arXiv subjects

Neal Jackson

Publications and source records attributed to Neal Jackson.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Synergy between the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Square Kilometre Array

We provide an overview of the science benefits of combining information from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). We first summarise the capabilities and timeline of the LSST and overview its science goals. We then discuss the science questions in common between the two projects, and how they can be best addressed by combining the data from both telescopes. We describe how weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering studies with LSST and SKA can provide improved constraints on the causes of the cosmological acceleration. We summarise the benefits to galaxy evolution studies of combining deep optical multi-band imaging with radio observations. Finally, we discuss the excellent match between one of the most unique features of the LSST, its temporal cadence in the optical waveband, and the time resolution of the SKA.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Strong Lens Time Delay Challenge: II. Results of TDC1

We present the results of the first strong lens time delay challenge. The motivation, experimental design, and entry level challenge are described in a companion paper. This paper presents the main challenge, TDC1, which consisted of analyzing thousands of simulated light curves blindly. The observational properties of the light curves cover the range in quality obtained for current targeted efforts (e.g.,~COSMOGRAIL) and expected from future synoptic surveys (e.g.,~LSST), and include simulated systematic errors. \nteamsA\ teams participated in TDC1, submitting results from \nmethods\ different method variants. After a describing each method, we compute and analyze basic statistics measuring accuracy (or bias) $A$, goodness of fit $χ^2$, precision $P$, and success rate $f$. For some methods we identify outliers as an important issue. Other methods show that outliers can be controlled via visual inspection or conservative quality control. Several methods are competitive, i.e., give $|A|<0.03$, $P<0.03$, and $χ^2<1.5$, with some of the methods already reaching sub-percent accuracy. The fraction of light curves yielding a time delay measurement is typically in the range $f = $20--40\%. It depends strongly on the quality of the data: COSMOGRAIL-quality cadence and light curve lengths yield significantly higher $f$ than does sparser sampling. Taking the results of TDC1 at face value, we estimate that LSST should provide around 400 robust time-delay measurements, each with $P<0.03$ and $|A|<0.01$, comparable to current lens modeling uncertainties. In terms of observing strategies, we find that $A$ and $f$ depend mostly on season length, while P depends mostly on cadence and campaign duration.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

The Hubble Constant

I review the current state of determinations of the Hubble constant, which gives the length scale of the Universe by relating the expansion velocity of objects to their distance. There are two broad categories of measurements. The first uses individual astrophysical objects which have some property that allows their intrinsic luminosity or size to be determined, or allows the determination of their distance by geometric means. The second category comprises the use of all-sky cosmic microwave background, or correlations between large samples of galaxies, to determine information about the geometry of the Universe and hence the Hubble constant, typically in a combination with other cosmological parameters. Many, but not all, object-based measurements give $H_0$ values of around 72-74km/s/Mpc , with typical errors of 2-3km/s/Mpc. This is in mild discrepancy with CMB-based measurements, in particular those from the Planck satellite, which give values of 67-68km/s/Mpc and typical errors of 1-2km/s/Mpc. The size of the remaining systematics indicate that accuracy rather than precision is the remaining problem in a good determination of the Hubble constant. Whether a discrepancy exists, and whether new physics is needed to resolve it, depends on details of the systematics of the object-based methods, and also on the assumptions about other cosmological parameters and which datasets are combined in the case of the all-sky methods.

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arXiv2013

Quasar lensing

I review the observations of gravitationally lensed quasars. These systems are important because they allow us to probe the properties of the lensing galaxies at various scales, and they also allow insights into the structures of the quasars themselves. Samples of quasar lenses also have the potential to act as cosmographic probes. These areas are described, together with observational and scientific prospects for the future.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Quasar emission lines, radio structures and radio unification

Unified schemes of radio sources, which account for different types of radio AGN in terms of anisotropic radio and optical emission, together with different orientations of the ejection axis to the line of sight, have been invoked for many years. Recently, large samples of optical quasars, mainly from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, together with large radio samples, such as FIRST, have become available. These hold the promise of providing more stringent tests of unified schemes but, compared to previous samples, lack high resolution radio maps. Nevertheless they have been used to investigate unified schemes, in some cases yielding results which appear inconsistent with such theories. Here we investigate using simulations how the selection effects to which such investigations are subject can influence the conclusions drawn. In particular, we find that the effects of limited resolution do not allow core-dominated radio sources to be fully represented in the samples, that the effects of limited sensitivity systematically exclude some classes of sources and the lack of deep radio data make it difficult to decide to what extent closely separated radio sources are associated. Nevertheless, we conclude that relativistic unified schemes are entirely compatible with the current observational data. For a sample selected from SDSS and FIRST which includes weak-cored triples we find that the equivalent width of the [OIII] emission line decreases as core-dominance increases, as expected, and also that core-dominated quasars are optically brighter than weak-cored quasars.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

New lensed quasars from the MUSCLES survey

Gravitational lens systems containing lensed quasars are important as cosmological probes, as diagnostics of structural properties of the lensing galaxies and as tools to study the quasars themselves. The largest lensed quasar sample is the SDSS Quasar Lens Search, drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We are attempting to extend this survey using observations of lens candidates selected from a combination of the quasar sample from the SDSS and the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). This adds somewhat higher image quality together with a wider range of wavelength for the selection process. In previous pilot surveys we observed 5 objects, finding 2 lenses; here we present further observations of 20 objects in which we find 4 lenses, of which 2 are independently discovered in SQLS (in preparation). Following earlier work on the combination of these two surveys, we have refined our method and find that use of a colour-separation diagnostic, where we select for separations between components which appear to decrease in wavelength, is an efficient method to find lensed quasars and may be useful in ongoing and future large-scale strong lensing surveys with instruments such as Pan-STARRS and LSST. The new lenses have mostly high flux ratios, with faint secondaries buried in the lensing galaxy and typically 6-10 times less bright than the primary. Our survey brings the total number of lenses discovered in the SDSS quasar sample to 46, plus 13 lenses already known. This is likely to be up to 60-70% of the total number of lensed quasars; we briefly discuss strategies by which the rest might be found.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

LOFAR and APERTIF surveys of the radio sky: probing shocks and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters

At very low frequencies, the new pan-European radio telescope LOFAR is opening the last unexplored window of the electromagnetic spectrum for astrophysical studies. The revolutionary APERTIF phased arrays that are about to be installed on the Westerbork radio telescope (WSRT) will dramatically increase the survey speed for the WSRT. Combined surveys with these two facilities will deeply chart the northern sky over almost two decades in radio frequency from \sim 15 up to 1400 MHz. Here we briefly describe some of the capabilities of these new facilities and what radio surveys are planned to study fundamental issues related the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. In the second part we briefly review some recent observational results directly showing that diffuse radio emission in clusters traces shocks due to cluster mergers. As these diffuse radio sources are relatively bright at low frequencies, LOFAR should be able to detect thousands of such sources up to the epoch of cluster formation. This will allow addressing many question about the origin and evolution of shocks and magnetic fields in clusters. At the end we briefly review some of the first and very preliminary LOFAR results on clusters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

LOFAR: Recent imaging results & future prospects

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is under construction in the Netherlands and in several surrounding European countries. In this contribution, we describe the layout and design of the telescope, with a particular emphasis on the imaging characteristics of the array when used in its "standard imaging" mode. After briefly reviewing the calibration and imaging software used for LOFAR image processing, we show some recent results from the ongoing imaging commissioning efforts. We conclude by summarizing future prospects for the use of LOFAR in observing the little-explored low frequency Universe.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

LOFAR: Early imaging results from commissioning for Cygnus A

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) will operate between 10 and 250 MHz, and will observe the low frequency Universe to an unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. The construction and commissioning of LOFAR is well underway, with over 27 of the Dutch stations and five International stations routinely performing both single-station and interferometric observations over the frequency range that LOFAR is anticipated to operate at. Here, we summarize the capabilities of LOFAR and report on some of the early commissioning imaging of Cygnus A.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

A Pilot Study for the SCUBA-2 'All-Sky' Survey

We have carried out a pilot study for the SCUBA-2 'All-Sky' Survey, SASSy, a wide and shallow mapping project at 850 microns, designed to find rare objects, both Galactic and extragalactic. Two distinct sets of exploratory observations were undertaken, and used to test the SASSy approach and data reduction pipeline. The first was a 0.5 by 0.5 degrees map around the nearby galaxy NGC 2559. The galaxy was easily detected at 156 mJy, but no other convincing sources are present in the map. Comparison with other galaxies with similar wavelength coverage indicates that NGC 2559 has relatively warm dust. The second observations cover 1 square degree around the W5-E HII region. As well as diffuse structure in the map, a filtering approach was able to extract 27 compact sources with signal-to-noise greater than 6. By matching with data at other wavelengths we can see that the SCUBA-2 data can be used to discriminate the colder cores. Together these observations show that the SASSy project will be able to meet its original goals of detecting new bright sources which will be ideal for follow-up observations with other facilities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

A new gravitational lens from the MUSCLES survey: ULAS J082016.1+081216

We present observations of a new double-image gravitational lens system, ULAS J082016.1+081216, of image separation 2.3" and high (~6) flux ratio. The system is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic quasar list using new high-quality images from the UKIRT Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The lensed quasar has a source redshift of 2.024, and we identify the lens galaxy as a faint red object of redshift 0.803+/-0.001. Three other objects from the UKIDSS survey, selected in the same way, were found not to be lens systems. Together with the earlier lens found using this method, the SDSS-UKIDSS lenses have the potential to significantly increase the number of quasar lenses found in SDSS, to extend the survey to higher flux ratios and lower separations, and to give greater completeness which is important for statistical purposes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2008

Gravitational lenses and lens candidates identified from the COSMOS field

A complete manual search has been carried out of the list of 285423 objects, nearly all of them galaxies, identified in the COSMOS field that are brighter than I=25. Two certain and one highly probable new gravitational lenses are found, in addition to the lenses and candidate lens systems previously found by Faure et al. (2008). A further list of 112 candidate lens systems is presented. Few of these are likely to be true gravitational lens systems, most being star-forming rings or pairs of companion galaxies. It is possible to examine of order 10^6 objects by eye in a reasonable time, although reliable detection of lenses by such methods is likely to be possible only with high-resolution data. The loss of completeness involved in a rapid search is estimated as up to a factor of 2, depending on the morphology of the lens candidate.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

ULAS J234311.93-005034.0: A gravitational lens system selected from UKIDSS and SDSS

We report the discovery of a new gravitational lens system. This object, ULAS J234311.93-005034.0, is the first to be selected by using the new UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS), together with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The ULAS J234311.93-005034.0 system contains a quasar at redshift 0.788 which is doubly imaged, with separation 1.4". The two quasar images have the same redshift and similar, though not identical, spectra. The lensing galaxy is detected by subtracting point-spread functions from R-band images taken with the Keck telescope. The lensing galaxy can also be detected by subtracting the spectra of the A and B images, since more of the galaxy light is likely to be present in the latter. No redshift is determined from the galaxy, although the shape of its spectrum suggests a redshift of about 0.3. The object's lens status is secure, due to the identification of two objects with the same redshift together with a lensing galaxy. Our imaging suggests that the lens is found in a cluster environment, in which candidate arc-like structures, that require confirmation, are visible in the vicinity. Further discoveries of lenses from the UKIDSS survey are likely as part of this programme, due to the depth of UKIDSS and its generally good seeing conditions.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Near-infrared spectroscopy of powerful compact steep-spectrum radio sources

We have obtained near-infrared spectroscopy of a small sample of powerful Compact Steep-Spectrum (CSS) radio sources mainly, but not exclusively, from the 3CR sample. We find no differences between the distributions in the equivalent width and luminosity of the [OIII] 5007A line for our sample and other larger, presumably older, high-redshift 3C objects, suggesting that the underlying quasar luminosity remains roughly constant as quasars age. We also find a possible broad line in 3C241, adding to recent evidence for broad lines in some radio galaxies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

A search for distant radio-loud quasars in the CLASS survey: three new radio-selected quasars at z>4

We report on the search for distant radio-loud quasars in the Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS) of flat spectrum radio sources with S_5GHz>30 mJy. Unresolved optical counterparts were selected from APM scans of POSS-I plates, with e<19.0 and red o-e>2.0 colours, in an effective area of ~6400 deg^2. Four sources were found to be quasars with z>4, of which one was previously known. This sample bridges the gap between the strong radio surveys with S_5GHz>200 mJy and the samples of radio-weak quasars that can be generated via radio observations of optically selected quasars. In addition, 4 new quasars at z>3 have been found. The selection criteria result in a success-rate of ~1:7 for radio-loud quasars at z>4, which is a significant improvement over previous studies. This search yields a surface density of 1 per 1600 deg^2, which is about a factor of ~15 lower than that found in a similar search for radio-quiet quasars at z>4. The study presented here is strongly biased against quasars beyond z>4.5, since the e-passband of the POSS-I only samples the spectra shortward of 1200 Angstrom at these redshifts.

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