both on simulated and
real data. EZ is an open source program, freely downloadable from
http://cosmos.iasf-milano.inaf.it/pandora.Comment: accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society
of the Pacifi
Clustering properties of a type-selected volume-limited sample of galaxies in the CFHTLS
(abridged) We present an investigation of the clustering of i'AB<24.5
galaxies in the redshift interval 0.2<z<1.2. Using 100,000 precise photometric
redshifts in the four ultra-deep fields of the Canada-France Legacy Survey, we
construct a set of volume-limited galaxy catalogues. We study the dependence of
the amplitude and slope of the galaxy correlation function on absolute B-band
rest-frame luminosity, redshift and best-fitting spectral type. We find: 1. The
comoving correlation length for all galaxies decreases steadily from z~0.3 to
z~1. 2. At all redshifts and luminosities, galaxies with redder rest-frame
colours have clustering amplitudes between two and three times higher than
bluer ones. 3. For bright red and blue galaxies, the clustering amplitude is
invariant with redshift. 4. At z~0.5, less luminous galaxies have higher
clustering amplitudes of around 6 h-1 Mpc. 5. The relative bias between
galaxies with red and blue rest-frame colours increases gradually towards
fainter absolute magnitudes. One of the principal implications of these results
is that although the full galaxy population traces the underlying dark matter
distribution quite well (and is therefore quite weakly biased), redder, older
galaxies have clustering lengths which are almost invariant with redshift, and
by z~1 are quite strongly biased.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey - Evolution of the luminosity functions by galaxy type up to z=1.5 from first epoch data
From the first epoch observations of the VVDS up to z=1.5 we have derived
luminosity functions (LF) of different spectral type galaxies. The VVDS data,
covering ~70% of the life of the Universe, allow for the first time to study
from the same sample and with good statistical accuracy the evolution of the
LFs by galaxy type in several rest frame bands from a purely magnitude selected
sample. The magnitude limit of the VVDS allows the determination of the faint
end slope of the LF with unprecedented accuracy. Galaxies have been classified
in four spectral classes, using their colours and redshift, and LFs have been
derived in the U, B, V, R and I rest frame bands from z=0.05 to z=1.5. We find
a significant steepening of the LF going from early to late types. The M*
parameter is significantly fainter for late type galaxies and this difference
increases in the redder bands. Within each of the galaxy spectral types we find
a brightening of M* with increasing redshift, ranging from =< 0.5 mag for early
type galaxies to ~1 mag for the latest type galaxies, while the slope of the LF
of each spectral type is consistent with being constant with redshift. The LF
of early type galaxies is consistent with passive evolution up to z~1.1, while
the number of bright early type galaxies has decreased by ~40% from z~0.3 to
z~1.1. We also find a strong evolution in the normalization of the LF of latest
type galaxies, with an increase of more than a factor 2 from z~0.3 to z~1.3:
the density of bright late type galaxies in the same redshift range increases
of a factor ~6.6. These results indicate a strong type-dependent evolution and
identifies the latest spectral types as responsible for most of the evolution
of the UV-optical luminosity function out to z=1.5.Comment: 18 pages with encapsulated figures, revised version after referee's
comments, accepted for publication in A&
The Ha luminosity function and star formation rate up to z~1
We describe ISAAC/ESO-VLT observations of the Ha(6563) Balmer line of 33
field galaxies from the Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) with redshifts
selected between 0.5 and 1.1. We detect Ha in emission in 30 galaxies and
compare the properties of this sample with the low-redshift sample of CFRS
galaxies at z~0.2 (Tresse & Maddox 1998). We find that the Ha luminosity,
L(Ha), is tightly correlated to M(B(AB)) in the same way for both the low- and
high-redshift samples. L(Ha) is also correlated to L([OII]3727), and again the
relation appears to be similar at low and high redshifts. The ratio
L([OII])/L(Ha) decreases for brighter galaxies by as much as a factor 2 on
average. Derived from the Ha luminosity function, the comoving Ha luminosity
density increases by a factor 12 from =0.2 to =1.3. Our results confirm a
strong rise of the star formation rate (SFR) at z<1.3, proportional to
(1+z)^{4.1+/-0.3} (with H_0=50 km/s/Mpc, q_0=0.5). We find an average SFR(2800
Ang)/SFR(Ha) ratio of 3.2 using the Kennicutt (1998) SFR transformations. This
corresponds to the dust correction that is required to make the near UV data
consistent with the reddening-corrected Ha data within the self-contained,
I-selected CFRS sample.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures and 3 tables included, figures and text updated,
same results as in the 1st version, accepted in MNRA
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey. The different assembly history of passive and star-forming L_B >= L*_B galaxies in the group environment at z < 1
We use the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey to study the close environment of galaxies
in groups at 0.2 = L*_B galaxies (Me_B =
M_B + 1.1z <= -20) are identified with Me_B <= -18.25 and within a relative
distance 5h^-1 kpc <= rp <= 100h^-1 kpc and relative velocity Delta v <= 500
km/s . The richness N of a group is defined as the number of Me_B <= -18.25
galaxies belonging to that group. We split our principal sample into red,
passive galaxies with NUV - r >= 4.25 and blue, star-forming galaxies with NUV
- r < 4.25. We find that blue galaxies with a close companion are primarily
located in poor groups, while the red ones are in rich groups. The number of
close neighbours per red galaxy increases with N, with n_red being proportional
to 0.11N, while that of blue galaxies does not depend on N and is roughly
constant. In addition, these trends are found to be independent of redshift,
and only the average n_blue evolves, decreasing with cosmic time. Our results
support the following assembly history of L_B >= L*_B galaxies in the group
environment: red, massive galaxies were formed in or accreted by the dark
matter halo of the group at early times (z >= 1), therefore their number of
neighbours provides a fossil record of the stellar mass assembly of groups,
traced by their richness N. On the other hand, blue, less massive galaxies have
recently been accreted by the group potential and are still in their parent
dark matter halo, having the same number of neighbours irrespective of N. As
time goes by, these blue galaxies settle in the group potential and turn red
and/or fainter, thus becoming satellite galaxies in the group. With a toy
quenching model, we estimate an infall rate of field galaxies into the group
environment of R_infall = 0.9 - 1.5 x 10^-4 Mpc^-3 Gyr^-1 at z ~ 0.7.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. 11 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables.
Minor changes with respect to the first versio
Deep Galaxy survey at 6.75 micron with the ISO satellite
Deep 6.75um mid-IR ISOCAM observations were obtained of the Canada-France
Redshift Survey (CFRS) 1415+52 field with the Infrared Space Observatory. The
identification of the sources with optical counterparts is described in detail,
and a classification scheme is devised which depends on the S/N of the
detection and the inverse probability of chance coincidence. 83% of the 54
ISOCAM sources are identified with Iab<23.5 counterparts. The (I-K)ab colors,
radio properties, spectrophotometric properties and frequency of nuclear
activity of these counterparts differ on average from those of typical CFRS
galaxies. CFRS spectra are available for 21 of the sources which have Iab <=
22.5 (including 7 stars). Most of the strongest sources are stars or AGN. Among
the non--stellar counterparts with spectra, 40% are AGNs, and 53% are galaxies
that display star formation activity and/or significant contributions of A
stars. The ISOCAM sources also display an IR excess, even when compared with
heavily-reddened local starburst galaxies. An upper limit of 30% of
extragalactic ISO sources could be at z>1 of the 44 S6.75um > 150uJy sources
which are non-stellar (7 "spectroscopic" and 3 "photometric" stars excluded)Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in A
Isoscaling and the symmetry energy in spectator fragmentation
Isoscaling and its relation to the symmetry energy in the fragmentation of
excited residues produced at relativistic energies were studied in two
experiments conducted at the GSI laboratory. The INDRA multidetector has been
used to detect and identify light particles and fragments with Z <= 5 in
collisions of 12C on 112,124Sn at incident energies of 300 and 600 MeV per
nucleon. Isoscaling is observed, and the deduced parameters decrease with
increasing centrality. Symmetry term coefficients, deduced within the
statistical description of isotopic scaling, are near gamma = 25 MeV for
peripheral and gamma < 15 MeV for central collisions.
In a very recent experiment with the ALADIN spectrometer, the possibility of
using secondary beams for reaction studies at relativistic energies has been
explored. Beams of 107Sn, 124Sn, 124La, and 197Au were used to investigate the
mass and isospin dependence of projectile fragmentation at 600 MeV per nucleon.
The decrease of the isoscaling parameters is confirmed and extended over the
full fragmentation regime covered in these reactions.Comment: Proceedings of the IWM2005, Catania, Italy, Nov 200
Mapping Nairobi's dairy food system: An essential analysis for policy, industry and research
Demand for dairy products in sub-Saharan Africa, is expected to triple by 2050, while limited increase in supply is predicted. This poses significant food security risk to low income households. Understanding how the dairy food system operates is essential to identify mitigation measures to food insecurity impact. This study aims to determine the structure and functionality of Nairobi's dairy system using a value chain mapping approach
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