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Mostek, Nick

Publications and source records attributed to Mostek, Nick.

DESI and other Dark Energy experiments in the era of neutrino mass measurements

Here we present Fisher matrix projections for future cosmological parameter measurements, including neutrino masses, Dark Energy, curvature, modified gravity, the inflationary perturbation spectrum, non-Gaussianity, and dark radiation. We focus on DESI and generally redshift surveys (BOSS, HETDEX, eBOSS, Euclid, and WFIRST), but also include CMB (Planck) and weak gravitational lensing (DES and LSST) constraints. The goal is to present a consistent set of projections, for concrete experiments, which are otherwise scattered throughout many papers and proposals. We include neutrino mass as a free parameter in most projections, as it will inevitably be relevant $-$ DESI and other experiments can measure the sum of neutrino masses to ~ 0.02 eV or better, while the minimum possible sum is 0.06 eV. We note that constraints on Dark Energy are significantly degraded by the presence of neutrino mass uncertainty, especially when using galaxy clustering only as a probe of the BAO distance scale (because this introduces additional uncertainty in the background evolution after the CMB epoch). Using broadband galaxy power becomes relatively more powerful, and bigger gains are achieved by combining lensing survey constraints with redshift survey constraints. Finally, we do not try to be especially innovative, e.g., with complex treatments of potential systematic errors $-$ these projections are intended as a straightforward baseline for comparison to more detailed analyses.

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THE DEEP2 GALAXY REDSHIFT SURVEY: CLUSTERING DEPENDENCE ON GALAXY STELLAR MASS AND STAR FORMATION RATE AT z {approx} 1

We present DEEP2 galaxy clustering measurements at z {approx} 1 as a function of stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), and specific SFR (sSFR). We find a strong positive correlation between stellar mass and clustering amplitude on 1-10 h {sup -1} Mpc scales for blue, star-forming galaxies with 9.5 < log(M{sub *}/M{sub Sun }) < 11 and no dependence for red, quiescent galaxies with 10.5 < log(M{sub *}/M{sub Sun }) < 11.5. Using recently re-calibrated DEEP2 SFRs from restframe B-band magnitude and optical colors, we find that within the blue galaxy population at z {approx} 1 the clustering amplitude increases strongly with increasing SFR and decreasing sSFR. For red galaxies there is no significant correlation between clustering amplitude and either SFR or sSFR. Blue galaxies with high SFR or low sSFR are as clustered on large scales as red galaxies. We find that the clustering trend observed with SFR can be explained mostly, but not entirely, by the correlation between stellar mass and clustering amplitude for blue galaxies. We also show that galaxies above the star-forming 'main sequence' are less clustered than galaxies below the main sequence, at a given stellar mass. These results are not consistent with the high-sSFR population being dominated by major mergers. We also measure the clustering amplitude on small scales ({<=}0.3 h {sup -1} Mpc) and find an enhanced clustering signal relative to the best-fit large-scale power law for red galaxies with high stellar mass, blue galaxies with high SFR, and both red and blue galaxies with high sSFR. The increased small-scale clustering for galaxies with high sSFRs is likely linked to triggered star formation in interacting galaxies. These measurements provide strong constraints on galaxy evolution and halo occupation distribution models at z {approx} 1.

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CALIBRATING THE STAR FORMATION RATE AT z {approx} 1 FROM OPTICAL DATA

We present a star formation rate (SFR) calibration based on optical data that is consistent with average observed rates in both the red and blue galaxy populations at z {approx} 1. The motivation for this study is to calculate SFRs for DEEP2 Redshift Survey galaxies in the 0.7 < z < 1.4 redshift range, but our results are generally applicable to similar optically selected galaxy samples without requiring UV or IR data. Using SFR fits from UV/optical spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the All-Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey, we explore the behavior of rest-frame B-band magnitude, observed [O II] luminosity, and rest-frame color with SED-fit SFR for both red sequence and blue cloud galaxies. The resulting SFR calibration is based on three optical-band observables: M{sub B} , (U - B), and (B - V). The best-fit linear relation produces residual errors of 0.3 dex rms scatter for the full color-independent sample with minimal correlated residual error in L[O II] or stellar mass. We then compare the calibrated z {approx} 1 SFRs to two diagnostics that use L[O II] as a tracer in local galaxies and correct for dust extinction at intermediate redshifts through either galaxy B-band luminosity or stellar mass. We find that an L[O II]-M{sub B} SFR calibration commonly used in the literature agrees well with our calculated SFRs after correcting for the average B-band luminosity evolution in L{sub *} galaxies. However, we find better agreement with a local L[O II]-based SFR calibration that includes stellar mass to correct for reddening effects, indicating that stellar mass is a better tracer of dust extinction for all galaxy types and less affected by systematic evolution than galaxy luminosity from z = 1 to the current epoch.

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Reducing Zero-point Systematics in Dark Energy Supernova Experiments

We study the effect of filter zero-point uncertainties on future supernova dark energy missions. Fitting for calibration parameters using simultaneous analysis of all Type Ia supernova standard candles achieves a significant improvement over more traditional fit methods. This conclusion is robust under diverse experimental configurations (number of observed supernovae, maximum survey redshift, inclusion of additional systematics). This approach to supernova fitting considerably eases otherwise stringent mission cali- bration requirements. As an example we simulate a space-based mission based on the proposed JDEM satellite; however the method and conclusions are general and valid for any future supernova dark energy mission, ground or space-based.

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