Showing papers by "Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth published in 2010"

Cosmological Constraints from the Clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 Luminous Red Galaxies

Abstract: We present the power spectrum of the reconstructed halo density field derived from a sample of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Seventh Data Release (DR7). The halo power spectrum has a direct connection to the underlying dark matter power for k≤ 0.2 h Mpc−1, well into the quasi-linear regime. This enables us to use a factor of ∼8 more modes in the cosmological analysis than an analysis with kmax= 0.1 h Mpc−1, as was adopted in the SDSS team analysis of the DR4 LRG sample. The observed halo power spectrum for 0.02 < k < 0.2 h Mpc−1 is well fitted by our model: χ2= 39.6 for 40 degrees of freedom for the best-fitting Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. We find Ωmh2(ns/0.96)1.2= 0.141+0.101-0.012 for a power-law primordial power spectrum with spectral index ns and Ωbh2= 0.022 65 fixed, consistent with cosmic microwave background measurements. The halo power spectrum also constrains the ratio of the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch to an effective distance to z= 0.35: rs/DV(0.35) = 0.1097+0.0039−0.0042. Combining the halo power spectrum measurement with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 5 year results, for the flat ΛCDM model we find Ωm= 0.289 ± 0.019 and H0= 69.4 ± 1.6 km s−1 Mpc−1. Allowing for massive neutrinos in ΛCDM, we find Σmv <0.62 eV at the 95 per cent confidence level. If we instead consider the effective number of relativistic species Neff as a free parameter, we find Neff= 4.8+1.8−1.7. Combining also with the Kowalski et al. supernova sample, we find Ωtot= 1.011 ± 0.009 and w=−0.99 ± 0.11 for an open cosmology with constant dark energy equation of state w. The power spectrum and a module to calculate the likelihoods are publicly available at http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/toolbox/lrgdr/.

Environment and self-regulation in galaxy formation

Abstract: The environment is known to affect the formation and evolution of galaxies considerably best visible through the well-known morphology-density relationship. It is less clear, though, whether the environment is equally important at a given galaxy morphology. In this paper we study the effect of environment on the evolution of early-type galaxies as imprinted in the fossil record by analysing the stellar population properti es of 3,360 galaxies morphologically selected by visual inspection from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in a narrow redshift range (0.05 6 z 6 0.06). The morphological selection algorithm is critical as it d oes not bias against recent star formation. We find that the distribution of ages is bimodal with a strong peak at old ages and a secondary peak at young ages around � 2.5 Gyr containing about 10 per cent of the objects. This is analogue to ’red sequence’ and ’blue cloud’ identified in galaxy populations usually containing both early and late type galaxies. The fraction of the young, rejuvenated galaxies increases with both decreasing galaxy mass and decreasing environmental density up to about 45 per cent, which implies that the impact of environment increases with decreasing galaxy mass. The rejuvenated galaxies have lower �/Fe ratios than the average and most of them show signs of ongoing star formation through their emission line spectra. All objects that host AGN in their centres with out star formation are part of the red sequence population. We confirm and statistically stren gthen earlier results that luminosity weighted ages, metallicities, and �/Fe element ratios of the red sequence population correlate well with velocity dispersion and galaxy mass. Most interestingly, however, these scaling relations are not sensitive to environmental densities and are only driven by galaxy mass. We infer that early-type galaxy formation has undergone a phase transition a few billion years ago aroundz � 0.2. A self-regulated formation phase without environmental dependence has recently been superseded by a rejuvenation phase, in which the environment plays a decisive role possibly through galaxy mergers and interactions.

Star formation rates and masses of z∼ 2 galaxies from multicolour photometry

Abstract: Fitting synthetic spectral energy distributions (SED) to the multi-band photometry of galaxies to derive their star formation rates (SFR), stellar masses, ages, etc. requires making a priori assumptions about their star formation histories (SFH). A widely adopted parameterization of the SFH, the so-called �-models where SFR / e t/� is shown to lead to unrealistically low ages when applied to a sample of actively star forming galaxies at z � 2, a problem shared by other SFHs when the age is left as a free parameter in the fitting procedure. This happens because the SED of such galaxies, at all wavelengths, is dominated by their youngest stellar populations, which outshine the older ones. Thus, the SED of such galaxies conveys little information on the beginning of star formation, i.e., on the age of their oldest stellar populations. To cope with this problem, besides �-models (hereafter called direct-� models), we explore a variety of SFHs, such as constant SFR and inverted-� models (with SFR / e +t/� ), along with various priors on age, including assuming that star formation started at high redshift in all the galaxies in the test sample. We find that inverted-� models with such latter assumption give SFRs and extinctions in excellent agreement with the values derived using only the UV part of the SED, which is the one most sensitive to ongoing star formation and reddening. These models are also shown to accurately recover the SFRs and masses of mock galaxies at z � 2 constructed from semi-analytic models, which we use as a further test. All other explored SFH templates do not fulfil these two test as well as inverted-� models do. In particular, direct-� models with unconstrained age in the fitting procedure overstimate SFRs and underestimate stellar mass, and would exacerbate an apparent mismatch between the cosmic evolution of the volume densities of SFR and stellar mass. We conclude that for high-redshift star forming galaxies an exponentially increasing SFR with a high formation redshift is preferable to other forms of the SFH so far adopted in the literature.

Galaxy Zoo: the fundamentally different co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their early- and late-type host galaxies

Abstract: We use data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and visual classifications of morphology from the Galaxy Zoo project to study black hole growth in the nearby universe (z 1040 erg s–1 in early- and late-type galaxies is fundamentally different. AGN host galaxies as a population have a broad range of stellar masses (1010-1011 M ☉), reside in the green valley of the color-mass diagram and their central black holes have median masses around 106.5 M ☉. However, by comparing early- and late-type AGN host galaxies to their non-active counterparts, we find several key differences: in early-type galaxies, it is preferentially the galaxies with the least massive black holes that are growing, while in late-type galaxies, it is preferentially the most massive black holes that are growing. The duty cycle of AGNs in early-type galaxies is strongly peaked in the green valley below the low-mass end (1010 M ☉) of the red sequence at stellar masses where there is a steady supply of blue cloud progenitors. The duty cycle of AGNs in late-type galaxies on the other hand peaks in massive (1011 M ☉) green and red late-types which generally do not have a corresponding blue cloud population of similar mass. At high-Eddington ratios (L/L Edd>0.1), the only population with a substantial fraction of AGNs are the low-mass green valley early-type galaxies. Finally, the Milky Way likely resides in the "sweet spot" on the color-mass diagram where the AGN duty cycle of late-type galaxies is highest. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the role of AGNs in the evolution of galaxies.

Galaxy Zoo: the properties of merging galaxies in the nearby Universe – local environments, colours, masses, star formation rates and AGN activity

Abstract: Following the study of Darg et al., we explore the environments, optical colours, stellar masses, star formation and active galactic nucleus activity in a sample of 3003 pairs of merging galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using visual classifications from the Galaxy Zoo project. While Darg et al. found that the spiral-to-elliptical ratio in (major) mergers appeared higher than that of the global galaxy population, no significant differences are found between the environmental distributions of mergers and a randomly selected control sample. This makes the high occurrence of spirals in mergers unlikely to be an environmental effect and must therefore arise from differing time-scales of detectability for spirals and ellipticals. We find that merging galaxies have a wider spread in colour than the global galaxy population, with a significant blue tail resulting from intense star formation in spiral mergers. Galaxies classed as star-forming using their emission-line properties have average star formation rates approximately doubled by the merger process though star formation is negligibly enhanced in merging elliptical galaxies. We conclude that the internal properties of galaxies significantly affect the time-scales over which merging systems can be detected (as suggested by recent theoretical studies) which leads to spirals being ‘over-observed’ in mergers. We also suggest that the transition mass 3 × 1010 M⊙, noted by Kauffmann et al., below which ellipticals are rare could be linked to disc survival/destruction in mergers.

Galaxy Zoo: the fraction of merging galaxies in the SDSS and their morphologies

Abstract: We present the largest, most homogeneous catalogue of merging galaxies in the nearby Universe obtained through the Galaxy Zoo project – an interface on the World Wide Web enabling large-scale morphological classification of galaxies through visual inspection of images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The method converts a set of visually inspected classifications for each galaxy into a single parameter (the ‘weighted-merger-vote fraction,’fm) which describes our confidence that the system is part of an ongoing merger. We describe how fm is used to create a catalogue of 3003 visually selected pairs of merging galaxies from the SDSS in the redshift range 0.005 < z < 0.1. We use our merger sample and values of fm applied to the SDSS Main Galaxy Spectral sample to estimate that the fraction of volume-limited (Mr < −20.55) major mergers (1/3 < M*1/M*2 < 3) in the nearby Universe is 1–3 ×C per cent, where C∼ 1.5 is a correction factor for spectroscopic incompleteness. Having visually classified the morphologies of the constituent galaxies in our mergers, we find that the spiral-to-elliptical ratio of galaxies in mergers is higher by a factor of ∼2 relative to the global population. In a companion paper, we examine the internal properties of these merging galaxies and conclude that this high spiral-to-elliptical ratio in mergers is due to a longer time-scale over which mergers with spirals are detectable compared to mergers with ellipticals.

Galaxy Zoo: reproducing galaxy morphologies via machine learning★

Abstract: We present morphological classifications obtained using machine learning for objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR6 that have been classified by Galaxy Zoo into three classes, namely early types, spirals and point sources/artefacts. An artificial neural network is trained on a subset of objects classified by the human eye, and we test whether the machine-learning algorithm can reproduce the human classifications for the rest of the sample. We find that the success of the neural network in matching the human classifications depends crucially on the set of input parameters chosen for the machine-learning algorithm. The colours and parameters associated with profile fitting are reasonable in separating the objects into three classes. However, these results are considerably improved when adding adaptive shape parameters as well as concentration and texture. The adaptive moments, concentration and texture parameters alone cannot distinguish between early type galaxies and the point sources/artefacts. Using a set of 12 parameters, the neural network is able to reproduce the human classifications to better than 90 per cent for all three morphological classes. We find that using a training set that is incomplete in magnitude does not degrade our results given our particular choice of the input parameters to the network. We conclude that it is promising to use machine-learning algorithms to perform morphological classification for the next generation of wide-field imaging surveys and that the Galaxy Zoo catalogue provides an invaluable training set for such purposes.

Observational constraints on an interacting dark energy model

Abstract: We use observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, supernova luminosities and the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the galaxy distribution to constrain the cosmological parameters in a simple interacting dark energy model with a time-varying equation of state. Using a Monte Carlo Markov Chain technique, we determine the posterior likelihoods. Constraints from the individual data sets are weak, but the combination of the three data sets confines the interaction constant Γ to be less than 23 per cent of the expansion rate of the Universe H0; at 95 per cent confidence level −0.23 < Γ/H0 < +0.15. The CMB acoustic peaks can be well fitted even if the interaction rate is much larger, but this requires a larger or smaller (depending on the sign of interaction) matter density today than in the non-interacting model. Due to this degeneracy between the matter density and the interaction rate, the only observable effect on the CMB is a larger or smaller integrated Sachs–Wolfe effect. While supernova or baryon acoustic oscillation data alone do not set any direct constraints on the interaction, they exclude the models with very large matter density, and hence indirectly constrain the interaction rate when jointly analysed with the CMB data. To enable the analysis described in this paper, we present, in a companion paper, a new systematic analysis of the early radiation era solution to find the adiabatic initial conditions for the Boltzmann integration.

Scale dependence of local fNL

Abstract: We consider possible scale-dependence of the non-linearity parameter fNL in local and quasi-local models of non-Gaussian primordial density perturbations. In the simplest model where the primordial perturbations are a quadratic local function of a single Gaussian field then fNL is scale-independent by construction. However scale-dependence can arise due to either a local function of more than one Gaussian field, or due to non-linear evolution of modes after horizon-exit during inflation. We show that the scale dependence of fNL is typically first order in slow-roll. For some models this may be observable with experiments such as Planck provided that fNL is close to the current observational bounds.

Probing modifications of general relativity using current cosmological observations

Abstract: We test general relativity (GR) using current cosmological data: the CMB from WMAP5 [E. Komatsu et al. (WMAP Collaboration), Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 180, 330 (2009)], the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect from the cross correlation of the CMB with six galaxy catalogs [T. Giannantonio et al., Phys. Rev. D 77, 123520 (2008)], a compilation of supernovae (SNe) type Ia including the latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey SNe [R. Kessler et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 185, 32 (2009).], and part of the weak lensing (WL) data from the Canada-Franco-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey [L. Fu et al., Astron. Astrophys. 479, 9 (2008); M. Kilbinger et al., Astron. Astrophys. 497, 677 (2009).] that probe linear and mildly nonlinear scales. We first test a model in which the effective Newtonian constant μ and the ratio of the two gravitational potentials, η, transit from the GR value to another constant at late times; in this case, we find that GR is fully consistent with the combined data. The strongest constraint comes from the ISW effect which would arise from this gravitational transition; the observed ISW signal imposes a tight constraint on a combination of μ and η that characterizes the lensing potential. Next, we consider four pixels in time and space for each function μ and η, and perform a principal component analysis, finding that seven of the resulting eight eigenmodes are consistent with GR within the errors. Only one eigenmode shows a 2σ deviation from the GR prediction, which is likely to be due to a systematic effect. However, the detection of such a deviation demonstrates the power of our time- and scale-dependent principal component analysis methodology when combining observations of structure formation and expansion history to test GR.

Single Or Double Degenerate Progenitors? Searching For Shock Emission In The SDSS-II Type Ia Supernovae

Abstract: From the set of nearly 500 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae (SNe) and around 10,000 unconfirmed candidates from SDSS-II, we select a subset of 108 confirmed SNe Ia with well-observed early-time light curves to search for signatures from shock interaction of the SN with a companion star. No evidence for shock emission is seen; however, the cadence and photometric noise could hide a weak shock signal. We simulate shocked light curves using SN Ia templates and a simple Gaussian shock model to emulate the noise properties of the SDSS-II sample and estimate the detectability of the shock interaction signal as a function of shock amplitude, shock width, and shock fraction. We find no direct evidence for shock interaction in the rest-frame B-band, but place an upper limit on the shock amplitude at 9% of SN peak flux (MB > - 16.6 mag). If the single degenerate channel dominates type Ia progenitors, this result constrains the companion stars to be less than about 6 M sun on the main sequence and strongly disfavors red giant companions.

Flux-calibrated stellar population models of Lick absorption-line indices with variable element abundance ratios

Abstract: We present new stellar population models of Lick absorption-line indices with variable element abundance ratios. The models are based on our new calibrations of absorption-line indices with stellar parameters derived from the MILES stellar library. The key novelty compared to our previous models is that they are now available at the higher spectral resolution of MILES (~2.7A FWHM) and flux-calibrated, hence not tied anymore to the Lick/IDS system. This is essential for the interpretation of galaxy spectra where calibration stars are not available, such as large galaxy redshift surveys or other high-redshift observations. We note that the MILES resolution appears to be comparable to SDSS resolution, so that our models can be applied to SDSS data without any corrections for instrumental spectral resolution. For the first time we provide random errors for the model predictions based on the uncertainties in the calibration functions and the underlying stellar parameter estimates. We show that random errors are small except at the edges of the parameter space (high/low metallicities and young ages <1 Gyr) where the stellar library is under-sampled. We calibrate the base model for the parameters age, metallicity and alpha/Fe ratio with galactic globular cluster and galaxy gradient data. We discuss two model flavours with different input stellar evolutionary tracks from the Frascati and Padova groups. The new model release now includes abundance variations of the elements C, N, Mg, Na, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, and Fe. The individual elements that are best accessible with these models and the standard set of Lick absorption features are C, N, Mg, Ca, Ti, and Fe. The model data is available at www.icg.port.ac.uk/~thomasd.

Scale-dependent non-Gaussianity probes inflationary physics

Abstract: We calculate the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum in (quasi) local models of non-Gaussian primordial density perturbations, and characterize this scale dependence in terms of new observable parameters. They can help to discriminate between models of inflation, since they are sensitive to properties of the inflationary physics that are not probed by the standard observables. We find consistency relations between these parameters in certain classes of models. We apply our results to a scenario of modulated reheating, showing that the scale dependence of non-Gaussianity can be significant. We also discuss the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum, in cases where one varies the shape as well as the overall scale of the figure under consideration. We conclude providing a formulation of the curvature perturbation in real space, which generalises the standard local form by dropping the assumption that fNL and gNL are constants.

Adiabatic initial conditions for perturbations in interacting dark energy models

Abstract: We present a new systematic analysis of the early radiation era solution in an interacting dark energy model to find the adiabatic initial conditions for the Boltzmann integration. In a model where the interaction is proportional to the dark matter density, adiabatic initial conditions and viable cosmologies are possible if the early-time dark energy equation of state parameter is we > −4/5. We find that when adiabaticity between cold dark matter, baryons, neutrinos and photons is demanded, the dark energy component satisfies automatically the adiabaticity condition. As Type Ia supernovae or baryon acoustic oscillation data require the recent-time equation of state parameter to be more negative, we consider a time-varying equation of state in our model. In a companion paper, we apply the initial conditions derived here and perform a full Monte Carlo Markov Chain likelihood analysis of this model.

A model for the cosmological evolution of low-frequency radio sources

Abstract: We present a new evolutionary model that describes the population properties of radio sources at frequencies ≲5 GHz, thus complementing the De Zotti et al. model, holding at higher frequencies. We find that simple analytic luminosity evolution is still sufficient to fit the wealth of available data on local luminosity functions, multifrequency source counts and redshift distributions. However, the fit requires a luminosity-dependent decline of source luminosities at high redshifts, at least for steep-spectrum sources, thus confirming earlier indications of a ‘downsizing’ also for radio sources. The upturn of source counts at sub-mJy levels is accounted for by a straightforward extrapolation, using the empirical far-infrared (far-IR)/radio correlation, of evolutionary models matching the far-IR counts and redshift distributions of star-forming galaxies. We also discuss the implications of the new model for the interpretation of data on large-scale clustering of radio sources and on the integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) effect, and for the investigation of the contribution of discrete sources to the extragalactic background. As for the ISW effect, a new analysis, exploiting a very clean cosmic microwave background map, yields at a substantially higher significance than reported before.

The Ages of Type Ia Supernova Progenitors

Abstract: Using light curves and host galaxy spectra of 101 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) with redshift z 0.3 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Supernova Survey (SDSS-SN), we derive the SN Ia rate as a function of progenitor age (the delay time distribution, DTD). We use the VESPA stellar population synthesis algorithm to analyze the SDSS spectra of all galaxies in the field searched by SDSS-SN, giving us a reference sample of 77,000 galaxies for our SN Ia hosts. Our method does not assume any a priori shape for the DTD and is therefore minimally parametric. We present the DTD in physical units for high-stretch (luminous, slow declining) and low-stretch (subluminous, fast declining) supernovae in three progenitor age bins. We find strong evidence of two progenitor channels: one that produces high-stretch SNe Ia 400 Myr after the birth of the progenitor system, and one that produces low-stretch SNe Ia with a delay 2.4 Gyr. We find that each channel contributes roughly half of the Type Ia rate in our reference sample. We also construct the average spectra of high-stretch and low-stretch SN Ia host galaxies, and find that the difference of these spectra looks like a main-sequence B star with nebular emission lines indicative of star formation. This supports our finding that there are two populations of SNe Ia, and indicates that the progenitors of high-stretch supernovae are at the least associated with very recent star formation in the last few tens of Myr. Our results provide valuable constraints for models of Type Ia progenitors and may help improve the calibration of SNe Ia as standard candles.

Designing a space-based galaxy redshift survey to probe dark energy

Abstract: A space-based galaxy redshift survey would have enormous power in constraining dark energy and testing general relativity, provided that its parameters are suitably optimized. We study viable space-based galaxy redshift surveys, exploring the dependence of the Dark Energy Task Force (DETF) figure-of-merit (FoM) on redshift accuracy, redshift range, survey area, target selection and forecast method. Fitting formulae are provided for convenience. We also consider the dependence on the information used: the full galaxy power spectrum P(k), P(k) marginalized over its shape, or just the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). We find that the inclusion of growth rate information (extracted using redshift space distortion and galaxy clustering amplitude measurements) leads to a factor of ∼3 improvement in the FoM, assuming general relativity is not modified. This inclusion partially compensates for the loss of information when only the BAO are used to give geometrical constraints, rather than using the full P(k) as a standard ruler. We find that a space-based galaxy redshift survey covering ∼20 000 deg2 over 0.5≲z≲2 with σz/(1 +z) ≤ 0.001 exploits a redshift range that is only easily accessible from space, extends to sufficiently low redshifts to allow both a vast 3D map of the universe using a single tracer population, and overlaps with ground-based surveys to enable robust modelling of systematic effects. We argue that these parameters are close to their optimal values given current instrumental and practical constraints.

The role of mergers in early-type galaxy evolution and black hole growth

Abstract: Models of galaxy formation invoke the major merger of gas-rich progenitor galaxies as the trigger for significant phases of black hole growth and the associated feedback that suppresses star formation to create red spheroidal remnants. However, the observational evidence for the connection between mergers and active galactic nucleus (AGN) phases is not clear. We analyze a sample of low-mass early-type galaxies known to be in the process of migrating from the blue cloud to the red sequence via an AGN phase in the green valley. Using deeper imaging from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82, we show that the fraction of objects with major morphological disturbances is high during the early starburst phase, but declines rapidly to the background level seen in quiescent early-type galaxies by the time of substantial AGN radiation several hundred Myr after the starburst. This observation empirically links the AGN activity in low-redshift early-type galaxies to a significant merger event in the recent past. The large time delay between the merger-driven starburst and the peak of AGN activity allows for the merger features to decay to the background and hence may explain the weak link between merger features and AGN activity in the literature.

Scale-dependent non-Gaussianity probes inflationary physics

Abstract: We calculate the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum in (quasi) local models of non-Gaussian primordial density perturbations, and characterize this scale dependence in terms of new observable parameters. They can help to discriminate between models of inflation, since they are sensitive to properties of the inflationary physics that are not probed by the standard observables. We find consistency relations between these parameters in certain classes of models. We apply our results to a scenario of modulated reheating, showing that the scale dependence of non-Gaussianity can be significant. We also discuss the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum, in cases where one varies the shape as well as the overall scale of the figure under consideration. We conclude providing a formulation of the curvature perturbation in real space, which generalises the standard local form by dropping the assumption that f_NL and g_NL are constants.

Properties of Galactic Cirrus Clouds Observed by BOOMERANG

Abstract: The physical properties of galactic cirrus emission are not well characterized. BOOMERANG is a balloon-borne experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background at high angular resolution in the millimeter range. The BOOMERANG 245 and 345 GHz channels are sensitive to interstellar signals, in a spectral range intermediate between FIR and microwave frequencies. We look for physical characteristics of cirrus structures in a region at high galactic latitudes (b ~ –40°) where BOOMERANG performed its deepest integration, combining the BOOMERANG data with other available data sets at different wavelengths. We have detected eight emission patches in the 345 GHz map, consistent with cirrus dust in the Infrared Astronomical Satellite maps. The analysis technique we have developed allows us to identify the location and the shape of cirrus clouds, and to extract the flux from observations with different instruments at different wavelengths and angular resolutions. We study the integrated flux emitted from these cirrus clouds using data from Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), DIRBE, BOOMERANG and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe in the frequency range 23-3000 GHz (13 mm-100 μm wavelength). We fit the measured spectral energy distributions with a combination of a gray body and a power-law spectra considering two models for the thermal emission. The temperature of the thermal dust component varies in the 7-20 K range and its emissivity spectral index is in the 1-5 range. We identified a physical relation between temperature and spectral index as had been proposed in previous works. This technique can be proficiently used for the forthcoming Planck and Herschel missions data.

Empirical Hα emitter count predictions for dark energy surveys

Abstract: Future galaxy redshift surveys aim to measure cosmological quantities from the galaxy power spectrum. A prime example is the detection of baryonic acoustic oscillations, providing a standard ruler to measure the dark energy equation of state, w(z), to high precision. The strongest practical limitation for these experiments is how quickly accurate redshifts can be measured for sufficient galaxies to map the large-scale structure. A promising strategy is to target emission-line (i.e. star-forming) galaxies at high redshift (z∼ 0.5–2); not only is the space density of this population increasing out to z∼ 2, but also emission lines provide an efficient method of redshift determination. Motivated by the prospect of future dark energy surveys targeting Hα emitters at near-infrared wavelengths (i.e. z > 0.5), we use the latest empirical data to model the evolution of the Hα luminosity function out to z∼ 2 and thus provide predictions for the abundance of Hα emitters for practical limiting fluxes. We caution that the estimates presented in this work must be tempered by an efficiency factor, e, giving the redshift success rate from these potential targets. For a range of practical efficiencies and limiting fluxes, we provide an estimate of Graphic, where Graphic is the 3D galaxy number density and P0.2 is the galaxy power spectrum evaluated at k= 0.2 h Mpc−1. Ideal surveys must provide Graphic in order to balance shot-noise and cosmic variance errors. We show that a realistic emission-line survey (e= 0.5) could achieve Graphic out to z∼ 1.5 with a limiting flux of 10−16 erg s−1 cm−2. If the limiting flux is a factor of 5 brighter, then this goal can only be achieved out to z∼ 0.5, highlighting the importance of survey depth and efficiency in cosmological redshift surveys.

Constraints on primordial density perturbations from induced gravitational waves

Abstract: We consider the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced during the radiation-dominated hot big bang as a constraint on the primordial density perturbation on comoving length scales much smaller than those directly probed by the cosmic microwave background or large-scale structure. We place weak upper bounds on the primordial density perturbation from current data. Future detectors such as BBO and DECIGO will place much stronger constraints on the primordial density perturbation on small scales.

Simulating redshift-space distortions for galaxy pairs with wide angular separation

Abstract: The analysis of redshift-space distortions (RSD) within galaxy surveys provides constraints on the amplitude of peculiar velocities induced by structure growth, thereby allowing tests of General Relativity on extremely large scales. The next generation of galaxy redshift surveys, such as the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and the Euclid experiment, will survey galaxies out to z= 2, over 10 000–20 000 deg2. In such surveys, galaxy pairs with large comoving separation will preferentially have a wide angular separation. In standard plane-parallel theory the displacements of galaxy positions due to RSD are assumed to be parallel for all galaxies, but this assumption will break down for wide-angle pairs. Szalay, Matsubara & Landy, Szapudi, and Papai & Szapudi provided a methodology, based on tripolar spherical harmonics expansion, for computing the redshift-space correlation function for all angular galaxy pair separations. In this paper, we introduce a new procedure for analysing wide-angle effects in numerical simulations. We are able to separate, demonstrate and fit each of the effects described by the wide-angle RSD theory. Our analysis highlights some of the nuances of dealing with wide-angle pairs and shows that the effects are not negligible even for relatively small angles. This analysis will help to ensure the full exploitation of future surveys for RSD measurements, which are currently confined to pair separations less than ∼80 h−1 Mpc out to z≃ 0.5.

Tidal disruption of satellite galaxies in a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation

Abstract: We introduce a new physical recipe into the De Lucia and Blaizot version of the Munich semi-analytic model built upon the Millennium dark matter simulation: the tidal stripping of stellar material from satellite galaxies during mergers. To test the significance of the new physical process we apply a Monte Carlo Markov Chain parameter estimation technique constraining the model with the $K$-band luminosity function, $B-V$ colours and the black hole-bulge mass relation. The differences in parameter correlations, and in the allowed regions in likelihood space, reveal the impact of the new physics on the basic ingredients of the model, such as the star-formation laws, feedback recipes and the black hole growth model. With satellite disruption in place, we get a model likelihood four times higher than in the original model, indicating that the new process seems to be favoured by observations. This is achieved mainly due to a reduction in black hole growth that produces a better agreement between the properties of central black holes and host galaxies. Compared to the best-fit model without disruption, the new model removes the excess of dwarf galaxies in the original recipe with a more modest supernova heating. The new model is now consistent with the three observational data sets used to constrain it, while significantly improving the agreement with observations for the distribution of metals in stars. Moreover, the model now follows the build up of intra-cluster light.

Modified scalar and tensor spectra in spinor driven inflation

Abstract: One of the firm predictions of single-scalar field inflationary cosmology is the consistency relation between scalar and tensor perturbations. It has been argued that such a relation, if observationally verified, would offer strong support for the idea of inflation. In this letter, we critically analyze the validity of the consistency relation in the context of spinor driven inflation. The spinflaton – a condensate of the Elko field — has a single scalar degree of freedom and leads to the same acceleration equation as the inflaton. We obtain the perturbation equations for the Einstein-Elko system and show that the scalar perturbations are purely adiabatic and the sound speed of the perturbations is identically one. We obtain the generalized Mukhanov-Sasaki equation for the spinor driven inflation and show that, in the slow-roll limit, the scalar and tensor spectra are nearly scale-invariant. We also show that spinor driven inflation naturally predicts running of spectral indices and the consistency relations for the spectra are modified.

Black holes and stars in the Horava-Lifshitz theory with the projectability condition

Abstract: We systematically study spherically symmetric static spacetimes filled with a fluid in the Horava-Lifshitz theory of gravity with the projectability condition, but without the detailed balance. We establish that when the spacetime is spatially Ricci flat the unique vacuum solution is the de Sitter Schwarzshcild solution, while when the spacetime has a nonzero constant curvature, there exist two different vacuum solutions; one is an (Einstein) static universe, and the other is a new spacetime. This latter spacetime is maximally symmetric and not flat. We find all the perfect fluid solutions for such spacetimes, in addition to a class of anisotropic fluid solutions of the spatially Ricci flat spacetimes. To construct spacetimes that represent stars, we investigate junction conditions across the surfaces of stars and obtain the general matching conditions with or without the presence of infinitely thin shells. It is remarkable that, in contrast to general relativity, the radial pressure of a star does not necessarily vanish on its surface even without the presence of a thin shell, due to the presence of high order derivative terms. Applying the junction conditions to our explicit solutions, we show that it is possible to match smoothly these solutions (all with nonzero radial pressures) to vacuum spacetimes without the presence of thin matter shells on the surfaces of stars.

Quintessence with quadratic coupling to dark matter

Abstract: We introduce a new form of coupling between dark energy and dark matter that is quadratic in their energy densities Then we investigate the background dynamics when dark energy is in the form of exponential quintessence The three types of quadratic coupling all admit late-time accelerating critical points, but these are not scaling solutions We also show that two types of coupling allow for a suitable matter era at early times and acceleration at late times, while the third type of coupling does not admit a suitable matter era

On the spectral resolution of the MILES stellar library

Abstract: Empirical stellar libraries are extensively used to extract stellar kinematics in galaxies and to build stellar population models. An accurate knowledge of the spectral resolution of these libraries is critical to avoid propagation errors and uncertain estimates of the intrinsic stellar velocity dispersion of galaxies. In this research note we re-assess the spectral resolution of the MILES stellar library and of the stellar population models based on it. This exercise was performed, because of a recent controversy over the exact MILES resolution. We perform our test through the comparison of MILES stellar spectra with three different sets of higher-resolution templates, one fully theoretical - the MARCS library - and two empirical ones, namely the Indo-U.S. and ELODIE v3.1 libraries. The theoretical template has a well-defined very high (R=20000) resolution. Hence errors on this theoretical value do not affect our conclusions. Our approach based on the MARCS library was crucial to constrain the values of the resolution also for the other two empirical templates. We find that the MILES resolution has previously been slightly overestimated. We derive a new spectral resolution of 2.54 A FWHM, instead of the nominal 2.3 A. The reason for this difference is due to an overestimation of the resolution for the Indo-U.S. library that was previously used for estimates of the MILES resolution. For the Indo-U.S. we obtain a new value of 1.35 A FWHM. Most importantly, the results derived from the MARCS and ELODIE libraries are in very good agreement. These results are important for users of the MILES spectra library and for further development of stellar population models aimed to obtain accurate stellar kinematics in galaxies.

Weak lensing predictions for modified gravities at non-linear scales

Abstract: We present a set of predictions for weak lensing correlation functions in the context of modified gravity models, including a prescription for the impact of the non-linear power spectrum regime in these models. We consider the Dvali, Gabadadze & Porrati and f(R) models, together with dark energy models with the same expansion history. We use the requirement that gravity is close to general relativity on small scales to estimate the non-linear power for these models. We then calculate weak lensing statistics, showing their behaviour as a function of scale and redshift, and present predictions for measurement accuracy with future lensing surveys, taking into account cosmic variance and galaxy shape noise. We demonstrate the improved discriminatory power of weak lensing for testing modified gravities once the non-linear power spectrum contribution has been included. We also examine the ability of future lensing surveys to constrain a parametrization of the non-linear power spectrum, including sensitivity to the growth factor.