Engineering topics

Dell'Antonio, Ian

Publications and source records attributed to Dell'Antonio, Ian.

5 records

DOE OSTI2019

Deep Multi-object Spectroscopy to Enhance Dark Energy Science from LSST

Community access to deep (i ~ 25), highly-multiplexed optical and near-infrared multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) on 8-40m telescopes would greatly improve measurements of cosmological parameters from LSST. The largest gain would come from improvements to LSST photometric redshifts, which are employed directly or indirectly for every major LSST cosmological probe; deep spectroscopic datasets will enable reduced uncertainties in the redshifts of individual objects via optimized training. Such spectroscopy will also determine the relationship of galaxy SEDs to their environments, key observables for studies of galaxy evolution. The resulting data will also constrain the impact of blending on photo-z's. Focused spectroscopic campaigns can also improve weak lensing cosmology by constraining the intrinsic alignments between the orientations of galaxies. Galaxy cluster studies can be enhanced by measuring motions of galaxies in and around clusters and by testing photo-z performance in regions of high density. Photometric redshift and intrinsic alignment studies are best-suited to instruments on large-aperture telescopes with wider fields of view (e.g., Subaru/PFS, MSE, or GMT/MANIFEST) but cluster investigations can be pursued with smaller-field instruments (e.g., Gemini/GMOS, Keck/DEIMOS, or TMT/WFOS), so deep MOS work can be distributed amongst a variety of telescopes. However, community access to large amounts of nights for surveys will still be needed to accomplish this work. In two companion white papers we present gains from shallower, wide-area MOS and from single-target imaging and spectroscopy.

Newman, Jeffrey A↗

DOE OSTI2019

Testing the Nature of Dark Matter with Extremely Large Telescopes

For nearly 40 years, dark matter has been widely assumed to be cold and collisionless. Cold dark matter models make fundamental predictions for the behavior of dark matter on small (<10 kpc) scales. These predictions include cuspy density profiles at the centers of dark matter halos and a halo mass function that increases as dN/dM ~ M^-1.9 down to very small masses. We suggest two observational programs relying on extremely large telescopes to critically test these predictions, and thus shed new light on the nature of dark matter. (1) Combining adaptive optics-enabled imaging with deep spectroscopy to measure the three-dimensional motions of stars within a sample of Local Group dwarf galaxies that are the cleanest dark matter laboratories known in the nearby universe. From these observations the inner slope of the dark matter density profile can be determined with an accuracy of 0.20 dex, enabling a central cusp to be distinguished from a core at 5 sigma significance. (2) Diffraction-limited AO imaging and integral field spectroscopy of gravitationally lensed galaxies and quasars to quantify the abundance of dark substructures in the halos of the lens galaxies and along the line of sight. Observations of 50 lensed arcs and 50 multiply-imaged quasars will be sufficient to measure the halo mass function over the range 10^7 < M < 10^10 Msun at cosmological scales, independent of the baryonic and stellar composition of those structures. These two observational probes provide complementary information about the small scale structure, with a joint self-consistent analysis mitigating limitations of either probe. This program will produce the strongest existing constraints on the properties of dark matter on small scales, allowing conclusive tests of alternative warm, fuzzy, and self-interacting dark matter models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2018

The LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Science Requirements Document

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) will use five cosmological probes: galaxy clusters, large scale structure, supernovae, strong lensing, and weak lensing. This Science Requirements Document (SRD) quantifies the expected dark energy constraining power of these probes individually and together, with conservative assumptions about analysis methodology and follow-up observational resources based on our current understanding and the expected evolution within the field in the coming years. We then define requirements on analysis pipelines that will enable us to achieve our goal of carrying out a dark energy analysis consistent with the Dark Energy Task Force definition of a Stage IV dark energy experiment. This is achieved through a forecasting process that incorporates the flowdown to detailed requirements on multiple sources of systematic uncertainty. Future versions of this document will include evolution in our software capabilities and analysis plans along with updates to the LSST survey strategy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Final Technical Report for DE-SC0012297

This is the final report on the work performed in award DE-SC0012297, Cosmic Frontier work in support of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration's work to develop algorithms, simulations, and statistical tests to ensure optimal extraction of the dark energy properties from galaxy clusters observed with LSST. This work focused on effects that could produce a systematic error on the measurement of cluster masses (that will be used to probe the effects of dark energy on the growth of structure). These effects stem from the deviations from pure ellipticity of the gravitational lensing signal and from the blending of light of neighboring galaxies. Both these effects are expected to be more significant for LSST than for the stage III experiments such as the Dark Energy Survey. We calculate the magnitude of the mass error (or bias) for the first time and demonstrate that it can be treated as a multiplicative correction and calibrated out, allowing mass measurements of clusters from gravitational lensing to meet the requirements of LSST's dark energy investigation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

TRIGGERED STAR FORMATION IN GALAXY PAIRS AT z = 0.08-0.38

We measure the strength, frequency, and timescale of tidally triggered star formation at redshift z = 0.08-0.38 in a spectroscopically complete sample of galaxy pairs drawn from the magnitude-limited redshift survey of 9825 Smithsonian Hectospec Lensing Survey galaxies with R < 20.3. To examine the evidence for tidal triggering, we identify a volume-limited sample of major (|{delta}M{sub R} | < 1.75, corresponding to mass ratio >1/5) pair galaxies with M{sub R} < -20.8 in the redshift range z = 0.08-0.31. The size and completeness of the spectroscopic survey allow us to focus on regions of low local density. The spectrophotometric calibration enables the use of the 4000 A break (D{sub n} 4000), the H{alpha} specific star formation rate (SSFR{sub H{alpha}}), and population models to characterize the galaxies. We show that D{sub n} 4000 is a useful population classification tool; it closely tracks the identification of emission line galaxies. The sample of major pair galaxies in regions of low local density with low D{sub n} 4000 demonstrates the expected anti-correlation between pairwise projected separation and a set of star formation indicators explored in previous studies. We measure the frequency of triggered star formation by comparing the SSFR{sub H{alpha}} in the volume-limited sample in regions of low local density: 32% {+-} 7% of the major pair galaxies have SSFR{sub H{alpha}} at least double the median rate of the unpaired field galaxies. Comparison of stellar population models for pair and for unpaired field galaxies implies a timescale for triggered star formation of {approx}300-400 Myr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗