arXiv subjects

Alex Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Smith.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: GLAM-QPM mock galaxy catalogs for the Emission Line Galaxy Sample

We present 2000 mock galaxy catalogs for the analysis of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) sample of the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 (eBOSS DR16). Each mock catalog has a number density of $6.7 \times 10^{-4} h^3 \rm Mpc^{-3}$, covering a redshift range from 0.6 to 1.1. The mocks are calibrated to small-scale eBOSS ELG clustering measurements at scales of around 10 $h^{-1}$Mpc. The mock catalogs are generated using a combination of GaLAxy Mocks (GLAM) simulations and the Quick Particle-Mesh (QPM) method. GLAM simulations are used to generate the density field, which is then assigned dark matter halos using the QPM method. Halos are populated with galaxies using a halo occupation distribution (HOD). The resulting mocks match the survey geometry and selection function of the data, and have slightly higher number density which allows room for systematic analysis. The large-scale clustering of mocks at the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale is consistent with data and we present the correlation matrix of the mocks.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Measuring the BAO peak position with different galaxy selections

We investigate if, for a fixed number density of targets and redshift, there is an optimal way to select a galaxy sample in order to measure the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale, which is used as a standard ruler to constrain the cosmic expansion. Using the mock galaxy catalogue built by Smith et al. in the Millennium-XXL N-body simulation with a technique to assign galaxies to dark matter haloes based on halo occupation distribution modelling, we consider the clustering of galaxies selected by luminosity, colour and local density. We assess how well the BAO scale can be extracted by fitting a template to the power spectrum measured for each sample. We find that the BAO peak position is recovered equally well for samples defined by luminosity or colour, while there is a bias in the BAO scale recovered for samples defined by density. The BAO position is contracted to smaller scales for the densest galaxy quartile and expanded to large scales for the two least dense galaxy quartiles. For fixed galaxy number density, density-selected samples have higher uncertainties in the recovered BAO scale than luminosity- or colour-selected samples.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Linear bias forecasts for emission line cosmological surveys

We forecast the linear bias for H${\rm α}$-emitting galaxies at high redshift. To simulate a Euclid-like and a WFIRST-like survey, we place galaxies into a large-volume dark matter halo lightcone by sampling a library of luminosity-dependent halo occupation distributions (HODs), which is constructed using a physically motivated galaxy formation model. We calibrate the dust attenuation in the lightcones such that they are able to reproduce the Hα luminosity function or the Hα cumulative number counts. The angle-averaged galaxy correlation function is computed for each survey in redshift slices of width $Δz = 0.2$. In each redshift bin the linear bias can be fitted with a single, scale-independent value that increases with increasing redshift. Fitting for the evolution of linear bias with redshift, we find that our Euclid-like and WFIRST-like surveys are both consistent within error with the relation $b(z) = 0.7z + 0.7$. Our bias forecasts are consistent with bias measurements from the HiZELS survey. We find that the Euclid-like and WFIRST-like surveys yield linear biases that are broadly consistent within error, most likely due to the HOD for the WFIRST-like survey having a steeper power-law slope towards larger halo masses.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Correcting for Fibre Assignment Incompleteness in the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will be a survey of bright, low redshift galaxies, which is planned to cover an area of ~14,000 sq deg in 3 passes. Each pass will cover the survey area with ~2000 pointings, each of area ~8 sq deg. The BGS is currently proposed to consist of a bright high priority sample to an r-band magnitude limit r ~ 19.5, with a fainter low priority sample to r ~ 20. The geometry of the DESI fibre positioners in the focal plane of the telescope affects the completeness of the survey, and has a non-trivial impact on clustering measurements. Using a BGS mock catalogue, we show that completeness due to fibre assignment primarily depends on the surface density of galaxies. Completeness is high (>95%) in low density regions, but very low (<10%) in the centre of massive clusters. We apply the pair inverse probability (PIP) weighting correction to clustering measurements from a BGS mock which has been through the fibre assignment algorithm. This method is only unbiased if it is possible to observe every galaxy pair. To facilitate this, we randomly promote a small fraction of the fainter sample to be high priority, and dither the set of tile positions by a small angle. We show that inverse pair weighting combined with angular upweighting provides an unbiased correction to galaxy clustering measurements for the complete 3 pass survey, and also after 1 pass, which is highly incomplete.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Pair and Many-body Interactions Between Ligated Au Nanoparticles

We report the results of molecular dynamics simulations of the properties of a pseudo-atom model of dodecane thiol ligated 5-nm diameter gold nanoparticles (AuNP) in vacuum as a function of ligand coverage and particle separation in three state of aggregation: the isolated AuNP, an isolated pair of AuNPs and a square assembly of AuNPs. Our calculations show that for all values of the coverage the ligand density along a radius emanating from the core of an isolated AuNP oscillates along the chain up to the fourth pseudo-atom, then smoothly decays to zero. We examine the ligand envelope as a function of the coverage and demonstrate that the deformation of that envelope generated by interaction between the NPs is coverage-dependent, so that the shape, depth and position of the minimum of the potential of mean force displays a systematic dependence on the coverage. We propose an accurate analytical description of the calculated potential of mean force with parameters that scale linearly with the ligand coverage. We define and calculate an effective pair potential of mean force for a square configuration of particles; our definition contains, implicitly, both the three- and four-particle contributions to deviation from additivity. We find that the effective pair potential of mean force in this configuration has a different minimum and a different well depth than the isolated pair potential of mean force. Previous work has found that the three-particle contribution to deviation from additivity is monotone repulsive, whereas we find that the combined three- and four-particle contributions have an attractive well, implying that the three- and four-particle contributions are of comparable magnitude but opposite sign, thereby suggesting that even higher order correction terms likely play a significant role in the behavior of assemblies of many nanoparticles.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

A Lightcone Catalogue from the Millennium-XXL Simulation

Future galaxy surveys require realistic mock catalogues to understand and quantify systematics in order to make precise cosmological measurements. We present a halo lightcone catalogue and halo occupation distribution (HOD) galaxy catalogue built using the Millennium-XXL (MXXL) simulation. The halo catalogue covers the full sky, extending to z = 2 with a mass resolution of ~1e11 Msun/h . We use this to build a galaxy catalogue, which has an r-band magnitude limit of r < 20.0, with a median redshift of z~0.2. A Monte Carlo HOD method is used to assign galaxies to the halo lightcone catalogue, and we evolve the HODs to reproduce a target luminosity function; by construction, the luminosity function of galaxies in the mock is in agreement with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at low redshifts and the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey at high redshifts. A Monte Carlo method is used to assign a 0.1(g-r) colour to each galaxy, and the colour distribution of galaxies at different redshifts agrees with measurements from GAMA. The clustering of galaxies in the mock for galaxies in different magnitude and redshift bins is in good agreement with measurements from SDSS and GAMA, and the colour-dependent clustering is in reasonable agreement. We show that the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) can be measured in the mock catalogue, and the redshift space distortions (RSDs) are in agreement with measurements from SDSS, illustrating that this catalogue will be useful for upcoming surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Satellite galaxies in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation with sterile neutrino dark matter

The sterile neutrino is a viable dark matter candidate that can be produced in the early Universe via non-equilibrium processes, and would therefore possess a highly non-thermal spectrum of primordial velocities. In this paper we analyse the process of structure formation with this class of dark matter particles. To this end we construct primordial dark matter power spectra as a function of the lepton asymmetry, $L_6$, that is present in the primordial plasma and leads to resonant sterile neutrino production. We compare these power spectra with those of thermally produced dark matter particles and show that resonantly produced sterile neutrinos are much colder than their thermal relic counterparts. We also demonstrate that the shape of these power spectra is not determined by the free-streaming scale alone. We then use the power spectra as an input for semi-analytic models of galaxy formation in order to predict the number of luminous satellite galaxies in a Milky Way-like halo. By assuming that the mass of the Milky Way halo must be no more than $2\times10^{12}M_{\odot}$ (the adopted upper bound based on current astronomical observations) we are able to constrain the value of $L_6$ for $M_s\le 8$~keV. We also show that the range of $L_6$ that is in best agreement with the 3.5~keV line (if produced by decays of 7~keV sterile neutrino) requires that the Milky Way halo has a mass no smaller than $1.5\times10^{12}M_{\odot}$. Finally, we compare the power spectra obtained by direct integration of the Boltzmann equations for a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino with the fitting formula of Viel~et~al. and find that the latter significantly underestimates the power amplitude on scales relevant to satellite galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

From bounded affine types to automatic timing analysis

Bounded linear types have proved to be useful for automated resource analysis and control in functional programming languages. In this paper we introduce an affine bounded linear typing discipline on a general notion of resource which can be modeled in a semiring. For this type system we provide both a general type-inference procedure, parameterized by the decision procedure of the semiring equational theory, and a (coherent) categorical semantics. This is a very useful type-theoretic and denotational framework for many applications to resource-sensitive compilation, and it represents a generalization of several existing type systems. As a non-trivial instance, motivated by our ongoing work on hardware compilation, we present a complex new application to calculating and controlling timing of execution in a (recursion-free) higher-order functional programming language with local store.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2005

Recent Results From CLEO-c

This paper describes recent preliminary results from the CLEO-c experiment using an initial ~60 pb^-1 sample of data collected in e^+e^- collisions at a center of mass energy around the mass of the psi(3770). A first measurement of the branching fraction BR(D^+ -> mu^+ nu) = (3.5 +/- 1.4 +/- 0.6)x 10^-4 and the corresponding decay constant f_D = (202 +/- 41 +/- 17) MeV has been made. Several charged and neutral D meson absolute exclusive semileptonic branching fractions have been measured, including first measurements of the branching fractions BR(D^0 -> rho^-e^+ nu) = (0.19 +/- 0.04 +/- 0.02)% and BR(D^+ -> omega e^+ nu) = (0.17 +/- 0.006 +/- 0.01)%. Estimated uncertainties for inclusive D semileptonic decay modes are also presented. Fits to single and double D tagged events are used to extract absolute branching fractions of several hadronic D decay modes and DDbar production cross sections. Most of these results from this small preliminary sample are already of greater sensitivity than previously published results.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2002

Recent Advances in Charm Physics

New results from charm experiments have led to renewed interest in this physics. The charm sector is now seen as a powerful tool to search for new physics and to advance our understanding of the standard model. We owe much of this progress to the combination of precision vertexing and large data samples collected by recent e+e- and fixed target experiments. Sensitivities to D0-D0bar mixing and CP violation are approaching some non-standard model predictions. Recent measurements of charmed particle lifetimes and semileptonic decays have added to our understanding of decay mechanisms and the dynamics of heavy-to-light quark transitions. Many of these provide vital input to QCD models and are an essential ingredient in extracting standard model parameters from other measurements. Studies of charmonium production continue to offer new surprises. A recent measurement from Belle indicates that ~60% of J/psi events produced in continuum e+e- collisions are produced with an additional charm quark pair. Fueled by new data from a host of continuing and future experiments, we can expect significant improvement to the standard model and possibly some new surprises.

hep-ex↗