arXiv subjects

D. Carollo

Publications and source records attributed to D. Carollo.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

First Cosmology Results using Type Ia Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey: Constraints on Cosmological Parameters

We present the first cosmological parameter constraints using measurements of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program (DES-SN). The analysis uses a subsample of 207 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia from the first three years of DES-SN, combined with a low-redshift sample of 122 SNe from the literature. Our "DES-SN3YR" result from these 329 SNe Ia is based on a series of companion analyses and improvements covering SN Ia discovery, spectroscopic selection, photometry, calibration, distance bias corrections, and evaluation of systematic uncertainties. For a flat LCDM model we find a matter density Omega_m = 0.331 +_ 0.038. For a flat wCDM model, and combining our SN Ia constraints with those from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), we find a dark energy equation of state w = -0.978 +_ 0.059, and Omega_m = 0.321 +_ 0.018. For a flat w0waCDM model, and combining probes from SN Ia, CMB and baryon acoustic oscillations, we find w0 = -0.885 +_ 0.114 and wa = -0.387 +_ 0.430. These results are in agreement with a cosmological constant and with previous constraints using SNe Ia (Pantheon, JLA).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Cosmological Constraints from Multiple Probes in the Dark Energy Survey

The combination of multiple observational probes has long been advocated as a powerful technique to constrain cosmological parameters, in particular dark energy. The Dark Energy Survey has measured 207 spectroscopically--confirmed Type Ia supernova lightcurves; the baryon acoustic oscillation feature; weak gravitational lensing; and galaxy clustering. Here we present combined results from these probes, deriving constraints on the equation of state, $w$, of dark energy and its energy density in the Universe. Independently of other experiments, such as those that measure the cosmic microwave background, the probes from this single photometric survey rule out a Universe with no dark energy, finding $w=-0.80^{+0.09}_{-0.11}$. The geometry is shown to be consistent with a spatially flat Universe, and we obtain a constraint on the baryon density of $Ω_b=0.069^{+0.009}_{-0.012}$ that is independent of early Universe measurements. These results demonstrate the potential power of large multi-probe photometric surveys and pave the way for order of magnitude advances in our constraints on properties of dark energy and cosmology over the next decade.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

The First Tidally Disrupted Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy? - Spectroscopic Analysis of the Tucana III Stream

We present a spectroscopic study of the tidal tails and core of the Milky Way satellite Tucana III, collectively referred to as the Tucana III stream, using the 2dF+AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the IMACS spectrograph on the Magellan/Baade Telescope. In addition to recovering the brightest 9 previously known member stars in the Tucana III core, we identify 22 members in the tidal tails. We observe strong evidence for a velocity gradient of 8.0 km/s/deg (or 18.3 km/s/kpc over at least 3$^{\circ}$ (or 1.3 kpc) on the sky. Based on the continuity in velocity we confirm that the Tucana III tails are real tidal extensions of Tucana III. The large velocity gradient of the stream implies that Tucana III is likely on a radial orbit. We successfully obtain metallicities for 4 members in the core and 12 members in the tails. We find that members close to the ends of the stream tend to be more metal-poor than members in the core, indicating a possible metallicity gradient between the center of the progenitor halo and its edge. The spread in metallicity suggests that the progenitor of the Tucana III stream is a dwarf galaxy rather than a star cluster. Furthermore, we find that with the precise photometry of the Dark Energy Survey data, there is a discernible color offset between metal-rich disk stars and metal-poor stream members. This metallicity-dependent color offers a more efficient method to recognize metal-poor targets and will increase the selection efficiency of stream members for future spectroscopic follow-up programs on stellar streams.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

First Cosmology Results Using Type Ia Supernovae From the Dark Energy Survey: Survey Overview and Supernova Spectroscopy

We present spectroscopy from the first three seasons of the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program (DES-SN). We describe the supernova spectroscopic program in full: strategy, observations, data reduction, and classification. We have spectroscopically confirmed 307 supernovae, including 251 type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) over a redshift range of $0.017 < z < 0.85$. We determine the effective spectroscopic selection function for our sample, and use it to investigate the redshift-dependent bias on the distance moduli of SNe Ia we have classified. We also provide a full overview of the strategy, observations, and data products of DES-SN, which has discovered 12,015 likely supernovae during these first three seasons. The data presented here are used for the first cosmology analysis by DES-SN ('DES-SN3YR'), the results of which are given in DES Collaboration (2018a).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

First Cosmology Results Using Type Ia Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey: Effects of Chromatic Corrections to Supernova Photometry on Measurements of Cosmological Parameters

Calibration uncertainties have been the leading systematic uncertainty in recent analyses using type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) to measure cosmological parameters. To improve the calibration, we present the application of Spectral Energy Distribution (SED)-dependent "chromatic corrections" to the supernova light-curve photometry from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). These corrections depend on the combined atmospheric and instrumental transmission function for each exposure, and they affect photometry at the 0.01 mag (1%) level, comparable to systematic uncertainties in calibration and photometry. Fitting our combined DES and low-z SN Ia sample with Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) priors for the cosmological parameters $Ω_{\rm m}$ (the fraction of the critical density of the universe comprised of matter) and w (the dark energy equation of state parameter), we compare those parameters before and after applying the corrections. We find the change in w and $Ω_{\rm m}$ due to not including chromatic corrections are -0.002 and 0.000, respectively, for the DES-SN3YR sample with BAO and CMB priors, consistent with a larger DES-SN3YR-like simulation, which has a w-change of 0.0005 with an uncertainty of 0.008 and an $Ω_{\rm m}$ change of 0.000 with an uncertainty of 0.002 . However, when considering samples on individual CCDs we find large redshift-dependent biases (approximately 0.02 in distance modulus) for supernova distances.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Galaxy clustering for combined probes

We measure the clustering of DES Year 1 galaxies that are intended to be combined with weak lensing samples in order to produce precise cosmological constraints from the joint analysis of large-scale structure and lensing correlations. Two-point correlation functions are measured for a sample of $6.6 \times 10^{5}$ luminous red galaxies selected using the \textsc{redMaGiC} algorithm over an area of $1321$ square degrees, in the redshift range $0.15 < z < 0.9$, split into five tomographic redshift bins. The sample has a mean redshift uncertainty of $σ_{z}/(1+z) = 0.017$. We quantify and correct spurious correlations induced by spatially variable survey properties, testing their impact on the clustering measurements and covariance. We demonstrate the sample's robustness by testing for stellar contamination, for potential biases that could arise from the systematic correction, and for the consistency between the two-point auto- and cross-correlation functions. We show that the corrections we apply have a significant impact on the resultant measurement of cosmological parameters, but that the results are robust against arbitrary choices in the correction method. We find the linear galaxy bias in each redshift bin in a fiducial cosmology to be $b(z$=$0.24)=1.40 \pm 0.08$, $b(z$=$0.38)=1.61 \pm 0.05$, $b(z$=$0.53)=1.60 \pm 0.04$ for galaxies with luminosities $L/L_*>$$0.5$, $b(z$=$0.68)=1.93 \pm 0.05$ for $L/L_*>$$1$ and $b(z$=$0.83)=1.99 \pm 0.07$ for $L/L_*$$>1.5$, broadly consistent with expectations for the redshift and luminosity dependence of the bias of red galaxies. We show these measurements to be consistent with the linear bias obtained from tangential shear measurements.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

Rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey

We present the results of a search for rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Programme. These events are characterized by fast light curve evolution (rise to peak in $\lesssim 10$ d and exponential decline in $\lesssim30$ d after peak). We discovered 72 events, including 37 transients with a spectroscopic redshift from host galaxy spectral features. The 37 events increase the total number of rapid optical transients by more than factor of two. They are found at a wide range of redshifts ($0.05 M_\mathrm{g}>-22.25$). The multiband photometry is well fit by a blackbody up to few weeks after peak. The events appear to be hot ($T\approx10000-30000$ K) and large ($R\approx 10^{14}-2\cdot10^{15}$ cm) at peak, and generally expand and cool in time, though some events show evidence for a receding photosphere with roughly constant temperature. Spectra taken around peak are dominated by a blue featureless continuum consistent with hot, optically thick ejecta. We compare our events with a previously suggested physical scenario involving shock breakout in an optically thick wind surrounding a core-collapse supernova (CCSNe), we conclude that current models for such a scenario might need an additional power source to describe the exponential decline. We find these transients tend to favor star-forming host galaxies, which could be consistent with a core-collapse origin. However, more detailed modeling of the light curves is necessary to determine their physical origin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Quasar Accretion Disk Sizes From Continuum Reverberation Mapping From the Dark Energy Survey

We present accretion disk size measurements for 15 luminous quasars at $0.7 \leq z \leq 1.9$ derived from $griz$ light curves from the Dark Energy Survey. We measure the disk sizes with continuum reverberation mapping using two methods, both of which are derived from the expectation that accretion disks have a radial temperature gradient and the continuum emission at a given radius is well-described by a single blackbody. In the first method we measure the relative lags between the multiband light curves, which provides the relative time lag between shorter and longer wavelength variations. From this, we are only able to constrain upper limits on disk sizes, as many are consistent with no lag the 2$σ$ level. The second method fits the model parameters for the canonical thin disk directly rather than solving for the individual time lags between the light curves. Our measurements demonstrate good agreement with the sizes predicted by this model for accretion rates between 0.3-1 times the Eddington rate. Given our large uncertainties, our measurements are also consistent with disk size measurements from gravitational microlensing studies of strongly lensed quasars, as well as other photometric reverberation mapping results, that find disk sizes that are a factor of a few ($\sim$3) larger than predictions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Redshift distributions of the weak lensing source galaxies

We describe the derivation and validation of redshift distribution estimates and their uncertainties for the galaxies used as weak lensing sources in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 cosmological analyses. The Bayesian Photometric Redshift (BPZ) code is used to assign galaxies to four redshift bins between z=0.2 and 1.3, and to produce initial estimates of the lensing-weighted redshift distributions $n^i_{PZ}(z)$ for bin i. Accurate determination of cosmological parameters depends critically on knowledge of $n^i$ but is insensitive to bin assignments or redshift errors for individual galaxies. The cosmological analyses allow for shifts $n^i(z)=n^i_{PZ}(z-Δz^i)$ to correct the mean redshift of $n^i(z)$ for biases in $n^i_{\rm PZ}$. The $Δz^i$ are constrained by comparison of independently estimated 30-band photometric redshifts of galaxies in the COSMOS field to BPZ estimates made from the DES griz fluxes, for a sample matched in fluxes, pre-seeing size, and lensing weight to the DES weak-lensing sources. In companion papers, the $Δz^i$ are further constrained by the angular clustering of the source galaxies around red galaxies with secure photometric redshifts at 0.15<z<0.9. This paper details the BPZ and COSMOS procedures, and demonstrates that the cosmological inference is insensitive to details of the $n^i(z)$ beyond the choice of $Δz^i$. The clustering and COSMOS validation methods produce consistent estimates of $Δz^i$, with combined uncertainties of $σ_{Δz^i}=$0.015, 0.013, 0.011, and 0.022 in the four bins. We marginalize over these in all analyses to follow, which does not diminish the constraining power significantly. Repeating the photo-z procedure using the Directional Neighborhood Fitting (DNF) algorithm instead of BPZ, or using the $n^i(z)$ directly estimated from COSMOS, yields no discernible difference in cosmological inferences.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

The GALAH Survey: Second Data Release

The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey is a large-scale stellar spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way and designed to deliver chemical information complementary to a large number of stars covered by the $Gaia$ mission. We present the GALAH second public data release (GALAH DR2) containing 342,682 stars. For these stars, the GALAH collaboration provides stellar parameters and abundances for up to 23 elements to the community. Here we present the target selection, observation, data reduction and detailed explanation of how the spectra were analysed to estimate stellar parameters and element abundances. For the stellar analysis, we have used a multi-step approach. We use the physics-driven spectrum synthesis of Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) to derive stellar labels ($T_\mathrm{eff}$, $\log g$, $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$, $\mathrm{[X/Fe]}$, $v_\mathrm{mic}$, $v \sin i$, $A_{K_S}$) for a representative training set of stars. This information is then propagated to the whole survey with the data-driven method of $The~Cannon$. Special care has been exercised in the spectral synthesis to only consider spectral lines that have reliable atomic input data and are little affected by blending lines. Departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) are considered for several key elements, including Li, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, and Fe, using 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. Validation tests including repeat observations, Gaia benchmark stars, open and globular clusters, and K2 asteroseismic targets lend confidence in our methods and results. Combining the GALAH DR2 catalogue with the kinematic information from $Gaia$ will enable a wide range of Galactic Archaeology studies, with unprecedented detail, dimensionality, and scope.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Stellar Streams Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey

We perform a search for stellar streams around the Milky Way using the first three years of multi-band optical imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We use DES data covering $\sim 5000$ sq. deg. to a depth of $g > 23.5$ with a relative photometric calibration uncertainty of $< 1 \%$. This data set yields unprecedented sensitivity to the stellar density field in the southern celestial hemisphere, enabling the detection of faint stellar streams to a heliocentric distance of $\sim 50$ kpc. We search for stellar streams using a matched-filter in color-magnitude space derived from a synthetic isochrone of an old, metal-poor stellar population. Our detection technique recovers four previously known thin stellar streams: Phoenix, ATLAS, Tucana III, and a possible extension of Molonglo. In addition, we report the discovery of eleven new stellar streams. In general, the new streams detected by DES are fainter, more distant, and lower surface brightness than streams detected by similar techniques in previous photometric surveys. As a by-product of our stellar stream search, we find evidence for extra-tidal stellar structure associated with four globular clusters: NGC 288, NGC 1261, NGC 1851, and NGC 1904. The ever-growing sample of stellar streams will provide insight into the formation of the Galactic stellar halo, the Milky Way gravitational potential, as well as the large- and small-scale distribution of dark matter around the Milky Way.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Cross-Correlation Redshifts - Methods and Systematics Characterization

We use numerical simulations to characterize the performance of a clustering-based method to calibrate photometric redshift biases. In particular, we cross-correlate the weak lensing (WL) source galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 (DES Y1) sample with redMaGiC galaxies (luminous red galaxies with secure photometric redshifts) to estimate the redshift distribution of the former sample. The recovered redshift distributions are used to calibrate the photometric redshift bias of standard photo-$z$ methods applied to the same source galaxy sample. We apply the method to three photo-$z$ codes run in our simulated data: Bayesian Photometric Redshift (BPZ), Directional Neighborhood Fitting (DNF), and Random Forest-based photo-$z$ (RF). We characterize the systematic uncertainties of our calibration procedure, and find that these systematic uncertainties dominate our error budget. The dominant systematics are due to our assumption of unevolving bias and clustering across each redshift bin, and to differences between the shapes of the redshift distributions derived by clustering vs photo-$z$'s. The systematic uncertainty in the mean redshift bias of the source galaxy sample is $Δz \lesssim 0.02$, though the precise value depends on the redshift bin under consideration. We discuss possible ways to mitigate the impact of our dominant systematics in future analyses.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

OzDES multifibre spectroscopy for the Dark Energy Survey: Three year results and first data release

We present results for the first three years of OzDES, a six-year programme to obtain redshifts for objects in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) supernova fields using the 2dF fibre positioner and AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. OzDES is a multi-object spectroscopic survey targeting multiple types of targets at multiple epochs over a multi-year baseline, and is one of the first multi-object spectroscopic surveys to dynamically include transients into the target list soon after their discovery. At the end of three years, OzDES has spectroscopically confirmed almost 100 supernovae, and has measured redshifts for 17,000 objects, including the redshifts of 2,566 supernova hosts. We examine how our ability to measure redshifts for targets of various types depends on signal-to-noise, magnitude, and exposure time, finding that our redshift success rate increases significantly at a signal-to-noise of 2 to 3 per 1-Angstrom bin. We also find that the change in signal-to-noise with exposure time closely matches the Poisson limit for stacked exposures as long as 10 hours. We use these results to predict the redshift yield of the full OzDES survey, as well as the potential yields of future surveys on other facilities such as the 4m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), and the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE). This work marks the first OzDES data release, comprising 14,693 redshifts. OzDES is on target to obtain over a yield of approximately 5,700 supernova host-galaxy redshifts.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

An R-process enhanced star in the dwarf galaxy Tucana III

Chemically peculiar stars in dwarf galaxies provide a window for exploring the birth environment of stars with varying chemical enrichment. We present a chemical abundance analysis of the brightest star in the newly discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidate Tucana III. Because it is particularly bright for a star in an ultra-faint Milky Way satellite, we are able to measure the abundance of 28 elements, including 13 neutron-capture species. This star, DES J235532.66$-$593114.9 (DES J235532), shows a mild enhancement in neutron-capture elements associated with the $r$-process and can be classified as an $r$-I star. DES J235532 is the first $r$-I star to be discovered in an ultra-faint satellite, and Tuc III is the second extremely low-luminosity system found to contain $r$-process enriched material, after Reticulum II. Comparison of the abundance pattern of DES J235532 with $r$-I and $r$-II stars found in other dwarf galaxies and in the Milky Way halo suggests a common astrophysical origin for the neutron-capture elements seen in all $r$-process enhanced stars. We explore both internal and external scenarios for the $r$-process enrichment of Tuc III and show that with abundance patterns for additional stars it should be possible to distinguish between them.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

A Study of Quasar Selection in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova fields

We present a study of quasar selection using the DES supernova fields. We used a quasar catalog from an overlapping portion of the SDSS Stripe 82 region to quantify the completeness and efficiency of selection methods involving color, probabilistic modeling, variability, and combinations of color/probabilistic modeling with variability. We only considered objects that appear as point sources in the DES images. We examine color selection methods based on the WISE mid-IR W1-W2 color, a mixture of WISE and DES colors (g-i and i-W1) and a mixture of VHS and DES colors (g-i and i-K). For probabilistic quasar selection, we used XDQSOz, an algorithm that employs an empirical multi-wavelength flux model of quasars to assign quasar probabilities. Our variability selection uses the multi-band chi2-probability that sources are constant in the DES Year 1 griz-band light curves. The completeness and efficiency are calculated relative to an underlying sample of point sources that are detected in the required selection bands and pass our data quality and photometric error cuts. We conduct our analyses at two magnitude limits, i<19.8 mag and i<22 mag. For sources with W1 and W2 detections, the W1-W2 color or XDQSOz method combined with variability gives the highest completenesses of >85% for both i-band magnitude limits and efficiencies of >80% to the bright limit and >60% to the faint limit; however, the giW1 and giW1+variability methods give the highest quasar surface densities. The XDQSOz method and combinations of W1W2/giW1/XDQSOz with variability are among the better selection methods when both high completeness and high efficiency are desired. We also present the OzDES Quasar Catalog of 1,263 spectroscopically-confirmed quasars taken by the OzDES survey. The catalog includes quasars with redshifts up to z~4 and brighter than i=22 mag, although the catalog is not complete up this magnitude limit.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

The age structure of the Milky Way's halo

We present a new, high-resolution chronographic (age) map of the Milky Way's halo, based on the inferred ages of ~130,000 field blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars with photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our map exhibits a strong central concentration of BHB stars with ages greater than 12 Gyr, extending up to ~15 kpc from the Galactic center (reaching close to the solar vicinity), and a decrease in the mean ages of field stars with distance by 1-1.5 Gyr out to ~45-50 kpc, along with an apparent increase of the dispersion of stellar ages, and numerous known (and previously unknown) resolved over-densities and debris streams, including the Sagittarius Stream. These results agree with expectations from modern LambdaCDM cosmological simulations, and support the existence of a dual (inner/outer) halo system, punctuated by the presence of over-densities and debris streams that have not yet completely phase-space mixed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Chronography of the Milky Way's Halo System with Field Blue Horizontal-Branch Stars

In a pioneering effort, Preston et al. reported that the colors of blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars in the halo of the Galaxy shift with distance, from regions near the Galactic center to about 12 kpc away, and interpreted this as a correlated variation in the ages of halo stars, from older to younger, spanning a range of a few Gyrs. We have applied this approach to a sample of some 4700 spectroscopically confirmed BHB stars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to produce the first "chronographic map" of the halo of the Galaxy. We demonstrate that the mean de-reddened g$-$r color, <(g$-$r)o>, increases outward in the Galaxy from $-$0.22 to $-$0.08 (over a color window spanning [$-$0.3:0.0]) from regions close to the Galactic center to ~40 kpc, independent of the metallicity of the stars. Models of the expected shift in the color of the field BHB stars based on modern stellar evolutionary codes confirm that this color gradient can be associated with an age difference of roughly 2-2.5 Gyrs, with the oldest stars concentrated in the central ~15 kpc of the Galaxy. Within this central region, the age difference spans a mean color range of about 0.05 mag (~0.8 Gyrs). Furthermore, we show that chronographic maps can be used to identify individual substructures, such as the Sagittarius Stream, and overdensities in the direction of Virgo and Monoceros, based on the observed contrast in their mean BHB colors with respect to the foreground/background field population.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

redMaGiC: Selecting Luminous Red Galaxies from the DES Science Verification Data

We introduce redMaGiC, an automated algorithm for selecting Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). The algorithm was specifically developed to minimize photometric redshift uncertainties in photometric large-scale structure studies. redMaGiC achieves this by self-training the color-cuts necessary to produce a luminosity-thresholded LRG sample of constant comoving density. We demonstrate that redMaGiC photozs are very nearly as accurate as the best machine-learning based methods, yet they require minimal spectroscopic training, do not suffer from extrapolation biases, and are very nearly Gaussian. We apply our algorithm to Dark Energy Survey (DES) Science Verification (SV) data to produce a redMaGiC catalog sampling the redshift range $z\in[0.2,0.8]$. Our fiducial sample has a comoving space density of $10^{-3}\ (h^{-1} Mpc)^{-3}$, and a median photoz bias ($z_{spec}-z_{photo}$) and scatter $(σ_z/(1+z))$ of 0.005 and 0.017 respectively. The corresponding $5σ$ outlier fraction is 1.4%. We also test our algorithm with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 (DR8) and Stripe 82 data, and discuss how spectroscopic training can be used to control photoz biases at the 0.1% level.

astro-ph.IM↗