Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Lahav, Ofer

Publications and source records attributed to Lahav, Ofer.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Enhancing Multiplet Alignment Measurements with Imaging

We demonstrate that measurements of the gravitational tidal field made with spectroscopic redshifts can be improved with information from imaging surveys. The average orientation of small groups of galaxies, or “multiplets” is correlated with large-scale structure and is used to measure the direction of tidal forces. Previously, multiplet intrinsic alignment has been measured in DESI using galaxies that have spectroscopic redshifts. The DESI Legacy Imaging catalog can be used to supplement multiplet catalogs. Our findings show that galaxy positions from the imaging catalog produce a measurement similar to the measurements made with only spectroscopic data. This demonstrates that imaging can improve our signal-to-noise ratio for multiplet alignment in DESI.

Cosmic Web↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Dark Matter Content of Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies: Draco, Sextans, and Ursa Minor

The Milky Way Survey of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has so far observed three classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs): Draco, Sextans, and Ursa Minor. Based on the observed line-of-sight velocities and metallicities of their member stars, we apply the axisymmetric Jeans Anisotropic Multi-Gaussian Expansion modeling (JAM) approach to recover their inner dark matter distributions. In particular, both the traditional single-population Jeans model and the multiple population chemodynamical model are adopted. With the chemodynamical model, we divide member stars of each dSph into metal-rich and metal-poor populations. The metal-rich populations are more centrally concentrated and dynamically colder, featuring lower velocity dispersion profiles than the metal-poor populations. We find a diversity of the inner density slopes γ of dark matter halos, with the best constraints by the single-population or chemodynamical models consistent with each other. The inner density slopes are $0.7{1}_{-0.35}^{+0.34}$, $0.2{6}_{-0.12}^{+0.22}$, and $0.3{3}_{-0.16}^{+0.20}$ for Draco, Sextans, and Ursa Minor, respectively. We also present the measured astrophysical J and D factors of the three dSphs. Our results indicate that the study of the dark matter content of dSphs through stellar kinematics is still subject to uncertainties behind both the methodology and the observed data, through comparisons with previous measurements and datasets.

Dark matter↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of survey spatial variability on galaxy redshift distributions and the cosmological 3 × 2-point statistics for the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)

We investigate the impact of spatial survey non-uniformity on the galaxy redshift distributions for forthcoming data releases of the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Specifically, we construct a mock photometry data set degraded by the Rubin OpSim observing conditions, and estimate photometric redshifts of the sample using a template-fitting photo-z estimator, BPZ, and a machine learning method, FlexZBoost. We select the Gold sample, defined as $i\lt 25.3$ for 10 yr LSST data, with an adjusted magnitude cut for each year and divide it into five tomographic redshift bins for the weak lensing lens and source samples. We quantify the change in the number of objects, mean redshift, and width of each tomographic bin as a function of the coadd i-band depth for 1-yr (Y1), 3-yr (Y3), and 5-yr (Y5) data. In particular, Y3 and Y5 have large non-uniformity due to the rolling cadence of LSST, hence provide a worst-case scenario of the impact from non-uniformity. We find that these quantities typically increase with depth, and the variation can be $10\!-\!40~{{\rm per\ cent}}$ at extreme depth values. Using Y3 as an example, we propagate the variable depth effect to the weak lensing $3\times 2$ pt analysis, and assess the impact on cosmological parameters via a Fisher forecast. We find that galaxy clustering is most susceptible to variable depth, and non-uniformity needs to be mitigated below 3 per cent to recover unbiased cosmological constraints. There is little impact on galaxy–shear and shear–shear power spectra, given the expected LSST Y3 noise.

cosmology↗
DOE OSTI2023

What drives the variance of galaxy spectra?

We present a study aimed at understanding the physical phenomena underlying the formation and evolution of galaxies following a data-driven analysis of spectroscopic data based on the variance in a carefully selected sample. We apply principal component analysis (PCA) independently to three subsets of continuum-subtracted optical spectra, segregated into their nebular emission activity as quiescent, star-forming, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We emphasize that the variance of the input data in this work only relates to the absorption lines in the photospheres of the stellar populations. The sample is taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in the stellar velocity dispersion range 100–150 km s −1 , to minimize the ‘blurring’ effect of the stellar motion. We restrict the analysis to the first three principal components (PCs) and find that PCA segregates the three types with the highest variance mapping SSP-equivalent age, along with an inextricable degeneracy with metallicity, even when all three PCs are included. Spectral fitting shows that stellar age dominates PC1, whereas PC2 and PC3 have a mixed dependence of age and metallicity. The trends support – independently of any model fitting – the hypothesis of an evolutionary sequence from star formation to AGN to quiescence. As a further test of the consistency of the analysis, we apply the same methodology in different spectral windows, finding similar trends, but the variance is maximal in the blue wavelength range, roughly around the 4000 Å break.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The entropy of galaxy spectra: how much information is encoded?

Abstract The inverse problem of extracting the stellar population content of galaxy spectra is analysed here from a basic standpoint based on information theory. By interpreting spectra as probability distribution functions, we find that galaxy spectra have high entropy, thus leading to a rather low effective information content. The highest variation in entropy is unsurprisingly found in regions that have been well studied for decades with the conventional approach. We target a set of six spectral regions that show the highest variation in entropy – the 4000 Å break being the most informative one. As a test case with real data, we measure the entropy of a set of high-quality spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and contrast entropy-based results with the traditional method based on line strengths. The data are classified into star-forming (SF), quiescent (Q), and active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies, and show – independently of any physical model – that AGN spectra can be interpreted as a transition between SF and Q galaxies, with SF galaxies featuring a more diverse variation in entropy. The high level of entanglement complicates the determination of population parameters in a robust, unbiased way, and affects traditional methods that compare models with observations, as well as machine learning (especially deep learning) algorithms that rely on the statistical properties of the data to assess the variations among spectra. Entropy provides a new avenue to improve population synthesis models so that they give a more faithful representation of real galaxy spectra.

Ferreras, Ignacio (ORCID:0000000345843127)↗
DOE OSTI2022

SOAR/Goodman Spectroscopic Assessment of Candidate Counterparts of the LIGO/Virgo Event GW190814*

On 2019 August 14 at 21:10:39 UTC, the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration (LVC) detected a possible neutron star–black hole merger (NSBH), the first ever identified. An extensive search for an optical counterpart of this event, designated GW190814, was undertaken using the Dark Energy Camera on the 4 m Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Target of Opportunity interrupts were issued on eight separate nights to observe 11 candidates using the 4.1 m Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope’s Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph in order to assess whether any of these transients was likely to be an optical counterpart of the possible NSBH merger. Here, we describe the process of observing with SOAR, the analysis of our spectra, our spectroscopic typing methodology, and our resultant conclusion that none of the candidates corresponded to the gravitational wave merger event but were all instead other transients. Finally, we describe the lessons learned from this effort. Application of these lessons will be critical for a successful community spectroscopic follow-up program for LVC observing run 4 (O4) and beyond.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Deep learning methods for obtaining photometric redshift estimations from images

ABSTRACT Knowing the redshift of galaxies is one of the first requirements of many cosmological experiments, and as it is impossible to perform spectroscopy for every galaxy being observed, photometric redshift (photo-z) estimations are still of particular interest. Here, we investigate different deep learning methods for obtaining photo-z estimates directly from images, comparing these with ‘traditional’ machine learning algorithms which make use of magnitudes retrieved through photometry. As well as testing a convolutional neural network (CNN) and inception-module CNN, we introduce a novel mixed-input model that allows for both images and magnitude data to be used in the same model as a way of further improving the estimated redshifts. We also perform benchmarking as a way of demonstrating the performance and scalability of the different algorithms. The data used in the study comes entirely from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) from which 1 million galaxies were used, each having 5-filtre (ugriz) images with complete photometry and a spectroscopic redshift which was taken as the ground truth. The mixed-input inception CNN achieved a mean squared error (MSE) =0.009, which was a significant improvement ($30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) over the traditional random forest (RF), and the model performed even better at lower redshifts achieving a MSE = 0.0007 (a $50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ improvement over the RF) in the range of z < 0.3. This method could be hugely beneficial to upcoming surveys, such as Euclid and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will require vast numbers of photo-z estimates produced as quickly and accurately as possible.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Probing Galaxy Evolution in Massive Clusters Using ACT and DES: Splashback as a Cosmic Clock

In this work, we measure the projected number density profiles of galaxies and the splashback feature in clusters selected by the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect from the Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope (AdvACT) survey using galaxies observed by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The splashback radius is consistent with CDM-only simulations and is located at 2.4$_{-0.4}^{+0.3}$ Mpch -1 . We split the galaxies on color and find significant differences in their profile shapes. Red and green-valley galaxies show a splashback-like minimum in their slope profile consistent with theory, while the bluest galaxies show a weak feature at a smaller radius. We develop a mapping of galaxies to subhalos in simulations and assign colors based on infall time onto their hosts. We find that the shift in location of the steepest slope and different profile shapes can be mapped to the average time of infall of galaxies of different colors. The steepest slope traces a discontinuity in the phase space of dark matter halos. By relating spatial profiles to infall time, we can use splashback as a clock to understand galaxy quenching. We find that red galaxies have on average been in clusters over 3.2 Gyr, green galaxies about 2.2 Gyr, while blue galaxies have been accreted most recently and have not reached apocenter. Using the full radial profiles, we fit a simple quenching model and find that the onset of galaxy quenching occurs after a delay of about a gigayear and that galaxies quench rapidly thereafter with an exponential timescale of 0.6 Gyr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dark energy survey year 1 results: Constraining baryonic physics in the Universe

ABSTRACT Measurements of large-scale structure are interpreted using theoretical predictions for the matter distribution, including potential impacts of baryonic physics. We constrain the feedback strength of baryons jointly with cosmology using weak lensing and galaxy clustering observables (3 × 2pt) of Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 data in combination with external information from baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and Planck cosmic microwave background polarization. Our baryon modelling is informed by a set of hydrodynamical simulations that span a variety of baryon scenarios; we span this space via a Principal Component (PC) analysis of the summary statistics extracted from these simulations. We show that at the level of DES Y1 constraining power, one PC is sufficient to describe the variation of baryonic effects in the observables, and the first PC amplitude (Q1) generally reflects the strength of baryon feedback. With the upper limit of Q1 prior being bound by the Illustris feedback scenarios, we reach $\sim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ improvement in the constraint of $S_8=\sigma _8(\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}=0.788^{+0.018}_{-0.021}$ compared to the original DES 3 × 2pt analysis. This gain is driven by the inclusion of small-scale cosmic shear information down to 2.5 arcmin, which was excluded in previous DES analyses that did not model baryonic physics. We obtain $S_8=0.781^{+0.014}_{-0.015}$ for the combined DES Y1+Planck EE+BAO analysis with a non-informative Q1 prior. In terms of the baryon constraints, we measure $Q_1=1.14^{+2.20}_{-2.80}$ for DES Y1 only and $Q_1=1.42^{+1.63}_{-1.48}$ for DESY1+Planck EE+BAO, allowing us to exclude one of the most extreme AGN feedback hydrodynamical scenario at more than 2σ.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Messengers from the Early Universe: Cosmic Neutrinos and Other Light Relics

The hot dense environment of the early universe is known to have produced large numbers of baryons, photons, and neutrinos. These extreme conditions may have also produced other long-lived species, including new light particles (such as axions or sterile neutrinos) or gravitational waves. The gravitational effects of any such light relics can be observed through their unique imprint in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the large-scale structure, and the primordial light element abundances, and are important in determining the initial conditions of the universe. We argue that future cosmological observations, in particular improved maps of the CMB on small angular scales, can be orders of magnitude more sensitive for probing the thermal history of the early universe than current experiments. These observations offer a unique and broad discovery space for new physics in the dark sector and beyond, even when its effects would not be visible in terrestrial experiments or in astrophysical environments. A detection of an excess light relic abundance would be a clear indication of new physics and would provide the first direct information about the universe between the times of reheating and neutrino decoupling one second later.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dark Matter Science in the Era of LSST

Astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. In the coming decade, astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts, while simultaneously probing unique regions of dark matter parameter space. This white paper summarizes astrophysical observations that can constrain the fundamental physics of dark matter in the era of LSST. We describe how astrophysical observations will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we highlight theoretical work and experimental/observational facilities that will complement LSST to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Astro2020 APC White Paper: The MegaMapper: a z > 2 Spectroscopic Instrument for the Study of Inflation and Dark Energy

MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at 2¡z¡5. A 6.5-m Magellan telescope will be coupled with DESI spectrographs to achieve multiplexing of 20,000. MegaMapper would be located at Las Campanas Observatory to fully access LSST imaging for target selection.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Primordial Non-Gaussianity

Our current understanding of the Universe is established through the pristine measurements of structure in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the distribution and shapes of galaxies tracing the large scale structure (LSS) of the Universe. One key ingredient that underlies cosmological observables is that the field that sources the observed structure is assumed to be initially Gaussian with high precision. Nevertheless, a minimal deviation from Gaussianityis perhaps the most robust theoretical prediction of models that explain the observed Universe; itis necessarily present even in the simplest scenarios. In addition, most inflationary models produce far higher levels of non-Gaussianity. Since non-Gaussianity directly probes the dynamics in the early Universe, a detection would present a monumental discovery in cosmology, providing clues about physics at energy scales as high as the GUT scale.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Astro2020 Science White Paper: Cosmological Synergies Enabled by Joint Analysis of Multi-probe data from WFIRST, Euclid, and LSST

NASA, NSF, and DOE will collectively spend well over $4B this decade and the next on missions and surveys that have dark energy cosmology as one of their primary drivers. WFIRST, Euclid, and LSST are all missions designed to perform dedicated surveys that offer unprecedented statistical constraining power and control of systematic uncertainties. However, there is a growing realization that these missions will be significantly more powerful when the data are processed and analyzed in unison. This will require coordinated cross-survey and interagency effort. With proper attention to how data are jointly processed and analyzed, the combination of these missions will provide constraints and systematics control that is better than the sum of their individual parts, as stated in the title of Jain, et al. (2015). We advocate for the three relevant US agencies to work together with our international partners to ensure that the synergy from these multi-probe missions is fully realized.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Gravitational Wave Cosmology and Astrophysics with Large Spectroscopic Galaxy Surveys

During the next decade, gravitational waves will be observed from hundreds of binary inspiral events. When the redshifts of the host galaxies are known, these events can be used as `standard sirens', sensitive to the expansion rate of the Universe. Measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$ from standard sirens can be done independently of other cosmological probes, and events occurring at $z<0.1$ will allow us to infer $H_0$ independently of cosmological models. The next generation of spectroscopic galaxy surveys will play a crucial role in reducing systematic uncertainties in $H_0$ from standard sirens, particularly for the numerous `dark sirens' which do not have an electromagnetic counterpart. In combination with large spectroscopic data sets, standard sirens with an EM counterpart are expected to constrain $H_0$ to $\sim 1-2\%$ precision within the next decade. This is competitive with the best estimates of $H_0$ obtained to date and will help illuminate the current tension between existing measurements. Information on the galaxies that host the gravitational wave events will also shed light on the origin and evolution of compact object binaries.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dark Matter Science in the Era of LSST

Astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. In the coming decade, astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts, while simultaneously probing unique regions of dark matter parameter space. This white paper summarizes astrophysical observations that can constrain the fundamental physics of dark matter in the era of LSST. We describe how astrophysical observations will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we highlight theoretical work and experimental/observational facilities that will complement LSST to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS2014

Three Gravitationally Lensed Supernovae Behind Clash Galaxy Clusters

We report observations of three gravitationally lensed supernovae (SNe) in the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) Multi-Cycle Treasury program. These objects, SN CLO12Car (z = 1.28), SN CLN12Did (z = 0.85), and SN CLA11Tib (z = 1.14), are located behind three different clusters, MACSJ1720.2+3536 (z = 0.391), RXJ1532.9+3021 (z = 0.345), and A383 (z = 0.187), respectively. Each SN was detected in Hubble Space Telescope optical and infrared images. Based on photometric classification, we find that SNe CLO12Car and CLN12Did are likely to be Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), while the classification of SN CLA11Tib is inconclusive. Using multi-color light-curve fits to determine a standardized SN Ia luminosity distance, we infer that SN CLO12Car was approx. 1.0 +/- 0.2 mag brighter than field SNe Ia at a similar redshift and ascribe this to gravitational lens magnification. Similarly, SN CLN12Did is approx. 0.2 +/- 0.2 mag brighter than field SNe Ia. We derive independent estimates of the predicted magnification from CLASH strong+weak-lensing maps of the clusters (in magnitude units, 2.5 log10 μ): 0.83 +/- 0.16 mag for SN CLO12Car, 0.28 +/- 0.08 mag for SN CLN12Did, and 0.43 +/- 0.11 mag for SN CLA11Tib. The two SNe Ia provide a new test of the cluster lens model predictions: we find that the magnifications based on the SN Ia brightness and those predicted by the lens maps are consistent. Our results herald the promise of future observations of samples of cluster-lensed SNe Ia (from the ground or space) to help illuminate the dark-matter distribution in clusters of galaxies, through the direct determination of absolute magnifications.

Three↗