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Holger Israel

Publications and source records attributed to Holger Israel.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

SemEval-2025 Task 5: LLMs4Subjects -- LLM-based Automated Subject Tagging for a National Technical Library's Open-Access Catalog

We present SemEval-2025 Task 5: LLMs4Subjects, a shared task on automated subject tagging for scientific and technical records in English and German using the GND taxonomy. Participants developed LLM-based systems to recommend top-k subjects, evaluated through quantitative metrics (precision, recall, F1-score) and qualitative assessments by subject specialists. Results highlight the effectiveness of LLM ensembles, synthetic data generation, and multilingual processing, offering insights into applying LLMs for digital library classification.

cs.CL

Calibration of ground based survey data using Gaia: Application to DES

The calibration of ground based optical imaging data to photometric accuracy of 10 mmag over the full survey area and to color uniformity better than 5 mmag on the scale of the VIS focal plane is a key science requirement for the Euclid mission. These accuracies enable stable photometric redshifts of galaxies and modeling of the color dependent VIS PSF for weak lensing studies. We use the Gaia photometry to calibrate the $g/r/i/z$ magnitudes of Dark Energy Survey (DES) data to meet the stringent Euclid requirements. The Gaia G band magnitude along with the BP-RP color information of stars observed in the DES single epoch (SE) exposures are used to derive the transformation from Gaia to DES photometry for individual CCDs and to characterize persistent photometric errors across the DECam focal plane. We use the color dependence of these persistent errors to characterize the $g/r/i/z$ bandpass variations across the DECam focal plane.

astro-ph.GA

Weak lensing measurements of the APEX-SZ galaxy cluster sample

We present a weak lensing analysis for galaxy clusters from the APEX-SZ survey. For $39$ massive galaxy clusters that were observed via the Sunyaev-Zel\textquotesingle dovich effect (SZE) with the APEX telescope, we analyse deep optical imaging data from WFI(@2.2mMPG/ESO) and Suprime-Cam(@SUBARU) in three bands. The masses obtained in this study, including an X-ray selected subsample of 27 clusters, are optimised for and used in studies constraining the mass to observable scaling relations at fixed cosmology. A novel focus of our weak lensing analysis is the multi-colour background selection to suppress effects of cosmic variance on the redshift distribution of source galaxies. We investigate the effects of cluster member contamination through galaxy density, shear profile, and recovered concentrations. We quantify the impact of variance in source redshift distribution on the mass estimate by studying nine sub-fields of the COSMOS survey for different cluster redshift and manitude limits. We measure a standard deviation of $\sim 6$\% on the mean angular diameter distance ratio for a cluster at $z\!=\!0.45$ and shallow imaging data of $R\!\approx\!23$ mag. It falls to $\sim 1$\% for deep, $R=26$ mag, observations. This corresponds to 8.4\% and 1.4\% scatter in $M_{200}$. Our background selection reduces this scatter by $20-40$\%, depending on cluster redshift and imaging depth. We derived cluster masses with and without using a mass concentration relation and find consistent results, and concentrations consistent with the used mass-concentration relation.

astro-ph.CO

Chandra Follow-Up of the SDSS DR8 redMaPPer Catalog Using the MATCha Pipeline

In order to place constraints on cosmology through optical surveys of galaxy clusters, one must first understand the properties of those clusters. To this end, we introduce the Mass Analysis Tool for Chandra (MATCha), a pipeline which uses a parallellized algorithm to analyze archival Chandra data. MATCha simultaneously calculates X-ray temperatures and luminosities and performs centering measurements for hundreds of potential galaxy clusters using archival X-ray exposures. We run MATCha on the redMaPPer SDSS DR8 cluster catalog and use MATCha's output X-ray temperatures and luminosities to analyze the galaxy cluster temperature-richness, luminosity-richness, luminosity-temperature, and temperature-luminosity scaling relations. We detect 447 clusters and determine 246 r2500 temperatures across all redshifts. Within 0.1 < z < 0.35 we find that r2500 Tx scales with optical richness as ln(kB Tx / 1.0 keV) = (0.52 \pm 0.05) ln(λ/70) + (1.85 \pm 0.03) with intrinsic scatter of 0.27 \pm 0.02 (1 σ). We investigate the distribution of offsets between the X-ray center and redMaPPer center within 0.1 < z < 0.35, finding that 68.3 \pm 6.5% of clusters are well-centered. However, we find a broad tail of large offsets in this distribution, and we explore some of the causes of redMaPPer miscentering.

astro-ph.CO

Dark matter dynamics in Abell 3827: new data consistent with standard Cold Dark Matter

We present integral field spectroscopy of galaxy cluster Abell 3827, using ALMA and VLT/MUSE. It reveals an unusual configuration of strong gravitational lensing in the cluster core, with at least seven lensed images of a single background spiral galaxy. Lens modelling based on HST imaging had suggested that the dark matter associated with one of the cluster's central galaxies may be offset. The new spectroscopic data enable better subtraction of foreground light, and better identification of multiple background images. The inferred distribution of dark matter is consistent with being centered on the galaxies, as expected by LCDM. Each galaxy's dark matter also appears to be symmetric. Whilst we do not find an offset between mass and light (suggestive of self-interacting dark matter) as previously reported, the numerical simulations that have been performed to calibrate Abell 3827 indicate that offsets and asymmetry are still worth looking for in collisions with particular geometries. Meanwhile, ALMA proves exceptionally useful for strong lens image identifications.

astro-ph.CO

Problems using ratios of galaxy shape moments on requirements for weak lensing surveys

The shapes of galaxies can be quantified by ratios of their quadrupole moments. For faint galaxies, observational noise can make the denominator close to zero, so the ratios become ill-defined. Knowledge of these ratios (i.e. their measured standard deviation) is commonly used to assess the efficiency of weak gravitational lensing surveys. Since the requirements cannot be formally tested for faint galaxies, we explore two complementary mitigation strategies. In many weak lensing contexts, the most problematic sources can be removed by a cut in measured size. We investigate how a size cuts affects the required precision of the charge transfer inefficiency model and find slightly wider tolerance margins compared to the full size distribution. However, subtle biases in the data analysis chain may be introduced. Instead, as our second strategy, we propose requirements directly on the quadrupole moments themselves. To optimally exploit a Stage-IV dark energy survey, we find that the mean and standard deviation of a population of galaxies' quadrupole moments must to be known to better than $1.4\times10^{-3}$ arcsec$^{2}$, or the Stokes parameters to $1.9\times10^{-3}$ arcsec$^2$. This testable requirement can now form the basis for future performance validation, or for proportioning the requirements between subsystems to ensure unbiased cosmological parameter inference.

astro-ph.CO

Warm-hot baryons comprise 5-10 per cent of filaments in the cosmic web

Observations of the cosmic microwave background indicate that baryons account for 5% of the Universe's total energy content. In the local Universe, the census of all observed baryons falls short of this estimate by a factor of two. Cosmological simulations indicate that the missing baryons might not have condensed into virialized haloes, but reside throughout the filaments of the cosmic web (where matter density is larger than average) as a low-density plasma at temperatures of $10^5-10^7$ kelvin, known as the warm-hot intergalactic medium. There have been previous claims of the detection of warm baryons along the line of sight to distant blazars and of hot gas between interacting clusters. These observations were, however, unable to trace the large-scale filamentary structure, or to estimate the total amount of warm baryons in a representative volume of the Universe. Here we report X-ray observations of filamentary structures of gas at $10^7$ kelvin associated with the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Previous observations of this cluster were unable to resolve and remove coincidental X-ray point sources. After subtracting these, we reveal hot gas structures that are coherent over scales of 8 mergaparsecs. The filaments coincide with over-densities of galaxies and dark matter, with 5-10% of their mass in baryonic gas. This gas has been heated up by the cluster's gravitational pull and is now feeding its core. Our findings strengthen evidence for a picture of the Universe in which a large fraction of the missing baryons reside in the filaments of the cosmic web.

astro-ph.CO

How well can Charge Transfer Inefficiency be corrected? A parameter sensitivity study for iterative correction

Radiation damage to space-based Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) detectors creates defects which result in an increasing Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) that causes spurious image trailing. Most of the trailing can be corrected during post-processing, by modelling the charge trapping and moving electrons back to where they belong. However, such correction is not perfect -- and damage is continuing to accumulate in orbit. To aid future development, we quantify the limitations of current approaches, and determine where imperfect knowledge of model parameters most degrade measurements of photometry and morphology. As a concrete application, we simulate $1.5\times10^{9}$ "worst case" galaxy and $1.5\times10^{8}$ star images to test the performance of the Euclid visual instrument detectors. There are two separable challenges: If the model used to correct CTI is perfectly the same as that used to add CTI, $99.68$ % of spurious ellipticity is corrected in our setup. This is because readout noise is not subject to CTI, but gets over-corrected during correction. Second, if we assume the first issue to be solved, knowledge of the charge trap density within $Δρ/ρ\!=\!(0.0272\pm0.0005)$ %, and the characteristic release time of the dominant species to be known within $Δτ/τ\!=\!(0.0400\pm0.0004)$ % will be required. This work presents the next level of definition of in-orbit CTI calibration procedures for Euclid.

astro-ph.IM

The behaviour of dark matter associated with 4 bright cluster galaxies in the 10kpc core of Abell 3827

Galaxy cluster Abell 3827 hosts the stellar remnants of four almost equally bright elliptical galaxies within a core of radius 10kpc. Such corrugation of the stellar distribution is very rare, and suggests recent formation by several simultaneous mergers. We map the distribution of associated dark matter, using new Hubble Space Telescope imaging and VLT/MUSE integral field spectroscopy of a gravitationally lensed system threaded through the cluster core. We find that each of the central galaxies retains a dark matter halo, but that (at least) one of these is spatially offset from its stars. The best-constrained offset is 1.62+/-0.48kpc, where the 68% confidence limit includes both statistical error and systematic biases in mass modelling. Such offsets are not seen in field galaxies, but are predicted during the long infall to a cluster, if dark matter self-interactions generate an extra drag force. With such a small physical separation, it is difficult to definitively rule out astrophysical effects operating exclusively in dense cluster core environments - but if interpreted solely as evidence for self-interacting dark matter, this offset implies a cross-section sigma/m=(1.7+/-0.7)x10^{-4}cm^2/g x (t/10^9yrs)^{-2}, where t is the infall duration.

astro-ph.CO

Reconciling Planck cluster counts and cosmology? Chandra/XMM instrumental calibration and hydrostatic mass bias

The mass of galaxy clusters can be inferred from the temperature of their X-ray emitting gas, $T_{\mathrm{X}}$. Their masses may be underestimated if it is assumed that the gas is in hydrostatic equilibrium, by an amount $b^{\mathrm{hyd}}\sim(20\pm10)$ % suggested by simulations. We have previously found consistency between a sample of observed \textit{Chandra} X-ray masses and independent weak lensing measurements. Unfortunately, uncertainties in the instrumental calibration of {\em Chandra} and {\em XMM-Newton} observatories mean that they measure different temperatures for the same gas. In this paper, we translate that relative instrumental bias into mass bias, and infer that \textit{XMM-Newton} masses of $\sim 10^{14}\,\mbox{M}_{\odot}$ ($> 5\cdot 10^{14} \mbox{M}_{\odot}$) clusters are unbiased ($\sim 35$ % lower) compared to WL masses. For massive clusters, \textit{Chandra}'s calibration may thus be more accurate. The opposite appears to be true at the low mass end. We observe the mass bias to increase with cluster mass, but presence of Eddington bias precludes firm conclusions at this stage. Nevertheless, the systematic \textit{Chandra} -- \textit{XMM-Newton} difference is important because {\em Planck}'s detections of massive clusters via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect are calibrated via {\em XMM-Newton} observations. The number of detected SZ clusters are inconsistent with {\em Planck}'s cosmological measurements of the primary Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Given the \textit{Planck} cluster masses, if an (unlikely) uncorrected $\sim 20$ % calibration bias existed, this tension would be eased, but not resolved.

astro-ph.CO

Characterization of a commercial, front-illuminated interline transfer CCD camera for use as a guide camera on a balloon-borne telescope

We report results obtained during the characterization of a commercial front-illuminated progressive scan interline transfer CCD camera. We demonstrate that the unmodified camera operates successfully in temperature and pressure conditions (-40C, 4mBar) representative of a high altitude balloon mission. We further demonstrate that the centroid of a well-sampled star can be determined to better than 2% of a pixel, even though the CCD is equipped with a microlens array. This device has been selected for use in a closed-loop star-guiding and tip-tilt correction system in the BIT-STABLE balloon mission.

astro-ph.IM

The 400d Galaxy Cluster Survey weak lensing programme: III: Evidence for consistent WL and X-ray masses at $z\approx 0.5$

Scaling properties of galaxy cluster observables with mass provide central insights into the processes shaping clusters. Calibrating proxies for cluster mass will be crucial to cluster cosmology with upcoming surveys like eROSITA and Euclid. The recent Planck results led to suggestions that X-ray masses might be biased low by $\sim\!40$ %, more than previously considered. We extend the direct calibration of the weak lensing -- X-ray mass scaling towards lower masses (as low as $1\!\times\!10^{14}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) in a sample representative of the $z\!\sim\!0.4$--$0.5$ population. We investigate the scaling of MMT/Megacam weak lensing (WL) masses for $8$ clusters at $0.39\!\leq\!z\!\leq\!0.80$ as part of the \emph{400d} WL programme with hydrostatic \textit{Chandra} X-ray masses as well as those based on the proxies, e.g. $Y_{\mathrm{X}}\!=\!T_{\mathrm{X}}M_{\mathrm{gas}}$. Overall, we find good agreement between WL and X-ray masses, with different mass bias estimators all consistent with zero. Subdividing the sample, we find the high-mass subsample to show no significant mass bias while for the low-mass subsample, there is a bias towards overestimated X-ray masses at the $\sim\!2σ$ level for some mass proxies. The overall scatter in the mass-mass scaling relations is surprisingly low. Neither observation can be traced back to the parameter settings in the WL analysis. We do not find evidence for a strong ($\sim\!40$ %) underestimate in the X-ray masses, as suggested to reconcile Planck cluster counts and cosmological constraints. For high-mass clusters, our measurements are consistent with studies in the literature. The mass dependent bias, significant at $\sim\!2σ$, may hint at a physically different cluster population (less relaxed clusters with more substructure and mergers); or it may be due to small number statistics.

astro-ph.CO

An improved model of Charge Transfer Inefficiency and correction algorithm for the Hubble Space Telescope

Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) detectors, widely used to obtain digital imaging, can be damaged by high energy radiation. Degraded images appear blurred, because of an effect known as Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI), which trails bright objects as the image is read out. It is often possible to correct most of the trailing during post-processing, by moving flux back to where it belongs. We compare several popular algorithms for this: quantifying the effect of their physical assumptions and tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. We combine their best elements to construct a more accurate model of damaged CCDs in the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys/Wide Field Channel, and update it using data up to early 2013. Our algorithm now corrects 98% of CTI trailing in science exposures, a substantial improvement over previous work. Further progress will be fundamentally limited by the presence of read noise. Read noise is added after charge transfer so does not get trailed - but it is incorrectly untrailed during post-processing.

astro-ph.IM

Masses of galaxy clusters from gravitational lensing

Despite consistent progress in numerical simulations, the observable properties of galaxy clusters are difficult to predict ab initio. It is therefore important to compare both theoretical and observational results to a direct measure of the cluster mass. This can be done by measuring the gravitational lensing effects caused by the bending of light by the cluster mass distribution. In this review we discuss how this phenomenon can be used to determine cluster masses and study the mass distribution itself. As sample sizes increase, the accuracy of the weak lensing mass estimates needs to improve accordingly. We discuss the main practical aspects of these measurements. We review a number of applications and highlight some recent results.

astro-ph.CO

Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters

Until recently, only about 10% of the total intracluster gas volume had been studied with high accuracy, leaving a vast region essentially unexplored. This is now changing and a wide area of hot gas physics and chemistry awaits discovery in galaxy cluster outskirts. Also, robust large-scale total mass profiles and maps are within reach. First observational and theoretical results in this emerging field have been achieved in recent years with sometimes surprising findings. Here, we summarize and illustrate the relevant underlying physical and chemical processes and review the recent progress in X-ray, Sunyaev--Zel'dovich, and weak gravitational lensing observations of cluster outskirts, including also brief discussions of technical challenges and possible future improvements.

astro-ph.CO

The 400d Galaxy Cluster Survey weak lensing programme: II: Weak lensing study of seven clusters with MMT/Megacam

Evolution in the mass function of galaxy clusters sensitively traces both the expansion history of the Universe and cosmological structure formation. Robust cluster mass determinations are a key ingredient for a reliable measurement of this evolution, especially at high redshift. Weak gravitational lensing is a promising tool for, on average, unbiased mass estimates. This weak lensing project aims at measuring reliable weak lensing masses for a complete X-ray selected sample of 36 high redshift (0.35<z<0.9) clusters. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the robustness of the methodology against commonly encountered problems, including pure instrumental effects, the presence of bright (8--9 mag) stars close to the cluster centre, ground based measurements of high-z (z~0.8) clusters, and the presence of massive unrelated structures along the line-sight. We select a subsample of seven clusters observed with MMT/Megacam. Instrumental effects are checked in detail by cross-comparison with an archival CFHT/MegaCam observation. We derive mass estimates for seven clusters by modelling the tangential shear with an NFW profile, in two cases with multiple components to account for projected structures in the line-of-sight. We firmly detect lensing signals from all seven clusters at more than $3.5σ$ and determine their masses, ranging from $10^{14} M_{\odot}$ to $10^{15} M_{\odot}$, despite the presence of nearby bright stars. We retrieve the lensing signal of more than one cluster in the CL 1701+6414 field, while apparently observing CL 1701+6414 through a massive foreground filament. We also find a multi-peaked shear signal in CL 1641+4001. Shear structures measured in the MMT and CFHT images of CL 1701+6414 are highly correlated.

astro-ph.CO

The 400d Galaxy Cluster Survey Weak Lensing Programme: I: MMT/Megacam Analysis of CL0030+2618 at z=0.50

The mass function of galaxy clusters at high redshifts is a particularly useful probe to learn about the history of structure formation and constrain cosmological parameters. We aim at deriving reliable masses for a high-redshift, high-luminosity sample of clusters of galaxies selected from the 400d survey of X-ray selected clusters. Here, we will focus on a particular object, CL0030+2618 at z=0.50 Using deep imaging in three passbands with the MEGACAM instrument at MMT, we show that MEGACAM is well-suited for measuring gravitational shear. We detect the weak lensing signal of CL0030+2618 at 5.8 sigma significance, using the aperture mass technique. Furthermore, we find significant tangential alignment of galaxies out to ~10 arcmin or >2r_200 distance from the cluster centre. The weak lensing centre of CL0030+2618 agrees with several X-ray measurements and the position of the brightest cluster galaxy. Finally, we infer a weak lensing virial mass of M_200=7.5 10^{14} M_sun for CL0030+2618. Despite complications by a tentative foreground galaxy group in the line of sight, the X-ray and weak lensing estimates for CL0030+2618 are in remarkable agreement. This study paves the way for the largest weak lensing survey of high-redshift galaxy clusters to date.

astro-ph.CO

Optimising Optimal Image Subtraction

Difference imaging is a technique for obtaining precise relative photometry of variable sources in crowded stellar fields and, as such, constitutes a crucial part of the data reduction pipeline in surveys for microlensing events or transiting extrasolar planets. The Optimal Image Subtraction (OIS) algorithm permits the accurate differencing of images by determining convolution kernels which, when applied to reference images of particularly good quality, provide excellent matches to the point-spread functions (PSF) in other images of the time series to be analysed. The convolution kernels are built as linear combinations of a set of basis functions, conventionally bivariate Gaussians modulated by polynomials. The kernel parameters must be supplied by the user and should ideally be matched to the PSF, pixel-sampling, and S/N of the data to be analysed. We have studied the outcome of the reduction as a function of the kernel parameters using our implementation of OIS within the TRIPP package. From the analysis of noise-free PSF simulations as well as test images from the ISIS OIS package, we derive qualitative and quantitative relations between the kernel parameters and the success of the subtraction as a function of the PSF sizes and sampling in reference and data images and compare the results to those of implementations in the literature. On this basis, we provide recommended parameters for data sets with different S/N and sampling.

astro-ph