Download or read book Analysis of Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect Mass observable Relations Using South Pole Telescope Observations of an X ray Selected Sample of Low mass Galaxy Clusters and Groups written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use microwave observations from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) to examine the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) signatures of a sample of 46 X-ray selected groups and clusters drawn from ~6 deg2 of the XMM-Newton Blanco Cosmology Survey. These systems extend to redshift z = 1.02 and probe the SZE signal to the lowest X-ray luminosities (e"042 erg s-1) yet; these sample characteristics make this analysis complementary to previous studies. We develop an analysis tool, using X-ray luminosity as a mass proxy, to extract selection-bias-corrected constraints on the SZE significance and Y_500 mass relations. The former is in good agreement with an extrapolation of the relation obtained from high-mass clusters. However, the latter, at low masses, while in good agreement with the extrapolation from the high-mass SPT clusters, is in tension at 2.8[sigma] with the Planck constraints, indicating the low-mass systems exhibit lower SZE signatures in the SPT data. We also present an analysis of potential sources of contamination. For the radio galaxy point source population, we find 18 of our systems have 843 MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey sources within 2 arcmin of the X-ray centre, and three of these are also detected at significance>4 by SPT. Of these three, two are associated with the group brightest cluster galaxies, and the third is likely an unassociated quasar candidate. We examine the impact of these point sources on our SZE scaling relation analyses and find no evidence of biases. We also examine the impact of dusty galaxies using constraints from the 220 GHz data. The stacked sample provides 2.8[sigma] significant evidence of dusty galaxy flux, which would correspond to an average underestimate of the SPT Y_500 signal that is (17 ± 9)per cent in this sample of low-mass systems. Finally, we explore the impact of future data from SPTpol and XMM-XXL, showing that it will lead to a factor of 4 to 5 tighter constraints on these SZE mass-observable relations.
Download or read book Measurement of Galaxy Cluster Integrated Comptonization and Mass Scaling Relations with the South Pole Telescope written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We describe a method for measuring the integrated Comptonization (Y (SZ)) of clusters of galaxies from measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in multiple frequency bands and use this method to characterize a sample of galaxy clusters detected in the South Pole Telescope (SPT) data. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to fit a [beta]-model source profile and integrate Y (SZ) within an angular aperture on the sky. In simulated observations of an SPT-like survey that include cosmic microwave background anisotropy, point sources, and atmospheric and instrumental noise at typical SPT-SZ survey levels, we show that we can accurately recover [beta]-model parameters for inputted clusters. We measure Y (SZ) for simulated semi-analytic clusters and find that Y (SZ) is most accurately determined in an angular aperture comparable to the SPT beam size. We demonstrate the utility of this method to measure Y (SZ) and to constrain mass scaling relations using X-ray mass estimates for a sample of 18 galaxy clusters from the SPT-SZ survey. Measuring Y (SZ) within a 0.'75 radius aperture, we find an intrinsic log-normal scatter of 21% ± 11% in Y (SZ) at a fixed mass. Measuring Y (SZ) within a 0.3 Mpc projected radius (equivalent to 0.'75 at the survey median redshift z = 0.6), we find a scatter of 26% ± 9%. Prior to this study, the SPT observable found to have the lowest scatter with mass was cluster detection significance. We demonstrate, from both simulations and SPT observed clusters that Y (SZ) measured within an aperture comparable to the SPT beam size is equivalent, in terms of scatter with cluster mass, to SPT cluster detection significance.
Download or read book Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XI written by David A. Bohlender and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mass Calibration and Cosmological Analysis of the SPT SZ Galaxy Cluster Sample Using Velocity Dispersion sigma V and X ray Y X Measurements written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, we present a velocity-dispersion-based mass calibration of the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect survey (SPT-SZ) galaxy cluster sample. Using a homogeneously selected sample of 100 cluster candidates from 720 deg2 of the survey along with 63 velocity dispersion ([sigma]v) and 16 X-ray YX measurements of sample clusters, we simultaneously calibrate the mass-observable relation and constrain cosmological parameters. Our method accounts for cluster selection, cosmological sensitivity, and uncertainties in the mass calibrators. The calibrations using [sigma]v and YX are consistent at the 0.6[sigma] level, with the [sigma] v calibration preferring ~16% higher masses. We use the full SPTCL data set (SZ clusters+[sigma]v+YX) to measure [sigma]8([Omega]m/0.27)0.3 = 0.809 ± 0.036 within a flat [Lambda]CDM model. The SPT cluster abundance is lower than preferred by either the WMAP9 or Planck+WMAP9 polarization (WP) data, but assuming that the sum of the neutrino masses is m[nu] = 0.06 eV, we find the data sets to be consistent at the 1.0[sigma] level for WMAP9 and 1.5[sigma] for Planck+WP. Allowing for larger [Sigma]m[nu] further reconciles the results. When we combine the SPTCL and Planck+WP data sets with information from baryon acoustic oscillations and Type Ia supernovae, the preferred cluster masses are 1.9[sigma] higher than the YX calibration and 0.8[sigma] higher than the [sigma] v calibration. Given the scale of these shifts (~44% and ~23% in mass, respectively), we execute a goodness-of-fit test; it reveals no tension, indicating that the best-fit model provides an adequate description of the data. Using the multi-probe data set, we measure [Omega]m = 0.299 ± 0.009 and [sigma]8 = 0.829 ± 0.011. Within a [nu]CDM model we find [Sigma]m[nu] = 0.148 ± 0.081 eV. We present a consistency test of the cosmic growth rate using SPT clusters. Allowing both the growth index [gamma] and the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w to vary, we find [gamma] = 0.73 ± 0.28 and w = -1.007 ± 0.065, demonstrating that the e[Sigma]xpansion and the growth histories are consistent with a [Lambda]CDM universe ([gamma] = 0.55; w = -1).
Download or read book Precision Cosmology with Galaxy Cluster Surveys written by Hao-Yi Wu and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2011 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acceleration of the universe, which is often attributed to "dark energy, " has posed one of the main challenges to fundamental physics. Galaxy clusters provide one of the most sensitive probes of dark energy because their abundance reflects the growth rate of large-scale structure and the expansion rate of the universe. Several large galaxy cluster surveys will soon provide tremendous statistical power to constrain the properties of dark energy; however, the constraining power of these surveys will be determined by how well systematic errors are controlled. Of these systematic errors, the dominant one comes from inferring cluster masses using observable signals of clusters, the so-called "observable--mass distribution." This thesis focuses on extracting dark energy information from forthcoming large galaxy cluster surveys, including how we maximize the cosmological information, how we control important systematics, and how precisely we need to calibrate theoretical models. We study how multi-wavelength follow-up observations can improve cluster mass calibration in optical surveys. We also investigate the impact of theoretical uncertainties in calibrating the spatial distributions of galaxy clusters on dark energy constraints. In addition, we explore how the formation history of galaxy clusters impacts the self-calibration of cluster mass. In addition, we use N-body simulations to develop a new statistical sample of cluster-size halos in order to further understand the observable--mass distribution. We study the completeness of subhalos in our cluster sample by comparing them with the satellite galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also study how subhalo selections impact the inferred correlation between formation time and optical mass tracers, including cluster richness and velocity dispersion.
Download or read book Millimeter Submillimeter and Far infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book New Worlds New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.
Download or read book A Novel Measurement of Sunyaev Zel dovich Effect in Galaxy Clusters written by Thor Miller Wilbanks and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-02-07 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In preparing the report, Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium , the AASC made use of a series of panel reports that address various aspects of ground- and space-based astronomy and astrophysics. These reports provide in-depth technical detail. Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium: An Overview summarizes the science goals and recommended initiatives in a short, richly illustrated, non-technical booklet.
Download or read book Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-03-12 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.
Download or read book Astrophysics Processes written by Hale Bradt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-25 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bridging the gap between physics and astronomy textbooks, this book provides step-by-step physical and mathematical development of fundamental astrophysical processes underlying a wide range of phenomena in stellar, galactic, and extragalactic astronomy. The book has been written for upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students, and its strong pedagogy ensures solid mastery of each process and application. It contains over 150 tutorial figures, numerous examples of astronomical measurements, and 201 exercises. Topics covered include the Kepler–Newton problem, stellar structure, binary evolution, radiation processes, special relativity in astronomy, radio propagation in the interstellar medium, and gravitational lensing. Applications presented include Jeans length, Eddington luminosity, the cooling of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect, Doppler boosting in jets, and determinations of the Hubble constant. This text is a stepping stone to more specialized books and primary literature. Password-protected solutions to the exercises are available to instructors at www.cambridge.org/9780521846561.
Download or read book Introduction To The Theory Of The Early Universe Hot Big Bang Theory Second Edition written by Valery A Rubakov and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is written from the viewpoint that a deep connection exists between cosmology and particle physics. It presents the results and ideas on both the homogeneous and isotropic Universe at the hot stage of its evolution and in later stages. The main chapters describe in a systematic and pedagogical way established facts and concepts on the early and the present Universe. The comprehensive treatment, hence, serves as a modern introduction to this rapidly developing field of science. To help in reading the chapters without having to constantly consult other texts, essential materials from General Relativity and the theory of elementary particles are collected in the appendices. Various hypotheses dealing with unsolved problems of cosmology, and often alternative to each other, are discussed at a more advanced level. These concern dark matter, dark energy, matter-antimatter asymmetry, etc.Particle physics and cosmology underwent rapid development between the first and the second editions of this book. In the second edition, many chapters and sections have been revised, and numerical values of particle physics and cosmological parameters have been updated.
Download or read book Probabilistic Inference of Dark Matter Properties in Galaxy Clusters and the Cosmic Web written by Yin-Yee Ng and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mass tells spacetime how to curve, spacetime tells mass how to move". This famous quote by physicist John Archibald Wheeler succinctly summarizes General Relativity, the most successful theory that describes our universe at large scale. However, most of the mass that General Relativity describes, namely dark matter (DM), remains a mystery. We have solid evidence of the existence of DM from various observations, but we know little or nothing about the particle nature of DM and how DM particles interact with different particles. Completing this knowledge gap would improve or revolutionize our established cosmological model, the Lambda Cold-Dark Matter (CDM) model, and give directions to theories beyond the standard particle physics model.This work attempts to study DM by examining and extending existing modeling approaches of DM and its visible tracers in a probabilistic way. The single verified form of DM interaction is gravitational. Currently, the only way to infer the properties of DM is through visible tracers. Most of these indirect detections either have low signal-to-noise, sparse coverage, or missing variables. These limitations introduce additional modeling choices and uncertainties. A probabilistic approach allows us to propagate the uncertainties appropriately and marginalize any missing variables. There are two recurring types of visible tracers that my work uses. The first type of tracers are galaxies and observables in the overdense regions of DM. These tracers allow usto infer the macroscopic dynamical properties of DM distribution that we want to study. The second type of tracers, on the hand, are in the background, i.e. further away than the foreground dark matter, from us observers. The gravity of DM can bend spacetime such that the path of light traveling in the vicinity would also curve, leaving distortions in the galaxy images. The gravitational distortion of the images of the background galaxies is also known as gravitational lensing. In the introduction (first chapter) of this thesis, I will layout the technical history, terminology and the reasons behind choosing the various data sets and give an overview of the analysis methods for my thesis work. In chapter two, I will present the study based on the observational data of El Gordo, one of the most massive, most ancient, merging galaxy clusters. Under the extreme collision speeds during a merger of a galaxy cluster, it is more probable for DM particles in the cluster to manifest eects of self-interaction. Thus, if DM particles can interact with one another, some preliminary simulations have shown that large-scale spatial distribution of DM can show discrepancies from its galaxy-counterparts. This discrepancy is also known as the galaxy-DM offset, with a caveat. The long duration (millions of years) of a merger means that we cannot detect the direction of motions of the components directly to confirm the offset as a lag. My work on El Gordo was the first to show a quantitative method of estimating how likely the DM components of El Gordo are to be moving in a certain direction. This study was made possible by utilizing informative observables in various wavelengths, including a pair of radio shockwaves on the outer skirt of the cluster, enhanced X-ray emissivity and the decrement of the Sunyaev-Zel'Dovich effect for the infra-red observations. This comprehensive set of observables allowed us to formulate probabilistic constraints in our Monte Carlo simulation of El Gordo. Furthermore, the study also brought up several questions about the modeling choices for comparing the DM and the member-galaxy distributions of a cluster. For instance, do the DM maps and the galaxy maps have high enough resolution to show the delicate offset signal produced by the possible self-interaction of DM (SIDM)? To address my concerns from the study of El Gordo, I conducted a second investigation of galaxy clusters in a cosmological simulation, which is described in chapter 3. The dataset I chose was from the Illustris simulation. As this simulation assumes a Cold-Dark-Mattermodel (CDM) without requiring an SIDM model, any offset between DM and the member galaxies in a galaxy cluster provides an estimate of the variability of the galaxy-DM offset. My study shows that the variability in this setting is non-negligible compared to the small observed offsets, it is likely that random variation can account for the galaxy-DM offsets inobservations. The result weakens our belief that SIDM is the cause of the offsets. The fourth chapter of my dissertation builds on top of my previous experience with analyzing the weak lensing data for El Gordo. This time, I performed the weak lensing study for a dataset of a much larger spatial scale, such that, galaxy clusters look like parts of a homogeneous and isotropic DM web. At this scale, it is possible to compare the spatial distribution of DM to simulations to give competitive constraints on cosmological parameters. Using weak lensing signals for estimating cosmological parameters is also known as cosmic shear inference. While I used a parametric technique to estimate the mass of El Gordo in chapter 2, my work in chapter 4 introduces a new non-parametric model using a Gaussian Process. A Gaussian Process is a generalization of the multivariate normal distribution to higher dimensions. We can draw functional models from a Gaussian Process to describe our data. While the realizations are drawn from a multivariate normal distribution, we can specify the parameters and the functional structure of the covariance (kernel) matrix of the underlying distribution. This generative model gives us the ability to put probabilistic estimates of DM density in regions without any background galaxies. As I have built the lensing physics into the very core of the covariance kernel matrix, we can also simultaneously infer the several important lensing observables, such as shear and convergence, given some lensed galaxy shapes. More importantly, this technique relies on fewer assumptions about the photometric redshift than traditional cosmic shear analysis technique. This may reduce the bias towards a ducial cosmology and lead to interesting discoveries. However, this new technique is not without its challenges. Computationally, this technique requires an O(n3) runtime. Despite my best attempts to parallelize the computation, the algorithm takes longer for generating DM mass maps than traditional approaches. My work here marks the beginning of an alternative method for cosmic shear inference. Many promising approximation techniques have emerged to drastically speed up the runtime of doing inference with a Gaussian Process. Incorporating these approximations may make it possible to use this method to give tighter cosmological constraints from future sky surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. I conclude my work in Chapter 5 and discuss the implications of my work. This includes some future directions for analyzing DM by using simulations with different underlying DM models and real data.
Download or read book Galaxy Formation and Evolution written by Houjun Mo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-20 with total page 841 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A coherent introduction for researchers in astronomy, particle physics, and cosmology on the formation and evolution of galaxies.
Download or read book Massive Neutrinos written by Harald Fritzsch and published by World Scientific Publishing Company. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations neutrino physics has become an interesting field of research in physics. They imply that neutrino must have a small mass and that the neutrinos, coupled to the charged leptons, are mixtures of the mass eigenstates, analogous to the flavor mixing of the quarks. The mixing angles for the quarks are small, but for the leptons two of the mixing angles are large. The masses of the three neutrinos must be very small, less than 1 eV, but from the oscillation experiments we only know the mass differences -- the absolute masses are still unknown. Also we do not know, if the masses of the neutrinos are Dirac masses, as the masses of the charged leptons and of the quarks, or whether they are Majorana masses.In this volume, an overview of the present state of research in neutrino physics is given by well-known experimentalists and theorists. The contents -- originated from talks and discussions at a recent conference addressing some of the most pressing open questions in neutrino physics -- range from the oscillation experiments to CP-violation for leptons, to texture zero mass matrices and to the role of neutrinos in astrophysics and cosmology.
Download or read book Morphological Astronomy written by Fritz Zwicky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Man has a great tendency to get lost or to hide, as the case may be, in a jungle of details and in unnecessary complications. Why do anything simply if you can do it complicated? And still, life itself presents a sufficient number of problems to keep us busy. There would seem to be no need to create additional difficulties, just for the fun of it, especially if these self-made difficulties become practically insuperable and if in the end they cause much unhappiness. The morphological mode of thought and of action was conceived to break the vicious hold which the parasitic wild growth of complications exerts on life in all of its phases. Morphological thought and action are likely to be of value in all human activities, once such thought and action have been clearly delineated and fully developed, and once they have been practised by a sufficiently large number of people. Since the morphological method is of the greatest universality, the choice of the field to which one applies it first is not particulary critical. The author intends to write two or three books on the morphology of several large scale problems, which are both of a technical and of a general social nature. The present book is concerned in particular with some implications of morphological thinking in astronomy. We shall above all emphasize the basic character of the morphological approach, and we shall demonstrate its constructive power in a number of specific cases.
Download or read book High Energy Astrophysics written by Malcolm S. Longair and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 885 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing students with an in-depth account of the astrophysics of high energy phenomena in the Universe, the third edition of this well-established textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in high energy astrophysics. Building on the concepts and techniques taught in standard undergraduate courses, this textbook provides the astronomical and astrophysical background for students to explore more advanced topics. Special emphasis is given to the underlying physical principles of high energy astrophysics, helping students understand the essential physics. The third edition has been completely rewritten, consolidating the previous editions into one volume. It covers the most recent discoveries in areas such as gamma-ray bursts, ultra-high energy cosmic rays and ultra-high energy gamma rays. The topics have been rearranged and streamlined to make them more applicable to a wide range of different astrophysical problems.
