arXiv subjects

Helene M. Courtois

Publications and source records attributed to Helene M. Courtois.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Cosmicflows Constrained Local UniversE Simulations

This paper combines observational datasets and cosmological simulations to generate realistic numerical replicas of the nearby Universe. These latter are excellent laboratories for studies of the non-linear process of structure formation in our neighborhood. With measurements of radial peculiar velocities in the Local Universe (cosmicflows-2) and a newly developed technique, we produce Constrained Local UniversE Simulations (CLUES). To assess the quality of these constrained simulations, we compare them with random simulations as well as with local observations. The cosmic variance, defined as the mean one-sigma scatter of cell-to-cell comparison between two fields, is significantly smaller for the constrained simulations than for the random simulations. Within the inner part of the box where most of the constraints are, the scatter is smaller by a factor 2 to 3 on a 5 Mpc/h scale with respect to that found for random simulations. This one-sigma scatter obtained when comparing the simulated and the observation-reconstructed velocity fields is only 104 +/- 4 km/s i.e. the linear theory threshold. These two results demonstrate that these simulations are in agreement with each other and with the observations of our neighborhood. For the first time, simulations constrained with observational radial peculiar velocities resemble the Local Universe up to a distance of 150 Mpc/h on a scale of a few tens of megaparsecs. When focusing on the inner part of the box, the resemblance with our cosmic neighborhood extends to a few megaparsecs (< 5 Mpc/h). The simulations provide a proper Large Scale environment for studies of the formation of nearby objects.

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arXiv2015

The Arrowhead Mini-Supercluster of Galaxies

Superclusters of galaxies can be defined kinematically from local evaluations of the velocity shear tensor. The location where the smallest eigenvalue of the shear is positive and maximal defines the center of a basin of attraction. Velocity and density fields are reconstructed with Wiener Filter techniques. Local velocities due to the density field in a restricted region can be separated from external tidal flows, permitting the identification of boundaries separating inward flows toward a basin of attraction and outward flows. This methodology was used to define the Laniakea Supercluster that includes the Milky Way. Large adjacent structures include Perseus-Pisces, Coma, Hercules, and Shapley but current kinematic data are insufficient to capture their full domains. However there is a small region trapped between Laniakea, Perseus-Pisces, and Coma that is close enough to be reliably characterized and that satisfies the kinematic definition of a supercluster. Because of its shape, it is given the name the Arrowhead Supercluster. This entity does not contain any major clusters. A characteristic dimension is ~25 Mpc and the contained mass is only ~10^15 Msun.

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arXiv2015

Planes of satellite galaxies and the cosmic web

Recent observational studies have demonstrated that the majority of satellite galaxies tend to orbit their hosts on highly flattened, vast, possibly co-rotating planes. Two nearly parallel planes of satellites have been confirmed around the M31 galaxy and around the Centaurus A galaxy, while the Milky Way also sports a plane of satellites. It has been argued that such an alignment of satellites on vast planes is unexpected in the standard (ΛCDM) model of cosmology if not even in contradiction to its generic predictions. Guided by ΛCDM numerical simulations, which suggest that satellites are channeled towards hosts along the axis of the slowest collapse as dictated by the ambient velocity shear tensor, we re-examine the planes of local satellites systems within the framework of the local shear tensor derived from the Cosmicflows-2 dataset. The analysis reveals that the Local Group and Centaurus A reside in a filament stretched by the Virgo cluster and compressed by the expansion of the Local Void. Four out of five thin planes of satellite galaxies are indeed closely aligned with the axis of compression induced by the Local Void. Being the less massive system, the moderate misalignment of the Milky Way's satellite plane can likely be ascribed to its greater susceptibility to tidal torques, as suggested by numerical simulations. The alignment of satellite systems in the local universe with the ambient shear field is thus in general agreement with predictions of the ΛCDM model.

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arXiv2015

Cosmic Bulk Flow and the Local Motion from Cosmicflows-2

Full sky surveys of peculiar velocity are arguably the best way to map the large scale structure out to distances of a few times 100 Mpc/h. Using the largest and most accurate ever catalog of galaxy peculiar velocities "Cosmicflows-2", the large scale structure has been reconstructed by means of the Wiener filter and constrained realizations assuming as a Bayesian prior model the LCDM model with the WMAP inferred cosmological parameters. The present paper focuses on studying the bulk flow of the local flow field, defined as the mean velocity of top-hat spheres with radii ranging out to R=500 Mpc/h. The estimated large scale structures, in general, and the bulk flow, in particular, are determined by the tension between the observational data and the assumed prior model. A prerequisite for such an analysis is the requirement that the estimated bulk flow is consistent with the prior model. Such a consistency is found here. At R=50(150) Mpc/h the estimated bulk velocity is 250+/-21 (239+/-38) km/s. The corresponding cosmic variance at these radii is 126(60)km/s, which implies that these estimated bulk flows are dominated by the data and not by the assumed prior model. The estimated bulk velocity is dominated by the data out to R~200 Mpc/h, where the cosmic variance on the individual Supergalactic Cartesian components (of the r.m.s. values) exceeds the variance of the Constrained Realizations by at least a factor of 2. The supergalactic SGX and SGY components of the CMB dipole velocity are recovered by the Wiener filter velocity field down to a very few km/s. The SGZ component of the estimated velocity, the one that is most affected by the Zone of Avoidance, is off by 126 km/s (an almost 2 sigma discrepancy).

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arXiv2014

Update on HI data collection from GBT, Parkes and Arecibo telescopes for the Cosmic Flows project

Cosmic Flows is an international multi-element project with the goal to map motions of galaxies in the Local Universe. Kinematic information from observations in the radio HI line and photometry at optical or near-infrared bands are acquired to derive the large majority of distances that are obtained through the luminosity-linewidth or Tully-Fisher relation. This paper gathers additional observational radio data, frequently unpublished, retrieved from the archives of Green Bank, Parkes and Arecibo telescopes. Extracted HI profiles are consistently processed to produce linewidth measurements. Our current "All-Digital HI Catalog" contains a total of 20,343 HI spectra for 17,738 galaxies with 14,802 galaxies with accurate linewidth measurement useful for Tully-Fisher galaxy distances. This addition of 4,117 new measurements represents an augmentation of 34\% compared to our last release.

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arXiv2013

Simulations of the Local Universe Constrained by Observational Peculiar Velocities

Peculiar velocities, obtained from direct distance measurements, are data of choice to achieve constrained simulations of the Local Universe reliable down to a scale of a few Megaparsecs. Unlike redshift surveys, peculiar velocities are direct tracers of the underlying gravitational field as they trace both baryonic and dark matter. This paper presents the first attempt to use solely observational peculiar velocities to constrain cosmological simulations of the nearby universe. In order to set up Initial Conditions, a Reverse Zel'dovich Approximation (RZA) is used to displace constraints from their positions at z=0 to their precursors' locations at higher redshifts. An additional new feature replaces original observed radial peculiar velocity vectors by their full 3D reconstructions provided by the Wiener-Filter (WF) estimator. Subsequently, the Constrained Realization of Gaussian fields technique (CR) is applied to build various realizations of the Initial Conditions. The WF/RZA/CR method is first tested on realistic mock catalogs built from a reference simulation similar to the Local Universe. These mocks include errors on peculiar velocities, on data-point positions and a large continuous zone devoid of data in order to mimic galactic extinction. Large scale structures are recovered with a typical accuracy of 5 Megaparsecs/h in position, the best realizations reaching a 2-3 Mpc/h precision, the limit imposed by the RZA linear theory. Then, the method is applied to the first observational radial peculiar velocity catalog of the project Cosmicflows. This paper is a proof of concept that the WF/RZA/CR method can be applied to observational peculiar velocities to successfully build constrained Initial Conditions.

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arXiv2013

Cosmicflows-2: The Data

Cosmicflows-2 is a compilation of distances and peculiar velocities for over 8000 galaxies. Numerically the largest contributions come from the luminosity-linewidth correlation for spirals, the TFR, and the related Fundamental Plane relation for E/S0 systems, but over 1000 distances are contributed by methods that provide more accurate individual distances: Cepheid, Tip of the Red Giant Branch, Surface Brightness Fluctuation, SNIa, and several miscellaneous but accurate procedures. Our collaboration is making important contributions to two of these inputs: Tip of the Red Giant Branch and TFR. A large body of new distance material is presented. In addition, an effort is made to assure that all the contributions, our own and those from the literature, are on the same scale. Overall, the distances are found to be compatible with a Hubble Constant H_0 = 74.4 +-3.0 km/s/Mpc. The great interest going forward with this data set will be with velocity field studies. Cosmicflows-2 is characterized by a great density and high accuracy of distance measures locally, falling to sparse and coarse sampling extending to z=0.1.

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arXiv2013

Cosmography of the Local Universe

The large scale structure of the universe is a complex web of clusters, filaments, and voids. Its properties are informed by galaxy redshift surveys and measurements of peculiar velocities. Wiener Filter reconstructions recover three-dimensional velocity and total density fields. The richness of the elements of our neighborhood are revealed with sophisticated visualization tools. A key component of this paper is an accompanying movie that can be viewed and downloaded at : http://irfu.cea.fr/cosmography or http://vimeo.com/pomarede/cosmography .The ability to translate and zoom helps the viewer follow structures in three dimensions and grasp the relationships between features on different scales while retaining a sense of orientation. The ability to dissolve between scenes provides a technique for comparing different information, for example, the observed distribution of galaxies, smoothed representations of the distribution accounting for selection effects, observed peculiar velocities, smoothed and modeled representations of those velocities, and inferred underlying density fields. The agreement between the large scale structure seen in redshift surveys and that inferred from reconstructions based on the radial peculiar velocities of galaxies strongly supports the standard model of cosmology where structure forms from gravitational instabilities and galaxies form at the bottom of potential wells.

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arXiv2013

Bimodality of Galaxy Disk Central Surface Brightness Distribution in the Spitzer 3.6 micron band

We report on measurements of the disk central surface brightnesses (mu0) at 3.6 microns for 438 galaxies selected by distance and absolute magnitude cutoffs from the 2350+ galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G), one of the largest and deepest homogeneous mid-infrared datasets of nearby galaxies. Our sample contains nearly 3 times more galaxies than the most recent study of the mu0 distribution. We demonstrate that there is a bimodality in the distribution of mu0. Between the low and high surface brightness galaxy regimes there is a lack of intermediate surface brightness galaxies. Caveats invoked in the literature from small number statistics to the knowledge of the environmental influences, and possible biases from low signal to noise data or corrections for galaxy inclination are investigated. Analyses show that the bimodal distribution of mu0 cannot be due to any of these biases or statistical fluctuations. It is highly probable that galaxies settle in two stable modes: a dark matter dominated mode where the dark matter dominates at all radii - this gives birth to low surface brightness galaxies - and a baryonic matter dominated mode where the baryons dominate the dark matter in the central parts - this gives rise to the high surface brightness disks. The lack of intermediate surface brightness objects suggests that galaxies avoid (staying in) a mode where dark matter and baryons are co-dominant in the central parts of galaxies.

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arXiv2013

Calibration of the Mid-Infrared Tully-Fisher Relation

Distance measures on a coherent scale around the sky are required to address the outstanding cosmological problems of the Hubble Constant and of departures from the mean cosmic flow. The correlation between galaxy luminosities and rotation rates can be used to determine distances to many thousands of galaxies in a wide range of environments potentially out to 200 Mpc. Mid-infrared (3.6 microns) photometry with the Spitzer Space Telescope is particularly valuable as the source of the luminosities because it provides products of uniform quality across the sky. From a perch above the atmosphere, essentially the total magnitude of targets can be registered in exposures of a few minutes. Extinction is minimal and the flux is dominated by the light from old stars which is expected to correlate with the mass of the targets. In spite of the superior photometry, the correlation between mid-infrared luminosities and rotation rates extracted from neutral hydrogen profiles is slightly degraded from the correlation found with I band luminosities. A color correction recovers a correlation that provides comparable accuracy to that available at I band (~20% 1sigma in an individual distance) while retaining the advantages identified above. Without the color correction the relation between linewidth and [3.6] magnitudes is M^{b,i,k,a}_{[3.6]} = -20.34 - 9.74 (log W_{mx}^{i} -2.5). This description is found with a sample of 213 galaxies in 13 clusters that define the slope and 26 galaxies with Cepheid or tip of the red giant branch distances that define the zero point. A color corrected parameter M_{C_{[3.6]}} is constructed that has reduced scatter: M_{C_{[3.6]}} = -20.34 - 9.13 (log W_{mx}^{i} -2.5). Consideration of the 7 calibration clusters beyond 50 Mpc, outside the domain of obvious peculiar velocities, provides a preliminary Hubble Constant estimate of H_0=74+/-5 km/s/Mpc.

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arXiv2012

The mid-infrared Tully-Fisher relation: Spitzer Surface Photometry

The availability of photometric imaging of several thousand galaxies with the Spitzer Space Telescope enables a mid-infrared calibration of the correlation between luminosity and rotation in spiral galaxies. The most important advantage of the new calibration in the 3.6 micron band, IRAC ch.1, is photometric consistency across the entire sky. Additional advantages are minimal obscuration, observations of flux dominated by old stars, and sensitivity to low surface brightness levels due to favorable backgrounds. Through Spitzer cycle 7 roughly 3000 galaxies had been observed and images of these are available at the Spitzer archive. In cycle 8 a program called Cosmic Flows with Spitzer has been initiated that will increase by 1274 the available sample of spiral galaxies with inclinations greater than 45 degrees from face-on suitable for distance measurements. This paper describes procedures based on the photometry package Archangel that are being employed to analyze both the archival and the new data in a uniform way. We give results for 235 galaxies, our calibrator sample for the Tully-Fisher relation. Galaxy magnitudes are determined with uncertainties held below 0.05 mag for normal spiral systems. A subsequent paper will describe the calibration of the [3.6] luminosity-rotation relation.

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arXiv2012

The Mid-Infrared Tully-Fisher Relation: Calibration of the SNIa Scale and Ho

This paper builds on a calibration of the SNIa absolute distance scale begun with a core of distances based on the correlation between galaxy rotation rates and optical Ic band photometry. This new work extends the calibration through the use of mid-infrared photometry acquired at 3.6 microns with Spitzer Space Telescope. The great virtue of the satellite observations is constancy of the photometry at a level better than 1% across the sky. The new calibration is based on 39 individual galaxies and 8 clusters that have been the sites of well observed SNIa. The new 3.6 micron calibration is not yet as extensively based as the Ic band calibration but is already sufficient to justify a preliminary report. Distances based on the mid-infrared photometry are 2% greater in the mean than reported at Ic band. This difference is only marginally significant. The Ic band result is confirmed with only a small adjustment. Incorporating a 1% decrease in the LMC distance, the present study indicates Ho = 75.2 +/- 3.0 km/s/Mpc.

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arXiv2012

Cosmicflows-2: I-band Luminosity - HI Linewidth Calibration

In order to measure distances with minimal systematics using the correlation between galaxy luminosities and rotation rates it is necessary to adhere to a strict and tested recipe. We now derive a measure of rotation from a new characterization of the width of a neutral Hydrogen line profile. Additionally, new photometry and zero point calibration data are available. Particularly the introduction of a new linewidth parameter necessitates the reconstruction and absolute calibration of the luminosity-linewidth template. The slope of the new template is set by 267 galaxies in 13 clusters. The zero point is set by 36 galaxies with Cepheid or Tip of the Red Giant Branch distances. Tentatively, we determine H0 = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1. Distances determined using the luminosity-linewidth calibration will contribute to the distance compendium Cosmicflows-2.

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arXiv2011

3D Velocity and Density Reconstructions of the Local Universe with Cosmicflows-1

This paper presents an analysis of the local peculiar velocity field based on the Wiener Filter reconstruction method. We used our currently available catalog of distance measurements containing 1,797 galaxies within 3000 km/s: Cosmicflows-1. The Wiener Filter method is used to recover the full 3D peculiar velocity field from the observed map of radial velocities and to recover the underlying linear density field. The velocity field within a data zone of 3000 km/s is decomposed into a local component that is generated within the data zone and a tidal one that is generated by the mass distribution outside that zone. The tidal component is characterized by a coherent flow toward the Norma-Hydra-Centaurus (Great Attractor) region while the local component is dominated by a flow toward the Virgo Cluster and away from the Local Void. A detailed analysis shows that the local flow is predominantly governed by the Local Void and the Virgo Cluster plays a lesser role. The analysis procedure was tested against a mock catalog. It is demonstrated that the Wiener Filter accurately recovers the input velocity field of the mock catalog on the scale of the extraction of distances and reasonably recovers the velocity field on significantly larger scales. The Bayesian Wiener Filter reconstruction is carried out within the ?CDM WMAP5 framework. The Wiener Filter reconstruction draws particular attention to the importance of voids in proximity to our neighborhood. The prominent structure of the Local Supercluster is wrapped in a horseshoe collar of under density with the Local Void as a major component.

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arXiv2011

Fast motions of galaxies in the Coma I cloud: a case of Dark Attractor?

We notice that nearby galaxies having high negative peculiar velocities are distributed over the sky very inhomogeneously. A part of this anisotropy is caused by the "Local Velocity Anomaly", i.e. by the bulk motion of nearby galaxies away from the Local Void. But a half of the fast-flying objects reside within a small region RA = [11.5h, 13.0h], Dec. = [+20\circ, +40\circ], known as the Coma I cloud. According to Makarov & Karachentsev (2011), this complex contains 8 groups, 5 triplets, 10 pairs and 83 single galaxies with the total mass of 4.7\star10^13M\odot. We use 122 galaxies in the Coma I region with known distances and radial velocities VLG < 3000 km/s to draw the Hubble relation for them. The Hubble diagram shows a Z-shape effect of infall with an amplitude of +200 km/s on the nearby side and -700 km/s on the back side. This phenomena can be understood as the galaxy infall towards a dark attractor with the mass of \sim 2\star10^14M\odot situated at a distance of 15 Mpc from us. The existence of large void between the Coma and Virgo clusters affects probably the Hubble flow around the Coma I also.

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arXiv2011

Cosmic Flows: Univ. Hawaii 2.2m I-band Photometry

Within the "Cosmic Flows" project, I-band photometry of 524 relatively nearby galaxies has been carried out over the course of several years with the University of Hawaii 2.2m telescope and a camera with a 7.5 arcmin field of view. The primary scientific purpose was to provide global magnitudes and inclinations for galaxies for the purpose of measuring distances through the correlation between galaxy luminosities and rotation rates. The accuracy on a total magnitude is 0.08 mag. The observations typically extend to 7-8 exponential disk scalelengths so the data are useful for studies of the structural properties of galaxies.

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arXiv2011

Cosmic Flows : Green Bank and Parkes HI observations

The neutral hydrogen properties of 1,822 galaxies are being studied with the Green Bank 100m and the Parkes 64m telescopes as part of the 'Cosmic Flows' program. Observed parameters include systemic velocities, profile line widths, and fluxes. The line width information can be combined with optical and infrared photometry to obtain distances. The 1,822 HI observations complement an inventory of archives. All told, HI line width information is available for almost all of five samples: (i) luminosity-line width correlation calibrators, (ii) zero-point calibrators for the supernova Ia scale, (iii) a dense local sample of spiral galaxies with M_{Ks} < -21 within 3,000 km/s, (iv) a sparser sample of 60 $μ$m selected galaxies within 6,000 km/s that provides all-sky coverage of our extended supercluster complex, and (v) an even sparser sample of flat galaxies, extreme edge-on spirals, extending in a volume out to 12,000 km/s. The HI information for 13,941 galaxies, whether from the archives or acquired as part of the Cosmic Flows observational program, is uniformly re-measured and made available through the Extragalactic Distance Database web site.

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arXiv2007

Our Peculiar Motion Away from the Local Void

The peculiar velocity of the Local Group of galaxies manifested in the Cosmic Microwave Background dipole is found to decompose into three dominant components. The three components are clearly separated because they arise on distinct spatial scales and are fortuitously almost orthogonal in their influences. The nearest, which is distinguished by a velocity discontinuity at ~7 Mpc, arises from the evacuation of the Local Void. We lie in the Local Sheet that bounds the void. Random motions within the Local Sheet are small. Our Galaxy participates in the bulk motion of the Local Sheet away from the Local Void. The component of our motion on an intermediate scale is attributed to the Virgo Cluster and its surroundings, 17 Mpc away. The third and largest component is an attraction on scales larger than 3000 km/s and centered near the direction of the Centaurus Cluster. The amplitudes of the three components are 259, 185, and 455 km/s, respectively, adding collectively to 631 km/s in the reference frame of the Local Sheet. Taking the nearby influences into account causes the residual attributed to large scales to align with observed concentrations of distant galaxies and reduces somewhat the amplitude of motion attributed to their pull. On small scales, in addition to the motion of our Local Sheet away from the Local Void, the nearest adjacent filament, the Leo Spur, is seen to be moving in a direction that will lead to convergence with our filament. Finally, a good distance to an isolated galaxy within the Local Void reveals that this dwarf system has a motion of at least 230 km/s away from the void center. Given the velocities expected from gravitational instability theory in the standard cosmological paradigm, the distance to the center of the Local Void must be at least 23 Mpc from our position. The Local Void is large!

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