Analyzing Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in Sparse Spectroscopic Samples via Cross-Correlation with Dense Photometry

We develop a formalism for measuring the cosmological distance scale from baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) using the cross-correlation of a sparse redshift survey with a denser photometric sample. This reduces the shot noise that would otherwise affect the auto-correlation of the sparse spectroscopic map. As a proof of principle, we make the first on-sky application of this method to a sparse sample defined as the z>0.6 tail of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's (SDSS) BOSS/CMASS sample of galaxies and a dense photometric sample from SDSS DR9. We find a 2.8sigma preference for the BAO peak in the cross-correlation at an effective z=0.64, from which we measure the angular diameter distance D_M(z=0.64) = (2418 +/- 73 Mpc) (r_s/r_{s,fid}). Accordingly, we expect that using this method to combine sparse spectroscopy with the deep, high quality imaging that is just now becoming available will enable higher precision BAO measurements than possible with the spectroscopy alone.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; updated reference

Detectability of Local Group Dwarf Galaxy Analogues at High Redshifts

The dwarf galaxies of the Local Group are believed to be similar to the most abundant galaxies during the epoch of reionization (z>6). As a result of their proximity, there is a wealth of information that can be obtained about these galaxies; however, due to their low surface brightnesses, detecting their progenitors at high redshifts is challenging. We compare the physical properties of these dwarf galaxies to those of galaxies detected at high redshifts using Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer observations and consider the promise of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope on the prospects for detecting high redshift analogues of these galaxies.Astronom

Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (http://legacysurvey.org/) are a combination of three public projects (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the Beijing–Arizona Sky Survey, and the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey) that will jointly image ≈14,000 deg2 of the extragalactic sky visible from the northern hemisphere in three optical bands (g, r, and z) using telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The combined survey footprint is split into two contiguous areas by the Galactic plane. The optical imaging is conducted using a unique strategy of dynamically adjusting the exposure times and pointing selection during observing that results in a survey of nearly uniform depth. In addition to calibrated images, the project is delivering a catalog, constructed by using a probabilistic inference-based approach to estimate source shapes and brightnesses. The catalog includes photometry from the grz optical bands and from four mid-infrared bands (at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm) observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite during its full operational lifetime. The project plans two public data releases each year. All the software used to generate the catalogs is also released with the data. This paper provides an overview of the Legacy Surveys project.U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. National Science Foundation; Ministry of Science and Education of Spain; Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; Higher Education Funding Council for England; National Center for Super computing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago; Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at the Ohio State University; Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas AM University; Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos; Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo; Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico; Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Argonne National Laboratory; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Cambridge; Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Madrid; University of Chicago; University College London; DES-Brazil Consortium; University of Edinburgh; Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai (IEEC/CSIC); Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen; associated Excellence Cluster Universe; University of Michigan; National Optical Astronomy Observatory; University of Nottingham; Ohio State University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Portsmouth; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Stanford University; University of Sussex; Texas AM University; National Astronomical Observatories of China; Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB09000000, 114A11KYSB20160057]; Special Fund for Astronomy from the Ministry of Finance; Chinese National Natural Science Foundation [11433005]; Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]; National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center; DOE Office of Science User Facility; U.S. National Science Foundation, Division of Astronomical Sciences [AST-0950945]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate [NNX08AR22G]; National Science Foundation [AST-1238877, AST-1616414, PHY-1066293]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]; European Research Council under the European Union/ERC [320964]; Radcliffe Institute for Advanced StudyThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

A worldwide survey on incidence, management and prognosis of oesophageal fistula formation following atrial fibrillation catheter ablation: The POTTER-AF study.

AIMS Oesophageal fistula represents a rare but dreadful complication of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation. Data on its incidence, management and outcome are sparse. METHODS AND RESULTS This international multicenter registry investigates the characteristics of oesophageal fistulae after treatment of atrial fibrillation by catheter ablation. A total of 553,729 catheter ablation procedures (radiofrequency: 62.9%, cryoballoon: 36.2%, other modalities: 0.9%) were performed at 214 centers in 35 countries. In 78 centers 138 patients (0.025%, radiofrequency: 0.038%, cryoballoon: 0.0015% (p<0.0001)) were diagnosed with an oesophageal fistula. Periprocedural data were available for 118 patients (85.5%). Following catheter ablation, the median time to symptoms and the median time to diagnosis were 18 (7.75, 25; range: 0-60) days and 21 (15, 29.5; range: 2-63) days, respectively. The median time from symptom onset to oesophageal fistula diagnosis was 3 (1, 9; range: 0-42) days. The most common initial symptom was fever (59.3%). The diagnosis was established by chest computed tomography in 80.2% of patients. Oesophageal surgery was performed in 47.4% and direct endoscopic treatment in 19.8%, and conservative treatment in 32.8% of patients. The overall mortality was 65.8%. Mortality following surgical (51.9%) or endoscopic treatment (56.5%) was significantly lower as compared to conservative management (89.5%) (odds ratio 7.463 (2.414, 23.072) p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Oesophageal fistula after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation is rare and occurs mostly with the use of radiofrequency energy rather than cryoenergy. Mortality without surgical or endoscopic intervention is exceedingly high

Distributions of Gas and Galaxies From Galaxy Clusters to Larger Scales

This thesis addresses the distributions of baryonic matter on three scales: the outskirts of the gas and galaxy profiles in galaxy clusters, the clustering of galaxies of galaxies on large scales and its relation to the underlying matter distribution, and the extremes of the galaxy distribution: the connections between the most distant galaxies ever discovered and the closest galaxies to our own, the Local Group Dwarfs. We begin with investigations of the outskirts of galaxy clusters, where long-standing analytical models of structure formation as well as recent simulations predict the existence of steep density jumps in the gas (the 'virial shock') and dark matter profiles near the virial radius. We describe a new method for deriving models for the gas distribution in galaxy clusters, which relies on a few basic assumptions --- including the existence of the virial shock and a coincident density jump in the dark matter --- and show a resulting profile for the gas that is in good agreement both with X-ray observations of cluster interiors and simulations of the outskirts, and requires fewer parameters than the traditional three-parameter beta-model. Recent simulations have strengthened the arguments in favor of the existence of a dark matter density jump, arising from the accumulation of particles at the apocenter of their first orbit. Since cluster member galaxies are expected to follow similar collisionless dynamics as the dark matter, the galaxy density profile should show a steep density jump as well. We present evidence for a feature consistent with a density jump in galaxy density profiles constructed from photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Hectospec (MMT) spectroscopy of cluster members and discuss avenues for probing the density jumps with future data sets. Moving to larger scales where massive galaxies of different types are expected to trace the same large-scale structure, we present a test of this prediction by measuring the clustering of red and blue galaxies at z~0.6 using the CMASS sample of galaxies from the 12th Data Release of SDSS-III. The stochasticity between these two samples is quantified via the correlation coefficient r, which can be constructed from two different statistics. Both statistics indicate that on intermediate scales (20 < R < 100 Mpc/h) there is low stochasticity between the two samples of galaxies, providing a constraint on a key systematic in using large galaxy redshift surveys for cosmology. In cosmology, dense redshift surveys permit the measurement of the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), which appear as a modest amplification at scales of about R = 105 Mpc/h in the two-point auto-correlation function of galaxies, provided that there is a sufficiently high density of galaxies with accurately measured three-dimensional positions. As a result, due to the expense of spectroscopic observations, to date most BAO analyses have been performed at fairly low redshifts where present surveys can attain the requisite densities without sacrificing efficiency. We present a new method of measuring the BAO using the cross-correlation of a sparse spectroscopic sample with a denser, photometric sample of galaxies that will allow us to extend BAO measurements to higher redshifts than are presently accessible with spectroscopy alone. We discuss applications of this new method to current and upcoming datasets. Finally, we connect galaxies both near --- the Local Group dwarf galaxies --- and far --- the high-redshift galaxies discovered by space-based observatories like Hubble and Spitzer. We evolve the local dwarfs back in time using stellar population synthesis code and juxtapose the properties of their ancient selves against those of the galaxies already discovered at high redshift. We additionally compare the properties of the dwarfs' progenitors with the detection limits of the future James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), finding that JWST should be able to detect the progenitors of galaxies similar to a few of the brightest local galaxies.Physic

Density Jumps Near the Virial Radius of Galaxy Clusters

Recent simulations have indicated that the dark matter halos of galaxy clusters should feature steep density jumps near the virial radius. Since the member galaxies are expected to follow similar collisionless dynamics as the dark matter, the galaxy density profile should show such a feature as well. We examine the potential of current datasets to test this prediction by selecting cluster members for a sample of 56 low-redshift (0.1<z<0.3) galaxy clusters, constructing their projected number density profiles, and fitting them with two profiles, one with a steep density jump and one without. Additionally, we investigate the presence of a jump using a non-parametric spline approach. We find that some of these clusters show strong evidence for a model with a density jump. We discuss avenues for further analysis of the density jump with future datasets.Astronom