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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

King Ghidorah Supercluster: Mapping the light and dark matter in a new supercluster at z = 0.55 using the subaru hyper suprime-cam

ABSTRACT This paper reports our discovery of the most massive supercluster, termed the King Ghidorah Supercluster (KGSc), at z = 0.50–0.64 in the Third Public Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP PDR3) over 690 deg2, as well as an initial result for a galaxy and dark matter mapping. The primary structure of the KGSc comprises triple broad weak-lensing (WL) peaks over 70 comoving Mpc. Such extensive WL detection at z > 0.5 can only currently be achieved using the wide-field high-quality images produced by the HSC-SSP. The structure is also contiguous with multiple large-scale structures across a ∼400 comoving Mpc scale. The entire field has a notable overdensity (δ = 14.7 ± 4.5) of red-sequence clusters. Additionally, large-scale underdensities can be found in the foreground along the line of sight. We confirmed the overdensities in stellar mass and dark matter distributions to be tightly coupled and estimated the total mass of the main structure to be 1 × 1016 solar masses, according to the mock data analyses based on large-volume cosmological simulations. Further, upcoming wide-field multi-object spectrographs such as the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph may aid in providing additional insights into distant superclusters beyond the 100 Mpc scale.

Shimakawa, Rhythm (ORCID:0000000344422750)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cosmic filaments from cosmic strings

Cosmic strings are generically predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. In this work, we propose a new avenue for detecting cosmic strings through their effect on the filamentary structure in the cosmic web. Using cosmological simulations of the density wake from a cosmic string, we examine a variety of filament structure probes. We show that the largest effect of the cosmic string is an overdensity in the filament distribution around the string wake. The signal from the overdensity is stronger at higher redshift and more robust with a wider field. We analyze the spatial distribution of filaments from a publicly available catalog of filaments built from Sloan digital sky survey galaxies. With existing data, we find no evidence for the presence of a cosmic string wake with string tension parameter $\textit{Gμ}$ above 5 × 10 –6 . However, we project WFIRST will be able to detect a signal from such a wake at the 99% confidence level at redshift $\textit{z}$ = 2, with significantly higher confidence and the possibility of probing lower tensions ($\textit{Gμ}$ ~ 10 –6 ), at $\textit{z}$ = 10. The sensitivity of this method is not competitive with constraints derived from the cosmic microwave background. However, it provides an independent discovery channel at low redshift, which could be a smoking gun in scenarios in which the cosmic microwave background bound can be weakened.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Modeling the gas thermodynamics in BOSS CMASS galaxies from kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich measurements

The thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ, kSZ) probe the thermodynamic properties of the circumgalactic and intracluster medium (CGM and ICM) of galaxies, groups, and clusters, since they are proportional, respectively, to the integrated electron pressure and momentum along the line-of-sight. We present constraints on the gas thermodynamics of CMASS galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) using new measurements of the kSZ and tSZ signals obtained in a companion paper. Combining kSZ and tSZ measurements, we measure within our model the amplitude of energy injection $\epsilon M_\star c^2$, where $M_\star$ is the stellar mass, to be $\epsilon=(40\pm9)\times10^{-6}$, and the amplitude of the non-thermal pressure profile to be $\alpha_{\rm Nth}<0.2$ (2$\sigma$), indicating that less than 20% of the total pressure within the virial radius is due to a non-thermal component. We estimate the effects of including baryons in the modeling of weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements using the best fit density profile from the kSZ measurement. Our estimate reduces the difference between the original theoretical model and the weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements in arXiv:1611.08606 by half, but does not fully reconcile it. Comparing the kSZ and tSZ measurements to cosmological simulations, we find that they under predict the CGM pressure and to a lesser extent the CGM density at larger radii. This suggests that the energy injected via feedback models in the simulations that we compared against does not sufficiently heat the gas at these radii. We do not find significant disagreement at smaller radii. These measurements provide novel tests of current and future simulations. Here, this work demonstrates the power of joint, high signal-to-noise kSZ and tSZ observations, upon which future cross-correlation studies will improve.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Signatures of primordial energy injection from axion strings

Axion strings are horizon-size topological defects that may be produced in the early Universe. Ultralight axion-like particles may form strings that persist to temperatures below that of big bang nucleosynthesis. Such strings have been considered previously as sources of gravitational waves and cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization rotation. In this work we show, through analytic arguments and dedicated adaptive mesh refinement cosmological simulations, that axion strings deposit a subdominant fraction of their energy into high-energy Standard Model (SM) final states, for example, by the direct production of heavy radial modes that subsequently decay to SM particles. This high-energy SM radiation is absorbed by the primordial plasma, leading to novel signatures in precision big bang nucleosynthesis, the CMB power spectrum, and gamma-ray surveys. In particular, we show that CMB power spectrum data constrains axion strings with decay constants f a ≲ 10 12 GeV , up to model dependence on the ultraviolet completion, for axion masses m a ≲ 10 − 29 eV ; future CMB surveys could find striking evidence of axion strings with lower decay constants. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

CTA and SWGO can discover Higgsino dark matter annihilation

Thermal Higgsino dark matter (DM), with a mass near 1.1 TeV, is one of the most well-motivated and untested DM candidates. Leveraging recent hydrodynamic cosmological simulations that give DM density profiles in Milky Way analog galaxies we show that the linelike gamma-ray signal predicted from Higgsino annihilation in the Galactic Center could be detected at high significance with the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) for all but the most pessimistic DM profiles. We perform the most sensitive search to-date for the linelike signal using 15 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, coming within an order one factor of the necessary sensitivity to detect the Higgsino for some Milky Way analog DM density profiles. We show that H.E.S.S. has subleading sensitivity relative to Fermi for the Higgsino at present. In contrast, we analyze H.E.S.S. inner Galaxy data for the thermal wino model with a mass near 2.8 TeV; we find no evidence for a DM signal and exclude the wino by over a factor of two in cross section for all DM profiles considered. In the process, we identify and attempt to correct what appears to be an inconsistency in previous H.E.S.S. inner Galaxy analyses for DM annihilation related to the analysis effective area, which may weaken the DM cross-section sensitivity claimed in those works by around an order of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Testing the mean field theory of scalar field dark matter

Scalar field dark matter offers an interesting alternative to the traditional WIMP dark matter picture. Astrophysical and cosmological simulations are useful to constraining the mass of the dark matter particle in this model. This is particularly true at low mass where the wavelike nature of the dark matter particle manifests on astrophysical scales. These simulations typical use a classical field approximation. In this work, we look at extending these simulations to include quantum corrections. We look into both the ways in which large corrections impact the predictions of scalar field dark matter, and the timescales on which these corrections grow large. Corrections tend to lessen density fluctuations and increase the effect of “quantum pressure”. During collapse, these corrections grow exponentially, quantum corrections would become important in about \sim 30 ∼ 30 dynamical times. This implies that the predictions of classical field simulations may differ from those with quantum corrections for systems with short dynamical times.

Eberhardt, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Dark Energy Spectrographic Instrument (DESI) Corrector Assembly

The specific research of the DESI project is to study in detail the expansion history of the Universe over the past 10 billion years. In order to do this, the project designed, fabricated, tested and commissioned the DESI instrument which has been deployed at the Mayall Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. The DESI project was conducted by approximately 30 US and foreign national laboratories. Our CRADA with University College London (UCL) involved both research planning for eventual observing on the DESI telescope; and in the build of the optical corrector, a major part of the instrument. The key major goals of this CRADA were achieved. For survey planning, Drs. Lahav, Abdalla, Peiris, Pontzen and Dr. Farihi were all important contributors to the working groups to which they were assigned. Their modelling efforts, cosmological simulations, target selection and analyses of imaging surveys have been vital in the early planning for targets during commissioning. The major role UCL played in the development of the instrument was performed by Drs. Doel and Brooks. The optical corrector components were developed by scientists and engineers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. UCL was assigned the arduous responsibility for creating the instrumentation necessary to take all the separate components (lenses, cells, rings) and incorporate them, while precisely aligning the optics. Following that, they installed the corrector inside the barrel and shipped everything to the Mayall. It was a great success that the optical barrel arrived safely in good condition. Drs. Doel and Brooks were involved in every step of the fabrication and kept in constant contact with the LBNL DESI Project Manager and Project Director. They were extremely successful in their alignment, which was proved by early observations. First light on the telescope was achieved on October 22, 2020. The first spectrum was taken of a random star at zenith. Shortly thereafter, the telescope slewed to M33 and several spectra were taken there and later in the Persus nebula. It was a major accomplishment for the project.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Photon (Non)Conservation in the Reduced Speed of Light Approximation and How to (Almost) Fix It

The "Reduced Speed of Light" (RSL) approximation is commonly used to speed up radiative transfer calculations in cosmological simulations. However, it has been shown previously that the RSL approximation leads to photon non-conservation when the radiation field is rapidly evolving in time. I show that these missing photons can be counted exactly for some numerical schemes. Adding them back into a simulation, however, is a much harder task. I show one example of such a scheme, which achieves sub-percent accuracy on simple tests. Unfortunately, the scheme performs much worse on semi-realistic simulations of cosmic reionization, leading to a faster overlap and significant errors in the point-wise comparison of the RSL radiation field with the reference simulation that maintains the full speed of light for the radiative transfer.

Gnedin, Nickolay Y. [Fermilab; Chicago U., KICP; C↗
DOE OSTI2020

Efficient Mass Estimate at the Core of Strong Lensing Galaxy Clusters Using the Einstein Radius

In the era of large surveys, yielding thousands of galaxy clusters, efficient mass proxies at all scales are necessary in order to fully utilize clusters as cosmological probes. At the cores of strong lensing clusters, the Einstein radius can be turned into a mass estimate. This efficient method has been routinely used in literature, in lieu of detailed mass models; however, its scatter, assumed to be similar to 30%, has not yet been quantified. Here, we assess this method by testing it against ray-traced images of cluster-scale halos from the Outer RimN-body cosmological simulation. We measure a scatter of 13.9% and a positive bias of 8.8% in M (<θ E ), with no systematic correlation with total cluster mass, concentration, or lens or source redshifts. We find that increased deviation from spherical symmetry increases the scatter; conversely, where the lens produces arcs that cover a large fraction of its Einstein circle, both the scatter and the bias decrease. While spectroscopic redshifts of the lensed sources are critical for accurate magnifications and time delays, we show that for the purpose of estimating the total enclosed mass, the scatter introduced by source redshift uncertainty is negligible compared to other sources of error. Finally, we derive and apply an empirical correction that eliminates the bias, and reduces the scatter to 10.1% without introducing new correlations with mass, redshifts, or concentration. Our analysis provides the first quantitative assessment of the uncertainties in M (<θ E ), and enables its effective use as a core mass estimator of strong lensing galaxy clusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Last Journey. II. SMACC—Subhalo Mass-loss Analysis Using Core Catalogs

Here we introduce Subhalo Mass-loss Analysis using Core Catalogs (SMACC). SMACC adds a mass model to substructure merger trees based on halo "core tracking." Our approach avoids the need for running expensive subhalo finding algorithms and instead uses subhalo mass-loss modeling to assign masses to halo cores. We present details of the SMACC methodology and demonstrate its excellent performance in describing halo substructure and its evolution. Validation of the approach is carried out using cosmological simulations at significantly different resolutions. We apply SMACC to the 1.24-trillion-particle Last Journey simulation and construct core catalogs with the additional mass information. These catalogs can be readily used as input to semianalytic models or subhalo abundance matching approaches to determine approximate galaxy distributions, as well as for in-depth studies of small-scale structure evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Intrinsic Shapes of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies (LSBGs): A Discriminant of LSBG Galaxy Formation Mechanisms

We use the low surface brightness galaxy (LSBG) samples created from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (781 galaxies), the Dark Energy Survey (20977 galaxies), and the Legacy Survey (selected via H ι detection in the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey, 188 galaxies) to infer the intrinsic shape distribution of the LSBG population. To take into account the effect of the surface brightness cuts employed when constructing LSBG samples, we simultaneously model both the projected ellipticity and the apparent surface brightness in our shape inference. We find that the LSBG samples are well characterized by oblate spheroids, with no significant difference between red and blue LSBGs. This inferred shape distribution is in good agreement with similar inferences made for ultra-diffuse cluster galaxy samples, indicating that environment does not play a key role in determining the intrinsic shape of LSBGs. In this study, we also find some evidence that LSBGs are more thickened than similarly massive high surface brightness dwarfs. We compare our results to intrinsic shape measures from contemporary cosmological simulations, and find that the observed LSBG intrinsic shapes place considerable constraints on the formation path of such galaxies. In particular, LSBG production via the migration of star formation to large radii produces intrinsic shapes in good agreement with our observational findings.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Simultaneous Estimation of Large-scale Structure and Milky Way Dust Extinction from Galaxy Surveys

The high cosmological precision offered by the next generation of galaxy surveys hinges on improved corrections for Galactic dust extinction. We explore the possibility of estimating both the dust extinction and large-scale structure from a single photometric galaxy survey, making use of the predictable manner in which Milky Way dust affects the measured brightness and colors of galaxies in a given sky location in several redshift bins. To test our method, we use a synthetic catalog from a cosmological simulation designed to model the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. At high Galactic latitude (|b| ≳ 20°) and a resolution of 1° (7'), we predict the uncertainty in the measurement of dust extinction, E(B - V), to be 0.005 mag (0.015 mag). This is similar to the uncertainty of existing dust maps, illustrating the feasibility of our method. Simultaneous estimation of large-scale structure is predicted to recover the galaxy overdensity δ with a precision of ~0.01 (~0.05) at 1° (7') resolution. Finally, we also introduce a Bayesian formalism that combines prior information from existing dust maps with the likelihood of Galactic dust extinction determined from the excursion of observed galaxy properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Size–Mass Relation of Post-starburst Galaxies in the Local Universe

We present a study of the size–mass relation for local post-starburst (PSB) galaxies at z ≲ 0.33 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. We find that PSB galaxies with stellar mass (M * ) at 10 9 M ⊙ < M * < 10 12 M ⊙ have a galaxy size smaller than or comparable to those of quiescent galaxies (QGs). After controlling redshift and stellar mass, the sizes of PSBs are ~13% smaller on average than those of QGs; such differences become larger and significant toward the low-M * end, especially at 10 9.5 M ⊙ ≲ M * ≲ 10 10.5 M ⊙ where PSBs can be on average ~19% smaller than QGs. By comparing predictions of possible PSB evolutionary pathways from cosmological simulations, we suggest that a fast quenching of star formation following a short-lived starburst event (which might be induced by a major merger) should be the dominant pathway of our PSB sample. Furthermore, by cross-matching with group catalogs, we confirm that local PSBs at M * ≲ 10 10 M ⊙ are more clustered than more massive ones. PSBs residing in groups are found to be slightly larger in galaxy size and more disk-like compared to field PSBs, which is qualitatively consistent with and thus hints at the environment-driven fast quenching pathway for group PSBs. Taken together, our results support multiple evolutionary pathways for local PSB galaxies: while massive PSBs are thought of as products of fast quenching following a major merger-induced starburst, environment-induced fast quenching should play a role in the evolution of less massive PSBs, especially at M * ≲ 10 10 M ⊙ .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Simple Condition for Sustained Super-Eddington Black Hole Growth

One of the most pressing questions in cosmology is how the black holes (BHs) powering quasars at high redshift grow to supermassive scales within a billion years of the Big Bang. Here we show that sustained super-Eddington accretion can be achieved for BHs with Eddington fractions f Edd ≳ 2/ϵ, where ϵ is the efficiency with which radiation is generated in the accretion process. In this regime, the radiation carries too little momentum to halt the accretion flow and the infalling gas traps the radiation. The BH growth then proceeds unimpeded until the gas supply is exhausted, in contrast to accretion at lower rates, which is limited by the radiation generated in the accretion process. The large gas supply available in massive high-redshift quasar host galaxies may be readily accreted onto seed BHs via this supply-limited mode of accretion, providing an explanation for how such supermassive BHs are assembled in the early universe. This sustained super-Eddington growth may also explain the short lifetimes inferred for the H ii regions surrounding high-redshift quasars, if the bulk of the BH growth occurs without the associated radiation escaping to ionize the intergalactic medium. It furthermore implies that a population of obscured rapidly growing BHs may be difficult to detect, perhaps explaining why so few quasars with Eddington fractions higher than a few have been observed. Finally, this simple condition for sustained super-Eddington growth can easily be implemented in cosmological simulations that can be used to assess in which environments it occurs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Revealing the Galaxy–Halo Connection through Machine Learning

Abstract Understanding the connections between galaxy stellar mass, star formation rate, and dark matter halo mass represents a key goal of the theory of galaxy formation. Cosmological simulations that include hydrodynamics, physical treatments of star formation, feedback from supernovae, and the radiative transfer of ionizing photons can capture the processes relevant for establishing these connections. The complexity of these physics can prove difficult to disentangle and obfuscate how mass-dependent trends in the galaxy population originate. Here, we train a machine-learning method called Explainable Boosting Machines (EBMs) to infer how the stellar mass and star formation rate of nearly 6 million galaxies simulated by the Cosmic Reionization on Computers project depend on the physical properties of halo mass, the peak circular velocity of the galaxy during its formation history v peak , cosmic environment, and redshift. The resulting EBM models reveal the relative importance of these properties in setting galaxy stellar mass and star formation rate, with v peak providing the most dominant contribution. Environmental properties provide substantial improvements for modeling the stellar mass and star formation rate in only ≲10% of the simulated galaxies. We also provide alternative formulations of EBM models that enable low-resolution simulations, which cannot track the interior structure of dark matter halos, to predict the stellar mass and star formation rate of galaxies computed by high-resolution simulations with detailed baryonic physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmic Reionization on Computers: Statistics, Physical Properties, and Environments of Lyman Limit Systems at z ~ 6

Lyman limit systems (LLSs) are dense hydrogen clouds with high enough H i column densities to absorb Lyman continuum photons emitted from distant quasars. Their high column densities imply an origin in dense environments; however, the statistics and distribution of LLSs at high redshifts still remain uncertain. In this paper, we use self-consistent radiative transfer cosmological simulations from the Cosmic Reionization on Computers (CROC) project to study the physical properties of LLSs at the tail end of cosmic reionization at z ~ 6. We generate 3000 synthetic quasar sight lines to obtain a large number of LLS samples in the simulations. In addition, with the high physical fidelity and resolution of CROC, we are able to quantify the association between these LLS samples and nearby galaxies. Our results show that the fraction of LLSs spatially associated with nearby galaxies increases with H i column density. Moreover, we find that LLSs that are not near any galaxy typically reside in filamentary structures connecting neighboring galaxies in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This quantification of the distribution and association of LLSs to large-scale structure informs our understanding of the IGM–galaxy connection during the "Epoch of Reionization," and provides a theoretical basis for interpreting future observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of Self-shielding Minihalos on the Lyα Forest at High Redshift

Abstract Dense gas in minihalos with masses of 10 6 −10 8 M ⊙ can shield themselves from reionization for ∼100 Myr after being exposed to the UV background. These self-shielded systems, often unresolved in cosmological simulations, can introduce strong absorption in quasar spectra. This paper is the first systematic study on the impact of these systems on the Ly α forest. We first derive the H i column density profile of photoevaporating minihalos by conducting 1D radiation–hydrodynamics simulations. We utilize these results to estimate the Ly α opacity from minihalos in a large-scale simulation that cannot resolve self-shielding. When the ionization rate of the background radiation is 0.03 × 10 −12 s −1 , as expected near the end of reionization at z ∼ 5.5, we find that the incidence rate of damped Ly α absorbers increases by a factor of ∼2−4 compared to at z = 4.5. The Ly α flux is, on average, suppressed by ∼3% of its mean due to minihalos. The absorption features enhance the 1D power spectrum up to ∼5% at k ∼ 0.1 h Mpc −1 (or 10 −3 km −1 s), which is comparable to the enhancement caused by inhomogeneous reionization. The flux is particularly suppressed in the vicinity of large halos along the line-of-sight direction at separations of up to 10 h −1 Mpc at r ⊥ ≲ 2 h −1 Mpc. However, these effects become much smaller for higher ionizing rates (≳0.3 × 10 −12 s −1 ) expected in the post-reionization Universe. Our findings highlight the need to consider minihalo absorption when interpreting the Ly α forest at z ≳ 5.5. Moreover, the sensitivity of these quantities to the ionizing background intensity can be exploited to constrain the intensity itself.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Filaments of the Slime Mold Cosmic Web and How They Affect Galaxy Evolution

Abstract We present a novel approach for identifying cosmic web filaments within theDisPerSEstructure identification framework, using cosmic density field estimates from the Monte Carlo Physarum Machine (MCPM), inspired by the slime mold organism. We apply our method to the IllustrisTNG (TNG100) cosmological simulations and investigate the impact of filaments on galaxies. The MCPM density field is superior to the Delaunay tessellation field estimator in tracing the true underlying matter distribution and allows filaments to be identified with higher fidelity, finding more low-prominence/diffuse filaments. Using our new filament catalogs, we find that ≳90% of galaxies are located within ∼1.5 Mpc of a filamentary spine, with little change in the median star formation activity with distance to the nearest filament. Instead, we uncover a differential effect of the local filament line density, Σ fil (MCPM)—the total MCPM overdensity per unit length along a filament segment—on galaxy formation: most galaxies are quenched and gas-poor near high-line density filaments atz≤ 1. At earlier times, the filamentary environment appears to have no effect on galactic gas supply and quenching. Atz= 0, quenching in log ( M * / M ⊙ ) ≳ 10.5 galaxies is mainly driven by mass, while lower-mass galaxies are significantly affected by the filament line density. Satellites are far more susceptible to filaments than centrals. The local environments of massive halos are not sufficient to account for the effect of filament line density on gas removal and quenching. Our new approach holds great promise for observationally identifying filaments from galaxy surveys such as SDSS and DESI.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗