arXiv subjects

A. F. Heavens

Publications and source records attributed to A. F. Heavens.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Cosmological constraints from COMBO-17 using 3D weak lensing

We present the first application of the 3D cosmic shear method developed in Heavens et al. (2006) and the geometric shear-ratio analysis developed in Taylor et al. (2006), to the COMBO-17 data set. 3D cosmic shear has been used to analyse galaxies with redshift estimates from two random COMBO-17 fields covering 0.52 square degrees in total, providing a conditional constraint in the (sigma_8, Omega_m) plane as well as a conditional constraint on the equation of state of dark energy, parameterised by a constant w= p/rho c^2. The (sigma_8, Omega_m) plane analysis constrained the relation between sigma_8 and Omega_m to be sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^{0.57 +- 0.19}=1.06 +0.17 -0.16, in agreement with a 2D cosmic shear analysis of COMBO-17. The 3D cosmic shear conditional constraint on w using the two random fields is w=-1.27 +0.64 -0.70. The geometric shear-ratio analysis has been applied to the A901/2 field, which contains three small galaxy clusters. Combining the analysis from the A901/2 field, using the geometric shear-ratio analysis, and the two random fields, using 3D cosmic shear, w is conditionally constrained to w=-1.08 +0.63 -0.58. The errors presented in this paper are shown to agree with Fisher matrix predictions made in Heavens et al. (2006) and Taylor et al. (2006). When these methods are applied to large datasets, as expected soon from surveys such as Pan-STARRS and VST-KIDS, the dark energy equation of state could be constrained to an unprecedented degree of accuracy.

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arXiv2006

Measuring dark energy properties with 3D cosmic shear

We present parameter estimation forecasts for present and future 3D cosmic shear surveys. We demonstrate that, in conjunction with results from cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, the properties of dark energy can be estimated with very high precision with large-scale, fully 3D weak lensing surveys. In particular, a 5-band, 10,000 square degree ground-based survey to a median redshift of zm=0.7 could achieve 1-$σ$ marginal statistical errors, in combination with the constraints expected from the CMB Planck Surveyor, of $Δ$w0=0.108 and $Δ$wa=0.099 where we parameterize w by w(a)=w0+wa(1-a) where a is the scale factor. Such a survey is achievable with a wide-field camera on a 4 metre class telescope. The error on the value of w at an intermediate pivot redshift of z=0.368 is constrained to $Δ$w(z=0.368)=0.0175. We compare and combine the 3D weak lensing constraints with the cosmological and dark energy parameters measured from planned Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and supernova Type Ia experiments, and find that 3D weak lensing significantly improves the marginalized errors. A combination of 3D weak lensing, CMB and BAO experiments could achieve $Δ$w0=0.037 and $Δ$wa=0.099. Fully 3D weak shear analysis avoids the loss of information inherent in tomographic binning, and we show that the sensitivity to systematic errors is much less. In conjunction with the fact that the physics of lensing is very soundly based, this analysis demonstrates that deep, wide-angle 3D weak lensing surveys are extremely promising for measuring dark energy properties.

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arXiv2006

Probing dark energy with the shear-ratio geometric test

We adapt the Jain--Taylor (2003) shear-ratio geometric lensing method to measure the dark energy equation of state, and its time derivative from dark matter haloes in cosmologies with arbitrary spatial curvature. The full shear-ratio covariance matrix is calculated for lensed sources, including the intervening large-scale structure and photometric redshift errors as additional sources of noise, and a maximum likelihood method for applying the test is presented. Combining with the expected results from the CMB we design an optimal survey for probing dark energy. A targeted survey imaging 60 of the largest clusters in a hemisphere with 5-band optical photometric redshifts to a median galaxy depth of zm=0.9 could measure w0 to a marginal 1-sigma error of $Δ$w0=0.5. We marginalize over all other parameters including wa, where the equation of state is parameterized in terms of scale factor a as w(a)=w0+wa(1-a). For higher accuracy a large-scale photometric redshift survey is required. Such a near-future 5-band survey covering 10,000 square degrees to z_m=0.7 could measure w0 to $Δ$w0=0.075 and $Δ$wa=0.33. A stronger combined constraint is measured at a pivot redshift zp=0.27 of $Δ$w(zp)=0.0298. We compare and combine the geometric test with the cosmological and dark energy parameters measured from planned Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and supernova Type Ia experiments, and find that the geometric test results combine with a significant reduction in errors due to different degeneracies. A combination of geometric lensing, CMB and BAO experiments could achieve a pivot redshift constraint of $Δ$w(zp)=0.020 at zp=0.62. Simple relations are presented that show how our lensing results can be scaled to other telescope classes and survey parameters.

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arXiv2006

The star-formation histories of elliptical galaxies across the fundamental plane

We present the first results from a study designed to test whether, given high-quality spectrophotometry spanning the mid-UV--optical wavelength regime, it is possible to distinguish the metal content (Z) and star-formation history (sfh) of individual elliptical galaxies with sufficient accuracy to establish whether their formation history is linked to their detailed morphology and position on the Fundamental Plane. From a detailed analysis of UV-optical spectrophotometry of the `cuspy' elliptical galaxy NGC 3605 and the giant elliptical NGC 5018 we find that: 1) optical spectra with l > 3500 A may not contain sufficient data to robustly uncover all the stellar populations present in individual galaxies, even in such relatively passive objects as ellipticals, 2) the addition of the UV data approaching l = 2500 A holds the key to establishing well-constrained sfhs, from which we can infer a formation and evolution history which is consistent with their photometric properties, 3) despite the superficial similarity of their spectra, the two galaxies have very different `recent' sfhs -- the smaller, cuspy elliptical NGC 3605 contains a high-Z population of age ~= 1 Gyr, and has a position on the fundamental plane typical of the product of a low-z gas-rich merger (most likely at z ~ 0.08), while the giant elliptical NGC 5018, with a sub-solar secondary population, appears to have gained its more recent stars via mass transfer / accretion of gas from its spiral companion, 4) despite these differences in detailed history, more than 85% of the stellar mass of both galaxies is associated with an old (9-12 Gyr) stellar population of near-solar Z. This pilot study provides strong motivation for the construction and analysis of high-quality UV-optical spectra for a substantial sample of ellipticals spanning the Fundamental Plane.

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arXiv2005

Non-Gaussianity in the WMAP data using the peak-peak correlation function

We present a search for non-Gaussianity in the WMAP first-year data using the two-point correlation function of maxima and minima in the temperature map. We find evidence for non-Gaussianity on large scales, whose origin appears to be associated with unsubstracted foregrounds, but which is not entirely clear. The signal appears to be associated most strongly with cold spots, and is more pronounced in the Southern galactic hemisphere. Removal of the region of sky near the galactic plane, or filtering out large-scale modes removes the signal. Analysis of individual frequency maps shows strongest signal in the 41GHz Q band. A study of difference maps tests the hypothesis that the non-Gaussianity is due to residual foregrounds and noise, but shows no significant detection. We suggest that the detection is due to large-scale residual foregrounds affecting more than one frequency band, but a primordial contribution from the Cosmic Microwave Background cannot be excluded.

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arXiv2005

Weak lensing analysis in three dimensions

We present a comprehensive full-sky 3-dimensional analysis of the weak-lensing fields and their corresponding power spectra. Using the formalism of spin-weight spherical harmonics and spherical Bessel functions, we relate the two-point statistics of the harmonic expansion coefficients of the weak lensing shear and convergence to the power spectrum of the matter density perturbations, and derive small-angle limits. Such a study is relevant in view of the next generation of large-scale weak lensing surveys which will provide distance information about the sources through photometric redshifts. This opens up the possibility of accurate cosmological parameter estimation via weak lensing, with an emphasis on the equation of state of dark energy.

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arXiv2002

Non-Gaussian Signatures in the Cosmic Background Radiation from Warm Inflation

We calculate the bispectrum of the gravitational field fluctuations generated during warm inflation, where dissipation of the vacuum potential during inflation is the mechanism for structure formation. The bispectrum is non--zero because of the self--interaction of the scalar field. We compare the predictions with those of standard, or `supercooled', inflationary models, and consider the detectability of these levels of non--Gaussianity in the bispectrum of the cosmic microwave background. We find that the levels of non--Gaussianity for warm and supercooled inflation are comparable, and over--ridden by the contribution to the bispectrum due to other physical effects. We also conclude that the resulting bispectrum values will be undetectable in the cosmic microwave background for both the MAP and Planck Surveyor satellites.

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arXiv2002

Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South with the Infrared Space Observatory - II. Associations and star formation rates

We present results from a deep mid-IR survey of the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) region performed at 7 and 15um with the CAM instrument on board ISO. We found reliable optical/near-IR associations for 32 of the 35 sources detected in this field by Oliver et al. (2002, Paper I): eight of them were identified as stars, one is definitely an AGN, a second seems likely to be an AGN, too, while the remaining 22 appear to be normal spiral or starburst galaxies. Using model spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of similar galaxies, we compare methods for estimating the star formation rates (SFRs) in these objects, finding that an estimator based on integrated (3-1000um) IR luminosity reproduces the model SFRs best. Applying this estimator to model fits to the SEDs of our 22 spiral and starburst galaxies, we find that they are forming stars at rates of ~1-100 M_sol/yr, with a median value of ~40M_sol/yr, assuming an Einstein - de Sitter universe with a Hubble constant of 50 km/s/Mpc, and star formation taking place according to a Salpeter (1955) IMF across the mass range 0.1-100M_sol. We split the redshift range 0.0<z<0.6 into two equal-volume bins to compute raw estimates of the star formation rate density contributed by these sources, assuming the same cosmology and IMF as above and computing errors based on estimated uncertainties in the SFRs of individual galaxies. We compare these results with other estimates of the SFR density made with the same assumptions, showing them to be consistent with the results of Flores et al. (1999) from their ISO survey of the CFRS 1415+52 field. However, the relatively small volume of our survey means that our SFR density estimates suffer from a large sampling variance, implying that our results, by themselves, do not place tight constraints on the global mean SFR density.

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arXiv2001

Intrinsic Galaxy Alignments and Weak Gravitational Lensing

Gravitational lensing causes background galaxy images to become aligned, and the statistical characteristics of the image alignments can then be used to constrain the power spectrum of mass fluctuations. Analyses of gravitational lensing assume that intrinsic galaxy alignments are negligible, but if this assumption does not hold, then the interpretation of image alignments will be in error. As gravitational lensing experiments become more ambitious and seek very low-level alignments arising from lensing by large-scale structure, it becomes more important to estimate the level of intrinsic alignment in the galaxy population. In this article, I review the cluster of independent theoretical studies of this issue, as well as the current observational status. Theoretically, the calculation of intrinsic alignments is by no means straightforward, but some consensus has emerged from the existing works, despite each making very different assumptions. This consensus is that a) intrinsic alignments are a small but non-negligible (< 10%) contaminant of the lensing ellipticity correlation function, for samples with a median redshift z = 1; b) intrinsic alignments dominate the signal for low-redshift samples (z = 0.1), as expected in the SuperCOSMOS lensing survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

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arXiv2000

Application of Data Compression Methods to the Redshift-space distortions of the PSCz galaxy catalogue

We apply a spherical harmonic analysis to the Point Source Redshift Survey (PSCz), to compute the real-space galaxy power spectrum and the degree of redshift distortion caused by peculiar velocities. We employ new parameter eigenvector and hierarchical data compression techniques, allowing a much larger number of harmonic modes to be included, and correspondingly smaller error bars. Using 4644 harmonic modes, compressed to 2278, we find that the IRAS redshift-space distortion parameter is $β= 0.39 \pm 0.12$ and the amplitude of galaxy clustering on a scale of $k=0.1 \Mpch$ is $Δ_{\rm gal}(0.1)=0.42 \pm 0.02$. Combining these we find the amplitude of mass perturbations is $Δ_m(0.1)=(0.16\pm0.04) Ω_m^{-0.6}$. A preliminary model fitting analysis combining the PSCz amplitudes with the CMB and abundance of clusters yields the cosmological matter density parameter $Ω_m=0.16\pm 0.03$, the amplitude of primordial perturbations $Q=(8.4\pm 3.8) \times 10^{-5}$, and the IRAS bias parameter $b=0.84\pm 0.28$.

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arXiv2000

Redshift Distortions and Clustering in the PSCz Survey

We have constrained the redshift-distortion parameter $β\equiv Ω^{0.6}/b$ and the real-space power spectrum of the IRAS PSCz survey using a spherical-harmonic redshift-distortion analysis combined with a data compression method which is designed to deal with correlated parameters. Our latest result, $β=0.4 \pm 0.1$, strongly rules out $β=1$.

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arXiv1999

Spherical Harmonic Analysis of the PSCz Galaxy Catalogue: Redshift distortions and the real-space power spectrum

We apply the formalism of spherical harmonic decomposition to the galaxy density field of the IRAS PSCz redshift survey. The PSCz redshift survey has almost all-sky coverage and includes IRAS galaxies to a flux limit of 0.6 Jy. Using maximum likelihood methods to examine (to first order) the distortion of the galaxy pattern due to redshift coordinates, we have measured the parameter β= Ω^{0.6}/b. We also simultaneously measure (a) the undistorted amplitude of perturbations in the galaxy distribution when a parameterised power spectrum is assumed, or (b) the shape and amplitude of the real-space power spectrum if the band-power in a set of passbands is measured in a step- wise fashion. These methods are extensively tested on a series of CDM, ΛCDM and MDM simulations and are found to be unbiased. We obtain consistent results for the subset of the PSCz catalogue with flux above 0.75 Jy but inclusion of galaxies to the formal flux limit of the catalogue gives variations which are larger than our internal errors. For the 0.75 Jy catalogue we find, in the case of a parameterised power spectrum, β=0.58\pm0.26 and the amplitude of the real space power measured at wavenumber k=0.1 h/Mpc is Δ_{0.1}=0.42 \pm 0.03. Freeing the shape of the power spectrum we find that β=0.47\pm 0.16 (conditional error), and Δ_{0.1}=0.47 \pm 0.03. The shape of the real-space power spectrum is consistent with a Γ= 0.2 CDM-like shape parameter, but does not strongly rule out a number of other models. Finally by combining our estimate of the amplitude of galaxy clustering and the distortion parameter we find the amplitude of mass fluctuations on a scale k=0.1 \hmpc is Δ_ρ= 0.24 Ω_0^{-0.6}$, with an uncertainty of 50%.

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arXiv1998

The nonlinear redshift-space power spectrum of galaxies

We study the power spectrum of galaxies in redshift space, with third order perturbation theory to include corrections that are absent in linear theory. We assume a local bias for the galaxies: i.e. the galaxy density is sampled from some local function of the underlying mass distribution. We find that the effect of the nonlinear bias in real space is to introduce two new features: first, there is a contribution to the power which is constant with wavenumber, whose nature we reveal as essentially a shot-noise term. In principle this contribution can mask the primordial power spectrum, and could limit the accuracy with which the latter might be measured on very large scales. Secondly, the effect of second- and third-order bias is to modify the effective bias (defined as the square root of the ratio of galaxy power spectrum to matter power spectrum). The effective bias is almost scale-independent over a wide range of scales. These general conclusions also hold in redshift space. In addition, we have investigated the distortion of the power spectrum by peculiar velocities, which may be used to constrain the density of the Universe. We look at the quadrupole-to-monopole ratio, and find that higher-order terms can mimic linear theory bias, but the bias implied is neither the linear bias, nor the effective bias referred to above. We test the theory with biased N-body simulations, and find excellent agreement in both real and redshift space, providing the local biasing is applied on a scale whose fractional r.m.s. density fluctuations are $< 0.5$.

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arXiv1998

Estimating non-gaussianity in the microwave background

The bispectrum of the microwave background sky is a possible discriminator between inflationary and defect models of structure formation in the Universe. The bispectrum, which is the analogue of the temperature 3-point correlation function in harmonic space, is zero for most inflationary models, but non-zero for non-gaussian models. The expected departures from zero are small, and easily masked by noise, so it is important to be able to estimate the bispectrum coefficients as accurately as possible, and to know the errors and correlations between the estimates so they may be used in combination as a diagnostic to rule out non-gaussian models. This paper presents a method for estimating in an unbiased way the bispectrum from a microwave background map in the near-gaussian limit. The method is optimal, in the sense that no other method can have smaller error bars, and in addition, the covariances between the bispectrum estimates are calculated explicitly. The method deals automatically with partial sky coverage and arbitrary noise correlations without modification. A preliminary application to the Cosmic Background Explorer 4-year dataset shows no evidence for non-gaussian behaviour.

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arXiv1997

The Double Quasar Q2138-431: Lensing by a Dark Galaxy?

We report the discovery of a new gravitational lens candidate Q2138-431AB, comprising two quasar images at a redshift of 1.641 separated by 4.5 arcsecs. The spectra of the two images are very similar, and the redshifts agree to better than 115 km.sec$^{-1}$. The two images have magnitudes $B_J = 19.8$ and $B_J = 21.0$, and in spite of a deep search and image subtraction procedure, no lensing galaxy has been found with $R < 23.8$. Modelling of the system configuration implies that the mass-to-light ratio of any lensing galaxy is likely to be around $1000 M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$, with an absolute lower limit of $200 M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$ for an Einstein-de Sitter universe. We conclude that the most likely explanation of the observations is gravitational lensing by a dark galaxy, although it is possible we are seeing a binary quasar.

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arXiv1997

Dark galaxies, spin bias and gravitational lenses

Gravitational lensing studies suggest that the Universe may contain a population of dark galaxies; we investigate this intriguing possibility and propose a mechanism to explain their nature. In this mechanism a dark galaxy is formed with a low density disk in a dark halo of high spin parameter; such galaxies can have surface densities below the critical Toomre value for instabilities to develop, and following Kennicutt's work we expect these galaxies to have low star formation rates. The only stellar component of the galaxies is a halo system, formed during the collapse of the proto-galactic cloud. We compute synthetic stellar population models and show that, at a redshift $z=0.5$, such galaxies have apparent magnitudes $B \simeq 28, R \simeq 26$ and $I \simeq 25$, and could be unveiled by deep searches with the Hubble Space Telescope. Dark galaxies have an initial short blue phase and then become essentially invisible, therefore they may account for the blue population of galaxies at high redshift. We find a strong mass-dependence in the fraction of dark galaxies, and predict that spiral galaxies will not be found in halos with masses less than about $10^9 M_\odot$, if $Ω=1$. Above about $10^{12}M_\odot$, all halos can produce luminous disks. The mass-dependence of the galaxy-formation efficiency introduces the possibility of `spin bias' -- luminous galaxies being associated preferentially with strongly-clustered high-mass halos. A further prediction is that the slope of the faint-end luminosity function for galaxies will be flatter than the associated halo mass function.

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arXiv1997

Design and analysis of redshift surveys

In this paper we consider methods of analysis and optimal design of redshift surveys. In the first part, we develop a formalism for analysing galaxy redshift surveys which are essentially two-dimensional, such as thin declination slices. The formalism is a power spectrum method, using spherical coordinates, allowing the distorting effects of galaxy peculiar velocities to be calculated to linear order on the assumption of statistical isotropy but without further approximation. In this paper, we calculate the measured two-dimensional power for a constant declination strip, widely used in redshift surveys. We present a likelihood method for estimating the three-dimensional real-space power spectrum and the redshift distortion simultaneously, and show that for thin surveys of reasonable depth, the large-scale 3D power cannot be measured with high accuracy. The redshift distortion may be estimated successfully, and with higher accuracy if the 3D power spectrum can be measured independently, for example from a large-scale sky-projected catalogue. In the second part, we show how a 3D survey design can be optimized to measure the power spectrum, considering whether areal coverage is more important than depth, and whether the survey should be sampled sparsely or not. We show quite generally that width is better than depth, and show how the optimal sparse-sampling fraction, f, depends on the power, P, to be measured. For a Schechter luminosity function, a simple optimization fP \simeq 500 h^{-3} Mpc^3 is found.

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arXiv1996

Measuring the cosmological constant with redshift surveys

It has been proposed that the cosmological constant $Λ$ might be measured from geometric effects on large-scale structure. A positive vacuum density leads to correlation-function contours which are squashed in the radial direction when calculated assuming a matter-dominated model. We show that this effect will be somewhat harder to detect than previous calculations have suggested: the squashing factor is likely to be $<1.3$, given realistic constraints on the matter contribution to $Ω$. Moreover, the geometrical distortion risks being confused with the redshift-space distortions caused by the peculiar velocities associated with the growth of galaxy clustering. These depend on the density and bias parameters via the combination $β\equiv Ω^{0.6}/b$, and we show that the main practical effect of a geometrical flattening factor $F$ is to simulate gravitational instability with $β_{\rm eff}\simeq 0.5(F-1)$. Nevertheless, with datasets of sufficient size it is possible to distinguish the two effects; we discuss in detail how this should be done. New-generation redshift surveys of galaxies and quasars are potentially capable of detecting a non-zero vacuum density, if it exists at a cosmologically interesting level.

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