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We present the results of a weak gravitational lensing analysis to determine whether the stellar mass or the velocity dispersion is more closely related to the amplitude of the lensing signal around galaxies - and hence to the projected distribution of dark matter. The lensing signal on scales smaller than the virial ...
The use of realistic mock galaxy catalogues is essential in the preparation of large galaxy surveys, in order to test and validate theoretical models and to assess systematics. We present an updated version of the mock catalogue constructed from the Millennium-XXL simulation, which uses a halo occupation distribution ...
We present the results of SPT-GMOS, a spectroscopic survey with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South. The targets of SPT-GMOS are galaxy clusters identified in the SPT-SZ survey, a millimeter-wave survey of 2500 squ.
Subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) inserts galaxies into dark matter only simulations of the growth of cosmic structure in a way that requires minimal assumptions about galaxy formation. A galaxy is placed at the potential minimum of each distinct self-bound subhalo with a luminosity which is a monotonically increasing...
The mid-infrared (MIR) spectra observed with the \textit{Spitzer} Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) provide a valuable dataset for untangling the physical processes and conditions within galaxies. <br>This paper presents the first attempt to blindly learn fundamental spectral components of MIR galaxy spectra, using non-nega...
We propose an X-ray mission called Xenia to search for decaying superweakly interacting Dark Matter particles (super-WIMP) with a mass in the keV range. The mission and its observation plan are capable of providing a major break through in our understanding of the nature of Dark Matter (DM).
We present a new investigation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) near the end of reionization using &#34;dark gaps&#34; in the Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest. Using spectra of 55 QSOs at $z_{\rm em}&gt;5.5$, including new data from the XQR-30 VLT Large Programme, we identify gaps in the Ly$\alpha$ forest where the tr...
Analyzing the clustering of galaxies at the field level in principle promises access to all the cosmological information available. Given this incentive, in this paper we investigate the performance of field-based forward modeling approach to galaxy clustering using the effective field theory (EFT) framework of large-...
We use a recently introduced statistic called {\em Integrated Bispectrum} (IB) to probe the gravity-induced non-Gaussianity at the level of the bispectrum from weak lensing convergence or $\kappa$ maps. We generalize the concept of the IB to spherical coordinates.
We have studied the kinematics of ~2800 candidate close pair galaxies at 0.1&lt;z&lt;1.2 identified from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey fields. Spectra of these systems were obtained using spectrometers on the 6.5m Magellan and 5m Hale telescopes.
The existence of ultralight axion (ULA) with mass $\mathcal{O}( 10^{-26}\text{eV})$ is not favored by the CMB observations in the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. We show that the inclusion of early dark energy (EDE) will lift the CMB-lockdown on such ULA, and possibly other forms of dark matter beyond cold dark matter.
We present a 2D study of the internal extinction on (sub)kiloparsec scales of a sample of local (z&lt;0.1) (U)LIRGs, based on near-infrared Pa_a, Br_d, and Br_g line ratios, obtained with VLT-SINFONI integral-field spectroscopy. The 2D extinction (Av) distributions of the objects, map regions of ~3x3 kpc (LIRGs) and ~...
We present results from strong-lens modelling of 10,000 SDSS clusters, to establish the universal distribution of Einstein radii. Detailed lensing analyses have shown that the inner mass distribution of clusters can be accurately modelled by assuming light traces mass, successfully uncovering large numbers of multiple...
We analysed the 3D clustering of the Planck sample of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) selected galaxy clusters, focusing on the redshift-space two-point correlation function (2PCF). We compared our measurements to theoretical predictions of the standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model, deriving an ...
We present Keck/MOSFIRE K-band spectroscopy of the first mass-selected sample of galaxies at $z\sim2.3$. Targets are selected from the 3D-HST Treasury survey.
The remarkable stability of extragalactic jets is surprising, given the reasonable possibility of the growth of instabilities. In addition, much work in the literature has invoked this possibility in order to explain observed jet structures and obtain information from these structures.
We present the discovery of six new quasars at z~6 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) southern survey, a deep imaging survey obtained by repeatedly scanning a stripe along the celestial equator. The six quasars are about two magnitudes fainter than the luminous z~6 quasars found in the SDSS main survey ...
Group galaxies very often show distinct signs of interaction with both companion galaxies and the intragroup medium. X-ray observations are particularly helpful because they provide information on the temperatures and the densities of the hot gas in galaxies and intergalactic space.
In this paper, we present a new method of measuring Hubble parameter($H(z)$), making use of the anisotropy of luminosity distance($d_{L}$), and the analysis of gravitational wave(GW) of neutron star(NS) binary system. The method has never been put into practice before due to the lack of the ability of detecting GW.
In this paper, we present the Discovery simulations: a new pair of high-resolution N-body simulations motivated by the DESI Y1 BAO cosmological constraints on dark energy. The Discovery simulations were run with identical initial conditions, and differ only in their cosmological parameters.
Dwarf galaxies (DGs) are extremely challenging objects in extragalactic astrophysics. They are expected to originate as the first units in Cold Dark-Matter cosmology.
The ability to infer properties of primordial inflation relies on the conservation of the superhorizon perturbations between their exit during inflation, and their re-entry during radiation era. Any considerable departure from this property would require reinterpreting the data.
One of the most pressing issues in cosmology is whether general relativity (GR) plus a dark sector is the underlying physical theory or whether a modified gravity model is needed. Upcoming dark energy experiments designed to probe dark energy with multiple methods can address this question by comparing the results of ...
We study the formation and evolution of the cosmic web, using the high-resolution CosmoGrid \$\Lambda\$CDM simulation. In particular, we investigate the evolution of the large-scale structure around void halo groups, and compare this to observations of the VGS-31 galaxy group, which consists of three interacting galax...
Unlike other observational signatures in cosmology, the angular-diameter distance d_A(z) uniquely reaches a maximum (at z_max) and then shrinks to zero towards the big bang. The location of this turning point depends sensitively on the model, but has been difficult to measure.
We compare two different codes for simulations of cosmological structure formation to investigate the sensitivity of hydrodynamical instabilities to numerics, in particular, the hydro solver and the application of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). As a simple test problem, we consider an initially spherical gas cloud in...
We present a clustering analysis of the BOSS DR12 CMASS galaxy sample, combining measurements of the galaxy two-point correlation function and density-split clustering down to a scale of $1\,h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. Our theoretical framework is based on emulators trained on high-fidelity mock galaxy catalogues that forward m...
Because cosmic superstrings generically form junctions and gauge theoretic strings typically do not, junctions may provide a signature to distinguish between cosmic superstrings and gauge theoretic cosmic strings. In cosmic microwave background anisotropy maps, cosmic strings lead to distinctive line discontinuities.
Molecular hydrogen transitions in quasar spectra can be used to constrain variation in the proton-to-electron mass ratio, $\mu\equiv m_p/m_e$, at high redshifts ($z\gtrsim 2$). We present here an analysis of a new spectrum of the quasar Q0528$-$250, obtained on VLT/UVES (the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph...
We show that, in the presence of massive neutrinos, the Galileon gravity model provides a very good fit to the current CMB temperature, CMB lensing and BAO data. This model, which we dub ${\nu} \rm{Galileon}$, when assuming its stable attractor background solution, contains the same set of free parameters as $\Lambda\...
Recent measurements of the ionizing photon mean free path (MFP) based on composite quasar spectra may point to reionization ending at $z&lt;6$. These measurements are challenging because they rely on assumptions about the proximity zones of the quasars.
Public data from the 2dF quasar survey (2QZ) and 2dF/SDSS LRG &amp; QSO (2SLAQ), with their vast reservoirs of spectroscopically located and identified sources, afford us the chance to more accurately study their real space correlations in the hopes of identifying the physical processes that trigger quasar activity. W...
These lecture notes review the theoretical problems associated with coarse-graining the observed inhomogeneous structure of the universe at late epochs, of describing average cosmic evolution in the presence of growing inhomogeneity, and of relating average quantities to physical observables. In particular, a detailed...
We present a derivation of a generalized optimally-weighted estimator for the weak lensing magnification signal, including a calculation of errors. With this estimator, we present a local method for optimally estimating the local effects of magnification from weak gravitational lensing, using a comparison of number co...
We study the inverse Compton scattering of the CMB photons off nonthermal high-energy electrons. In the previous study, assuming the power-law distribution for electrons, we derived the analytic expression for the spectral intensity function $I(\omega)$ in the Thomson approximation, which was applicable up to the phot...
Even though the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) mission does not exclude a dynamical dark energy evolution, the concordance paradigm, i.e., the $\Lambda$CDM model, remains statistically favored, as it depends on the fewest number of free parameters. In this respect, high redshift astrophysical sources, suc...
We investigate the use of a logarithmic density variable in estimating the Lagrangian displacement field, motivated by the success of a logarithmic transformation in restoring information to the matter power spectrum. The logarithmic relation is an extension of the linear relation, motivated by the continuity equation...
Galaxy surveys have shown that luminous galaxies are mainly distributed in large filaments and galaxy clusters. The remaining large volumes are virtually devoid of luminous galaxies.
An arbitrary surface mass density of gravitational lens can be decomposed into multipole components. We simulate the ray-tracing for the multipolar mass distribution of generalized SIS (Singular Isothermal Sphere) model, based on the deflection angles which are analytically calculated.
We look at viscosity production in a universe consisting purely of leptons and photons. This is quite close to what the Universe actually look like when the temperature was between $10^{10}$ K and $10^{12}$ K ($1$ -- $100$ MeV).
We previously reported Keck telescope observations suggesting a smaller value of the fine structure constant, alpha, at high redshift. New Very Large Telescope (VLT) data, probing a different direction in the universe, shows an inverse evolution; alpha increases at high redshift.
We present the Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) sample of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV Data Release 16 (DR16). After describing the observations and redshift measurement for the 269,243 observed ELG spectra over 1170 deg$^2$, we present the large-scale str...
We present detection and analysis of faint X-ray sources in the Chandra deep field south (CDFS) using the 4 Msec Chandra observation and adopting a new detection algorithm, based on a targeted search at the position of known high-z galaxies. This optimized technique results in the identification of 54 z&gt;3 AGNs, 29 ...
We developed an algorithm to find and characterize gravitationally lensed galaxies (arcs) to perform a comparison of the observed and simulated arc abundance. Observations are from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH).
(Abridged) AVOCADO aims at establishing firm conclusions on the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies by constructing and analysing a homogeneous, multiwavelength dataset for a statistically significant sample of approximately 6500 nearby dwarfs (M_i &gt; -18 mag).
We study the influence of the environment on the evolution of galaxies by investigating the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies of different morphological types and colours at different environmental density levels. <br>We construct the LFs separately for galaxies of different morphology (spiral and elliptical) and o...
A detailed analysis of the data from a high sampling rate, multi-month reverberation mapping campaign, undertaken primarily at MDM Observatory with supporting observations from telescopes around the world, reveals that the Hbeta emission region within the broad line regions (BLRs) of several nearby AGNs exhibit a varie...
Direct detection of regions of ionized hydrogen (HII) has been suggested as a promising probe of cosmic reionization. Observing the redshifted 21-cm signal of hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is a key scientific driver behind new-generation, low-frequency radio interferometers.
In recent years, there have been a large number of studies which support violation of statistical isotropy. Meanwhile, there are some studies which also found inconsistency.
In the context of the study of the ISW, we revisit the angular cross correlation of WMAP CMB data with the NVSS radio survey. We compute 2-point cross functions between the two surveys in real and in Fourier space, paying particular attention on the dependence of results on the flux of NVSS radio sources, the angular ...
We present a new method for probing the physical conditions and metal enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium: the composite spectrum of Ly-alpha forest absorbers. We apply this technique to a sample of 9480 Ly-alpha absorbers with redshift 2 &lt; z &lt; 3.5 identified in the spectra of 13,279 high-redshift quasars fro...
In this work, we present EDRIS (French for Distance Estimator for Incomplete Supernova Surveys), a cosmological inference framework tailored to reconstruct unbiased cosmological distances from type Ia supernovae light-curve parameters. This goal is achieved by including data truncation directly in the statistical mode...
We investigate the impact of non-linear corrections on dark energy parameter estimation from weak lensing probes. We find that using halofit expressions, suited to LCDM models, implies substantial discrepancies with respect to results directly obtained from N-body simulations, when w(z)\neq-1.
The very first stars to form in the Universe heralded an end to the cosmic dark ages and introduced new physical processes that shaped early cosmic evolution. Until now, it was thought that these stars lived short, solitary lives, with only one extremely massive star, or possibly a very wide binary system, forming in ...
We present the first statistical study of X-ray cavities in distant clusters of galaxies (z &gt; 0.3). With the aim of providing further insight into how AGN feedback operates at higher redshift, we have analysed the Chandra X-ray observations of the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS) and searched for surface-brightness de...
We propose a new non-parametric method to constrain the cosmological model through the growth factor of large-scale structure. To constrain the cosmological model from observations such as cosmic microwave background or large-scale structure, the power spectrum or correlation function have been used since they are wel...
We perform an analysis of the full shapes of Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest correlation functions measured from the first data release (DR1) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Our analysis focuses on measuring the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect and the cosmic growth rate times the amplitude of matte...
We test the impact of some systematic errors in weak lensing magnification measurements with the COSMOS 30-band photo-$z$ Survey flux limited to $I_{auto}&lt;25.0$ using correlations of both source galaxy counts and magnitudes. Systematic obscuration effects are measured by comparing counts and magnification correlati...
We have investigated the evolution of a homogeneous isotropic background of the Universe and inhomogeneous subhorizon matter density perturbations in viable $f(R)$ models of present dark energy and cosmic acceleration analytically and numerically. It is found that viable $f(R)$ models generically exhibit recent crossi...
Powellsnakes is a Bayesian algorithm for detecting compact objects embedded in a diffuse background, and was selected and successfully employed by the Planck consortium in the production of its first public deliverable: the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC). We present the critical foundations and main di...
Detection of the weak cosmological signal from high-redshift hydrogen demands careful data analysis and an understanding of the full instrument signal chain. Here we use the WODEN simulation pipeline to produce realistic data from the Murchison Widefield Array Epoch of Reionisation experiment, and test the effects of ...
We present an integral field spectroscopic study of two nearby Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) that exhibit evidence of widespread shock excitation induced by ongoing merger activity, IC 1623 and NGC 3256. We show the importance of carefully separating excitation due to shocks vs. excitation by HII regions and the ...
Fifty-nine quasars in the background of the Magellanic Clouds had brightness records monitored by the MACHO project during the years 1992 - 99. Because the circumpolar fields of these quasars had no seasonal sampling defects, their observation produced data sets well suited to further careful analysis.
Prompt emissions from TeV blazars pair produce off the extragalactic background light and the highly energetic resulting pair beams then cascade through inverse Compton scattering to give rise to secondary gamma-rays. Such reprocessed cascade emission that can be associated with individual blazar sources has not been ...
We analyze statistical properties of the separate multipole moments of the CMB temperature maps and find that the distribution tails are slightly non-Gaussian. Moreover, the deviation from Gaussianity peaks sharply at around $l\sim45\pm10$.
A numerical evidence for the dependence of the substructure abundance of cluster halos on the orientation coherence of the surrounding tidal fields is presented. Applying the adapted minimal spanning tree (MST) algorithm to the cluster halos with $M\ge 10^{14}\,h^{-1}\,M_{\odot}$ from the Big MultiDark-Planck Simulati...
Statistical Isotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation has been studied and debated extensively in recent years. Under this assumption, the hot spots and cold spots of the CMB are expected to be uniformly distributed over a 2-sphere.
We examine the effects of $f(R)$ gravity on Jeans analysis of collapsing dust clouds. We provide a method for testing modified gravity models by their effects on star formation as the presence of $f(R)$ gravity is found to modify the limit for collapse.
This is one chapter of the summary paper of the IAU Special Session SpS8 &#34;Calibration of star-formation rate measurements across the electromagnetic spectrum&#34;, Beijing, China, August 2012.
We have observed Halpha emission from a sample of 13 star-forming galaxies from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey in the redshift range z~1.2-1.5 and stellar mass range 9.8&lt;log(M_*/M_sun)&lt;11.6 with the integral field spectrograph OSIRIS on Keck, taking advantage of Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics. We detect multip...
The primordial $^4$He abundance (Y$_p$) is one of the key characteristics of Primordial Nucleosynthesis processes that occurred in the first minutes after the Big Bang. Its value depends on the baryon/photon ratio $\eta\equiv n_b/n_{\gamma}$, and is also sensitive to the relativistic degrees of freedom which affect th...
We find that the power of jets that inflate bubble pairs in cooling flow clusters of galaxies correlates with the size of the inner region where the entropy profile is flat, as well as with the gas mass in that region and the entropy floor (the entropy value at the center of the cluster). These correlations strengthen...
We prove from the modified gravity (MG) galaxy/halo mock catalogs that the shape of the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) power spectrum $P_{\rm kSZ}$ has constraining power on discriminating different gravity theories on cosmological scales. By varying the effective optical depth $\tau_{\rm T}$ as a free par...
Upcoming advances in galaxy surveys and cosmic microwave background data will enable measurements of the anisotropic distribution of diffuse gas in filaments and superclusters at redshift $z=1$ and beyond, observed through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel&#39;dovich (tSZ) effect. These measurements will help distinguish betwee...
Annihilation of dark matter particles in cosmological halos (including a halo of the Milky Way) contributes to the diffuse gamma-ray background (DGRB). As this contribution will appear anisotropic in the sky, one can use the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in DGRB to constrain properties of dark matter particle...
We present a new programme for placing constraints on radial inhomogeneity in a dark-energy dominated universe. We introduce a new measure to quantify violations of the Copernican principle.
Cosmological observations are used to test for imprints of an ultra-light axion-like field (ULA), with a range of potentials $V(\phi)\propto[1-\cos(\phi/f)]^n$ set by the axion-field value $\phi$ and decay constant $f$. Scalar field dynamics dictate that the field is initially frozen and then begins to oscillate aroun...
[Abridged] In this paper we explore a local non-linear perturbative model up to third order as a general characterization of the CMB anisotropies. We focus our analysis in large scale anisotropies.
We present an initial survey of Mg II absorption characteristics in the halos of a carefully constructed, volume-limited subsample of galaxies embedded in the spectroscopic part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We observed quasars near sightlines to 20 low-redshift (z ~ 0.1), luminous M_r &lt;= -20.5 galaxies in SDSS ...
The large-number hypothesis conjectures that fundamental constants may vary. Accordingly, the spacetime variation of fundamental constants has been an active subject of research for decades.
A gauge singlet scalar with non-minimal coupling to gravity can drive inflation and later freeze out to become cold dark matter. We explore this idea by revisiting inflation in the singlet direction (S-inflation) and Higgs Portal Dark Matter in light of the Higgs discovery, limits from LUX and observations by Planck.
We describe a methodology to accurately compute halo mass functions, progenitor mass functions, merger rates and merger trees in non-cold dark matter universes using a self-consistent treatment of the generalized extended Press-Schechter formalism. Our approach permits rapid exploration of the subhalo population of ga...
Major mergers between massive clusters have a profound effect in the intracluster gas, which may be used as a probe of the dynamics of structure formation at the high end of the mass function. An example of such a merger is observed at the northern component of Abell 1758, comprised of two massive sub-clusters separat...
The first generations of astrophysical objects made a substantial impact on our Universe with their radiation. X-rays from the first sources, with large mean free paths, likely quickly heated the intergalactic medium (IGM).
Standard cosmological models rely on an approximate treatment of gravity, utilizing solutions of the linearized Einstein equations as well as physical approximations. In an era of precision cosmology, we should ask: are these approximate predictions sufficiently accurate for comparison to observations, and can we draw...
We have devised a method to select galaxies that are isolated in their dark matter halo (N=1 systems) and galaxies that reside in a group of exactly two (N=2 systems). Our N=2 systems are widely-separated (up to $\sim$\,200\,$h^{-1}$\,kpc), where close galaxy-galaxy interactions are not dominant.
The strength of the HI signal originating from a distant galaxy at a cosmological distance is several orders of magnitude lower than the foreground and background noise and hence it is difficult to observe this signal at a given radio telescope. However, a few recent studies reported the detection of that signal at th...
The Fermi satellite has detected GeV emission from a number of gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei at high redshift, z &gt; 1.5. We examine the constraints that the detections of gamma rays from several of these sources place on the contribution of population-III stars to the extragalactic background light.
We study 6 LCDM models, with 4 allowing for non-flat geometry and 3 allowing for a non-unity lensing consistency parameter $A_L$. We also study 6 XCDM models with a dynamical dark energy density X-fluid with equation of state $w$.
Since physics of the dark sector components of the Universe is not yet well-understood, the phenomenological studies of non-minimal interaction in the dark sector could possibly pave the way to theoretical and experimental progress in this direction. Therefore, in this work, we intend to explore some features and cons...
The large-scale distribution of matter in the universe forms a network of clusters, filaments and walls enclosing large empty voids. Voids in turn can be described as a cellular system in which voids/cells define dynamically distinct regions.
(Abridged) We study the predictions of various annihilating Dark Matter (DM) models in order to interpret the origin of non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters.
In this paper, we examine the cosmological viability of a slow moving galileon field in a potential. The Lagrangian $\cal{L}$ $ =-\frac{1}{2}g^{\mu\nu}\pi_{;\mu}\pi_{;\nu} +\frac{G^{\mu\nu}}{2M^2}\pi_{;\mu}\pi_{;\nu}$ respects the galileon symmetry in curved space time.
We address the issue of setting up generic non-Gaussian initial conditions for N-body simulations. We consider inflationary-motivated primordial non-Gaussianity where the perturbations in the Bardeen potential are given by a dominant Gaussian part plus a non-Gaussian part specified by its bispectrum.
We present new cosmological parameter constraints for general Horndeski scalar-tensor theories, using CMB, redshift space distortion, matter power spectrum and BAO measurements from the Planck, SDSS/BOSS and 6dF surveys. We focus on theories with cosmological gravitational waves propagating at the speed of light, $c_{...
We report the results of optical identification of a sample of RC catalog radio sources with the FIRST and SDSS surveys. For 320 sources identified with NVSS and FIRST objects we perform optical identification with the SDSS survey.
We investigate the Alcock Paczynski (AP) test applied to the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the galaxy correlation function. By using a general formalism that includes relativistic effects, we quantify the importance of the linear redshift space distortions and gravitational lensing corrections to the ga...
We present the combined analysis of the metal content of 83 objects in the redshift range 0.09-1.39, and spatially-resolved in the 3 bins (0-0.15, 0.15-0.4, &gt;0.4) R500, as obtained with similar analysis using XMM-Newton data in Leccardi &amp; Molendi (2008) and Baldi et al. (2012). We use the pseudo-entropy ratio t...
We develop a new method for deconvolving the smearing effect of the survey window in the analysis of the galaxy multipole power spectra from a redshift survey. This method is based on the deconvolution theorem, and is compatible with the use of the fast Fourier transform.
Many galaxy clusters show diffuse cluster-scale emission in the form of radio halos, showing that magnetic fields and relativistic electrons are mixed in with the intra-cluster medium (ICM). There is general agreement that the origin of radio halos is connected to turbulence, generated during cluster mergers.