arXiv subjects

R. L. C. Ogando

Publications and source records attributed to R. L. C. Ogando.

173 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

OzDES multifibre spectroscopy for the Dark Energy Survey: Three year results and first data release

We present results for the first three years of OzDES, a six-year programme to obtain redshifts for objects in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) supernova fields using the 2dF fibre positioner and AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. OzDES is a multi-object spectroscopic survey targeting multiple types of targets at multiple epochs over a multi-year baseline, and is one of the first multi-object spectroscopic surveys to dynamically include transients into the target list soon after their discovery. At the end of three years, OzDES has spectroscopically confirmed almost 100 supernovae, and has measured redshifts for 17,000 objects, including the redshifts of 2,566 supernova hosts. We examine how our ability to measure redshifts for targets of various types depends on signal-to-noise, magnitude, and exposure time, finding that our redshift success rate increases significantly at a signal-to-noise of 2 to 3 per 1-Angstrom bin. We also find that the change in signal-to-noise with exposure time closely matches the Poisson limit for stacked exposures as long as 10 hours. We use these results to predict the redshift yield of the full OzDES survey, as well as the potential yields of future surveys on other facilities such as the 4m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), and the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE). This work marks the first OzDES data release, comprising 14,693 redshifts. OzDES is on target to obtain over a yield of approximately 5,700 supernova host-galaxy redshifts.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: The Impact of Galaxy Neighbours on Weak Lensing Cosmology with im3shape

We use a suite of simulated images based on Year 1 of the Dark Energy Survey to explore the impact of galaxy neighbours on shape measurement and shear cosmology. The hoopoe image simulations include realistic blending, galaxy positions, and spatial variations in depth and PSF properties. Using the im3shape maximum-likelihood shape measurement code, we identify four mechanisms by which neighbours can have a non-negligible influence on shear estimation. These effects, if ignored, would contribute a net multiplicative bias of $m \sim 0.03 - 0.09$ in the DES Y1 im3shape catalogue, though the precise impact will be dependent on both the measurement code and the selection cuts applied. This can be reduced to percentage level or less by removing objects with close neighbours, at a cost to the effective number density of galaxies $n_\mathrm{eff}$ of 30%. We use the cosmological inference pipeline of DES Y1 to explore the cosmological implications of neighbour bias and show that omitting blending from the calibration simulation for DES Y1 would bias the inferred clustering amplitude $S_8\equiv σ_8 (Ω_\mathrm{m} /0.3)^{0.5}$ by $2 σ$ towards low values. Finally, we use the hoopoe simulations to test the effect of neighbour-induced spatial correlations in the multiplicative bias. We find the impact on the recovered $S_8$ of ignoring such correlations to be subdominant to statistical error at the current level of precision.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Evolution of Galaxy Luminosity and Stellar-Mass Functions since $z=1$ with the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification Data

We present the first study of the evolution of the galaxy luminosity and stellar-mass functions (GLF and GSMF) carried out by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We describe the COMMODORE galaxy catalogue selected from Science Verification images. This catalogue is made of $\sim 4\times 10^{6}$ galaxies at $0<z\lesssim1.3$ over a sky area of $\sim155\ {\rm sq. \ deg}$ with ${\it i}$-band limiting magnitude ${\it i}=23\ {\rm mag}$. Such characteristics are unprecedented for galaxy catalogues and they enable us to study the evolution of GLF and GSMF at $0<z<1$ homogeneously with the same statistically-rich data-set and free of cosmic variance effects. The aim of this study is twofold: i) we want to test our method based on the use of photometric-redshift probability density functions against literature results obtained with spectroscopic redshifts; ii) we want to shed light on the way galaxies build up their masses over cosmic time. We find that both the ${\it i}$-band galaxy luminosity and stellar mass functions are characterised by a double-Schechter shape at $z<0.2$. Both functions agree well with those based on spectroscopic redshifts. The DES GSMF agrees especially with those measured for the GAlaxy Mass Assembly and the PRism MUlti-object Survey out to $z\sim1$. At $0.2<z<1$, we find the ${\it i}$-band luminosity and stellar-mass densities respectively to be constant ($ρ_{\rm L}\propto (1+z)^{-0.12\pm0.11}$) and decreasing ($ρ_{\rm Mstar}\propto (1+z)^{-0.5\pm0.1}$) with $z$. This indicates that, while at higher redshift galaxies have less stellar mass, their luminosities do not change substantially because of their younger and brighter stellar populations. Finally, we also find evidence for a top-down mass-dependent evolution of the GSMF.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Cross-Correlation Redshift Calibration Without Spectroscopic Calibration Samples in DES Science Verification Data

Galaxy cross-correlations with high-fidelity redshift samples hold the potential to precisely calibrate systematic photometric redshift uncertainties arising from the unavailability of complete and representative training and validation samples of galaxies. However, application of this technique in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is hampered by the relatively low number density, small area, and modest redshift overlap between photometric and spectroscopic samples. We propose instead using photometric catalogs with reliable photometric redshifts for photo-z calibration via cross-correlations. We verify the viability of our proposal using redMaPPer clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to successfully recover the redshift distribution of SDSS spectroscopic galaxies. We demonstrate how to combine photo-z with cross-correlation data to calibrate photometric redshift biases while marginalizing over possible clustering bias evolution in either the calibration or unknown photometric samples. We apply our method to DES Science Verification (DES SV) data in order to constrain the photometric redshift distribution of a galaxy sample selected for weak lensing studies, constraining the mean of the tomographic redshift distributions to a statistical uncertainty of $Δz \sim \pm 0.01$. We forecast that our proposal can in principle control photometric redshift uncertainties in DES weak lensing experiments at a level near the intrinsic statistical noise of the experiment over the range of redshifts where redMaPPer clusters are available. Our results provide strong motivation to launch a program to fully characterize the systematic errors from bias evolution and photo-z shapes in our calibration procedure.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Astrometric calibration and performance of the Dark Energy Camera

We characterize the ability of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to perform relative astrometry across its 500~Mpix, 3 deg^2 science field of view, and across 4 years of operation. This is done using internal comparisons of ~4x10^7 measurements of high-S/N stellar images obtained in repeat visits to fields of moderate stellar density, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. An empirical astrometric model includes terms for: optical distortions; stray electric fields in the CCD detectors; chromatic terms in the instrumental and atmospheric optics; shifts in CCD relative positions of up to ~10 um when the DECam temperature cycles; and low-order distortions to each exposure from changes in atmospheric refraction and telescope alignment. Errors in this astrometric model are dominated by stochastic variations with typical amplitudes of 10-30 mas (in a 30 s exposure) and 5-10 arcmin coherence length, plausibly attributed to Kolmogorov-spectrum atmospheric turbulence. The size of these atmospheric distortions is not closely related to the seeing. Given an astrometric reference catalog at density ~0.7 arcmin^{-2}, e.g. from Gaia, the typical atmospheric distortions can be interpolated to 7 mas RMS accuracy (for 30 s exposures) with 1 arcmin coherence length for residual errors. Remaining detectable error contributors are 2-4 mas RMS from unmodelled stray electric fields in the devices, and another 2-4 mas RMS from focal plane shifts between camera thermal cycles. Thus the astrometric solution for a single DECam exposure is accurate to 3-6 mas (0.02 pixels, or 300 nm) on the focal plane, plus the stochastic atmospheric distortion.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

Models of the strongly lensed quasar DES J0408-5354

We present gravitational lens models of the multiply imaged quasar DES J0408-5354, recently discovered in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) footprint, with the aim of interpreting its remarkable quad-like configuration. We first model the DES single-epoch $grizY$ images as a superposition of a lens galaxy and four point-like objects, obtaining spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and relative positions for the objects. Three of the point sources (A,B,D) have SEDs compatible with the discovery quasar spectra, while the faintest point-like image (G2/C) shows significant reddening and a `grey' dimming of $\approx0.8$mag. In order to understand the lens configuration, we fit different models to the relative positions of A,B,D. Models with just a single deflector predict a fourth image at the location of G2/C but considerably brighter and bluer. The addition of a small satellite galaxy ($R_{\rm E}\approx0.2$") in the lens plane near the position of G2/C suppresses the flux of the fourth image and can explain both the reddening and grey dimming. All models predict a main deflector with Einstein radius between $1.7"$ and $2.0",$ velocity dispersion $267-280$km/s and enclosed mass $\approx 6\times10^{11}M_{\odot},$ even though higher resolution imaging data are needed to break residual degeneracies in model parameters. The longest time-delay (B-A) is estimated as $\approx 85$ (resp. $\approx125$) days by models with (resp. without) a perturber near G2/C. The configuration and predicted time-delays of J0408-5354 make it an excellent target for follow-up aimed at understanding the source quasar host galaxy and substructure in the lens, and measuring cosmological parameters. We also discuss some lessons learnt from J0408-5354 on lensed quasar finding strategies, due to its chromaticity and morphology.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Discovery of the Lensed Quasar System DES J0408-5354

We report the discovery and spectroscopic confirmation of the quad-like lensed quasar system DES J0408-5354 found in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 (Y1) data. This system was discovered during a search for DES Y1 strong lensing systems using a method that identified candidates as red galaxies with multiple blue neighbors. DES J0408-5354 consists of a central red galaxy surrounded by three bright (i < 20) blue objects and a fourth red object. Subsequent spectroscopic observations using the Gemini South telescope confirmed that the three blue objects are indeed the lensed images of a quasar with redshift z = 2.375, and that the central red object is an early-type lensing galaxy with redshift z = 0.597. DES J0408-5354 is the first quad lensed quasar system to be found in DES and begins to demonstrate the potential of DES to discover and dramatically increase the sample size of these very rare objects.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Photometric redshift analysis in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data

We present results from a study of the photometric redshift performance of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), using the early data from a Science Verification (SV) period of observations in late 2012 and early 2013 that provided science-quality images for almost 200 sq.~deg.~at the nominal depth of the survey. We assess the photometric redshift performance using about 15000 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts available from other surveys. These galaxies are used, in different configurations, as a calibration sample, and photo-$z$'s are obtained and studied using most of the existing photo-$z$ codes. A weighting method in a multi-dimensional color-magnitude space is applied to the spectroscopic sample in order to evaluate the photo-$z$ performance with sets that mimic the full DES photometric sample, which is on average significantly deeper than the calibration sample due to the limited depth of spectroscopic surveys. Empirical photo-$z$ methods using, for instance, Artificial Neural Networks or Random Forests, yield the best performance in the tests, achieving core photo-$z$ resolutions $σ_{68} \sim 0.08$. Moreover, the results from most of the codes, including template fitting methods, comfortably meet the DES requirements on photo-$z$ performance, therefore, providing an excellent precedent for future DES data sets.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

PreCam, a Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey

PreCam, a precursor observational campaign supporting the Dark Energy Survey (DES), is designed to produce a photometric and astrometric catalog of nearly a hundred thousand standard stars within the DES footprint, while the PreCam instrument also serves as a prototype testbed for the Dark Energy Camera (DECam)'s hardware and software. This catalog represents a potential 100-fold increase in Southern Hemisphere photometric standard stars, and therefore will be an important component in the calibration of the Dark Energy Survey. We provide details on the PreCam instrument's design, construction and testing, as well as results from a subset of the 51 nights of PreCam survey observations on the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy's Curtis-Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. We briefly describe the preliminary data processing pipeline that has been developed for PreCam data and the preliminary results of the instrument performance, as well as astrometry and photometry of a sample of stars previously included in other southern sky surveys.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2011

Evolution of Galaxy Luminosity Function Using Photometric Redshifts

We examine the impact of using photometric redshifts for studying the evolution of both the global galaxy luminosity function (LF) and that for different galaxy types. To this end we compare LFs obtained using photometric redshifts from the CFHT Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) D1 field with those from the spectroscopic survey VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) comprising ~4800 galaxies. We find that for z<2, in the interval of magnitudes considered by this survey, the LFs obtained using photometric and spectroscopic redshifts show a remarkable agreement. This good agreement led us to use all four Deep fields of CFHTLS comprising ~386000 galaxies to compute the LF of the combined fields and estimate directly the error in the parameters based on field-to-field variation. We find that the characteristic absolute magnitude M* of Schechter fits fades by ~0.7mag from z~1.8 to z~0.3, while the characteristic density phi* increases by a factor of ~4 in the same redshift bin. We use the galaxy classification provided by the template fitting program used to compute photometric redshifts and split the sample into galaxy types. We find that these Schechter parameters evolve differently for each galaxy type, an indication that their evolution is a combination of several effects: galaxy merging, star formation quenching and mass assembly. All these results are compatible with those obtained by different spectroscopic surveys such as VVDS, DEEP2 and zCosmos, which reinforces the fact that photometric redshifts can be used to study galaxy evolution, at least for the redshift bins adopted so far. This is of great interest since future very large imaging surveys containing hundreds of millions of galaxies will allow to obtain important precise measurements to constrain the evolution of the LF and to explore the dependence of this evolution on morphology and/or color helping constrain the mechanisms of galaxy evolution.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

The Dark Energy Survey: Prospects for Resolved Stellar Populations

Wide angle and deep surveys, regardless of their primary purpose, always sample a large number of stars in the Galaxy and in its satellite system. We here make a forecast of the expected stellar sample resulting from the Dark Energy Survey and the perspectives that it will open for studies of Galactic structure and resolved stellar populations in general. An estimated 1.2x10^8 stars will be sampled in DES grizY filters. This roughly corresponds to 20% of all DES sources. Most of these stars belong to the stellar thick disk and halo of the Galaxy. DES will probe low-mass stellar and sub-stellar objects at depths from 3 to 8 times larger than SDSS. The faint end of the main-sequence will be densely sampled beyond 10 kpc. The slope of the low mass end of the stellar IMF will be constrained to within a few hundredth dex, even in the thick disk and halo. In the sub-stellar mass regime, the IMF slope will be potentially constrained to within dlog ϕ(m) / dlog m ~ 0.1$. About 3x10^4 brown dwarf and at least 7.6x10^5 white dwarf candidates will be selected, the latter embedded into the thick disk and halo. The stellar halo flattening will also be constrained to within a few percent. DES will probe the main sequence of new Milky Way satellites and halo clusters for distances out to ~ 120 kpc, therefore yielding stellar surface density contrasts 1.6-1.7 times larger than those attainable with SDSS. It will also allow detection of these objects in the far reaches of the stellar halo, substantially increasing the number and quality of probes to the Galactic potential. Combined with northern samples, such as the SDSS, the DES stellar sample will yield constraints on the structure and stellar populations of Galactic components in unprecedented detail. In particular, the combined sample from both hemispheres will allow detailed studies of halo and thick disk asymmetries and triaxiality.

astro-ph.GA↗