arXiv subjects

Henk Hoekstra

Publications and source records attributed to Henk Hoekstra.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

KiDS-1000: Weak lensing and intrinsic alignment around luminous red galaxies

We study the properties of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) selected from the fourth data release of the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-1000) via galaxy-galaxy lensing of the background galaxies from KiDS-1000. We used a halo model formalism to interpret our measurements and obtain estimates of the halo masses as well as the satellite fractions of the LRGs, resulting in halo masses of $2.7 \times 10^{12} h^{-1} {\rm M}_{\odot}<M_{\rm h}< 2.6 \times 10^{13} h^{-1} {\rm M}_{\odot}$. We studied the strength of intrinsic alignments (IA) using the position-shape correlations as a function of LRG luminosity, where we used a double power law to describe the relation between luminosity and halo mass to allow for a comparison with previous works. Here, we directly linked the observed IA of the (central) galaxy to the mass of the hosting halo, which is expected to be a fundamental quantity in establishing the alignment. We find that the dependence of the IA amplitude on halo mass is described well by a single power law, with an amplitude of $A = 5.74\pm{0.32}$ and slope of $β_M = 0.44\pm{0.04}$, in the range of $1.9 \times 10^{12}h^{-1} {\rm M}_{\odot}<M_{\rm h}<3.7 \times 10^{14} h^{-1} {\rm M}_{\odot}$. We also find that both red and blue galaxies from the source sample associated with the LRGs are randomly oriented, with respect to the LRGs, although our detection significance is limited by the uncertainty in our photometric redshifts.

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arXiv2024

The PAU Survey: The quasar UV and Ly$α$ luminosity functions at $2.7<z<5.3$

We present the Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) and ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF), in bins of redshift, of quasars selected in the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). A sample of 915 objects was selected at $2.7 10^{44}$ ${\rm erg\,s}$$^{-1}$. In order to obtain corrections for the LF estimation, and assess the accuracy of our selection method, we produced mock catalogs of $0<z<4.3$ quasars and galaxies that mimic our target population and their main contaminants. Our results show a clear evolution of the Ly$α$ and UV LFs, with a declining tendency in the number density of quasars towards increasing redshifts. In addition, the faint-end power-law slope of the Ly$α$ LF becomes steeper with redshift, suggesting that the number density of Ly$α$-bright quasars declines faster than that of fainter emitters. By integrating the Ly$α$ LF we find that the total Ly$α$ emitted by bright quasars per unit volume rapidly declines with increasing redshift, being sub-dominant to that of star-forming galaxies by several orders of magnitude by $z\sim 4$. Finally, we stack the NB pseudo-spectra of a visually selected "golden sample" of 591 quasars to obtain photometric composite SEDs in bins of redshift, enabling to measure the mean IGM absorption by the Lyman-$α$ forest as a function of redshift.

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arXiv2024

KiDS-1000: Combined halo-model cosmology constraints from galaxy abundance, galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing

We present constraints on the flat $Λ$CDM cosmological model through a joint analysis of galaxy abundance, galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing observables with the Kilo-Degree Survey. Our theoretical model combines a flexible conditional stellar mass function, to describe the galaxy-halo connection, with a cosmological N-body simulation-calibrated halo model to describe the non-linear matter field. Our magnitude-limited bright galaxy sample combines 9-band optical-to-near-infrared photometry with an extensive and complete spectroscopic training sample to provide accurate redshift and stellar mass estimates. Our faint galaxy sample provides a background of accurately calibrated lensing measurements. We constrain the structure growth parameter $S_8=σ_8\sqrt{Ω_{\mathrm{m}}/0.3}=0.773^{+0.028}_{-0.030}$, and the matter density parameter $Ω_{\mathrm{m}}=0.290^{+0.021}_{-0.017}$. The galaxy-halo connection model adopted in the work is shown to be in agreement with previous studies. Our constraints on cosmological parameters are comparable to, and consistent with, joint $3\times2{\mathrm{pt}}$ clustering-lensing analyses that additionally include a cosmic shear observable. This analysis therefore brings attention to the significant constraining power in the often-excluded non-linear scales for galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing observables. By adopting a theoretical model that accounts for non-linear halo bias, halo exclusion, scale-dependent galaxy bias and the impact of baryon feedback, this work demonstrates the potential and a way forward to include non-linear scales in cosmological analyses. Varying the width of the satellite galaxy distribution with an additional parameter yields a strong preference for sub-Poissonian variance, improving the goodness of fit by 0.18 in reduced $χ^{2}$ value compared to a fixed Poisson distribution.

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arXiv2024

Constraining galaxy properties with complete samples of lenses

The statistics of Einstein radii for a sample of strong lenses can provide valuable constraints on the underlying mass distribution. The correct interpretation, however, relies critically on the modelling of the selection of the sample, which has proven to be a limiting factor. This may change thanks to upcoming uniform high-resolution imaging surveys that cover a large fraction of the sky, because they can provide complete lens samples, with well understood selection criteria. To explore how the observed distribution of Einstein radii depends on the galaxy properties, we simulated a realistic complete sample of strong lenses, predicting a number density of lenses of about 2.5 deg$^{-2}$ for a \Euclid-like setup. Such data can break the degeneracy between the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and the inner slope of the density profile of dark matter, without having to rely on additional information from stellar dynamics. We found that a survey covering only 50 deg$^2$ can already provide tight constraints: assuming that the cosmology is known, the dark matter slope is recovered with an uncertainty of $3.5\%$, while the uncertainty in the ratio between the true stellar mass and that inferred from stellar population modelling was found to be $10\%$. These findings highlight the potential of this method when applied to samples of lenses with well-understood selection functions.

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arXiv2024

The FLAMINGO project: Baryonic impact on weak gravitational lensing convergence peak counts

Weak gravitational lensing convergence peaks, the local maxima in weak lensing convergence maps, have been shown to contain valuable cosmological information complementary to commonly used two-point statistics. To exploit the full power of weak lensing for cosmology, we must model baryonic feedback processes because these reshape the matter distribution on non-linear and mildly non-linear scales. We study the impact of baryonic physics on the number density of weak lensing peaks using the FLAMINGO cosmological hydrodynamical simulation suite. We generate ray-traced full-sky convergence maps mimicking the characteristics of a Stage IV weak lensing survey. We compare the number densities of peaks in simulations that have been calibrated to reproduce the observed galaxy mass function and cluster gas fraction or to match a shifted version of these, and that use either thermally driven or jet AGN feedback. We show that the differences induced by realistic baryonic feedback prescriptions (typically $5 - 30\%$ for $κ= 0.1 - 0.4$) are smaller than those induced by reasonable variations in cosmological parameters ($20 - 60\%$ for $κ= 0.1 - 0.4$) but must be modeled carefully to obtain unbiased results. The reasons behind these differences can be understood by considering the impact of feedback on halo masses, or by considering the impact of different cosmological parameters on the halo mass function. Our analysis demonstrates that, for the range of models we investigated, the baryonic suppression is insensitive to changes in cosmology up to $κ\approx 0.4$ and that the higher $κ$ regime is dominated by Poisson noise and cosmic variance.

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arXiv2024

An environment-dependent halo mass function as a driver for the early quenching of $z\geq1.5$ cluster galaxies

Many $z=1.5$ galaxies with a stellar mass ($M_{\star}$) $\geq 10^{10}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ are already quenched in both galaxy clusters ($>50$ per cent) and the field ($>20$ per cent), with clusters having a higher quenched fraction at all stellar masses compared to the field. A puzzling issue is that these massive quenched galaxies have stellar populations of similar age in both clusters and the field. This suggests that, despite the higher quenched fraction in clusters, the dominant quenching mechanism for massive galaxies is similar in both environments. In this work, we use data from the cosmological hydrodynamic simulations Hydrangea and EAGLE to test whether the excess quenched fraction of massive galaxies in $z = 1.5$ clusters results from fundamental differences in their halo properties compared to the field. We find that (i) at $10^{10} \leq$ $M_{\star}/\,\mathrm{M}_\odot\leq 10^{11}$, quenched fractions in the redshift range $1.5 < z < 3.5$ are consistently higher for galaxies with higher peak maximum circular velocity of the dark matter halo ($v_{\mathrm{max, peak}}$), and (ii) the distribution of $v_{\mathrm{max, peak}}$ is strongly biased towards higher values for cluster satellites compared to the field centrals. Due to this difference in the halo properties of cluster and field galaxies, secular processes alone may account for (most of) the environmental excess of massive quenched galaxies in high-redshift (proto) clusters. Taken at face value, our results challenge a fundamental assumption of popular quenching models, namely that clusters are assembled from an unbiased subset of infalling field galaxies. If confirmed, this would imply that such models must necessarily fail at high redshift, as indicated by recent observations.

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arXiv2023

KiDS-1000: Cosmology with improved cosmic shear measurements

We present refined cosmological parameter constraints derived from a cosmic shear analysis of the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-1000). Our main improvements include enhanced galaxy shape measurements made possible by an updated version of the lensfit code and improved shear calibration achieved with a newly developed suite of multi-band image simulations. Additionally, we incorporated recent advancements in cosmological inference from the joint Dark Energy Survey Year 3 and KiDS-1000 cosmic shear analysis. Assuming a spatially flat standard cosmological model, we constrain $S_8\equivσ_8(Ω_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5} = 0.776_{-0.027-0.003}^{+0.029+0.002}$, where the second set of uncertainties accounts for the systematic uncertainties within the shear calibration. These systematic uncertainties stem from minor deviations from realism in the image simulations and the sensitivity of the shear measurement algorithm to the morphology of the galaxy sample. Despite these changes, our results align with previous KiDS studies and other weak lensing surveys, and we find a ${\sim}2.3σ$ level of tension with the Planck cosmic microwave background constraints on $S_8$.

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arXiv2023

ACT-DR5 Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Clusters: weak lensing mass calibration with KiDS

We present weak gravitational lensing measurements of a sample of 157 clusters within the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), detected with a $>5σ$ thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signal by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Using a halo-model approach we constrain the average total cluster mass, $M_{\rm WL}$, accounting for the ACT cluster selection function of the full sample. We find that the SZ cluster mass estimate $M_{\rm SZ}$, which was calibrated using X-ray observations, is biased with $M_{\rm SZ}/M_{\rm WL} = (1-b_{\rm SZ}) = 0.65\pm 0.05$. Separating the sample into six mass bins, we find no evidence of a strong mass-dependency for the mass bias, $(1-b_{\rm SZ})$. Adopting this ACT-KiDS SZ mass-calibration would bring the Planck SZ cluster count into agreement with the counts expected from the {\it Planck} cosmic microwave background $Λ$CDM cosmological model, although it should be noted that the cluster sample considered in this work has a lower average mass $M_{\rm SZ, uncor} = 3.64 \times 10^{14} M_{\odot}$ compared to the Planck cluster sample which has an average mass in the range $M_{\rm SZ, uncor} = (5.5-8.5) \times 10^{14} M_{\odot}$, depending on the sub-sample used.

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arXiv2023

KiDS-Legacy calibration: unifying shear and redshift calibration with the SKiLLS multi-band image simulations

We present SKiLLS, a suite of multi-band image simulations for the weak lensing analysis of the complete Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), dubbed KiDS-Legacy analysis. The resulting catalogues enable joint shear and redshift calibration, enhancing the realism and hence accuracy over previous efforts. To create a large volume of simulated galaxies with faithful properties and to a sufficient depth, we integrated cosmological simulations with high-quality imaging observations. We also improved the realism of simulated images by allowing the point spread function (PSF) to differ between CCD images, including stellar density variations and varying noise levels between pointings. Using realistic variable shear fields, we accounted for the impact of blended systems at different redshifts. Although the overall correction is minor, we found a clear redshift-bias correlation in the blending-only variable shear simulations, indicating the non-trivial impact of this higher-order blending effect. We also explored the impact of the PSF modelling errors and found a small yet noticeable effect on the shear bias. Finally, we conducted a series of sensitivity tests, including changing the input galaxy properties. We conclude that our fiducial shape measurement algorithm, lensfit, is robust within the requirements of lensing analyses with KiDS. As for future weak lensing surveys with tighter requirements, we suggest further investments in understanding the impact of blends at different redshifts, improving the PSF modelling algorithm and developing the shape measurement method to be less sensitive to the galaxy properties.

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arXiv2022

Photometric redshift estimation of strongly lensed galaxies

Around $10^5$ strongly lensed galaxies are expected to be discovered with Euclid and the LSST. Utilising these large samples to study the inner structure of lens galaxies requires source redshifts, to turn lens models into mass measurements. However, obtaining spectroscopic source redshifts for large lens samples is prohibitive with the capacity of spectroscopic facilities. Alternatively, we study the possibility of obtaining source photometric redshifts (photo-zs) for large lens samples. Our strategy consists of deblending the source and lens light by simultaneously modelling the lens and background source in all available photometric bands, and feeding the derived source colours to a template-fitting photo-z algorithm. We describe the lens and source light with a Sersic profile, and the lens mass with a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid. We test our approach on a simulated and a real sample of lenses, both in broad-band photometry of the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. We identify the deviations of the lens light from a Sersic profile and the contrast between the lens and source image as the main drivers of the source colour measurement error. We split the real sample based on the ratio $Λ$ of the lens to source surface brightness measured at the image locations. In the $Λ<1$ regime, the photo-z outlier fraction is $20\%$, and the accuracy of photo-z estimation is limited by the performance of template-fitting process. In the opposite regime, the photo-z outlier fraction is $75\%$, and the errors from the source colour measurements dominate the photo-z uncertainty. Measuring source photo-zs for lenses with $Λ<1$ poses no particular challenges, compared to isolated galaxies. For systems with significant lens light contamination, however, improving the description of the surface brightness distribution of the lens is required: a single Sersic model is not sufficiently accurate.

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arXiv2022

How to Interpret Measurements of Diffuse Light in Stacked Observations of Groups and Clusters of Galaxies

The diffuse light within galaxy groups and clusters provides valuable insight into the growth of massive cosmic structures. Groups are particularly interesting in this context, because they represent the link between galactic haloes and massive clusters. However, low surface brightness makes their diffuse light extremely challenging to detect individually. Stacking many groups is a promising alternative, but its physical interpretation is complicated by possible systematic variations of diffuse light profiles with other group properties. Another issue is the often ambiguous choice of group centre. We explore these challenges using mock observations for 497 galaxy groups and clusters with halo masses from $~ 10^{12} \textrm{M}_{\odot}$ to $1.5 \times 10^{15}\textrm{M}_{\odot}$ at redshift $0.1$ from the Hydrangea cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. In 18 per cent of groups with at least five galaxies above $10^{9} \textrm{M}_{\odot}$ in stellar mass, the $r$-band brightest galaxy is not the one at the centre of the gravitational potential; line-of-sight projections account for half of these cases. Miscentring does not significantly affect the ensemble average mass density profile or the surface brightness profile for our sample: even within ambiguously centred haloes, different centring choices lead to only a 1 per cent change in the total fraction of diffuse intra-group light, $f_{\textrm{IGL}}$. We find strong correlations of $f_{\textrm{IGL}}$ with the luminosity of the central group galaxy and halo mass. Stacking groups in narrow bins of central galaxy luminosity will therefore make the physical interpretation of the signal more straightforward than combining systems across a wide range of mass.

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arXiv2022

Rubin-Euclid Derived Data Products: Initial Recommendations

This report is the result of a joint discussion between the Rubin and Euclid scientific communities. The work presented in this report was focused on designing and recommending an initial set of Derived Data products (DDPs) that could realize the science goals enabled by joint processing. All interested Rubin and Euclid data rights holders were invited to contribute via an online discussion forum and a series of virtual meetings. Strong interest in enhancing science with joint DDPs emerged from across a wide range of astrophysical domains: Solar System, the Galaxy, the Local Volume, from the nearby to the primaeval Universe, and cosmology.

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arXiv2022

Extending empirical constraints on the SZ-mass scaling relation to higher redshifts via HST weak lensing measurements of nine clusters from the SPT-SZ survey at $z\gtrsim1$

We present a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) weak gravitational lensing study of nine distant and massive galaxy clusters with redshifts $1.0 \lesssim z \lesssim 1.7$ ($z_\mathrm{median} = 1.4$) and Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) detection significance $ξ> 6.0$ from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SPT-SZ) survey. We measured weak lensing galaxy shapes in HST/ACS F606W and F814W images and used additional observations from HST/WFC3 in F110W and VLT/FORS2 in $U_\mathrm{HIGH}$ to preferentially select background galaxies at $z\gtrsim 1.8$, achieving a high purity. We combined recent redshift estimates from the CANDELS/3D-HST and HUDF fields to infer an improved estimate of the source redshift distribution. We measured weak lensing masses by fitting the tangential reduced shear profiles with spherical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) models. We obtained the largest lensing mass in our sample for the cluster SPT-CLJ2040$-$4451, thereby confirming earlier results that suggest a high lensing mass of this cluster compared to X-ray and SZ mass measurements. Combining our weak lensing mass constraints with results obtained by previous studies for lower redshift clusters, we extended the calibration of the scaling relation between the unbiased SZ detection significance $ζ$ and the cluster mass for the SPT-SZ survey out to higher redshifts. We found that the mass scale inferred from our highest redshift bin ($1.2 < z < 1.7$) is consistent with an extrapolation of constraints derived from lower redshifts, albeit with large statistical uncertainties. Thus, our results show a similar tendency as found in previous studies, where the cluster mass scale derived from the weak lensing data is lower than the mass scale expected in a Planck $νΛ$CDM (i.e. $ν$ $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter) cosmology given the SPT-SZ cluster number counts.

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arXiv2022

Dynamical cluster masses from photometric surveys

The masses of galaxy clusters can be measured using data obtained exclusively from wide photometric surveys in one of two ways: directly from the amplitude of the weak lensing signal or, indirectly, through the use of scaling relations calibrated using binned lensing measurements. In this paper, we build on a recently proposed idea and implement an alternative method based on the radial profile of the satellite distribution. This technique relies on splashback, a feature associated with the apocenter of recently accreted galaxies that offers a clear window into the phase-space structure of clusters without the use of velocity information. We carry out this dynamical measurement using the stacked satellite distribution around a sample of luminous red galaxies in the fourth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey and validate our results using abundance-matching and lensing masses. To illustrate the power of this measurement, we combine dynamical and lensing mass estimates to robustly constrain scalar-tensor theories of gravity at cluster scales. Our results exclude departures from General Relativity of order unity. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications for future data sets. Because splashback mass measurements scale only with the survey volume, stage-IV photometric surveys are well-positioned to use splashback to provide high-redshift cluster masses.

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arXiv2022

The PAU Survey: Measurements of the 4000 Å spectral break with narrow-band photometry

The D4000 spectral break index is one of the most important features in the visible spectrum, as it is a proxy for stellar ages and is also used in galaxy classification. However, its direct measurement has always been reserved to spectroscopy. Here, we present a general method to directly measure the D4000 with narrow-band (NB) photometry; it has been validated using realistic simulations, and then evaluated with PAUS NBs, cross-matched with VIPERS spectra ($i_{\rm AB} < 22.5$, $0.562 < z < 0.967$). We also reconstruct the D4000 with the SED-fitting code CIGALE; the use of PAUS NBs instead of broad bands significantly improves the SED fitting results. For D4000$_{\rm n}$, the direct measurement has $\rm \langle SNR \rangle \sim 4$, but we find that for $i_{\rm AB}<21$ all direct D4000 measurements have $\rm SNR>3$. The CIGALE D4000$_{\rm n}$ has $\rm \langle SNR \rangle \sim 20$, but underestimates the error by $>$50\%. Furthermore, the direct method recreates well the D4000-SFR relation, as well as the D4000-mass relation for blue galaxies (for red galaxies, selection effects impact the results). On the other hand, CIGALE accurately classifies galaxies into red and blue populations. We conclude that the direct measurement of D4000 with narrow-band photometry is a promising tool to determine average properties of galaxy samples, with results compatible with spectroscopy.

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arXiv2022

How baryons can significantly bias cluster count cosmology

We quantify two main pathways through which baryonic physics biases cluster count cosmology. We create mock cluster samples that reproduce the baryon content inferred from X-ray observations. We link clusters to their counterparts in a dark matter-only universe, whose abundances can be predicted robustly, by assuming the dark matter density profile is not significantly affected by baryons. We derive weak lensing halo masses and infer the best-fitting cosmological parameters $Ω_\mathrm{m}$, $S_8=σ_8(Ω_\mathrm{m}/0.3)^{0.2}$, and $w_0$ from the mock cluster sample. We find that because of the need to accommodate the change in the density profile due to the ejection of baryons, weak lensing mass calibrations are only unbiased if the concentration is left free when fitting the reduced shear with NFW profiles. However, even unbiased total mass estimates give rise to biased cosmological parameters if the measured mass functions are compared with predictions from dark matter-only simulations. This bias dominates for haloes with $m_\mathrm{500c} < 10^{14.5} \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{M_\odot}$. For a stage IV-like cluster survey without mass estimation uncertainties, an area $\approx 15000 \, \mathrm{deg^2}$ and a constant mass cut of $m_\mathrm{200m,min} = 10^{14} \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{M_\odot}$, the biases are $-11 \pm 1 \, \%$ in $Ω_\mathrm{m}$, $-3.29 \pm 0.04 \, \%$ in $S_8$, and $9 \pm 1.5 \, \%$ in $w_0$. The statistical significance of the baryonic bias depends on how accurately the actual uncertainty on individual cluster mass estimates is known. We suggest that rather than the total halo mass, the (re-scaled) dark matter mass inferred from the combination of weak lensing and observations of the hot gas, should be used for cluster count cosmology.

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arXiv2022

Galaxy cluster aperture masses are more robust to baryonic effects than 3D halo masses

Systematic uncertainties in the mass measurement of galaxy clusters limit the cosmological constraining power of future surveys that will detect more than $10^5$ clusters. Previously, we argued that aperture masses can be inferred more accurately and precisely than 3D masses without loss of cosmological constraining power. Here, we use the Baryons and Haloes of Massive Systems (BAHAMAS) cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations to show that aperture masses are also less sensitive to changes in mass caused by galaxy formation processes. For haloes with $m_\mathrm{200m,dmo} > 10^{14} \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$, binned by their 3D halo mass, baryonic physics affects aperture masses and 3D halo masses similarly when measured within apertures similar to the halo virial radius, reaching a maximum reduction of $\approx 3 \, \%$. For lower-mass haloes, $10^{13.5} < m_\mathrm{200m,dmo} / (h^{-1} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot) < 10^{14}$, and aperture sizes $\sim 1 \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{cMpc}$, representative of weak lensing observations, the aperture mass is consistently reduced less ($\lesssim 5 \, \%$) than the 3D halo mass ($\lesssim 10 \, \%$ for $m_\mathrm{200m}$). The halo mass reduction evolves only slightly, by up to $2$ percentage points, between redshift 0.25 and 1 for both the aperture mass and $m_\mathrm{200m}$. Varying the strength of the simulated feedback so the mean simulated hot gas fraction covers the observed scatter inferred from X-ray observations, we find that the aperture mass is consistently less biased than the 3D halo mass, by up to $2 \, $ percentage points at $m_\mathrm{200m,dmo} = 10^{14} \, h^{-1} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$. Therefore, cluster aperture mass calibrations provide a fruitful path forward for future cluster surveys to reduce their sensitivity to systematic uncertainties.

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arXiv2022

Why are we still using 3D masses for cluster cosmology?

The abundance of clusters of galaxies is highly sensitive to the late-time evolution of the matter distribution, since clusters form at the highest density peaks. However, the 3D cluster mass cannot be inferred without deprojecting the observations, introducing model-dependent biases and uncertainties due to the mismatch between the assumed and the true cluster density profile and the neglected matter along the sightline. Since projected aperture masses can be measured directly in simulations and observationally through weak lensing, we argue that they are better suited for cluster cosmology. Using the Mira-Titan suite of gravity-only simulations, we show that aperture masses correlate strongly with 3D halo masses, albeit with large intrinsic scatter due to the varying matter distribution along the sightline. Nonetheless, aperture masses can be measured $\approx 2-3$ times more precisely from observations, since they do not require assumptions about the density profile and are only affected by the shape noise in the weak lensing measurements. We emulate the cosmology dependence of the aperture mass function directly with a Gaussian process. Comparing the cosmology sensitivity of the aperture mass function and the 3D halo mass function for a fixed survey solid angle and redshift interval, we find the aperture mass sensitivity is higher for $Ω_\mathrm{m}$ and $w_a$, similar for $σ_8$, $n_\mathrm{s}$, and $w_0$, and slightly lower for $h$. With a carefully calibrated aperture mass function emulator, cluster cosmology analyses can use cluster aperture masses directly, reducing the sensitivity to model-dependent mass calibration biases and uncertainties.

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