Photometry in UV astronomical images of extended sources in crowded field using deblended images in optical visible bands as Bayesian priors

Photometry of astrophysical sources, galaxies and stars, in crowded field images, if an old problem, is still a challenging goal, as new space survey missions are launched, releasing new data with increased sensibility, resolution and field of view. The GALEX mission, observes in two UV bands and produces deep sky images of millions of galaxies or stars mixed together. These UV observations are of lower resolution than same field observed in visible bands, and with a very faint signal, at the level of the photon noise for a substantial fraction of objects. Our purpose is to use the better known optical counterparts as prior information in a Bayesian approach to deduce the UV flux. Photometry of extended sources has been addressed several times using various techniques: background determination via sigma clipping, adaptative-aperture, point-spread-function photometry, isophotal photometry, to lists some. The Bayesian approach of using optical priors for solving the UV photometry has already been applied by our team in a previous work. Here we describe the improvement of using the extended shape inferred by deblending the high resolution optical images and not only the position of the optical sources. The resulting photometric accuracy has been tested with simulation of crowded UV fields added on top of real UV images. Finally, this helps to converge to smaller and flat residual and increase the faint source detection threshold. It thus gives the opportunity to work on 2nd order effects, like improving the knowledge of the background or point-spread function by iterating on them

The VIPERS Multi-Lambda Survey. I. UV and NIR Observations, multi-color catalogues and photometric redshifts

We present observations collected in the CFHTLS-VIPERS region in the ultraviolet (UV) with the GALEX satellite (far and near UV channels) and the near infrared with the CFHT/WIRCam camera ($K_s$-band) over an area of 22 and 27 deg$^2$, respectively. The depth of the photometry was optimized to measure the physical properties (e.g., SFR, stellar masses) of all the galaxies in the VIPERS spectroscopic survey. The large volume explored by VIPERS will enable a unique investigation of the relationship between the galaxy properties and their environment (density field and cosmic web) at high redshift (0.5 < z < 1.2). In this paper, we present the observations, the data reductions and the build-up of the multi-color catalogues. The CFHTLS-T0007 (gri-{\chi}^2) images are used as reference to detect and measure the $K_s$-band photometry, while the T0007 u-selected sources are used as priors to perform the GALEX photometry based on a dedicated software (EMphot). Our final sample reaches $NUV_{AB}$~25 (at 5{\sigma}) and $K_{AB}$~22 (at 3{\sigma}). The large spectroscopic sample (~51,000 spectroscopic redshifts) allows us to highlight the robustness of our star/galaxy separation, and the reliability of our photometric redshifts with a typical accuracy $\sigma_z \le$ 0.04 and a catastrophic failure rate {\eta} < 2% down to i~23. We present various tests on the $K_s$ band completeness and photometric redshift accuracy by comparing with existing, overlapping deep photometric catalogues. Finally, we discuss the BzK sample of passive and active galaxies at high redshift and the evolution of galaxy morphology in the (NUV-r) vs (r-K_s) diagram at low redshift (z < 0.25) thanks to the high image quality of the CFHTLS. The images, catalogues and photometric redshifts for 1.5 million sources (down to $NUV \le$ 25 or $K_s \le$ 22) are released and available at this URL: http://cesam.lam.fr/vipers-mls/Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Version to be publishe

Observable Signatures of the low-z Circum-Galactic and Inter-Galactic Medium : UV Line Emission in Simulations

We present for the first time predictions for UV line emission of intergalactic and circumgalactic gas from Adaptive Mesh Resolution (AMR) Large Scale Structure (LSS) simulations at redshifts 0.3<z<1.2, with specific emphasis on observability with current and near-future UV instrumentation. In three transitions of interest (Lya, OVI and CIV) there is a clear bimodality in the type of objects : the overwhelming majority of flux stems from discrete, compact sources, while a much larger volume fraction is filled by more tenuous gas. We characterise both object types with regard to number density, physical size and shape, brightness, luminosity, velocity structure, mass, temperature, ionisation state, and metal content. Degrading AMR grids to characteristic resolutions of available (such as FIREBall) or foreseeable instrumentation, allows to assess which inferences can be drawn from currently possible observations, and set foundations to prepare observing strategies for future missions. In general, the faint emission of the IGM and filamentary structure remains beyond capabilities of instruments with only short duration exposure potential (stratospheric balloons), even for optimistic assumptions for Lya, while the yet fainter metal line transitions for these structures will remain challenging for long duration exposures (space-based telescopes), mostly due to low metallicity pushing them more than three orders of magnitudes in brightness below Lya radiation. For the circum-galactic medium (CGM) the situation is more promising, and it is foreseeable that in the near future we will not only just dectect such sources, but the combination of all three lines in addition to velocity information will yield valuable insight into the physical processes at hand, illuminating important mechanisms during the formation of galaxies and their backreaction onto the IGM from whence they formed. (abrigded)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (2011 November 08, received in original form 2011 September 14). 27 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables. Some of the figures have degraded resolution due to file size limitations. For high-resolution version, please contact the first autho

Photometry in UV astronomical images of extended sources in crowded field using deblended images in optical visible bands as Bayesian priors

Photometry of astrophysical sources, galaxies and stars, in crowded field images, if an old problem, is still a challenging goal, as new space survey missions are launched, releasing new data with increased sensibility, resolution and field of view. The GALEX mission, observes in two UV bands and produces deep sky images of millions of galaxies or stars mixed together. These UV observations are of lower resolution than same field observed in visible bands, and with a very faint signal, at the level of the photon noise for a substantial fraction of objects. Our purpose is to use the better known optical counterparts as prior information in a Bayesian approach to deduce the UV flux. Photometry of extended sources has been addressed several times using various techniques: background determination via sigma clipping, adaptative-aperture, point-spread-function photometry, isophotal photometry, to lists some. The Bayesian approach of using optical priors for solving the UV photometry has already been applied by our team in a previous work. Here we describe the improvement of using the extended shape inferred by deblending the high resolution optical images and not only the position of the optical sources. The resulting photometric accuracy has been tested with simulation of crowded UV fields added on top of real UV images. Finally, this helps to converge to smaller and flat residual and increase the faint source detection threshold. It thus gives the opportunity to work on 2nd order effects, like improving the knowledge of the background or point-spread function by iterating on them

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

QUBIC: The QU Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology

One of the major challenges of modern cosmology is the detection of B-mode polarization anisotropies in the CMB. These originate from tensor fluctuations of the metric produced during the inflationary phase. Their detection would therefore constitute a major step towards understanding the primordial Universe. The expected level of these anisotropies is however so small that it requires a new generation of instruments with high sensitivity and extremely good control of systematic effects. We propose the QUBIC instrument based on the novel concept of bolometric interferometry, bringing together the sensitivity advantages of bolometric detectors with the systematics effects advantages of interferometry. Methods: The instrument will directly observe the sky through an array of entry horns whose signals will be combined together using an optical combiner. The whole set-up is located inside a cryostat. Polarization modulation will be achieved using a rotating half-wave plate and interference fringes will be imaged on two focal planes (separated by a polarizing grid) tiled with bolometers. We show that QUBIC can be considered as a synthetic imager, exactly similar to a usual imager but with a synthesized beam formed by the array of entry horns. Scanning the sky provides an additional modulation of the signal and improve the sky coverage shape. The usual techniques of map-making and power spectrum estimation can then be applied. We show that the sensitivity of such an instrument is comparable with that of an imager with the same number of horns. We anticipate a low level of beam-related systematics thanks to the fact that the synthesized beam is determined by the location of the primary horns. Other systematics should be under good control thanks to an autocalibration technique, specific to our concept, that will permit the accurate determination of most of the systematics parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

First Detection of Polarization of the Submillimetre Diffuse Galactic Dust Emission by Archeops

We present the first determination of the Galactic polarized emission at 353 GHz by Archeops. The data were taken during the Arctic night of February 7, 2002 after the balloon--borne instrument was launched by CNES from the Swedish Esrange base near Kiruna. In addition to the 143 GHz and 217 GHz frequency bands dedicated to CMB studies, Archeops had one 545 GHz and six 353 GHz bolometers mounted in three polarization sensitive pairs that were used for Galactic foreground studies. We present maps of the I, Q, U Stokes parameters over 17% of the sky and with a 13 arcmin resolution at 353 GHz (850 microns). They show a significant Galactic large scale polarized emission coherent on the longitude ranges [100, 120] and [180, 200] deg. with a degree of polarization at the level of 4-5%, in agreement with expectations from starlight polarization measurements. Some regions in the Galactic plane (Gem OB1, Cassiopeia) show an even stronger degree of polarization in the range 10-20%. Those findings provide strong evidence for a powerful grain alignment mechanism throughout the interstellar medium and a coherent magnetic field coplanar to the Galactic plane. This magnetic field pervades even some dense clouds. Extrapolated to high Galactic latitude, these results indicate that interstellar dust polarized emission is the major foreground for PLANCK-HFI CMB polarization measurement.Comment: Submitted to Astron. & Astrophys., 14 pages, 12 Fig., 2 Table

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) : galaxy segregation inside filaments at z ≃ 0.7

We present the first quantitative detection of large-scale filamentary structure at z ≃ 0.7 in the large cosmological volume probed by the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). We use simulations to show the capability of VIPERS to recover robust topological features in the galaxy distribution, in particular the filamentary network. We then investigate how galaxies with different stellar masses and stellar activities are distributed around the filaments and find a significant segregation, with the most massive or quiescent galaxies being closer to the filament axis than less massive or active galaxies. The signal persists even after down-weighting the contribution of peak regions. Our results suggest that massive and quiescent galaxies assemble their stellar mass through successive mergers during their migration along filaments towards the nodes of the cosmic web. On the other hand, low-mass star-forming galaxies prefer the outer edge of filaments, a vorticity rich region dominated by smooth accretion, as predicted by the recent spin alignment theory. This emphasizes the role of large scale cosmic flows in shaping galaxy properties.PostprintPeer reviewe

Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) for the Subaru Telescope: Overview, recent progress, and future perspectives

PFS (Prime Focus Spectrograph), a next generation facility instrument on the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope, is a very wide-field, massively multiplexed, optical and near-infrared spectrograph. Exploiting the Subaru prime focus, 2394 reconfigurable fibers will be distributed over the 1.3 deg field of view. The spectrograph has been designed with 3 arms of blue, red, and near-infrared cameras to simultaneously observe spectra from 380nm to 1260nm in one exposure at a resolution of ~1.6-2.7A. An international collaboration is developing this instrument under the initiative of Kavli IPMU. The project is now going into the construction phase aiming at undertaking system integration in 2017-2018 and subsequently carrying out engineering operations in 2018-2019. This article gives an overview of the instrument, current project status and future paths forward.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Proceeding of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 201