arXiv subjects

Santiago Serrano

Publications and source records attributed to Santiago Serrano.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

The PAU survey: Estimating galaxy photometry with deep learning

With the dramatic rise in high-quality galaxy data expected from Euclid and Vera C. Rubin Observatory, there will be increasing demand for fast high-precision methods for measuring galaxy fluxes. These will be essential for inferring the redshifts of the galaxies. In this paper, we introduce Lumos, a deep learning method to measure photometry from galaxy images. Lumos builds on BKGnet, an algorithm to predict the background and its associated error, and predicts the background-subtracted flux probability density function. We have developed Lumos for data from the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS), an imaging survey using a 40 narrow-band filter camera (PAUCam). PAUCam images are affected by scattered light, displaying a background noise pattern that can be predicted and corrected for. On average, Lumos increases the SNR of the observations by a factor of 2 compared to an aperture photometry algorithm. It also incorporates other advantages like robustness towards distorting artefacts, e.g. cosmic rays or scattered light, the ability of deblending and less sensitivity to uncertainties in the galaxy profile parameters used to infer the photometry. Indeed, the number of flagged photometry outlier observations is reduced from 10% to 2%, comparing to aperture photometry. Furthermore, with Lumos photometry, the photo-z scatter is reduced by ~10% with the Deepz machine learning photo-z code and the photo-z outlier rate by 20%. The photo-z improvement is lower than expected from the SNR increment, however currently the photometric calibration and outliers in the photometry seem to be its limiting factor.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Constraints on dark matter to dark radiation conversion in the late universe with DES-Y1 and external data

We study a phenomenological class of models where dark matter converts to dark radiation in the low redshift epoch. This class of models, dubbed DMDR, characterizes the evolution of comoving dark matter density with two extra parameters, and may be able to help alleviate the observed discrepancies between early- and late-time probes of the universe. We investigate how the conversion affects key cosmological observables such as the CMB temperature and matter power spectra. Combining 3x2pt data from Year 1 of the Dark Energy Survey, {\it Planck}-2018 CMB temperature and polarization data, supernovae (SN) Type Ia data from Pantheon, and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data from BOSS DR12, MGS and 6dFGS, we place new constraints on the amount of dark matter that has converted to dark radiation and the rate of this conversion. The fraction of the dark matter that has converted since the beginning of the universe in units of the current amount of dark matter, $ζ$, is constrained at 68\% confidence level to be $<0.32$ for DES-Y1 3x2pt data, $<0.030$ for CMB+SN+BAO data, and $<0.037$ for the combined dataset. The probability that the DES and CMB+SN+BAO datasets are concordant increases from 4\% for the $Λ$CDM model to 8\% (less tension) for DMDR. The tension in $S_8 = σ_8 \sqrt{Ω_{\rm m}/0.3}$ between DES-Y1 3x2pt and CMB+SN+BAO is slightly reduced from $2.3σ$ to $1.9σ$. We find no reduction in the Hubble tension when the combined data is compared to distance-ladder measurements in the DMDR model. The maximum-posterior goodness-of-fit statistics of DMDR and $Λ$CDM model are comparable, indicating no preference for the DMDR cosmology over $Λ$CDM.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Jellybean quantum dots in silicon for qubit coupling and on-chip quantum chemistry

The small size and excellent integrability of silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (SiMOS) quantum dot spin qubits make them an attractive system for mass-manufacturable, scaled-up quantum processors. Furthermore, classical control electronics can be integrated on-chip, in-between the qubits, if an architecture with sparse arrays of qubits is chosen. In such an architecture qubits are either transported across the chip via shuttling, or coupled via mediating quantum systems over short-to-intermediate distances. This paper investigates the charge and spin characteristics of an elongated quantum dot -- a so-called jellybean quantum dot -- for the prospects of acting as a qubit-qubit coupler. Charge transport, charge sensing and magneto-spectroscopy measurements are performed on a SiMOS quantum dot device at mK temperature, and compared to Hartree-Fock multi-electron simulations. At low electron occupancies where disorder effects and strong electron-electron interaction dominate over the electrostatic confinement potential, the data reveals the formation of three coupled dots, akin to a tunable, artificial molecule. One dot is formed centrally under the gate and two are formed at the edges. At high electron occupancies, these dots merge into one large dot with well-defined spin states, verifying that jellybean dots have the potential to be used as qubit couplers in future quantum computing architectures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

The PAU Survey: Measurements of the 4000 Å spectral break with narrow-band photometry

The D4000 spectral break index is one of the most important features in the visible spectrum, as it is a proxy for stellar ages and is also used in galaxy classification. However, its direct measurement has always been reserved to spectroscopy. Here, we present a general method to directly measure the D4000 with narrow-band (NB) photometry; it has been validated using realistic simulations, and then evaluated with PAUS NBs, cross-matched with VIPERS spectra ($i_{\rm AB} < 22.5$, $0.562 < z < 0.967$). We also reconstruct the D4000 with the SED-fitting code CIGALE; the use of PAUS NBs instead of broad bands significantly improves the SED fitting results. For D4000$_{\rm n}$, the direct measurement has $\rm \langle SNR \rangle \sim 4$, but we find that for $i_{\rm AB}<21$ all direct D4000 measurements have $\rm SNR>3$. The CIGALE D4000$_{\rm n}$ has $\rm \langle SNR \rangle \sim 20$, but underestimates the error by $>$50\%. Furthermore, the direct method recreates well the D4000-SFR relation, as well as the D4000-mass relation for blue galaxies (for red galaxies, selection effects impact the results). On the other hand, CIGALE accurately classifies galaxies into red and blue populations. We conclude that the direct measurement of D4000 with narrow-band photometry is a promising tool to determine average properties of galaxy samples, with results compatible with spectroscopy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

The Robotic Multi-Object Focal Plane System of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)

A system of 5,020 robotic fiber positioners was installed in 2019 on the Mayall Telescope, at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The robots automatically re-target their optical fibers every 10 - 20 minutes, each to a precision of several microns, with a reconfiguration time less than 2 minutes. Over the next five years, they will enable the newly-constructed Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to measure the spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars. DESI will produce the largest 3D map of the universe to date and measure the expansion history of the cosmos. In addition to the 5,020 robotic positioners and optical fibers, DESI's Focal Plane System includes 6 guide cameras, 4 wavefront cameras, 123 fiducial point sources, and a metrology camera mounted at the primary mirror. The system also includes associated structural, thermal, and electrical systems. In all, it contains over 675,000 individual parts. We discuss the design, construction, quality control, and integration of all these components. We include a summary of the key requirements, the review and acceptance process, on-sky validations of requirements, and lessons learned for future multi-object, fiber-fed spectrographs.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

On-demand electrical control of spin qubits

Once called a "classically non-describable two-valuedness" by Pauli , the electron spin is a natural resource for long-lived quantum information since it is mostly impervious to electric fluctuations and can be replicated in large arrays using silicon quantum dots, which offer high-fidelity control. Paradoxically, one of the most convenient control strategies is the integration of nanoscale magnets to artificially enhance the coupling between spins and electric field, which in turn hampers the spin's noise immunity and adds architectural complexity. Here we demonstrate a technique that enables a \emph{switchable} interaction between spins and orbital motion of electrons in silicon quantum dots, without the presence of a micromagnet. The naturally weak effects of the relativistic spin-orbit interaction in silicon are enhanced by more than three orders of magnitude by controlling the energy quantisation of electrons in the nanostructure, enhancing the orbital motion. Fast electrical control is demonstrated in multiple devices and electronic configurations, highlighting the utility of the technique. Using the electrical drive we achieve coherence time $T_{2,{\rm Hahn}}\approx50 μ$s, fast single-qubit gates with ${T_{π/2}=3}$ ns and gate fidelities of 99.93 % probed by randomised benchmarking. The higher gate speeds and better compatibility with CMOS manufacturing enabled by on-demand electric control improve the prospects for realising scalable silicon quantum processors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

The PAU Survey: Measurement of Narrow-band galaxy properties with Approximate Bayesian Computation

Narrow-band imaging surveys allow the study of the spectral characteristics of galaxies without the need of performing their spectroscopic follow-up. In this work, we forward-model the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS) narrow-band data. The aim is to improve the constraints on the spectral coefficients used to create the galaxy spectral energy distributions (SED) of the galaxy population model in Tortorelli et al. 2020. In that work, the model parameters were inferred from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) data using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). This led to stringent constraints on the B-band galaxy luminosity function parameters, but left the spectral coefficients only broadly constrained. To address that, we perform an ABC inference using CFHTLS and PAUS data. This is the first time our approach combining forward-modelling and ABC is applied simultaneously to multiple datasets. We test the results of the ABC inference by comparing the narrow-band magnitudes of the observed and simulated galaxies using Principal Component Analysis, finding a very good agreement. Furthermore, we prove the scientific potential of the constrained galaxy population model to provide realistic stellar population properties by measuring them with the SED fitting code \textsc{CIGALE}. We use CFHTLS broad-band and PAUS narrow-band photometry for a flux-limited ($\mathrm{i}<22.5$) sample of galaxies up to redshift $\mathrm{z \sim 0.8}$. We find that properties like stellar masses, star-formation rates, mass-weighted stellar ages and metallicities are in agreement within errors between observations and simulations. Overall, this work shows the ability of our galaxy population model to correctly forward-model a complex dataset such as PAUS and the ability to reproduce the diversity of galaxy properties at the redshift range spanned by CFHTLS and PAUS.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

OzDES Reverberation Mapping Program: Lag recovery reliability for 6-year CIV analysis

We present the statistical methods that have been developed to analyse the OzDES reverberation mapping sample. To perform this statistical analysis we have created a suite of customisable simulations that mimic the characteristics of each source in the OzDES sample. These characteristics include: the variability in the photometric and spectroscopic lightcurves, the measurement uncertainties, and the observational cadence. By simulating the sources in the OzDES sample that contain the CIV emission line, we developed a set of criteria that rank the reliability of a recovered time lag depending on the agreement between different recovery methods, the magnitude of the uncertainties, and the rate at which false positives were found in the simulations. These criteria were applied to simulated light curves and these results used to estimate the quality of the resulting Radius-Luminosity relation.We grade the results using three quality levels (gold, silver and bronze). The input slope of the R-L relation was recovered within $1σ$ for each of the three quality samples, with the gold standard having the lowest dispersion with a recovered a R-L relation slope of $0.454\pm 0.016$ with an input slope of 0.47. Future work will apply these methods to the entire OzDES sample of 771 AGN.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Constraining Baryonic Physics in the Universe

Measurements of large-scale structure are interpreted using theoretical predictions for the matter distribution, including potential impacts of baryonic physics. We constrain the feedback strength of baryons jointly with cosmology using weak lensing and galaxy clustering observables (3$\times$2pt) of Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 data in combination with external information from baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and Planck cosmic microwave background polarization. Our baryon modeling is informed by a set of hydrodynamical simulations that span a variety of baryon scenarios; we span this space via a Principal Component (PC) analysis of the summary statistics extracted from these simulations. We show that at the level of DES Y1 constraining power, one PC is sufficient to describe the variation of baryonic effects in the observables, and the first PC amplitude ($Q_1$) generally reflects the strength of baryon feedback. With the upper limit of $Q_1$ prior being bound by the Illustris feedback scenarios, we reach $\sim 20\%$ improvement in the constraint of $S_8=σ_8(Ω_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}=0.788^{+0.018}_{-0.021}$ compared to the original DES 3$\times$2pt analysis. This gain is driven by the inclusion of small-scale cosmic shear information down to 2.5 arcmin, which was excluded in previous DES analyses that did not model baryonic physics. We obtain $S_8=0.781^{+0.014}_{-0.015}$ for the combined DES Y1+Planck EE+BAO analysis with a non-informative $Q_1$ prior. In terms of the baryon constraints, we measure $Q_1=1.14^{+2.20}_{-2.80}$ for DES Y1 only and $Q_1=1.42^{+1.63}_{-1.48}$ for DESY1+Planck EE+BAO, allowing us to exclude one of the most extreme AGN feedback hydrodynamical scenario at more than $2 σ$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

The PAU Survey: narrowband photometric redshifts using Gaussian processes

We study the performance of the hybrid template-machine-learning photometric redshift (photo-$z$) algorithm Delight, which uses Gaussian processes, on a subset of the early data release of the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). We calibrate the fluxes of the $40$ PAUS narrow bands with $6$ broadband fluxes ($uBVriz$) in the COSMOS field using three different methods, including a new method which utilises the correlation between the apparent size and overall flux of the galaxy. We use a rich set of empirically derived galaxy spectral templates as guides to train the Gaussian process, and we show that our results are competitive with other standard photometric redshift algorithms. Delight achieves a photo-$z$ $68$th percentile error of $σ_{68}=0.0081(1+z)$ without any quality cut for galaxies with $i_\mathrm{auto}<22.5$ as compared to $0.0089(1+z)$ and $0.0202(1+z)$ for the BPz and ANNz2 codes, respectively. Delight is also shown to produce more accurate probability distribution functions for individual redshift estimates than BPz and ANNz2. Common photo-$z$ outliers of Delight and BCNz2 (previously applied to PAUS) are found to be primarily caused by outliers in the narrowband fluxes, with a small number of cases potentially indicating spectroscopic redshift failures in the reference sample. In the process, we introduce performance metrics derived from the results of BCNz2 and Delight, allowing us to achieve a photo-$z$ quality of $σ_{68}<0.0035(1+z)$ at a magnitude of $i_\mathrm{auto}<22.5$ while keeping $50$ per cent objects of the galaxy sample.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

The PAU Survey: Intrinsic alignments and clustering of narrow-band photometric galaxies

We present the first measurements of the projected clustering and intrinsic alignments (IA) of galaxies observed by the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). With photometry in 40 narrow optical passbands ($450\rm{nm}-850\rm{nm}$), the quality of photometric redshift estimation is $σ_{z} \sim 0.01(1 + z)$ for galaxies in the $19\,\rm{deg}^{2}$ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) W3 field, allowing us to measure the projected 3D clustering and IA for flux-limited, faint galaxies ($i < 22.5$) out to $z\sim0.8$. To measure two-point statistics, we developed, and tested with mock photometric redshift samples, `cloned' random galaxy catalogues which can reproduce data selection functions in 3D and account for photometric redshift errors. In our fiducial colour-split analysis, we made robust null detections of IA for blue galaxies and tentative detections of radial alignments for red galaxies ($\sim1-3σ$), over scales of $0.1-18\,h^{-1}\rm{Mpc}$. The galaxy clustering correlation functions in the PAUS samples are comparable to their counterparts in a spectroscopic population from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey, modulo the impact of photometric redshift uncertainty which tends to flatten the blue galaxy correlation function, whilst steepening that of red galaxies. We investigate the sensitivity of our correlation function measurements to choices in the random catalogue creation and the galaxy pair-binning along the line of sight, in preparation for an optimised analysis over the full PAUS area.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

The PAU Survey: An improved photo-$z$ sample in the COSMOS field

We present -- and make publicly available -- accurate and precise photometric redshifts in the ACS footprint from the COSMOS field for objects with $i_{\mathrm{AB}}\leq 23$. The redshifts are computed using a combination of narrow band photometry from PAUS, a survey with 40 narrow bands spaced at $100Å$ intervals covering the range from $4500Å$ to $8500Å$, and 26 broad, intermediate, and narrow bands covering the UV, visible and near infrared spectrum from the COSMOS2015 catalogue. We introduce a new method that models the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) as a linear combination of continuum and emission line templates and computes its Bayes evidence, integrating over the linear combinations. The correlation between the UV luminosity and the OII line is measured using the 66 available bands with the zCOSMOS spectroscopic sample, and used as a prior which constrains the relative flux between continuum and emission line templates. The flux ratios between the OII line and $\mathrm{H}_α$, $\mathrm{H}_β$ and $\mathrm{OIII}$ are similarly measured and used to generate the emission line templates. Comparing to public spectroscopic surveys via the quantity $Δ_z\equiv(z_{\mathrm{photo}}-z_{\mathrm{spec}})/(1+z_{\mathrm{spec}})$, we find the photometric redshifts to be more precise than previous estimates, with $σ_{68}(Δ_z) \approx (0.003, 0.009)$ for galaxies at magnitude $i_{\mathrm{AB}}\sim18$ and $i_{\mathrm{AB}}\sim23$, respectively, which is $3\times$ and $1.66\times$ tighter than COSMOS2015. Additionally, we find the redshifts to be very accurate on average, yielding a median of the $Δ_z$ distribution compatible with $|\mathrm{median}(Δ_z)|\leq0.001$ at all redshifts and magnitudes considered. Both the added PAUS data and new methodology contribute significantly to the improved results.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Discovery of a Candidate Binary Supermassive Black Hole in a Periodic Quasar from Circumbinary Accretion Variability

Binary supermassive black holes (BSBHs) are expected to be a generic byproduct from hierarchical galaxy formation. The final coalescence of BSBHs is thought to be the loudest gravitational wave (GW) siren, yet no confirmed BSBH is known in the GW-dominated regime. While periodic quasars have been proposed as BSBH candidates, the physical origin of the periodicity has been largely uncertain. Here we report discovery of a periodicity (P=1607$\pm$7 days) at 99.95% significance (with a global p-value of ~$10^{-3}$ accounting for the look elsewhere effect) in the optical light curves of a redshift 1.53 quasar, SDSS J025214.67-002813.7. Combining archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey data with new, sensitive imaging from the Dark Energy Survey, the total ~20-yr time baseline spans ~4.6 cycles of the observed 4.4-yr (restframe 1.7-yr) periodicity. The light curves are best fit by a bursty model predicted by hydrodynamic simulations of circumbinary accretion disks. The periodicity is likely caused by accretion rate modulation by a milli-parsec BSBH emitting GWs, dynamically coupled to the circumbinary accretion disk. A bursty hydrodynamic variability model is statistically preferred over a smooth, sinusoidal model expected from relativistic Doppler boost, a kinematic effect proposed for PG1302-102. Furthermore, the frequency dependence of the variability amplitudes disfavors Doppler boost, lending independent support to the circumbinary accretion variability hypothesis. Given our detection rate of one BSBH candidate from circumbinary accretion variability out of 625 quasars, it suggests that future large, sensitive synoptic surveys such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time may be able to detect hundreds to thousands of candidate BSBHs from circumbinary accretion with direct implications for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Candidate Periodically Variable Quasars from the Dark Energy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Periodically variable quasars have been suggested as close binary supermassive black holes. We present a systematic search for periodic light curves in 625 spectroscopically confirmed quasars with a median redshift of 1.8 in a 4.6 deg$^2$ overlapping region of the Dark Energy Survey Supernova (DES-SN) fields and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 (SDSS-S82). Our sample has a unique 20-year long multi-color ($griz$) light curve enabled by combining DES-SN Y6 observations with archival SDSS-S82 data. The deep imaging allows us to search for periodic light curves in less luminous quasars (down to $r{\sim}$23.5 mag) powered by less massive black holes (with masses $\gtrsim10^{8.5}M_{\odot}$) at high redshift for the first time. We find five candidates with significant (at $>$99.74% single-frequency significance in at least two bands with a global p-value of $\sim$7$\times10^{-4}$--3$\times10^{-3}$ accounting for the look-elsewhere effect) periodicity with observed periods of $\sim$3--5 years (i.e., 1--2 years in rest frame) having $\sim$4--6 cycles spanned by the observations. If all five candidates are periodically variable quasars, this translates into a detection rate of ${\sim}0.8^{+0.5}_{-0.3}$% or ${\sim}1.1^{+0.7}_{-0.5}$ quasar per deg$^2$. Our detection rate is 4--80 times larger than those found by previous searches using shallower surveys over larger areas. This discrepancy is likely caused by differences in the quasar populations probed and the survey data qualities. We discuss implications on the future direct detection of low-frequency gravitational waves. Continued photometric monitoring will further assess the robustness and characteristics of these candidate periodic quasars to determine their physical origins.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Probing galaxy evolution in massive clusters using ACT and DES: splashback as a cosmic clock

We measure the projected number density profiles of galaxies and the splashback feature in clusters selected by the Sunyaev--Zeldovich (SZ) effect from the Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope (AdvACT) survey using galaxies observed by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The splashback radius for the complete galaxy sample is consistent with theoretical measurements from CDM-only simulations, and is located at $2.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4}$ Mpc $h^{-1}$. We split the sample based on galaxy color and find significant differences in the profile shapes. Red galaxies and those in the green valley show a splashback-like minimum in their slope profile consistent with theoretical predictions, while the bluest galaxies show a weak feature that appears at a smaller radius. We develop a mapping of galaxies to subhalos in $N$-body simulations by splitting subhalos based on infall time onto the cluster halos. We find that the location of the steepest slope and differences in the shapes of the profiles can be mapped to differences in the average time of infall of galaxies of different colors. The minima of the slope in the galaxy profiles trace a discontinuity in the phase space of dark matter halos. By relating spatial profiles to infall time for galaxies of different colours, we can use splashback as a clock to understand galaxy quenching. We find that red galaxies have on average been in their clusters for over $3.2 ~\rm Gyrs$, green galaxies about $2.2 ~\rm Gyrs$, while blue galaxies have been accreted most recently and have not reached apocenter. Using the information from the complete radial profiles, we fit a simple quenching model and find that the onset of galaxy quenching in clusters occurs after a delay of about a gigayear, and that galaxies quench rapidly thereafter with an exponential timescale of $0.6$ Gyr.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Dust Reverberation Mapping in Distant Quasars from Optical and Mid-Infrared Imaging Surveys

The size of the dust torus in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their high-luminosity counterparts, quasars, can be inferred from the time delay between UV/optical accretion disk continuum variability and the response in the mid-infrared (MIR) torus emission. This dust reverberation mapping (RM) technique has been successfully applied to $\sim 70$ $z\lesssim 0.3$ AGN and quasars. Here we present first results of our dust RM program for distant quasars covered in the SDSS Stripe 82 region combining $\sim 20$-yr ground-based optical light curves with 10-yr MIR light curves from the WISE satellite. We measure a high-fidelity lag between W1-band (3.4 $μ$m) and $g$ band for 587 quasars over $0.3\lesssim z\lesssim 2$ ($\left \sim 0.8$) and two orders of magnitude in quasar luminosity. They tightly follow (intrinsic scatter $\sim 0.17$ dex in lag) the IR lag-luminosity relation observed for $z<0.3$ AGN, revealing a remarkable size-luminosity relation for the dust torus over more than four decades in AGN luminosity, with little dependence on additional quasar properties such as Eddington ratio and variability amplitude. This study motivates further investigations in the utility of dust RM for cosmology, and strongly endorses a compelling science case for the combined 10-yr Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (optical) and 5-yr Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope 2$μ$m light curves in a deep survey for low-redshift AGN dust RM with much lower luminosities and shorter, measurable IR lags. The compiled optical and MIR light curves for 7,384 quasars in our parent sample are made public with this work.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Dark Energy Survey Identification of A Low-Mass Active Galactic Nucleus at Redshift 0.823 from Optical Variability

We report the identification of a low-mass AGN, DES J0218$-$0430, in a redshift $z = 0.823$ galaxy in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Supernova field. We select DES J0218$-$0430 as an AGN candidate by characterizing its long-term optical variability alone based on DES optical broad-band light curves spanning over 6 years. An archival optical spectrum from the fourth phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey shows both broad Mg II and broad H$β$ lines, confirming its nature as a broad-line AGN. Archival XMM-Newton X-ray observations suggest an intrinsic hard X-ray luminosity of $L_{\rm 2-12\,keV}\sim7.6\pm0.4\times10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$, which exceeds those of the most X-ray luminous starburst galaxies, in support of an AGN driving the optical variability. Based on the broad H$β$ from SDSS spectrum, we estimate a virial BH mass of $M_{\bullet}\approx10^{6.43}$-$10^{6.72}M_{\odot}$ (with the error denoting 1$σ$ statistical uncertainties only), consistent with the estimation from OzDES, making it the lowest mass AGN with redshift $>$ 0.4 detected in optical. We estimate the host galaxy stellar mass to be $M_{\ast}\sim10^{10.5\pm0.3}M_{\odot}$ based on modeling the multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution. DES J0218$-$0430 extends the $M_{\bullet}$-$M_{\ast}$ relation observed in luminous AGNs at $z\sim1$ to masses lower than being probed by previous work. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of using optical variability to identify low-mass AGNs at higher redshift in deeper synoptic surveys with direct implications for the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time at Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

The PAU Survey: Background light estimation with deep learning techniques

In any imaging survey, measuring accurately the astronomical background light is crucial to obtain good photometry. This paper introduces BKGnet, a deep neural network to predict the background and its associated error. BKGnet has been developed for data from the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS), an imaging survey using a 40 narrow-band filter camera (PAUCam). Images obtained with PAUCam are affected by scattered light: an optical effect consisting of light multiply that deposits energy in specific detector regions contaminating the science measurements. Fortunately, scattered light is not a random effect, but it can be predicted and corrected for. We have found that BKGnet background predictions are very robust to distorting effects, while still being statistically accurate. On average, the use of BKGnet improves the photometric flux measurements by 7% and up to 20% at the bright end. BKGnet also removes a systematic trend in the background error estimation with magnitude in the i-band that is present with the current PAU data management method. With BKGnet, we reduce the photometric redshift outlier rate

astro-ph.IM↗