199 research outputs found
Non-Gaussian halo assembly bias
The strong dependence of the large-scale dark matter halo bias on the (local)
non-Gaussianity parameter, f_NL, offers a promising avenue towards constraining
primordial non-Gaussianity with large-scale structure surveys. In this paper,
we present the first detection of the dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias
on halo formation history using N-body simulations. We also present an analytic
derivation of the expected signal based on the extended Press-Schechter
formalism. In excellent agreement with our analytic prediction, we find that
the halo formation history-dependent contribution to the non-Gaussian halo bias
(which we call non-Gaussian halo assembly bias) can be factorized in a form
approximately independent of redshift and halo mass. The correction to the
non-Gaussian halo bias due to the halo formation history can be as large as
100%, with a suppression of the signal for recently formed halos and
enhancement for old halos. This could in principle be a problem for realistic
galaxy surveys if observational selection effects were to pick galaxies
occupying only recently formed halos. Current semi-analytic galaxy formation
models, for example, imply an enhancement in the expected signal of ~23% and
~48% for galaxies at z=1 selected by stellar mass and star formation rate,
respectively.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JCAP. v2: accepted version, minor
change
A 2.5% measurement of the growth rate from small-scale redshift space clustering of SDSS-III CMASS galaxies
We perform the first fit to the anisotropic clustering of SDSS-III CMASS DR10
galaxies on scales of ~ 0.8 - 32 Mpc/h. A standard halo occupation distribution
model evaluated near the best fit Planck LCDM cosmology provides a good fit to
the observed anisotropic clustering, and implies a normalization for the
peculiar velocity field of M ~ 2 x 10^13 Msun/h halos of f*sigma8(z=0.57) =
0.450 +/- 0.011. Since this constraint includes both quasi-linear and
non-linear scales, it should severely constrain modified gravity models that
enhance pairwise infall velocities on these scales. Though model dependent, our
measurement represents a factor of 2.5 improvement in precision over the
analysis of DR11 on large scales, f*sigma8(z=0.57) = 0.447 +/- 0.028, and is
the tightest single constraint on the growth rate of cosmic structure to date.
Our measurement is consistent with the Planck LCDM prediction of 0.480 +/-
0.010 at the ~1.9 sigma level. Assuming a halo mass function evaluated at the
best fit Planck cosmology, we also find that 10% of CMASS galaxies are
satellites in halos of mass M ~ 6 x 10^13 Msun/h. While none of our tests and
model generalizations indicate systematic errors due to an insufficiently
detailed model of the galaxy-halo connection, the precision of these first
results warrant further investigation into the modeling uncertainties and
degeneracies with cosmological parameters.Comment: 24 pages, 20 figures, submitted to MNRAS. v2 is 27 pages, 23 figures,
accepted by MNRA
Constraining the LRG Halo Occupation Distribution using Counts-in-Cylinders
The low number density of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Luminous Red
Galaxies (LRGs) suggests that LRGs occupying the same dark matter halo can be
separated from pairs occupying distinct dark matter halos with high fidelity.
We present a new technique, Counts-in-Cylinders (CiC), to constrain the
parameters of the satellite contribution to the LRG Halo-Occupation
Distribution (HOD). For a fiber collision-corrected SDSS spectroscopic LRG
subsample at 0.16 < z < 0.36, we find the CiC multiplicity function is fit by a
halo model where the average number of satellites in a halo of mass M is
= ((M - Mcut)/M1)^alpha with Mcut = 5.0 +1.5/-1.3 (+2.9/-2.6) X 10^13
Msun, M1 = 4.95 +0.37/-0.26 (+0.79/-0.53) X 10^14 Msun, and alpha = 1.035
+0.10/-0.17 (+0.24/-0.31) at the 68% and 95% confidence levels using a WMAP3
cosmology and z=0.2 halo catalog.
Our method tightly constrains the fraction of LRGs that are satellite
galaxies, 6.36 +0.38/-0.39, and the combination Mcut/10^{14} Msun + alpha =
1.53 +0.08/-0.09 at the 95% confidence level. We also find that mocks based on
a halo catalog produced by a spherical overdensity (SO) finder reproduce both
the measured CiC multiplicity function and the projected correlation function,
while mocks based on a Friends-of-Friends (FoF) halo catalog has a deficit of
close pairs at ~1 Mpc/h separations. Because the CiC method relies on higher
order statistics of close pairs, it is robust to the choice of halo finder. In
a companion paper we will apply this technique to optimize Finger-of-God (FOG)
compression to eliminate the 1-halo contribution to the LRG power spectrum.Comment: 40 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journa
Reaction-controlled diffusion: Monte Carlo simulations
We study the coupled two-species non-equilibrium reaction-controlled
diffusion model introduced by Trimper et al. [Phys. Rev. E 62, 6071 (2000)] by
means of detailed Monte Carlo simulations in one and two dimensions. Particles
of type A may independently hop to an adjacent lattice site provided it is
occupied by at least one B particle. The B particle species undergoes
diffusion-limited reactions. In an active state with nonzero, essentially
homogeneous B particle saturation density, the A species displays normal
diffusion. In an inactive, absorbing phase with exponentially decaying B
density, the A particles become localized. In situations with algebraic decay
rho_B(t) ~ t^{-alpha_B}, as occuring either at a non-equilibrium continuous
phase transition separating active and absorbing states, or in a power-law
inactive phase, the A particles propagate subdiffusively with mean-square
displacement ~ t^{1-alpha_A}. We find that within the accuracy of
our simulation data, \alpha_A = \alpha_B as predicted by a simple mean-field
approach. This remains true even in the presence of strong spatio-temporal
fluctuations of the B density. However, in contrast with the mean-field
results, our data yield a distinctly non-Gaussian A particle displacement
distribution n_A(x,t) that obeys dynamic scaling and looks remarkably similar
for the different processes investigated here. Fluctuations of effective
diffusion rates cause a marked enhancement of n_A(x,t) at low displacements
|x|, indicating a considerable fraction of practically localized A particles,
as well as at large traversed distances.Comment: Revtex, 19 pages, 27 eps figures include
Luminous Red Galaxy Halo Density Field Reconstruction and Application to Large Scale Structure Measurements
The complex relationship between the galaxy density field and the underlying
matter field limits our ability to extract cosmological constraints from galaxy
redshift surveys. Our approach is to use halos rather than galaxies to trace
the underlying mass distribution. We identify Fingers-of-God (FOGs) and replace
multiple galaxies in each FOG with a single halo object. This removes the
nonlinear contributions of satellite galaxies, the one-halo term. We test our
method on a large set of high-fidelity mock SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG)
catalogs. We find that the aggressive FOG compression algorithm adopted in the
LRG P(k) analysis of Tegmark et al. (2006) leads to a ~10% correction to the
underlying matter power spectrum at k = 0.1 h/Mpc and ~40% correction at k=0.2
h/Mpc, thereby compromising the cosmological constraints. In contrast, the
power spectrum of our reconstructed halo density field deviates from the
underlying matter power spectrum by less than 1% for k less than 0.1 h/Mpc and
less than 4% for k less than 0.2 h/Mpc. The reconstructed halo density field
also removes the bias in the measurement of the redshift space distortion
parameter beta induced by the FOG smearing of the linear redshift space
distortions.Comment: 48 pages, 14 figures, submitted to The Astrophysical Journa
The streptococcal collagen-like protein-1 (Scl1) is a significant determinant for biofilm formation by group a Streptococcus
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Group A <it>Streptococcus </it>(GAS) is a human-specific pathogen responsible for a number of diseases characterized by a wide range of clinical manifestations. During host colonization GAS-cell aggregates or microcolonies are observed in tissues. GAS biofilm, which is an <it>in vitro </it>equivalent of tissue microcolony, has only recently been studied and little is known about the specific surface determinants that aid biofilm formation. In this study, we demonstrate that surface-associated streptococcal collagen-like protein-1 (Scl1) plays an important role in GAS biofilm formation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Biofilm formation by M1-, M3-, M28-, and M41-type GAS strains, representing an intraspecies breadth, were analyzed spectrophotometrically following crystal violet staining, and characterized using confocal and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The M41-type strain formed the most robust biofilm under static conditions, followed by M28- and M1-type strains, while the M3-type strains analyzed here did not form biofilm under the same experimental conditions. Differences in architecture and cell-surface morphology were observed in biofilms formed by the M1- and M41-wild-type strains, accompanied by varying amounts of deposited extracellular matrix and differences in cell-to-cell junctions within each biofilm. Importantly, all Scl1-negative mutants examined showed significantly decreased ability to form biofilm <it>in vitro</it>. Furthermore, the Scl1 protein expressed on the surface of a heterologous host, <it>Lactococcus lactis</it>, was sufficient to induce biofilm formation by this organism.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Overall, this work (i) identifies variations in biofilm formation capacity among pathogenically different GAS strains, (ii) identifies GAS surface properties that may aid in biofilm stability and, (iii) establishes that the Scl1 surface protein is an important determinant of GAS biofilm, which is sufficient to enable biofilm formation in the heterologous host <it>Lactococcus</it>. In summary, the GAS surface adhesin Scl1 may have an important role in biofilm-associated pathogenicity.</p
Robust Neutrino Constraints by Combining Low Redshift Observations with the CMB
We illustrate how recently improved low-redshift cosmological measurements
can tighten constraints on neutrino properties. In particular we examine the
impact of the assumed cosmological model on the constraints. We first consider
the new HST H0 = 74.2 +/- 3.6 measurement by Riess et al. (2009) and the
sigma8*(Omegam/0.25)^0.41 = 0.832 +/- 0.033 constraint from Rozo et al. (2009)
derived from the SDSS maxBCG Cluster Catalog. In a Lambda CDM model and when
combined with WMAP5 constraints, these low-redshift measurements constrain sum
mnu<0.4 eV at the 95% confidence level. This bound does not relax when allowing
for the running of the spectral index or for primordial tensor perturbations.
When adding also Supernovae and BAO constraints, we obtain a 95% upper limit of
sum mnu<0.3 eV. We test the sensitivity of the neutrino mass constraint to the
assumed expansion history by both allowing a dark energy equation of state
parameter w to vary, and by studying a model with coupling between dark energy
and dark matter, which allows for variation in w, Omegak, and dark coupling
strength xi. When combining CMB, H0, and the SDSS LRG halo power spectrum from
Reid et al. 2009, we find that in this very general model, sum mnu < 0.51 eV
with 95% confidence. If we allow the number of relativistic species Nrel to
vary in a Lambda CDM model with sum mnu = 0, we find Nrel =
3.76^{+0.63}_{-0.68} (^{+1.38}_{-1.21}) for the 68% and 95% confidence
intervals. We also report prior-independent constraints, which are in excellent
agreement with the Bayesian constraints.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, submitted to JCAP; v2: accepted version. Added
section on profile likelihood for Nrel, improved plot
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