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Plazas, A. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Plazas, A. A..

At least 19 records

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: calibration of lens sample redshift distributions using clustering redshifts with BOSS/eBOSS

ABSTRACT We present clustering redshift measurements for Dark Energy Survey (DES) lens sample galaxies used in weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering studies. To perform these measurements, we cross-correlate with spectroscopic galaxies from the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Survey (BOSS) and its extension, eBOSS. We validate our methodology in simulations, including a new technique to calibrate systematic errors that result from the galaxy clustering bias, and we find that our method is generally unbiased in calibrating the mean redshift. We apply our method to the data, and estimate the redshift distribution for 11 different photometrically selected bins. We find general agreement between clustering redshift and photometric redshift estimates, with differences on the inferred mean redshift found to be below |Δz| = 0.01 in most of the bins. We also test a method to calibrate a width parameter for redshift distributions, which we found necessary to use for some of our samples. Our typical uncertainties on the mean redshift ranged from 0.003 to 0.008, while our uncertainties on the width ranged from 4 to 9 per cent. We discuss how these results calibrate the photometric redshift distributions used in companion papers for DES Year 3 results.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Measuring the Survey Transfer Function with Balrog

Abstract We describe an updated calibration and diagnostic framework, Balrog , used to directly sample the selection and photometric biases of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 (Y3) data set. We systematically inject onto the single-epoch images of a random 20% subset of the DES footprint an ensemble of nearly 30 million realistic galaxy models derived from DES Deep Field observations. These augmented images are analyzed in parallel with the original data to automatically inherit measurement systematics that are often too difficult to capture with generative models. The resulting object catalog is a Monte Carlo sampling of the DES transfer function and is used as a powerful diagnostic and calibration tool for a variety of DES Y3 science, particularly for the calibration of the photometric redshifts of distant “source” galaxies and magnification biases of nearer “lens” galaxies. The recovered Balrog injections are shown to closely match the photometric property distributions of the Y3 GOLD catalog, particularly in color, and capture the number density fluctuations from observing conditions of the real data within 1% for a typical galaxy sample. We find that Y3 colors are extremely well calibrated, typically within ∼1–8 mmag, but for a small subset of objects, we detect significant magnitude biases correlated with large overestimates of the injected object size due to proximity effects and blending. We discuss approaches to extend the current methodology to capture more aspects of the transfer function and reach full coverage of the survey footprint for future analyses.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: clustering redshifts – calibration of the weak lensing source redshift distributions with redMaGiC and BOSS/eBOSS

ABSTRACT We present the calibration of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) weak lensing (WL) source galaxy redshift distributions n(z) from clustering measurements. In particular, we cross-correlate the WL source galaxies sample with redMaGiC galaxies (luminous red galaxies with secure photometric redshifts) and a spectroscopic sample from BOSS/eBOSS to estimate the redshift distribution of the DES sources sample. Two distinct methods for using the clustering statistics are described. The first uses the clustering information independently to estimate the mean redshift of the source galaxies within a redshift window, as done in the DES Y1 analysis. The second method establishes a likelihood of the clustering data as a function of n(z), which can be incorporated into schemes for generating samples of n(z) subject to combined clustering and photometric constraints. Both methods incorporate marginalization over various astrophysical systematics, including magnification and redshift-dependent galaxy-matter bias. We characterize the uncertainties of the methods in simulations; the first method recovers the mean z of tomographic bins to RMS (precision) of ∼0.014. Use of the second method is shown to vastly improve the accuracy of the shape of n(z) derived from photometric data. The two methods are then applied to the DES Y3 data.

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Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Deep Field optical + near-infrared images and catalogue

ABSTRACT We describe the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Deep Fields, a set of images and associated multiwavelength catalogue (ugrizJHKs) built from Dark Energy Camera (DECam) and Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) data. The DES Deep Fields comprise 11 fields (10 DES supernova fields plus COSMOS), with a total area of ∼30 sq. deg. in ugriz bands and reaching a maximum i-band depth of 26.75 (AB, 10σ, 2 arcsec). We present a catalogue for the DES 3-yr cosmology analysis of those four fields with full 8-band coverage, totalling 5.88 sq. deg. after masking. Numbering 2.8 million objects (1.6 million post-masking), our catalogue is drawn from images coadded to consistent depths of r = 25.7, i = 25, and z = 24.3 mag. We use a new model-fitting code, built upon established methods, to deblend sources and ensure consistent colours across the u-band to Ks-band wavelength range. We further detail the tight control we maintain over the point-spread function modelling required for the model fitting, astrometry and consistency of photometry between the four fields. The catalogue allows us to perform a careful star–galaxy separation and produces excellent photometric redshift performance (NMAD = 0.023 at i < 23). The Deep-Fields catalogue will be made available as part of the cosmology data products release, following the completion of the DES 3-yr weak lensing and galaxy clustering cosmology work.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Dark Energy Survey Y3 results: blending shear and redshift biases in image simulations

ABSTRACT As the statistical power of galaxy weak lensing reaches per cent level precision, large, realistic, and robust simulations are required to calibrate observational systematics, especially given the increased importance of object blending as survey depths increase. To capture the coupled effects of blending in both shear and photometric redshift calibration, we define the effective redshift distribution for lensing, nγ(z), and describe how to estimate it using image simulations. We use an extensive suite of tailored image simulations to characterize the performance of the shear estimation pipeline applied to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 data set. We describe the multiband, multi-epoch simulations, and demonstrate their high level of realism through comparisons to the real DES data. We isolate the effects that generate shear calibration biases by running variations on our fiducial simulation, and find that blending-related effects are the dominant contribution to the mean multiplicative bias of approximately $-2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. By generating simulations with input shear signals that vary with redshift, we calibrate biases in our estimation of the effective redshift distribution, and demonstrate the importance of this approach when blending is present. We provide corrected effective redshift distributions that incorporate statistical and systematic uncertainties, ready for use in DES Year 3 weak lensing analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Reducing Ground-based Astrometric Errors with Gaia and Gaussian Processes

Stochastic field distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence are a fundamental limitation to the astrometric accuracy of ground-based imaging. This distortion field is measurable at the locations of stars with accurate positions provided by the Gaia DR2 catalog; we develop the use of Gaussian process regression (GPR) to interpolate the distortion field to arbitrary locations in each exposure. We introduce an extension to standard GPR techniques that exploits the knowledge that the 2D distortion field is curl-free. Applied to several hundred 90 s exposures from the Dark Energy Survey as a test bed, we find that the GPR correction reduces the variance of the turbulent astrometric distortions ≈12× , on average, with better performance in denser regions of the Gaia catalog. The rms per-coordinate distortion in the riz bands is typically ≈7 mas before any correction and ≈2 mas after application of the GPR model. The GPR astrometric corrections are validated by the observation that their use reduces, from 10 to 5 mas rms, the residuals to an orbit fit to riz-band observations over 5 yr of the r = 18.5 trans-Neptunian object Eris. We also propose a GPR method, not yet implemented, for simultaneously estimating the turbulence fields and the 5D stellar solutions in a stack of overlapping exposures, which should yield further turbulence reductions in future deep surveys.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Dark Energy Survey year 3 results: covariance modelling and its impact on parameter estimation and quality of fit

ABSTRACT We describe and test the fiducial covariance matrix model for the combined two-point function analysis of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES-Y3) data set. Using a variety of new ansatzes for covariance modelling and testing, we validate the assumptions and approximations of this model. These include the assumption of Gaussian likelihood, the trispectrum contribution to the covariance, the impact of evaluating the model at a wrong set of parameters, the impact of masking and survey geometry, deviations from Poissonian shot noise, galaxy weighting schemes, and other sub-dominant effects. We find that our covariance model is robust and that its approximations have little impact on goodness of fit and parameter estimation. The largest impact on best-fitting figure-of-merit arises from the so-called fsky approximation for dealing with finite survey area, which on average increases the χ2 between maximum posterior model and measurement by $3.7{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (Δχ2 ≈ 18.9). Standard methods to go beyond this approximation fail for DES-Y3, but we derive an approximate scheme to deal with these features. For parameter estimation, our ignorance of the exact parameters at which to evaluate our covariance model causes the dominant effect. We find that it increases the scatter of maximum posterior values for Ωm and σ8 by about $3{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and for the dark energy equation-of-state parameter by about $5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$.

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A Deeper Look at DES Dwarf Galaxy Candidates: Grus i and Indus ii

We present deep g- and r-band Magellan/Megacam photometry of two dwarf galaxy candidates discovered in the Dark Energy Survey (DES), Grus i and Indus ii (DES J2038–4609). For the case of Grus i, we resolved the main sequence turn-off (MSTO) and ~2 mags below it. The MSTO can be seen at g 0 ~24 with a photometric uncertainty of 0.03 mag. We show Grus i to be consistent with an old, metal-poor (~13.3 Gyr, [Fe/H] ~ -1.9) dwarf galaxy. We derive updated distance and structural parameters for Grus i using this deep, uniform, wide-field data set. We find an azimuthally-averaged halflight radius more than two times larger (~151 +21 -31 pc; ~$4\buildrel{\,\prime}\over{.} {16}_{-0.74}^{+0.54}$) and an absolute V-band magnitude ~-4.1 that is ~1 magnitude brighter than previous studies. We obtain updated distance, ellipticity, and centroid parameters that are in agreement with other studies within uncertainties. Although our photometry of Indus ii is ~2–3 magnitudes deeper than the DES Y1 public release, we find no coherent stellar population at its reported location. The original detection was located in an incomplete region of sky in the DES Y2Q1 data set and was flagged due to potential blue horizontal branch member stars. The best-fit isochrone parameters are physically inconsistent with both dwarf galaxies and globular clusters. We conclude that Indus ii is likely a false positive, flagged due to a chance alignment of stars along the line of sight.

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Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: redshift calibration of the weak lensing source galaxies

ABSTRACT Determining the distribution of redshifts of galaxies observed by wide-field photometric experiments like the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an essential component to mapping the matter density field with gravitational lensing. In this work we describe the methods used to assign individual weak lensing source galaxies from the DES Year 3 Weak Lensing Source Catalogue to four tomographic bins and to estimate the redshift distributions in these bins. As the first application of these methods to data, we validate that the assumptions made apply to the DES Y3 weak lensing source galaxies and develop a full treatment of systematic uncertainties. Our method consists of combining information from three independent likelihood functions: self-organizing map p(z) (sompz), a method for constraining redshifts from galaxy photometry; clustering redshifts (WZ), constraints on redshifts from cross-correlations of galaxy density functions; and shear ratios (SRs), which provide constraints on redshifts from the ratios of the galaxy-shear correlation functions at small scales. Finally, we describe how these independent probes are combined to yield an ensemble of redshift distributions encapsulating our full uncertainty. We calibrate redshifts with combined effective uncertainties of σ〈z〉 ∼ 0.01 on the mean redshift in each tomographic bin.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Dark Energy Survey supernova programme: modelling selection efficiency and observed core-collapse supernova contamination

ABSTRACT The analysis of current and future cosmological surveys of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) at high redshift depends on the accurate photometric classification of the SN events detected. Generating realistic simulations of photometric SN surveys constitutes an essential step for training and testing photometric classification algorithms, and for correcting biases introduced by selection effects and contamination arising from core-collapse SNe in the photometric SN Ia samples. We use published SN time-series spectrophotometric templates, rates, luminosity functions, and empirical relationships between SNe and their host galaxies to construct a framework for simulating photometric SN surveys. We present this framework in the context of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) 5-yr photometric SN sample, comparing our simulations of DES with the observed DES transient populations. We demonstrate excellent agreement in many distributions, including Hubble residuals, between our simulations and data. We estimate the core collapse fraction expected in the DES SN sample after selection requirements are applied and before photometric classification. After testing different modelling choices and astrophysical assumptions underlying our simulation, we find that the predicted contamination varies from 7.2 to 11.7 per cent, with an average of 8.8 per cent and an r.m.s. of 1.1 per cent. Our simulations are the first to reproduce the observed photometric SN and host galaxy properties in high-redshift surveys without fine-tuning the input parameters. The simulation methods presented here will be a critical component of the cosmology analysis of the DES photometric SN Ia sample: correcting for biases arising from contamination, and evaluating the associated systematic uncertainty.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Understanding the extreme luminosity of DES14X2fna

We present DES14X2fna, a high-luminosity, fast-declining Type IIb supernova (SN IIb) at redshift z = 0.0453, detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). DES14X2fna is an unusual member of its class, with a light curve showing a broad, luminous peak reaching M r ≃ –19.3 mag 20 d after explosion. This object does not show a linear decline tail in the light curve until ≃60 d after explosion, after which it declines very rapidly (4.30 ± 0.10 mag 100 d –1 in the r band). By fitting semi-analytic models to the photometry of DES14X2fna, we find that its light curve cannot be explained by a standard 56 Ni decay model as this is unable to fit the peak and fast tail decline observed. Inclusion of either interaction with surrounding circumstellar material or a rapidly-rotating neutron star (magnetar) significantly increases the quality of the model fit. Furthermore, we also investigate the possibility for an object similar to DES14X2fna to act as a contaminant in photometric samples of SNe Ia for cosmology, finding that a similar simulated object is misclassified by a recurrent neural network (RNN)-based photometric classifier as an SN Ia in ~1.1–2.4 per cent of cases in DES, depending on the probability threshold used for a positive classification.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Photometric Data Set for Cosmology

In this work, we describe the Dark Energy Survey (DES) photometric data set assembled from the first three years of science operations to support DES Year 3 cosmologic analyses, and provide usage notes aimed at the broad astrophysics community. Y3 GOLD improves on previous releases from DES, Y1 GOLD, and Data Release 1 (DES DR1), presenting an expanded and curated data set that incorporates algorithmic developments in image detrending and processing, photometric calibration, and object classification. Y3 GOLD comprises nearly 5000 deg 2 of grizY imaging in the south Galactic cap, including nearly 390 million objects, with depth reaching a signal-to-noise ratio ~10 for extended objects up to iAB ~ 23.0, and top-of-the-atmosphere photometric uniformity <3 mmag. Compared to DR1, photometric residuals with respect to Gaia are reduced by 50%, and per-object chromatic corrections are introduced. Y3 GOLD augments DES DR1 with simultaneous fits to multi-epoch photometry for more robust galactic color measurements and corresponding photometric redshift estimates. Y3 GOLD features improved morphological star–galaxy classification with efficiency >98% and purity >99% for galaxies with 19 < i AB < 22.5. Additionally, it includes per-object quality information, and accompanying maps of the footprint coverage, masked regions, imaging depth, survey conditions, and astrophysical foregrounds that are used to select the cosmologic analysis samples.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Identifying RR Lyrae Variable Stars in Six Years of the Dark Energy Survey

We present a search for RR Lyrae stars using the full six-year data set from the Dark Energy Survey covering ∼5000 deg2 of the southern sky. Using a multistage multivariate classification and light-curve template-fitting scheme, we identify RR Lyrae candidates with a median of 35 observations per candidate. We detect 6971 RR Lyrae candidates out to ∼335 kpc, and we estimate that our sample is >70% complete at ∼150 kpc. We find excellent agreement with other wide-area RR Lyrae catalogs and RR Lyrae studies targeting the Magellanic Clouds and other Milky Way satellite galaxies. We fit the smooth stellar halo density profile using a broken-power-law model with fixed halo flattening (q = 0.7), and we find strong evidence for a break at with an inner slope of and an outer slope of . We use our catalog to perform a search for Milky Way satellite galaxies with large sizes and low luminosities. Using a set of simulated satellite galaxies, we find that our RR Lyrae-based search is more sensitive than those using resolved stellar populations in the regime of large (r h ≳ 500 pc), low-surface-brightness dwarf galaxies. A blind search for large, diffuse satellites yields three candidate substructures. The first can be confidently associated with the dwarf galaxy Eridanus II. The second has a distance and proper motion similar to the ultrafaint dwarf galaxy Tucana II but is separated by ∼5 deg. The third is close in projection to the globular cluster NGC 1851 but is ∼10 kpc more distant and appears to differ in proper motion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Cosmological Constraints from Cluster Abundances, Weak Lensing, and Galaxy Correlations

We present the first joint analysis of cluster abundances and auto or cross-correlations of three cosmic tracer fields: galaxy density, weak gravitational lensing shear, and cluster density split by optical richness. From a joint analysis (4×2pt+N) of cluster abundances, three cluster cross-correlations, and the auto correlations of the galaxy density measured from the first year data of the Dark Energy Survey, we obtain Ωm=0.305-0.038+0.055 and σ8=0.783-0.054+0.064. This result is consistent with constraints from the DES-Y1 galaxy clustering and weak lensing two-point correlation functions for the flat νΛCDM model. Consequently, we combine cluster abundances and all two-point correlations from across all three cosmic tracer fields (6×2pt+N) and find improved constraints on cosmological parameters as well as on the cluster observable-mass scaling relation. This analysis is an important advance in both optical cluster cosmology and multiprobe analyses of upcoming wide imaging surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark energy survey year 3 results: weak lensing shape catalogue

ABSTRACT We present and characterize the galaxy shape catalogue from the first 3 yr of Dark Energy Survey (DES) observations, over an effective area of 4143 deg2 of the southern sky. We describe our data analysis process and our self-calibrating shear measurement pipeline metacalibration, which builds and improves upon the pipeline used in the DES Year 1 analysis in several aspects. The DES Year 3 weak-lensing shape catalogue consists of 100 204 026 galaxies, measured in the riz bands, resulting in a weighted source number density of neff = 5.59 gal arcmin−2 and corresponding shape noise σe = 0.261. We perform a battery of internal null tests on the catalogue, including tests on systematics related to the point spread function (PSF) modelling, spurious catalogue B-mode signals, catalogue contamination, and galaxy properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Exploring the contamination of the DES-Y1 cluster sample with SPT-SZ selected clusters

ABSTRACT We perform a cross validation of the cluster catalogue selected by the red-sequence Matched-filter Probabilistic Percolation algorithm (redMaPPer) in Dark Energy Survey year 1 (DES-Y1) data by matching it with the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect (SZE) selected cluster catalogue from the South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. Of the 1005 redMaPPer selected clusters with measured richness $\hat{\lambda }\gt 40$ in the joint footprint, 207 are confirmed by SPT-SZ. Using the mass information from the SZE signal, we calibrate the richness–mass relation using a Bayesian cluster population model. We find a mass trend λ ∝ MB consistent with a linear relation (B ∼ 1), no significant redshift evolution and an intrinsic scatter in richness of σλ = 0.22 ± 0.06. By considering two error models, we explore the impact of projection effects on the richness–mass modelling, confirming that such effects are not detectable at the current level of systematic uncertainties. At low richness SPT-SZ confirms fewer redMaPPer clusters than expected. We interpret this richness dependent deficit in confirmed systems as due to the increased presence at low richness of low-mass objects not correctly accounted for by our richness-mass scatter model, which we call contaminants. At a richness $\hat{\lambda }=40$, this population makes up ${\gt}12{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (97.5 percentile) of the total population. Extrapolating this to a measured richness $\hat{\lambda }=20$ yields ${\gt}22{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (97.5 percentile). With these contamination fractions, the predicted redMaPPer number counts in different plausible cosmologies are compatible with the measured abundance. The presence of such a population is also a plausible explanation for the different mass trends (B ∼ 0.75) obtained from mass calibration using purely optically selected clusters. The mean mass from stacked weak lensing (WL) measurements suggests that these low-mass contaminants are galaxy groups with masses ∼3–5 × 1013 M⊙ which are beyond the sensitivity of current SZE and X-ray surveys but a natural target for SPT-3G and eROSITA.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Consistency of cosmic shear analyses in harmonic and real space

ABSTRACT Recent cosmic shear studies have reported discrepancies of up to 1σ on the parameter ${S_{8}=\sigma _{8}\sqrt{{\Omega _{\rm m}}/0.3}}$ between the analysis of shear power spectra and two-point correlation functions, derived from the same shear catalogues. It is not a priori clear whether the measured discrepancies are consistent with statistical fluctuations. In this paper, we investigate this issue in the context of the forthcoming analyses from the third year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3). We analyse DES Y3 mock catalogues from Gaussian simulations with a fast and accurate importance sampling pipeline. We show that the methodology for determining matching scale cuts in harmonic and real space is the key factor that contributes to the scatter between constraints derived from the two statistics. We compare the published scales cuts of the KiDS, Subaru-HSC, and DES surveys, and find that the correlation coefficients of posterior means range from over 80 per cent for our proposed cuts, down to 10 per cent for cuts used in the literature. We then study the interaction between scale cuts and systematic uncertainties arising from multiple sources: non-linear power spectrum, baryonic feedback, intrinsic alignments, uncertainties in the point spread function, and redshift distributions. We find that, given DES Y3 characteristics and proposed cuts, these uncertainties affect the two statistics similarly; the differential biases are below a third of the statistical uncertainty, with the largest biases arising from intrinsic alignment and baryonic feedback. While this work is aimed at DES Y3, the tools developed can be applied to Stage-IV surveys where statistical errors will be much smaller.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Pushing automated morphological classifications to their limits with the Dark Energy Survey

ABSTRACT We present morphological classifications of ∼27 million galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Data Release 1 (DR1) using a supervised deep learning algorithm. The classification scheme separates: (a) early-type galaxies (ETGs) from late-type galaxies (LTGs); and (b) face-on galaxies from edge-on. Our convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are trained on a small subset of DES objects with previously known classifications. These typically have mr ≲ 17.7 mag; we model fainter objects to mr < 21.5 mag by simulating what the brighter objects with well-determined classifications would look like if they were at higher redshifts. The CNNs reach 97 per cent accuracy to mr < 21.5 on their training sets, suggesting that they are able to recover features more accurately than the human eye. We then used the trained CNNs to classify the vast majority of the other DES images. The final catalogue comprises five independent CNN predictions for each classification scheme, helping to determine if the CNN predictions are robust or not. We obtain secure classifications for ∼87 per cent and 73 per cent of the catalogue for the ETG versus LTG and edge-on versus face-on models, respectively. Combining the two classifications (a) and (b) helps to increase the purity of the ETG sample and to identify edge-on lenticular galaxies (as ETGs with high ellipticity). Where a comparison is possible, our classifications correlate very well with Sérsic index (n), ellipticity (ϵ), and spectral type, even for the fainter galaxies. This is the largest multiband catalogue of automated galaxy morphologies to date.

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