Engineering topics

Kovacs, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Kovacs, A..

11 records

DOE OSTI2024

The gravitational lensing imprints of DES Y3 superstructures on the CMB: a matched filtering approach

Low-density cosmic voids gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB), leaving a negative imprint on the CMB convergence |$\kappa$|⁠. This effect provides insight into the distribution of matter within voids, and can also be used to study the growth of structure. We measure this lensing imprint by cross-correlating the Planck CMB lensing convergence map with voids identified in the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) data set, covering approximately 4200 deg|$^2$| of the sky. We use two distinct void-finding algorithms: a 2D void-finder that operates on the projected galaxy density field in thin redshift shells, and a new code, Voxel, which operates on the full 3D map of galaxy positions. We employ an optimal matched filtering method for cross-correlation, using the Marenostrum Institut de Ciències de l’Espai N-body simulation both to establish the template for the matched filter and to calibrate detection significances. Using the DES Y3 photometric luminous red galaxy sample, we measure |$A_\kappa$|⁠, the amplitude of the observed lensing signal relative to the simulation template, obtaining |$A_\kappa = 1.03 \pm 0.22$| (⁠|$4.6\sigma$| significance) for Voxel and |$A_\kappa = 1.02 \pm 0.17$| (⁠|$5.9\sigma$| significance) for 2D voids, both consistent with Lambda cold dark matter expectations. We additionally invert the 2D void-finding process to identify superclusters in the projected density field, for which we measure |$A_\kappa = 0.87 \pm 0.15$| (⁠|$5.9\sigma$| significance). The leading source of noise in our measurements is Planck noise, implying that data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, South Pole Telescope and CMB-S4 will increase sensitivity and allow for more precise measurements.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Constraints on extensions to Λ CDM with weak lensing and galaxy clustering

We constrain six possible extensions to the Λ cold dark matter (CDM) model using measurements from the Dark Energy Survey’s first three years of observations, alone and in combination with external cosmological probes. The DES data are the two-point correlation functions of weak gravitational lensing, galaxy clustering, and their cross-correlation. We use simulated data vectors and blind analyses of real data to validate the robustness of our results to astrophysical and modeling systematic errors. In many cases, constraining power is limited by the absence of theoretical predictions beyond the linear regime that are reliable at our required precision. The Λ CDM extensions are dark energy with a time-dependent equation of state, nonzero spatial curvature, additional relativistic degrees of freedom, sterile neutrinos with eV-scale mass, modifications of gravitational physics, and a binned σ 8 ( z ) model which serves as a phenomenological probe of structure growth. For the time-varying dark energy equation of state evaluated at the pivot redshift we find ( w p , w a ) = ( - 0.9 9 - 0.17 + 0.28 , - 0.9 ± 1.2 ) at 68% confidence with z p = 0.24 from the DES measurements alone, and ( w p , w a ) = ( - 1.0 3 - 0.03 + 0.04 , - 0. 4 - 0.3 + 0.4 ) with z p = 0.21 for the combination of all data considered. Curvature constraints of Ω k = 0.0009 ± 0.0017 and effective relativistic species N eff = 3.1 0 - 0.16 + 0.15 are dominated by external data, though adding DES information to external low-redshift probes tightens the Ω k constraints that can be made without cosmic microwave background observables by 20%. For massive sterile neutrinos, DES combined with external data improves the upper bound on the mass m eff by a factor of 3 compared to previous analyses, giving 95% limits of ( Δ N eff , m eff ) ≤ ( 0.28 , 0.20 eV ) when using priors matching a comparable Planck analysis. For modified gravity, we constrain changes to the lensing and Poisson equations controlled by functions Σ ( k , z ) = Σ 0 Ω Λ ( z ) / Ω Λ , 0 and μ ( k , z ) = μ 0 Ω Λ ( z ) / Ω Λ , 0 , respectively, to Σ 0 = 0. 6 - 0.5 + 0.4 from DES alone and ( Σ 0 , μ 0 ) = ( 0.04 ± 0.05 , 0.0 8 - 0.19 + 0.21 ) for the combination of all data, both at 68% confidence. Overall, we find no significant evidence for physics beyond Λ CDM .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Joint analysis of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data and CMB lensing from SPT and P l a n c k . II. Cross-correlation measurements and cosmological constraints

Cross-correlations of galaxy positions and galaxy shears with maps of gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are sensitive to the distribution of large-scale structure in the Universe. Such cross-correlations are also expected to be immune to some of the systematic effects that complicate correlation measurements internal to galaxy surveys. We present measurements and modeling of the cross-correlations between galaxy positions and galaxy lensing measured in the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey with CMB lensing maps derived from a combination of data from the 2500 deg 2 SPT-SZ survey conducted with the South Pole Telescope and full-sky data from the Planck satellite. The CMB lensing maps used in this analysis have been constructed in a way that minimizes biases from the thermal Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect, making them well suited for cross-correlation studies. The total signal-to-noise of the cross-correlation measurements is 23.9 (25.7) when using a choice of angular scales optimized for a linear (nonlinear) galaxy bias model. Here we use the cross-correlation measurements to obtain constraints on cosmological parameters. For our fiducial galaxy sample, which consist of four bins of magnitude-selected galaxies, we find constraints of Ω m =0.272$^{+0.032}_{-0.052}$ and S 8 ≡σ8$\sqrt{Ω_m/0.3}$=0.736$^{+0.032}_{-0.028}$ (Ω m =0.245$^{+0.026}_{-0.044}$ and S 8 =0.734$^{+0.035}_{-0.028}$) when assuming linear (nonlinear) galaxy bias in our modeling. Considering only the cross-correlation of galaxy shear with CMB lensing, we find Ω m =0.270$^{+0.043}_{-0.061}$ and S 8 =0.740$^{+0.034}_{-0.029}$. Our constraints on S8 are consistent with recent cosmic shear measurements, but lower than the values preferred by primary CMB measurements from Planck.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Joint analysis of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data and CMB lensing from SPT and Planck . III. Combined cosmological constraints

Here we present cosmological constraints from the analysis of two-point correlation functions between galaxy positions and galaxy lensing measured in Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 data and measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck. When jointly analyzing the DES-only two-point functions and the DES cross-correlations with SPT+Planck CMB lensing, we find Ω m = 0.344 ± 0.030 and S 8 ≡ σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.5 = 0.773 ± 0.016, assuming ΛCDM. When additionally combining with measurements of the CMB lensing autospectrum, we find Ω m = 0.306$^{+0.018}_{-0.021}$ and S 8 = 0.792 ± 0.012. The high signal-to-noise of the CMB lensing cross-correlations enables several powerful consistency tests of these results, including comparisons with constraints derived from cross-correlations only, and comparisons designed to test the robustness of the galaxy lensing and clustering measurements from DES. Applying these tests to our measurements, we find no evidence of significant biases in the baseline cosmological constraints from the DES-only analyses or from the joint analyses with CMB lensing cross-correlations. However, the CMB lensing cross-correlations suggest possible problems with the correlation function measurements using alternative lens galaxy samples, in particular the redMaGiC galaxies and high-redshift MagLim galaxies, consistent with the findings of previous studies. We use the CMB lensing cross-correlations to identify directions for further investigating these problems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Dark Energy Survey year 3 results: Constraints on cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias models from galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing using the redMaGiC sample

We constrain cosmological parameters and galaxy-bias parameters using the combination of galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) year-3 data. We describe our modeling framework and choice of scales analyzed, validating their robustness to theoretical uncertainties in small-scale clustering by analyzing simulated data. Using a linear galaxy-bias model and redMaGiC galaxy sample, we obtain 10% constraints on the matter density of the Universe. Here, we also implement a nonlinear galaxy-bias model to probe smaller scales that includes parametrization based on hybrid perturbation theory and find that it leads to a 17% gain in cosmological constraining power. We perform robustness tests of our methodology pipeline and demonstrate stability of the constraints to changes in the theory model. Using the redMaGiC galaxy sample as foreground lens galaxies and adopting the best-fitting cosmological parameters from DES year-1 data, we find the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements to exhibit significant signals akin to decorrelation between galaxies and mass on large scales, which is not expected in any current models. This likely systematic measurement error biases our constraints on galaxy bias and the S 8 parameter. We find that a scale-, redshift- and sky-area-independent phenomenological decorrelation parameter can effectively capture this inconsistency between the galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing. We trace the source of this correlation to a color-dependent photometric issue and minimize its impact on our result by changing the selection criteria of redMaGiC galaxies. Using this new sample, our constraints on the S 8 parameter are consistent with previous studies and we find a small shift in the Ω m constraints compared to the fiducial redMaGiC sample. We infer the constraints on the mean host-halo mass of the redMaGiC galaxies in this new sample from the large-scale bias constraints, finding the galaxies occupy halos of mass approximately 1.6 × 10 13 M ⊙ /h.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Cosmological constraints from galaxy clustering and weak lensing

We present the first cosmology results from large-scale structure using the full 5000 deg 2 of imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Data Release 1. We perform an analysis of large-scale structure combining three two-point correlation functions ( 3 × 2 pt ): (i) cosmic shear using 100 million source galaxies, (ii) galaxy clustering, and (iii) the cross-correlation of source galaxy shear with lens galaxy positions, galaxy–galaxy lensing. To achieve the cosmological precision enabled by these measurements has required updates to nearly every part of the analysis from DES Year 1, including the use of two independent galaxy clustering samples, modeling advances, and several novel improvements in the calibration of gravitational shear and photometric redshift inference. The analysis was performed under strict conditions to mitigate confirmation or observer bias; we describe specific changes made to the lens galaxy sample following unblinding of the results and tests of the robustness of our results to this decision. We model the data within the flat Λ CDM and w CDM cosmological models, marginalizing over 25 nuisance parameters. We find consistent cosmological results between the three two-point correlation functions; their combination yields clustering amplitude S 8 = 0.77 6 - 0.017 + 0.017 and matter density Ω m = 0.33 9 - 0.031 + 0.032 in Λ CDM , mean with 68% confidence limits; S 8 = 0.77 5 - 0.024 + 0.026 , Ω m = 0.35 2 - 0.041 + 0.035 , and dark energy equation-of-state parameter w = - 0.9 8 - 0.20 + 0.32 in w CDM . These constraints correspond to an improvement in signal-to-noise of the DES Year 3 3 × 2 pt data relative to DES Year 1 by a factor of 2.1, about 20% more than expected from the increase in observing area alone. This combination of DES data is consistent with the prediction of the model favored by the Planck 2018 cosmic microwave background (CMB) primary anisotropy data, which is quantified with a probability-to-exceed p = 0.13 –0.48. We find better agreement between DES 3 × 2 pt and Planck than in DES Y1, despite the significantly improved precision of both. When combining DES 3 × 2 pt data with available baryon acoustic oscillation, redshift-space distortion, and type Ia supernovae data, we find p = 0.34 . Combining all of these datasets with Planck CMB lensing yields joint parameter constraints of S 8 = 0.81 2 - 0.008 + 0.008 , Ω m = 0.30 6 - 0.005 + 0.004 , h = 0.68 0 - 0.003 + 0.004 , and ∑ m ν < 0.13 eV (95% C.L.) in Λ CDM ; S 8 = 0.81 2 - 0.008 + 0.008 , Ω m = 0.30 2 - 0.006 + 0.006 , h = 0.68 7 - 0.007 + 0.006 , and w = - 1.03 1 - 0.027 + 0.030 in w CDM .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Curved-sky weak lensing mass map reconstruction

ABSTRACT We present reconstructed convergence maps, mass maps, from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) third year (Y3) weak gravitational lensing data set. The mass maps are weighted projections of the density field (primarily dark matter) in the foreground of the observed galaxies. We use four reconstruction methods, each is a maximum a posteriori estimate with a different model for the prior probability of the map: Kaiser–Squires, null B-mode prior, Gaussian prior, and a sparsity prior. All methods are implemented on the celestial sphere to accommodate the large sky coverage of the DES Y3 data. We compare the methods using realistic ΛCDM simulations with mock data that are closely matched to the DES Y3 data. We quantify the performance of the methods at the map level and then apply the reconstruction methods to the DES Y3 data, performing tests for systematic error effects. The maps are compared with optical foreground cosmic-web structures and are used to evaluate the lensing signal from cosmic-void profiles. The recovered dark matter map covers the largest sky fraction of any galaxy weak lensing map to date.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Microwave Multiplexing on the Keck Array

In this paper, we describe an on-sky demonstration of a microwave-multiplexing readout system in one of the receivers of the Keck Array, a polarimetry experiment observing the cosmic microwave background at the South Pole. During the austral summer of 2018–2019, we replaced the time-division multiplexing readout system with microwave-multiplexing components including superconducting microwave resonators coupled to radio frequency superconducting quantum interference devices at the sub-Kelvin focal plane, coaxial-cable plumbing and amplification between room temperature and the cold stages, and a SLAC Microresonator Radio Frequency system for the warm electronics. In the range 5–6 GHz, a single coaxial cable reads out 528 channels. The readout system is coupled to transition-edge sensors, which are in turn coupled to 150-GHz slot-dipole phased-array antennas. Observations began in April 2019, and we report here on an initial characterization of the system performance.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2013

Herschel-ATLAS: A Binary HyLIRG Pinpointing a Cluster of Starbursting Protoellipticals

Panchromatic observations of the best candidate hyperluminous infrared galaxies from the widest Herschel extragalactic imaging survey have led to the discovery of at least four intrinsically luminous z = 2.41 galaxies across an ≈100 kpc region-a cluster of starbursting protoellipticals. Via subarcsecond interferometric imaging we have measured accurate gas and star formation surface densities. The two brightest galaxies span ∼3 kpc FWHM in submillimeter/radio continuum and CO J = 4-3, and double that in CO J = 1-0. The broad CO line is due partly to the multitude of constituent galaxies and partly to large rotational velocities in two counter-rotating gas disks-a scenario predicted to lead to the most intense starbursts, which will therefore come in pairs. The disks have Mdyn of several ×10(sup 11) solar Mass, and gas fractions of ∼40%. Velocity dispersions are modest so the disks are unstable, potentially on scales commensurate with their radii: these galaxies are undergoing extreme bursts of star formation, not confined to their nuclei, at close to the Eddington limit. Their specific star formation rates place them greater than or approx. equal to 5 × above the main sequence, which supposedly comprises large gas disks like these. Their high star formation efficiencies are difficult to reconcile with a simple volumetric star formation law. N-body and dark matter simulations suggest that this system is the progenitor of a B(inary)-type ≈10(sup 14.6) -solar mass cluster.

infrared: galaxies↗

NASA NTRS1997

First astronomical detection of the cumulene carbon chain molecule H2C6 in TMC-1

The cumulene carbenes are important components of hydrocarbon chemistry in low-mass star-forming cores. Here we report the first astronomical detection of the long-chain cumulene carbene H2C6 in the interstellar cloud TMC-1, from observations of two of its rotational transitions: J(K,K') = 7(1,7) --> 6(1,6) at 18.8 GHz and 8(1,8) --> 7(1,7) at 21.5 GHz, using NASA's Deep Space Network 70 m antenna at Goldstone, California. In addition we also observed the shorter cumulene carbene H2C4 at the same position. The fractional abundance of H2C6 relative to H2 is about 4.7 x 10(-11) and that of H2C4 is about 4.1 x 10(-9). The abundance of H2C6 is in fairly good agreement with gas-phase chemical models for young molecular cloud cores, but the abundance of H2C4 is significantly larger than predicted.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

NASA NTRS1996

First Astronomical Detection of the Carbene Chain H2C6

The cumulene carbenes are important components of hydrocarbon chemistry in low mass star forming cores. Here we report the first astronomical detection of the long chain cumulene carbene H(sub 2)C(sub 6), in the insterstellar cloud TMC1, from observations of two of its rotational transitions:...

interstellar molecules star formation hydrocarbon ↗