arXiv subjects

Nicholas Battaglia

Publications and source records attributed to Nicholas Battaglia.

120 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Evidence for the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeľdovich effect with ACTPol and velocity reconstruction from BOSS

We use microwave temperature maps from two seasons of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACTPol) at 146 GHz, together with the Constant Mass CMASS galaxy sample from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey to measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeľdovich (kSZ) effect over the redshift range z = 0.4 - 0.7. We use galaxy positions and the continuity equation to obtain a reconstruction of the line-of-sight velocity field. We stack the cosmic microwave background temperature at the location of each halo, weighted by the corresponding reconstructed velocity. The resulting best fit kSZ model is preferred over the no-kSZ hypothesis at 3.3sigma and 2.9sigma for two independent velocity reconstruction methods, using 25,537 galaxies over 660 square degrees. The effect of foregrounds that are uncorrelated with the galaxy velocities is expected to be well below our signal, and residual thermal Sunyaev-Zeľdovich contamination is controlled by masking the most massive clusters. Finally, we discuss the systematics involved in converting our measurement of the kSZ amplitude into the mean free electron fraction of the halos in our sample.

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arXiv2015

The Stacked Thermal SZ Signal of Locally Brightest Galaxies in Planck Full Mission Data: Evidence for Galaxy Feedback?

We use the Planck full mission temperature maps to examine the stacked thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) signal of 188042 "locally brightest galaxies'" (LBGs) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Our LBG sample closely matches that of Planck Collaboration XI (2013, PCXI) but our analysis differs in several ways. We work directly in terms of physically observable quantities, requiring minimal assumptions about the gas pressure profile. We explicitly model the dust emission from each LBG and simultaneously measure both the stacked tSZ and dust signals as a function of stellar mass $M_*$. There is a small residual bias in stacked tSZ measurements; we measure this bias and subtract it from our results, finding that the effects are non-negligible at the lowest masses in the LBG sample. Finally, we compare our measurements with two pressure profile models, finding that the profile from Battaglia et al. (2012b) provides a better fit to the results than the Arnaud et al. (2010) "universal pressure profile." However, within the uncertainties, we find that the data are consistent with a self-similar scaling with mass --- more precise measurements are needed to detect the relatively small deviations from self-similarity predicted by these models. Consistent with PCXI, we measure the stacked tSZ signal from LBGs with stellar masses down to $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot}) \sim 11.1-11.3$. For lower stellar masses, however, we do not see evidence for a stacked tSZ signal. We note that the stacked dust emission is comparable to, or larger than, the stacked tSZ signal for $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot}) \lesssim 11.3$. Future tSZ analyses with larger samples and lower noise levels should be able to probe deviations from self-similarity and thus provide constraints on models of feedback and the evolution of hot halo gas over cosmic time.

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arXiv2015

The formation of Milky Way-mass disk galaxies in the first 500 million years of a cold dark matter universe

Whether among the myriad tiny proto-galaxies there exists a population with similarities to present day galaxies is an open question. We show, using BlueTides, the first hydrodynamic simulation large enough to resolve the relevant scales, that the first massive galaxies to form are %in fact predicted to have extensive rotationally-supported disks. Although their morphology resembles in some ways Milky-way types seen at much lower redshifts, these high-redshift galaxies are smaller, denser, and richer in gas than their low redshift counterparts. From a kinematic analysis of a statistical sample of 216 galaxies at redshift $z=8-10$ we have found that disk galaxies make up 70\% of the population of galaxies with stellar mass $10^{10} M_\odot$ or greater. Cold Dark Matter cosmology therefore makes specific predictions for the population of large galaxies 500 million years after the Big Bang. We argue that wide-field satellite telescopes (e.g. WFIRST) will in the near future discover these first massive disk galaxies. The simplicity of their structure and formation history should make possible new tests of cosmology.

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arXiv2015

The BlueTides Simulation: First Galaxies and Reionization

We introduce the BlueTides simulation and report initial results for the luminosity functions of the first galaxies and AGN, and their contribution to reionization. BlueTides was run on the BlueWaters cluster at NCSA from $z=99$ to $z=8.0$ and includes 2$\times$7040$^3$ particles in a $400$Mpc/h per side box, making it the largest hydrodynamic simulation ever performed at high redshift. BlueTides includes a pressure-entropy formulation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, gas cooling, star formation (including molecular hydrogen), black hole growth and models for stellar and AGN feedback processes. The star formation rate density in the simulation is a good match to current observational data at $z\sim 8-10$. We find good agreement between observations and the predicted galaxy luminosity function in the currently observable range $-18\le M_{\mathrm UV} \le -22.5$ with some dust extinction required to match the abundance of brighter objects. BlueTides implements a patchy reionization model that produces a fluctuating UV background. BlueTides predicts number counts for galaxies fainter than current observational limits which are consistent with extrapolating the faint end slope of the luminosity function with a power law index $α\sim -1.8$ at $z\sim 8$ and redshift dependence of $α\sim (1+z)^{-0.4}$. The AGN population has a luminosity function well fit by a power law with a slope $α\sim -2.4$ that compares favourably with the deepest CANDELS-Goods fields. We investigate how these luminosity functions affect the progress of reionization, and find that a high Lyman-$α$ escape fraction ($f_\mathrm{esc} \sim 0.5$) is required if galaxies dominate the ionising photon budget during reionization. Smaller galaxy escape fractions imply a large contribution from faint AGN (down to $M_\mathrm{UV}=-12$) which results in a rapid reionization, disfavoured by current observations.

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arXiv2015

SALT spectroscopic observations of galaxy clusters detected by ACT and a Type II quasar hosted by a brightest cluster galaxy

We present Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) follow-up observations of seven massive clusters detected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) on the celestial equator using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We conducted multi-object spectroscopic observations with the Robert Stobie Spectrograph in order to measure galaxy redshifts in each cluster field, determine the cluster line-of-sight velocity dispersions, and infer the cluster dynamical masses. We find that the clusters, which span the redshift range 0.3 < z < 0.55, range in mass from (5 -- 20) x 10$^{14}$ solar masses (M200c). Their masses, given their SZ signals, are similar to those of southern hemisphere ACT clusters previously observed using Gemini and the VLT. We note that the brightest cluster galaxy in one of the systems studied, ACT-CL J0320.4+0032 at z = 0.38, hosts a Type II quasar. Only a handful of such systems are currently known, and therefore ACT-CL J0320.4+0032 may be a rare example of a very massive halo in which quasar-mode feedback is actively taking place.

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arXiv2014

Systematic errors in the measurement of neutrino masses due to baryonic feedback processes: Prospects for stage IV lensing surveys

We examine the importance of baryonic feedback effects on the matter power spectrum on small scales, and the implications for the precise measurement of neutrino masses through gravitational weak lensing. Planned large galaxy surveys such as the Large Synoptic Sky Telescope (LSST) and Euclid are expected to measure the sum of neutrino masses to extremely high precision, sufficient to detect non-zero neutrino masses even in the minimal mass normal hierarchy. We show that weak lensing of galaxies while being a very good probe of neutrino masses, is extremely sensitive to baryonic feedback processes. We use publicly available results from the Overwhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project to investigate the effects of active galactic nuclei feedback, the nature of the stellar initial mass function, and gas cooling rates, on the measured weak lensing shear power spectrum. Using the Fisher matrix formalism and priors from CMB+BAO data, we show that when one does not account for feedback, the measured neutrino mass may be substantially larger or smaller than the true mass, depending on the dominant feedback mechanism, with the mass error |Δm_nu| often exceeding the mass m_nu itself. We also consider gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and show that it is not sensitive to baryonic feedback on scales l < 2000, although CMB experiments that aim for sensitivities sigma(m_nu) < 0.02 eV will need to include baryonic effects in modeling the CMB lensing potential. A combination of CMB lensing and galaxy lensing can help break the degeneracy between neutrino masses and baryonic feedback processes. We conclude that future large galaxy lensing surveys such as LSST and Euclid can only measure neutrino masses accurately if the matter power spectrum can be measured to similar accuracy.

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arXiv2014

Reionization on Large Scales IV: Predictions for the 21 cm signal incorporating the light cone effect

We present predictions for the 21 cm brightness temperature power spectrum during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We discuss the implications of the "light cone" effect, which incorporates evolution of the neutral hydrogen fraction and 21 cm brightness temperature along the line of sight. Using a novel method calibrated against radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, we model the neutral hydrogen density field and 21 cm signal in large volumes ($L = 2$ Gpc/$h$). The inclusion of the light cone effect leads to a relative decrease of about 50% in the 21 cm power spectrum on all scales. We also find that the effect is more prominent at the midpoint of reionization and later. The light cone effect also can introduce an anisotropy along the line of sight. By decomposing the 3D power spectrum into components perpendicular to and along the line of sight, we find that in our fiducial reionization model, there is no significant anisotropy. However, parallel modes can contribute up to 40% more power for shorter reionization scenarios. The scales on which the light cone effect is relevant are comparable to scales where one measures the baryon acoustic oscillation. We argue that due to its large comoving scale and introduction of anisotropy, the light cone effect is important when considering redshift space distortions and future application to the Alcock-Paczynski test for the determination of cosmological parameters.

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arXiv2013

Measuring the Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Through the Cross Correlation of Planck and WMAP Maps with ROSAT Galaxy Cluster Catalogs

We measure a significant correlation between the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the Planck and WMAP maps and an X-ray cluster map based on ROSAT. We use the 100, 143 and 343 GHz Planck maps and the WMAP 94 GHz map to obtain this cluster cross spectrum. We check our measurements for contamination from dusty galaxies using the cross correlations with the 220, 545 and 843 GHz maps from Planck. Our measurement yields a direct characterization of the cluster power spectrum over a wide range of angular scales that is consistent with large cosmological simulations. The amplitude of this signal depends on cosmological parameters that determine the growth of structure (σ_8 and Ω_M) and scales as σ_8^7.4 and Ω_M^1.9 around the multipole (ell) ~ 1000. We constrain σ_8 and Ω_M from the cross-power spectrum to be σ_8 (Ω_M/0.30)^0.26 = 0.8 +/- 0.02. Since this cross spectrum produces a tight constraint in the σ_8 and Ω_M plane the errors on a σ_8 constraint will be mostly limited by the uncertainties from external constraints. Future cluster catalogs, like those from eRosita and LSST, and pointed multi-wavelength observations of clusters will improve the constraining power of this cross spectrum measurement. In principle this analysis can be extended beyond σ_8 and Ω_M to constrain dark energy or the sum of the neutrino masses.

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arXiv2013

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: the stellar content of galaxy clusters selected using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect

We present a first measurement of the stellar mass component of galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, using 3.6 um and 4.5 um photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our sample consists of 14 clusters detected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), which span the redshift range 0.27 < z < 1.07 (median z = 0.50), and have dynamical mass measurements, accurate to about 30 per cent, with median M500 = 6.9 x 10^{14} MSun. We measure the 3.6 um and 4.5 um galaxy luminosity functions, finding the characteristic magnitude (m*) and faint-end slope (alpha) to be similar to those for IR-selected cluster samples. We perform the first measurements of the scaling of SZ-observables (Y500 and y0) with both brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) stellar mass and total cluster stellar mass (M500star). We find a significant correlation between BCG stellar mass and Y500 (E(z)^{-2/3} DA^2 Y500 ~ M*^{1.2 +/- 0.6}), although we are not able to obtain a strong constraint on the slope of the relation due to the small sample size. Additionally, we obtain E(z)^{-2/3} DA^2 Y500 ~ M500star^{1.0 +/- 0.6} for the scaling with total stellar mass. The mass fraction in stars spans the range 0.006-0.034, with the second ranked cluster in terms of dynamical mass (ACT-CL J0237-4939) having an unusually low total stellar mass and the lowest stellar mass fraction. For the five clusters with gas mass measurements available in the literature, we see no evidence for a shortfall of baryons relative to the cosmic mean value.

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arXiv2013

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Selected Galaxy Clusters at 148 GHz from Three Seasons of Data

[Abridged] We present a catalog of 68 galaxy clusters, of which 19 are new discoveries, detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZ) at 148 GHz in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) survey of 504 square degrees on the celestial equator. A subsample of 48 clusters within the 270 square degree region overlapping SDSS Stripe 82 is estimated to be 90% complete for M_500c > 4.5e14 Msun and 0.15 < z < 0.8. While matched filters are used to detect the clusters, the sample is studied further through a "Profile Based Amplitude Analysis" using a single filter at a fixed θ_500 = 5.9' angular scale. This new approach takes advantage of the "Universal Pressure Profile" (UPP) to fix the relationship between the cluster characteristic size (R_500) and the integrated Compton parameter (Y_500). The UPP scalings are found to be nearly identical to an adiabatic model, while a model incorporating non-thermal pressure better matches dynamical mass measurements and masses from the South Pole Telescope. A high signal to noise ratio subsample of 15 ACT clusters is used to obtain cosmological constraints. We first confirm that constraints from SZ data are limited by uncertainty in the scaling relation parameters rather than sample size or measurement uncertainty. We next add in seven clusters from the ACT Southern survey, including their dynamical mass measurements based on galaxy velocity dispersions. In combination with WMAP7 these data simultaneously constrain the scaling relation and cosmological parameters, yielding σ_8 = 0.829 \pm 0.024 and Ω_m = 0.292 \pm 0.025. The results include marginalization over a 15% bias in dynamical mass relative to the true halo mass. In an extension to LCDM that incorporates non-zero neutrino mass density, we combine our data with WMAP7+BAO+Hubble constant measurements to constrain Σm_ν< 0.29 eV (95% C. L.).

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arXiv2013

Constraining primordial magnetic fields through large scale structure

We study primordial magnetic field effects on the matter perturbations in the Universe. We assume magnetic field generation prior to the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), i.e. during the radiation dominated epoch of the Universe expansion, but do not limit analysis by considering a particular magnetogenesis scenario. Contrary to previous studies, we limit the total magnetic field energy density and not the smoothed amplitude of the magnetic field at large (order of 1 Mpc) scales. We review several cosmological signatures, such as halos abundance, thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect, and Lyman-$α$ data. For a cross check we compare our limits with that obtained through the CMB faraday rotation effect and BBN. The limits are ranging between 1.5 nG and 4.5 nG for $n_B \in (-3; -1.5)$.

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arXiv2013

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Physical Properties of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Clusters on the Celestial Equator

We present the optical and X-ray properties of 68 galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect at 148 GHz by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Our sample, from an area of 504 square degrees centered on the celestial equator, is divided into two regions. The main region uses 270 square degrees of the ACT survey that overlaps with the co-added ugriz imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) over Stripe 82 plus additional near-infrared pointed observations with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-meter telescope. We confirm a total of 49 clusters to z~1.3, of which 22 (all at z>0.55) are new discoveries. For the second region the regular-depth SDSS imaging allows us to confirm 19 more clusters up to z~0.7, of which 10 systems are new. We present the optical richness, photometric redshifts, and separation between the SZ position and the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). We find no significant offset between the cluster SZ centroid and BCG location and a weak correlation between optical richness and SZ-derived mass. We also present X-ray fluxes and luminosities from the ROSAT All Sky Survey which confirm that this is a massive sample. One of the newly discovered clusters, ACT-CL J0044.4+0113 at z=1.1 (photometric), has an integrated XMM-Newton X-ray temperature of kT_x=7.9+/-1.0 keV and combined mass of M_200a=8.2(-2.5,+3.3)x10^14 M_sun/h70 placing it among the most massive and X-ray-hot clusters known at redshifts beyond z=1. We also highlight the optically-rich cluster ACT-CL J2327.4-0204 (RCS2 2327) at z=0.705 (spectroscopic) as the most significant detection of the whole equatorial sample with a Chandra-derived mass of M_200a=1.9(-0.4,+0.6)x10^15 M_sun/h70, comparable to some of the most massive known clusters like "El Gordo" and the Bullet Cluster.

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