Application of a Bayesian Method to Absorption Spectral-Line Finding in Simulated ASKAP Data

The large spectral bandwidth and wide field of view of the Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope will open up a completely new parameter space for large extragalactic HI surveys. Here we focus on identifying and parametrising HI absorption lines which occur in the line of sight towards strong radio continuum sources. We have developed a method for simultaneously finding and fitting HI absorption lines in radio data by using multi-nested sampling, a Bayesian Monte Carlo algorithm. The method is tested on a simulated ASKAP data cube, and is shown to be reliable at detecting absorption lines in low signal-to-noise data without the need to smooth or alter the data. Estimation of the local Bayesian evidence statistic provides a quantitative criterion for assigning significance to a detection and selecting between competing analytical line-profile models.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures and 1 table; accepted for publication in PAS

Is space really expanding? A counterexample

In all Friedman models, the cosmological redshift is widely interpreted as a consequence of the general-relativistic phenomenon of EXPANSION OF SPACE. Other commonly believed consequences of this phenomenon are superluminal recession velocities of distant galaxies and the distance to the particle horizon greater than c*t (where t is the age of the Universe), in apparent conflict with special relativity. Here, we study a particular Friedman model: empty universe. This model exhibits both cosmological redshift, superluminal velocities and infinite distance to the horizon. However, we show that the cosmological redshift is there simply a relativistic Doppler shift. Moreover, apparently superluminal velocities and `acausal' distance to the horizon are in fact a direct consequence of special-relativistic phenomenon of time dilation, as well as of the adopted definition of distance in cosmology. There is no conflict with special relativity, whatsoever. In particular, INERTIAL recession velocities are subluminal. Since in the real Universe, sufficiently distant galaxies recede with relativistic velocities, these special-relativistic effects must be at least partly responsible for the cosmological redshift and the aforementioned `superluminalities', commonly attributed to the expansion of space. Let us finish with a question resembling a Buddhism-Zen `koan': in an empty universe, what is expanding?Comment: 12 pages, no figures; added Appendix with a calculation of the cosmological redshift in `private space

On the Existence of Radiation Gauges in Petrov type II spacetimes

The radiation gauges used by Chrzanowski (his IRG/ORG) for metric reconstruction in the Kerr spacetime seem to be over-specified. Their specification consists of five conditions: four, which we treat here as valid gauge conditions, plus an additional condition on the trace of the metric perturbation. In this work, we utilize a newly developed form of the perturbed Einstein equations to establish a condition -- on a particular tetrad component of the stress-energy tensor -- under which the full IRG/ORG can be imposed. Using gauge freedom, we are able to impose the full IRG for Petrov type II and type D backgrounds, using a different tetrad for each case. As a specific example, we work through the process of imposing the IRG in a Schwarzschild background, using a more traditional approach. Implications for metric reconstruction using the Teukolsky curvature perturbations in type D spacetimes are briefly discussed.Comment: 21 pages, uses iop style files. v2: proved a stronger result for type II backgrounds, added a subsection on remaining gauge freedom in the full IRG and improved calrity and readability throughout due to insightful referee comments; published as Class. Quantum Grav. 24 (2007) 2367-238

A fourth HI 21-cm absorption system in the sight-line of MG J0414+0534: a record for intervening absorbers

We report the detection of a strong HI 21-cm absorption system at z=0.5344, as well as a candidate system at z=0.3389, in the sight-line towards the z=2.64 quasar MG J0414+0534. This, in addition to the absorption at the host redshift and the other two intervening absorbers, takes the total to four (possibly five). The previous maximum number of 21-cm absorbers detected along a single sight-line is two and so we suspect that this number of gas-rich absorbers is in some way related to the very red colour of the background source. Despite this, no molecular gas (through OH absorption) has yet been detected at any of the 21-cm redshifts, although, from the population of 21-cm absorbers as a whole, there is evidence for a weak correlation between the atomic line strength and the optical--near-infrared colour. In either case, the fact that so many gas-rich galaxies (likely to be damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems) have been found along a single sight-line towards a highly obscured source may have far reaching implications for the population of faint galaxies not detected in optical surveys, a possibility which could be addressed through future wide-field absorption line surveys with the Square Kilometre Array.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letter

A survey for redshifted molecular and atomic absorption lines - II. Associated HI, OH and millimetre lines in the z >~ 3 Parkes quarter-Jansky flat-spectrum sample

We present the results of a z>2.9 survey for HI 21-cm and molecular absorption in the hosts of radio quasars using the GMRT and the Tidbinbilla 70-m telescope. Previously published searches, which are overwhelmingly at redshifts of z<1, exhibit a 42% detection rate (31 out of 73 sources), and the inclusion of our survey yields a 17% detection rate (2 out of 12 sources) at z>2.5. We therefore believe that our high redshift selection is responsible for our exclusive non-detections, and find that at ultra-violet luminosities of >10e23 W/Hz, 21-cm absorption has never been detected. We also find this to not only apply to our targets, but also those at low redshift exhibiting similar luminosities, giving zero detections out of a total of 16 sources over z=0.24 to 3.8. This is in contrast to the < 10e23 W/Hz sources where there is a near 50% detection rate of 21-cm absorption. The mix of 21-cm detections and non-detections is currently attributed to orientation effects, where according to unified schemes of active galactic nuclei, 21-cm absorption is more likely to occur in sources designated as radio galaxies (type-2 objects, where the nucleus is viewed through dense obscuring circumnuclear gas) than in quasars(type-1 objects, where we have a direct view to the nucleus). However, due to the exclusively high ultra-violet luminosities of our targets it is not clear whether orientation effects alone can wholly account for the distribution, although there exists the possibility that the large luminosities are indicative of a changing demographic of galaxy types. We also find that below luminosities of ~10e23 W/Hz, both type-1 and type-2 objects have a 50% likelihood of exhibiting 21-cm absorption.Comment: 21 pages, accepted by MNRA