Sport, Representation and Culture in the Modern World, 1920-2020

Cultural historians study the change of human civilization over time. They focus on people’s beliefs, rituals, ideas, identity, social norms, institutions, and materials, with particular attention to the meanings of that culture’s elements (Hutton 1981). Cultural historians before World War II focused on high culture, but thereafter, because of the influence of cultural anthropology, they began to study popular culture, that include every day experiences and artifacts that express mass values and attitudes. Since the late 1960s, scholars have studied sport’s interaction with high and low culture, and also sport as an independent element of culture with s symbolic acts, representation, and struggle over meaning of sport’s myths and realities

The American Jockey, 1865-1910

American jockeys for most of the nineteenth century were African Americans. It was a dangerous occupation that paid extremely well for successful jockeys. These riders were pushed out of this occupation, as jockeys became recognized as important factors in racing results and as it became increasingly lucrative, just as they were pushed out of other desirable jobs in the era of Jim Crow

Improving Dark Energy Constraints with High Redshift Type Ia Supernovae from CANDELS and CLASH

Aims. We investigate the degree of improvement in dark energy constraints that can be achieved by extending Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) samples to redshifts z > 1.5 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), particularly in the ongoing CANDELS and CLASH multi-cycle treasury programs. Methods. Using the popular CPL parametrization of the dark energy, w = w0 +wa(1-a), we generate mock SN Ia samples that can be projected out to higher redshifts. The synthetic datasets thus generated are fitted to the CPL model, and we evaluate the improvement that a high-z sample can add in terms of ameliorating the statistical and systematic uncertainties on cosmological parameters. Results. In an optimistic but still very achievable scenario, we find that extending the HST sample beyond CANDELS+CLASH to reach a total of 28 SN Ia at z > 1.0 could improve the uncertainty in the wa parameter by up to 21%. The corresponding improvement in the figure of merit (FoM) would be as high as 28%. Finally, we consider the use of high-redshift SN Ia samples to detect non-cosmological evolution in SN Ia luminosities with redshift, finding that such tests could be undertaken by future spacebased infrared surveys using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysic

The Dwarf Starburst Host Galaxy of a Type Ia SN at z = 1.55 from CANDELS

We present VLT/X-shooter observations of a high redshift, type Ia supernova host galaxy, discovered with HST/WFC3 as part of the CANDELS Supernova project. The galaxy exhibits strong emission lines of Ly{\alpha}, [O II], H{\beta}, [O III], and H{\alpha} at z = 1.54992(+0.00008-0.00004). From the emission-line fluxes and SED fitting of broad-band photometry we rule out AGN activity and characterize the host galaxy as a young, low mass, metal poor, starburst galaxy with low intrinsic extinction and high Ly{\alpha} escape fraction. The host galaxy stands out in terms of the star formation, stellar mass, and metallicity compared to its lower redshift counterparts, mainly because of its high specific star-formation rate. If valid for a larger sample of high-redshift SN Ia host galaxies, such changes in the host galaxy properties with redshift are of interest because of the potential impact on the use of SN Ia as standard candles in cosmology.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Curvature Dependence of Peaks in the Cosmic Microwave Background Distribution

The widely cited formula $\ell_1\simeq 200 \Omega_0^{-1/2}$ for the multipole number of the first Doppler peak is not even a crude approximation in the case of greatest current interest, in which the cosmic mass density is less than the vacuum energy density. For instance, with $\Omega_M$ fixed at 0.3, the position of any Doppler peak varies as $\Omega_0^{-1.58}$ near $\Omega_0=1$.Comment: 7 pages, Late

Fuzzy Supernova Templates I: Classification

Modern supernova (SN) surveys are now uncovering stellar explosions at rates that far surpass what the world's spectroscopic resources can handle. In order to make full use of these SN datasets, it is necessary to use analysis methods that depend only on the survey photometry. This paper presents two methods for utilizing a set of SN light curve templates to classify SN objects. In the first case we present an updated version of the Bayesian Adaptive Template Matching program (BATM). To address some shortcomings of that strictly Bayesian approach, we introduce a method for Supernova Ontology with Fuzzy Templates (SOFT), which utilizes Fuzzy Set Theory for the definition and combination of SN light curve models. For well-sampled light curves with a modest signal to noise ratio (S/N>10), the SOFT method can correctly separate thermonuclear (Type Ia) SNe from core collapse SNe with 98% accuracy. In addition, the SOFT method has the potential to classify supernovae into sub-types, providing photometric identification of very rare or peculiar explosions. The accuracy and precision of the SOFT method is verified using Monte Carlo simulations as well as real SN light curves from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the SuperNova Legacy Survey. In a subsequent paper the SOFT method is extended to address the problem of parameter estimation, providing estimates of redshift, distance, and host galaxy extinction without any spectroscopy.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Accepted to Ap

A Type Ia Supernova at Redshift 1.55 in Hubble Space Telescope Infrared Observations from CANDELS

We report the discovery of a Type Ia supernova (SNIa) at redshift z=1.55 with the infrared detector of the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3-IR) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This object was discovered in CANDELS imaging data of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, and followed as part of the CANDELS+CLASH Supernova project, comprising the SN search components from those two HST multi-cycle treasury programs. This is the highest redshift SNIa with direct spectroscopic evidence for classification. It is also the first SN Ia at z>1 found and followed in the infrared, providing a full light curve in rest-frame optical bands. The classification and redshift are securely defined from a combination of multi-band and multi-epoch photometry of the SN, ground-based spectroscopy of the host galaxy, and WFC3-IR grism spectroscopy of both the SN and host. This object is the first of a projected sample at z>1.5 that will be discovered by the CANDELS and CLASH programs. The full CANDELS+CLASH SN Ia sample will enable unique tests for evolutionary effects that could arise due to differences in SN Ia progenitor systems as a function of redshift. This high-z sample will also allow measurement of the SN Ia rate out to z~2, providing a complementary constraint on SN Ia progenitor models.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap