arXiv subjects

Peter Schneider

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Schneider.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

Analysis of two-point statistics of cosmic shear: II. Optimizing the survey geometry

We present simulations of a cosmic shear survey and show how the survey geometry influences the accuracy of determination of cosmological parameters. We numerically calculate the full covariance matrices Cov of two-point statistics of cosmic shear, based on the expressions derived in the first paper of this series. The individual terms are compared for two survey geometries with large and small cosmic variance. We use analyses based on maximum likelihood of Cov and the Fisher information matrix in order to derive expected constraints on cosmological parameters. As an illustrative example, we simulate various survey geometries consisting of 300 individual fields of 13'x13' size, placed (semi-)randomly into patches which are assumed to be widely separated on the sky and therefore uncorrelated. Using the aperture mass statistics, the optimum survey consists of 10 patches with 30 images in each patch. If Ω_m, σ_8 and Γare supposed to be extracted from the data, the minimum variance bounds on these three parameters are 0.17, 0.25 and 0.04 respectively. These variances raise slightly when the initial power spectrum index n_s is also to be determined from the data. The cosmological constant is only poorly constrained.

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arXiv2004

GaBoDS: The Garching-Bonn Deep Survey -- II. Confirmation of EIS cluster candidates by weak gravitational lensing

We report the first confirmation of colour-selected galaxy cluster candidates by means of weak gravitational lensing. Significant lensing signals were identified in the course of the shear-selection programme of dark matter haloes in the Garching-Bonn Deep Survey, which currently covers 20 square degrees of deep, high-quality imaging data on the southern sky. The detection was made in a field that was previously covered by the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) in 1997. A highly significant shear-selected mass-concentration perfectly coincides with the richest EIS cluster candidate at z~0.2, thus confirming its cluster nature. Several other shear patterns in the field can also be identified with cluster candidates, one of which could possibly be part of a filament at z~0.45.

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arXiv2003

The consequences of parity symmetry for higher-order statistics of cosmic shear and other polar fields

We consider the parity transformation and the consequences of parity invariance on the $n$-point correlation function of the cosmic shear, or any other polar (or `spin-2') field. The decomposition of the shear field into E- and B-modes then yields the result that any correlation function which contains an odd number of B-mode shear components vanishes for parity-invariant random shear fields. This result is at variance with some statements in the literature, and the reasons for this is explained. We argue that the parity invariance provides a very specific diagnostic of systematic effects in shear data.

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arXiv2003

Gravitational lensing as a probe of structure

Gravitational lensing has become one of the most interesting tools to study the mass distribution in the Universe. Since gravitational light deflection is independent of the nature and state of the matter, it is ideally suited to investigate the distribution of all (and thus also of dark) matter in the Universe. Lensing results have now become available over a wide range of scales, from the search for MACHOs in the Galactic halo, to the mass distribution in galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and the statistical properties of the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe. Here, after introducing the concepts of strong and weak lensing, several applications are outlined, from strong lensing by galaxies, to strong and weak lensing by clusters and the lensing properties of the large-scale structure.

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arXiv2003

Smooth maps from clumpy data: generalizations

In a series of papers (Lombardi & Schneider 2001, 2002) we studied in detail the statistical properties of an interpolation technique widely used in astronomy. In particular, we considered the average interpolated map and its covariance under the hypotheses that the map is obtained by smoothing unbiased measurements of an unknown field, and that the measurements are uniformly distributed on the sky. In this paper we generalize the results obtained to the case of observations carried out only on a finite field and distributed on the field with a non-uniform density. These generalizations, which are required in many astronomically relevant cases, still allow an exact, analytical solution of the problem. We also consider a number of properties of the interpolated map, and provide asymptotic expressions for the average map and the two-point correlation function which are valid at high densities.

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arXiv2003

GaBoDS: The Garching-Bonn Deep Survey -- I. Anatomy of galaxy clusters in the background of NGC 300

The Garching-Bonn Deep Survey (GaBoDS) is a virtual 12 square degree cosmic shear and cluster lensing survey, conducted with the WFI@2.2m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla. It consists of shallow, medium and deep random fields taken in R-band in subarcsecond seeing conditions at high galactic latitude. A substantial amount of the data was taken from the ESO archive, by means of a dedicated ASTROVIRTEL program. In the present work we describe the main characteristics and scientific goals of GaBoDS. Our strategy for mining the ESO data archive is introduced, and we comment on the Wide Field Imager data reduction as well. In the second half of the paper we report on clusters of galaxies found in the background of NGC 300, a random archival field. We use weak gravitational lensing and the red cluster sequence method for the selection of these objects. Two of the clusters found were previously known and already confirmed by spectroscopy. Based on the available data we show that there is significant evidence for substructure in one of the clusters, and an increasing fraction of blue galaxies towards larger cluster radii. Two other mass peaks detected by our weak lensing technique coincide with red clumps of galaxies. We estimate their redshifts and masses.

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arXiv2003

Galaxy-galaxy lensing results from COMBO-17

We use galaxy-galaxy lensing to study the statistical properties of the dark matter halos of galaxies. Our data is taken from the COMBO-17 survey which has imaged 1 square degree in 17 optical filters giving accurate photometric redshifts and spectral classification down to R=24. This allows us to study lens galaxies at $z=0.2-0.7$. Shapes are measured from deep $R$-band images taken at the best seeing conditions ($0\farcs 8$ PSF). We model the lens galaxies as singular isothermal spheres (SIS). Investigating the dependence of the velocity dispersion on the luminosities of the lens galaxies we are able to reproduce the Tully-Fisher/Faber-Jackson relation. Further we find a larger lensing signal for early-type galaxies than for the late-types. However, when testing the dependence of the velocity dispersion on radius we see clear deviations from the SIS model. The velocity dispersion is first rising and then declining again. This is exactly what is expected for lens galaxies that can be modeled by Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profiles.

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arXiv2002

Separating cosmic shear from intrinsic galaxy alignments: correlation function tomography

During the past few years, secure detections of cosmic shear have been obtained, manifest in the correlation of the observed ellipticities of galaxies. Constraints have already been placed on cosmological parameters, such as the normalisation of the matter power spectrum sigma_8. One possible systematic contaminant of the lensing correlation signal arises from intrinsic galaxy alignment, which is still poorly constrained. Unlike lensing, intrinsic correlations only pertain to galaxies with small physical separations, the correlation length being a few Mpc. We present a new method that harnesses this property, and isolates the lensing and intrinsic components of the galaxy ellipticity correlation function using measurements between different redshift slices. The observed signal is approximated by a set of template functions, making no strong assumptions about the amplitude or correlation length of any intrinsic alignment. We also show that the near-degeneracy between the matter density parameter Omega_m and sigma_8 can be lifted using correlation function tomography, even in the presence of an intrinsic alignment signal.

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arXiv2002

The three-point correlation function of cosmic shear: I. The natural components

Previous work on three-point statistics of cosmic shear has mainly concentrated on the convergence, or on aperture measures of the shear. However, as has become clear recently for the two-point statistics of cosmic shear, the basic quantity that should be used is the correlation function: first, it is much easier to measure from observational data, since it is immune against complicated geometries of data fields; second, all other (linear) 2-pt statistics can be expressed as integrals over the correlation function. The situation is the same for the 3-pt statistics. However, in contrast to the 2-pt correlation function, the invariants of the shear 3-pt correlation function have not been employed yet. Here we consider the transformation properties of the shear 3-pt correlation function under rotations. We show that there are four complex linear combinations of components of the 3-pt correlation function, which we shall call `natural components', since they are multiplied just by a phase factor for arbitrary rotations, but do not mix. In particular, their moduli are invariant under rotations and thus (non-linear) invariants of the 3-pt correlation function. In terms of these natural components, the invariance of the statistical properties of the shear field under parity transformations are easily obtained. Our results do not apply only to cosmic shear, but also to other quantities with the same mathematical properties -- that of a polar. For example, practically every relation derived here applies also to the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

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arXiv2002

Suppressing the contribution of intrinsic galaxy alignments to the shear two-point correlation function

Cosmological weak lensing gives rise to correlations in the ellipticities of faint galaxies. This cosmic shear signal depends upon the matter power spectrum, thus providing a means to constrain cosmological parameters. It has recently been proposed that intrinsic alignments arising at the epoch of galaxy formation can also contribute significantly to the observed correlations, the amplitude increasing with decreasing survey depth. Here we consider the two-point shear correlation function, and demonstrate that photometric redshift information can be used to suppress the intrinsic signal; at the same time Poisson noise is increased, due to a decrease in the effective number of galaxy pairs. The choice to apply such a redshift-depending weighting will depend on the characteristics of the survey in question. In surveys with a mean z of about 1, although the lensing signal dominates, the measurement error bars may soon become smaller than the intrinsic alignment signal; hence, in order not to be dominated by systematics, redshift information in cosmic shear statistics will become a necessity. We discuss various aspects of this.

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arXiv2002

Smooth maps from clumpy data: Covariance analysis

Interpolation techniques play a central role in Astronomy, where one often needs to smooth irregularly sampled data into a smooth map. In a previous article (Lombardi & Schneider 2001), we have considered a widely used smoothing technique and we have evaluated the expectation value of the smoothed map under a number of natural hypotheses. Here we proceed further on this analysis and consider the variance of the smoothed map, represented by a two-point correlation function. We show that two main sources of noise contribute to the total error budget and we show several interesting properties of these two noise terms. The expressions obtained are also specialized to the limiting cases of low and high densities of measurements. A number of examples are used to show in practice some of the results obtained.

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arXiv2002

Analysis of two-point statistics of cosmic shear: I. Estimators and covariances

We derive in this paper expressions for the covariance matrix of the cosmic shear two-point correlation functions which are readily applied to any survey geometry. Furthermore, we consider the more special case of a simple survey geometry which allows us to obtain approximations for the covariance matrix in terms of integrals which are readily evaluated numerically. These results are then used to study the covariance of the aperture mass dispersion which has been employed earlier in quantitative cosmic shear analyses. We show that the aperture mass dispersion, measured at two different angular scales, quickly decorrelates with the ratio of the scales. Inverting the relation between the shear two-point correlation functions and the power spectrum of the underlying projected matter distribution, we construct estimators for the power spectrum and for the band powers, and show that they yields accurate approximations; in particular, the correlation between band powers at different wave numbers is quite weak. The covariance matrix of the shear correlation function is then used to investigate the expected accuracy of cosmological parameter estimates from cosmic shear surveys. Depending on the use of prior information, e.g. from CMB measurements, cosmic shear can yield very accurate determinations of several cosmological parameters, in particular the normalization $σ_8$ of the power spectrum of the matter distribution, the matter density parameter $Ω_{\rm m}$, and the shape parameter $Γ$.

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arXiv2002

Algebras of p-adic distributions and admissible representations

Let G be a compact, locally L-analytic group, where L is a finite extension of Qp. Let K be a discretely valued extension field of L. We study the algebra D(G,K) of K-valued locally analytic distributions on G, and apply our results to the locally analytic representation theory of G in vector spaces over K. Our objective is to lay a useful and powerful foundation for the further study of such representations. We show that the noncommutative, nonnoetherian ring D(G,K) "behaves" like the ring of functions on a rigid Stein space, and that (at least when G is Qp-analytic) it is a faithfully flat extension of its subring K\otimes Zp[[G]], where Zp[[G]] is the completed group ring of G. We use this point of view to describe an abelian subcategory of D(G,K) modules that we call coadmissible. We say that a locally analytic representation V of G is admissible if its strong dual is coadmissible as D(G,K)-module. For noncompact G, we say V is admissible if its strong dual is coadmissible as D(H,K) module for some compact open subgroup H. In this way we obtain an abelian category of admissible locally analytic representations. These methods allow us to answer a number of questions raised in our earlier papers on p-adic representations; for example we show the existence of analytic vectors in the admissible Banach space representations of G that we studied in "Banach space representations ...", Israel J. Math. 127, 359-380 (2002). Finally we construct a dimension theory for D(G,K), which behaves for coadmissible modules like a regular ring, and show that smooth admissible representations are zero dimensional.

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arXiv2001

Parameterised models for the lensing cluster Abell 1689

Here we apply a recently developed maximum likelihood method for determining best-fit parameterised lens models to observations of the rich lensing cluster Abell 1689. The observations that we use were taken with the ESO/MPG Wide Field Imager. The wide field-of-view enables us to use the weakly lensed images of faint background objects on an unsurpassed range of scales, 0.12Mpc/h<R<1.8Mpc/h from the cluster centre, to determine best-fit models for the 1-parameter singular isothermal sphere (SIS), 2-parameter general power-law and NFW models, and 3-parameter singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE). The best-fit SIS has an Einstein radius of 0.37arcmin (0.043Mpc/h) i.e. a velocity dispersion of 1028(+35,-42)km/s in an Omega=1.0, Lambda=0.0 cosmology. For the best-fit NFW profile, the virial radius r_200=1.14Mpc/h and the concentration parameter c=4.7, giving a virial mass M_200=5.7x10**14 M_solar/h. At q=0.88, the slope of the best-fit power-law model is slightly flatter than isothermal (q=1.0), indicating that the galaxies most important in the fitting procedure lie inside the scale radius r_s. By fitting an SIE, the deviation of the projected mass distribution from circular symmetry is evident, with a best-fit axial ratio f=0.74.

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arXiv2001

The noise of cluster mass reconstructions from a source redshift distribution

The parameter-free reconstruction of the surface-mass density of clusters of galaxies is one of the principal applications of weak gravitational lensing. From the observable ellipticities of images of background galaxies, the tidal gravitational field (shear) of the mass distribution is estimated, and the corresponding surface mass density is constructed. The noise of the resulting mass map is investigated here, generalizing previous work which included mainly the noise due to the intrinsic galaxy ellipticities. Whereas this dominates the noise budget if the lens is very weak, other sources of noise become important, or even dominant, for the medium-strong lensing regime close to the center of clusters. In particular, shot noise due to a Poisson distribution of galaxy images, and increased shot noise owing to the correlation of galaxies in angular position and redshift, can yield significantly larger levels of noise than that from the intrinsic ellipticities only. We estimate the contributions from these various effects for two widely used smoothing operations, showing that one of them effectively removes the Poisson and the correlation noises related to angular positions of galaxies. Noise sources due to the spread in redshift of galaxies are still present in the optimized estimator and are shown to be relevant in many cases. We show how (even approximate) redshift information can be profitably used to reduce the noise in the mass map. The dependence of the various noise terms on the relevant parameters (lens redshift, strength, smoothing length, redshift distribution of background galaxies) are explicitly calculated and simple estimates are provided.

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arXiv2001

Modules over Iwasawa algebras

Let $p$ be a prime number, and $G$ a compact $p$-adic Lie group. We recall that the Iwasawa algebra $Λ(G)$ is defined to be the completed group ring of $G$ over the ring of $p$-adic integers. Interesting examples of finitely generated modules over $Λ(G),$ in which $G$ is the image of Galois in the automorphism group of a $p$-adic Galois representation, abound in arithmetic geometry. The study of such $Λ(G)$-modules arising from arithmetic geometry can be thought of as a natural generalization of Iwasawa theory. One of the cornerstones of classical Iwasawa theory is the fact that, when $G$ is the additive group of $p$-adic integers, a good structure theory for finitely generated $Λ(G)$-modules is known, up to pseudo-isomorphism. The aim of the present paper is to extend as much as possible of this commutative structure theory to the non-commuta tive case.

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arXiv2001

Smooth maps from clumpy data

We study an estimator for smoothing irregularly sampled data into a smooth map. The estimator has been widely used in astronomy, owing to its low level of noise; it involves a weight function -- or smoothing kernel -- w(θ). We show that this estimator is not unbiased, in the sense that the expectation value of the smoothed map is not the underlying process convolved with $w$, but a convolution with a modified kernel w_eff(θ). We show how to calculate w_eff for a given kernel w and investigate its properties. In particular, it is found that (1) w_eff is normalized, (2) has a shape `similar' to the original kernel w, (3) converges to w in the limit of high number density of data points, and (4) reduces to a top-hat filter in the limit of very small number density of data points. Hence, although the estimator is biased, the bias is well understood analytically, and since w_eff has all the desired properties of a smoothing kernel, the estimator is in fact very useful. We present explicit examples for several filter functions which are commonly used, and provide a series expression valid in the limit of large density of data points.

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arXiv2001

Weak-Lensing Halo Numbers and Dark-Matter Profiles

Integral measures of weak gravitational lensing by dark-matter haloes, like the aperture mass, are sensitive to different physical halo properties dependent on the halo mass density profile. For isothermal profiles, the relation between aperture mass and virial mass is steeper than for haloes with the universal NFW profile. Consequently, the halo mass range probed by the aperture mass is much wider for NFW than for isothermal haloes. We use recent modifications to the Press-Schechter mass function in CDM models normalised to the local abundance of rich clusters, to predict the properties of the halo sample expected to be accessible with the aperture mass technique. While ~10 haloes should be detected per square degree if the haloes have NFW profiles, their number density is lower by approximately an order of magnitude if they have isothermal profiles. These results depend only very mildly on the cosmological background model. We conclude that counts of haloes with a significant weak-lensing signal are a powerful discriminator between different dark-matter profiles.

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