arXiv subjects

Ming-Feng Ho

Publications and source records attributed to Ming-Feng Ho.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Large-scale acoustic peak shift in the Planck CMB data

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies encode the history of the universe, which manifest itself in the angular power spectrum. We test the angular power spectra of small patches from the ESA $\textit{Planck}$ data. Known variations in the power spectra from small patches reveal informative details such as the gravitational lensing and the Doppler boosting effect. We compute the relative shifts of power spectra via comparing patches selected randomly from the CMB. We visualize the relative shifts on a full-sky HEALPix grid (a feature map) and analyze the statistical properties on the full-sky map. We find the regions contain the Cold Spot and the Draco supervoid have large relative shifts to large scales. We also find a dipole on the generated feature map comparing with simulations. We discuss possible ways to resolve this dipole on the feature map, including foregrounds, solar dipole systematics, and the uncertainty in our method.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Automated Measurement of Quasar Redshift with a Gaussian Process

We develop an automated technique to measure quasar redshifts in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our technique is an extension of an earlier Gaussian process method for detecting damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) in quasar spectra with known redshifts. We apply this technique to a subsample of SDSS DR12 with BAL quasars removed and redshift larger than 2.15. We show that we are broadly competitive to existing quasar redshift estimators, disagreeing with the PCA redshift by more than 0.5 in only 0.38% of spectra. Our method produces a probabilistic density function for the quasar redshift, allowing quasar redshift uncertainty to be propagated to downstream users. We apply this method to detecting DLAs, accounting in a Bayesian fashion for redshift uncertainty. Compared to our earlier method with a known quasar redshift, we have a moderate decrease in our ability to detect DLAs, predominantly in the noisiest spectra. The area under curve drops from 0.96 to 0.91. Our code is publicly available.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Detecting Multiple DLAs per Spectrum in SDSS DR12 with Gaussian Processes

We present a revised version of our automated technique using Gaussian processes (GPs) to detect Damped Lyman-$α$ absorbers (DLAs) along quasar (QSO) sightlines. The main improvement is to allow our Gaussian process pipeline to detect multiple DLAs along a single sightline. Our DLA detections are regularised by an improved model for the absorption from the Lyman-$α$ forest which improves performance at high redshift. We also introduce a model for unresolved sub-DLAs which reduces mis-classifications of absorbers without detectable damping wings. We compare our results to those of two different large-scale DLA catalogues and provide a catalogue of the processed results of our Gaussian process pipeline using 158 825 Lyman-$α$ spectra from SDSS data release 12. We present updated estimates for the statistical properties of DLAs, including the column density distribution function (CDDF), line density ($dN/dX$), and neutral hydrogen density ($Ω_{\textrm{DLA}}$).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

AMiBA: Cluster Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Observations with the Expanded 13-Element Array

The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is a co-planar interferometer array operating at a wavelength of 3mm to measure the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) of galaxy clusters. In the first phase of operation -- with a compact 7-element array with 0.6m antennas (AMiBA-7) -- we observed six clusters at angular scales from 5\arcmin to 23\arcmin. Here, we describe the expansion of AMiBA to a 13-element array with 1.2m antennas (AMiBA-13), its subsequent commissioning, and our cluster SZE observing program. The most important changes compared to AMiBA-7 are (1) array re-configuration with baselines ranging from 1.4m to 4.8m covering angular scales from 2\arcmin to 11.5\arcmin, (2) thirteen new lightweight carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) 1.2m reflectors, and (3) additional correlators and six new receivers. From the AMiBA-13 SZE observing program, we present here maps of a subset of twelve clusters. In highlights, we combine AMiBA-7 and AMiBA-13 observations of Abell 1689 and perform a joint fitting assuming a generalized NFW pressure profile. Our cylindrically integrated Compton-y values for this cluster are consistent with the BIMA/OVRA, SZA, and Planck results. We report the first targeted SZE detection towards the optically selected galaxy cluster RCS J1447+0828, and we demonstrate the ability of AMiBA SZE data to serve as a proxy for the total cluster mass. Finally, we show that our AMiBA-SZE derived cluster masses are consistent with recent lensing mass measurements in the literature.

astro-ph.CO↗