Engineering topics

Leauthaud, Alexie

Publications and source records attributed to Leauthaud, Alexie.

13 records

DOE OSTI2025

SITCOMTN-165: Surface brightness profiles around massive galaxies in LSSTComCam data

Low surface brightness photometry of massive galaxies can probe the extended stellar halos and intracluster light but is often limited by background subtraction and masking systematics. Here we present radial surface brightness profiles for the brightest cluster galaxy of Abell 360 and 2dFGRS TGS323Z113 using Rubin Observatory Commissioning Camera (LSSTComCam) Data Preview 1 in the g, r, and z bands. Our results show that the LSSTComCam data can go down to ~28 mag arcsec^-2 in the r band. Comparison to DECaLS measurements processed with Legacyhalos shows good agreement of surface brightness profiles at small radii while the LSSTComCam data extend deeper at larger radii.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Search for Predicted Astrometric Microlensing Events by Nearby Brown Dwarfs*

Gravitational microlensing has the potential to provide direct gravitational masses of single, free-floating brown dwarfs, independent of evolutionary and atmospheric models. The proper motions and parallaxes of nearby brown dwarfs can be used to predict close future alignments with distant background stars that cause a microlensing event. Targeted astrometric follow up of the predicted microlensing events permits the brown dwarf’s mass to be measured. Predicted microlensing events are typically found via searching for a peak threshold signal using an estimate of the lens mass. We develop a novel method that finds predicted events that instead will lead to a target lens-mass precision. The main advantage of our method is that it does not require a lens-mass estimate. We use this method to search for predicted astrometric microlensing events occurring between 2014 and 2032 using a catalog of 1225 low-mass star and brown-dwarf lenses in the Solar Neighborhood of spectral type M6 or later and a background source catalog from DECaLS Data Release 9. The background source catalog extends to g = 23.95, providing a more dense catalog compared to Gaia. Our search did not reveal any upcoming microlensing events. We estimate the rate of astrometric microlensing event for brown dwarfs in the Legacy Survey and find it to be low ~10 -5 yr -1 . We recommend carrying out targeted searches for brown dwarfs in front of the Galactic Bulge and Plane to find astrometric microlensing events that will allow the masses of single, free-floating brown dwarfs to be measured.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Cosmological inference from an emulator based halo model. II. Joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing and galaxy clustering from HSC-Y1 and SDSS

Here, we present high-fidelity cosmology results from a blinded joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing (ΔΣ) and projected galaxy clustering (w p ) measured from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Year-1 (HSC-Y1) data and spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy catalogs in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.7. We define luminosity-limited samples of SDSS galaxies to serve as the tracers of w p in three spectroscopic redshift bins, and as the lens samples for ΔΣ. For the ΔΣ measurements, we select a single sample of 4×10 6 source galaxies over 140 deg 2 from HSC-Y1 with photometric redshifts (photo z) greater than 0.75, enabling a better handle of photo- z errors by comparing the ΔΣ amplitudes for the three lens redshift bins. The deep, high-quality HSC-Y1 data enable significant detections of the ΔΣ signals, with integrated signal-to-noise ratio S/N ~ 15 in the range 3 ≤ R/[h –1 Mpc] ≤ 30 for the three lens samples, despite the small area coverage. For cosmological parameter inference, we use an input galaxy-halo connection model built on the dark emulator package (which uses an ensemble set of high-resolution N-body simulations and enables fast, accurate computation of the clustering observables) with a halo occupation distribution that includes nuisance parameters to marginalize over modeling uncertainties. We model the ΔΣ and wp measurements on scales from R≃3 and 2h –1 Mpc , respectively, up to 30 h –1 Mpc (therefore excluding the baryon acoustic oscillations information) assuming a flat Λ CDM cosmology, marginalizing over about 20 nuisance parameters and demonstrating the robustness of our results to them. With various tests using mock catalogs described in Miyatake et al. [preceding paper, Phys. Rev. D 106, 083519 (2022)], we show that any bias in the clustering amplitude S 8 ≡ σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.5 due to uncertainties in the galaxy-halo connection is less than ~ 50 % of the statistical uncertainty of S 8 , unless the assembly biaseffect is unexpectedly large. Our best-fit models have S 8 = 0.795$_{-0.042}^{+0.049}$ (mode and 68% credible interval) for the flat Λ CDM model; we find tighter constraints on the quantity S 8 (α = 0.17)≡σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.17 = 0.745$_{-0.031}^{+0.039}$.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Cannibalism Caught in the Act—On the Frequency of Occurrence of Multiple Cores in Brightest Cluster Galaxies

Although it is generally accepted that massive galaxies form in a two-phased fashion, beginning with a rapid mass buildup through intense starburst activities followed by primarily dry mergers that mainly deposit stellar mass at outskirts, the late time stellar mass growth of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), the most massive galaxies in the universe, is still not well understood. Several independent measurements have indicated a slower mass growth rate than predictions from theoretical models. We attempt to resolve the discrepancy by measuring the frequency of BCGs with multiple cores, which serve as a proxy of the merger rates in the central region and facilitate a more direct comparison with theoretical predictions. Using 79 BCGs at z = 0.06–0.15 with integral field spectroscopic data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) project, we obtain a multiple-core fraction of 0.11 ± 0.04 at z ≈ 0.1 within an 18 kpc radius from the center, which is comparable to the value of 0.08 ± 0.04 derived from mock observations of 218 simulated BCGs from the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG. We find that most cores that appear close to the BCGs from imaging data turn out to be physically associated systems. Anchoring on the similarity in the multiple-core frequency between the MaNGA and IllustrisTNG, we discuss the mass growth rate of BCGs over the past 4.5 Gyr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Dark Matter Physics from Halo Measurements

The non-linear process of cosmic structure formation produces gravitationally bound overdensities of dark matter known as halos. The abundances, density profiles, ellipticities, and spins of these halos can be tied to the underlying fundamental particle physics that governs dark matter at microscopic scales. Thus, macroscopic measurements of dark matter halos offer a unique opportunity to determine the underlying properties of dark matter across the vast landscape of dark matter theories. This white paper summarizes the ongoing rapid development of theoretical and experimental methods, as well as new opportunities, to use dark matter halo measurements as a pillar of dark matter physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2021

An Extended Halo-based Group/Cluster Finder: Application to the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys DR8

We extend the halo-based group finder developed by Yang et al. (2005c) to use data simultaneously with either photometric or spectroscopic redshifts. A mock galaxy redshift survey constructed from a high-resolution N-body simulation is used to evaluate the performance of this extended group finder. For galaxies with magnitude z ≤ 21 and redshift 0 < z ≤ 1.0 in the DESI legacy imaging surveys (the Legacy Surveys), our group finder successfully identifies more than 60% of the members in about 90% of halos with mass ≳10 12.5 h –1 M ⊙ . Detected groups with mass ≳10 12.0 h –1 M ⊙ have a purity (the fraction of true groups) greater than 90%. The halo mass assigned to each group has an uncertainty of about 0.2 dex at the high-mass end ≳10 13.5 h –1 M ⊙ and 0.45 dex at the low-mass end. Groups with more than 10 members have a redshift accuracy of ~0.008. We apply this group finder to the Legacy Surveys DR8 and find 6.4 million groups with at least three members. About 500,000 of these groups have at least 10 members. Furthermore, the resulting catalog containing 3D coordinates, richness, halo masses, and total group luminosities is made publicly available.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

On the halo-mass and radial scale dependence of the lensing is low effect

ABSTRACT The canonical Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model makes precise predictions for the clustering and lensing properties of galaxies. It has been shown that the lensing amplitude of galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is lower than expected given their clustering properties. We present new measurements and modelling of galaxies in the BOSS LOWZ sample. We focus on the radial and stellar mass dependence of the lensing amplitude mismatch. We find an amplitude mismatch of around $35{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ when assuming ΛCDM with Planck Cosmological Microwave Background (CMB) constraints. This offset is independent of halo mass and radial scale in the range Mhalo ∼ 1013.3−1013.9h−1 M⊙ and $r=0.1\!-\!60 \, h^{-1} \mathrm{Mpc}$ ($k \approx 0.05\!-\!20 \, h \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$). The observation that the offset is both mass and scale independent places important constraints on the degree to which astrophysical processes (baryonic effects, assembly bias) can fully explain the effect. This scale independence also suggests that the ‘lensing is low’ effect on small and large radial scales probably have the same physical origin. Resolutions based on new physics require a nearly uniform suppression, relative to ΛCDM predictions, of the amplitude of matter fluctuations on these scales. The possible causes of this are tightly constrained by measurements of the CMB and of the low-redshift expansion history.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

How accurately can we detect the splashback radius of dark matter haloes and its correlation with accretion rate?

ABSTRACT The splashback radius (Rsp) of dark matter haloes has recently been detected using weak gravitational lensing and cross-correlations with galaxies. However, different methods have been used to measure Rsp and to assess the significance of its detection. In this paper, we use simulations to study the precision and accuracy to which we can detect the splashback radius with 3D density, 3D subhalo, and weak lensing profiles. We study how well various methods and tracers recover Rsp by comparing it with the value measured directly from particle dynamics. We show that estimates of Rsp from density and subhalo profiles correspond to different percentiles of the underlying Rsp distribution of particle orbits. At low accretion rates, a second caustic appears and can bias results. Finally, we show that upcoming lensing surveys may be able to constrain the Rsp–Γdyn relation directly.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Stellar and weak lensing profiles of massive galaxies in the Hyper-Suprime Cam survey and in hydrodynamic simulations

ABSTRACT We perform a consistent comparison of the mass and mass profiles of massive (M⋆ > 1011.4 M⊙) central galaxies at z ∼ 0.4 from deep Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) observations and from the Illustris, TNG100, and Ponos simulations. Weak lensing measurements from HSC enable measurements at fixed halo mass and provide constraints on the strength and impact of feedback at different halo mass scales. We compare the stellar mass function (SMF) and the Stellar-to-Halo Mass Relation (SHMR) at various radii and show that the radius at which the comparison is performed is important. In general, Illustris and TNG100 display steeper values of α where $M_{\star } \propto M_{\rm vir}^{\alpha }$. These differences are more pronounced for Illustris than for TNG100 and in the inner rather than outer regions of galaxies. Differences in the inner regions may suggest that TNG100 is too efficient at quenching in situ star formation at Mvir ≃ 1013 M⊙ but not efficient enough at Mvir ≃ 1014 M⊙. The outer stellar masses are in excellent agreement with our observations at Mvir ≃ 1013 M⊙, but both Illustris and TNG100 display excess outer mass as Mvir ≃ 1014 M⊙ (by ∼0.25 and ∼0.12 dex, respectively). We argue that reducing stellar growth at early times in $M_\star \sim 10^{9-10} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ galaxies would help to prevent excess ex-situ growth at this mass scale. The Ponos simulations do not implement AGN feedback and display an excess mass of ∼0.5 dex at r < 30 kpc compared to HSC which is indicative of overcooling and excess star formation in the central regions. The comparison of the inner profiles of Ponos and HSC suggests that the physical scale over which the central AGN limits star formation is r ≲ 20 kpc. Joint comparisons between weak lensing and galaxy stellar profiles are a direct test of whether simulations build and deposit galaxy mass in the correct dark matter haloes and thereby provide powerful constraints on the physics of feedback and galaxy growth. Our galaxy and weak lensing profiles are publicly available to facilitate comparisons with other simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Can assembly bias explain the lensing amplitude of the BOSS CMASS sample in a Planck cosmology?

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate whether galaxy assembly bias can reconcile the 20–40 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ disagreement between the observed galaxy projected clustering signal and the galaxy–galaxy lensing signal in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS galaxy sample. We use the suite of abacuscosmos lambda cold dark matter simulations at Planck best-fitting cosmology and two flexible implementations of extended halo occupation distribution (HOD) models that incorporate galaxy assembly bias to build forward models and produce joint fits of the observed galaxy clustering signal and the galaxy–galaxy lensing signal. We find that our models using the standard HODs without any assembly bias generalizations continue to show a 20–40 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ overprediction of the observed galaxy–galaxy lensing signal. We find that our implementations of galaxy assembly bias do not reconcile the two measurements at Planck best-fitting cosmology. In fact, despite incorporating galaxy assembly bias, the satellite distribution parameter, and the satellite velocity bias parameter into our extended HOD model, our fits still strongly suggest a $\sim \! 34{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ discrepancy between the observed projected clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing measurements. It remains to be seen whether a combination of other galaxy assembly bias models, alternative cosmological parameters, or baryonic effects can explain the amplitude difference between the two signals.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2015

First Measurement of the Cross-Correlation of CMB Lensing and Galaxy Lensing

We measure the cross-correlation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing convergence maps derived from Atacama Cosmology Telescope data with galaxy lensing convergence maps as measured by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Stripe 82 Survey. The CMB-galaxy lensing cross power spectrum is measured for the first time with a significance of 4.2σ, which corresponds to a 12% constraint on the amplitude of density fluctuations at redshifts ∼0.9. With upcoming improved lensing data, this novel type of measurement will become a powerful cosmological probe, providing a precise measurement of the mass distribution at intermediate redshifts and serving as a calibrator for systematic biases in weak lensing measurements.

CMB-galzxy lensing cross power spectrum↗

NASA NTRS2013

First Measurement of the Cross-Correlation of CMB Lensing and Galaxy Lensing

We measure the cross-correlation of cosmic microwave background lensing convergence maps derived from Atacama Cosmology Telescope data with galaxy lensing convergence maps as measured by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Stripe 82 Survey. The CMB-galaxy lensing cross power spectrum is measured for the first time with a significance of 3.2σ, which corresponds to a 16% constraint on the amplitude of density fluctuations at redshifts ~ 0.9. With upcoming improved lensing data, this novel type of measurement will become a powerful cosmological probe, providing a precise measurement of the mass distribution at intermediate redshifts and serving as a calibrator for systematic biases in weak lensing measurements.

Hand, Nick↗

NASA NTRS2006

Modeling and Correcting the Time-Dependent ACS PSF

The ability to accurately measure the shapes of faint objects in images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) depends upon detailed knowledge of the Point Spread Function (PSF). We show that thermal fluctuations cause the PSF of the ACS Wide Field Camera (WFC) to vary over time. We describe a modified version of the TinyTim PSF modeling software to create artificial grids of stars across the ACS field of view at a range of telescope focus values. These models closely resemble the stars in real ACS images. Using 10 bright stars in a real image, we have been able to measure HST s apparent focus at the time of the exposure. TinyTim can then be used to model the PSF at any position on the ACS field of view. This obviates the need for images of dense stellar fields at different focus values, or interpolation between the few observed stars. We show that residual differences between our TinyTim models and real data are likely due to the effects of Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) degradation. Furthermore, we discuss stochastic noise that is added to the shape of point sources when distortion is removed, and we present MultiDrizzle parameters that are optimal for weak lensing science. Specifically, we find that reducing the MultiDrizzle output pixel scale and choosing a Gaussian kernel significantly stabilizes the resulting PSF after image combination, while still eliminating cosmic rays/bad pixels, and correcting the large geometric distortion in the ACS. We discuss future plans, which include more detailed study of the effects of CTE degradation on object shapes and releasing our TinyTim models to the astronomical community.

Rhodes, Jason↗