Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth

About: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Redshift. The organization has 297 authors who have published 1207 publications receiving 76919 citations.

Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: mitigation of systematic effects

Abstract: We present an analysis of the main systematic effects that could impact the measurement of CMB polarization with the proposed CORE space mission. We employ timeline-to-map simulations to verify that the CORE instrumental set-up and scanning strategy allow us to measure sky polarization to a level of accuracy adequate to the mission science goals. We also show how the CORE observations can be processed to mitigate the level of contamination by potentially worrying systematics, including intensity-to-polarization leakage due to bandpass mismatch, asymmetric main beams, pointing errors and correlated noise. We use analysis techniques that are well validated on data from current missions such as Planck to demonstrate how the residual contamination of the measurements by these effects can be brought to a level low enough not to hamper the scientific capability of the mission, nor significantly increase the overall error budget. We also present a prototype of the CORE photometric calibration pipeline, based on that used for Planck, and discuss its robustness to systematics, showing how CORE can achieve its calibration requirements. While a fine-grained assessment of the impact of systematics requires a level of knowledge of the system that can only be achieved in a future study phase, the analysis presented here strongly suggests that the main areas of concern for the CORE mission can be addressed using existing knowledge, techniques and algorithms.

Observation of two new L4 Neptune Trojans in the Dark Energy Survey supernova fields

Abstract: We report the discovery of the eighth and ninth known Trojans in stable orbits around Neptune's leading Lagrange point, L4. The objects 2014 QO 441 and 2014 QP 441 were detected in data obtained during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 observing seasons by the Dark Energy Survey, using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Both are in high-inclination orbits (18.8 ∘ and 19.4 ∘ respectively). With an eccentricity of 0.104, 2014 QO 441 has the most eccentric orbit of the eleven known stable Neptune Trojans. Here we describe the search procedure and investigate the objects' long-term dynamical stability and physical properties.

The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmic flows and cosmic web from luminous red galaxies

Abstract: Author(s): Ata, M; Kitaura, FS; Chuang, CH; Rodriguez-Torres, S; Angulo, RE; Ferraro, S; Gil-Marin, H; McDonald, P; Monteagudo, CH; Muller, V; Yepes, G; Autefage, M; Baumgarten, F; Beutler, F; Brownstein, JR; Burden, A; Eisenstein, DJ; Guo, H; Ho, S; McBride, C; Neyrinck, M; Olmstead, MD; Padmanabhan, N; Percival, WJ; Prada, F; Rossi, G; Sanchez, AG; Schlegel, D; Schneider, DP; Seo, HJ; Streblyanska, A; Tinker, J; Tojeiro, R; Vargas-Magana, M | Abstract: We present a Bayesian phase-space reconstruction of the cosmic large-scale matter density and velocity fields from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 CMASS galaxy clustering catalogue. We rely on a given ∧ cold dark matter cosmology, a mesh resolution in the range of 6-10 h-1 Mpc, and a lognormal-Poisson model with a redshift-dependent non-linear bias. The bias parameters are derived from the data and a general renormalized perturbation theory approach. We use combined Gibbs and Hamiltonian sampling, implemented in the ARGO code, to iteratively reconstruct the darkmatter density field and the coherent peculiar velocities of individual galaxies, correcting hereby for coherent redshift space distortions. Our tests relying on accurate N-body-based mock galaxy catalogues show unbiased real space power spectra of the non-linear density field up to k ~ 0.2 h Mpc-1, and vanishing quadrupoles down to r ~ 20 h-1 Mpc. We also demonstrate that the non-linear cosmic web can be obtained from the tidal field tensor based on the Gaussian component of the reconstructed density field. We find that the reconstructed velocities have a statistical correlation coefficient compared to the true velocities of each individual lightcone mock galaxy of r ~ 0.68 including about 10 per cent of satellite galaxies with virial motions (about r = 0.75 without satellites). The power spectra of the velocity divergence agree well with theoretical predictions up to k ~ 0.2 h Mpc-1. This work will be especially useful to improve, for example, baryon acoustic oscillation reconstructions, kinematic Sunyaev- Zeldovich, integrated Sachs-Wolfe measurements or environmental studies.

Optimal redshift weighting for redshift-space distortions

Abstract: The low-statistical errors on cosmological parameters promised by future galaxy surveys will only be realized with the development of new, fast, analysis methods that reduce potential systematic problems to low levels. We present an efficient method for measuring the evolution of the growth of structure using redshift-space distortions (RSDs), that removes the need to make measurements in redshift shells. We provide sets of galaxy-weights that cover a wide range in redshift, but are optimized to provide differential information about cosmological evolution. These are derived to optimally measure the coefficients of a parametrization of the redshift-dependent matter density, which provides a framework to measure deviations from the concordance ΛCDM cosmology, allowing for deviations in both geometric and/or growth. We test the robustness of the weights by comparing with alternative schemes and investigate the impact of galaxy bias. We extend the results to measure the combined anisotropic baryon acoustic oscillation and RSD signals.

NGC 3628-ucd1: a possible ω cen analog embedded in a stellar stream

Abstract: Using Subaru/Suprime-Cam wide-field imaging and both Keck/ESI and LBT/MODS spectroscopy, we identify and characterize a compact star cluster, which we term NGC 3628-UCD1, embedded in a stellar stream around the spiral galaxy NGC 3628. The size and luminosity of UCD1 are similar to $\omega$ Cen, the most luminous Milky Way globular cluster, which has long been suspected to be the stripped remnant of an accreted dwarf galaxy. The object has a magnitude of $i=19.3$ mag (${\rm L}_{\rm i}=1.4\times10^{6}~{\rm L}_{\odot}$). UCD1 is marginally resolved in our ground-based imaging, with a half-light radius of $\sim10$ pc. We measure an integrated brightness for the stellar stream of $i=13.1$ mag, with $(g-i)=1.0$. This would correspond to an accreted dwarf galaxy with an approximate luminosity of ${\rm L}_i\sim4.1\times10^{8}~{\rm L}_{\odot}$. Spectral analysis reveals that UCD1 has an age of $6.6$ Gyr , $[\rm{Z}/\rm{H}]=-0.75$, an $[{\alpha}/\rm{Fe}]=-0.10$. We propose that UCD1 is an example of an $\omega$ Cen-like star cluster possibly forming from the nucleus of an infalling dwarf galaxy, demonstrating that at least some of the massive star cluster population may be created through tidal stripping.