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At least 19 records

Maia Mapper: high definition XRF imaging in the lab

Here, Maia Mapper is a laboratory μXRF mapping system for efficient elemental imaging of drill core sections serving minerals research and industrial applications. It targets intermediate spatial scales, with imaging of up to ~80 M pixels over a 500×150 mm 2 sample area. It brings together (i) the Maia detector and imaging system, with its large solid-angle, event-mode operation, millisecond pixel transit times in fly-scan mode and real-time spectral deconvolution and imaging, (ii) the high brightness MetalJet D2 liquid metal micro-focus X-ray source from Excillum, and (iii) an efficient XOS polycapillary lens with a flux gain ~15,900 at 21 keV into a ~32 μm focus, and (iv) a sample scanning stage engineered for standard drill-core sections. Count-rates up to ~3 M/s are observed on drill core samples with low dead-time up to ~1.5%. Automated scans are executed in sequence with display of deconvoluted element component images accumulated in real-time in the Maia detector. Application images on drill core and polished rock slabs illustrate Maia Mapper capabilities as part of the analytical workflow of the Advanced Resource Characterisation Facility, which spans spatial dimensions from ore deposit to atomic scales.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

High definition large area mapping of geological samples using a Maia detector array in the Nuclear Microprobe

A Maia detector array has been utilized and installed on the CSIRO-MARC Nuclear Microprobe. Maia uses an annular array of 384 silicon detectors to provide a solid-angle of 1.3 sr to improve the collection of X-rays induced by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) using a micron focussed MeV proton beam. It features event-by-event data acquisition with dead-time correction and pileup rejection and a total count-rate capacity above 10 M/s, versatile stage and beam scanning modes (coupled to the DAQ-36 system described previously) to cater for a variety of sample configuration and experimental needs, precise measurement of transit time and integration of beam fluence per pixel, and spectral deconvolution of event data in real-time using the Dynamic Analysis method to provide element images during data collection. In this work we demonstrate the system on thin sections made from geological samples extracted from active seafloor hydrothermal vents in the PACMANUS hydrothermal field in Papua New Guinea.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

MAIA: A new detector concept for a 10 TeV muon collider

Muon colliders offer a compelling opportunity to explore the TeV scale and conduct precision tests of the Standard Model, all within a relatively compact geographical footprint. This paper introduces a new detector concept, MAIA (Muon Accelerator Instrumented Apparatus), optimized for $\sqrt{s}=10$ TeV $\mu\mu$ collisions. The detector features an all-silicon tracker immersed in a 5T solenoid field. High-granularity silicon-tungsten and iron-scintillator calorimeters surrounding the solenoid capture high-energy electronic and hadronic showers, respectively, and support particle-flow reconstruction. The outermost subsystem comprises an air-gap muon spectrometer, which enables standalone track reconstruction for high-momentum muons. The performance of the MAIA detector is evaluated in terms of differential particle reconstruction efficiencies and resolutions. Beam-induced background (BIB) simulations generated in FLUKA are overlaid with single particle gun samples to assess detector reconstruction capabilities under realistic experimental conditions. Even with BIB, reconstruction efficiencies exceed 95% for energetic tracks, photons, and neutrons in the central region of the detector. This paper outlines promising avenues of future work, including forward region optimization and opportunities for enhanced flavor/boosted object tagging, and addresses the technological assumptions needed to achieve the desired detector performance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Development of a High-Rate Front-End ASIC for X-Ray Spectroscopy and Diffraction Applications

We developed a new front-end application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to upgrade the Maia X-ray microprobe. The ASIC instruments 32 configurable channels that perform either positive or negative charge amplification, pulse shaping, peak amplitude, and time extraction along with buffered analog storage. At a gain of 3.6 V/fC, 1-μs peaking time, and a temperature of 248 K, an electronic resolution of 13 and 10 e- rms was measured with and without a silicon drift detector (SDD) sensor, respectively. A spectral resolution of 170-eV full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) at 5.9 keV was obtained with an 55Fe source. The channel linearity was better than ± 1% with rate capabilities up to 40 kcps. The ASIC was fabricated in a commercial 250-nm process with a footprint of 6.3 mm × 3.9 mm and dissipates 167 mW of static power.

Vernon, Emerson↗

Development of a large array of Silicon Drift Detectors for high-rate synchrotron fluorescence spectroscopy

An array of small-area Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD), named Hera, has been developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in the past few years. Its primary application is high-rate spectroscopy at synchrotrons. Each SDD pixel is a 1 mm × 1 mm square to match the footprint of the original diode-based pixel detector called Maia, which was developed for the same application. The replacement of the diode with an SDD allows for better energy resolution at short shaping times and an increased stability of the detector. 32, 96, and 384-channel arrays were designed and fabricated and achieved a Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) as low as 176 eV at 5.9 keV with peaking time of 1 μs at -13°C. The sensor design, simulation, fabrication, its readout system, and its spectroscopic performance are reported.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Megahertz serial crystallography

Here, the new European X-ray Free-Electron Laser is the first X-ray free-electron laser capable of delivering X-ray pulses with a megahertz inter-pulse spacing, more than four orders of magnitude higher than previously possible. However, to date, it has been unclear whether it would indeed be possible to measure high-quality diffraction data at megahertz pulse repetition rates. Here, we show that high-quality structures can indeed be obtained using currently available operating conditions at the European XFEL. We present two complete data sets, one from the well-known model system lysozyme and the other from a so far unknown complex of a β-lactamase from K. pneumoniae involved in antibiotic resistance. This result opens up megahertz serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) as a tool for reliable structure determination, substrate screening and the efficient measurement of the evolution and dynamics of molecular structures using megahertz repetition rate pulses available at this new class of X-ray laser source.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Near-edge X-ray refraction fine structure microscopy

We demonstrate a method for obtaining increased spatial resolution and specificity in nanoscale chemical composition maps through the use of full refractive reference spectra in soft x-ray spectro-microscopy. Using soft x-ray ptychography, we measure both the absorption and refraction of x-rays through pristine reference materials as a function of photon energy and use these reference spectra as the basis for decomposing spatially resolved spectra from a heterogeneous sample, thereby quantifying the composition at high resolution. While conventional instruments are limited to absorption contrast, our novel refraction based method takes advantage of the strongly energy dependent scattering cross-section and can see nearly five-fold improved spatial resolution on resonance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Müllerian mimicry and the coloration patterns of sympatric coral snakes

Abstract Coral snakes in the genus Micrurus are venomous, aposematic organisms that signal danger to predators through vivid coloration. Previous studies found that they serve as models to several harmless species of Batesian mimics. However, the extent to which Micrurus species engage in Müllerian mimicry remains poorly understood. We integrate detailed morphological and geographical distribution data to investigate if coral snakes are Müllerian mimics. We found that coloration is spatially structured and that Micrurus species tend to be more similar where they co-occur. Though long supposed, we demonstrate for the first time that coral snakes might indeed be Müllerian mimics as they show some convergence in coloration patterns. Additionally, we found that the length of red-coloured rings in Micrurus is conserved, even at large geographic scales. This finding suggests that bright red rings may be under more substantial stabilizing selection than other aspects of coloration and probably function as a generalized signal for deterring predators.

Evolutionary Biology↗

Deep SOAR follow-up photometry of two Milky Way outer-halo companions discovered with Dark Energy Survey

We report the discovery of a new star cluster, DES 3, in the constellation of Indus, and deeper observations of the previously identified satellite DES J0222.7−5217 (Eridanus III). DES 3 was detected as a stellar overdensity in first-year Dark Energy Survey data, and confirmed with deeper photometry from the 4.1-m Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope. The new system was detected with a relatively high significance and appears in the DES images as a compact concentration of faint blue point sources. We determine that DES 3 is located at a heliocentric distance of ≃76.2 kpc and it is dominated by an old (≃9.8 Gyr) and metal-poor ([Fe/H] ≃ −1.84) population. While the age and metallicity values of DES 3 are comparable to typical globular clusters (objects with a high stellar density, stellar mass of ∼10^5 M_⊙ and luminosity ∼ −7.3), its half-light radius (r_h ∼ 6.87 pc) and luminosity (M_V ∼ −1.7) are more indicative of faint star cluster. Based on the angular size, DES 3, with a value of r_h ∼ 0$${^{\prime}_{.}}$$31, is among the smallest faint star clusters known to date. Furthermore, using deeper imaging of DES J0222.7−5217 taken with the SOAR telescope, we update structural parameters and perform the first isochrone modelling. Our analysis yields the first age (≃12.6 Gyr) and metallicity ([Fe/H] ≃ −2.01) estimates for this object. The half-light radius (r_h ≃ 11.24 pc) and luminosity (M_V ≃ −2.4) of DES J0222.7−5217 suggest that it is likely a faint star cluster. The discovery of DES 3 indicates that the census of stellar systems in the Milky Way is still far from complete, and demonstrates the power of modern wide-field imaging surveys to improve our knowledge of the Galaxy’s satellite population.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Baryon content in a sample of 91 galaxy clusters selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 <z < 1.25

We estimate total mass (M-500), intracluster medium (ICM) mass (M-ICM), and stellar mass (M-star) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses M-500 greater than or similar to 2.5 x 10(14) M-circle dot and redshift 0.2 < z < 1.25 from the 2500 deg(2) South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses M-500 are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses M-ICM are obtained from the analysis of Chandra X-ray observations, and the stellar masses M-star are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey griz optical photometry and WISE or Spitzer near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass, and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster halo mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past approximate to 9 Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low-density environment or field surrounding the parent haloes, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called 'missing baryons' outside cluster virial regions.

galaxies: clusters: stellar masses: ICM masses: ba↗

Finding high-redshift strong lenses in DES using convolutional neural networks

We search Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 imaging data for galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lenses using convolutional neural networks. We generate 250 000 simulated lenses at redshifts > 0.8 from which we create a data set for training the neural networks with realistic seeing, sky and shot noise. Using the simulations as a guide, we build a catalogue of 1.1 million DES sources with 1.8 < g - i < 5, 0.6 < g - r < 3, r_mag > 19, g_mag > 20, and i_mag > 18.2. We train two ensembles of neural networks on training sets consisting of simulated lenses, simulated non-lenses, and real sources. We use the neural networks to score images of each of the sources in our catalogue with a value from 0 to 1, and select those with scores greater than a chosen threshold for visual inspection, resulting in a candidate set of 7301 galaxies. During visual inspection, we rate 84 as 'probably' or 'definitely' lenses. Four of these are previously known lenses or lens candidates. We inspect a further 9428 candidates with a different score threshold, and identify four new candidates. We present 84 new strong lens candidates, selected after a few hours of visual inspection by astronomers. This catalogue contains a comparable number of high-redshift lenses to that predicted by simulations. Based on simulations, we estimate our sample to contain most discoverable lenses in this imaging and at this redshift range.

Jacobs, C.↗

Perturbation theory for modeling galaxy bias: validation with simulations of the Dark Energy Survey

We describe perturbation theory (PT) models of galaxy bias for applications to photometric galaxy surveys. We model the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter correlation functions in configuration space and validate against measurements from mock catalogs designed for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We find that an effective PT model with five galaxy bias parameters provides a good description of the 3D correlation functions above scales of 4 Mpc/$h$ and $z < 1$. Our tests show that at the projected precision of the DES-Year 3 analysis, two of the non-linear bias parameters can be fixed to their co-evolution values, and a third (the $k^2$ term for higher derivative bias) set to zero. The agreement is typically at the 2 percent level over scales of interest, which is the statistical uncertainty of our simulation measurements. To achieve this level of agreement, our {\it fiducial} model requires using the full non-linear matter power spectrum (rather than the 1-loop PT one). We also measure the relationship between the non-linear and linear bias parameters and compare them to their expected co-evolution values. We use these tests to motivate the galaxy bias model and scale cuts for the cosmological analysis of the Dark Energy Survey; our conclusions are generally applicable to all photometric surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Cosmology from combined galaxy clustering and lensing validation on cosmological simulations

In this work, we present a validation of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) 3×2-point analysis choices by testing them on Buzzard2.0, a new suite of cosmological simulations that is tailored for the testing and validation of combined galaxy clustering and weak-lensing analyses. We show that the buzzard2.0 simulations accurately reproduce many important aspects of the DES Y3 data, including photometric redshift and magnitude distributions, and the relevant set of two-point clustering and weak-lensing statistics. We then show that our model for the 3×2-point data vector is accurate enough to recover the true cosmology in simulated surveys assuming the true redshift distributions for our source and lens samples, demonstrating robustness to uncertainties in the modeling of the nonlinear matter power spectrum, nonlinear galaxy bias, and higher-order lensing corrections. Additionally, we demonstrate for the first time that our photometric redshift calibration methodology, including information from photometry, spectroscopy, clustering cross-correlations, and galaxy–galaxy lensing ratios, is accurate enough to recover the true cosmology in simulated surveys in the presence of realistic photometric redshift uncertainties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Cross-correlation of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 lensing data with ACT and Planck thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect observations. I. Measurements, systematics tests, and feedback model constraints

Here we present a tomographic measurement of the cross-correlation between thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (TSZ) maps from Planck and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and weak galaxy lensing shears measured during the first three years of observations of the Dark Energy Survey. This correlation is sensitive to the thermal energy in baryons over a wide redshift range and is therefore a powerful probe of astrophysical feedback. We detect the correlation at a statistical significance of 21σ, the highest significance to date. We examine the TSZ maps for potential contaminants, including cosmic infrared background and radio sources, finding that cosmic infrared background has a substantial impact on our measurements and must be taken into account in our analysis. We use the cross-correlation measurements to test different feedback models. In particular, we model the TSZ using several different pressure profile models calibrated against hydrodynamical simulations. Our analysis marginalizes over redshift uncertainties, shear calibration biases, and intrinsic alignment effects. We also marginalize over Ω m and σ 8 using Planck or DES priors. We find that the data prefer the model with a low amplitude of the pressure profile at small scales, compatible with a scenario with strong active galactic nuclei feedback and ejection of gas from the inner part of the halos. When using a more flexible model for the shear profile, constraints are weaker, and the data cannot discriminate between different baryonic prescriptions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Cross-correlation of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 lensing data with ACT and P l a n c k thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect observations. II. Modeling and constraints on halo pressure profiles

Hot, ionized gas leaves an imprint on the cosmic microwave background via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect. The cross-correlation of gravitational lensing (which traces the projected mass) with the tSZ effect (which traces the projected gas pressure) is a powerful probe of the thermal state of ionized baryons throughout the Universe and is sensitive to effects such as baryonic feedback. In a companion paper (Gatti et al. Phys. Rev. D 105, 123525 (2022)), we present tomographic measurements and validation tests of the cross-correlation between Galaxy shear measurements from the first three years of observations of the Dark Energy Survey and tSZ measurements from a combination of Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Planck observations. In this work, we use the same measurements to constrain models for the pressure profiles of halos across a wide range of halo mass and redshift. We find evidence for reduced pressure in low-mass halos, consistent with predictions for the effects of feedback from active Galactic nuclei. We infer the hydrostatic mass bias (B ≡ M 500c /M SZ from our measurements, finding B = 1.8 ± 0.1 when adopting the Planck-preferred cosmological parameters. We additionally find that our measurements are consistent with a nonzero redshift evolution of B, with the correct sign and sufficient magnitude to explain the mass bias necessary to reconcile cluster count measurements with the Planck-preferred cosmology. Our analysis introduces a model for the impact of intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxy shapes on the shear-tSZ correlation. We show that IA can have a significant impact on these correlations at current noise levels.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗